In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of praying for various aspects of God's kingdom. He emphasizes the need to hallow God's name, pray for His kingdom to come, and for His will to be done on earth. The preacher also highlights the significance of praying for daily provisions, forgiveness of sins, and protection from temptation and evil. He concludes by emphasizing God's power to provide for His people, even in times of scarcity, and challenges the modern skepticism towards God's ability to answer prayers for daily bread.

Will you kindly turn with me in your New Testaments to the record of the Lord's Prayer that we have in Matthew chapter 6, the passage that has already been read for us. And you will find the basis of our text tonight in the second half of verse 13 there. In some of our versions the words are not included, but you will find them nevertheless on the side of the page or as a footnote, as for example in the New International Version. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen. Or in the familiar words of the King James Version, thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen. You may remember that Luke records the prayer as uttered by our Lord probably on another occasion, and he omits this closing doxology altogether. Scholars tell us that in some of the old manuscripts it is not to be found in Matthew's version, but it is found in some manuscripts that are certainly quite ancient. And since it comes in our canonical scriptures, I propose looking at it tonight and imbibing from it what light and illumination our Lord would have us receive as we look at his conclusion of the Lord's Prayer, or the Pattern Prayer, or the model for praying as we have referred to it from time to time during the course of this last year. We have been venturing into this prayer on various occasions, taking a verse at a time, and this closing word in the prayer, this closing injunction, this closing word of guidance from our Lord has been very much haunting me during the course of this past week that I would like to share with you some thoughts concerning it. Now, the first thing I would like you to notice is that this model for praying closes or ends very much as it began. The prayer began with the petitioner envisaged as looking up into the face of his Heavenly Father and acknowledging God to be not only his personal Father, but the Father of the whole family, the whole household of faith. It is running contrary to the plan of our Lord when in concert we should be praying as if there was no one else involved, to pray as if we were the only people concerned. Really to pray, the Christian must see himself as belonging to a family, and that means he must come to God and be able to say, Our Father. True, he is not responsible for the status or the standing of other people, but as he comes to God he must see himself in the context of a family, and all the family are God's children and therefore his brothers and sisters, and as he comes into the presence of God, God deems it important, never mind about men, God deems it important that he should not come and say, I this and I that, but Our Father, that he should see himself in relation to the other members of the household. But the main stance in the opening part of the prayer is, seeing oneself in fellowship with all the redeemed, with the household of faith, now one is looking upward, and it is basically, it is fundamentally an attitude of worship. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You are not asking for anything, but you are desirous of giving something, of rendering unto God that which is his due. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is a concern for God's glory, the glory of his name, the coming of his kingdom, the doing of his will. In other words, the person who is capable of entering into this prayer must be a person whose main concern is God's glory, God's will, God's kingdom. And now you notice, that's exactly where the prayer ends. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. And the petitioner comes not with a sort of half-hearted amen or amen, however you prefer to say it. In most languages it is amen, but you can say your nice Canadian amen or whatever. With a robust sense of privilege and determination that he would do everything necessary to see his prayer come to pass, the petitioner says, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. And I think we shall see that with that locking of the key, the petitioner is sealing his prayer with an affirmation of faith and dedication that is most significant. Now, we begin then, looking at the words before us, seeing first of all what I would like to refer to as an acknowledgement of a fact. So much has happened before in this prayer, it's one of the wealthiest minds of truth in the New Testament. And we are not going to look backwards tonight, we are simply going to look into the face of this brief but very precious passage before us. Thine is the kingdom. Coming at the end of the prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples that when they've asked for this and they've asked for that, they should come and conclude in this way. They should look up into the face of their Heavenly Father and say, thine is the kingdom. What does this mean? What's the significance of this? What kingdom belongs to God? Well, I think you and I will have learned from our knowledge of the word, of the word of God, that the entire creation belongs to God, is God's domain. It was created by him, it is his creation. And as such, the whole creation is the object of his beneficent care. His kingdom rules over all. You see, Satan lied. He is called in scripture the father of lies. He lied, a black lie, when he said to our Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness, having shown him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, he said, all this dominion will I give you, and the glory that goes with it. For it has been put in my hands and I can give it to anyone I choose. That's a lie. Satan has no absolute power over anything in this world. His tenure is by permission only, and is of temporary duration. Now, it is true that within these prescribed limits, Satan is the prince of this world, and the ruler of the powers of darkness. It is true. But it's by permission only. And in all that he does, and in all that he can possibly do at any point in time, it must be by permission of God the Creator, and of Christ the Redeemer, of the triune God. Moreover, his power is already broken. His freedom of action contained and curtailed. We need to see this whenever we think of the enemy of our souls and the enemy of our God. And as he awaits his final doom, he simply cannot do anything he wants to. The entire kingdom of creation, then, belongs to the Lord. Thine is the kingdom, in that sense. I believe, however, that Jesus' reference here is to the spiritual kingdom of God, that has its subjects in every earthly domain, including our own. And in every territory over which Satan is temporarily the prince. The gospel of Matthew is essentially the gospel of the king, and the gospel of the kingdom. In the Sermon on the Mount, you have the king's manifesto. He gives the terms of membership, the terms of honour within his kingdom. It's the king who speaks. And he speaks with sovereign power and authority, and none can gainsay. He stands over his domain as the king. In the Sermon on the Mount, he does that. But now, we are living in enemy-occupied territory. The subjects of God's kingdom include all in enemy-occupied territory, who, though knowing full well the power of the enemy, nevertheless owe allegiance, and worship, and respect, and affection to the unseen God. Their creator, and their redeemer, and their sustainer. The almighty God of all creation, and the God of his church. One day they will be gathered into one, and at that point the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God, and of his Christ. But the kingdom is the Lord's. It is God's. That's the point that is stressed here. And Jesus expects every petitioner in this prayer, every individual who has uttered the words of the Lord's prayer, to be able to say this, to come almost naturally to a point of conclusion, to concede to the one to whom we have prayed, this, yours is the kingdom. On what score? Well, first of all, the very concept of the kingdom was his. The kingdom belongs to God, since the very idea of it originated in his mind and in his heart. It was he who thought it into existence. There would never have been such an entity were it not for him. Seeing beforehand the chaos that sin and Satan would make of this world and its unborn peoples, God conceived a plan whereby he would invade the territory of the prince of the powers of the earth, the prince of this world, and would call unto himself, out from among the kingdoms of men, multitudes who would bow to his scepter, receive of his mercy, and seek his glory. He would call unto himself a people who would be his willing subject. He planned a kingdom of God among the inhabitants of the kingdoms of men, a kingdom of heaven among the citizens of earth. God thought it. It was his idea. It was his concept. His was the blueprint. It originated in his mind and in his heart. His is the kingdom in that sense. Its actual creation was God's and is God's forever. The historical creation of the kingdom was no less an act of God than the emergence of the original concept of such an entity. Wherever you see a man who has shaken off the powers of darkness, wherever, whenever you see a man or a woman that has moved from the kingdom of Satan and sin and darkness into the kingdom of God, there you may say God has been at work. It's the kingdom of God. God is responsible for it. There is no such thing as a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, breaking with the tyranny of Satan and going out from the prison house unless God opens the door and unless God himself takes him out. God's kingdom is his own making. Its very creation in any day, in any age, in any generation, among any group of people is God's. Except the Lord build, they build in vain. You'll remember how mystified Nicodemus was at our Lord's exposition of the nature of his kingdom and how mystified he was when Jesus spoke concerning the wind. He said, the wind bloweth where it listeth. And you hear the sound of it, you know where it's coming from, but you certainly don't know where it's going to. There is something sovereign about the wind. You can't control it, you can't tell it which way to blow. Indeed, you can't always say the way it's coming from, because it changes its course. It's sovereign. Now there is something of that nature about a man who belongs to the kingdom of God. There's a mysterious power that brings him, albeit over a tortuous pathway, brings him into the kingdom and keeps him in the kingdom and leads him onwards along the paths of the kingdom to the ultimate consummation of the kingdom. That is the sovereign power of God. You can no more control the God of the kingdom than you can the wind. But you can only bow and trim your sails to go with the wind, to go with God if you desire to go His way. It is all of God. Now this, of course, was the real explanation of the existence of the little group of men to whom Jesus was preaching and speaking just now. Where did they come from? Oh, the wind of God has blown them into the net of the gospel of the kingdom. It's the mighty power of the Spirit in answer to His call, or working along with His call, that has brought them to Him. And there they are. It's God that began that little nucleus, and their little nucleus of a kingdom that was to be built that the ages could not break up. But the point we are now stressing in particular is that whenever men break away from the yoke of sin and Satan and submit to the one and the only rightful king, it is due to God's personal intervention. And that is why, of course, the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom must always be wedded to praying. You separate what God has joined together and you will miss what God has purposed. But now not only is the very concept of it the Lord's, and the beginnings of it, the creation of it, but the consummation of the kingdom is likewise in God's sovereign hand. The end, no less than the beginning, belongs to God. The God who conceived the very notion of the kingdom and who makes it a reality wherever it is found is the one who also planned its ultimate consummation and glory. And that is his plan for his kingdom. It is a kingdom of glory. Now it is a kingdom of grace. It is to become a kingdom of glory. It is not eternally destined to be an underground movement, bearing the wounds, experiencing the humiliations of this life, and the dangers and privations of this world. Far, far from it. Its subjects alone have a future. They are to be gathered from the four corners of the earth. And they are to be summoned from their graves. And they are to be called out of the deep. And the spirits of men will return and will inhabit new bodies, like unto the glorious body of their Lord. And he, the Lord, the King, will reign over his own forever and ever. And they will share in his glory. That's the destiny. That's the destiny of the kingdom. Thine is the kingdom. He is the one who thought of it in the first place. The concept was his. The creation of the kingdom in any heart, in any society, in any nation, at any time, is his. And its consummation, whenever it comes, and it may be very near, but whenever it comes, be it long or may it come soon, it matters not. His is the kingdom. It's altogether his. And because it belongs to him, the sovereign God, there are no powers on earth nor in hell that can frustrate it. Well, may we sing as we have rejoiced. The Lord is King. Your God and King adore. Mortals give thanks and sing and triumph evermore. Why? Because God is King. And his is the rule. An affirmation, a conviction and an acknowledgement of a fact. Thine is the kingdom. Now, in the second place, look at this. An affirmation of faith. Thine is the kingdom and the power. Now remember, this is taken at the end of a prayer. In the course of the prayer, the petitioner has been taught to pray a number of things. Hallowed be thy name. That God's name should be hallowed. That his kingdom should come. That his will should be done on earth as it is in hell. Then he's been taught to pray, give us this day or give us day by day, whatever the real meaning of that is, our daily bread. And not only daily bread, he's been asked to pray for daily pardon and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those that have trespassed against us. And then he's been taught to pray for daily preservation. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. He's been asked to pray for daily protection from the evil one. And then comes this massive, this gigantic climax. Why and how can I pray all these for? This is the reason, because thine is the kingdom. You started it, you're continuing it, and you will bring it to a consummation. Yes, and yours is the power to do exactly that. Having asked God on the basis of the supposition that he is able to hear and able to do what we're asking him, now the petitioner is asked to say as it were directly into the face of God, I believe that you have the power. You see, the tragedy is that so many of us pray from time to time without really conceding that God has the power. Our Lord Jesus would save us from that tragedy. You have to do it at the beginning, you have to do it, probably it's involved in what you ask for all the way through. But when you come to the close of your prayer, if you end your prayer as Jesus taught you, then you must say into the face of God, I believe this, that you have the power. Thine is the power. What power? All power. To magnify and sanctify his name. To bring about his kingdom. To bring daily bread and daily pardon and daily protection to his people. His is the power to do everything that his people can ever need. It's of the stuff that goes to the making of prayer that I should be able to say into my heavenly Father's ears, I believe you've got the power, so that I'm not praying in vain. Now let's just spell this out a little bit in its context here without going any further afield. I believe that the Lord Jesus is being very practical and particularly thinking of the application of this to what he's already taught in the body of the prayer. We need to believe that God has power to oppose all his enemies. We need to have faith in the first place in the power of God successfully to oppose all counter schemes to his. All counter schemes of Satan and of his forces. Take another look at the Lord's Prayer and you will see that it reflects the clear awareness of the subtle devices of the enemy here. Whether it be to dishonor the name of God rather than sanctify it, to obstruct the coming of the kingdom rather than help, or to disobey his will rather than do it. Now it is not difficult to show that from the very beginning of time the energies of Satan have been dedicated to these ends. He has marshaled together a vast array of spiritual beings and human agencies who knowingly or unwittingly serve his malign purposes in every age. His activities are as widespread as humanity and as varied as imagination can conceive and his goal is unremittingly the same, to frustrate the purposes of God. And there are times when you and I can become so overwhelmingly conscious of this that frankly we doubt whether God can stand against the tide. And when a prophet in the Old Testament says, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him and oppose him, we really question whether that's always possible. Says the man who can really pray, not thinking of human listeners now, but into the very year of God his Heavenly Father, he says, Yours is the power to oppose Satan's counter-strategies. Yes, but not only to oppose, but power to overthrow. Not only has God the power to oppose the arch enemy of man and of God himself, to oppose him in the sense of raising up a standard against him, he has that. But he is well able and destined to overthrow him and his schemes ultimately and forever. Look again at the prayer and its suggestiveness in this respect and the implications of these words will become very evident. When Satan for some unholy purpose or reason has robbed some of God's children temporarily of life's necessary resources and they don't have anything in the cupboard for tomorrow. You and I know next to nothing about this. The cupboard is there and tomorrow is coming and maybe we have a little family. How few of us know anything about that. But sometimes when Satan has been very harsh and very hard and tomorrow is coming terribly near and we're nearly at midnight and there is nothing in the cupboard, there is nothing in the fridge for tomorrow morning. The man of faith is able to pray, Give us this day our daily bread. There are no circumstances in life or death that can ultimately frustrate him when it is his will to feed his people and when he's made a promise so to do. He has power to overthrow, to overcome the roadblocks of the enemy, to break into the prison cell, to dash through the barbed wire. He can get to the place where you need food. And if you don't believe that, it's useless praying for bread. And Jesus wants us to see that God's power is greater than the power of the enemy. Now this, of course, simply does not make sense to the modern man outside of Christ. Well, you wouldn't expect it to if you knew your Bible. The man outside of Christ, the man with no knowledge of scripture and its teaching, will point to you, if you dare talk to him about things like this, he will point you to two-thirds of the world that hasn't had a decent meal today. And he will soon point you to the bulging bellies of little children that have never had one solid meal in their lives. And he will say to you, that just does not tie up. Where is the almighty God who can give his people food when they need it? Day by day, our daily bread. Well, we on our part return and we say, when God calls a people into existence and he tells them, I'm going to take you to a land that I'm going to give you, and he takes them for forty years through the wilderness and they never lacked bread nor water, and their garments did not grow threadbare, and their shoes did not wear out, we tell them that kind of thing. But unfortunately, all too often we forget, and it's a tragedy that we do forget, God is able to feed his people whom he has called in any circumstances. But let's remember this. There were times when the very people of God had to get near to starvation. And he planned it. And he not only allowed it, but caused it to happen. And their crops were of no use. And what they brought in and they sold it, they put the money into bags that had holes in them. I'm quoting from the prophets. But in many cases the canker worm and the palmer worm and all the other worms had eaten their crops up, and they had absolutely nothing. Why? For this reason, the government of God is morally conditioned. What that tells us is this. Whether God gives bread or withholds bread is determined by some moral principle that counts in his sight. But he who has myriad angels at his disposal without coming down to a stalk or a bird or what have you, he is able to make not only all grace abound toward his people spiritually, he is able to feed an Elijah. And he is able to feed his people in any kind of circumstance. And as the psalmist says, I've been a follower of his for many years, but I've never seen his seed begging bread. He is able to overthrow the strategies of Satan, and he is able to fulfill the purposes of his grace and the promises of his word. Now, of course, if we were here for a longer time, I would dearly love to speak of the way in which some in our own day and age are experiencing this. I've been thinking, for example, of those who are coming to address a group here before the end of the week on behalf of Mrs. Lillian Dixon. I would suggest to you that if you have any doubt about the miraculous interventions of God, that you try to have an hour or so with Mrs. Lillian Dixon. It would be an education. And it may indeed, it may very well revolutionize your theology for all your lifetime. Because the God to whom she prays, and I speak to her because she's familiar to us, the God to whom she prays is a God who breaks into situations that are literally, humanly impossible. I was reading only last night a word of the late Dr. Bob Pierce concerning her. I can't repeat it. I hadn't thought of referring to her. But it's something like this, that of all the people that he has encountered in this life, this is the one of God's children, probably the one whom he has seen in the most impossible situations imaginable, whom God has come in intervening grace with his provision. Now she's not alone. It was our privilege, my wife's and mine, to know the small woman. Let's talk about the ladies tonight. And if you ever saw the small woman, Gladys Aylward, she was only a couple of feet. Hi, I'm not tall, and my wife is not tall, but she was diminutive by our sight. And there she was. The Lord calls her from Swansea in South Wales to China. And no missionary society would take her. Read the story. It's really worth knowing what God has done for the most insignificant of people, people who are nobodies. And when no one would take her, Gladys Aylward said, All right, Lord, I'll go myself. If you call me, how do you want me to go? And she bought a frying pan, and bought a few other things, and put them on her back, and she set out from London, and she went by train across Europe and across Russia, having saved the money. And she got into China and couldn't speak a word of the language. And God had taken her to China. And if you want to know anything about modern miracles, read the story. I remember some of the comments of high-ups in the British Broadcasting Corporation in England when a program concerning the small woman, as it was called, had been shown. And it was said to be unbelievable that one little woman of this stature, who had never been to the university, never been in a theological college. I'm not sure that she'd been to any Bible college. But here she was in touch with a living God. And she and her orphans, on a night when everybody else is being slaughtered, go through a river to the place that God had told her about, where there was shelter and a home. Thine is the power. So much of our praying, you see, is really just puffing into the air. It may sound all right, unless from the depths of our beings we honestly say to the Lord, along with everything we ask for, Yours is the power. We are aware of the power of our own fallen nature. We are aware of the powers of Satan. We are aware of the powers of evil men in every place, in every land. But when we make this prayer, we do it in the faith that Yours is the power. Not only to frustrate, but to overcome. For Thine is the kingdom and the power. No wonder Toplady was singing. He smiled, and my comforts abound. Toplady knew something about trials and difficulties too. His grace as the dew shall descend, and walls of salvation surround the soul he delights to defend. Thirdly, the ascription of praise. Thine is the glory forever. Amen. Now, you see, if we reduce this to mere words, mere verbiage, we'll spoil the whole thing. In other words, if you think of saying your prayers and then tucking this thing in at the end, Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Well, you know, as sheer tumult. What our Lord is thinking of is this. As sincerely as you say, Our Father who art in heaven, come see to Him the glory forever. Whether the reply comes now or then, whether it delays a moment or more than a moment, or comes immediately, Thine is the glory forever. Whatever the circumstances. Amen. Glory to God. Look first at the glory now freely offered to God by the petitioner who prays in accordance with this model. If anything good is to emerge anywhere in his life, in the life of the petitioner, then it will come from God, because he looks upon God as the source of every good and needful thing. And therefore God must have the glory. Now you see, men who think of God as their servant, whose only existence is just, the justification of whose existence is only to be found in that He serves us. If you think of God like that, then you never come see to Him the glory. But if you think of God as the one for whom you were made, for whose being and for whose glory you are sustained, and have been redeemed, and are being kept in life, and if you see the whole meaning of your life as this, to bring honor and praise and glory to your God, Maker and Redeemer, then it's a difference. And the man who really prays this prayer must be a man of that spirit. I have had occasion during my life, sincerely and honestly, in the course of conversation to challenge many people who prayed the Lord's Prayer twice every Lord's Day. Sometimes they sang it, sometimes they said it. And I have made it my business to ask, look, how much of this is real? For it was not real with me. And I have been flabbergasted at the woolly thinking of many people who take the Lord's Prayer upon their lips and have no concept of the kind of thing that Jesus had in mind, and concede no more glory to God. Well, I shan't use the comparison that I was first going to use. It must remain an unfinished sentence. Use your imagination. But God is not glorified. In this context here, our Lord probably meant that glory which would accrue from the granting of the several petitions already referred to. For the hallowing of His name, the coming of His kingdom, the doing of His will, the supplying of daily provision, daily pardon, and daily protection for His praying people. This doxology appears then to concede to God all glory in advance. Notice. In advance. This is real faith. This is the child's prayer. This is not just talking prayer or talking about praying. This is praying in advance. Thine is the kingdom and the glory forever. Amen. Such should be the confidence of those who pray that they honor Him, and praise Him, and bless Him, and magnify Him in advance of the answer. Because they know that God cannot deny Himself perpetual glory. Behind the glory He gives, the petitioner that is, notice the perpetuity with which Jesus would bless and magnify God and would have all men and women of prayer do likewise. Thine is the kingdom and the glory forever. Now, this could imply that our Lord does not envisage the man of prayer ever withdrawing from God or attempting to qualify the glory that He has already conceded Him. Could be that. That would be fully consistent with the letter and the spirit of this prayer. I tend to think, however, that what Jesus had in mind here is this. He envisaged the petitioner so full of God, so absorbed with the things of God, the name of God, the will of God, the glory of God, the kingdom of God. God is in everything that He envisages Himself as going on into eternity praising and magnifying His God. And if some scholars come back and remind us that this is not in the text of the oldest manuscripts, I come back and insist that even if it isn't, it is consistent with the ethos and the spirit of the New Testament and most certainly with all that Jesus taught us. Neither is this glory that is given honestly and perpetually to God, neither is it impassionately or dispassionately given. On the contrary, there is the passion of an Amen in it. Now, you may wonder why I put it like that. I think that one of the least understood terms in the whole of the Bible is the word Amen. We have long lost the meaning of the word. Literally, of course, it means, may it be so, or it will be so, it shall be so. But there's much more to it than that. A study of its usage in the New Testament will add great light, and I can only just try one or two shafts across its pathway now. It is a word that is generally vibrant with passion and feeling, never a dull little petty OK at the end of a prayer. Amen is one of the strongest terms in the whole of the Bible. It often conveys the notion of the speaker's determination to see something through and see it through to a conclusion. The word on the lips of our Lord usually signified his real moral earnestness. He was in earnest. Now, this is missed by the English readers of the Bible so often. If I may show off my little bit of Greek again, you'll forgive me, won't you? But you see, this little word for Greek, the Greek word for Amen, also underlies a word translated into English as verily. Verily. And so, when you read the English verily, you don't realize that it's the word for Amen. Likewise, when you read the word Amen, you don't realize it's the same as the word verily. Now, when I use the word verily, and when I repeat it verily, verily, as our Lord invariably do, you can sense the moral earnestness behind it. Let me give you just one or two illustrations. Verily, verily, said Jesus, and the Greek is Amen, Amen, right at the beginning. I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. You got it? Everything will be fulfilled, He says. There's this moral certainty. There's this guarantee. He's putting himself on the spot. He says, I'm going to see it through. God is going to see things through. The law will be fulfilled. Verily, verily. Come again to John 3, 3. We've been referring to Nicodemus. Verily, verily, Amen, Amen, says the Greek. I say to you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Or come again to John 5 and 24. Verily, verily, Amen, Amen. I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. Jesus is in earnest, you see. He wants them to be saved. And He says, look man, I'm telling you with all the certainty of my soul. If you have my word and you believe it, you've got eternal life. Believe me, He's in earnest. You got the sense of it? Now you come to the end of the prayer. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we have forgiven others, etc. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. That's the way it should be prayed. I'm in it. I'm in it. With all the moral earnestness of my being. This is my faith. This is my expectation. I concede to you the honor and the glory and the power forever. And I'm in it. Now friends, as I conclude, I confess to you that these apparently, these deceptively simple words of the Lord's prayer are the most provocative words I've ever read. Because they take the mask off our shallowness. If there's anything most of us think we've mastered, it is the Lord's prayer. We've got it in our pockets. And if in our prayers we get in any little bit of trouble, well, we can always repeat the Lord's prayer. Bless us. God have mercy on us. Thus does the Christ-taught prayer begin and end with God and demands the soul's utter affirmation of faith and dedication in its final Amen. There's nothing waste here. Well did the disciples say, Lord, teach us how to pray. Well may we, well may I, dare I include you with me. Dare may we, all of us, really now, quite sincerely now, say, O Lord, teach. Pray. Amen. Our God and our Father, as we have stood beside this ocean of compressed truth and have with a sense of awe viewed the landscape o'er, we thank you for any measure of light that you have given to us. And though the light given has only frightened us to the tragic possibility of our missing so much because of our hurry and haste and lack of discipline and unwillingness to be taught, O Spirit of God, brood over our hearts and our lives afresh. And as on this Lord's Day evening so many of us have gathered within the walls of this here sanctuary, may these thoughts be a means of grace to us and a challenge as we set about a new week. We pray, our Lord, that you will really teach us how we ought to pray. We pray that this may be an exercise that is meaningful, purposeful, fruitful, and that whatever else it does, it brings honor and glory to yourself, to whom honor and glory belongs exclusively. Hear our prayer and receive us with our thanksgivings. In the name of your dear Son, our Savior and our Mediator, Jesus Christ, Amen.