Prayer Changes Everything | Jason Gore & Ayren Nelson

That's a great story. Yeah, let's celebrate that man.

Blaine and Olivia, man, they are a special kind of people.

I love the opportunity we get to connect with them when they come back stateside

and spend time with here, with us and, and, uh, with our hope family.

And we've had some folks here from our staff and from our church body actually

go over and and do ministry with them. And I'm telling you, man,

they're special people and they're seeing God do amazing things.

And so to all of you who are partnered with hope,

in mission and in ministry and help financially,

like these are the things that happen as a result of a church family,

being a family together and committing to seeing this kind of ministry happen.

Well hey, welcome. This week,

this week we are wrapping up a series that we're calling the Jesus Way. Now,

last week, uh,

you heard from me and what I told you last week was that last week was the last

week of the series that we were in called The Jesus Way.

And what I meant by that was next week,

meaning this week is gonna be the last week by the series that we're in .

So I wonder sometimes who's in charge around here and maybe, um,

I should pay a little better attention.

So we're wrapping up a series this week that we're been in called The Jesus Way

and the, uh, Jesus calls, uh, people,

men and with women and students and children in the New Testament to follow

after him.

And so we've just been looking at what does it actually mean to follow after the

ways of Jesus?

And so what we're gonna do this week as we wrap this up is talk about a key

component of the Jesus Way, which is actually going to God in prayer.

But before we do that, and so what's gonna happen,

I'm actually going to share a couple things that I wanna make sure that we as a

church family have in front of us and are seeing in front of us and hearing in

front of us, uh, repetitively, repetitively from now into the fall.

And then I'm gonna share a bit from scripture as to why I think that's

important.

And then Aaron Nelson's actually gonna come out and he's gonna talk to us a bit

about what prayer really is and how we do that.

And then he is gonna paint a picture of what the next 40 days is gonna look like

for us as a church family together in prayer. Okay?

And so few things I wanna point out. Last week, uh, I talked to us about,

and there's a a number of things that I shared, but one, I talked about, uh,

how the church itself is ultimately the family of God.

Remember we're in James chapter one, verse two, three and four,

and James gives that crazy command to consider it joy when we're in trials.

But he says in the middle of that, consider it joy, my brothers and sisters.

And so we highlighted the fact that the church body is not like

a group of individuals that passively show up at a gathering occasionally or

once in a while. That's not what you see in the New Testament.

That's not what Jesus died,

went to a cross for and then rose from the grave three days later to set in

motion, but rather a family that viewed themselves as the church.

And I actually posed the question,

do you see yourself as a part of the family of God here at Hope Community

Church?

And we asked that question because the reality is families engage at a different

level, right? Being a part of a a family is different than like, well,

I'm a part of this country club or I'm a part of this committee over here,

right? Sometimes I do this thing. And so that's one thing I talked about.

Another thing that I talked about is this deep conviction that I have,

that our elders have, that our leadership has here at Hope,

that God actually has a new identity as a church that he wants to call us into.

And so not too long ago,

we celebrated 30 years of Hope Community Church and everything that God has done

here, and he's done some amazing things through hope. But as we move forward,

we believe that he just has this new identity.

And so we're gonna be rolling a lot of that out in its specifics when we get

into the fall, uh, around August and September. And so, uh,

that's one thing I talked about. And then I also talked about how I believe God,

I believe the Holy Spirit has actually been speaking to me and saying that,

okay, if we're going to step into and move into this new identity,

I actually have a responsibility to step into a,

a more regular rhythm on the preaching calendar,

on the vision casting side of things. And so we talked about those,

but this is what I want you to take away from what I'm saying right now. Um,

we are entering into a new season as a church family.

And I believe that God has this blessing that he wants to pour out on

us as a church, but it's not just a blessing for us as a church.

Like the Bible is really clear that we as followers of Christ,

we as children of God, we're actually blessed, but not just for ourselves,

but we're blessed to be a blessing to the world around us.

And so what I really want you to understand is God has something new for us,

and it's not just for us, but it's also for the world.

But as we jump here into scripture in just a moment, I'm gonna be in Psalm 24.

If you wanna go ahead and start turning there. By the way, as an aside,

I said last week, uh,

if this is your church and you come here regularly and you've got one of these,

like a Bible sitting around your house,

you should bring it with you to make sure that we're actually talking to you

about what it really says. Uh, and I got, uh,

an email from someone and they said, pastor, it said, pastor,

this is just how I read it, okay?

So I don't really know how they actually sound, uh, but it said, pastor,

really appreciate you encouraging us to bring our Bibles,

but I'm a little bit older than you are.

And if you want me to read my Bible in that room,

you're gonna have to turn the lights up just a little bit. And so, who knows,

maybe we start turning the lights up a little bit more.

But here's the principle I really want us to take. Like, um,

God has a blessing for us, all right? As his people, all right?

This is a biblical principle, principle in general.

That blessing comes from his, from being in his presence,

but being in his presence comes from when we seek after him. All right? And so,

just as convicted as I am that God has this new day for us as

a church,

I'm equally convicted that God wants to draw us into seeking after Him in a

way that we maybe never have before in our lives as a church family.

And so we're gonna look at Psalm 24.

You'll see a little bit why I think that you really see it all throughout

scripture. This passage was on my heart this week. So Psalm 24, verse one,

it says, the, the earth is the lord's

and all it contains the world and those who dwell in it.

And if you just read that like tho that one verse,

the earth is the Lord's and all it contains and just stop and take a deep

breath, like that's kind of a grounding moment.

Like everything that we know, everything that we experience,

everything in our bank accounts, the Bible says every good and perfect gift,

it comes from God.

Sometimes we just need to take a moment and like get away from everything that

the world throws at us. And just remember like, hey, everything in this world,

it's God's,

for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

Verse three, it says, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?

What does that mean? Uh, it's understood that this psalm was basically written,

uh,

as a celebration and was sung as a celebration of when the Ark of the Covenant,

which by the way, represented and was for them God's presence. Okay?

So it wasn't just a box, but like it represented God's presence.

And so this was a psalm that was written when the Ark of the Covenant,

God's presence was coming back, being brought back to Jerusalem,

and it was set up on this hill.

And so when it says who may ascend into the hill of the Lord,

what it's really saying is, who can be in the presence of God

and who may stand in his holy place? And remember, again,

in God's presence is where his blessing is. Verse four, it says,

he who has clean hands and a pure heart who has not

lifted up his soul to falsehood some translations say,

who has not lifted up his soul to another and has not sworn deceitfully,

just that list right there. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Um,

on a regular basis, I don't qualify. And so I,

I wanna recognize like left to the law as this was, you know,

written as for, um, the Israelites like this was, um,

there were,

there were sacrifices that had to be made for the forgiveness of the sins for

this to actually be true. But this is saying like those who have, uh,

clean hands, those who have a pure heart,

who are actively living out the life that it is, that God that God has for us,

it's important to realize, like for us, we're never good enough.

So if you hear this and you have no idea, like, man, that seems like a big bar,

I want you to know that in the New Testament, we see Jesus show up on the sea.

And I, I wanna let you know, maybe this is the first time you've heard this,

but we deserve separation from God.

But Jesus went to a cross to pay the penalty that we deserve for our sins,

for not getting this right in our lives. And it says three days later,

he rose from the grave overcoming sin and death, so that if we believe in that,

we actually can have new life, we can have a right standing before God.

And so that's what it means,

like that's how you become a part of the family of God. But he says,

if that's you,

he shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of

his salvation continuing.

Like who is the person that can be in the presence of God ultimately

experiencing the blessing of God? Verse six. It says, this is the generation.

So who can, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face,

even Jacob,

what this is saying is like those who are going to experience the presence and

the blessing of God are those who actually seek after him.

And church family, I believe in today's world, um, maybe unlike ever before,

we need to be a people who are chasing after and seeking after God.

You look at, in a moment,

Aaron's gonna come out and he's gonna talk to us out of Matthew chapter six just

before that. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus is on the sermon of the Mount,

which you should go back and read. You talk about the Jesus way,

like that whole thing is filled with what it means to actually live out the way

of Jesus. But in verse six, it says,

blessed are those who hunger so blessed, experiencing the blessing of God.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be satisfied.

And you could be here and be like, man,

I have no idea what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Um,

I would just say who hunger and thirst for the ways of God. Um,

I'm just gonna confess to you,

I don't wake up every morning hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Um,

I talk regularly about trying to eat well and, uh,

to be on a regular workout schedule and to eat good foods,

I'm gonna tell you something that's gonna surprise some of you.

I'm not perfect in that. Um,

I'll tell you what I hunger and thirst for oftentimes at about 10 o'clock every

single night if I'm still awake, which is why I try to go to bed before 10,

a big bowl of cinnamon toast crunch, man,

there is just something about like that crunchiness with some cold milk on it,

and then you eat the cereal and then you get to the end and you got that sweet

cinnamon sugar left in the milk. I mean,

like that is something that I hunger and thirst for if I've had a long day.

And the truth is, we don't naturally left to ourselves.

We don't just wake up and say,

I hunger and thirst for God in the same way that we would chase after something

like that.

That's why it requires a certain level of discipline to actually quiet

ourselves and to open up our heart before God and say, God, listen,

I I know my heart's not where it needs to be.

I know my proneness is to wander and to chase after other things.

And I thank you even by your grace as a loving God that I can even offer up

these prayers to you. God, I need you to change my heart.

But I'm telling you as a church with what it is that God wants to do in our

church,

it's gonna require men and women and students from across all of our campuses,

across all of our communities who are willing to stop in the midst of the

craziness of life and say, God, I know you have something for us.

We are going to be a generation that seeks after you.

And so that is my heart, that is my prayer for us.

And so to talk to us a bit about what, ma'am,

you might not have any idea what a prayer life looks like, uh,

you might not have any idea how to actually apply that to your life and live

that out on a regular basis. And so, uh,

who is going to come out to help us understand better a bit more about what

prayer is, and talk to us about the next 40 days, uh,

of prayer for us as a church,

please give a wild hope Community Church welcome across all of our campuses for

Aaron Nelson.

Well, uh, as Jason mentioned, we're gonna talk about the practice of prayer. Um,

but before we get into that, uh, we've been in this series called the Jesus Way,

where we've been talking about all these practices for the past couple of weeks.

And I just want to ask you, this is a,

a moment for honest inventory and reflection. Um, but how's it going?

How are good? Good. I love that. I love that.

I hope that this has been a time for you to connect with God in ways that maybe

you hadn't regularly through, uh, serving through giving through, uh,

rest in Sabbath and silence and solitude. Those are two that, um,

we've been working on in my house. And man, it's been really cool.

We have not by any means perfected them, but we're getting a lot better.

Our Sabbath looks a whole lot like, can we do this today? Is this okay? Can and,

and honest evaluation. But that's okay. It's a process that it takes.

But I know for some of us, the idea of these practices, um,

we struggle with 'em a little bit because we grew up in an, in a,

in an environment where church felt like a to-do list.

So when we start talking about practices, we, we start to feel like, oh,

well I got out of the legalistic environment where I had to do stuff all the

time, and now the practices kind of feel like another thing to do.

And so we live in this tension and, um, if you're anything like me,

you kind of find yourself swinging like a pendulum where on one side you had the

experience of church was just a bunch of to-dos.

And I did those things and I just got tired.

I never really felt any sort of fulfillment out of them.

I never really felt closer to God,

but I was checking the boxes of a good Christian. Well, I've had enough of,

of that. So now the pendulum swings all the way over to the other side where you

recognize, man, Jesus has done all the work for me.

I don't need to do anything .

But actually there's a spot there in the middle where we recognize, yes,

our salvation has been given to us by Jesus,

but our faith is continuously being worked out, not by earning, but by effort.

And so these practices is the way that we put in effort to say, God,

I want to be closer to you. I want to be drawn more to you.

And one of the ways that we do that is through these practices and scripture is

very clear that we are commanded to do these things.

So let's take what we're gonna talk about, uh, today. For example,

let's talk about prayer. Okay?

Scripture very clearly commands that we pray.

So one Thessalonians five 17 says, pray without ceasing. That's a command.

Colossians chapter four, verse two says, continuously, I'm sorry,

continual steadfastly in prayer, um, uh, be continually,

I'm sorry, steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Philippians four, six through seven says, do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,

let your request be made known to God and the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in

Christ Jesus. Those are all very clearly commands.

But even as I've been thinking about all of these practices that we've been

talking about, and the way that, that the,

that scripture commands us to do these things,

I've learned something that behind every command

is not a demand, but an invitation. See,

what the Bible isn't doing is saying, you better pray . Instead,

Jesus is extending a hand and saying, Hey,

will you come pray and just see what I do in your heart?

Will you come practice silence and solitude and watch the way that it just gives

you more peace in your life?

Will you take some time to step away from your week and and Sabbath and see how

I refuel you for rest? You see, these, these commands are not just,

you need to do this because this is what good Christians do.

They're the pathways by which we are shaped into the image of God.

The problem is, is that when it comes with to prayer specifically, uh,

I know that's not the way that we all experience it. And I know that because,

um, given certain statistics, not all of us pray. Uh,

recently there was a couple of Gallup polls that came out and, uh,

according to one 68% of Christians identify, I'm sorry, of uh,

of Americans identify as Christian, which I was a little shocked by that.

I'm like, man, that's a pretty,

like 68% seems like a lot until you realize about 40 years ago it was like 90%.

So that number is heavily dropping off, but 68% identify as a Christian.

Now that that means a billion different things, right? ,

just because someone says I'm a Christian, that could mean all sorts of things.

So let's just give the benefit of the doubt. Let's say 68% of Americans were,

uh, Bible believing Christians.

Only 61% of Americans pray,

which means best case scenario. There are 7% of Christians who aren't praying,

but the number is actually worse than that because when we think about it,

we realize, oh, uh,

that 61% who pray they're Americans, they didn't say they were Christian.

So the percentage of praying Christians is even lower than that because in that

61% you have people who pray to other gods pray and other religions.

And let's not even get into the whole thing about people who send out positive

vibes to the universe, like they're all kind of lumped in there.

Which by the way, if I can have a quick aside, can we all just agree to like,

stop that. Um, and the only reason why I say that,

I say it lovingly because how dare we rob God of his glory

and instead pray to the creation instead of the creator as if it's somehow

greater. So let's just, let's just all stack hands for a minute and say,

we're gonna pray to the creator of the universe because that's what we see our,

uh, our, uh, see where his power is.

But what we learned from these numbers is I think there's actually a story

behind those numbers. And it's this,

it's that Christians want God without prayer.

And non-Christians want prayer without God,

and we can't separate the two and experience the life that Jesus

offers. You see, there's a million ways that we can pray,

but there's only one Jesus way to pray,

and it's illustrated for us in, uh, Matthew chapter 26, verses 36 through 39.

Matthew 26:36–39

Um, Jason actually ended his message last week talking about this verse.

And so I just want us to look at it together one more time.

It says that Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane.

This is before Jesus is about to go to the cross.

He's about to endure the cross to die for the sins of the entire world.

And he takes a moment to go and pray. And so he said to his disciples,

sit here while I go over there and pray, and taking with him,

Peter and the two sons of Zee. He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

Remain here and watch with me. And going a little further,

he fell on his face and prayed saying, my Father,

if it be possible, let this cup pass for me.

Nevertheless, not as I will,

but as you will, Jesus himself prayed a very specific,

dangerous, submissive and humble prayer. There he says, not my will,

but yours be done.

And what if that's the way that Jesus wants all of us to pray?

Like,

what if this wasn't just a recording of a particular way that Jesus prayed?

What if this is actually a model that he gives us as to how we are supposed to

pray? What if Jesus actually want us to believe that prayer is about

aligning our hearts and minds to God's will, not the other way around?

Because so often we pray of, Hey, God, I have a plan. You wanna join me?

You wanna catch up? Here's what I wanna do, God.

Or you know what would make my life great, God, if you did X, Y, and Z,

we try to impose our will on God, but Jesus prays not my will,

but yours be done. You know, I I've,

I realized prayer is more like a car wash than it's like a drive-through.

You see at a drive through, you go up to the window, you get what you need,

and then you piece out . But a car wash, you go in saying, man,

I'm messed up.

And somewhere between here and there,

I believe that the time spent in this space,

I'll come out of the other side a little bit different because now I'm aligned

to God's will. I'm not trying to force him to get aligned with my own.

And again, Jesus's model in Gethsemane, this isn't like, oh, I'm gonna,

I'm gonna do this. And I hope everybody picks up on the message. , no.

In Matthew chapter six, he teaches us how to pray.

And it's a prayer a lot of us are familiar with.

It's known as the Lord's Prayer. And he says this,

Matthew chapter six, verses nine through 13. He says, pray then like this.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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. Listen,

I can we leave that up on the screen for a minute? I know, um,

a lot of you may know this, you may even have it memorized.

Maybe you know some version of this,

but can I read this one more time from the top and,

and we all just read it together as a church? Is that okay?

Pray them like this, our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,

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

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.

It's a beautiful thing when the church prays together, huh? I love that.

Listen, I want to go through this verse,

line by line and show you that at the heart of this,

it's actually aligning our will to Gods,

not just us asking for stuff. Verse nine says, our Father in heaven,

hollowed be your name. In other words, your God. And I'm not.

That's how Jesus tells us to start our prayers. Look at it.

Our Father that's recognizing a role of authority of God in our

life, in heaven, you're so otherworldly, you're so much greater.

You're so much other. Hallowed be your name. In other words,

God, your name is holy, your reputation is holy. Who you are is just great.

Everything about you is so much more worthy than I am.

And that's how Jesus tells us to start our prayers with that heart and with that

attitude. Verse 10, your kingdom come,

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

The kingdom of God is anywhere that is under the domain and rule

of God anywhere where he has complete authority.

And in this moment we acknowledge, listen,

we want that type of leadership to oversee and reign

across the earth.

We want that to be the driving force of all of this.

We want your will to be done on earth the exact same way that it's being

done in heaven. Verse 11,

give us this day our daily bread. Ah, you see it, Aaron? There it is.

There's the part where I ask for stuff, right .

That's the part where I'm like, gimme God, I want it .

But think about the humility in this statement.

God, give us this day our daily bread. God,

you give it. I'm not gonna go out and take it.

I'm not gonna go hustle for it. I'm not gonna go grind for it.

I'm not gonna try to provide for myself. Instead,

I'm gonna trust that you're gonna provide for me.

And what are you gonna provide you enough to get me through the month? No,

my daily bread, however much you think I should have,

however much you will for me have

you give me today what you think I should have. I don't need anything more.

I relinquish control of what I think I need. Verse 12, forgive us our debts.

We like that part. , forgive us God,

as we also have forgiven our debtors. Listen, this is the gospel.

This is what Jason talked about earlier,

that Jesus came down to earth to die for our sins so that we can be forgiven,

to be restored in a right relationship with the Father. That is the will of God,

that all men come to repentance, that all of us will be forgiven.

But even in this, we say, God,

I don't just receive your forgiveness and then like be selfish with it.

Instead, I receive your forgiveness so that the will you imposed on my life,

I can now spread out towards other people.

So now I'm not just a recipient of your grace and your will.

I'm a conduit of it. I'm,

I'm starting to push out the same things you have placed inside of me.

God, complete your will in me and through me in the verse 13.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

God, keep me from anything that keeps me from you.

God,

save me from anything that would possibly tempt me and play on my

mind, my will, my emotions.

Take all of the things that might possibly try to get me to live life my own way

and just send them the other direction and send me far away from that

so that I'm only focused on you in accomplishing what you say you want for my

life. When we go to God,

it's so that he can shape us, not so that we can shape him.

And this is a beautiful thing. I mean,

'cause this can happen in all sorts of ways. You can go to God angry.

You can go to God's sad, you can go to him happy.

You can go to him with joy and celebration and mourning.

And in all of these things, he will say,

let me teach you the right way to experience all of those things.

Let me refine you, let me shape you.

And this is the confidence that we have towards God, that, that,

that we can trust him.

One John five 14 through 15 affirms this idea. It says,

and this is the confidence that we have towards God,

that if we ask anything according to his

will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask,

we know that we have the request that we have asked of him.

Listen, prayer. If you wanted all of this in just kind of a neat little ball,

here's what it is. Prayer is about posture and position.

What's your posture and what's the position of God in your life? See,

in prayer, we elevate God.

We restore him to his rightful place saying, God, you're above all.

We lower ourself. Listen, if Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane,

it says He lowered his face to the ground. If Jesus had to take on that posture,

like, don't you think every now and then we should be broken to that same place?

So we elevate God, we lower self, and then we center in on his will.

And so with all of these practices, um,

there's only a benefit to them if we do them right.

So we've been thinking through, you know,

as Jason has talked about where we're headed as a church and this new identity

that we believe that God wants to place on us, we thought, man,

we should really spend time like not just leadership, not just staff.

Like our entire church should spend time in deep prayer

seeking the face of God, learning his will,

aligning our hearts and minds to his will. And so we said, well, what's,

what's a way that we can do this? And so, um,

what we've created is a 40 day of plan, uh, a 40 day,

uh, prayer plan that later on you'll get instructions on how to opt into it.

But man, what if every day when you woke up,

there was something on your phone that guided you through a prayer?

Because I know some of you,

you hear 40 days of prayer and that sounds really intimidating. You're like,

man, but every time I try to pray, I don't know what to pray.

And then they get intimidated and then sometimes I fall asleep. What do,

what do I do with this? So, um,

what we did was we got our staff together and we recorded 40 prayer prompts that

every morning you'll get one on your phone.

It'll be a link that comes via text message.

You click on that and it'll be a guided prayer time about five minutes long that

leads you through a time of reflection and thinking about, uh,

what you're gonna say, really getting in tune with,

with what you feel and how to bring and present those things to God, honestly.

And so, um, we're gonna officially kick that off on July 1st on Monday.

But we wanted to give everybody a moment here to, um,

actually see what that's gonna be like. So in just a moment,

you're gonna hear this audio that plays at all of our campuses watching online.

You're gonna hear this audio, um,

and I just wanna invite you to lean into the moment and let this be a

guide for the way that you pray.

Now just imagine if everybody that calls Hope Community Church home,

everyone who says they're a part of this family,

imagine if all of us we're praying the same thing

every morning, the same thing every day,

to align our hearts and mind to God's will. Here's what we're gonna do,

we're gonna go ahead and play that for you in just a second.

But I've been doing this practice over the last couple of months.

It's been really helpful for me, um,

because I notice a lot of times when I pray it's in transition,

like I pray on my way to do something else,

or like I'm praying before a meal and all I do is smell the food the whole time.

So I'm not thinking about what I'm saying,

I'm thinking about getting to the food afterwards. You know what I mean?

So let's just take a moment and, uh, and let's just slow down.

Let's not think about what we're gonna do or what's gonna happen next. Um,

everyone close your eyes with me

and I want you to take a deep breath in and then let it out.

And let's just focus our minds and our hearts on talking to our Heavenly

Father.

Welcome to the beginning of our 40 days of prayer journey.

Over the next 40 days,

we are committing to allowing God to align our hearts and minds with his will.

Prayer is an opportunity to begin each day by echoing the words and heart

posture of our ultimate example, Jesus Christ, as we cry out to God,

not our will, but yours be done in these prayer times,

you'll be invited to think, reflect, rejoice mourn and listen,

there will be times where we look introspectively upon ourselves and other times

where we will turn our attention towards others. Either way,

we fix our gaze on our Heavenly Father,

the one who knows us and our needs better than we know ourselves.

To begin, scripture emphasizes the importance of gratitude.

Let's start by reading and reflecting on Psalm 100. Together.

Shout with joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come before him singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God.

He made us and we are his. We are His people.

The sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving.

Go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good.

His unfailing love continues forever and his faithfulness continues to

each generation. Now pause and reflect on what we just read.

Now I'm going to ask you a few questions that will help and inform how you pray.

Number one, what are three things you have to be grateful for today?

Number two, how can you express joy throughout the day?

Number three, what does it mean for us? That the Lord is God,

that he made us, and that we are his.

I am going to lead us in a prayer and then give you time to pray in your own

words. But first, let's take a deep breath in

and let it out.

Let's focus our hearts on God.

Dear God today, we don't ask you for a thing,

we just cry out and express our gratitude.

Thank you for today and thank you for your goodness.

Thank you that you are so great and so good that we can trust you.

Thank you for allowing us to see another day,

and thank you for all this day will bring. Father,

we love you now in your own words,

consider your answers from the previous questions and express gratitude to your

heavenly Father.

God, we thank you for all you've done and all you will do.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.