Kingdom, Power, Glory, Amen

[Read 2 Corinthians 1:19-22]

There’s something about prayer that can easily cause it to become nothing more than a routine, where we speak without thinking, and say words and phrases without really thinking about what we’re saying. I’ve seen this in my children as I’ve taught them to pray. We have each of our kids pray before and after supper. There have been numerous times when one of our children, after we’ve eaten all of the food says, “Bless this food to our body.” Now, of course, I realize this can be prayed about food that’s already in our body, but that’s not what was going on. It was a moment when words began to come out of their mouth without thinking. These were the words you said when you prayed at meal times. I’ve even had it when I’ve sat down to pray before—and it didn’t have anything to do with a meal—and I’ve been struggling to keep my mind focused, being easily distracted, when I’ve even said the words, “Bless this food to my body,” then immediately stopped, wondering why those words came out of my mouth. These are some of the “prayer words” we use without thinking.

“Amen” is one of those words. For many people, “Amen” is the word you use when you end a prayer. That’s about it. It doesn’t mean anything else to them. Yet, it’s a word that we need to understand and mean when we say it. Remember what we said way back at the beginning of this series? Jesus rebuked people for praying prayers, and saying words, without their minds engaged—without thinking about what they were saying, or what the words meant. The same thing is true with the word, “Amen.” We need to be able to understand what we mean when we say it AND we need to believe what we’re saying when we say it.

In a basic way, the word “Amen” simply means “Yes,” but the catechism helps us understand the fuller meaning of that “Yes.” The catechism says that “Amen” means, “This shall truly and surely be!” (HC 129). You can see how “Yes” is incorporated into that answer, but not quite sufficient. We’re not just agreeing to something. We’re doing much more than that. We’re saying that it will be, it will happen, and we’re affirming that verbally through the word “Amen.”

When you understand it that way, “Amen” is a verbal affirmation of our faith. And it’s important that it’s verbal. This is why I repeatedly encourage our congregation to verbalize the word “Amen” at the close of a congregational prayer and after congregational singing. We’re saying together, “This shall truly and surely be!” So, earlier, when we sang How Great Thou Art, I encouraged the congregation to say “Amen” afterward. When we said “Amen,” we were saying we believe that will be true and will happen. That God will be lifted up and be great in our hearts and in the world. We not only believe that to be true now, but we also believe that will be true in the future. When we closed our congregational prayer time by saying “Amen” together, we were saying, “Let all of these prayers truly and surely be!” We are speaking that word in faith and confidence in our God. This is why Martin Luther said, “Finally, note that you must always say “Amen” strongly, with all faith, and without doubt that God certainly does hear you and says “yes” to your prayer.”

Yet, I also think it’s important to recognize the complexity of all this. On the one hand, we have to realize that we must never say anything to God unless we truly mean it. That’s a foundational principle. Don’t lie to God because He knows you’re lying. However, that doesn’t mean we can only say “Amen” in times of perfect confidence and faith—because, let’s be honest, we never have perfect confidence and faith. There will be times when we’re so weak and weary and worn out that we’re not even sure we can honestly pray “Amen” in true faith—really meaning what we’re saying. What do we do in those moments?

There are a couple of things to do in those moments. First, I want to encourage you to wrestle in that moment. Don’t just walk away saying, “I guess I don’t have a great faith today. Oh well…” Don’t do that. Wrestle for a while. What is preventing you from wholeheartedly saying, without a doubt, “Amen. This shall truly and surely be!”? Wrestle until you CAN say it in a way that you actually mean it and believe it. Don’t quit praying until you can mean it wholeheartedly.

However, the second thing I want you to understand is that sometimes we need to follow the prayer of the father in Mark, “I believe, help my unbelief”—“Amen, help firm up my Amen.” That’s alright. You may not be in a position of wholeheartedly, without a shadow of a doubt, with total confidence, saying, “This shall truly and surely be!” but you are saying that to some degree, and longing to be able to say it further. That is faith. That is a growing faith. But don’t settle for that, continue longing and desiring and PRAYING that God would strengthen your faith so that you can eventually say, without a shadow of a doubt, “Amen! This shall truly and surely be!”

Part of that faith and confidence we have as we pray is having faith and confidence that God has heard our prayer. Martin Luther said that is also part of what we mean when we say “Amen.” The catechism has one of my favorite lines on this point. It says, “It is even more sure that God listens to my prayer than that I really desire what I pray for.” (HC 129). I love that line. It is more certain that God hears our prayer than we actually desire what we’re praying for. That means when we’re crying out to God for bread, for forgiveness, and for deliverance from evil, he hears us. We can be certain of that. When we’re crying out that his name be hallowed, and his kingdom come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, he hears us. We can be certain of that. Not only can we be certain that God hears us, but we can be more certain that God hears us than actually wanting any of those things. So, you may think you really, really, really want to be delivered from evil, but you’re not as certain of that as you can be that God is hearing your prayers. We must have this confidence and faith that God hears every prayer that comes from our lips. That’s why Martin Luther said, “Do not leave from your prayers unless you have then said or thought: “Well then, this prayer has been heard by God. I know this for certain and for true.””

Yet, there’s even more wrapped up in this little word of faith—“Amen.” When we end our prayer by saying, “This shall truly and surely be!” we’re reaffirming something we’ve already spoken about in this series. We have this confidence that God will hear our prayers and answer our prayers because he is our Heavenly Father. He is BOTH willing and able to give us everything we need for life and godliness. And because we know this about Him, and we know that He has heard our prayers, and we know that He loves and cares for us, we can end our prayers with a confident “Amen” of faith—knowing that God WILL answer. That’s why the catechism says, “We have made all these petitions of you because, as our all-powerful king, you are both willing and able to give us all that is good…” (HC 128). So, when we pray for his name to be hallowed, his kingdom to come, his will to be done, for our daily bread, for forgiveness, for deliverance from evil, we must not doubt his willingness or ability to answer those prayers. We can say, “Amen” to those prayers with confident faith because we know the God to whom we are praying.

This is where this morning’s passage comes in. Of course, this passage has been lying underneath everything I’ve already been saying, but now it is going to come to the forefront of the sermon. It says this powerful line: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus Christ].” (2 Corinthians 1:20, ESV). Don’t miss the vastness of that statement. Not just some of the promises of God, or many of the promises of God, ALL of the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus Christ. All of them. All of God’s promises for provision and protection and rescue and deliverance and strength and peace and hope and joy and….ALL of them find their YES in Jesus Christ. You don’t have to look beyond him to find the true fulfillment of these promises. They are all in Jesus Christ. And when we look to Jesus Christ in faith, we are forgiven, cleansed, renewed AND united to Jesus Christ—which means the promises of God are now YES to us. We can have confidence that the God who is willing and able to give us everything we need, will hear our prayers, and say YES to his promises in our lives through Jesus Christ.

That’s why the passage goes on to say, “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22, ESV). God establishes us IN Christ—unites us to Christ—through faith. When that happens we are given the Holy Spirit as a deposit/guarantee, and the Spirit seals us and anoints us. He protects us and strengthens us. He works out God’s promises in our lives. We can have complete confidence that when we pray Forgive us our Debts, and Deliver us from Evil, God will say YES to those prayers. That means that when we pray those things, we can also say “Amen. This shall truly and surely be!” with a confident faith.

There’s another really important reason we’re called to end our prayers with this word, “Amen”—this word of confident faith. When we end our prayers with this confident faith, who receives the glory? Not us, but God. If we ended our prayers by saying, “I will make this happen, God” who would get the glory? You would. Yet, when we say “Amen” in confident FAITH we’re saying, “I can’t do it, I’m not strong enough. However, I have confidence and faith that YOU will do it.” Now, who gets the glory in that prayer? It’s all glory to God. That’s why John Calvin says, “...it was not added merely for the purpose of kindling our hearts to seek the glory of God, and of reminding us what ought to be the object of our prayers; but likewise to teach us, that our prayers, which are here dictated to us, are founded on God alone, that we may not rely on our own merits.” (329). It’s not just so that we seek the glory of God, BUT so that we completely rely on God for all of our prayers—and not on ourselves—which brings glory and honor to God. That’s the point. The point is to prevent us from ending our prayer, thinking something like, “I’ve been a pretty good person. I’ve done some pretty good things. That’s why God should answer my prayer.” WRONG! It’s not about you or anything you have to offer. You cannot have this kind of confidence in yourself. Rather, you can heartily say, “AMEN,” because you have complete confidence and assurance in your God. And when you say that, you bring glory and honor to God.

That’s why our passage says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” (2 Corinthians 1:20, ESV). We utter our Amen to God for his glory, because our “Amen” is confirmation that we are resting on Jesus Christ to fulfill God’s promises—not our own abilities. If we were trusting in ourselves to fulfill God’s promises, we would be seeking our own glory AND we wouldn’t be exhibiting faith. However, when we look to God, and heartily say “Amen” with a confident faith, then we are fully relying on him, and bringing him glory and honor and praise.

That’s also why we end the prayer by saying, “For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever.” The catechism builds on this by saying, “We have made all these petitions of you...because your holy name, and not we ourselves, should receive all the praise, forever.” (HC 128). We end our prayers the same way we began, “Hallowed be your name”—may you receive the glory. We end by admitting, “God, it’s your kingdom, not mine. It’s your power, not mine. It’s about your glory, not mine” and that reorients us if we’ve gotten off track throughout our prayer.

It’s easy to get off track in our prayers. It’s easy to begin by praying for God’s glory but then slowly slip into prayers for our own glory, honor, and kingdom. It’s easy to seek daily bread for our sake, to seek forgiveness for our sake, to seek deliverance for our sake. But then, when we get to this portion of the prayer, it brings us back into alignment with reality—with our God. It reminds us, “No, we aren’t praying these prayers for our kingdom, honor, and glory but for God’s kingdom, honor, and glory.” We may even need to go back and modify some of the things we prayed. We may have to go back and say, “Lord, earlier I asked for daily bread for my glory. I’m sorry. Please give us our daily bread today for YOUR kingdom. Forgive us for YOUR honor. Deliver us for YOUR glory.”

Ultimately, this is why we can only truly pray this prayer with a true faith. It’s only through a true faith in Jesus Christ that we stop trusting in ourselves, our own plans, our own strength, our own desires and begin trusting completely in Him. And once we start trusting in him over ourselves, then we can more fully say, “I don’t want my kingdom to come or my will to be done. I want your kingdom to come and your will to be done. I want to have my daily bread, but I want it for your kingdom, power, and glory. I want to be forgiven, but I want it for your kingdom power and glory. I want to be delivered, but I want it for your kingdom power and glory. Not only do I want these things, but I have total confidence that you’ve heard me pray these things, that you are willing and able to bring them about, and that these things will truly and surely be. Amen!”