Pray Like This #10 -- For Yours is the kingdom, power, and glory forever, Amen

Generally peaceful week again, I think they may have finished moving Sheila out on Thursday. There was a lot of activity at least, idk... Rob took my parents out to dinner Tuesday night ahead of their anniversary. I was meant to have been invited, but found out too late. As things have been recently with Rob, combined with the fact of limiting time around my mother, I don't think I would have gone anyway. I know how that sounds, but it's just the truth. I had a plan to invite my parents over for their actual anniversary on Wednesday anyway; and it turned out good. Homemade chicken soup and store-bought shortcake with strawberries and whipped cream. (at least some kind of cake was involved) :) We also listened to music from the playlist I had made for their 50th Anniversary Party in 2018. My reunion with Mike went really well. It was a great time of reconnecting in person as opposed to dealing with the frustrations of technology. I also got to meet his daughter, who is expecting a baby in a few weeks!! I see a lot of Mike in her, both in appearance and attitude. I mean, she's small like me but her face and hair look like Mike except for her brown eyes as opposed to his blue. But her humor and attitude are definitely his. And to top it all off, my granddaughter turned 10 yesterday!! She and Carissa visited for about half an hour between other family visits, so I was able to give her the card and bracelet I had made. She loved them both. Continued prayers for all...

Have you ever had someone in your Church Community or a famous Preacher you've looked up to and ultimately been disappointed in or by?? I have. There was a Church my mother played at for several years when I was in HS. Being that it was a small town, the Pastor was also our Youth Group Leader. He was really great in that he related easily with us as his daughter was a member of the group as well. And something I always admired was that, unlike the Christian School I was growing up in, he encouraged us to question everything. He said that you can't truly understand or appreciate things until you do that. Even your faith. Later on, when I was in Job Corps in 1991, my parents called to tell me he had cheated on his wife and left with another woman. Sadly, his decision ended up splitting the congregation. As you may imagine, I was devastated!! And here I was, 3 hrs. away, hanging out with Mike on our original round of friendship. Mike hadn't told me he was Saved at that time, but had told me he was Agnostic. So I was thinking what a poor testimony it was to have to hear that story about my Pastor back home when he didn't know the Lord. The point here is best related in the Styx song, "Show Me the Way". Man cannot be trusted at all moments, only God is truly worthy of our praise*. I'll include the song below.

So our service was opened this morning by our newly introduced Assistant Pastor, Joe Ercoli. He and his family were recently chosen by the board, and last week was their official start. The office space has been filled and the responsibilities once again shared with another. The previous assistant moved on in late 2018 or early 2019. Anyway, Joe led in our Church's practice of Family Prayer* and read Psalm 98 as a support and connector to Matt's main message later. There's a verse in that passage that mentions about how "the rivers clap their hands and the mountains sing with joy." I'll include that worship chorus below as well. (the song I was thinking of is actually from Isaiah 55, but it still works) :D

Matthew 6:9-13 New International Version

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation,[a] but deliver us from the evil one.[b]*

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Many of us have known The Lord's Prayer since childhood and are capable of reciting it like we can our name, birthday, and Social Security Number. "Iris Ifemey, 7/11/69, --- -- ----"

But if you really pray through it with focused worship and awe, you realize how big, and even audacious these requests really are!! Once you get past the recognition and on to the rest, it's like, "Father, help me to be like Jesus and place Your will above my own." "Father, we need your Bread of Life every single day to keep us focused on You and live our lives in love toward others." "Father, forgive my sins as I forgive those who've hurt me, because You have forgiven all already." "Father, keep me strong against temptation and protect me from the Evil One." Some would say all of that was "a big ask"!! And they would be right except for the fact that God is the only One truly capable of answering. That's why "the powers that be", or rather, "the powers that were" over the canonization and final "copywriting" of The Bible decided that the ending of the prayer needed to bring our focus back to the power of God to fulfil it. In most, if not all Bibles*, the "doxology" of the prayer earns a footnote on the page because it wasn't originally what Matthew wrote or Jesus said, but the bulk of today's message looks at the sources that were used in other parts of the Bible to "assemble" it from. (and don't worry, Palm Sunday gets covered in the mix)

Pastor Matt phrased it that there were, "3 strings to pull" out of the Bible to cover the context of this final, if not original, piece of The Lord's Prayer. So let's get to it...

David’s Prayer

10 David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,

“Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. 11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 12 Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

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We see some familiar phrasing here, don't we?? "Kingdom, power, and glory" are all mentioned, right?? To see why this passage was chosen, we need to look at the context of David's Prayer. While God had made a Covenant with David* that he would always have an heir on the throne of Israel, God would not allow him to build the Temple in His honor. That would be his son Solomon's honor to do later. But what David could do was to help in gathering the materials for the building. It was in this that David was found in giving praise to God even for the privilege of assisting in the project*.

As we have seen before, The Temple was the place where God and His people, or Heaven and Earth, came together until it was time for Jesus to come down and take on that role for a while. That's what makes this passage an Old Testament "anchor" to something in the New Testament.* And we see it brought out even more if we jump over to Jn. 2: 13-21. This is where Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover at the beginning of His public ministry. He had just been in Cana making sure there was enough wine for the wedding reception*, and now He was flipping tables in the Temple and generally ticking off the authorities. lol

Then He said something that really "got their goat". ;p He said, "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Well that was impossible, wasn't it?? That's what the Pharisees and the Sadducees thought. But, as per usual, they were missing the point. Jesus wasn't talking about the building they were standing in, He was talking about Himself. While He was here, Jesus was The Temple of God on Earth. We see from reading the book of Malachi that God's presence had left the building centuries ago*.

The second "string" to pull is found in Luke 19:28-40 --

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[a]

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

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Like I said, Palm Sunday gets covered in the mix. :D

Between the visit early in His ministry, and this; Jesus had generally avoided Jerusalem and

even told those He healed and helped not to tell anyone that it was Him that did it. It wasn't time for His true identity to be revealed yet.

But now it was. All the prior healings and teachings had been leading up to this. Up until now, all the Disciples had was an imagination and hope for, the future with Jesus as King of Israel. At least that's how they saw it. They awaited the day when Jesus would march into Jerusalem to establish His Royal Power and rid Israel of Roman authority once and for all*.

That's why his actions during this time looked like weakness to them. It frustrated them and possibly made them a bit angry. And maybe it does to some of us as well. They saw all He had been doing the last number of years and heard all His sermons and stories and wondered, "Why on Earth is He requesting a donkey to ride into town on!!??" "He needs a top-bred horse to show His power off." Today we go to Church, hear sermons from men's/women's* mouths and maybe witness the random miracle or healing and we think, "Why isn't God doing more to fix the mess this World is in*??" "Why doesn't He heal everyone*??" We may come to doubt Him entirely.

But those of us who've been around a while understand that God doesn't do anything by the World's "rules". His entire point IS to fix the World's mess, but you can't fix something by the same methods it was broken with. Jesus' need for a donkey vs a horse, washing the Disciples' feet when the house didn't offer a servant of their own, being silent in the face of His accusers*... all of this looked like weakness to His Followers. What they didn't understand was that Jesus' loving self-sacrifice was the most powerful thing of all.

The third "string" is found in Revelation --

Greetings and Doxology

4 John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b] and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c] So shall it be! Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

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Notice verses 5-6 in particular. We are to be kings on Earth, and Jesus is Our King, and therefore the only one truly worthy of our praise. The true purpose of the book of Revelations is not about charts and maps of the future; but about "pulling back the curtain" to reveal God's worthiness of praise above all else. We were created to reflect God's glory in various ways. As a "mirror" being that we were created in His image. As a "reflection" of Him to the World. And finally, as a "mouthpiece" to the rest of Creation that can't speak. That's why Jesus says in our Luke passage above that, "If they do (be silent), even the rocks will cry out." (Thus the connection as well, with Psalm 98)

The Gospel is the pronouncement of Jesus' rule and reign, signaling the renewal of all things. We are included in those Jesus was referring to as those He came to save from sin, heal from sickness, release from bondage, etc. This gives us both the confidence, or at least provides the confidence we need to live out our lives in humble submission to God in order to carry out His purposes in the World. It also offers confidence that He is able and willing to answer our prayers. His is the true strength in our lives, we don't have to rely on our own weak humanity to see us through.

We were created to praise and worship Him, and this prayer helps us to do that. It brings us the only true freedom we can have in this World. And it works because it's a fact of life that whatever we worship, owns us. If we worship money and fame, if we worship achievements, work, relationships, physical satisfactions, they are only going to disappoint us in the long run. Only by God's guidance and wisdom can we have true peace and fulfillment in our lives. The One to Whom we pray is more than able to bring about His purposes and fix our messes as we approach Him in our doubt and confusion.

I encourage you to use The Lord's Prayer as it is meant to be used, as a template for your prayers in acknowledgement of God's power, requests for His help, and praise to His Name. Or use David's prayer, or the Psalms. Whatever works best in the moment.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes --

Only God is truly worthy of our praise -- I've heard it said that it's dangerous to have faith in a man rather than in Jesus. If you go to Church for the preacher rather than for Jesus, you're going to be disappointed everywhere you go. I can't argue with that in my experience. (there's been more than the one shared above)
Family Prayer -- I've shared about this before, but for those of you just joining us, I'll explain. Typically, this is a time where those who have a particular need for support in their prayers raise their hands and people around them would come around them and actually lay hands on them while the leader prays. Now, hands are raised for support, but others' hands are simply extended toward them from other seats.
"deliver us from the Evil One" -- the bit about the "Evil One" was the text of last week's message, but for those of us use to including the final piece about "kingdom, power, and glory forever. Amen", the passage feels incomplete. It's like turning a corner only to find a fence across our path because there was no sign at the beginning saying, "Dead End". It brings us to a screeching halt as opposed to the much more natural flow of the added phrase. I'm typically more a fan of original writings, but this is a nice addition.
I have nearly 20 Bibles of several translations, and I haven't checked them all for this, but from what I've noticed, that final phrase is always just a footnote.
The Davidic Covenant is just one of God's such promises in the OT. The others are the Noaic Covenant after The Flood, The Abrahamic when God was establishing Israel, and the Mosaic when God was giving them the Law.
David's prayer of praise here shows his humility before God in accepting his role in the situation as that of helper rather than leader.
Anchors in the OT for content in the NT are numerous. It's part of what God inspired for the authors to do in order to confirm their authenticity.
The Wedding at Cana indicates that Jesus was not only a fan of supporting friends by attending their celebrations, but that He was regularly in the habit of consuming quality wine. Otherwise, how could He have known what it should taste like when He was done transforming the water?? I can understand someone's hesitation toward drinking alcohol if there is a genuine concern for inherited alcoholism, but otherwise, I don't see a problem with the responsible consumption of God's bounty in appropriate circumstances. Besides which, we read in 1 Tim. 5:23 that wine is good for the stomach and other ailments. I usually have a glass of red wine each night to help my own system.
We see in Malachi 1: 10 where God calls the altar of the Temple "useless". The book of Ezekiel covers the actual departure of God's shekinah glory from the Temple. It's important to remember for our message above, that there was literally a 400 yrs gap between the Old and New Testaments where God had not entirely "abandoned" them, but kept some distance in respect to their rejection of Him until the time was right to bring Jesus on the scene. God was clearly with the Maccabees in their time of need; which is why the Jews celebrate Hannukah, but other than that, I'm not aware of anything significant. The thought just occurred to me that the 400 years of "silence" as many call it, relates to the Israelites' Exile in Egypt that lasted 430 yrs. It seems like God has a 'notion' to rid them of "nay-sayers" before taking them in again, doesn't it??
Rather than ridding Israel of Roman authorities "once and for all", He rid all of us from the curse of sin and death "once for all" in His death on the Cross and Resurrection from the grave.
Men's or Women's mouths -- I know there are some Churches that disagree with the idea that women should preach from the pulpit, but let me "clue you in" -- In Paul's First letter to Timothy in what we have as Chapter 2:12, it speaks about women being silent and not teaching or having authority over a man. Okay, I know that. But for those of you who've been around a while, you know how important context is to me. The one and only reason Paul said this was in response to the problem 1 or 2 women in the congregation were causing by asking their husbands questions during the service and therefore being disruptive. That's where the "silent submission" comes in. I will guarantee you that the rest of it was written that way, whether by Paul or some Church leader later due to the facts of a Patriarchal Society. That being said, I will direct your attention to the Gifts of the Spirit as listed in 1 Cor. 12 and 14. Some of you may remember the message series on these from earlier. The Gifts of Pastor, Evangelist, Prophet, Teacher, and Apostle have no gender assignments to them. If God doesn't "play favorites", what gives us the right to do it??
"Why doesn't God fix this?? Why doesn't God heal everyone??" -- 1) God's purpose is to enable US to fix things according to His love and mercy for the World at large. 2) God allows what we allow in our lives. I know at the same time, that there are those who may spend years praying for healing for themselves or a family member. I don't have an answer for that other than to say that God knows best. He knows what will make the greatest testimony in the end.
"being silent in the face of accusers" -- That's an area many of us struggle with, myself included. Pray for me in this as well as for each other.