SPEAKER_01: So are y'all ready for our weekly review?
SPEAKER_01: If you've been with us, we've been reviewing as we go through this book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't been with us, we've been going through the book of Colossians and sort of catch you up and to drill it into the rest of us.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do our quick review like we've been doing.
SPEAKER_01: So Colossians has four chapters in it.
SPEAKER_01: And what we see in this book, this letter that Paul wrote to this little church in Turkey, modern-day Turkey, what we see is in chapters one and two, it is chop full, full throttle promises of God to us, one promise after the next, his love for us, his finished work in Jesus for us, everything he's done for us over and over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: And these things are called the indicatives.
SPEAKER_01: Very good.
SPEAKER_01: We're getting stronger and bolder, and our answers indicative.
SPEAKER_01: So what's been indicated to you?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So it's been indicated to you that God loves you and it's secure.
SPEAKER_01: All right, then we see this switch.
SPEAKER_01: Then it's chapter two, going to chip chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty clear and it happens pretty quickly.
SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden, there's all these in chapters three and four, all these things we should be doing.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: What's the Christian life look like?
SPEAKER_01: What should we be doing?
SPEAKER_01: The application.
SPEAKER_01: And these things are called the imperatives.
SPEAKER_01: And so you have the indicatives and the imperatives.
SPEAKER_01: And what we see in this letter is we see how the Christian life should work, and that is that the imperatives come out of the indicatives.
SPEAKER_01: And how quickly we miss that, and how quickly we just move on to chapters three and four, and we skip over one and two, and all the promises and the security we have in what God has done for us, and we just go to work.
SPEAKER_01: Or we think chapters one and two are the way in.
SPEAKER_01: That's like that's just the front door into the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm a believer, and now I'm going to move on, but I'm not going to be rooted in and coming out of a continual renewing and resting in the promises.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to go to work.
SPEAKER_01: And what we see Paul doing for us is laying out this great theology and philosophy for life of what life should be like.
SPEAKER_01: That we're rooted in the grace of God and his love for us.
SPEAKER_01: It's secure and it's over.
SPEAKER_01: You know, failure, success, it's over, it's secure.
SPEAKER_01: And then out of that is what we should do and what we should live like.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to read this passage in Colossians 4.
SPEAKER_01: There's three verses we're going to read this morning, two through four, and we're going to talk about this and see what God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
SPEAKER_01: And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains.
SPEAKER_01: So remember, Paul's writing this letter in prison.
SPEAKER_01: Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should.
SPEAKER_01: So, like I said, we were on this marriage retreat this week.
SPEAKER_01: So the first day, wake up real early, sun's coming in the windows, get my phone, you know, head out, go for a nice morning walk.
SPEAKER_01: It's sunny, it's crisp, it's kind of cold.
SPEAKER_01: Walk a couple blocks to the marsh, and the sun's coming up and the beautiful marsh.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're having this great moment, listening to worship music and walking and just praying.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God, thank you for God, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: It's reminding me how good you are and how good you've been to me and for my life and my family, my children, your and your grace over your grace over me and my brokenness, and even in the midst of all this goodness, how messed up I still am, and you still love me, and you know, praying this, and just walk like five blocks across the island to the other side and see the ocean and just be reminded of how big his forgiveness is, how big his love is.
SPEAKER_01: And then in the midst of that, you know, you're walking.
SPEAKER_01: I was walking around these beautiful homes.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just jaw-dropping beautiful homes, and slowly uh the prayer starts to switch, like, Lord, I could, you know, I I could I could use a retreat place like this, you know, and I would I would use it for your you know, your great glory.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I would um I would use it more to your glory than these people are.
SPEAKER_01: They're not even here, and I would have retreats here, and you know, and that I'm praying this.
SPEAKER_01: And you go, what am I praying?
SPEAKER_01: You know, like that'd be great, but I don't know if I'd pray for this, and you know, and then you're like, what am I praying?
SPEAKER_01: And it's like God's Santa Claus, you're catching, I'm so consumeristic and materialistic.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I think I need this to feel like I'm somebody?
SPEAKER_01: And you catch yourself doing, then you then the prayer comes back to like, I'm broken, that even in the midst of like I'm work, I was worshiping one moment, and all of a sudden I'm like just a consumer of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And you catch yourself and you kind of bring the prayer back a little bit, and you go, God, you know, forgive me for even thinking I need this to feel like I'm somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We know this, we know these feelings even within when we pray, like we're praying for one thing, all of a sudden you catch yourself praying for something else, and you're I don't know if I should be praying for that.
SPEAKER_01: But we pray, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like we pray.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for houses, we pray for second houses, we pray for our children, we pray for our careers, we pray for raises and promotions, we pray for, we pray for all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for our marriages, we pray for what school our children should go to.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for a possibility of a spouse one day.
SPEAKER_01: We pray we pray about all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_01: Years ago, our in our first home that we were in, so there's about 10 years ago, it was a beautiful spring day, we had Bermuda grass, and if you know about Bermuda grass in the spring, you have to cut the thatch away, that brown stuff that builds up.
SPEAKER_01: You either got to cut it away or burn it away.
SPEAKER_01: And I grew up, and my neighbor, I remember he used to burn it.
SPEAKER_01: He used to burn it off.
SPEAKER_01: And I think, well, that's gonna be quicker than dealing with all this cutting it and bagging it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna I'm gonna burn it, is what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I don't do any research, I just walk out there with a garden hose and a lighter.
SPEAKER_01: And it happened to be a day that was a little windier than you probably want it to be.
SPEAKER_01: And I get up in the front corner of the lawn, a pretty big lawn, and I have my garden hose, me and my little garden hose, uh, and I light it.
SPEAKER_01: And at first, at first it just just a little bit, and you're feeling pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: It's under control.
SPEAKER_01: I have this under my garden hose, it's under control.
SPEAKER_01: And then the wind just a little picks up, and what I didn't think about, I lit in the corner, and you think it spreads in all directions, kind of, and all of a sudden you can't reach, and the wind picks up a little bit, and there's this there's this moment.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it was a moment you might describe with words I wouldn't use in a sermon, right?
SPEAKER_01: That kind of moment.
SPEAKER_01: And your stomach drops and and in the midst those other words, is you you you start to pray, God.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't want to burn down my house or my neighbor's house, and like do I go to prison for this?
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if I'm allowed to burn my lawn in the suburbs.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't I don't know about any of this, and and and I have my garden hose, and I'm I'm running, I'm running from like flame to flame just to get it back under control.
SPEAKER_01: I get it back under control.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: Well, part of the point is I went on and I've successfully burned the rest of the lawn, so I didn't learn my lesson too much.
SPEAKER_01: But the point is that this moment, this moment when your garden hose is not enough and it's out of control, the issues inside of you are beyond your control.
SPEAKER_01: Circumstances around you are beyond your control, and finally there's some honesty in your life for what's always been there.
SPEAKER_01: For what's it's been there the whole time.
SPEAKER_01: There's some honesty, and then we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Like real, real prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Like real heart stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We actually let our heart open to God.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a freedom here.
SPEAKER_01: There's a freedom when that little hose is not enough to handle that fire because now you're open to the fact that you actually need somebody outside of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You need outside saving, outside delivering, outside help.
SPEAKER_01: And we wish in our fallen nature, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like I wish in my fallen nature that I could handle it all.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be my own savior.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to need God, I don't want to need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be my own savior.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to have to pray.
SPEAKER_01: I want to have to just just make my own list of things I can accomplish, I can handle it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Then I'm in control of all of it, but we that's not life, and we know that, and we rub up against this reality all the time, but there's so much freedom when we come into the honesty to say there's a lot of stuff I can't control.
SPEAKER_01: There's stuff in my heart, there's stuff in people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even control all the goodness that comes into my life.
SPEAKER_01: And to think you do is the illusion.
SPEAKER_01: And thus the text this morning, that this the text this morning is about a different way of life, like living as a spiritual being needing outside help.
SPEAKER_01: And what we see in this text, we see three very clear things in that verse too.
SPEAKER_01: We see uh be devoted to prayer, be watchful in prayer, and be grateful in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So classic three-point sermon this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Be devoted to prayer, be watchful in prayer, be grateful in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So that first one, be devoted to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna be word nerds here for just a little bit and dig into it.
SPEAKER_01: The word devoted, that word means to persevere.
SPEAKER_01: It means constant readiness.
SPEAKER_01: Not like fit some prayer in and bow your head on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: It means to wait on.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is the picture like when you when you on anniversary night you go to that nice restaurant, like the restaurant where you don't have one waiter, you have like several.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know the system, but all you know is there's like several people coming at you at different moments, and you're starting to notice there's one guy, like there's the main guy who kind of comes and goes and checks on you, and there's the wine guy, and then there's like a drink guy.
SPEAKER_01: There's and and and then there's the guy who just sort of like stands to the side, and he's just watching, and he is ready at any moment.
SPEAKER_01: He is there to wait on constant readiness.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this word means, devoted, that you you are constantly ready.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not like I'm the I'm gonna, man, I'm just gonna like mope into the prayer booth once a week or I'm gonna lay my mat out three times a day.
SPEAKER_01: It's bigger than that.
SPEAKER_01: It could be that, but it's bigger, it's deeper.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a moment by moment.
SPEAKER_01: In the shower, your dressing, your driving, your traffic, in the meeting, in the hallway, the conversation, in the test.
SPEAKER_01: You're you're calling somebody, tough conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking back to when I had to call, you know, call for that first date and the rotary phone, right?
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the rotary phone before, right?
SPEAKER_01: Stick that finger, then you zip it up, and by that that last digit, Lord, if I ever needed you, I need you now.
SPEAKER_01: Let her dad not pick up.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want that conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Like you had to go through the parents to the girl, and you couldn't text them.
SPEAKER_01: You had to ask them, you had to man up, and you're praying on that last, that last one, and you are praying, Lord, I need you, right?
SPEAKER_01: We did we know we constant ready.
SPEAKER_01: Always constantly.
SPEAKER_01: And then the word prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So the word prayer means a place set apart.
SPEAKER_01: So the this is a so devoted means constantly ready, yet prayer means a place set apart.
SPEAKER_01: So devoted constantly waiting on prayer, a place set apart.
SPEAKER_01: So I love this putting these together because what this means is it means there are places in you that are set apart for union and for talking to God, and they're not for anybody else.
SPEAKER_01: That you should be have some part in you that is constantly waiting on and engaging, and it is set apart.
SPEAKER_01: So you can be in the conversation with your buddy or your boss or your boyfriend or your teacher, and there's this other conversation in a place that has been set apart.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why would you have to be devoted?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: It's just hard, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's never easy to humble yourself and ask for help.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't come naturally to let go of that garden hose and admit you're in need.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody loves being desperate, and nobody loves admitting they're broken.
SPEAKER_01: Yet you are.
SPEAKER_01: And I am.
SPEAKER_01: And so much of our lives are about self-protecting against it and pretending like it doesn't exist and it's not there.
SPEAKER_01: And to think that there's a place in you that could be secure enough in Jesus that you can just voice anything anytime, you can let it rip.
SPEAKER_01: An unbelievable privilege.
SPEAKER_01: What a freedom.
SPEAKER_01: It's just us saying to God, I'm not as I should be, but you are everything for me.
SPEAKER_01: And then prayer can become more like breathing and not like I have to get my act together before I pray something.
SPEAKER_01: And just all day you can voice your inabilities, you can voice what's going on, you can voice God to help you see clearer, you can voice what's going on inside of you or outside of you, you can voice your gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this passage talks about, voicing your gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: But most days we don't want to sing the song, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know the song.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: My one defense.
SPEAKER_00: My righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to sing that.
SPEAKER_01: We just don't want to sing anything most days.
SPEAKER_01: Or we just want to sing, Lord help me just need myself.
SPEAKER_01: Just put me in a position where I don't need you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Like, like, help me form a life where I no longer need you.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Singing prayers of trust and require brokenness and require us to go into fears and and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't know about that, right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I want that.
SPEAKER_01: This idea in this passage about being watchful.
SPEAKER_01: Like to be watchful like to today, what's going on today, because it's so easy to look into the future, and either you get escape into the future.
SPEAKER_01: That's me.
SPEAKER_01: I love to escape into the future.
SPEAKER_01: Escape into the future, or become anxious by the future.
SPEAKER_01: Or to look into the past and be so ashamed of the past.
SPEAKER_01: And most of us, we swing all around between these things.
SPEAKER_01: We carry these stories in us.
SPEAKER_01: We grew up with wounds, words spoken to us, or unspoken parents who didn't care, they neglected, they overprotected, they over-demanded, but to say being watchful.
SPEAKER_01: So today, today, live today, here, now, the goodness that is given to you today.
SPEAKER_01: Be watchful.
SPEAKER_01: Eyes open today.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the second point.
SPEAKER_01: Be watchful in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So watchful means cautious, active attention.
SPEAKER_01: Right now.
SPEAKER_01: Being watchful today helps us not sit in the shame of yesterday or the anxiety or escape for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And we all have this tendency.
SPEAKER_01: See, but here's the key.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, by remembering you are loved and secured in Jesus today, it helps us begin to properly deal with the shame of yesterday or the anxiety of tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than these things controlling you today.
SPEAKER_01: So be devoted to prayer, be watchful in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Third point, be thankful in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So at the retreat this week, you can tell I wrote the sermon while I was on the retreat.
SPEAKER_01: At the retreat this week, uh our room, well, our room had a foyer.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I mean that right away just kind of you know I don't often say places where my room has a four-year.
SPEAKER_01: So I mean you walked in, it's a beautiful archway, the room has like a four-year, and it's I mean, beautiful decorated huge room, and it had two beds, which was kind of cool because I go cuddle with Christy and then just spread out another bed.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that was nice, the 1950 style, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and beautiful, great room, huge windows, palm trees outside.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and you walk, you walk in and you're just like, you're so grateful, and somebody else is treating us.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: And you're just so grateful.
SPEAKER_01: Day one.
SPEAKER_01: Day two, you're like pretty grateful.
SPEAKER_01: The foyer thing's worn off.
SPEAKER_01: It just has your clothes are all kind of laying around.
SPEAKER_01: That extra chair in the corner, you know, you thought you were gonna have great quiet times.
SPEAKER_01: It's just stacked with stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Day three, you're like little grateful.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of normal at this point.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about when we normalize goodness that's been given to us.
SPEAKER_01: And we do it, I mean we do it with a job that came through out of nowhere, or a bonus we didn't see coming, or a friendship, somebody came to your rescue, or you know, somebody gave you a stack of Chick-fil-a coupons, and that first one you are so thankful for truit and what he's done, and then by the like 10th or 20th one, you're just going, I don't, I don't know, you know, just here you go.
SPEAKER_01: You know, just it's normal.
SPEAKER_01: It's just so easy to normalize goodness and forget to be grateful.
SPEAKER_01: There's this story in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter 8, and Moses is leading uh the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: So a little bit of history here.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites are in Egypt, and they're in, they're enslaved, and God is moving them out back to their land, back to Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord just provides for them over and over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's the Lord doing it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the storyline is so incredible.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God in this.
SPEAKER_01: And we get this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Hang with me as I read it, starting in verse 10 of Deuteronomy 8.
SPEAKER_01: When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God, for the good land he has given you.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws, and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase, and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land with its venomous snakes and scorpions.
SPEAKER_01: He brought you water out of hard rock, he gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known to humble and to test you, so that in the end it might go well with you.
SPEAKER_01: You may say to yourself, My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So it's so easy to say, I'm the cause, I'm the source, I'm the strength, I'm the man.
SPEAKER_01: But verse 18, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant which he swore to your forefathers as it is today.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses has one overarching point God's the provider of goodness.
SPEAKER_01: See it.
SPEAKER_01: Be watchful for it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Be watchful for it and thank him.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're to do when we live when we live today, is to see it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like I see that car, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I see that job, thank you, I see that paycheck, I see that child, I see that husband or that wife or that roommate or that friend, I see that food, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I see that health.
SPEAKER_01: I I I see that redemption through my illness.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I I see that I see that flower, I see that sky, I see that breath of fresh air.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I see that truth that I never thought I would ever embrace or learn or let it sink into my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We got back in town on Thursday and Friday morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting in my study and I'm reflecting back over all these discussions we had at the retreat, and a lot of kind of sort of discussing like how we grow up and how that's affecting how we live today and how we relate and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just thinking about my life and I have so much to be grateful for.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, even in like all the brokenness, the amount of redemption that's come out of it, I have so much to be grateful for.
SPEAKER_01: But then it hit me that in many ways I still don't trust the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's real spotty.
SPEAKER_01: And and that's why I get very anxious about things.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't need to trust him.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'll be your friend and I'll love you, but I'm gonna rely on me.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the charge can produce a lot of anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: For me, because I think, well, I'm gonna build it off my talent.
SPEAKER_01: You know, family, the health of my children is gonna the health of that's gonna be based on my intentionality.
SPEAKER_01: The security of my family is gonna be based on money.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And the pressure adds because I'm not tapping into any trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this loving, healing father above, the creator of my soul, the one who came in the form of a man, Jesus, to prove this love and show this love to us so we can understand it.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to free me and free you to be watchful, to see the goodness, and to be thankful for it.
SPEAKER_01: And when we begin to live this way, how healthy this is, how humbling this is, how freeing this is.
SPEAKER_01: So if we look back at this passage, what we see in this transition in this Colossians passage from verse 2 and to verse 3 and 4, we see the gospel and gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: It moves us beyond ourselves.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Like be watchful, be thankful, and then Paul says, and pray for me.
SPEAKER_01: And pray for the move of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So, hey, I see you, Paul.
SPEAKER_01: That you could see Paul, or you could see Cindy or Billy Joe or your neighbor or your coworker, or you could see the work that's going on in Marietta and pray for it, or in India, or Uganda, that you could see beyond yourself, but it's the gospel and it's gratitude that gets you beyond yourself.
SPEAKER_01: That you could begin to pray for that and have concern for that.
SPEAKER_01: I look at this passage, I really need this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Like to pray like breathing, because I'm messed up at every breath, and to learn to open my eyes to the good and the truth of today, and that I'm not controlled by yesterday or by tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe all of this, the passage just feels a little condemning.
SPEAKER_01: You go, well, be devoted to prayer, like I'm not doing too good at that one.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you clocked me, it's not going too well, or be caught like praying constantly, like that's a strong ask, or being thankful always?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's just impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we we can breathe easy, and here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because our awareness and our gratitude do not create the love and the goodness and the help God gives us.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't create it, it just creates our awareness of it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a freeing thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Our awareness and our gratitude do not create the love and the goodness and the help from God.
SPEAKER_01: It just creates our awareness of it.
SPEAKER_01: The goodness is already there.
SPEAKER_01: The position, your position in God, sealed and secured, is already, it's already over, it's already done.
SPEAKER_01: He's already for you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the Father already knows what you need before you pray it.
SPEAKER_01: It says that Jesus is interceding on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: He is for you.
SPEAKER_01: So remembering what's always true in chapters 1 and 2 of Colossians, remembering that, tuning into that.
SPEAKER_01: Just that He is loving us, and the work of Jesus is enough for us.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to use your prayers to earn this or to prove something.
SPEAKER_01: But your prayers can help you tap into an awareness of the goodness and the love that's always there.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayers clue us into this reality and help us remember and help us heal.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: God, we we stop to say thank you, thank you for the goodness in our lives, and some of us having uh quite tragic lives today.
SPEAKER_01: Circumstances are not good.
SPEAKER_01: Would you help us to see in the midst of tragedy little pieces of goodness that you have not left and that we are not alone?
SPEAKER_01: Many of us putting on the dinner jacket over and over and over again and quite exhausted, and we need to see your goodness and your grace in a way that would revolutionize our lives, that we could trust in your sufficiency and not in our work, and we would know greater freedom.
SPEAKER_01: And many of us just needing to be reminded this morning that you are so good to us, and you are enough.
SPEAKER_01: And whether we pray all day or we or we don't pray at all, that you're good to us, and Jesus' work is enough for us.
SPEAKER_01: And would you help create a heart in us that sets apart places in us that are watching and waiting and thanking you.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.