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This Sunday
August 20, 2017
Sermon Title:
"Kingdom, Power, and Glory"
"Lord, Teach Us to Pray" series
Scripture:
Matthew 6:9-13
1 Chronicles
29:10-18
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 August 18, 2017
Dear MLEPC Members and Friends,
Doxology is one of those 50ยข words we use around the church. In Greek, it literally means glory sayings. It can mean hymns of praise or sayings of praise, and they are used throughout scripture. When most of us think of The Doxology, we hear in our heads, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow..." This week, we are wrapping up the Lord's Prayer series with the doxology of the prayer - "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever."
But where did that phrase come from? It is not found in Matthew 6 or Luke 11. Actually, it is taken from a prayer that David prayed in 1 Chronicles 29:10-11. He and the people of Israel had gathered up all the materials and resources necessary to build the temple, and he was dedicating them to the Lord. He prayed, "Praise be to You, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all." First-century Christians wanted to end the Lord's Prayer with a proclamation of praise, so they used this passage in 1 Chronicles for their inspiration (this form originates from the first-century worship manual called the Didache).
As I have been praying about this text and my sermon on Sunday, one thing especially struck me. David is dedicating all the materials of the temple to the Lord, but what is the temple now? You and I. Paul says in 1 Cor. 3:16, "You yourselves are God's temple." Even as David dedicated the stones to build the temple, you and I need to dedicate our whole selves to the Lord. David goes on to pray, "Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building You a temple for Your Holy Name comes from Your hand, and all of it belongs to You" (v. 16).
What would it look like if our whole lives were a glory saying, a proclamation of praise to God's glory? How would we handle our time? Our thoughts? Our finances? How would we live if we truly knew the power of God that is already at work within us? What would it take for people's first impression of MLEPC to be "That church really glorifies God"? Can you imagine the harmony if we all sang our part the song God had placed in our hearts? Think about sharing with a friend or family member how you might answer some of these questions!
Children's Ministry Update
Some of the purest praise on earth comes from children. I love the New International Reader's Version (NIrV) translation of Psalm 8:2: "You have made sure that children and infants praise You. Their praise is a wall that stops the talk of Your enemies." What can we do to help children know and praise our Heavenly Father? We as a Session and staff are in agreement that our children's ministry is one of the main areas where we need to focus as a congregation. We have over a hundred children walking in our doors every month who are not members--and many are from unchurched backgrounds or even other faiths. What an outreach opportunity!
And yet, we are struggling to find volunteers. We are currently needing four more Sunday School teachers, plus nursery volunteers, children's church leaders, and an army of people for our best outreach program, Fired-Up Friday. As you are praying for our children, would you also pray how you might support this ministry? Perhaps you could take a semester off from your own Sunday School class and donate that time to serving children. Perhaps you could volunteer once a month to hold a baby in the nursery. Perhaps you and your small group could pick a Fired-Up Friday and serve together as your mission project. A fully staffed Children's ministry here takes about 70 people a month. That means we need one out of every five of our regular attenders to be helping out - or every one of you helping twice a year.
More than 80% of people who are now Christians gave their lives to Christ before they turned 13. Can you imagine the impact if all of these children coming in our doors came to know Jesus? Let's pray for that!
May God our Father be glorified in you the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations!
Blessings,
Pastor Carolyn
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