Why Pray?

I'm pleased to have a seat and let's in that spirit of surrender, let's come before God,

as we'll see in a short while, our Heavenly Father, and let's pray together as we come

to His Word.

Oh, our gracious, perfect, and loving Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening and

we recognize and we declare that you are in heaven and we are on earth.

And so as we turn to your Word now, Father, would you help us to see something more of

your greatness?

Oh, Lord, would we be struck just by how awesome you are?

And we ask these things, Lord, in the precious name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Well, it's great to be together this evening.

I hope you are well.

My name is Graham.

It's a joy to welcome you as well to church.

And you join us in an exciting time.

We're continuing on in the series that we started last week, looking at this series subject of

why we do the things that we do in church.

That was a mouthful.

Try that one again.

Why we do the things that we do in church.

And as I reflected on it this week, it struck me as a series that requires us to kind of

get reconnected with our inner two-year-old.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

Our little girl is Chloe.

She's one and a half just now.

And her favorite word at the minute is no.

So you'll ask her, Chloe, are you going to finish your dinner tonight?

No.

You Chloe coming for a bath?

No.

Chloe, do you want to read the story?

No.

No.

Chloe, are you saying no just because you like saying no?

No.

And you know what the next word that is coming in six months' time, don't you?

It's the word why.

Why, Daddy?

Why?

Why?

Now, I looked this up on the internet.

Don't ask me why I looked it up on the internet.

But I looked up whattoexpect.com.

Why do toddlers say why?

This is what it said.

Toddlers are innately and unendingly curious about the world.

And they want to better understand the things that they see, the things that they hear, and the things that they do.

Well, here we are this evening getting in touch with our inner two-year-old.

And we're asking the why question.

And we're asking the why question because we want to better understand the things that we do as a church.

And so here we are asking the why question of prayer tonight.

And I guess we're thinking about it corporately, in a corporate dimension.

That is, why as a church body, as a community of believers here, why do we pray?

Because on paper, isn't it, it's such a big part of what we're about as a church community.

It's plastered all over our website, if you care to look.

It's fundamental to our mission statement.

It's even plastered on the wall, if you look at it there, our vision diagram, if you like, transformation.

We'll commit ourselves to prayer, to words, and to fellowship.

So we'll devote ourselves to seeking God in prayer.

We pray at our Sunday gatherings.

We have a prayer meeting as a church once a month.

We pray in our small groups.

We pray as we meet up to read the Bible together one-on-one.

As a church, on paper, we're about prayer.

But I wonder if you're like me, and as you reflect on your commitment to prayer,

as you reflect on the fact that prayer is meant to be fundamental to our life as a church,

and as you reflect on the question, rather, why do we do prayer?

And so often I find that my attitude to prayer is a bit like doing the recycling.

So every morning I leave the house.

There's normally an empty toilet roll.

There's an empty carton of juice sitting at the door.

And my job really is just to take it out before I go and to put it in the recycling.

And Edinburgh Council have got these beautiful red recycling bins.

And every morning in the bit of recycling goes into a recycling box.

And I'm constantly told it's a good thing.

Constantly told it's a good thing.

I'm flyered all the time by Edinburgh Council telling me that it's a good thing.

And I love the irony that I take that flyer and I put it straight into recycling.

I'm told it's a good thing.

I do it because I think it's a good thing.

But as I found myself asking myself the other day,

as I took out yet another empty yogurt carton,

why am I doing this again?

It's become so routine.

Why am I doing this again?

It's kind of like our prayer lives.

It's not individually but also corporately as a church.

Scripture is, well we're told it's a good thing.

Scripture is full of exhortations.

God summoning his people to seek him in prayer,

to understand who they are,

to understand who he is and to seek him in prayer.

Scripture tells us it's a good thing.

And so we try our best to carry it out,

to devote ourselves to prayer.

But how often as we go through the motions,

do we neglect to stop and to reflect on why we're doing the thing that we're doing?

Well here we are in our short time this evening

and looking at this subject of prayer.

And really I want us to focus on the why question.

Why do we pray?

And this evening I want to lead us towards

and suggest one answer to that question

that has two elements to it.

Why do we give ourselves to prayer?

Well we give ourselves to prayer firstly

because of who God is.

And secondly, why do we give ourselves to prayer?

We give ourselves to prayer because of who we are.

And I guess my hope is we look at these things tonight

in this short time.

That we wouldn't leave here feeling blue.

I don't know how many sermons I've heard in prayer

that just make me feel awful that I'm not praying.

And I come away thinking, right, that's it.

I'm going to do better.

I'm getting up at the alarms going on at five o'clock tomorrow morning

and I'm going to get up and I'm going to do it

and it's going to be three hours in prayer

before I go to work in the morning.

And then as I hit that alarm snooze for the sixth time,

I think to myself, I'm hopeless at this.

And I leave the day and I start the day feeling dejected.

Dejected.

Well, if that's our feeling as we leave this evening,

then I think we've failed and I've failed.

Where I want us to be this evening

is to spur us on to pray as a church

as we think about the grandeur of the God who we come before.

And that our heart's cry would be,

man, I get to pray.

And very closely followed by that,

boy, do I need to pray.

So can I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 6 and to verse 5?

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

This is where we're going to just camp out this evening

just for our short time together.

And Matthew chapter 6, verse 5,

Matthew 6:5

what is widely known the world over as the Lord's Prayer?

Such familiar words.

And we all know the danger of being familiar with something,

don't we?

The danger of being familiar with something

is that so often that turns into neglect.

Now, I know this every day of my life

because my walk to work in the morning to the office

is from that side of Princess Street

right up here to the office.

And every morning, I walk past Princess Street.

I walk past the mound.

I walk past the castle.

I walk past St. Giles Cathedral.

I walk past the meadows.

I walk through the university to get to Brunsfield.

I don't even take it in.

And it takes, all it takes is one visitor

from outside Edinburgh to come to our flat

to hang out with us for a bit.

And they say, man, you live here?

You get to walk past the castle every day?

You get to walk through the meadows every day?

Boy, I want to live here.

And you're thinking to yourself,

I haven't even noticed that I walk past those things every day.

It was not like that with the Lord's Prayer.

Such familiar words.

But I guess my plea as we come to it this evening

is that this would become so fresh

and that we would put neglect aside, familiarity aside.

We would come to it afresh

because there's so much gold to dig for in these verses

and so much help for us

as we seek to understand that question of why do we pray?

So all that aside,

that should have allowed you time to get to Matthew 5,

that little story.

Here we are, Matthew chapter 6 rather.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus teaching his disciples to pray.

Now this isn't a sporadic teaching of Jesus.

It's part of a sermon.

It's part of a sermon that we call

the Sermon on the Mount.

And you'll see it in chapter 5 and verse 1

if you flick back a page.

Jesus' disciples have come to him on the mountain.

They've come to him.

And Jesus is teaching them what a kingdom life looks like.

What life in his kingdom means.

And what it means to be a follower of this king.

And as you read it through,

you see Jesus touch on these different aspects of life.

And he's telling them not to do certain things.

And he's telling them to do certain things.

And what he does is he contrasts the way

that the world behaves and acts

against how people in his kingdom are to behave and act.

And what he sees, you read it through,

is how polar opposites the way his kingdom followers

are to live compared to the world.

How they are to think.

How they are to value things.

How they are to long after things.

Their desires.

They're to be completely different

to what the world goes after.

To follow this king

requires you to have a God-centered frame of mind.

Not a man-centered one.

And so to solidify his teaching

and to get it inside the minds of his disciples,

he gives them this model of prayer.

And it's really split into two parts.

Maybe we could get it on the screen.

Firstly, at verses 9 and 10,

Jesus is teaching them things about truths,

about who God is.

And at verses 11, 12, and 13,

he's teaching them stuff about who they are.

So I thought it would be beneficial

to read verses 9 and 10 firstly out loud together

as we think about

what Jesus is teaching his disciples

about who God is.

So let's read this together.

You can take my cue.

This then is how you should pray.

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So what has the Lord's Prayer got to teach us

about why we pray?

Was, so often as we noted,

there's a clear progression to the Lord's Prayer.

There's a deliberate progression to the Lord's Prayer.

It starts with who God is

before it moves to who we are.

So it starts with God and his glory

before it moves to man and his need.

And that is no accident

and that is no coincidence.

Because Jesus is teaching his disciples

that it's only by understanding rightly who God is

that you can understand rightly who you are.

So by teaching them this prayer,

what is Jesus teaching his disciples

about who God is?

Well, A.W. Tozer,

a famous theologian from yesteryear,

famously said this,

and think upon these words.

What first comes into our minds

when we think about God

is the most important thing about us.

What first comes into our minds

when we think about God

is the most important thing about us.

So there we are.

Take 10 seconds.

What is it,

as you think of God,

as I think of God,

what is it that comes to mind?

Jesus is teaching his disciples here

that they should pray

because of who God is.

How does he start it?

Our Father in heaven.

Who is this God?

Firstly, see where he is.

He is in heaven.

He doesn't get tired.

He doesn't sleep.

He isn't taken by surprise.

He doesn't have a beginning

and he doesn't have an end.

Rather, he is the all-powerful one.

He is the all-knowing one.

He is the ever-present one.

He is the creator of all things

and he is the sustainer of all things.

He is the one who is over all things

and he is the one who is above all things.

And he is in heaven.

And we come before him in reverence and awe,

the response appropriate

as we gaze upon his holiness.

Now, we were driving up to church this morning.

I was driving the car

with the girls in the back.

And I very, very quickly went from 30 straight down

to 10 miles an hour.

Do you know why I did that?

Because the sun was so bright.

Did anyone else notice that this morning?

Out and about, about 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock.

The sun was so bright.

And it caused me to slow down

because I could not handle the light.

Here is a God of blinding holiness.

And he is in heaven.

And he is singing the cosmos to do its thing.

And we are on earth.

He is the creator and we are the creatures.

And as we come face to face with who he is,

we soon find ourselves on our knees before him

in awe and wonder and majesty

because he is the awesome God.

He's the awesome God.

And what is his relationship to us?

Distant spectator?

Nope.

Ruthless dictator?

Nope.

How is he described as heavenly father?

In fact, if you scan your eyes over verses 5 to 15,

you'll see that Jesus uses that word father six times.

God is a father.

God is a perfect father.

He is a good father.

It's the word Abba.

Now, whatever that word,

whatever the precise usage of that word

in that particular culture,

surely the main point that Jesus is making

is that the relationship between God and his people

is one of intimacy and access.

That he is a God who speaks to his people.

He is a God who cares for his people.

He is a God who acts for the good of his people.

He is a God who has acted to save his people.

And he is a God who knows intimately his people.

And he is a God who has sent his spirit to live inside his people.

Do you see what Jesus is saying here?

The God in heaven is not cold and he's not distant.

He is a gracious and good father.

That's the kind of relationship that this God has with his people.

And as we think about that,

what an amazing mystery.

Is it not?

That the almighty God of heaven would look on us?

And because of his son, Jesus Christ,

as Jesus shed his blood on the cross,

making a way for you and I to be made right with this heavenly God,

this holy God, this righteous God.

And God, because of Jesus, he adopts us.

And he calls us sons and daughters of this holy God.

What a mind-boggling joy that the God that we address in prayer

is holy and we are unholy,

is in heaven and we are on earth.

And yet he is our father.

And as we pray through the son, by the spirit,

we can call on him as our father,

our father in heaven.

Oh, that our Christian lives may never get past

the mind-boggling nature of those four words,

our father in heaven.

And the only response from us is hallowed be your name.

The word hallowed there, the verb,

it's the cry of a transformed heart

that beats for God's glory and says,

God, because you're so great,

I want the whole world to know that you are great.

I want you to make yourself great in my life,

in our lives, in our lands.

We want people in our city to see your greatness, God,

in our world of darkness, in our world of suffering.

Would you make your name great?

And would your kingdom,

would it come to this land and would it rule

and would it reign?

Oh, father, would you come here?

Would you save lost men and women in this city to yourself

as they hear the news of Jesus Christ,

but not just in this city?

Oh, father, would you do it in the whole world?

Do you see the truth for us there?

The truth for us there is that knowing God rightly,

it fuels worship.

That knowing God rightly,

it fuels mission.

And knowing God rightly,

it fuels prayer.

And as we learn about God,

as we encounter him,

as he speaks to us in his words,

and as his spirit transforms us.

And I think there's a real corporate element,

dimension to what Jesus is saying here.

I mean, he could have quite easily said,

pray my father in heaven,

but what does he say?

Pray our father in heaven.

It reminds us, doesn't it,

that this is the prayer of God's people corporately,

called to seek God together,

not just in this church,

but with God's people around the world.

Is that an amazing thing,

that we join in this prayer with the saints across the globe?

Isn't it amazing to think we are part of something

so much bigger than this area,

this postcode,

so much bigger than this city,

so much bigger than this nation,

so much bigger than this island.

We are part of something,

God's amazing plan to rescue a people

for himself across the globe.

And so Jesus begins this prayer

by focusing on the greatness of God.

The disciples, that is where your gaze needs to be.

It starts with him, it doesn't start with you.

It's an amazing truth, it starts with him,

it doesn't start with us.

He is the orbit in which we are operating,

not the other way around.

Jesus is calling his disciples here

to have a God-centered view of life.

And once you have your vision of God,

your Father,

defined and clarified,

then you can begin to understand

who you are rightly.

And here's the second big thing

we need to see tonight.

Why do we pray?

We pray because of who we are.

Why don't we read verses 11, 12 and 13 together?

This is what Jesus proceeds

to tell his disciples to pray.

Let's read this together.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our debts

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

Now, I don't know if you're a fan

of The Apprentice.

Apprentice on TV.

I can't stand strictly.

But I can kind of stomach The Apprentice.

So Alex, my wife and I,

were watching The Apprentice the other night.

And it's that wonderful mixture

of being ludicrous and compelling

at the same time.

I don't know if you find that.

So we're watching The Apprentice.

We're getting to know the,

I was going to say characters here,

but contestants is probably

the right word, isn't it?

Getting to know the contestants.

So after we watch this,

I'm straight on the website, BBC,

looking at their profiles.

And each of them have got

their own little profile quote

of who they are

and why they should win The Apprentice.

This is Samuel.

This is his quote on his profile.

My creativity, my passion,

my charm, and my likability

all roll into one.

And they create the perfect guy.

I mean, that is beautiful, isn't it?

But it's a snapshot into the life

and the mindset of our world.

We live self-sufficient lives.

I mean, what do they call New York?

The city that never sleeps.

And you know the mottos of our age,

don't you?

People say,

you make your own luck in this world.

We talk about self-made men and women.

We act like we're immortal.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

That's what we say as well, isn't it?

This idea that somehow we have got

all the answers to life.

What does Jesus do in these verses?

What does he teach his disciples

about themselves?

What does he draw their attention to?

Unlike the world,

he draws their attention to their need.

Their need.

Very quickly, three aspects of their needs.

What do they need?

Firstly, their need of bread.

The daily things that they need for life.

Those things that originate from God

and come from his gracious and good hands.

God is the one who makes the sun rise every morning.

He is the one that makes the harvest grow.

He is the one who sustains you.

He is the one who provides for you.

You see, Jesus is teaching them here

to have a heart of dependence

and thankfulness and humility.

Let me ask us this evening

as a corporate church body,

do you find yourselves,

do we find ourselves humble this evening?

Do we find ourselves thinking

that we are dependent on God for anything?

It's a big challenge, isn't it?

Or have we grown so accustomed

to God's daily mercies to us?

It's thankfulness, dependence, humility,

three great traits of the true disciple.

This is what Jesus is teaching his disciples here.

Secondly, Jesus draws their attention

for their need of forgiveness.

That they need always to be

examining their own hearts,

confessing their failures and their sin

against the holy gods

and recognizing that he is gracious

and that he is compassionate,

that he is merciful.

And that because of Jesus,

it's because Jesus took their sins on him,

that they know that because of Jesus,

they are cleansed from all unrighteousness.

And do you see how Jesus so tightly

knits our relationship with God,

with our relationships with others?

That knowing that we have been forgiven

with outrageous grace

should affect how we relate with others

and show that same grace to them.

Because this community prayer

should lead us to community action.

That we seek to love one another,

that we seek to encourage one another,

that we seek to make every effort

to be right with one another,

and that we seek to build one another up,

that we seek to deal with issues

that arise between one another

for the glory of God.

You know,

let me ask us this evening,

is there anything that we need to do

to make ourselves right?

Right with God

and right with others?

Is there bitterness in your own heart

against a fellow brother or sister?

Is there unconfessed stuff

that's going on in your life

that's holding you back

from pursuing a walk with God?

What's Jesus teaching them?

That they need forgiveness.

And thirdly,

very quickly,

thirdly,

they need protection.

It's a confession,

isn't it,

that says,

Lord,

I know my sinful heart.

I know that I'm prone to wander.

I know I drift.

There's a reason that in the Bible

we refer to as sheep.

And so,

Father,

by your Spirit living in me,

would you direct my every step?

Would you capture my every thought?

Would you direct my every glance?

Would you put into action

every action that I do today

for your glory?

Would you deliver me from evil?

Would you protect me

from the onslaught of Satan

who would do his utmost

to cause me to stumble?

I would try and direct my attention,

my gaze,

away from you.

I need you,

Heavenly Father.

I need you.

We need bread.

We need to be right with God

and one another.

And we need to be protected.

Let me ask us this evening,

do we even think

that we need anything?

Before we came to Brunsfield

five or so years ago,

we spent a bit of time,

my wife and I,

working in a Christian hospital

in Malawi.

And as a hospital team,

we used to have devotionals

every morning.

And we used to read

our Bible together

every morning.

And then,

to my surprise,

certainly the first time

I ever did this devotional thing,

everybody stands

and everybody belts out a song.

And the song that they used to sing,

and they sang it pretty much every day,

went like this.

Give me power,

Lord Jesus,

give me power.

Lord Jesus,

give me power,

every hour to be strong.

Oh,

give me power.

And this went on

about six times.

I felt like the CD

was on skip.

It just kept going back.

But I sat there

and I thought,

this is so strange.

This is so strange.

And as I reflected on it,

the reason I thought

it was strange

was because of my

complacent mindset.

My comfortable life,

my Western thoughts,

my affluence

had taught me to sing,

and this is shameful,

I've got the power.

Lord Jesus,

I've got the power.

I've got the power

for every hour

to keep me strong.

Let me ask you this evening

and let me ask

me this evening.

Do we think

we've got

the power?

Do we think

we've got the answers?

Do we think

that we can do this

on our own?

Because we put on

nice events

and we've got

a lovely church website

and we have

nice Bible studies

and we've got

lovely coffee.

We can function

as a church.

My prayer this week

has been,

O Lord,

would you rid us

of our complacency?

Would you rid us

of believing the lie

that our busy lives,

the fact that we run

from here to there,

that we do thing

after thing,

task after task,

is an excuse

for failing to stop

and seeking you

in prayer.

Martin Luther,

he famously wrote

in his diary,

I have so much

to do today

that it leaves me

with little option

but to spend

the first three hours

of my day

in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

would you convict us

that we need you?

We need you

every hour

of every day

and we need your power.

As we move

towards a close

this evening,

let me just tell you

how this has worked

out in my life

this week.

I think it's only

been this week

that the news

of John and Aileen

moving on

come Christmas time

has actually hit

and has really

began to sink in

and people are

coming up to me

all the time

and you'll probably

say it after this

as well,

but people come up

to me all the time.

Graham,

asking me and the elders,

Graham,

what's happening?

What's happening?

What's happening

after Christmas?

What's happening?

Who's coming?

Do you want me to be honest?

Don't know.

I just don't know.

We don't know.

But here's the really

interesting thing.

Let me tell you,

I'm praying a lot more

this week than I was

last week.

A lot more this week

than I was last week.

Why?

Because I am so

out of my depth.

I've never experienced

anything like this before.

I am so out of my depth.

And then we come to

Wednesday night

as a church.

We gather to pray

and it is the best

attended prayer meeting

I think I've ever been to

in four and a half years here.

So well attended.

Why is it so well attended?

Because we know

we're out of depth.

We don't know

what's going to happen.

Now two reflections

on that.

One,

that's a great thing.

Let us seek the Lord

in this like we've never

sought him before.

If ever there was a time

for us

to get together

as a people

and be united

and be purposeful

in prayer

than it's now.

Because we don't know.

We don't know.

But what a tremendous

comfort

that we come

to pray to one

who knows the end

from the beginning.

Who knows all things.

Who is not taken

surprise by anything.

And we can come

before him

and we can pray

to him

and call him

father.

And to see signs

that we are doing that

as a church

can I just say

is a massive encouragement.

Let's keep going

for that

at every opportunity.

A second reflection.

If my feeling

way out my depth

this week

has stirred me to pray

and it stirred us

to pray

then what does that

reveal about my

heart attitude

two weeks ago?

What does it say?

That I didn't pray.

It tells me

that I felt

very much in my depth.

I can do these things.

I've got it covered.

I know what I'm doing.

Yeah I'll get to pray

if I ever get to it

but we've kind of

got it sussed.

Like Lord it's nice

that I know you're there

but I'm kind of

doing alright here.

And as I thought

about that this week

as I thought about it

I thought about

my complacency

the reason

that I was doing that

is because I lost sight

of who God is

and I lost sight

of who I am.

Well brothers and sisters

as we come to a close

this evening

let us be those

who pray.

Let us be a people

who devote ourselves

to prayer

because we know

who our God is

and let's be a people

who devote ourselves

to prayer

because we know

who we are.

And as we close

let me just read you

some words

from this wonderful book

I've been reading

over the past few days.

It's called

Sounds from Heaven.

I don't know if anybody

here has read it

but it's a collection

of stories

and testimonies

about the great revival

that happened up in Lewis

up in the Highlands of Scotland

in the 1950s.

This mighty work of God

where many men

and women

gave their lives

to Jesus Christ.

Let me just read to you

how this Christian community

in this island

this tiny island

of Scotland

is described.

This is a testimony

from the time.

This is how this community

is described.

It was a community

at prayer

said Margaret MacLeod.

What a statement.

Others agreed with me

the Christians

were praying.

In 1949

everyone who was

truly longing for God

was seeking the Lord

for an outpouring

of the Holy Spirit.

The Christians

were praying.

Prayer was spontaneous.

As people visited

each other in their homes

they would pray

and then they would

continue on

until they felt

they had got through

to God.

A huge volume of prayer

ascended from Christian folk

all over the Barvis area

for revival.

The place

was soaked

in prayer.

It became

a way of life

to seek the Lord

for his mercy.

And then let me read

to you the author

as he reflects

on all these things

and he looks at

his current generation

which I guess

is almost our generation

what he sees

as he reflects

on these things.

The testimonies

glow with an

indescribable warmth

and the reality

of their experience

is there for all to see.

The gospel

is so clear.

God manifest

among his people

is a thrilling reality

and the power

of the Holy Spirit

in the midst

convicting,

constraining,

converting,

confirming,

comforting

causes the reader

to bend before God

in awe and adoration

in love and consecration

in wonder and amazement.

One senses

the powerful

operation

of the Holy Spirit.

But when we review

our own lack

of burden,

our dim understanding

of God's mighty working,

oh we can but cry

to God

to engulf us

with flood tides

of divine refreshing

and bring reviving

streams to all of us

sweeping sinners

into the kingdom.

So let us read,

ponder,

reflect

and humble ourselves,

pray and seek

God's face

and turn

from our wicked ways

and surely

he will hear

from heaven,

forgive our sin

and heal

our poor land.

Oh that our community

here at Brunsfield

would be described

as a community

that was soaked

in prayer.

That we would be

a people

who know

who our God is

and that we would be

a people

who know

who we are.

So I thought

it would be only

right tonight

and fitting

and a great way

to respond to this

to have an open

time of prayer

as we respond

to the Lord's Prayer.

Johnny,

can we have it

back on the screen?

And really the Lord's Prayer

splits into five,

well there's five words

if you want to remember

it like this.

There's Father,

there's hallowed,

there's forgive,

there's give

and there's lead.

So five words.

So what I'd love us

to do is we pray

corporately tonight

as we respond

to the Lord's Prayer.

Maybe if five people

want to lead us

in praying

for those five things.

Father,

hallowed,

forgive,

give and lead.

Why don't we just

stand up

if you want to pray

and just belt it out

and we'll do this together.

But this is a community

prayer this evening

and once we've finished

I'll close

and we'll stand

to sing

our final song.

Let's pray together.

Father,

so we thank you

Heavenly Father

that we can call you

Father.

What an amazing mystery.

Oh, by your grace

we ask that you would

fill each of us here,

Father,

you would fill us

as a church community

with a fresh passion

to see your name

hallowed in our land

and in our lives.

Oh Father,

would you make yourself

great

and we pray these things

in Jesus' name.

Amen.