How to Pray: The Lord's Prayer - A Divine Bio-Hack

In the latest sermon series from Village Church, Pastor Eric Cepin initiates an enlightening journey through the intricacies of prayer. With a focus on the Lord's Prayer, Pastor Eric presents a compelling examination of what he describes as 'Divine bio-hacking.' This innovative perspective delves into the segments of the prayer, showcasing how Jesus provides a profound blueprint for prayer that has the power to reshape our innermost being—transforming our thoughts, emotions, and our very selves. This message serves as a guiding beacon for those seeking a deeper, more meaningful connection with the Father through prayer.

Transcript

SPEAKER_09 0:13

Hello, my name is Eric Seaton, and I am one of the pastors at the Village Church. The following podcast is a ministry of the village church. We hope that it inspires you, that it draws you closer to Jesus, and it opens your eyes to the possibilities of living in the kingdom. Enjoy and God bless. So, anyway, it's an exciting way to get to meet and know the second service people and to enjoy the larger community and invite your friends. So when you sign up, invite your friends. Tell us how many of them are coming. Okay. So I think that's all the announcements. So yeah, yeah, I got all that. Okay. So we're we just finished up a series, three weeks, called How to Study, which was awesome. I loved it. Hopefully, all of you were gonna practice here for a second. Last week, for those of you who are here, we memorized the verse. What was the verse? Alright, and let's start it out. Who wants to start it? Be joyful and hope. Alright. Be joyful in hope. Patient in affliction. In prayer. And it's found where? You know, my wife who preached last week got a lot more response from you guys. But that's okay. I understand. You want me to make you say it again? Alright, let's say it again, guys. Alright, let's start it out. Steve, you're the one who started it, so give it a test. Alright, so we did memorization. The week before that we did how to study, and the week before that we did hermeneutics. For the next few weeks, we're gonna talk about how to pray. And all of this is prepping us for about 25 to 30 weeks in the Gospel of John. So this is where we're going. We want to kind of think about how we're gonna study. We're gonna think about what it looks like to practice and pray scripture because we're going into the gospel. Super exciting. But if you're gonna start how to pray, you start with the Lord's Prayer. Um, I don't have my clicky. Where's my little clicky thing? Oh magic. All right. But before I do that, before I jump into this and pray and get us all started, I do have a little pastoral invitation. This is a picture of me. If you haven't figured it out by somebody, I'm not sure which kid drew this of me, but it's pretty cool. Here's my invitation. If you don't know what fallow month is, every year at the village in December, we call it fallow month. Fallow basically is a farming term. You leave a field barren, and you leave the field barren in order for it to gain nutrients. So what we do is we shut down all of our programs, and we do not have any kind of Christmas program either that other than our candlelight service, which is just on the Sunday before Christmas. Okay? So that means that there aren't any pilgrim groups. That means if you meet with a pastor for counseling or discipleship or some kind of mentoring, you probably won't be meeting with them unless you know it's desperate and you need to, because your pastors are going to be getting together a lot more, the staff's gonna be getting together more, we're gonna be praying, we're gonna be working out the sermon schedule, we're gonna be praying about what God wants us to do in this next year. And what we would like to invite you to do is a couple things. Number one, if you are in a pilgrim group, which is our men and women's Bible studies, take those evenings that you will now have free in December and either rest, invite some neighbors over for dinner, or invite a villager you don't know very well over, or go out for coffee with somebody. Take that extra time and either use it to rest or engage in restful community kinds of things. Okay? And then the second thing is please pray for your pastors. Pray that we will have hope, that we will be excited about what God is doing in 2024, and we will be excited about leading you guys into it. So, with that said, let me pray. Father in heaven, thank you for today. Thank you for this community, thank you for the opportunity to come before you and wrestle with what is good and what is true and what is right. Give us courage to believe what's true, to push aside what is false, and to hold one another's image-bearing with dignity and to love one another well. I ask that in your holy name, Jesus. Amen. All right. So, as I said, we are we're going into the Lord's Prayer, and you've already heard the Lord's Prayer a whole bunch. I just want to start out by telling you a story about my engagement with prayer. So I grew up in the church, and my mom tells me early on that I just loved to pray, that I liked to sit in on her prayer meetings, I liked to, she would said there were times when she would see me outside with my hand on somebody's head like this, praying for them. I was into prayer. I don't remember any of that. What I do remember is that often on my family would go to what is called the Brethren Church. Um, and in seventh grade, I my parents were going to a Brethren church in North Carolina in Fayetteville, uh, where the 82nd Airborne is stationed. So my church was full of 82nd Airborne. So anytime something happened in the world, there were like five of us at church because everyone else was military. But in a Brethren church, there's something a little bit different. They have something called a communion service, and it's every Sunday, and it goes before this service. And everybody sits in a circle, and usually the church is maybe this is the size of the church. So we'd all be sitting in a circle, except that all our kids would be here, and you all the kids would be quiet. It's amazing. I don't know how it happened, but they were all silent and they sat in their chairs. Maybe they were scared, I do not know why. But as a seventh grader and in the Brethren Church in these communion services, you were expected as a young man at some point to stand up and pray and stand up and read scripture. And so I can remember just sitting there and knew, like, okay, I'm a teenager now, or I'm almost there. I'm supposed to stand up and pray. And Sunday after Sunday would go by and I would not stand up and pray. And I could just feel like I'm assured that all the eyes of these men were looking at me and these women. When is Eric gonna stand up and pray? So I do remember that at some point I did stand up and pray, and I babbled some things, and I sat down, and I felt so relieved. That experience was a very public experience of prayer, but it also I think sometimes demonstrates kind of how all of us at times feel about prayer. Is that we don't know what to say and that we feel a little bit anxious about it, and particularly if we have to pray with other people, right? If we're having to pray with other people, then we're these people are gonna listen to us and hear us pray. If we're praying by ourselves, often we find ourselves very distracted or not sure what we're doing. So we there is an amount of anxiety and an amount of just not knowing what to do that's built into prayer, especially if you're not super experienced with it. Um, but I would argue, even as a pastor, at times I will stand up here and begin to pray and think, what am I saying? What's what's got what's coming out of my mouth? Right? There's almost sometimes an out-of-body experience. So I want to talk a little bit about what Jesus says to prayer about prayer in Matthew 6 as we head into the Lord's prayer. Now, you heard the young people tell us what prayer is, right? Prayer is talking and listening to God. Now, this is what Jesus says as he prefaced an instruction on how to pray in Matthew 6, verse 5. He says, And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. So he's saying there are people who simply stand in front of everyone else and they pray. And they pray in ways that they're going to be seen. And he says they get their reward right there. And I I underline the word to be seen because actually it highlights what all of us really long for in life, right? We all want to be seen. You see it because kids don't have enough barriers on them. You can see that they're just always waving, right? See me, see me, see me until you see them, and then they're like, oh, right. But they want to be seen, but we want to be seen. And so he's saying, and the word hypocrite is to play someone you are not, right? To be a good actor.

unknown 9:02

Right?

SPEAKER_09 9:02

So what he's saying is they are not being authentic in order for them to be seen, and so they won't, they've already received the reward. Now, the word reward really has to do with they've received what kind of spiritual engagement and relationship they're gonna get. That's it. That's all the spiritual relationship they're gonna get, and it's going to be from other people, not from God. So he says, but when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to the father who is unseen, and then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. I love what Jesus is saying. He's saying, guess what? If you will go into a space that is alone and begin to talk to the father, you will actually have an intimate relationship with him. Now, I want to promise you something that if you were to sit here and watch me and Sue have an intimate conversation in public in front of you, it would not be as rich or rewarding to Susan and I as it would be if we were just sitting on the couch in our bedroom, right? Because I would still, in having some kind of intimate conversation or even argument with my wife in front of you, I am conscious of you and what you're thinking and how you're thinking it and what you think about me. And so what Jesus is saying is look, your relationship with God is all about that relationship. That prayer is talking and listening to God, and if you approach it in a way that you would approach an intimate relationship, is with some guards to it and with some privacy and with some pursuit, you'll get the thing that you want. You'll be seen, and you'll be seen by the one who can actually validate who you are. There will be a long-term experience to this. So that's the first thing you're gonna be seen, and you're gonna be rewarded if you're gonna if you honor the intimacy, and you're not just trying to get something. He continues. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans. But they think they will be heard because on their of their many words. Do not be like them, for the father knows what you need before you ask him. Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop and I was watching the most crazy awesome grandfather ever. He's sitting there with two, like I think a six and a four-year-old girl. And they're at Le Buzz, and they're sitting there, and they are pelting him with every single request you can possibly imagine. It started out at Disneyland. Can you take us to Disneyland? Can we have this cup? Can we have an orange juice? Can we do this? How about this? Can how about this? And he was sitting there quiet. Like the man, he'd sit there and he's like, Maybe I'll take you to Paris. They're like, What's Paris? You can get a better croissant. How about an orange juice? And so they got their orange juice and they were sitting there. These if you've ever been to LaBuzz, it's not like an orange juice at McDonald's, right? This beautiful orange juice, of which they then kind of destroyed. And he sat there quietly, cleaned up after them, and he's like, it's time to go now. And he got them up and he in there just like and he just was smiling. And I was like, that is a picture of the father. Just like, I know what you need, and I'm gonna get some of the things that you want, but we're not going to Disneyland. Maybe Paris sounds good, and off we go, right? Like, and I think what Jesus is saying is the thing that you really long for is to be heard. And there's an invitation actually not to be like a kid, but simply to be simple and direct. A good relationship with wife, husband, kids, friends, roommates usually is best when you are simple and direct about what you want. Right? And I think the invitation that Jesus is offering his disciples when they do ask him how to pray and he's teaching on it is simply be simple and direct about what you want. Because your father knows everything that you need and would love to engage there. Right? So, really what he's saying is you don't need to act because you're gonna be seen, and you don't need to just be nervously saying things because he's gonna hear you, right? And he's actually a calming presence. And here's my argument for this. My argument for this is that the Lord's Prayer is a divine biohack. So, how many of you know about biohacking? Right? Well, all of you participate in biohacking. You don't you may not think you participate in biohacking, but how many of you have done a whole 30 diet? Come on, or 40 or how many? How many of you have left decide you don't want to do gluten for a while? How many of you take vitamins? How many of you have stopped doing sugar? Right? Like you're biohacking, right? You're you're trying to hack your bio, you're trying to do something to change the way you feel, right? That's what you're trying to do. Biohacking is, you know, sort of this, I don't know, the science that I really am a little nervous with the biologists here, but uh or the scientists, but biohacking is somewhat of a science, somewhat of a pseudoscience, right? And but people do it in an industry built around it. And there is some good research behind some of the things. Um, and I as I looked at the Lord's Prayer, I'm like, oh, the Lord's Prayer, the thing that Jesus has given us to pray to the Father is actually a biohack of our emotions and how we feel about ourselves and how we understand ourselves spiritually. And he's offering us an opportunity to change some things. And I think now I don't know if C. S. Lewis said this, but he does say it in the movie. And so I want to show. So poor C. S. Lewis like he gives credit for something he may never have said. But in one of my favorite movies, Shadowlands, there is a quote about prayer. And I think what C. S. Lewis is saying is like prayer is a biohack, so listen to what he has to say. This is his his wife is um very sick.

SPEAKER_05 15:30

Uh good news, I think. Harry, yes, good news.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Very glad, Jack. Thank you, Christopher. Thank you. Christopher can scott. I know how hard we've been praying. Answering.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

I paid it. I paid the cut. Don't change God, it changes me.

SPEAKER_09 16:04

That line just always chucks me up because that's my experience of prayer. It doesn't change God, it changes me. And the Lord's Prayer is this opportunity to be changed. But Jesus is saying, when you pray this, it has the power to change you. Because it reorients you. So before I walk through the Lord's Prayer, I'm going to give you a little bit of that. I'm going to pass out these papers. And then I should probably send pens around. Where did I put those? This will take a moment. This moment has been brought to you by Pepsi. Because we don't get Pepsi at the village anymore. Okay, little car, it's right. All right, so I'll give you a little bit of heads up of where we're going, and so you can start and hopefully you can multitask and follow me. Um, but as I said, I came out of the Brethren Church when I was a kid, and you got to stand up and pray. So as we go through the Lord's Prayer and as I talk about it, I would like you to begin to construct your version of the Lord's Prayer. So, what you can do is simply, as I go through line one and begin to talk about it, you can kind of listen to me in one ear and think about it and write your part. And then we're gonna take a moment after that for you, we'll give you some more time to refine it. So I'll give you about five minutes of just quiet to refine it, and then we're gonna give you an opportunity to stand up and read your version of the Lord's Prayer. And if none of you really want to do that, then we'll just have a little dialogue about prayer, and then we'll move, we'll close. So let me begin to talk about this idea of a biohag. So Jesus says, This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Now, the first thing that you want to look at here, and you're gonna see this through the Lord's Prayer over and over again, is it does not say, My Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. It says our. And you will see this over and over again. Jesus is at the time looking forward, probably, but in the moment, he is reforming the Jewish prayer system, and he's reminding them that as you pray, you do not pray even in your intimate prayer closet by yourself. You are joining people all over the world praying to our Father. And your prayers are not just about you, even when they're pouring out your heart, they're about all of us. You are joining a chorus of people that you belong to when you pray. And then he uses the word father. And I know that's a little that sometimes that's hard for us to kind of digest, some of us who struggle with fathers, but it's just a parental thing, and it's very important. Like some people like to say, oh, this is where Jesus is putting in Abba and there's some intimacy here. It's not. He mentions Father 17 times in the Sermon on the Mount, and Father symbolizes one who can give mercy. So it's very important to have Father there because he's saying, our Father, the one who can give us mercy in the heavenly realms, which is not up here, but is in the unseen realm all around you. Hallowed be your name. Hallowed simply means very, very special, as we tell our kids, right? Very good. So I forgot it. It means your name is eternally good. Your name is amazing. You are all knowing. But what's important about this little section right here is that isn't it is a orientation of who you are and of who God is. And in a world where you spend so much time trying to decide who you are and be seen and know who you are, this helps you adjust. And I put your heart, because I believe this little line is a biohack of your heart. We talked about last, like, why do we memorize scripture? Because we have a heart. Out of our heart comes everything, basically. And so our heart is trying to like the very essence of us is trying to figure out who we are. And Jesus is saying, if you say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, you're saying who I am is juxtaposed to the creator of the universe. I'm not the center, but God is the center. If God is the center and his name is eternally good, then there's an there's an element of peace because you don't have to be God. Simply what you're saying is, I don't have to be God. God, you're God, I don't have to do it. So there's an element of peace there. So we open there. The second party says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I put the mind there because I will tell you, at least for me, I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to rule my kingdom and how to make sure everything is done the way I want it done, and make sure that people do what they should be doing around me. And I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to bring justice upon those who have violated my kingdom, right? And my rule. Right? I do. Like it's just, and and my mind is always racing, it's constantly racing. And I know that most of yours are too, right? Unless you're just a man of just, I don't know, I don't know who you are, but your mind doesn't race. But most of our minds are racing, trying to figure it out, trying to adjust, kind of, you know, this when I say it's not my kingdom, well, it's not my justice, it's not my way of doing things. That tells my mind, you don't have to figure things out. God has already figured them out, and God is already ruling. And so what I just want is his will to be my will, not my will to be his will. And a lot of times, as I look at my prayers and as I look at the things that I try to sort out, it usually comes down to, oh, I've been wanting my will, not your will, in this space. And so the invitation to my brain, to the thinking part of me, is to say, No, the will of God is more important than my will, me getting what I want. All right. So that's the second section. Your mind, the the Lord's Prayer adjusts things in your mind and brings about peace. Third part. Give us today our daily bread. So as a kid growing up reading this, I'm like, oh, so I'm asking God for my bread for the day. Like, but this sentence is only in two places in the entire Bible in Greek, and it's in Luke and here. And it really means give us today my spiritual bread, my physical bread, my mystical bread. Like, give me, give me every single thing and every single part of my life, like give it to me today. The thing that I need spiritually, emotionally, mentally, right? That's what I want. And in fact, in a sense, there's this allusion to communion, to the broken body, right? It is give me you today. But the thing is, have you ever like if you stop eating, right? What happens to your body if you stop eating for a while? You start starving, but your body produces uh cortisol, and then it starts storing fat, right? It immediately begins to go into dysfunction. When you starve. So when you're spiritually starving, when you're emotionally starving, when all of a sudden your body basically goes into reaction mode, survival mode, things are bad, we need to deal with life. And so what Jesus is saying is if you will give that to me, there can be peace. If you say, okay, what I need today, that's all I want. I'm not going to think about what I need tomorrow, spiritually, emotionally, physically. I'm just going to think about today. I have a body and I need bread, I need spiritual experience, I need nourishment, I need emotional regulation. Can you just give me that today? The thing is, most of us have a stocked refrigerator because we're planning for tomorrow, which is not terrible. But we also are trying to plan out our spiritual life. We're trying to plan out all the ways that we're going to be emotionally healthy and what we need to do. Like we're constantly not in today. And the Lord's Prayer at least invites us to be present in the moment and understand that yes, we can plan, but we don't have control. And I argue that'll bring a certain amount of peace to your body. Okay. And forgive us our debts as we forgive, have forgiven our debtors. The word debtors can be translated sin. I like the word debt. Um in the world of biohacking, there's actually been done a lot of research done on forgiveness. There's an interesting thing in science is that when, or just the way you and I relate, so within like tenths of a second, all your body begins to assess every moment. So it assesses things and it says, Is this person a foe? Is it food? Right? Does it have to do with fertility? Right? Or does it have to do with friendship? And then it tells your brain, and your brain starts thinking, right, okay, what do we do? Oh, it's a foe. We're gonna fight, or we're gonna run away, or we're gonna freeze. Like, right, there's a lot of F-words in this, right? Um, forgiveness is a really interesting thing. Because we have we're all confused about forgiveness. Like, how do I forgive someone? Well, here I can, I will solve it for you. This is how forgiveness works. Forgiveness is simply giving up the demand for justice. Right? So Lauren wronged me, and when I can't forgive her, what I'm saying is, you must pay for what you did to me. Now, forgiveness does not involve repair. I'm not talking about that. Just simple forgiveness means I give up the demand that she pay for what she did to me. It's interesting what happens when you give up the demand, because that split second thing, like if Lauren, if there's unforgiveness in there, that split second thing immediately will always say, Lauren is a foe. Lauren must be fine, Lauren must pay, Lauren must be escaped from, I must run away. Right? So inside of relationship, I'm all I've got no room to find out if she's food or you know, the other things, or we can we be friends, right? Like there's no, it's just immediately I'm in that space. Jesus understands this. He's saying, and forgive us our debts as what? As we forgive one another. Because if we cannot forgive one another, we're all in conflict with one another. And we're all like, we don't understand why. Why does this person make me nervous? Why am I always angry when I think about them? Why? It's because you haven't forgiven them. Well, forgiveness means I should figure out how to feel okay with them. No, you need to give up your demand that they pay for what they did. That doesn't mean that you don't set up boundaries, doesn't mean that you don't protect yourself, it has nothing to do with that. You can give up your demand that they pay and still have the court system do justice if it's a drastic thing, or have boundaries because they're not a safe person to be around. That's that's different. But it your nervous system will not be triggered by them anymore. All right, and Jesus knows that. So yourself, the thing that makes you up, can have peace instead of anxiety if you're willing to drop that demand. All right, and the very last part your emotions. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Now, Jewish people have no problem with this verse, but us Greeks think there is no way that Jesus can lead us into temptation, right? Because James tells us he doesn't tempt and he can't be tempted by evil, and he's not gonna tempt you by evil. So, how does this work? Oh, well, let's change it to trials. No, no. God is sovereign, the father is sovereign, everything falls underneath the father. In Matthew chapter 4, it says that the Spirit led Jesus into the desert where he was tempted. Right. It's not that Jesus is the Father is tempting you with evil. He is simply sovereign. It's not a linear line. And so the Jewish people are very happy with saying God is sovereign. And I don't want to be led into temptation because temptation is difficult. And who is the author of temptation? The evil one. The evil one is the author of temptation. And when temptation arises, whatever it looks like, suffering, trial, literal, I shouldn't be partaking in this, and I'm going to partake in this. Like all of that affects our emotional state and disrupts us. And Jesus, who spent 40 days in the desert fasting and being tempted by Satan, says, you don't want to do that. And if you can get out of it, ask God to get you out of it. Right? Now it may be there to shape you, but you still can ask for it not to shape you. You can still ask for it to not, you don't want to face the evil one. It's going to take everything inside of you to do it. I think as Christians, sometimes they're like, Yeah, I want to go out into spiritual warfare. But the Lord's Prayer is like, no, no, no. No. If that happens, it happens. But you have a right to ask not to do that. And knowing that God is in control and sovereign and present in all of those things should bring a settling to your emotions. Okay? All right. So there's the Lord's Prayer as a biohack. The thing I really just want you to remember is that when you pray, and I think particularly the Lord's Prayer, it will change you. It has the power to transform who you are and bring you into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Okay, I'm gonna give you five minutes. You have five minutes to write the Lord's Prayer in your words. And then we'll take a few minutes to stand up or sit down. You don't have to stand up. Um, and read what you have written, or we can have a conversation about prayer. Okay, here we go. Who wants to go first? All right, Danielle's got her hand up, somebody got it. Peter is our mic runner, okay.

SPEAKER_12 32:36

Our High King in the heavenly realm, O most precious is your name. May your plans take precedence, may your ruling be reality in our lives just as it is in heaven for the angels. Give us all we need for this day, today. I trust you for this day alone, and don't count my wrongs against me as you help me, not count the wrongs of others against them, and draw me away from paths that would lead me astray, and rescue me from the prowling lion who seeks my soul.

SPEAKER_09 33:20

Wow, that was beautiful. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Dad, you are very near. You are worthy of all praise. You are king and creator. May your vision be carried out everywhere. Provide us with everything we need so we can walk in this vision. Forgive the ways we have gone off track, even as we forgive others who have done the same. Do away with distractions that we may fully focus on you and your ways. For you are King and Creator. You are worthy of all praise.

SPEAKER_11 34:15

Giver of mercy, you are great and holy, good and our immovable center. You are the ruler, you know all and direct all. Make us to be people who want as you want. Provide for us today. Forgive us and give us mercy to forgive like you do. Please help us see the way out of temptation and protect us when the only way out is through the darkness.

SPEAKER_15 34:54

Dad to me and everyone, you are both intimately near to me and everyone and everything. Your name is more precious to me than anything. As I declare who you are, my father and our father, over every image bearer in my life, it strengthens me and my heart to know that I'm your child. I am secure in how I am seen, known, and loved by you. May you make things happen how you want them to happen in my life, my mind, that you would rule as my king and bring your ways into my marriage, parenting, home, community, and neighborhood, and everywhere I go, and everywhere your people go and come for us soon.

SPEAKER_14 35:48

Our eternal loving creator who is above us. Make our world like your home. Awaken and guide our mind and spirit. Forgive us just as we forgive others. Save us from our desires and protect us from your foes.

SPEAKER_09 36:05

Anybody on this side of the aisle? Andrew had something to say, Andrew. Anybody? Here and then Lee. Henry.

SPEAKER_13 36:20

Mine's a little long, but uh the Lord God above all, who is in the very air I breathe, you know and sustain all things, and know the names of even the stars and the heavens and every living thing on earth. You are holy and righteous, all your ways are just, and you work all things for good. Even in that which first appears to be dark, your light shines. Bring peace to the world in accordance with your will, and let your kingdom be known, and your church be a light as ambassadors for your name and eternal kingdom, which is coming and yet has already come. Thank you for what you have provided and sustain me. Allow me to seek you first for my most basic needs. Forgive me for my sins, you know the depths of my heart, and let it be broken and contrite, the sacrifice that you truly desire. Lead me to forgive those who have wronged me, that I may know that vengeance belongs to you alone. You are the true judge, and I am but a sinner. Keep me from temptation, and when it comes, give me your spirit, that evil may be overcome. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Consider these things whenever you pray. We have a Father who transcends the universe, and his name is to be respected above all else. May your kingdom be my primary concern over all my concerns. Conform me to pursuing your will to the same extent that those in heaven are concerned with doing your will. I ask you for all I need to follow you for today's concerns and priorities. Please forgive all of my sins and show me anybody that I have any resentments towards that I may release my demands on them to pay what I feel they owe me. Please spare me any temptations that I would give in to. Grant me a readiness to shun all forms of evil. I need your deliverance from the evil one.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Everything. Can't read my writing. May your will and your ways be done the way you want them to be on the on this small planet as well as everywhere else. Provide us for all that is best for us. Give us, teach us your ways so we trust you, and we're not led into, we do not follow temptation.

SPEAKER_10 39:40

Father, who is eternally good, we stand before you, waiting for your will to be done. We know you are here on earth, but unseen. Thank you for giving us our daily needs. Your forgiveness of our debts, show us the way to forgive others and experience peace. We understand that you hold all the power over evil and pray that you will lead us away from being tempted. Your kingdom, your power, and your glory will forever be shown upon us. Amen.

SPEAKER_08 40:28

Father, give us mortals a way to name your holiness. Teach us to trust you to do your good desires. Teach us to trust you for our needs so we can live in today. Forgive us for how we've wronged you. Free us to free ourselves from vengeance and enmity. Protect us from temptation. Save us from the desires of uh from the designs of evil.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

In quiet I find you, even though you're in heaven and I'm here, and you meet me and I'm not alone, even though it can feel really lonely, and it's so broken here. I long for you to make this place like your place, and I'm hungry here, but not for this food. I want your food. You have redeemed me and forgiven me, but I can't stop thinking of all the ways others hurt me or hurt those I love or the ways they're so selfish. The list is so long and validated, but it's not of love or forgiveness. Help me burn it. My mistakes and my desires follow me and beckon me and shame me. But you're through your power I can go a different way. Where my mistakes and my desires, they don't hold me or call me or shame me. Where I can stand with you and just be reminded that I'm yours.

SPEAKER_09 42:24

Jeff.

SPEAKER_07 42:32

Our spiritual dad who watches over us, you're the best. Your ways of doing things help us to do that too. Please give us what we need for today. Don't hold our offenses against us, as we don't judge others. Keep us near you and safe from Satan.

SPEAKER_09 42:54

All right, one more.

SPEAKER_06 42:57

Bob, our caregiver and provider, we know you by the most special name. Enter our lives with power to align us with you. Provide for us as we know you're able. Grant us relief from what we owe you, and grant us the ability to relieve others who owe us. And make the temptations that surround us repulsive to us.

SPEAKER_09 43:22

Jump me to the doxology. Be the very last slide. Alright, so we prayed the Lord's Prayer a number of times, and we say, For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. But if you read your good New Testament translation, you'll say, Well, that's not there, or it's in the footnotes, so why is that? Because in the oldest uh that we have of Matthew and of Luke, there is our manuscripts that we have, there is this isn't in it. But we know from the first century that actually it's not about the Lord's prayer. We know from different writings that this is how they ended every prayer. This is by the fourth century, every prayer was ended this way. Um, because this is the way to say amen. And so by by the fourth century, it got stuck back in. The later manuscripts have it. Um probably Jesus didn't say it in this particular moment on the Sermon on the Mount, but I bet you that this is how he ended his prayers a lot. Um, and his disciples picked that up and they began to do that. So it is a good way for you guys to end your prayer, right? This is a good way to do it. So, to end today's sermon, let's just read the doxology together. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

All right, Father, King of all that exists, who is known everywhere by