Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. This is a model prayer.
Leave it to Him to save the best to last. And at first glance you might read and think it's kind of a simple statement. And I hope that you have enjoyed our digging into the Lord's Prayer.
I have enjoyed it because it's taught me and I've learned some things obviously that I didn't know and as you jump into it. Matthew 6, look at verse 13 if you will. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. And this is our last phrase that we'll be preaching on.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Period. Amen.
Period. Lord we love you tonight. I pray you'd bless Lord as we draw to a close the prayer that you have modeled for us to pray. Lord I pray that we have been mindful and have tried to apply to our lives and work on things in our prayer life. Lord I pray that you'd bless tonight as we end at this crescendo of your prayer. And Lord it ends as it began praising you. So Lord I pray you'd help us. And Lord we love you. And we promise that we'll give you the glory for all that's said and done.
In your name we pray. Amen. This particular phrase, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
You've got to be real careful and let me just say this that as I begin to dig I found some things in a few of the commentaries and I always try to grab commentaries and look up things and I found something and then what I found some of the commentaries did then I had to study on the fact that they did and that's this. There are some commentaries if you're not careful that will say that phrase for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen was added by man. Many years later that was not originally stated by the Lord.
I personally disagree with that. Because I believe God has preserved his perfect word for us. Do you believe that?
We ought to. And I believe that God preserved exactly what he wanted us to have and I do not believe it was added. I believe that the Lord obviously added that himself and here's why because of the message of what these words mean.
I don't see how a man would have done that or even known to do that the way that God did it. In the Lord's Prayer and I don't want to do just quick review and I want to give you a quick outline I've not used this whole time but I want to give you a quick outline as you look at the Lord's Prayer. We have found this that prayer is about remembering our Father which art in heaven. Prayer is about reverencing hallowed be thy name. Prayer is about ruling thy kingdom come. Prayer is about resigning thy will be done.
That means we have to resign our will. Your prayer and my prayer is going to have no power if we have no intention to do His will instead of ours. If we already know how I'm going to do what I want to do not what God says what makes us think that our prayers are going to have power? Prayer next is about requesting give us this day our daily bread. Prayer is about releasing and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Prayer is about relying and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. And last prayer is about rejoicing for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. And I want you to see this we can rejoice in His preeminence. We can rejoice in His preeminence. So preacher what do you mean we can rejoice? Listen to me. In a world that is so filled with trials, troubles and problems isn't it a comfort to serve a God who is worthy of all the praise and glory you can come up with?
He's worthy of it all. Isn't it nice to know as Christians all this bad stuff going on in our world? Isn't it nice to know we've got something to rejoice about? Why would we come to church if we didn't have anything to rejoice about? Why would we want to come and be sad? We could stay at home and do that.
You know we could just watch the news and be sad all night. We've got something to rejoice about. Number one we can rejoice about His preeminence. His preeminence. P-r-e-e-m-i-n-e-n-c-e. Or preeminence. Preeminence.
Alright? For thine is the kingdom. You say preacher what does that mean? This verse at the end is letting you know and I know and it's making us pray with the acknowledgement.
Listen to me. That the kingdom belongs to God. All kingdoms belong to God. He is preeminent. Now under that, number one, He is sovereign. He is sovereign. For thine is the kingdom. When we say that God is sovereign, you know what the word sovereign means?
It means this. Independent and holding complete power. Does that describe God?
I put a little note right here, a little laugh, because that's what I did when I found out what sovereign meant. Independent and holding complete power. That is God. He doesn't need anybody or anything. He's in charge of it all. He has complete total power. He is sovereign. That word sovereign in the Latin language where it came from literally means this.
Over or above. That means this God is over all. He is above all. He is on His own completely.
All power controls everything. He is sovereign. Now you say why is that important in this chapter? When this was written, and I hope that you understand this, this was a time when Caesar was ruling the world with all of his royalty, with all of his rings, with all of his robes, with all of his power, with all of the pomp and circumstance. This was a man, Caesar, who literally with the pointing of a finger could have somebody killed.
This is a man that literally just signing his name would change a person's future. Caesar ruled the kingdom. And when Jesus was teaching his disciples how to pray, he made sure he said at the end, not only thy kingdom come, but thine is the kingdom.
Now you say why is that important? Do you know that while Caesar was reigning in a little stable over here, Jesus was being born. Caesar ran his kingdom. Little did Caesar know Jesus was running his kingdom.
And those two kingdoms would cross. And Caesar thought, well I got the best of him. But Caesar didn't realize obviously that he was just going according to the will of God and that this king Jesus was buying redemption, purchasing redemption for mankind.
It was all part of the plan and little did Caesar know while he was ruling his kingdom that the very kingdom he ruled was ruled by Christ. That's why Jesus said when you pray, thine is the kingdom. God is sovereign. Let me give you a couple of verses just for your reference. Isaiah 43, 13, Yea, before the day was I am he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work and who shall let it? God says who shall let it?
That means who can hold it back. Let me give you another Isaiah 46, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. God says I will do what I want to do.
Redneck terms, okay? Calling a ravenous bird from the east, a man that executeth my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. Let me just give you quickly a New Testament verse. Ephesians 1-11, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Folks, God is in control. Listen to me, when this prayer was taught we need to remember that Caesar in Rome and all of his power literally ruled the world. Caesar had power over every man, woman, and child and yet Jesus told his disciples don't you pray Caesar's kingdom come, you pray thy kingdom come.
It was a reminder from God, listen to me, to his disciples although it might look bad right now and although it might look like man has the power and the kingdom and the control, man doesn't. And I want to let you know tonight you and I as Christians have a whole lot to rejoice about because when you and I can end a prayer we can say thy kingdom come and we can mean thy kingdom come because the kingdom belongs to the Lord, the earth belongs to the Lord, the Bible says the fullness of the earth is in the palm of his hand, he controls it all and we can rejoice about the fact that he is sovereign. I want you to notice secondly that he is supreme. He is supreme. Sovereign means he's in control, supreme means he's above everything. Our Lord rules because it is his right to do so. Look at me folks, the kingdom is his because he has the right to it. He created it. Not only did he create it, he purchased it. And in all of society, all of history, look at me, Jesus must always get the preeminence.
Now let me explain this, why this is important. When God created man, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he gave man dominion over the world. Did you know that? And when man sinned, Satan was given dominion of the world. That's why we say Satan's the prince and power of the air, Satan never had control of the world, he did not have the right to dominion over the world, but when God created Adam and Eve he gave man dominion over the world. That's why Adam named all the animals, that's why Adam did all those things, but when Adam fell and Adam sinned, Adam released control of the world to Satan.
You understand that? Now Satan, not man, is the god of this world. Let me read you a verse, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
So the Bible refers to Satan as the god of this world. Now when Jesus came into the world and died on the cross and He rose from the dead, He redeemed everything that Adam gave away. That's why in Matthew the Bible says the first Adam and the last Adam. First Adam blew it. Last Adam blessed it. First Adam lost it.
Last Adam reclaimed it. And when Jesus, look at me, defeated death, hell, and the grave, that means now He is God and in control over everything. See Satan had control over death until Jesus defeated it. Now you and I can say, thine is the kingdom. Because Satan at one time ruled this earth, but Jesus got it back. Now it's His. So when you and I can pray, we can pray to the one that owns it all. It's not Satan's anymore.
Satan only has the liberty and the freedom what God gives him. And he knows it. That's something to rejoice about, isn't it folks? We can rejoice in His preeminence. When you and I pray this prayer like He's saying, thine is the kingdom, we are acknowledging that He is our King and we are His servants and it implies that we are His and He is mine. Thine is the kingdom.
Look at me. Guess what you and I are part of? The kingdom. So when we're saying thine is the kingdom, we're saying we belong to...
Number two. Not only can we rejoice in His preeminence, but number two we can rejoice in His power. For thine is the kingdom, and as English would allow us to alliterate, thine is the power. He says thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. So you can put thine is obviously understood in front of each of those words. So thine is the kingdom and secondly thine is the power.
Number one under that. His power is enormous. We have established the fact that God is sovereign. Listen to me.
I want you to get this. He is in control. Now we are told to rejoice in the fact that while He's in control, He has the power to maintain control.
Look at me. I'm not trying to get political. I would use whatever president's in the office because let's be honest, we haven't had a humdinger for a long time. Because I believe with our present political system, for you to even get there means you've got to do something double tongued and everything else.
You know what I'm saying. But we have a president and that president has that authority, that power. But I have witnessed that he doesn't necessarily have the ability to rule well.
Look at me. So his position gives him that authority but his performance is lacking. So we've got a person in a position but they don't really have what it takes to run the position. That's when he says, thine is the kingdom means that's his position. Thine is the power means not only does he have the position but he's got what it takes to do it. Look at me folks. What good would it do for him to have the kingdom, for God to own the kingdom if he couldn't run it?
It would be a waste. It would be a bunch of frustrated Christians because he's our king but he can't rule very well. No, he's our king and he has all power to rule well.
His power is enormous. Let me just give you a couple of verses. Genesis 18 and 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee according to the time of life.
Job 42. I know, this is Job talking to God, I know that thou can't do everything and that no thought can be withholding from me. Psalm 62 verse 11. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Jeremiah 32. Ah Lord God, behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm and there is nothing too hard for thee.
Any questions? It is far easier to list what God cannot do than to list what He can. You see, God cannot lie. God cannot change. God cannot make mistakes. God cannot fail. That's about the list. If we start listing what God can do we're going to be here awhile.
And I know you're not in favor of that. Second, not only is His power enormous but second His power, this is the best part of the whole verse. His power is eternal.
Now we're skipping ahead just a little bit but we've got to do it right here. For thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, thine is the glory. That is wonderful right there by itself. But what makes it different from anything else is the fact that all that is His forever.
Look at me. What really would it help us if we belonged to Him but only for a period of time? What good would it do us if we belonged to God and He was going to purchase our redemption for 500 years? That would be a great 500 years but right about year 499 I would start sweating it a little bit. What if God said I've got enough power to rule and reign everything for a thousand years?
And after that I don't know. Look at me dear friend the best part about God's power is that it's eternal. The best part about His kingdom is that it's eternal. That means this we're going to live forever with Him because His kingdom is eternal and we belong to the kingdom. What's going to be nice is that everybody that has been saved by grace through faith has been saved by the blood of Christ.
We're all going to dwell together although we disagree on just about everything and everybody don't like this and don't like that and I don't like the fact and guess what we're all going to end up together. That's why we better be nice down here because you don't want to have to avoid somebody in heaven. No I know I'm just picking. That's not scriptural. I'm just picking.
We'll be perfect in the image of Christ. I know all that. I'm just saying. A little Danielology there alright. I promise I'll stay biblical tonight. I also promise that I will not say the term Joey Woey like I did on Sunday. His power is eternal.
Other verses I would give you for that. Number three. We can rejoice in His position. We can rejoice in His preeminence. We can rejoice in His power but notice His position. Thine is the glory.
Guess what? God is in the position that He deserves and should get all the glory. Number one under that. He alone deserves the glory. He alone deserves the glory. Everything God is doing as He exercises His preeminence and His power it is all being done for His glory.
Okay look at me. That means this. The kingdom that is His position and the power that is His power it's all being done for His position. He gets the glory. Read you a verse. Psalm 8.1. Oh Lord, oh Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth who hath set Thy glory above the heavens.
Listen to me. God does what He does so that He might be honored by His creation. God does what He does so that men would be drawn to Him in worship. God does what He does so that His name will be exalted. God does what He does so that He alone will get the glory. Anything that God does only gives glory to God.
Anything you and I do that gives glory to any other person or ourselves came from us, not God. He alone deserves the glory. That's His position.
He deserves it. You agree with that? Say amen. You know as you and I pass through this life we often try to accumulate glory for ourselves.
Am I right about that? Oftentimes we try to accumulate the glory. And it's very easy to do. Now I'm not going to get personal on this. I'm going to give you numerous personal illustrations.
But I'm sure you're tired of hearing about me. If I tell somebody else they'll get mad so I usually use me. It is so easy for us in our flesh to desire to get the glory.
I'll illustrate this way. I will get personal. We recently had the marriage seminar, I forget what we call it, conference, marriage seminar, whatever. We're a retreat. It was tremendous. We had a great crowd.
The Lord just blessed it. We had so much good that came out of it. So many couples were helped.
Brother Tom Wagner was here and did a great job. We talked about numerous things. He had a session that night the next morning.
I think there were two sessions each night. I got up afterwards and I was letting our people know. I said, you know why is it that we have guest preachers come in? I know some pastors, I know some that will hardly ever let anybody preach in their pulpit. I'm sure they've got really good reasons. I know some that they're afraid somebody is going to come in and people are going to like them better.
Now I have the opposite problem. I probably always assume they'd rather hear someone else. So we'll have people in to speak and different things. But I told them, I said, why do we have preachers come in? Because sometimes people need to hear a different voice. Somebody could come in and say the same thing I've been saying but because they're different somebody will walk out and say, man I've just never heard anything like that.
Boy have I heard that a bunch. But I got up and I told them, I said, I did a marriage conference, a seminar, a Friday night, Saturday morning thing, I think it was, or something like that, local in our area. And I said, I got emails, texts, notes, letters. I had couples asking to counsel with me and stuff.
I've never heard anything about marriage like that. I said, I did, that was I think three sessions. And I think I did a seven series message here. Nothing. And this church over here just thought it was the greatest thing they ever heard. I said, then somebody comes over here and brother Tom even said, I've shared so much of this stuff so often our people don't.
They come here, our people loved it. Now if a preacher is not careful you know what you can do? You can get a little bit bitter. Man I studied and all that stuff and nobody said nothing. And then somebody else comes in saying the same thing. You say, ah, preachers don't do that. Oh yes they do.
Yes they do. My wife will tell you. I'm thinking of one pastor right now in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Never asked me back because we had too good of a revival meeting.
It just angered them. I don't know why we had so many people saved. And folks listen to me.
I am simply saying this. It doesn't matter how spiritual you think you are or how long you've been saved. All of us if we're not careful can desire the glory. What should be the case, I don't care who's preaching and I don't care who does what. What ought to be said is boy God sure showed me some things tonight I've never seen.
Because God's the one that has to do that. Are you listening? Are you ready to go somewhere with this? Not only do you and I often times try to get the glory. Sometimes you and I try to give the glory to other people. Except God.
Did you know that? I'm going to be honest with you in a church setting it is very tempting sometimes a preacher comes in we can walk away thinking boy wasn't that a good preacher? How about wasn't that a good God? Hey I'm all for good preachers. We try to get good preachers here. I'm just saying that often times you and I if we're not careful we can glorify an individual when God was the one that deserved that glory.
That's His position. Thine is the glory. All God's people said I think you understand what I'm saying. This is just part of growing up as a Christian. I wouldn't preach something like this on a Sunday morning because a lot of people come and aren't going to know that.
You're the Wednesday night crowd. It's part of us to realize without even meaning bad sometimes we can take and rob the glory from God that He deserved. 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether therefore ye eat or drink whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Last, second under that not only He alone deserves the glory but this is great. He alone determines the glory.
Preacher what does that mean? We are told that His kingdom, His power, and His glory are forever. That's a great promise. He will always possess the kingdom, the power, and the glory.
But look at me. He also not only deserves the glory but He will one day determine the glory. The Bible teaches that there is coming a judgment seat of Christ. Do you realize dear friends, God is keeping the records. God knows what you or I have or haven't done. Everything you do for God that nobody noticed, especially the pastor. He never saw it. Didn't thank me. Didn't even notice when I wasn't in the service.
Which I'd like to know how you do that with a church full of people a lot of times. Listen to me. I want you to get this. God is keeping all those records. He knows everything you've done for Him out of a heart of love. And one day He will determine who gets that glory. See the Bible says that we are going to receive crowns. That's God glorifying us and what does the Bible say we will do is grab those crowns and we're going to do what?
We're going to throw them right back at His feet. You know why? Because the glory belongs to Him. And you know what a lot of times you and I think well so and so they're probably super Christian and they get all you know everybody thinks they're just so great.
Listen God's got it all under control. He's just, He's holy. He knows the real story. He sees behind closed doors and one day the truth will come out and I think you and I are going to be surprised who gets the greatest gifts in heaven.
I believe we're going to be shocked who is rewarded the most. He determines the glory. Now we're kind of done but as a closing I want you to notice this. We're not done with the prayer yet. Verse 13, For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Period.
Then He says this. Amen. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.
