Do you believe that God is truly present in the church and in your life? Your answer will impact how you pray, how you worship, and how you live. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers the closing words of the Lord's Prayer and four attributes of God that highlight the reality of His presence. From Prayer, The Great Adventure, here's David to introduce the doxology of prayer.
Well, that's the part of the prayer that we say sort of absentmindedly when we're done praying the middle of the prayer. And this is really important because just as we began the prayer with, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, we end the prayer with this doxology. And I think as we do so, we'll see how this all fits together and the bookends are wonderful.
So get ready as we study in just a moment for the doxology of prayer. One lesson on the doxology of prayer, and then two lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday on the intersections of prayer. And then we're going to listen to the interview that we did on prayer with Sheila Walsh on Thursday. And we'll finish out the week with a special message on the warfare of prayer.
So prayer is the subject for August, and I'm glad you're joining with us. to discuss it together. Hey, I've been telling you every day during the month of August about our special book that we're making available during the month of August. As you know, we've been doing this for years now, and we've done it with the hope of building your library of books that will be a blessing to you. And when we send these books to you, we know you read them, most of them, and you pass them on, but you keep them, and they're there for you when you need them.
And this is one of those kind of books. It's a book that gives you some examples of how to pray for specific things that you need in your life. And the book is called Everything to God in Prayer. It's a beautiful, beautiful gift book. It's got a padded cover and gorgeous print and coloring.
And I'd sure love for you to have this. And it's yours for the asking when you send a gift of any size to Turning Point during the month of August. Why not do that right now before you forget it and help us with the cost of radio and production during this specific time of vacation? It will be most appreciated, and we'd like to say thank you with this special book.
Now here is the doxology of prayer. Dr. A.J. Gordon, who was the founder of Gordon College in the Northeast, had a dream that changed his life. While he said he did not normally believe in dreams and their value, this one had such a profound impact on him.
it seems that it was like this he fell asleep on a saturday night kind of overwhelmed and worn out from all of his preparation throughout the day and as he fell asleep and began to dream he was in the pulpit in his dream and a stranger came into his church and sat down about halfway back in the center section gordon said he saw everything around the man with absolute clarity even could read the pew number in which he was seated but he could not see the man's face he remembered that the face wore a serious look like a person who had a great sorrow and that while he was preaching in his dream this stranger gave him utmost attention when the service was over as he retold his dream dr gordon tried to reach through the crowded aisle and find this man but when he got to the pew where he had been seated. He was gone. And so he came up to the man who was seated beside him and he said to him, who was that stranger that was here today? The man said, oh pastor, that was Jesus of Nazareth. Gordon said in his dream, he balled the man out for letting him get away.
But the man replied to him in the dialogue that he recalled. He said, oh, do not be troubled. He has been here today, and no doubt he will come again. Gordon records in his book the shock and the subsequent self-examination that that dream provoked in his life. He said, one thought lingered in my mind with something of comfort and more of awe.
He has been here today, and he will no doubt come again. And mentally repeating these words as one regretfully meditating on a vanishing vision, He said, I awoke and it was a dream and yet it was not a dream. It was a vision of the deepest reality, a miniature of actual history. The impact of that dream on A.J. Gordon's life was historic.
He says that within a few weeks, just the fact that Christ was present in the congregation changed the whole nature of their worship and their church. in fact it was through that dream and the resulted blessing on the church that gordon college was initiated and is today a college which has a testimony for christ i read that story and i have been very enamored of recent days that in most of the men of god and the women of god that i have read about there has been some signature event in their life that has had a momentous impact on them. Maybe it has been a sermon or a verse or some happening, and I could go through probably a dozen of them today that I have recorded. But here is a man whose whole life and ministry was transformed by the very real picture of the presence of God in his church and in his life. And I could not help but wonder if in spite of all the teaching we have on praise and worship, and in spite of all of that that we do, if we yet have come to the place where we really do believe that when we come together in the church, he is here with us.
I do not know which pew he occupies, but the scripture tells us he is here. And when we prepare to pray and offer up our prayers to God, he is there and he hears us and he is a very present God While we need to know of his majesty we also need to know of his presence And when we praise God that is the thing that happens to us in our praying. In our praising God, we evoke the manifest presence of God. Not that he is more here during praise than at any other time, but his manifest presence becomes real to us. When we worship the Lord, we draw near to God.
And when we draw near to God, he draws near to us. And that is why I am convinced that Jesus, when teaching his disciples to pray, taught them to pray by beginning with praise and ending with praise. That the Lord's prayer is bookended by praise and worship. in the middle are all of the things which mostly occupy our praying today but at the beginning and at the end there is this dramatic reminder to us of worship and praise and adoration of God in this prayer we have learned that we begin with praise by saying our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name that it continues with priorities thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That it is not afraid to address the need of provision.
Give us this day our daily bread. That it promises wholesome personal relationships to every one of us who are willing to forgive others that we ourselves may be forgiven. That it will provide protection by giving us victory over temptation and delivering us from the evil one. In this prayer, filled with all of that wonderful truth, we begin with praise and we end with praise. The beginning of the prayer is devoted completely to God.
It is centered around the word thy. The second half of the prayer is centered around the word our. But once again, at the beginning and at the end, there is praise and worship.
So as we've come full circle back to the end of the prayer, we are literally back at the beginning of the prayer.
Some have called this little phrase that we have read the doxology of the Lord's Prayer.
Now I need to tell you that those of you who study from the NIV and some of the other translations of the Bible, the last part of verse 13 is not included. Apparently there were some in studying the manuscripts of the early text who believed that this had been an addition and should not have been added to the prayer. It is in the King James Version of the Bible and many of the standard versions. but I do not wish to quibble with its inclusion because whether it was added or whether it was there at the beginning it is the very core of the prayer itself it fits it belongs it doesn't look to me like anything that's come in from a foreign place to be added to the prayer I believe that it is a part of the prayer some have said it would have to have been a part of the prayer because no Jew would ever have ended his prayer on a negative note and so the prayer ends positively with this doxology.
Now it's interesting to me that we have indeed come back to the beginning. For we prayed at the beginning, thy kingdom, and we conclude with thine is the kingdom. We prayed at the beginning, thy will be done, and we end with thine is the power. We prayed at the beginning, hallowed be thy name, and we end with thine is the glory. We begin with on earth as it is in heaven, and we end with forever.
It's almost as if the last part of the 13th verse is kind of a summary statement of everything that the Lord has been teaching us in praying. The last chord of the Lord's prayer brings us to the mountain peak of praise and allows us one last good hearty glimpse of the God to whom our prayer has been addressed. I say this advisedly because I'm not really a great fan of psychology unless it is completely and totally biblical. But there is a psychology to this prayer in this sense. It would be very, very difficult for us if we developed a habit of bringing to God all of the multitudes of our needs and petitions and personal relationship issues and protection issues and all of that.
And then we ended our prayer without another fresh glimpse of the one to whom we pray. because we will end our prayer with a sense of our need instead of a great sense of the one who has promised to meet our need. When we finish the prayer with the doxology, we are reminded of four of the great attributes of God himself. I have wondered why these four were chosen. There are so many things we could have been reminded of concerning God, but these four seem to be very important attributes.
and I now as I've internalized this in my own prayer life believe that these are four of the most important things you can remember about God when you're about ready to say amen. First of all we must praise him for his sovereignty. Thine is the kingdom. James Neal who is a Greek scholar has suggested that this final statement in verse 13 might be what he calls a hendaitis a hendiatus is like this it is two or three words linked by the word and the last which describes the first let me give you an illustration from a verse you know john 14 6 says i am the way the truth and the life if you translated that using the concept of the hendiatus you would say i am the way the true way the living way if you translate matthew 6 13b using the concept of the it would be like this. Thine is the kingdom, the powerful kingdom, the glorious kingdom, the eternal kingdom.
In essence, it is all saying the same thing. It is reminding us of these powerful attributes of God himself. In the Bible, we are told that God is sovereign. He is sovereign in creation. Jeremiah 10, 12 says, he hath made the earth by his power.
He hath established the the world by his wisdom he has stretched out the heavens by his discretion How did we get the world God did it By his own sovereign decree God created the world And God is sovereign over the world In that same text in Jeremiah 10, we read, When he uttereth his voice, there's a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind of his treasures. How does the world work? God has sovereignly willed it so. He is in control.
And God is sovereign in the affairs of men and in your life as well. He is in control of history. How many of you have ever felt like your life was out of control? This is a great season for trying that on if you'd like. I mean this is a wonderful time to just back up and say how did this happen to us?
My life is out of control. We are creatures who like things ordered and packaged and organized. At least I am. Everything in its place and in its time with our arms around it and feeling like we've got it together. I had a day like that once.
It was wonderful. You know, it was just great. But you know what happens?
Sometimes when things are out of control, we begin to think that things are really out of control. And I want to tell you something. He is in control. When you look up into heaven through the open door of the book of Revelation, there is a throne room and it is occupied. There is one seated there who is in control.
When we don't understand how things happen because we have a frame of reference in which they should happen, we think God's not in control anymore, but God's in control. And I could use illustration after illustration in the word of God to show you that he uses all kinds of things to accomplish his will. He's a sovereign God.
Now, when you get done praying at the end of your prayer, that's a pretty good thing to remember, isn't it? Lord, I've brought before you all these things that I don't know what to do with, and I don't see the end. I don't see how they all fit together, but God, thine is the kingdom. You're in control. I lift this all up to you.
You're the one. God, you're in control. Nothing catches you by surprise. you are in control and god does not make mistakes does he he cannot make even one tiny little sliver of a mistake and still be god some years ago when i was going through a particularly difficult time over some issues that i was facing someone gave me this little sliver of poetry it goes like this my father's way may twist and turn my heart may throb and ache but in my soul i'm glad i know he maketh no mistake. My cherished plans may go astray, my hopes may fade away, but still I'll trust my Lord to lead, for he doth know the way.
Though night be dark, and it may seem the day will never break, I'll pin my faith, my all on him, he maketh no mistake. There is so much I cannot see, my eyesight's far too dim, but come what may, I'll simply trust and leave it all to him. By and by the mist will lift, plain it all he'll make. Through all the way, though dark to me, he maketh no mistake. He's in control.
What a wonderful thing to remember as you're finishing up your prayer. God, I don't understand everything that's happening, but I know you're in control and you don't make any mistakes, so I trust you. We must praise him for his sovereignty, but notice secondly, thine is the kingdom and the power. We must praise him for his authority. He's not an absentee God, a far off, just hearing our prayers and pulling little strings and pushing little buttons.
His power is everywhere present. His power is demonstrated in the way he interacts with his people. I remember a great passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter 40. It's Isaiah 40, 28 to 31. Listen to the power of God in this precious promise from the Old Testament.
Have you not known, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is he weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might. He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall.
But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. He's the God of all authority.
And he extends his power to us when we put our trust in him. How many of you, when you pray, oftentimes find yourself rehearsing what you've prayed. And then while you don't want to say it out loud, you're thinking, well, he's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. But I know I ask you for this, but God, you're not going to do that.
You know, when I finished my praying, I like this reminder, thine is the power. It's not in them. Did you see that? They took all the power to themselves. How did you get where you are?
It was my might and it was my wisdom and it was my strength and it was my intuition. It was all of that. They've grabbed hold of the concept of the modern day positive mental attitude situation which says that anything your mind can conceive, you can achieve. Do you believe that? I don't believe that.
I'm thankful that some of the things my mind has conceived, God hasn't let me achieve. Amen? I am not an ultimate power. I cannot do whatever my mind sets forth to do but I have one who can and he is my God. And the Bible says nothing is too hard for him.
The same God who created the world is the God who moves and shakes in the lives of men today. And when we pray, it is a powerful thing to remember as we say our amen. Not only is he in control but he is all powerful and he can do the things we asked him to do in the accordance of his will and he will and then the prayer says we must praise him for his majesty for thine is the kingdom he's in control thine is the power he's all mighty and thine is the glory he is the God who is seated upon the throne in heaven. And then there's one little last word that we would just kind of chop off if we're not careful, but don't you do that. Forever.
Thine is the eternity. God is forever. How long is forever? What is eternal? As far back as you can think, multiplied by as many numbers as you can imagine, and then tripled and doubled beyond anything your calculator will allow you to do, you have just touched the beginning of eternity past.
And as far out into the future as you can see or think or dream, you haven't even begun to touch the eternity of God. One of the problems we have as Christians, listen up now, is that we confuse immortality with eternity. Are we immortal? If we have trusted Christ, we are immortal. And in a sense, everyone's immortal because your soul is going to be somewhere forever, my friend.
But are we eternal? Absolutely not. We have eternal life. And that is we've gotten the life that God gave us when we trusted Christ. But what's the difference between immortality and eternity?
Immortality begins someplace and goes on forever, but eternity has no beginning. there never was a time when God was not, and there never shall be a time when he ceases to be. He has forever and ever been the only I am there is. He is the eternal God. And the Bible tells us that his son, who is a part of the eternal Godhead, is the same yesterday and today and forever.
He never changes. and when I put that period at the end of my prayer and my last word is forever, I make a statement about the God whom I worship and whom I serve and to whom I pray. I don't have to fear the future for I have a God whose track record is impeccable and whose present ministry with me and with you and with all who will trust him is immeasurable. that's the God we serve. Every day is today with God.
God has no past, no future. Is God worried about the future? He doesn't have a future. God sees the future as today. And when I come to him, I do not need to fear the future any more than I fear the present with my hand in his, because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He is the one constant in your life and in mine. He is the one faithful, immutable one in whom you can trust. We live in a world that is decaying and changing and falling apart in so many ways, but there is one in whom we can trust. And that period to your prayer is a reminder that he is the only forever one you know if you count it for eternity. He is the everlasting God, and you are talking to him in prayer.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and thine is the power, and thine is the glory forever. Amen.
You have been with us and we have been so appreciative of your presence. as we have taught this sacred section of God's Word. We certainly haven't covered everything. We haven't answered all your questions. But hopefully we've made this more indelibly important to you and that it will be a place that you'll come to often.
And if you kept the outline of this prayer, it can guide you in your future prayers in a way that will astound you when you begin to do it. We'll talk more about that tomorrow as we deal with the intersections of prayer. but thank you again for being a part of this series. There is a study guide and a set of CDs that accompany this. You can get them by going to davidjeremiah.org.
There you will find those resources and many others that you might be interested in. Resources to help you understand and study God's Word. It's our purpose. It's our plan, and we hope you will allow us to do it for you. I'm David Jeremiah.
Thanks for listening. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's series, Prayer, The Great Adventure, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points magazine and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio.
Or call us at 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book, Everything to God in Prayer, guided prayers for your deepest needs and biggest dreams. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study.
Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series, Prayer, The Great Adventure, on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
