"For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory..."

[00:00:02] All right, did you hear some of that language? [00:00:05] Did you hear some things? Did you hear about honor and glory and might, even the kingdom? Yours is the kingdom. Right. For thine is the kingdom. Yours. Thine means yours. Okay? Yours is the kingdom. We used to speak that way a long time ago. Alright. Just kind of a respectful way of speaking. So. So we say, thine is the kingdom. We're saying to God, yours is the kingdom. The kingdom is yours and the glory. Right? For thine is the kingdom and the glory and the. And the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Yeah. So, okay, so let's start off with yours, right? We're saying all these things are yours, God. Right? Okay. So in doing that, we're directing ourselves to God. Okay. Just like we sit here and we all look this way, right? What we're doing is we're paying attention to God, all of us together. And the same thing happens when we pray the Lord's Prayer and we say, yours is the kingdom and we're directing our minds to God. Alright, so we're going to talk about the kingdom, the power and the glory. And we're going to do it using two different stories, okay? One, Daniel in the lion's den. Does anybody know Daniel in the lion's den? Yeah. Okay. All right. And Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead. We're going to use those two things. Yeah, yeah. You guys know about that too? Good, good. All right. All right. I thought so. So first of all, Daniel and the lion's den. Let's just run through the story real quick. Okay. So the king got some bad advice from his advisors who were supposed to give him good advice, but they gave him some bad advice and they said, let's make a law that says that anybody who prays to anybody but you, O King, gets thrown into a den of lions. What do you think happens in a den of lions? [00:02:07] What do you think, Liam? [00:02:11] Yeah, you get eaten. Okay, that's. So it's like, let's throw anybody who prays to somebody else than the king into a den of lions so they get eaten. Ah, don't want that. Right. Okay, so Daniel, he believed in God and prayed to him every day. And he had a choice to make. Was he going to pray to God or was he going to listen to the new law of the king and pray to the king instead? [00:02:41] What should he do, Isla? [00:02:45] Pray to God. Okay, but that's a little scary because. Well, because who's the king? [00:02:52] Right, Right. Okay, so good. So there are two Kings here that we're talking about. There's the king who says, I'm going to throw you into the den of lions. So he's the king and you could say he has the power, right? Like he's got the power to throw you into a den of lions. Right? You hear what I'm doing here? The kingdom and the power and the glory. Okay? And the king wants the glory, too. Like, go ahead and pray to me is what the king's saying. Oh, that's not a good idea. Right? We should not be praying to the king. Okay? You see, so the king wants the kingdom and the power and the glory. But David, while he's respectful to the king, he actually gives all that to God. So when he's told, don't pray, right? Well, the kings. When the king tells you to do something, a lot of times it's a good idea to listen. I mean, to respect the authority and such. Right? But God wants us to pray to him. [00:03:51] David, who does he listen to? His earthly king or his heavenly king? [00:03:56] Yeah, he listens to his heavenly king and he prays anyway. [00:04:00] Okay? And then, well, the earthly king does have power to throw him in a den of lions, and he does it. [00:04:08] You know what God did? [00:04:11] What kind of power did God show Elam? [00:04:17] He shut the mouths of the lions. It's like, okay, earthly king Darius, you can. You can throw them in the lion's den. The lions just aren't going to do what you're thinking they're going to do, right? He shut the mouths of the lions. Because who ultimately has the power? Who. Who really has the power? [00:04:37] God. Yeah, I see a ton of hands. God has the power, right? So, so Daniel, he. He. [00:04:45] Well, he's saying, yours is the kingdom God, you're my king. You're a king over and above my earthly king. And so I'm going to do your will and not go against it by listening to my earthly king. Right? And then he says, well, God, you have the power to save me or not. Here I go into the lion's den. I'm going to trust you. And God. [00:05:09] God has the power and he saves Daniel's life from the mouths of the lions. And then the glory. [00:05:18] David doesn't take the glory. I mean, sorry, Daniel doesn't take the glory for himself. Okay? Glory is like attention. If you give something glory, you're paying attention to it, okay? And you're lifting it up and honoring it. So we're giving God glory here, right? By paying attention to him. The cross there is In a glorious spot. A glorious spot because it's lifted up and we pay attention to it. [00:05:41] Now, Daniel could walk out of that lion's den and say, like, hey, check it out. Did you see that? I just went in a lion's den and nothing touched me. I must be something special, right? That wouldn't be a good idea, would it? But Daniel doesn't do that. [00:05:58] Daniel points to God and he says, God saved me from that. And so Darius, the king, he actually ends up making a law that everybody needs to pray to God, which is kind of a cool way for that to end. So through the story, we see that God's is the kingdom, the kingdom is God's, the power is God's, the glory is God's. And David is. That's what David's living as. He stays true to God, right? Who made him? He's taking care of him. He's trusting in him. Okay, so let's go to Jesus. [00:06:31] All right, Jesus, remember when we went over, thy will be done on earth as in heaven. Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? He prayed to God and he said, God, I know that I'm about to suffer greatly. [00:06:47] I'm going to be crucified on a cross, and it's going to hurt. It's going to be scary. People are going to be making fun of me, all this stuff. He didn't say all of that, but that's what he's thinking. And he says, God, if there's another way, please show me another way. Give me another way. If there's another way. But if not, essentially, yours is the kingdom. I'll do your will. [00:07:10] Do you see that? [00:07:12] So he's not going to make himself king and say, I'm in charge of my life. I'm going to do what's more comfortable or more fun or whatever. He submits to God as his authority as his king. And he says, yours is the kingdom. [00:07:29] And then just like Daniel was thrown in the lion's den, Jesus, he was put up on the cross. [00:07:37] Except that in this case, the cross actually killed him. [00:07:41] You know what? God has power even over death. [00:07:45] There's a Bible verse that says that Jesus couldn't stay dead because he's the author of life. He made life. [00:07:53] And so God raised him from the dead. That's the kind of power that God has. [00:08:00] And then Jesus says that in him, God is glorified. That actually God gives to Jesus power and authority. Okay? All of it. And then in Jesus, his Father is glorified. His Father Receives attention. So you and I, we pay attention to God by paying attention to Jesus. [00:08:24] So for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. [00:08:33] How does that work for us? [00:08:36] How do we give God? How do we say to God, yours is the kingdom, Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory? Well, you could think about Daniel's situation, You could think about Jesus situation. [00:08:51] That's who you are in Jesus. [00:08:54] You're like Daniel, you're going to have choices. You do have choices to make. [00:08:59] When you find yourself in a situation deciding whether to do the right thing or not, it's like, well, who's your king? [00:09:07] Who are you going to submit to and listen to in terms of what you should do? Or if you find yourself in a scary position, to whom are you going to say, help me? [00:09:18] We turn to God in prayer, recognize he has all the power, he's the king, and he receives the glory, our attention. [00:09:26] So we look to God in that kind of situation. When something works out really well, like Daniel escaping the lion's den, who does he give thanks to? [00:09:38] To God. So when something goes well for you, when you have a success, or when you receive a gift, or when you're happy about something or you find yourself thankful for your teacher or something like that, to whom do you give thanks? [00:09:57] To God. You don't just kind of turn in on yourself and say, woo hoo, I'm good. Right? We turn to God. Okay? So in the prayer, when we say this prayer that Jesus taught us, we say, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever at the end of it. And that helps us, it helps to turn our attention to God and remember, remember that he's our king, that he has the power and nothing else, and that he receives the glory. So it's kind of like we finish the prayer by paying attention to God, right? And, and remembering that all this belongs to him. I'll just close by mentioning when Jesus teaches his disciples his prayer, the Lord's prayer, Jesus prayer, he doesn't actually include this bit, okay? Not in the, like, in the Gospel of Matthew, that's where we have like the full prayer. But this isn't included. Okay. And then in the Gospel of Luke, even less is included of the prayer actually, like not even, not even the whole rest of the prayer is included. So it's kind of like Jesus taught his disciples how to pray more than once. All right? And then this little bit was added on and appears in like early Christian documents, like the Didache, the teaching of the apostles. Okay, it's like from the first century. It's from not many years after Jesus rose from the dead and the apostles went out. [00:11:30] And so from early on, Christians said the Lord's Prayer with this on the end of it. For thine is the kingdom and power and the glory forever and ever. And it's also. It's the pattern of prayer in Scripture. So it's kind of just so, you know, that's just kind of an interesting, interesting thing. So. [00:11:47] All right, well, let's pray. [00:11:52] Heavenly Father, yours is the kingdom, you are our king. Please guide and direct us. Help us to submit to you and to remember that you made us and you redeemed us in Jesus Christ. Yours is the power. Help us not to think that anything else ultimately has power over us. Give us confidence even in the face of death or great suffering, confidence in your power that you've promised to use to raise us from the dead, to give us life. [00:12:23] Father, yours is the glory. Help us to give attention and honor to you alone and not to any other thing, or to give honor and glory to earthly authorities like a king, like our president, or like a teacher, for your sake, remembering you that yours is the glory in Jesus name. Amen. [00:12:48] All right.