I invite you to turn with me this morning to Psalm 145, which we read in connection with our consideration of the closing of our Lord's Prayer. Psalm 145, hear now the Word of God. I will exalt you, my God, the King. I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. His greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another. They will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty. And I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of Your awesome works, and I will proclaim Your great deeds. They will celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all He has made. All You have made will praise You, O Lord. Your saints will extol You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might, so that all men may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him. He hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise His holy name forever and ever. Turn with me also in the back of this altar hymnal to page 63. Page 63, Lord's Day 52. So we consider question and answer 128 at the bottom of that page and then question and answer 129 at the top of 64. And shall we confess together what it is we believe? Question 128 asks, What does your conclusion to this prayer mean? For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever means we have made all these requests of you because as our all-powerful king, you not only want to, but are able to give us all that is good. And because your holy name and not we ourselves, should receive all the praise forever. What does that little word, Amen, express? Amen means, this is sure to be. It is even more sure that God listens to my prayer than that I really desire what I pray for. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, prayer, we know, is a vital part of the believer's relationship with God. It is the believer's vital breath, as we just sang. That life connection, if you will. It is one of the two channels of covenant communication between God and His people. God speaks to us, His people, through His Word, and we respond to Him in prayer. true prayer is an entering into the very throne room of God and conversing with Him. And by the very fact that true prayer is to the one and only true God, that means the Christian's prayer is not just some vain wish or some comfortless hope. But instead, it is a joyful certainty. But that's not because of you or me. It's because of who God is. At the close of the Lord's prayer, we pray, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. This is called a doxology. Boys and girls, doxology is the name for worshipful praise to God. At the close of our worship services, you know that we sing a song of praise to God, which we call a doxology. Psalm 145 is a doxological psalm along with many other psalms. But it's a doxological psalm because the entire psalm praises God for who He is and what He has done and what He continues to do. This doxology, which we include at the end of the Lord's Prayer, is not just some sort of a meaningless attachment that we quick add on. It's not simply the closing of a letter like when we say, sincerely, or best regards, or cordially. This doxology is packed with meaning as it is meant to awaken our hearts to seek the glory of God and to remind us what ought to be the object of our prayer. This doxology reflects the highest purpose of prayer, which is to adore the Most High and to praise Him. That's the primary purpose of prayer. And as well, this doxology points to the foundation of our confidence in prayer. Now there's a question as to whether Jesus really included this doxology when He taught His disciples this prayer as it's recorded in Matthew chapter 6. Many of our Bible versions, if they include it, put brackets around it and explain in the margin that it was not included in some of the earliest manuscripts. Many of the later ones, yes, but not in some of the earliest and therefore some believe that it really doesn't belong. But it is known that very early in the life of the New Testament church, God's people included this doxology. As well, there is biblical precedent, I believe, for including it. And that precedent goes all the way back to King David in his prayer recorded in 1 Chronicles 29, verse 11, where he says, Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. And therefore, beloved, there could be no more appropriate ending to the prayer our Lord taught us as our Father, who is addressed at the beginning, is then given praise at the end through this statement of faith. And therefore, as we conclude our study of the Lord's Prayer and this third section of the Catechism on dealing with gratitude, and as we conclude our consideration of the Heidelberg Catechism as we have now traveled through all 52 Lord's Days, therefore, this morning, I preach to you this Word of God. Grateful living in doxology to the God who hears prayer. In this doxology, beloved, we praise God for who He is. We praise Him for what He is able to do. We praise Him for how He is reflected. And we praise Him for His certainty to hear. Now the first part of this doxology praises God for who He is. For Thine is the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom belongs to God, it means, as the Catechism rightly says, we have made all these requests of you because as our all-powerful King. We recognize Him as King. God is identified as the King of His Kingdom. Now, this isn't talking about a kingdom such as a limited territory or a particular nation or even a certain geographical area. But this is talking about kingdom in the sense of over all things, the universal kingdom. And this, then, is a confession that our Heavenly Father is absolutely sovereign over all things. His kingdom and His kingship are exclusive and forever. He has sole authority. It is His exclusive privilege to rule over all things, even the entire universe. David speaks of God's kingdom in Psalm 145 as a glorious and a majestic kingdom. He says it's an everlasting kingdom and that God's dominion endures throughout all generations. As well, David includes in his prayer in 1 Chronicles 29, verse 12, both riches and honor come from you and you reign over all. You see, the kingdom belongs to God. And He is the King of the kingdom. He alone has dominion and He rules with sovereign might which no one can take away from Him. No authority or dominion is credited or is to be credited to anyone or anything else. God doesn't just have some of the dominion and authority. Most of it, we might say. Nor is He simply the highest sovereign while there are others in line behind Him, in line to the throne. That's the way it is with the royalty in England, for example. As I mentioned earlier in the earlier service, I heard a couple of weeks ago, Maybe you did too, that a new daughter was born to one of the princes and therefore she is now either 9th or 11th in line to the throne. If all the others are out of the way, if they're no longer alive, then she is in line for the throne. But there are no others in line for the throne of God. There are no others with dominion and authority. It all belongs to Him. No one rules with Him. No one will ever rule besides Him. Only His power rules. And as well, his is the one and only kingdom. We know that Satan has a kingdom, a kingdom of darkness that he rules. And we know that he continues to wage war against the kingdom of God. We know that at times he even looks strong. Yet the devil's dominion is also limited because he too is under the kingdom control. He is under the authority of God the King. And all other kingdoms, beloved, are earthly and temporary and they are all destined for destruction because only God's kingdom is forever. And His kingdom is not something that is simply in the future that we look forward to at some future date. It was, it is, it ever shall be. And the forces of evil may think that they rule, but God makes it clear in Psalm 2 that that's a laughing matter. Beloved, our Father in heaven is the eternal King of His eternal kingdom. And he also then has a king's heart for his subjects, for his kingdom's citizens. He desires to protect and to provide for his people. He is indeed, as the catechism says, willing to give us all that is good. We know that includes for this life all that we need, but also for our eternal good. All things belong to him, and he is willing to give us all that we need from his storehouse of riches. That's his pleasure. But being willing to give means nothing if one isn't able to give, right? And that's the way it is with us as fathers and mothers for our children. Boys and girls, you know this. There are times when your moms or dads are able to give you something that you want or think you need, but they're not willing. And as well, there are times when they're willing to give, but they're not able. Yet God is both willing and able to give us all that we need because His is also the power. And therefore, we praise Him for what He is able to do. Now the Greek word from which we get the word power comes from the same word that our word dynamite comes from. And this is talking about force that is natural to God. And the energy to be able to accomplish something. All power belongs to God. The catechism calls Him our all-powerful King. And God's power is such that He is able to and He in fact does accomplish whatever He wills. Whatever He plans, whatever is His good pleasure. And His is limitless power. Again, that's something that's hard for us to comprehend because we're so limited. We're so finite. His power is limitless. And just as with the kingdom, His is the power. It is exclusive to Him. It is absolute with Him. In this doxology, the believer is not simply saying that God is very powerful or that He's more powerful than any other being or even the most powerful compared to others. All of that's true, of course. But He is all-powerful. All power belongs to Him and therefore the power of the creature that we might enjoy also comes from Him. No power exists that does not come from God. Ephesians 3 verse 20 says, Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. And David prays in 1 Chronicles 29, verse 12, In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. As well again as David says in Psalm 145, David praises God for His power which is displayed in the mighty acts of God. And when we think of power, we also think of energy. There is energy all around us. And boys and girls, I'm not talking simply about the energy that comes from the power plant through the electric lines that comes into our homes, and we can plug things into the outlet and then they work. But there is energy all around us. We feel the energy of the heat of the sun. We see the energy of the flower as it's blooming. We experience energy in the thunder, in the lightning, in the floods. Most recently for many of us, in the fires. As human beings, we have a certain amount of power and energy, but it all comes from God. There is nothing outside the realm of God's power, and all things are constantly upheld, sustained, supported only by the power of God. If He should remove His hand of power from us, even for an instant, for a moment, we would cease to be. And just as with His kingdom, God's power is forever. not only for a limited time, but forever. There never has been, nor will there ever be any power independent of God. And there is no power that exists that can resist or overcome or defeat the power of God. Beloved, God is willing but also able to give us, His people, all good. And indeed, He sees to it that all things work together for our good, and especially our ultimate good in Jesus Christ. And the power of God was demonstrated in Christ's active obedience, which demonstrated His power over sin. And God's power was demonstrated on the cross of Calvary as Jesus Christ endured the wrath and the punishment of God against the sin of the world. And it's there on the cross that our Savior put an end to Satan's vain wish of overpowering God. And throughout this life, our God continues to give us all good that is all that we need for body and soul, which is for our eternal benefit. And because God is both willing and able to give us all good, we praise Him then as well for how He is reflected. God is reflected in His glory. His is the glory. All glory belongs to God. All of God's attributes radiate, Display His glory, His truth, His faithfulness, knowledge, wisdom, power, might, mercy, grace, holiness, righteousness, omniscience, omnipresence. All of His attributes display His glory. As well, God's glory is right before our eyes and the works of His hands. His creation is a revelation of His glory. As the psalmist says, the heavens declare the glory of God. Everything about God and all of His works reflect His glory. You see, no created thing has any glory in itself. Not one of us have any inherent glory. But any glory that is seen is a reflection of God's glory because His is the glory. David makes it clear in Psalm 145 again that God's kingdom reflects and is a reflection of the glory of God. And as well, our praise and honor and adoration, our very worship of God, is to be for His glory. And the church beholds the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ by faith. He is the central revelation of the Father and of the Father's glory. He was delivered unto death to deliver us from our transgressions. He was raised to life again for our justification. The kingdom belongs to Jesus Christ. All power is His because all authority has been given to Him in heaven above and on earth below. And He has been glorified to the highest place. And one day, beloved, when He comes again on the clouds of heaven, the glory of God will be revealed to all mankind. But to those who rejected Him, that glory will be terrible. They will not be able to stand the sight of it. They'll try everything they can to get away from the presence of the glory of God. But to those who believe by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, that glory will be eternally precious. But notice when we pray, Thine is the glory. Again, that means all glory. That means all glory. Even the glory of our prayer belongs to God. And therefore, all that we ask for in prayer is not to be for our glory, But for God's glory. He glorifies Himself as He gives us our requests. He glorifies Himself. His glory shines forth as He does what's best for you and me. And our desire is to be that He hears and answers our requests in order that His glory might be demonstrated and seen by you and me and the world. But this means, beloved, that we do not pray, first of all, for our daily bread and forgiveness of sins and deliverance from temptation and healing in sickness and all kinds of other things. We do not pray for these things, first of all, for our own benefit. We pray these things that His name be praised, that His glory would be evident. Our motive is to be that His glory be revealed as He hears and answers our requests. And then for the sake of His glory, we also pray for all good. And that means that we also ask that God would keep away from us that which would not be for His glory. Whatever would not honor His name. Whatever would not be to the advancement of His kingdom. Whatever would not, or whatever would cause us to disobey His will, that He would keep these things from us. All that we ask for must revolve around the glory of God's name and the coming of His kingdom and obedience of His will. And this even includes the things that we ask for that are needful for us. Our daily bread, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from temptation, and the evil one. We ask for these things in a way that revolves around God's glory, not us first of all. You see, beloved, this doxology is the reason we are able to pray in confidence. The content of this doxology is the reason that we can confidently bring our petitions before God. God's kingdom, power, and glory are the foundation of all of our petitions. And therefore, if God's is the kingdom, then it is proper that I kneel in worship and adoration for only this King of kings. If His is the power, then it is no secret that all things must come to me only through Him. And all I can do is humble myself before Him. And if all glory is the Lord's, then I must give glory through trust and adoration to no other. Because all worship belongs to God alone. And therefore, beloved, I must pray, hallowed be thy name, because He is glorious. I must pray, thy kingdom come, because all things belong to God. And I must pray, thy will be done, because His power and His will cannot be separated. But I must also ask of Him for my daily bread. Because His is the kingdom and the power and He alone can provide it and He must be glorified through that provision. I must ask for forgiveness from the very heart of God because I owe my all to Him. Yet my debts are so many and because of that I do not give to Him the glory to His name. And I must also ask of Him And that He lead me not into temptation because He alone rules. He alone is powerful and it is only by His will that I will not be led into temptation. And it is only by His power and for His glory that I am delivered from evil. People of God, it is because of the truth of that which we confess in this doxology. The truth that the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to God. Because of that truth, it is because of that that the believer's faithful prayer is not simply a vain wish or a comfortless hope. And that's why we may then confidently end our prayer with that little word, Amen. Amen. A most beautiful word. You see, beloved, when Amen is attached to prayer in faith, that is praise for God's certainty to hear. In many respects, I think we need to confess that we all treat the word or have treated the word Amen as meaningless, as insignificant, as nothing more than a period at the end of a sentence. It's just a signal that the prayer is over and that we can get about our business. Boys and girls, that's how I thought of it as a child. I couldn't wait for the preacher to get done with that long prayer. I couldn't wait for the word Amen. Because then we can keep moving, get the service over with. But boys and girls, you must learn right now at a young age that the word Amen is a very, very important word. The word Amen deals with everything that has been included in prayer. What does that little word Amen express? Amen means this is sure to be. It is even more sure that God listens to my prayer than that I really desire what I pray for. And that means, beloved, that Amen, that little word Amen, is an expression of faith in the God who promises to give us what He has taught us to ask of Him. Amen is a word of certainty. It seals our prayer. We don't send our prayers off to heaven with a maybe or I hope so. When Jesus used the word Amen, He would do it with emphasis. Our Bible was recorded as verily, verily, truly, truly, Amen, Amen. That meant that what He was about to say, He didn't use it just as a period at the end of a sentence. But what He was about to say was certain and reliable and sure. You see, the little word Amen is a prayer in itself which testifies to two things. One with respect to the prayer, the one who is praying, and the other with respect to the one who hears prayer. The Catechism, first of all, speaks about our desire in prayer, the prayer. Amen testifies, you see, to our sincerity in prayer. And therefore, with this little word, we make a solemn promise to God that we prayed a sincere, heartfelt prayer with true motives and desires. It testifies that we did not lie to God, but that our prayers were true. It testifies that we were not hypocritical in our prayer, but that we really meant and desired what we asked for. And when we pray as Christ taught us to pray, beloved, then we do not ask for carnal, fleshly things like power and honor and money or pleasures, but our prayer is for the glory of God, for His name, for His kingdom, for His will. As well, through that little word, Amen, we express that we are satisfied with bread for today. That we long for the forgiveness of our sins. That we dread temptation. And instead we desire to be delivered from evil. And therefore, beloved, to say Amen at the end of a meaningless prayer is to lie to God. It's to insult Him. It's to blaspheme His holy name. We are to think twice before we say Amen at the close of prayer. Do I really mean what I have prayed? Really the responsibility is great, isn't it, for the one who prays. Amen signifies that I certainly desire what I have asked for in true faith. But it also testifies to something greater than our desires, the Catechism says. The certainty that God will hear our prayer, pray it in faith for Jesus' sake, and He will answer me according to His holy and perfect will. I believe the Catechism is completely right. It is more certain that God will hear me even than the certainty of what I've asked for in prayer. Before amen, we often add those few words, for Jesus' sake. Boys and girls, many of you are being taught, no doubt, to say, for Jesus' sake, amen. A wonderful thing to say. That means that we can only come before God and claim His promises because of Jesus who has merited every blessing for us. That means that we may come to God in confidence based on the earning power of Christ. And therefore, I may pray because of Christ. But I can only pray because of Christ. But again, true and faithful prayer is not just wishful thinking. God has commanded us what we are to ask of Him. And He has promised to hear and answer our prayers prayed in faith according to His will. We have this assurance from Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 20, which says, For all the promises of God in Him, in Christ, are yes, and in Him are amen to the glory of God through us. When we say amen, we say this is sure to be. And as we say that, beloved, we are holding God to His Word to give us what He has promised to us as reflected in the very petitions of the Lord's Prayer. The certainty of heard prayer is based on God's unbreakable promises through Jesus Christ. It's not on anything we have done. You see, Amen is a one-word confession of faith in God's promises. And a confession of our desire that these promises be fulfilled. You see, beloved, when we say Amen, we are still speaking to God. Have you ever thought about that? When we say Amen, we are still speaking to God. It's not just closing the book. And we are saying that we believe God at His Word. And only when we have prayed with a believing heart can we say Amen. And then we may have the confidence that John speaks of in 1 John 5 verse 14 when he says, Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. But yet, we must also confess, beloved, that even our best, most faithful prayers are also stained with sin. And our comfort is only in Jesus Christ. It's because of His work alone that the Holy Spirit of God cleanses our prayers of faith in order to present them on our behalf to the Father. But our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, lived this prayer in all righteousness, and that righteousness is imputed to those for whom He lived and died and lives again forever and ever. He honored God's name perfectly. He submitted in every detail to the kingdom rule of the Father. And He perfectly obeyed the Father's will. He is our bread of life who died for our forgiveness of sin and deliverance from temptation. Every petition of prayer, true prayer, points us to Christ. And it's only through faith in Him, by the grace of God, that we can be certain then that God hears faithful prayer. God will hear those who are reconciled to Him, brought back into favor with Him because of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who reject the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, those who scorn the glory of God for them apart from repentance and faith, there is no hope. There is no sweet communion with God in prayer. Only eternal separation from God. But for those who repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then live lives of doxology to God according to the gracious operation of the Spirit, They enjoy communion with God in prayer today in this life. And they are guaranteed communion with God in person for eternity. Beloved, may your prayer life be one of sanctified, sweet communion with God. And may you continue on your knees before the only one who is both willing and able to do more for you and me than we can even think or imagine. And may God's glory surround you so that you experience the truth of David's words in verses 17-20 of Psalm 145. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him. He hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love Him. What a wonderful promise. And what reason, beloved, to live in doxology to God who alone hears prayer. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, indeed, we say amen. It is sure to be. We thank you for your word, which is truth. We thank you for the comfort and assurance that you have given to us through the very words our Lord taught us to pray in the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. the comfort of who you are what you have done your power, your majesty, your might and what you will do for your people we thank you Father for your grace your mercy and your peace we pray that our lives indeed would be living sacrifices to you holy and blameless for indeed yours is the glory the honor, the power and the kingdom forever and ever in Jesus name Amen Thank you.