Thine or Mine

Matthew 6 verse 9. After this manner, therefore pray ye our Father which 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. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if he forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if he forgive men not, or not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Well, here as we kind of close off, we got last time to where we, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. But here, perhaps, I didn't finish it last week for two reasons.

One is time, but the also I wanted to make sure that I just didn't run through this final part of the prayer. Here again, Jesus is giving us a model prayer that when I'm wanting to learn to approach God, how do I come before you? How do I talk to you? How do I do it in a way that my life is going to get the most out of it? It's going to affect my walk, my behavior, my nature, my world, everything about me. That's, we ought to want to learn to pray more, I suppose, than we ought to want to learn to do anything in all the world for nothing.

Opens up our heart to more power and more hope and more life and more victory and more wisdom and more direction than a person that has learned something about prayer. And the more we learn about it, the more our life, our daily living, you look at the others 24 hours a day for every human being and yet some people seem to get so much more out of them. Their lives are much richer and they're full of their relationships, where they go and what they do.

It's just so much more wonderful and you may wonder why is that so, particularly even sometimes for Christians, that one Christian, that somehow or another their life just has a greater flow to it, has a greater blessing, has a greater fullness. They just seem to go almost from glory to glory. They go from meaningful and effective lives day in and day out and then another Christian can be over there and constantly struggling with all manner of difficulty within their life.

And I believe one of the great aspects of that is prayer, understanding prayer. And that is of course first putting God in his right place. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed, holy, mighty, glorious, separate, above all is your name.

You bring your kingdom, thy kingdom come, thy will be done right here on earth, in my life, today, just as it is in heaven. Now we ought to be ones that we long, Lord, as wonderful as heaven is, I can't be there yet, you haven't brought me home there, but as much a heaven as you can bring into my life today. I want it, I want your kingdom, I want your lordship, I want your leadership, I want your scepter, a scepter of righteousness and glory and majesty to be that which would lead and guide and fill my heart and my life.

And then interestingly enough, when you do look at this prayer, it's an interesting thing, as Jesus is saying, after this manner, learn to pray this way. And the first part of the prayer, of course, is all about God. All about him and as he's high and he's lifted up and he's glorious and he's wonderful and he has a kingdom and we want it to come and we want it here on earth as it is in heaven.

It's all about him. And then there's this little sandwiched part in between here where he says, now give us this day our daily bread, there's our physical needs, and give us this day our daily bread, what's next? Where am I here? I honestly know this prayer, I've worked on it all week long. But anyway, forgive our debtors.

Why don't we just pray here for a moment. Let's just work right on this one right here, just focus on this. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts.

Cleanse my heart, cleanse my soul, keep it pure, keep it right toward you and towards others as I forgive others. And then lead me, not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. And you look in there and say, God just lead my life.

It's three very simple sorts of things. Prayer in the physical aspects, prayer in the soulish aspects, prayer in the spiritual aspects. And you would look at this and so we would look there at the physical issues going on in our life.

I believe to pray about them. The things within our own heart, the things that weigh us down, the burdens there perhaps, and cleansing and relationships. God keep them pure.

And then spiritually lead me, guide me, put your hand upon me. And then from there he now goes back and he says, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And here it's interesting when you do look at this prayer, because the first part it's all about God.

Then there's these three essential requests there. He says, you know, just take your life, put it into that, just that you don't have to spend so much time about yourself, in your issues, in your burdens, in your people, in your trials. And God do you know about this? And you know, have you checked out the world lately? And do you, did you see the news tonight? And all of these things that we can so often just get going about God and bringing to him.

But it's amazing when he says after this manner, you want to have a transformed life, he says glorify me. You just put your father on the throne, see to it that his kingdom, you delight in it, you long for it, that's the great desire of your life. God bring your kingdom and enthrone yourself in my life.

And then we got these issues here that go on day after day. You'll feed me, I'm not worried about it, you know things I have need of, and you're gonna clothe me, and you'll, and God help me with my relationships, and keep my heart pure, and cleanse me, and help me to forgive anybody else. Whatever it is to keep the relationships loving and pure and right and good.

And then lead my life. But then as he goes on, sometimes we tend to almost look at the rest of this prayer as if it's just kind of a nice little closing ditty or something, sort of a thing. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

But I, to me, I think that this is far more than just kind of closing off a prayer, or bringing a prayer to kind of a close and winding it down, as much as to me it's, it's, it's doing the exact opposite. It's taking prayer almost back up to a crescendo. It started with God, came back down to my world, and then I want to make sure that when I close it off, I'm back with Him.

And, and then the things that we're saying here, I mean this is a great crescendo almost in prayer. Something there with a grand finale, a grand focus that we, when we're stopping and we're getting up from prayer, that we've, we've ended it on a high and glorious, and, and, and the greatest of eternal truths in a sense. There that we're saying, because we're turning and saying for.

In other words, when he, when he says therefore, you know, for thine is the kingdom, but he said the word therefore is so critical, because he's saying, why am I praying? Why am I bringing these things to you? Why, you know, give me my daily bread, and why forgive me my trespasses, and why lead me? And, and, and the reason is, is for thine is the kingdom. It's turning there in a sense, and it's back to the Lord in a sense, for I'm bringing all these things to you, Lord, for the very simple reason that thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. And there is that we would stop to think about that.

I mean, as far as God's concerned, as far as eternity is concerned, as far as heaven is concerned, there only is one kingdom. There only has been one kingdom as far as anything concerned. There are not two kingdoms, or five, or ten, or a hundred, or a million, or, or ten billion kingdoms.

There's one. All other kingdoms are just passing vapors. They're just there for a moment, kind of, you know, come up, you know, in the morning mist, sort of a thing, but when the sun rises, they, they all vaporize.

Every kingdom that's ever been, from the Tower of Babel, when man decided, we're going to build a city, and we're going to build a kingdom. And there, when man started getting together, even thinking of kings, and kingdoms. You know, it's interesting, I think it's in Genesis 13.

It's the first time in the Bible that kings are mentioned in the plural. And it's also the first time in the Bible that wars are mentioned. Anytime you've got kings, you've got kingdoms.

Anytime you get kings and kingdoms, you've got wars. And, but here, as far as, as soon as you start looking at kings, and you start looking at kingdoms, you, you've gone off into, perhaps, the most arrogant of all influences. In the sense, when we stop there and realize, God, there only is one kingdom.

There only is one real kingdom. There's only one eternal kingdom, glorious kingdom, and all the others, they just, he, seem to come and go. As mighty as they may be for a moment, I suppose you could look at Nebuchadnezzar, and all of his grand nature of his kingdom, and all the glory that must have been a part of it.

When you could look at all that they could amass, and all that they could kind of build, it's all gone now. But it was there for a time. And then, of course, there, he went crazy.

And you, and you watch theirs. He's got it for a time, and then you just watch it like sand go through somebody's king, their kingdom, through their fingers. It just dissolves.

One day, they're looking at something there that they've poured their entire life into, wanting to build. And then, the next thing you know, they're out grazing with the animals, eating, you know, grass. And they, and God just making a mockery of men, and kings, and their kingdoms.

And then, of course, Belshazzar follows him along. And, and then, he thinks he's got something there for a time. But it isn't long until there in Daniel 5, where meanie, meanie, tickle-o-fairson, you've been weighed in the balance, and found wanting.

This day, your kingdom is going to be taken from you, and given to another. And then, Darius, of course, comes in. And the kingdom comes, and the kingdom goes, and another moves in.

And all of a sudden, he's got it for a time. And his eyes light up, and look what I've got. Yeah, the new king, and a new kingdom, and on, and on, and on it goes.

And then, with after the Medes, and then the Persians, and then the, the Alexander the Greats, and the Grecians, and then the Romans, and then moving on to, you know, the Constantines, and the Attila the Huns, and the Genghis Khans, and, you know, the Lenins, and the Stalins, and the Hitlers, and all of them. They come, and they go, and the, you know, the Saddam Husseins, you know, can come, and I understand something like, what, 48 palaces, and billions of dollars poured into these lavish, unbelievable, you know, things there, that only a few weeks ago, you know, spent decades building all of these things. But now, you know, watching a whole nation go in, and, and loot them, and strip them, and destroy them.

There's a man there, whether he's, you know, down underneath some rubble now, or, or sooner or later, you know, he'll be under rubble. And his kingdom will be, and it's come, and it's gone. And, and that's the history of man in all kingdoms.

Every, every one of them. And, and whether you look in the past, or you look in the future. Revelation 20, one of the great and awesome sites to me, but in Revelation is the, you know, history comes to a close, finally, when we're given it to there.

And, of course, when he stopped to think, the Bible says, one day time shall be no more. God will fold up creation in the vesture. All the kingdoms that ever were, they will be, of course, gone.

Won't be anything left of them. And history, as we know it, will completely end. But Revelation 20, verse 11, says, And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, whose face, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.

And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up their dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up their dead which were in them.

And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. And this is the second death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. The final thing, when all of history, here all of a sudden you get this amazing picture as we look forward to an event yet to happen, that there to think of the sight here as John looks and he says, I saw the dead, great and small. All of history, out of everywhere, you know, the sea gave up its dead and death and hell gave up its dead.

All those that were ever anywhere, and the face of history, there all of a sudden they're standing before God. You just imagine this line, the dead, great and the small. You know, for the most part, they're the people that who knows who they were and what they did.

But then there are, you know, there's the Nebuchadnezzar's. And there's the Belshazzar's. And there's the Darius's.

And there's the Alexander the Great's. And there's the Caesars of Rome. Here and there, just kind of in line.

Some people that never stood in a line their whole life, never waited for anything, now waiting for judgment like everyone else. The greatest of all, people that would just think, you know, if any other line, they say, I can't believe it. I was right in line with Nebuchadnezzar.

We were just two inches from each other. Whoa, right up to the lake we were, you know, or something. And on, you know, yeah, we dove in together, you know, or something.

But on the reality there of all the, when you look there and realize all the kings and all the kingdoms. Now there's the small in there that few people would maybe know. History didn't record them.

Not much really different, I don't suppose, in the Nebuchadnezzar's. There's only the greatness or the scope or the magnitude of the longevity or of their kingdom perhaps. They didn't rule maybe over millions of people in millions of square or acres or miles or, and they didn't have billions of dollars.

And history didn't record others, you know, events. They, you know, but they still had their own kingdom. They had everybody there in that line.

One of the fundamental attributes of everybody that's in that line that ultimately they will have had another kingdom than the kingdom. That'll be the fundamental characteristic of everybody in line. They all had a kingdom, great or small.

Some of them, boy, it was a great kingdom. It was an awesome kingdom. It was recorded in history.

And what it was, the Bible records it for us or other books there and, and everybody, you know, is going to recognize them. And some of them maybe, boy, they were great musicians or great rock stars or great athletes or they were, you know, great sculptors or great, you know, financiers or whatever. And then many of them, nobody ever knew who they were, but every one of them had a kingdom.

It just was maybe reduced in size. They had kingdoms that nobody knew. Maybe this fellow there standing next to Nebuchadnezzar, his kingdom may have been, you know, he didn't have a, you know, they may be sitting there in line.

Tell me about your kingdom as Nebuchadnezzar looks over. You were a king, you had your own kingdom too. Yeah.

Tell me about it. Well, it was a small kingdom, nothing like yours. I mean, I know you had millions of people and you had, you know, millions of square miles.

I mean, you had the planet, you know, and you had billions of dollars. And my kingdom was kind of, you know, small. I, I just had two or three in my kingdom and it was about 450 square feet.

I was the night manager from 12 to 6 at Burger King, you know, or something, but, but boy, did I run it like you, you know, sort of a thing. I was something, boy, I was as much a tyrant as you ever dreamed to be. I was as unloving as I was is controlling and manipulative and selfish as you were.

And I just didn't get the opportunity as you did to really be down in history like you, but I tried from midnight to eight, you know, at Burger King, you know, or wherever else it was, but, but it's, but fundamentally in this line, there's people that all of which, mine is the kingdom. Mine. It's all about me.

And it doesn't make any difference the size of the scope. It's when somebody there, you know, it's my kingdom or it's my home or it's my family or it's my wife or it's my children. It's my, you know, business or whatever else.

But the great difference with, with, when somebody, and I believe that what makes prayer so powerful and so wonderful is that somebody there, they've come to realize, God, why do I pray? And why do I come? And my, our Father, which is in heaven, why do I want your name to be high and holy and glorious and lifted up? Why do I want your kingdom to come? Well, it's because I want my kingdom to go. I want on earth, right now, I've seen a glimpse of heaven and for that I want, I'll give anything of my kingdom. I'll lay down all of it to you.

I'll trade. I'll offer. I'll surrender.

I'll yield. Anything that your kingdom might come on earth as it in heaven. And God in the midst of it to take care of me and cleanse me and forgive me and, and help me to forgive other people but bring, but, but God thine is the kingdom.

I've learned that. I've got that through my head. That's the thing that a person that really understands prayer is perhaps one of the great and wonderful truths that has hit them.

And that they've looked there and they, they want to have God. They're ruling. They don't care how big or little.

There's somebody there, whether you give them the biggest kingdom in the world and you'd offer them here. You can have a hundred million dollars or you can be the president of so-and-so or you can succeed at this or you can do whatever. But they've come to realize how foolish.

They're, the thought of standing one day in that line at the end of history. The most frightful thing you could ever be and I don't ever want to be in it. And I don't want a kingdom.

I want his kingdom to come. Otherwise we're left to ourselves. Vance Havner, it's a wonderful old evangelist, died years ago, but a wonderful man and he had a lot of these little ditties kind of things he'd say.

And one of the things that I always loved, I read that he said, I've never known what it meant, but he said when the tide goes out, every shrimp has its own puddle. And, but it's one of those things it's so often a lot of people, you know, when things get tough, they've got their own kingdom. It may be a little teeny puddle, but it's mine, you know, or something.

Every shrimp, everybody kind of, when times get tough in their life, the natural man protects his puddle, you know, and looks out for it. But the spiritual man turns there and everything he's got, he says, no God, thine is the puddle. Thine, whatever I've got, it's yours.

And what you've entrusted me with so far right now is the midnight to eight shift at Burger King. By the way, if you work there, God must really want to talk to you tonight and there's something or, but I, but anyway, me must have really been hard on those people lately and they've been praying for you or something. But anyway, but so often with every one of us, there's not a one of us that you don't have a kingdom.

Not, there's not a human being that doesn't have your king, a kingdom. Your kingdom might so far just be the dog, you know, or something. But, but when you, God help me with whatever you give to me.

You came to me, you may look and say, well, I haven't got much, but I, he likes me. I look there and I'm head of my house. I can say that before you, I know I'm on the radio anyway.

It doesn't bother me to say it. I've been married for almost 35 years, this year it'll be, and we have an agreement. It works out quite wonderful.

Jean lets me say, I'm head of the house. I run the joint. I am king and she said, doesn't bother at all as long as I do whatever I'm told when I'm home.

And I, and we're both, we're both quite happy with that arrangement. I can talk however I want. And then when I go home, I just do what I'm told.

But anyway, my kingdom is the yard work, but whatever it is, but when you find out what your kingdom is, God, thine is the kingdom. Thine is the kingdom. And when we realized that Paul, he said, what maketh one man to differ from another? What does a man have that he hasn't received? And if a man has received it from God, why does he glory as if he hasn't? Paul, he was so amazed at the mystical nature of man.

Then on one hand, everything Paul said, what does a man have that he hasn't received it from God? Everything everyone has, whatever the size of the kingdom, whatever God has given to you, he gave it to you. He entrusted you with it, everything you've got. Whether your intellect, your, whatever you inherited, your drive, your capacity to achieve.

Whatever there is that's in you there that you think you did it, you know, God could have planted you, you know, on a South Sea island all by yourself with all this wonderful stuff you think you've got, and nobody to see it. Wouldn't that have been something? But the, but instead Paul says, God gives all these things to it, he entrusts us with it, and then some use it for his glory, and some actually sit around and look and think to themselves, look at this. And they begin to glory in their own kingdom or what they've got, as if they didn't receive it from God at all.

But one of the most amazing, wonderful, and profound things, I think, about anybody that ever becomes spiritual, is that there is something that happens, that thine is the kingdom. That's what they want more than anything else. And if we understand that, if that has really happened, I think that's a very telltale aspect about prayer, and when it happens.

Because it's something there, I think, that the person there, that his is the kingdom. We've really given it to him, then prayer is gonna become a great part of life. So often, I think, if we're having trouble with prayer, it's never really taken hold in our life, I think we ought to go back and look at the deeper thing of just, rather than, well, I'm having a tough time developing a prayer life, sort of a question.

We've got to get to the root of it and say, whose is the kingdom? Because if the kingdom, I found that, you know, the kingdom, if it's mine, if it's my world, my life, my business, my wife, my kids, my whatever, my bank account, then it's tough. Then prayer is a duty, and it's tough to kind of, because subconsciously at least, or whatever, that if we have a subconscious, I don't know, but underneath, we know prayer is kind of a futile thing, because I'm really king. It's mine.

I earned it. I own it. I've got it.

It belongs to me. That woman is mine, or that man is mine, or those kids are mine, and this house is mine, and then prayer isn't much of a thing, and it's this weird sort of a duty where I'm talking to somebody as if they've got a degree of ownership in something that I know they don't, but if I have truly given it to him, if it is his kingdom, if the marriage is his, if the children is his, if the business, I looked at that business as his, and it truly belongs to him, and everybody prays, I think. I don't think there's anybody in the world that doesn't pray.

We pray all the time. The problem is we just pray to the king, whoever that is, of the kingdom, and if we're either like, you know, we were pouring our heart out, thine is the kingdom, and God help me with this, and lead me, and guide me, or we're like the Pharisee that Jesus spoke of in Luke, you know, came and when he prayed to himself, God, I thank you, I'm not as other men, and then he goes into just thinking about him and his kingdom in his world, thinking he's praying, but he's praying. It's just to himself.

That's a scary thing. You ever find yourself doing that, and you need to kind of sometimes stop and to wonder, because I'll tell you, I don't know how often, to my own shame, I'm praying. I went, I start off praying.

I'm really praying. Sincerely, Lord, and I'm talking about something that's really on my heart, and the next thing I know, something sort of mysteriously happens, and I don't even realize it, and the next thing, you know, I'm just thinking. Start off praying, and the next thing I know, well, this is what I ought to do.

You know, and I'm not, you know, and I'm just, I'm not, I started off praying. I may even throw God in here now and then, you know, sort of a thing, and may even think I'm really kind of praying, and my eyes are closed. Got a Bible open.

Started off in prayer, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna close off the conversation in Jesus' name, but somehow or another, I started off praying, and through it, I'm just kind of giving a little meditation to myself, getting my own counsel, my own thought, quiet time, meditating on my own opinion, going it back between me, myself, and I, and my own personal Trinity to make a decision, and, but I started praying, but somehow or another, I grasped the thing away. Now, maybe I'd like to, I'd love to be able to blame it on daydreaming or something else, but I think so often what the real problem is, it's not daydreaming. God looks, and He says, whose kingdom is this? What's going on here? You ever have the Lord interrupt you in the middle of a prayer, almost as He walked in, who are you? I'm the one you thought you were talking to, you know, and something there, and here you were, going on with your own world, just carrying the weight yourself, because, and the problem isn't your daydream, at least with me, so often the problem is.

God looks, and He says, we got a kingdom issue here. We got a, whose is the kingdom? Really, whose is the family? Whose are the children? Who, who owns this? Who did, where does the, you know, does it really, where does the buck really stop? And when we there turn and we realize, Lord, thine is the kingdom. Here we're closing off prayer, and we're wanting to make absolutely sure when we're doing it, Lord, it is all yours, and I delight in it.

Thine is the kingdom, and I'm bringing myself into the greatest sense of subjection and yieldedness to it. I'm wanting to make sure that everything that I'm even thinking about praying about, it's under a scepter, it's with a consciousness, it is absolutely yours. Because if we do that, if we can say, thine is the kingdom, then we can say, and the power, and the power.

You see, somebody there, I think that when somebody knows anything about God's kingdom, the wonderful thing that is next gonna happen is when the realization, I have purposely subjected myself to His kingdom, that going, that going right into that door leads immediately to another door, thine is the power. You don't get to the power until you get to the kingdom, though, I don't think. In a sense, I mean, you look at, you know, Moses, you look at most of your great battles back and forth with God, man, and the Bible for the human throne, and when, and here, you know, God, when he fights with Moses and determined who's gonna run the kingdom, and by the time Moses goes, and he throws the rod down, and he yields his life, and he comes before, and he takes off his shoe, and he bows before God, and he surrendered his life, when the kingdom issue was settled, it immediately opened the door to the power, because he said, now, let's go to Pharaoh.

We're gonna go down to Pharaoh, and, and there was a, and as soon as if it's his kingdom, then it's all, then immediately the door opens to his power. And next thing you know, there a man that has subjected himself to God's kingdom, he has immediate access to all the power he needs to do the business of the kingdom he's representing. And when Moses, if he went down there, mine is the kingdom, mine is the kingdom, if he'd have taken any stick, and he could have found in the world, throwing it down before Pharaoh, they'd have just heard a little clinking, and he said, wait a minute, watch this, just a minute, hold on, Pharaoh, this is gonna get good, I promise you, but if, if it's your kingdom, there'll be no power.

It won't work. We're so often, God, I'm praying, and I'm praying for my marriage, I'm praying for my children, I'm praying for this, I'm praying for, you know, you to work in my life, take the burdens, resolve this. I think so often God says, well, we got a little kingdom issue here first, let's settle this one.

And then, when the kingdom issue, then he says, thine is the kingdom and the power. For that, for that person, God opens up rivers. He turns water to blood, he gets a man out of heaven, or water out of rocks, and shakes the enemy, and eats him alive, opens the door, opens land, takes him in.

For the person that has come and said, thine is the kingdom, just step back, and whether it's a Moses, or then you see a Joshua, and then there is Joshua goes out, and he's looking out over Jericho, you know, soon before he's to go in, and probably figuring out, how am I gonna take it? All the way to the world may be on him. He's out there alone at night, trying to think. They're the way to the world, and all of a sudden, there appears before him a man, and he's startled, he jumps back, out there for us, or for adversary.

Neither. But his captain, the host of the Lord, might now come. Here, all of a sudden, we have this wonderful theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, as there he stands before Jesus, before Joshua.

And he's, all of a sudden, there he is, Joshua's startled, he jumps back, who are you? Whose side are you on? You for us, or against us? You know, when the kingdom issue isn't settled, it seems like everybody in the world, they're either for you, or against you. Have you noticed that? When you aren't in, it's settled in the right place, everybody in the world is either for you, or against you. Whose side are you on? You care about me? You're gonna help me? Or do I have to look for another? And we're, but the person there, that has seen him, and then the Lord responds, he says, neither.

I'm not for you, or against you. I just happen to be, you know, as he looks in, neither, I'm neither for you, or against you. I just happen to be the captain, or the host of the Lord.

I'm just commander-in- chief of all the angelic forces of heaven and earth, I created them. And so as he looks at him, and he says, but, the issue isn't who am I, the issue is who you. And he says, take off your shoe.

For the place whereon thou standest is holy, as I was with Moses, I'll be with thee. And there is Joshua, settled the kingdom issue. He then turned to him, and he said, pointed over to Jericho, and he says, look, that have I given unto thee this day.

It's yours. It's a gift for the kingdom. The power to get it, don't worry about, when you got to walk around it, I'll tell you what to do, there'll be processes to go through, but it's, the battle's won.

As soon as the kingdom issue is settled, the power issue comes right with it. And there, and that's always the case. When you look there, and you see David there, when he goes out, this little teenager, there, soft, ruddy skin there, and, you know, coming up against a man who had been a warrior since David's youth.

And there is Goliath, looks at him, and laughs at him. And he, and he tells him, he says, what do you, you send to me a child. You sent to me a little child to fight with.

Why do I have to fight a little child? This is a no-win situation. And then he turns to him, and basically, he called him chicken feet. That's what he really did.

That's what he, when they, the way that somebody would call, what today we would call chicken feet, he says, I'm gonna feed you to the fowls of the air. Birds of the sky. The rodents can have you when we're done.

I'm gonna, I'm just, you're, you're chicken feet. David then turned to Goliath, and he says, you know, fella, you shouldn't have got up today. He looks at him with this absolute arrogant confidence, if it wasn't so true, you would almost accuse him of, of arrogance.

But he looked at him, and he says, there, you didn't, didn't, didn't me you're fighting against. It's God. I come to you, come to me with these swords, and with these spears, and all this human stuff.

I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, whom thou has defied. In this day, what you just told me, I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with you before, but I'm gonna feed you, your chicken feet. And history happened.

But the power comes to the kingdom. Yet they're, they're, they're attached. We so often, God, I need the power to do this, I need the power to do that.

As if we can kind of get a hold of the power without going through the door of the kingdom there. But it, but when, and that's the person that's always going to be in trouble. The man there who only knows his own power, and he own kingdom, and his own strength.

It's always just for a time. Or like the story you heard, maybe of the lion, you know, out in the, you know, jungle. There, and he just loved to go around the jungle, and roar at all the other animals.

And one day, he comes up, roars at a tiger, and he says, who's the king of the jungle? And the tiger, you are. Roar. Goes on a little farther, comes up to a giraffe, who's the king of the jungle? And the giraffe, you are.

Roar. Goes on a little farther, comes up to an elephant, who's the king of the jungle? The elephant looks over to him, lifts up a leg, and just stomps down, and just stomps this lion to nothing. Just obliterates him into the ground, picks him up with his trunk, smashes him over against the wall of rocks, and he comes dropping down, beaten up to a bloody mess.

He says, well, alright. You didn't have to get so mad just because you didn't know the answer. You know, but the worldly man, he got a little power for a little time, but there'll always be somebody that'll be overpowering.

Sooner or later, whatever he thinks he's king of, it'll go. But not for the one who knows the kingdom. He'll have a power that just will go on, and on, and on.

And he'll have a God that's everywhere. A God that when I sit there and give him the kingdom, then it's with that assurance of God every area. He's not limited.

He can work in every area of your life. Dominate all sorts of areas that where he couldn't be before. Without the kingdom, God's so limited.

He's so weak. We're kind of like the two little Catholic boys getting lunch there in school one day, and as they get at the beginning of the line, they look, and the head nun had written a note over the apples there, and said, take just one. God is watching.

So they go down, but at the end of the line, the other end of it, there's these cookies. One of them looks over at the other. He says, hey, take all the cookies you want.

God's watching the apples, you know, or something. I mean, God's fine at one end of their life, but the other place is out of control. But when somebody looks and they, and God, I need your power everywhere.

Through the whole line, you know, that we go. And that's the person that can say, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. You see, the thing that I suppose by nature, that our flesh, these are words that our nature, anybody who, any human being, all human beings, every one of us, there's something about kingdom, power, glory, that is very attractive to our natural flesh, to our natural world.

I mean, we grow up, you know, watching sports on TV, and I'm going to be, I used to tell my boys when they're growing up, you know, one of them's going to, you know, their names are going to be, want to be, and hope to be. You know, everywhere we go, I'm going to be, I'm going to have, I wanted this, you know, and I used to say, you guys, you're going to be, you're want to be, and you're hope to, you know, or something. But there's some about, we're always looking at some kingdom out there.

I'm going to be the greatest something. I'm going to achieve this. I'm going to make my mark.

I'm going to have a kingdom somewhere, somehow, and I'm going to rule it, and it's going to be mine, and we all have this. It's a part of all human nature, and because there's an assumption with us that if I get a kingdom, and then with the kingdom comes some power, that leads to glory, which is something every human being longs for. Righteously so.

Paul says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory. God created us to live in glory, to know glory, to be literally changed from glory to glory. The Holy Spirit looks at us in 2 Corinthians 3.18, says, all we with an unveiled face, continuing to behold, we reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord, and are changed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.

God says, I'll show you a kingdom, and I'll show you power, and I'll show you glory, that you can share with me if you'd like, but it'll cost you your kingdom, and your power, and your glory. And to where we really look, and Paul, that's why Paul, I believe, he said, you know, that God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross. Paul, he says, my glory there is there in the cross.

You know, he says, by whom? The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Paul looked there, and he says, I want, I want a glory like any little kid that ever looked at a TV set and watched some athlete, or anybody that looked there and saw, you know, that guy that, you know, that built that huge, you know, 48 palaces, you know, or whatever for himself, or they're just men that just did what we dreamed of so often. And many of them, they, there's a, you know, life is kind of like a, you know, Las Vegas.

There's always a few winners that are just out there that seduce the rest of the masses to say, I want it. Well, it's destroying them anyway. But the wonderful thing is, because we want a kingdom, and we want power, and we want a glory, the issue is which one.

And when I find there, Lord, I want your kingdom, and I want your power. I want to know your glory. I want to be in your glory.

I want to share your glory. I want to return home to it. You created us, that all of us, we look out somewhere.

The issue is, is where do we look? Is it, you know, on an athletic field? Is it in the business world? Is it in, you know, the, some entertainment, or arts, or whatever else? To say, that's where I want to make my mark. Or do we look there and say, Lord, I glory in you. The most wonderful thing, I can look at this, and look at this, and look at this, or I can look over at Jesus Christ, and see the one that died on the cross for me.

And Paul, when he says, I glory in nothing but in the cross. And there, and that isn't something that Paul just kind of came. We're gonna, in a good Friday, we're all gonna go to the cross, hopefully.

And we're gonna find ourselves at the foot of the cross, and we're gonna have communion together at the cross. But this isn't a place we just kind of visit on Good Friday, or we visit at communion, and then have a few lingering moments of communion with him. It's a place where we ought to, we, that you go to, to be lost in.

It's a place that you go into glory in. Lord, I want a glory in my own crucifixion. I want a glory in a place that I can die with you.

That I can go and know the most glorious life ever lived. And I look at Jesus Christ, and I can look at all the others in the great and the small, all through history, and pick one out. Just pick one out.

All lined up there that you would rather have than Jesus Christ. And there is none. And therefore, we ought to look and say, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.

And being somebody there that does experience his kingdom, and somebody there that it is his power, it'll always be his glory. You won't have a problem with it. Again, these are wonderful doors.

Because just like Moses there, it's interesting, because it was God's kingdom, and it was God's power, it was God's glory. He was the meekest man on the face of the earth. The Bible says, here when they came to Moses, I mean, you would think he'd be the most proud, wouldn't you? You'd think this man whose face shone forth with the glory of God.

You'd think that this man who opened up rivers, and destroyed enemies, and did all the things you'd think when CNN, or ABC, or somebody came to interview him. Wow. Look at you.

I can't believe the stuff you've done. Tell me about it. And a man there that it wasn't his kingdom, and you know, but maybe you say, well, I don't know.

I'm not real sure how I did it. I am exceedingly fair. The Bible says that.

I'm very good-looking, and I'm educated in all the wisdom and knowledge of the Egyptians, so I'm a pretty smart dude. And I am the son of the daughter of Pharaoh, commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces. I'm mighty in word and deed.

So there's a lot of reasons. You put those things together, you got some pretty good stuff. I ought to open rivers.

Don't you think? You know, or something, and you'd watch a guy take the glory, wouldn't you? But in reality, because it was God's kingdom, and it was God's power, it was God's glory. When you'd come to Moses and say, Moses, how did that river open? Moses, you got me. He just told me, go out there and stretch out the rod, and I did, and glory, it opened.

I couldn't believe it. It was, I was as amazed as everybody. I just did what he told, because it's his kingdom.

And his power came. And when somebody comes and, Lord, yours is the kingdom, and then he says, now go home and live this way, I'll give you the power. And then you'll be able to glory in God's blessings and his wonderful things, but you'll also look, and it won't be your glory.

You'll just have to look and say, it's him. It's him. That didn't do it.

Had nothing to do with it. I'm more amazed than anybody that would even think a thing. God did it all.

As David, God did it all. As Elijah, God did it all. As if Elijah ran up to heaven, started a fire, pulled it down from heaven.

Watch this. No. He just spoke, and God brought the fire from heaven, or whatever was needed.

And when you and I can come and say, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Forever. Not just now when I'm desperate, not just for a few moments right now, God, when I want you to work in my life.

I want this to be a relationship that goes on forever, and ever, and ever. Tomorrow, again, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. And a week from now, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.

And a month from now, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. And when we find there our heart in our life, just wanting Him to be in the kingdom, running it, and we give it to Him, then you have the right, all the right, I think, they say, now, God, I need the power. I need the power, and I need the words, I need the behavior to go home, and deal with this issue, or go to work.

Your kingdom. I'm going to your kingdom. I'm going to your kingdom.

Midnight to eight. Your Burger King. You know, whatever it is, to say, thine is the kingdom.

Can you do that? To be able to say, thine is the kingdom. Your own heart. To be able to look at your own issues right now.

Maybe, you know, you're, when you pray, you're off, you go off into this little meditation where you're just counseling with yourself, because it's your kingdom. You want to. But if you give the kingdom away, now you can go to the king of the kingdom and say, you got a real mess.

Have you seen what we got in your kingdom? Whoa, it's a mess. That midnight to eight shift is one greasy spoon. You know, or whatever else it is.

Those kids of yours, have you seen them? We need some kingdom, and we need some power, and we need some glory. And God, I believe, smiles and says, yes, and we've got it all. Because he loved when somebody would give him the kingdom.

He didn't care how messy it was. It was usually very messy, like the children of Israel, 400 years in a mess. Like, you know, when David came along, years in a mess.

Elijah, years in a mess. But as soon as the kingdom was given to the king, you could just see God, he loves to roll up his sleeves and say, now let's go home and see what we got. But let's keep it forever and ever.

Amen. So be it. That's what it means.

That's all the word amen means. So be it. Let's do it.

Or let's roll, would be the 20th century thing. Let's commit to it with all heart. Father, I thank you for the power and the wonder of prayer.

And Lord, I pray that you would save us from a life of prayerless praying, of just talking to ourselves, wondering how we're gonna do it, throwing in a few cries desperately to you. And yet at the same time, you sit there and you say, whose kingdom is this? It's your kingdom. I suppose you ought to be the king and go work it out.

But if it's mine, I'll love it and I'll cleanse it and empower it. I'll establish my throne. I'll pour out my glory.

Lord, I pray that these simple truths, Lord, that as we would go home tonight and we may be thinking about what it is that's going on in our life, in our world. And Lord, maybe even we're thinking, Lord, my wife, Lord, my husband, Lord, my job, Lord, the finances, Lord, the bank, or whatever else we'd throw in there, that we'd be able to have something so wonderfully happen within our hearts that we could say, Lord, thine is the kingdom. I give it to you.

And I suppose I've made a mess of it. And I suppose if I take it back again, I'll make it a mess again. But Lord, I want it to truly be your kingdom forever and your power forever and your glory forever.

Because Lord, I don't want my own kingdom. I don't want to be in a line one day with a bunch of people that all had their own kingdoms, whether they were big or little, who cares? Whether they were short or long, whether they were huge or the minutest thing that nobody knew. They're all as pathetic, all as ridiculous at the end.

Lord, may none of us be fooled and be happy with our kingdom. May we look and say, Lord, take my kingdom. And even as we close, maybe tonight some just need to say, Jesus, take it.

Why don't you do it right now? But also know that he looks and says it's also the power. You go through that door and it'll lead you to power. Don't go home without my power.

Don't go home without a sense that my glory can fall. And I long to give it to you forever and ever. Lord, teach us these wonderful things.

Teach us to pray. We ask it, Jesus, in your wonderful name. Amen.