Praying Wow/Sorry/Thanks/Help in a Culture of Self-Reliance

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Today's scripture reading is Psalm 103 as printed in your liturgy, a Psalm of David.

Praise the Lord, my soul, all my inmost being. Praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed.

He remembers that we are dust.

The life of mortals is like grass.

They flourish like a flower of the field.

The wind blows over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children's children,

with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.

Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.

Praise the Lord, all his works, everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

Good morning, Christ Church.

I want to say as we begin that that new song, I felt like this side did a pretty good job,

but this side did a lot better.

It's just, that's just kind of how I felt being on this side.

So, we're 22 days out from an election.

Maybe you've heard about this election.

And I thought I'd begin today with a prediction of the outcome of this election.

And some of you are like, wow, my anxiety just went really far.

But here's my take.

You know, in the days following the election, half the country is going to be really glad,

and half the country is going to be really sad and mad and anxious.

How's that for a prediction?

I'm pretty confident that that's what's going to happen.

And you know what our nation's going to need?

You know what the Bay Area is going to need, regardless of the outcome?

They're going to need Jesus, and they're going to need people who know how to pray to Jesus.

They're going to need people who've cultivated a daily habit of prayer,

who have the ability to access heaven, who know how to engage the presence and the power of God,

who know how to pray,

Father, your name be hallowed over all the other names that are out there.

Your kingdom come over all the other kingdoms that are out there.

Your will be done over all the other agendas that are being jockeyed about.

The religious right and the religious left, right now they're very focused on power

and following either the elephant or the donkey.

And what we really need are serious godly Christians who are focused not on power but on prayer,

following not the donkey or the elephant, but following the Lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world.

We need people who know how to pray to the king

and people who know how to pray that his kingdom would come down

in a place like this as it is in heaven.

Amen?

So we're talking about the holy habits of grace.

That's what our sermon series is all about.

And it's these Christian practices, these predictable patterns in our lives

that enable us not to earn God's grace but just to respond to God's grace

and to receive and experience more and more of his grace.

And we talked so far about the practices of solitude and silence

and a culture of hurry and busyness and noise.

We talked about the practice of Scripture meditating on and reading Scripture

and a culture of ideological idolatry.

And today we want to talk about cultivating this holy habit of prayer.

What is prayer?

How do we define and understand prayer?

I would like to suggest that prayer is answering God.

That God speaks to us through his word and we simply answer him in prayer.

That God initiates and we respond.

That we inhale God's grace through his word and through his spirit

and then we exhale our response to that grace in prayer.

And we're looking in the Psalms because the Psalms is the prayer book of the Bible.

And it teaches us how to answer God.

Eugene Peterson wrote a book called Answering God.

It's all about the Psalms and prayer.

And here's how he intros that book.

He says this,

If we wish to develop the life of faith, to mature in our humanity,

and to glorify God with our entire heart, mind, soul, and strength,

the Psalms are necessary.

We cannot bypass the Psalms.

They are God's gift to train us in prayer that is comprehensive and honest.

The Psalms are necessary because they are the prayer masters.

Christ prayed the Psalms.

The Christian community was early convinced that he continues praying them through us as we pray them.

It is imperative to recover the Psalms as the primary tool for developing a life of prayer.

And so today our prayer master is going to be King David.

And he's going to teach us how to pray today through this 3,000-year-old hymn

that was sung by the Son of God himself.

It's one of the most familiar, one of the most beloved of all the Psalms.

And I'm just going to follow the three stanzas of this poem,

the three principal parts of this prayer.

And I want to talk about praying God's benefits,

praying God's attributes,

and praying God's promises.

Okay, praying God's benefits,

his attributes,

and his promises.

First of all, let's think about praying God's benefits.

If you just look again at verse 1.

Praise the Lord, my soul,

all my inmost being.

Praise his holy name.

He's summoning his soul.

He's calling his whole being to be spiritually engaged with God.

You know, part of pouring out our soul to God

involves dialoguing with our soul about God.

Right?

It's not just listening to our heart,

but talking to our heart.

And actively exercising faith by taking your soul in hand

and saying, soul, listen up.

Soul, right now is the time to praise the Lord.

And I know you're focused on yourself,

but right now is the time to focus on one

who's much greater than yourself.

David says,

all my inmost being.

Praise his holy name.

Here's the king of Israel,

and he's urging himself,

and he's urging us to give all that is deep down inside of us

entirely to God

with boundless enthusiasm and praise.

Now, how in the world do we do that?

Well, David tells us it's by remembering

all of God's benefits to us.

Right?

When he says, forget not,

that's a strong double negative

where he's warning his soul not to forget

because it's far too easy to forget

what God has done for us.

And think about it.

How much of our fear,

how much of our anxiety

and anger and discouragement

is due to forgetting

all that has been given to us

and all that's been promised to us

by God in Jesus Christ?

Or another way to think about this

is that if your first habit,

the first thing that you do in the morning

is to coat your brain with cortisol,

you know, that stress hormone cortisol,

is to go down and you go downstairs

and you pick up your phone

and you just coat your brain with cortisol

by reading news about violence and injustice.

And then you go from there

to read some tweets about people's outrage

over their political enemies.

And then you go from that

to scrolling through social media

to see how everybody else

is living a better life than you

and there's photo evidence for that

and you are missing out.

And then you go

and you just read your fantasy novel

to sort of numb out

and live in denial

and put in your AirPods

and listen to Spotify.

And then you think to yourself,

gosh, why am I so depressed?

Why am I so anxious?

Why do I feel so stressed out

and so lonely in this world?

Well, I want to suggest to you

an alternative habit to that one.

And that is to just simply ask the question,

what are all God's benefits toward me?

If I were just to sit down

and write a quick list,

like what are six benefits

that God has given to me?

And of course, that's not my idea.

It's King David's idea.

He lists six benefits right here

starting in verse three.

He says,

He forgives all of your sins.

He heals all your diseases.

He redeems your life from the pit.

He crowns you with love and compassion.

He satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Now in David's story,

if you know his story,

it seems likely that all those benefits

and blessings from God

flow from the very first of those benefits

because you might recall that

he had this moment of grievous adultery

with Bathsheba, right?

And then from there,

he moved on to eliminate her husband, Uriah.

And because of that,

the army of Israel suffered incredible losses.

And the prophet Nathan,

he comes to the king

and he tells David,

he says,

you deserve to die

because you broke God's commands

and you abused your position

of authority and power.

And this loving accountability

is what led David to humbly repent

and to put his faith in the grace of God.

And here in the psalm,

David's saying,

you know,

that experience is what led me then

to experience God's forgiving of my sins.

And then that led me to experience

God healing me soul and body

or at least having a fresh hope

that God is one day going to eliminate

all the disease and suffering in our lives.

And that realization led me to an awareness

that God has actually redeemed my life from the pit.

He's redeemed my life from Sheol,

which is that place where the unrighteous go

when they die.

And that realization has caused me

to see that God has actually crowned me

with his steadfast love

and his merciful compassion.

And that has led me to see

that I've been so satisfied

in all my desires for goodness in my life.

And God has been so good to me.

And all this realization of these things,

these benefits,

is causing me,

the result of all that

is my inner strength,

my inner vitality deep inside of my soul

is being renewed.

So that just as the eagle is fearless

and majestic and soaring,

that's how my soul feels.

It feels fearless and majestic and soaring.

Do you follow David's progression of praise?

Now if you're like me,

often my mind knows,

but my heart forgets

that in Jesus Christ,

I'm forgiven.

That I have been,

by the Holy Spirit,

I've been given access

to God's healing power.

That I'm delighted in

by God the Father's redeeming grace.

That I've been crowned

with the love and the mercy

of Almighty God.

That the goodness

that I'm experiencing now in my life,

all of that's just a mere foretaste.

It's just a signpost

to all the goodness

and abundant life

and resurrection life

that's coming for me

in the kingdom of God.

And so the question today is,

you know,

how can we drive

the reality of these benefits

from our head

down into our heart?

How can you apply this tomorrow morning?

Perhaps you literally

just need to write down this list

and pray it.

And say,

Lord,

I gratefully praise you

for forgiving me,

healing me,

redeeming me,

crowning me,

satisfying me,

and renewing me,

and then just sit there

and meditate on all the ways

He's done that for you.

Last week,

some of you came

and took my handouts,

which has really made me feel great

as a pastor.

And so I have another handout today.

If you'd like to come get it,

you can after the service.

It's called

Guide for Morning Prayer

or something like that.

And you'll see

that the first thing on there

is a Trinity prayer

that I got from a pastor

named John Stott.

I think we have some slides

if we can pull that up.

But basically,

I just,

I get up in the morning

and I go outside,

I take my cup of coffee,

I walk around our block,

and I pray something

like this prayer.

And I say,

good morning,

Heavenly Father.

Good morning,

Lord Jesus.

Good morning,

Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father,

I praise you

as the creator

and sustainer

of the universe.

And I pray that today

you'd enable me

to live in your presence

and please you more and more,

to love you

with all my heart,

soul,

mind,

and strength.

And Lord Jesus,

I worship you

as the savior

and king of this world

and I pray that you'd enable me

to deny myself,

take up my cross,

and follow you today.

And Holy Spirit,

I worship you

as the Lord and giver of life,

the sanctifier and guide

of all the people of God

and I pray that today

you'd cause

the fruit of Christ's character

to ripen in me,

love,

joy,

peace,

patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness,

and self-control.

Oh,

most holy,

blessed,

blessed,

and glorious Trinity.

I worship you.

Have mercy on me.

But what I do

is I kind of just,

I get to each person

of the Trinity

and I kind of can't help myself,

but just marinating

on all the benefits

that I've received

from each person

of the Trinity.

And so typically,

my mind will go to like Luke 15

and I'll say,

Father,

this is the story

of the prodigal sons,

right?

And I'll say,

Father,

Father,

I praise you today

because when I was

way off in that far country

by myself

and I was filthy

and I was starving

and I was filling myself

with pig's food,

you awakened my heart

to your love

and you were searching

the horizon for me

and you came running for me

and took my shame upon you.

You gave me your hug,

you gave me your kiss,

you put your robe

and your ring

and your sandals on me,

you killed the fattened calf

for me,

you set the house

to music and dancing

and rejoicing

because I was lost

and now I'm found,

I was dead

and now I'm alive

and Father,

you promised

that I'm always with you

and everything

that's yours is mine

and so Father,

thank you

for the benefit

of coming home.

And then usually,

my mind will go off

to something like Romans 5

and Romans 8

and I'll say,

Father,

thank you so much

for that golden chain

of salvation

that before the foundation

of the world,

you predestined me

and elected me

to be yours

and that one,

at that one moment in time,

you called me

by the gospel of your grace

and you regenerated my heart

and gave me new life

and you gave me the gift

of repentance

and saving faith

and you justified me

by the righteousness of Christ,

you caused me

to reign with him

in righteousness and life,

you've adopted me

into your family,

Heavenly Father,

you've empowered me

with your Holy Spirit,

you're sanctifying me now,

you've prepared for me

a future

where I'm going

to be glorified

with a resurrected body

and a beautified soul

to be like Jesus.

Father,

thank you.

Thank you for making me

more than a conqueror.

Thank you that there's nothing

that can separate me

from your love.

And I just do that,

I do that when I get to Jesus,

I do that when I get

to the Holy Spirit.

If you want to know more

about how I pray,

I'm happy to teach you

after the service.

But I want to say

that that's a way better thing

than coating my mind

with cortisol

in the morning.

Right?

Because there I'm remembering

who I am

and who I belong to

and who God is

and what he's done for me.

That's what it means

to pray God's benefits.

And maybe that's something

we could grow in a little bit

as a church.

But I want to also think together

about praying God's attributes.

Praying God's attributes.

I didn't start my timer,

so this could be

an interesting sermon today.

I have no idea where I am

and who knows

what's going to happen today.

But praying God's attributes.

Many people persist

in contrasting

the wrathful God

of the Old Testament

with the loving God

of the New Testament.

And when you hear people say that,

you just know

they've never read Psalm 103.

In fact,

they've probably never read

the Hebrew Bible.

They don't know much

about Jesus' Bible.

Right?

And his theology

of who God is.

They probably haven't read

much of the New Testament either.

But this second stanza

of the psalm

unfolds for us

the beauty

and the fragrance

of God's grace

that informs

the forgiveness

that David has experienced.

And he begins

by saying in verse 6,

he says,

the Lord works righteousness

and justice

for all of the oppressed.

And the main illustration

of this

in the Old Testament

is the Lord

liberating his oppressed people

from their bondage

in Egypt.

When he came

and he met

the unrighteousness

and the injustice

of Pharaoh

and he met it

with a greater power

that just unraveled

and dismantled

his empire.

And David's taking us

back to that great moment

in the scriptures.

And then he says

in verse 7,

he made known

his ways to Moses,

his deeds

to the people

of Israel.

King David

loves his Bible.

He takes us back

to Exodus.

He takes us back

actually specifically

to Exodus chapter 33

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

where Moses prayed,

Lord,

show me your ways.

Lord,

make known

to me

your ways.

And that prayer

comes right in the middle

of the story

of the golden calf.

And just so we can remember

what that story

is all about,

while Moses is going up,

he's on Mount Sinai

and he's receiving

the Ten Commandments,

the people of God

are down at the foot

of the mountain

and they've made

this gold-plated image

of a calf

and they start

to worship it.

And you know,

a more blatant breaking

of the first two commandments

could hardly be imagined,

right?

The first commandment,

you should have

no other gods,

no counterfeit gods

before me

and you should not

make any image

that would limit

my majesty

and my glory

in any way.

And they say,

well forget about that,

we're going to make

this golden calf.

And God is angry

and Moses is angry.

And so as Moses

comes down the mountain,

he smashes the tablets

on which those

Ten Commandments

are written

as a symbol

of the idolatry

of God's people

that has smashed

God's covenant.

covenant.

And the Lord

threatens to destroy

the whole nation

of Israel

except for Moses

with whom he's going

to make a fresh start

and Moses falls down

on the ground

and begins to plead

with God

in passionate prayer

and he says,

oh Lord,

please don't do that.

Please relent.

And God does relent

and in the midst

of that prayer,

Moses says,

Lord,

show me your glory.

Show me your glory.

And what Moses hears

in that moment

is the most significant

theological statement

in the Bible

because it's God's

own definition

of himself.

And here's what God says.

He says,

I am the Lord,

the Lord,

compassionate

and gracious God,

slow to anger,

abounding

in loving kindness

and faithfulness,

maintaining love

to thousands,

forgiving wickedness,

rebellion,

and sin,

yet I do not leave

the guilty unpunished.

Because I'm absolutely

righteous and just.

That is,

that statement

reveals the character

of God definitively

and that's why

the Old Testament

quotes that statement

constantly.

And anywhere

you see

the phrase

steadfast love

mentioned in the Bible,

Exodus 34

is ringing there

in the background.

If you're looking

for a scripture

to memorize,

that is the one.

Exodus 34

illustrates more clearly

than anywhere else

what God's steadfast love,

what his unfailing love

is all about.

And that's what David

is meditating on

in verse 8.

The Lord is compassionate

and gracious,

slow to anger,

abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor

his anger forever.

He does not treat us

as our sins deserve

or repay us

according to

our iniquities.

See, this speaks of a God

who's righteous and just

and yet he allows

his mercy and his grace

to outrun his justice.

Right?

He's prepared to forgive

the most grievous

and the gravest

of our sins

in response to our prayer

and our repentance.

And, you know,

the prophet Micah,

he's reflecting on this

and he's blown away by it.

Here's what he says.

He uses this vivid image

in Micah chapter 7.

Micah 7 · chapter mention

He says,

long ago.

See, what Moses is saying

and David is saying

and Micah is saying

and the whole Bible is saying

is that God's anger

is different

from our anger.

Right?

Because we are quick

to become angry.

And most of the time

our anger is triggered

by our hurt ego,

isn't it?

And we make people pay

who wrong us

and then even after

we've made them pay,

we nurse our grievances

with resentment.

Maybe it's just me.

But the scriptures tell us

that God is slow to anger.

And in the midst of that,

he provides forgiveness

for sinners

and then he remembers

our sins no more.

He hurls them

into the depths

of the sea.

See, King David

is marveling here

at the comprehensiveness

of God the Father's

pardoning mercy

and his forgiving grace.

In verse 11,

he says,

For as high

as the heavens are

above the earth,

so great is his love

for those who fear him.

And as far as the east

is from the west,

so far has he removed

our transgressions

from us.

He's using

immeasurable distances

to just try to convey

to us the immeasurable

love that the Lord

has for us.

The vertical

and horizontal axes

of God's love

for sinners

has no limits.

And really,

it's only on the vertical

and the horizontal beams

of the cross

of Jesus Christ

that we see

what it costs

for God to do this,

what it costs

for God to punish sin

without punishing us.

It's only on the cross

that we see there

the perfect son of God

being treated

as our sins deserve.

Jesus being repaid

according to our iniquities.

It's as if Jesus

is stretching out

his arms

on the hardwood

of the cross

and saying,

look to the east

and look to the west

and know that

that is how far

God is removing

your transgressions

from you

by laying them

onto me.

See,

verse 13 says,

the father has compassion

on his children,

so the Lord has compassion

on those who fear him

for he knows

how we are formed.

He remembers

that we are dust.

Parents,

you know this.

The more weak

and needy

your child is,

the more your heart

goes out to him

or her, right?

And on the cross

of Jesus,

we have a demonstration

that our good

and gracious father,

even though he knows

us all the way down

to the very bottom,

way better than

we even know ourselves.

It says he loves us

to the skies

and beyond.

He doesn't just

pardon our sins

by the blood

of his son,

but he adopts us

into his family

as precious daughters

and treasured sons.

He fills us

and empowers us

with his Holy Spirit.

He grants us

24-7 access

to him

in prayer.

He guarantees

to us

an inheritance

for us

in his kingdom.

And what I want you

to see

is that Psalm 103

is giving us

the vocabulary,

it's giving us

the language

to rejoice

in the attributes

of God's character

from which flows

all the benefits

of his salvation

to us.

And the question is,

don't we want

to pray this way?

If this is true,

if it's real,

don't we want

to pray it

into our lives?

I want to end

by talking

a little bit

about praying

God's promises.

We talked about

praying God's benefits,

praying God's attributes.

But I want to talk

about praying

God's promises.

If you look again

at the Psalm

in verses 14-16,

it says,

God the Father

has compassion on us

because he knows

we're dust,

he knows we're

these dependent

and fallen creatures.

And it talks about

these images

of grass

and flowers

and wind,

which speak

of how our lives

are so short

and transient.

We're here today

and tomorrow

we're gone.

And then in verses

17-18,

in contrast

to the frail

and transitory

nature

of our existence

is the enduring

love of God.

And hear what

David says.

He says in verse 17,

but from everlasting

to everlasting,

again,

this side's saying

it better,

but from everlasting

to everlasting,

the Lord's love

is with those

who fear him

and his righteousness

with their children's

children,

with those

who keep his covenant

and remember

to obey his precepts.

But that right there

is a massive promise

of God

that the saving power

of my love

will extend

beyond just you

and it will go out

to your children

and to their children

and to future generations.

But I do want to say,

as amazing as that promise is,

it's not automatic.

It's not inevitable.

Because who is this promise for?

It's not for everyone.

It says it's for those

who fear the Lord,

who keep his covenant,

and who obey his precepts.

And what I want to suggest

to you is that this is

one of those promises

of God

that needs to be prayed

into reality.

This is a promise of God

not to be presumed upon,

but to be prayed upon.

I read a book last summer

by Jean Twenge,

who's a psychologist

at San Diego State.

And she wrote a book

in 2023

called Generations.

And she says

at the end of that book,

she says in 2017,

for the first time,

fewer than half

of high school seniors

said that religion

was important

in their lives.

And in 2018,

for the first time,

fewer than one

out of four

high school seniors

attended religious services

at least once a week.

It's not just

high school students.

Young adults

have also become

progressively less religious

in both public

and private ways.

And if you want to

study her charts

or Ryan Burge's

graphs about religion,

it'll wake you up

from your slumber

and your sleep.

And what it's done for me

is it's caused me

to begin to pray

this promise of God

into reality

where I've begun

to humble myself

before God

and say,

Lord,

you know

that I'm just dust

and I'm just grass.

You know that I don't

have the power

to guarantee

that your love

is going to be transmitted

from this generation

to the next generation.

You know, Lord,

that I don't have

the ability

nor the authority

to ensure

that even my own children

and their children

will be part

of God's covenant people.

I can't change

these social trends.

I can't even change

one human heart.

God, you know how hopeless

and helpless I am.

And then I remember

verse 19.

The Lord has established

his throne in heaven

and his kingdom rules

over all.

And I begin to pray,

Lord,

you're the everlasting king.

Your throne

is established in heaven.

You have all authority

and all power.

You promised your love

and your righteousness,

your covenant

and your precepts

to be passed on

to our children

and to their children.

You promised

that your unfailing love

will go out

to future generations

and we cannot do it.

I cannot do it.

I'm just dust.

I'm just grass.

But Lord,

you can do it

because you're enthroned

on high

and you're in control

of everything.

And so,

Lord,

I'm pleading.

I'm pleading with you

that your sovereign rule

and reign

would break in

with new light

and new glory

in the next generation.

And I'm contending

with you, Lord,

that more and more

young people

would open their hearts

to the presence

of the king,

that more and more people

would be awakened

to the power

of your kingdom.

I'm begging you, Lord,

that your kingdom

would come

in the lives

of the next generation

as it is in heaven.

And I don't know

if I'm the only one

starting to pray that way,

but I would love

for this church

to join me

in praying

the promises of God

into reality.

You guys want to pray

that way?

We are,

this Friday,

October 18th,

we have a day of prayer.

We've been doing this quarterly

for the past couple years.

And if you're new with us,

the way it works

is we have

one-hour slots

where you can pray

from 6 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

We have these

one-hour slots

from before sunrise

to after sunset.

We hope that

those who can

would come on site

and pray with others.

Those who can't,

you're free to pray remotely

and hopefully find

a buddy in the church

you can Zoom with

and pray with.

We created a guide

for how to pray.

You're not just

left on your own,

but we've shown you

how to pray

the first 30 minutes

of that hour

for revival

and for the outpouring

of the Holy Spirit

here in this place.

The second 30 minutes

is all about

our alpha course

and our attempt

to invite people

to come

and ask their questions

about God.

If you're not able

for whatever reason

to pray for one hour straight,

you can pray for 30 minutes

in the first half

in the morning,

30 minutes in the second half

in the evening.

Right now,

we have 13 folks signed up

and we have 37 spots open

and my hope is that

we'd have 50 people there,

which would be the most

we've ever had

at a day of prayer

and if you want to make

your pastor's year,

sign up.

Seriously,

it would encourage me massively,

but it will strengthen

you spiritually

and it will change

our world significantly.

If the church

would just do

this basic thing

that we're called to do,

which is just to pray.

And so if you take

your QR code

on your worship folder

and you're welcome

to pull out your phone

right now,

permission granted,

you can scan

that QR code.

The first thing

that's going to come up

is that sign up sheet

and if God's leading you

either right now

or later on

at the end of the service

to sign up,

I encourage you

to do that.

If you're an elder

of this church,

a deacon,

a staff member,

community group leader,

a ministry team leader,

consider yourself

called to prayer.

If you're part

of our youth,

if you're in middle school

or high school,

consider yourself

called to prayer.

If you're a parent,

consider yourself

called to help

your kids learn

how to pray.

I just love to see

our church grow

in this kind of praying

because it's biblical prayer.

It's King David prayer.

It's Messiah Jesus prayer.

Moses and David

and Jesus and the apostles,

they prove that

praying the promises of God

is a powerful

and effective way to pray.

And so I wonder,

what if we were to prove

in our own time,

in our own place,

that this kind of prayer

actually works?

What if we gave God

the opportunity

to be faithful

to his promises

by believing in them

and then showing

that we believe in them

by humbly asking him

to make his promises

a reality

in the next generation?

We can't just presume

and sit back

and be comfortable.

We've got to engage

in prayer.

And so Lord,

may your love

and your grace,

your steadfast love

and grace

be poured out

on Christ's church.

And Lord,

may your kingdom,

which is an everlasting kingdom

and a very gracious

and merciful kingdom,

may it come to rule

over this city?

We pray in the name

of the Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.