DEVOTION TO PRAYER

It doesn't rate in my top 10 of all-time favourite movies.

That's because I've actually never watched it.

That's because I saw the shorts and decided not to watch it.

But it did, however, win a 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture.

It's called Driving Miss Daisy.

It doesn't rate up there amongst my all-time favourites.

There's no guns from what I understood in the shorts,

and Clint Eastwood doesn't star in it, so it doesn't rate for me.

But it is apparently a good movie, from what I understand.

I've read all about it and so on and so forth.

There is, throughout the movie, an undercurrent of racial tensions in the movie.

But the main plot is the developing relationship between the two main characters.

The two main characters are Miss Daisy, a stubborn 72-year-old widow,

and her African-American driver, Hoke.

Miss Daisy has an accident because she puts her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake.

I mean, that's the sort of thing that can happen at any time.

You see it occasionally, they pop up in the newspaper.

And no insurance company will touch her.

And so she has to get a driver in order to drive her around.

And she hates the thought of losing her independence.

She wants nothing to do with Hoke.

In fact, on one occasion, she angrily blurts out to him,

I don't need you, I don't want you, I don't like you.

However, over the years, their relationship develops.

And the film ends, the movie ends on Thanksgiving Day in a retirement village where Miss Daisy now lives.

It's sort of 25 years since they first met.

Miss Daisy is 97, Hoke is 81.

And Hoke is visiting Miss Daisy.

And he notices that she has not eaten her pumpkin pie, which is tradition on Thanksgiving Day.

And she tries to pick it up with her fork, but he gently takes the plate from her and her fork from her.

And he says, let me help you with it.

And he cuts a small piece of the pie off and he gently feeds her.

And she's delighted, it tastes great.

And then he gets another piece and feeds her and then another piece and feeds her.

And the film ends with a car apparently fading in the background, sort of making all the connections come together.

What the film does, it documents the wonderful transformation of their relationship

from a refusal to be dependent on Hoke, the driver, to a delightful dependence upon him for even a piece of pie.

And the movie portrays beautifully, I think, the journey of the Christian life.

It is a journey from self-reliance and independence to God-reliance and dependence.

It's a journey from self-confidence and strength to God-confidence and a humbling and acknowledgement of our utter total weakness in everything.

And so we have this core value as a church called devotion to prayer.

And this core value makes a statement as a church, it's a statement to God, to the world, even to our own consciences,

that we exist to do things that we cannot do without the supernatural grace of God.

It's a statement, devotion to prayer is a statement that says we are weak and our confidence is in the supreme majesty of God and his goodness.

We are totally dependent upon God for everything, no matter how big or small.

St. Paul's as a church exists mainly to do the humanly impossible.

Everything good, everything worthwhile, everything eternal and God-glorifying that we want to do as a church,

we cannot do without the supernatural grace of God.

And it is pride and it is arrogance where we think we can build the church, we can see ministry flourish,

we can see people come to Christ just by putting in the right strategies, saying the right words,

having the right programs in place, even the right people leading the programs in place.

Our culture is a culture of independence.

And when we let that culture permeate the church, you have pride and arrogance.

And Ephesians 6, this is why we're reading this passage for us tonight,

Ephesians 6 verse 12 puts all of our ministry visions and plans and activities in their rightful context.

Ephesians 6:12

It says, and you should have Bibles open at this point, Ephesians 6 verse 12,

Ephesians 6:12

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms.

The context in which we're gathering right here, right now at 6.42 on a Sunday afternoon,

and the context in which we seek as a church to labour, to know, to treasure and to represent Jesus is a battlefield.

We're in the middle of a long and protracted wall.

And I suspect that most of us, when we came to church tonight, never even had that on our radar.

You know, we didn't jump into a sort of Humvee with a big gun on the back of it, fighting our way to church.

It's difficult for us to understand as we sit here in church, in this building in Chatswood,

in the most affluent city of the luckiest country during the longest period of peace that we've known.

It doesn't seem like a battlefield, but what did I say last week?

What I said last week is that what the Bible does for it,

what God, who is ultimate reality, helps us to see things the way they actually are.

And that's what the Bible does.

And so here, Paul helps us to see reality.

He helps us to see things the way they are.

So verse 10 of Ephesians 6 opens with the word finally.

Now it's not Paul signalling that he's getting to his final point of his letter.

You know, finally, this is my last point.

Everyone goes, breathe a sigh of relief.

It's nearly supper time.

The word is better translated for the remaining time.

Paul is making a statement in his final verses that the whole of the remaining time before Christ returns will be characterized by conflict,

tension and hardship for the Christian and for the church.

And frankly, this should not be a surprise for us.

We've just finished going through the book of Revelation.

Revelation deals, a whole chunk of Revelation in the middle there, deals with this cosmic war that rages until Christ comes and finishes it all.

And so our expectation of the Christian life and Christian ministry is that it will not be easy.

It will be hard work.

Verse 12 says that the war that we're engaged in is not against flesh and blood.

It is a supernatural war.

It is therefore futile if we fight this war by and in our own strength.

We're involved in a battle with a formidable enemy.

And Paul is quite specific about our enemy.

He says our struggle is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world,

and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

And so if we attempt in any sense to try and spread the influence of the kingdom of God,

that is to see people in Chatswood to know, treasure, and represent Jesus,

we try and spread that influence by using conventional human tactics and wisdom,

that is we trade strength with strength and sarcasm with sarcasm and cunning with cunning and manipulation with manipulation and power with power,

we will lose.

Our opponents are too great.

You see, the devil and his angels are a great demonic enemy with a defined and disciplined chain of command.

And even though he doesn't possess anything like the power of God himself, Satan is still terribly powerful.

He can only be at one place at one time, but with his army of evil spirits,

he imitates God's presence everywhere and he imitates God's power over all things.

And he imitates God because he desires to be God more than anything else.

And it's that desire to be God, which is at the center of his terrible total spiritual evil.

Verse 12 alludes to this by describing the enemy as the power of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.

So there are plenty of people in history who have gone pretty low in terms of perpetrating evil.

You can think of a few, you know, Stalin and Hitler and a bunch of others like that.

But they're not even coming close to Satan's evil.

You see, Satan has no conscience.

He has no compassion.

He has no remorse.

He has no morals.

He feeds on pain and anguish and filth.

He is supremely cunning.

Verse 11 speaks of the devil's schemes or the devil's methods, if you like.

And he's been honing his schemes and his methods for millennia.

He is an accomplished philosopher and theologian and psychologist.

He has studied for thousands of years enough time to be astonishingly brilliant at every discipline.

He is the ultimate manipulator and subverter and actor.

And 2 Corinthians 11 says that one of his deadly methods is he masquerades as an agent of God.

He sets himself up.

He presents himself as one on God's side.

Whatever his tactic, he seldom attacks openly.

His strategies, which are administered by his devils and nearly always unseen, shrewd and perfectly tailored for the victim.

He operates best when he can convince people and even God's people that he doesn't exist or that he's not powerful.

And can persuade us that life, in fact, is not a battle.

He is evil beyond our comprehension and without conscience or principle.

He is diabolically cunning and he is against us.

He hates Christ.

He hates God's children.

He hates the church.

He hates the mission of St. Paul's Chatswood to see Jesus known, treasured and represented in such a way

that more and more people are rescued from his evil clutches.

He hates the plans that we have to go deeper together in fellowship with Christ,

to serve each other in love and to connect better in our community for the glory of God.

He hates what we're doing with our building project right now.

He hates the establishment of ICS.

He will do whatever he can to destroy the work of the gospel in your life.

That is Paul's cosmic perspective.

With all its chilling implications.

See the value of prayer so far?

And frankly, all would be despair except that it's only part of Paul's cosmic perspective.

You see, on earth, amongst mortals, Satan has no equal.

You don't match him in power.

Not even close.

But in the heavenly realms, on the other hand, he is far exceeded by the triune God.

Colossians 1 and 2 says that the entire spiritual realm owes its existence to Christ.

Thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, invisible and visible in heaven and on earth.

And so Christ is not only more powerful by virtue of the fact that he created Satan,

but because he also defeated Satan at the cross.

He has sealed Satan's doom.

Although in this present age, he still exercises control over those who have not found freedom in Christ.

And for those of us, and this is a warning, for those of us who neglect Christ's resources

and rely upon our own strength and human wisdom, we place ourselves in harm's way.

When we decide to take matters into our own hands, rather than patiently relying upon God,

we take matters into our own hands, we place ourselves in harm's way.

And so what are we to do?

That's what the rest of this section is about here.

In Ephesians 6.

Paul leaves us with two commands that dominate his advice in this last letter, verse of the letter.

The first is in verse 10.

It says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

That is, for the remaining time, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

And this command is in fact a passive command.

That is, it says, be made strong in the Lord.

In other words, don't find your strength in yourself.

Be made strong in the Lord.

Find your strength in Christ.

We are totally dependent upon Christ.

The power is his.

The victory is his.

And without his strength and his victory, we will falter and we will fall.

And yet, we still need to pursue being made strong in him.

And so what Paul does here is he sort of expresses here a proper combination of divine enabling and human cooperation.

And he does it again in verse 11, where he says, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

So if your aim is to persevere in the Christian life and not be defeated by the cunning schemes of the devil, then you must put on the armor, take up the weapons as described here in these verses.

The armor is meant to protect us from the attack of the evil one.

And it's really simple.

Truth, verse 14.

Righteousness, verse 14.

The gospel of peace, verse 15.

Faith in 16.

Salvation in 17.

And the weapon is the word of God in verse 17.

All things referred to earlier in Ephesians as gifts coming to us from Jesus himself.

Now, when you look at Ephesians 6 and you see this bigger picture of the Christian soldier in the armor of God, they look pretty formidable.

It's like you've got the whole armor on, the helmet, the breastplates, and all of a sudden, your big sword, and you feel like you're 10 foot tall.

Sort of like I do when you give me a big gun.

I feel like a whole bigger man than what I actually am without a gun.

That's what happens in movies as well, I think.

It kind of feels a bit like that.

And that's kind of what this soldier can feel like.

Because they've dressed up, formidable image, and there's a call to action.

And so the soldier gets ready for action.

They've got their sword, they've got all their armor, and then they do something incredibly amazing here.

They fall to their knees and they pray.

Now, that doesn't mean that there's no action.

It means that every action of this soldier, dressed out, ready for this formidable battle, is that every aspect of it is bathed in prayer.

You see, prayer isn't just another one of the bits of the armor.

It's just not another sort of weapon you've got.

It's meant to pervade everything, all aspects of the cosmic wall that the disciple of the Lord Jesus is engaged in.

But there is a temptation here, I think.

You know, you've got truth, you've got salvation.

You know, I'm a Christian.

I've got my theology worked out.

Come into a good church.

And you start to think, I can fight this battle.

In the same way, I feel like I'm pretty much indestructible when you've got a 308 strapped over your shoulder.

I feel like I'm pretty indestructible here.

And yet, in verse 19, we see that's not Paul's temptation.

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.

Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.

Now, let's be frank here.

If ever there was a fearless and competent soldier in the cosmic battle, it would have to be Paul.

You see, he's the Chuck Norris of the early apostles.

That's his picture, or the Clint Eastwood, or the John Wayne, depending how old you are.

This is Paul.

He's an awesome figure as an apostle of the Lord Jesus.

Wrote one third of the New Testament, planted churches all over the Middle East, spread the gospel as far as you can imagine.

He stood before people like Felix and Agrippa, officials of Rome, soldiers and commanders.

And he fearlessly spoke the gospel.

And he says here, I can't do that without your prayers.

He says, I am fearful that I would lose courage and I would fail in the pressure of this battle.

And so he asked them to pray for him.

I need your prayers that I would be fearless in this battle.

And that's why he instructs them in verse 18.

To pray in the Spirit at all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints, including me, the Apostle Paul.

Now, the prayer he's calling for here is comprehensive.

We're to pray on all occasions.

That means it's both regular and it's constant.

And what he's calling us to do here as Christians who have been adorned with the armor,

he's calling us to consistently be praying.

Adopt an attitude of prayerful dependence on God for everything in their life.

That's why he says pray with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Being alert and always keep on praying because you don't want to give up.

You don't want to fall asleep.

Prayer is essential.

And if prayer is so essential for Paul in this cosmic battle, I seriously have to ask the reason.

Is the reason why we're losing ground, particularly in the Western church,

has it got anything to do with the lack of genuine prayer and commitment to prayer?

Have we got comfortable?

It's my conviction that we are weak because we do not pray as we ought.

As American theologian Joel Beeky says, the greatest prayer problem with the church is prayerless praying.

And prayerless praying is where we don't really see our need and our dependence upon God,

but we just mouth it anyway.

It's where we can articulate real and right knowledge and needs,

but actually don't give ourselves up to God,

pour our hearts out to God,

as if we actually needed God to act in order for there to be a victory.

Prayerless praying is mouthing words without a heart or an attitude of prayerfulness.

It's praying,

Lord, give me today my daily bread.

But having a fridge full of food,

not really needing to pour my heart out to God,

because I know there's some in the freezer.

I pray the prayer,

but do I really, truly believe

that God provides for my needs every single day

and without his provision,

it doesn't exist.

It doesn't happen.

That's prayerless praying.

Mouthing the right words,

but with a heart that says,

I'm not really dependent.

The other problem with prayer is a lack of prayer altogether.

Because a non-existent prayer life means that I'm self-righteous

because I don't confess my sins to God.

It means I'm ungrateful because I do not give thanks to God.

It means I'm presumptuous

because I just assume he's going to provide my daily bread for me.

I don't ask God for my daily needs.

I'm self-centered because I don't ask God to bless other people.

I'm irreverent because I do not praise God or seek his kingdom to come.

I'm unfriendly to God because I don't enjoy relating to him.

And let me tell you,

I've been a Christian for just over 20 years.

And nothing makes me feel more like a faithless hypocrite

than prayerlessness.

This is the one Christian discipline

that I have struggled with for 20 years.

And for the last few years, I've worked out why.

Because I like to be in control.

And I suspect I'm meant to feel like a faithless hypocrite

because of my prayerlessness.

Jesus ends his parable on the persistent widow in Luke 18

with a really important question.

You see, the beginning of the parable in verse 1,

Jesus tells the reason why he's sharing this parable.

It's to show them, that is to show his disciples,

that they should always pray and not give up.

The very thing that Paul has encouraged the Ephesians to do in chapter 6,

to keep on praying.

That's the point of the parable.

And so his question at the end of the parable

has some real force to it.

It's there in verse 8.

When the Son of Man comes,

will he find faith on the earth?

See what Jesus does there?

He connects prayer,

that's the point of the parable,

with the question of,

will there be faith when I come?

He connects prayer and faith,

trust, dependency on him,

together.

Together.

Jesus is saying in Luke 18,

that continual prayer until he comes

is not only the evidence

that we are people of faith,

but also the means of building faith

and dependence on him until he returns.

prayerless praying or non-existent prayer life

reveals an independent,

self-confident,

faithless heart.

Can you see the conflict

between that and the person

who declares themselves

to be someone who trusts in the Lord Jesus?

You see,

we can say all that we like,

all we like that we believe

in the sovereignty of God

and that God ordains everything

and that he elects stuff

and he purposes all things to be,

he's in control of all stuff,

and we can marvel people

with our knowledge

and of these doctrines of grace

and,

but the place where we demonstrate

that those things that we say

that we value,

we actually value in our hearts,

is metaphorically

on our knees in prayer.

Prayer is where our theology

of the sovereignty

and the goodness of God

translates into actual action,

which is what core values do.

My friends,

the context in which we as a church

exist to know Jesus

and treasure Jesus

and represent Jesus

for God's glory

and the joy of all people

is a cosmic war.

That's the context

in which we gather here right now

and in which we seek to do

all the ministry that we're doing

and it doesn't look like it

on the surface.

It doesn't look like

we're involved in cosmic war.

The people driving past there

at Fuller's Road right now

are not thinking,

ooh,

battlefield going on there.

That's not what they're thinking

and let me tell you,

when they drive past here

and if they do,

you know,

if they're not watching

where they're going,

they have a glance over here

and they see a sign

on the front of the building

that says time to build

and they notice

that we've got some building program

going on here

and if they drive a bit further

just before they turn left

or go straight ahead,

they'll notice

there's another one

right next door.

Alto are doing a building project too

and on the surface,

both of them look

the same kind of thing

except Alto's bigger than ours.

It's the same kind of stuff.

Alto's got a building project

and Paul's Chatswood's

got a building project.

It all looks the same

but our one draws the attention

of Satan

in a way that Alto's one doesn't.

Satan is against us

in the way that he's not against them.

Alto will sell and service cars,

Holden cars, mind you,

on their site

and ours is a battlefield headquarters

for the souls of lost people

in Chatswood.

Two very different things.

We are locked in battle

every day for everything we do

and let me tell you,

right now,

your leadership,

God,

and I can only thank God for this,

your leadership in your church

right now

is more acutely aware of it

than I've noticed

in the last number of years.

More acutely aware

of the battle that rages

every day

and it's causing us

to pray.

We've been walking

in some very hard days

for months now

and we are being driven

to prayer

and God is revealing

that he is in control

on a whole number of things.

But bit by bit,

God has been humbling us.

We have become

less confident

in ourselves

and more confident

in God.

Everything we want to see

happen here as a church

will happen

will not happen

without the supernatural

grace of God.

Are you aware of it?

Are you aware

that he's in control

of everything

in life?

You see,

we don't exist

to preach.

We exist

as a church

to preach

in the power

of the Holy Spirit

so that people

are supernaturally awakened

from unbelief

and changed

beyond what

any human being

can cause

in their life.

We don't exist

to teach kids' church.

That's going on

over there right now

somewhere.

We don't exist

to teach kids' church

but to teach kids' church

in the power

of the Holy Spirit

so that young people

are supernaturally converted,

built up in the faith

and loved beyond

what any of the kids' church

teachers can do

for them.

We don't exist

to sing

but to sing

in the power

of the Spirit

because the affections

of our hearts

have been supernaturally awakened

and the glory

of Christ

is treasured

beyond what

any music

can produce

for us.

We don't exist

to do evangelism

and missions

but to do evangelism

and missions

in the power

of the Holy Spirit

so that hard

unbelieving hearts

will be supernaturally changed

to soft

Jesus receptive

believing hearts.

Friends,

I want to see people

come to Christ,

treasure Jesus,

I want to see people

living lives

for his glory,

I want to see people

healed from scars,

from grudges,

grudge bearers

turning into forgivers

and haters

to lovers

and grumblers

and whingers

turned into joyless

rejoicers,

I want to see

joyless people

into hopeful people

that judgmental

turned into

people who are merciful.

I want to see all that

happening in people's lives

and I can't do it.

It is a supernatural

work of God.

Everything we aim

to accomplish

as a church

is impossible

without God's

supernatural action

and frankly

that is so liberating

but it's also

so incredibly humbling

because it means

that I am weak

and I guess

weakness

and humiliation

which always

comes before

humility

is one of the

first things

needed for a

vigorous prayer life.

Recognizing

that you have

no power

in this world

but God does

and so friends

I want to call

for you to pray

right now

for our building

project

for it to be

finished on time

and in budget.

There is right now

and I can't believe

I'm saying this

with a smile

on my face.

Right now

there is

$50,000 to $60,000

that could go

against us

and the immediate

response is

take control of that.

Don't spend the money.

No, no, no, no.

It's stuff that's

already committed

and it could go

against us.

You know

if you stick

an excavator

out there

in the car park

and all of a sudden

they start digging

stuff and they find

dirty dirt in there

I know that's

a weird statement

they find

dirty fill in there

all of a sudden

the bills go

through the roof.

Find a couple

of sheets of asbestos

in the car park

boom

through the roof

and expenses

and we can't

cover that

and so

there's about

50 to 60

in this project

that could go

against us

we've got no

control over it

whatsoever

and if it goes

against it

it's going to

hurt us a lot.

So pray

that it will

go in our favour.

Pray that God

would act.

Pray that

George Altamonte

the chairman

of the Altai group

over there

who's been

generous to us

already

will be even

more generous

towards us

just because

we're his neighbours.

If God

can get

Pharaoh

to move

Pharaoh's heart

to say to the

Israelites

yeah go

and take

all the wealth

of Egypt

with you

he can move

the head

of the Altai group

to give us

a few more dollars.

Seriously

pray that

God

would move.

God

has promised

to do for us

things that we

cannot do

for ourselves

when we

pray.

God

has designed

and ordained

and planned

and promised

that he will

act when we

pray.

God

has promised

to act

when we

get on our

faces

before him

and we

confess our

sins

and give

thanks for

his grace

and plead

for him

to pour

out his

supernatural

blessings

on our

lives

and our

families

and our

church

and our

city.

when we

pray we

are declaring

that the

supernatural

action of

God

is essential

in the

life of

St. Paul's

Chatswood.

So is it

not breathtaking

to hear Jesus

say

ask

and it will

be given

to you?

Is it not

breathtaking

to hear Jesus'

brother James

say

you want

something

but you

don't get

it

because you

do not

ask God

or to put it

out positively

if you'd

asked me

I would

have given

it to you.

It's astonishing

that God

acts in

response to

prayer.

It's astonishing

because the

all-knowing

all-seeing

all-planning

all-powerful

God

wills

for our

Christ-exalting

prayers

to be the

occasion

of his

action.

that's

mind-blowing

in my

mind.

And so

devotion to

prayer is a

core value

of this

church.

My desire

for us

at St.

Paul's

is to be

more like

the 97-year-old

Miss Daisy

than the

72-year-old

Miss Daisy.

Joyfully

dependent on

our gracious

God's

provision

daily

provision

in such

a way

that when

we pray

give us

today

our daily

bread

we

actually

mean it.

We

actually

mean that

we are

dependent

upon him

for

everything.

And so

may this

core value

not just

be written

on the

paperwork

and on

the walls

and posters

and stuff

around the

place

but written

in our

hearts

in such

a way

that it

shapes

the

attitude

and

activity

of our

lives.

Let me

tell you

what it

does for

the full

time staff

here at

St. Paul's

this is how

we shape

it.

Likewise

with Christ

in a

Bible

situation.

I give

full time

staff here

one day

a month

committed

to just

prayer

for this

church

and for

the

ministry

of this

church.

One

day a

month

and I

think

it's

the most

valuable

thing

not that

they do

other things

which are

valuable

but it's

the most

valuable

thing.

I'm

always

encouraged

when I

look at

my

diary

and know

that staff

member is

committed

today in

prayer.

They're

praying

today.

And

they also

report to

me on

their private

devotional

lives.

They're

actually being

saturated

in the

scriptures

and actually

have a

life of

prayerfulness.

And so

St. Paul's

as a church

we're committed

to constantly

bringing all

things to

God in

prayer,

intentionally

building

prayer into

the centre

of our

life together

and developing

a culture

where

natural

and

unstructured

prayerfulness

just comes

out in

our

interactions

with one

another.

Not just

it's time

for prayer

meeting.

Not just

that.

I pulled

the face

kind of

stuff.

But not

just the

prayer meeting

time but

natural

interactions

with one

another where

we converse

about stuff

and we

share things

with one

other.

We just

pray for

your

brother.

I just

want to

pray for

your

sister.

Natural

prayer

flowing

out.

We're

as a

church

committed

to

encouraging

and equipping

for prayer

on a

personal

family level

and incorporating

prayer into

every church

activity.

And so let

me just

take Jesus'

question and

make it a

little bit more

pertinent for

us at

St.

Paul's.

When the

Son of

Man comes,

will he

find faith

at St.

Paul's?

I want to

ask you,

are you

more like

the 72

year old

Miss

Daisy

clinging

to

independence

or the

joyfully

dependent

97 year

old

Miss

Daisy?

I believe

Christ will

find faith

at St.

Paul's if

we learn to

live a

life of

prayerful

dependence

until he

comes in

every day

across all

the church

and all the

activities of

this church.

And my hope

and my

prayer is

that we

become more

like 97

year old

Miss

Daisy.

And this

core value

of devotion

to prayer

is written

in our

hearts.

Let's pray.

Gracious

Father,

you are

sovereign

over all

that is

and we

are so

dependent

upon you

and yet

Lord,

in our

sinfulness

and our

sinful

pride,

we cling

to our

independence.

Oh,

Father,

there is so

much more

power and

freedom just

by surrendering

to you

the God

who is not

just a

God who

is sovereign

but a

God who

is merciful

and good

and just.

Father,

we pray

that we

would be

delightfully

and joyfully

dependent

upon you

in all

things.

Lord,

as I've

asked our

church across

all the

services today

to pray

for our

building

project,

I pray

that this

50,

60 grand,

whatever it

is that

could go

against us,

that it

will go

for us.

I pray,

Father,

that you

would

intervene

and act

in amongst

the lives

of all

these people

that we

have no

control over,

builders and

Alto Group

and everything

else.

Willoughby Council,

everyone,

so that it

will go in

our favour.

And when it

does,

that it

would cause

us to

rejoice,

deeply rejoice

and give

thanks to you.

may we

be reminded

constantly,

Father,

that you're

in control,

you have

all the

power in

the world

where we

virtually have

none.

May that

be a comfort

and a joy

for us,

in Jesus'

name.

Amen.