Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer

[0:00] Well, good morning and welcome to our online service for Sunday, January 24th, 2020. My name is Kent Dixon. I'm the lead pastor of Braymar Baptist Church here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

[0:13] Welcome this morning. Welcome if you're tuning in live and watching us on Facebook right now, or if you're tuning in later on the various places you can find us on Facebook, YouTube, on our church website, braymarbaptist.com, or wherever you happen to be tuning in, whether it's this morning on Sunday morning or later in the week.

[0:33] God bless you as you join us in whatever way you do that. And so we're glad to have you here this morning to join us. Let's open in prayer this morning. Father God, thank you that your word tells us where two or three are gathered in your name, you are there.

[0:48] And so, Lord, we recognize that even in this unique way that we're gathering week by week these days, you are still with us. You're with us in this way. And so, Lord, we thank you for technology.

[1:01] We thank you for the opportunities that you give us to remain connected, even in the midst of the pandemic. And so, Lord, we thank you that you are here with us this morning. Or at any time when we need you, when we reach out to you, Lord, you are there.

[1:19] You are with us day by day in every moment. Lord, thank you for each one, each person who seeks you as their God, who turns to you in times of joy and hope, and also in times of crisis and times of grief and times of despair.

[1:36] Lord, you are the God of provision, the God of comfort, the God of all things. Lord, thank you that you love us, that you care for us, that you see us. Lord, we recognize people have needs.

[1:49] People have financial needs and needs that relate to employment, Lord. The pandemic has been devastating in so many ways. And so, Lord, we have faith that you will provide.

[2:01] And so we ask you to do that, Lord. We ask you to step in and provide jobs, provide income, provide ways for people to meet their needs. And, Lord, thank you that we have community.

[2:14] Thank you that we have friends with whom we can stay in contact, family members. And again, Lord, we thank you for the technology to be able to do that, to remain connected in a time of physical distancing.

[2:26] Lord, thank you for our church. Thank you for Bramard Baptist in Edmonton. And, Lord, thank you for each person that calls Bramard home. Lord, there are lots of health challenges and things that are connected to our church.

[2:40] And so, Lord, we ask you to bring comfort and bring healing to people who are struggling with their health. Lord, we ask you to bring comfort to people who have lost loved ones in the past year or have loved ones who are facing more serious health concerns that, Lord, their situation and circumstances may seem hopeless.

[3:00] But, Lord, you are the God of hope and you are the God of healing. So we ask you to bring hope to people's lives, bring the promise of a brighter day tomorrow, bring the promise of a future where there is no longer this type of restriction and lockdown that we have in the pandemic now.

[3:21] Lord, you saw this coming and you will see it end as well. You see when it will end. And so, Lord, we put our trust, we put our faith in you. We lean on you, Lord. Remind us to do that.

[3:32] Remind us that you don't expect us to find our own way, but you are here for us to lead and to guide us. And so, Lord, again, we thank you for the opportunity to come before you this morning in worship, in praise as we reflect on your word and as we learn together, as we grow together on this discipleship journey that it is to be a Christian.

[3:53] So, Lord, thank you for your love and your care and your kindness towards us. We pray all of these things in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, let's join together in worship singing this morning.

[4:05] And we're going to sing three songs. Blessed Assurance, He Leadeth Me, and How Great Thou Art. Those are three classics, if you will, three great hymns of our faith.

[4:16] And so, you'll be able to follow along, as always, with the lyrics on the screen and the worship leader as you hear his voice and his musical talent leading us.

[4:28] So, let's sing our praises to our awesome God this morning and blessings on you as you sing. Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine Heir of salvation Purchase of God Born of his spirit Washed in his blood This is my story This is my song Praising my Savior All the day long This is my story

[5:31] This is my song This is my song Praising my Savior All the day long Perfect submission Perfect submission All is at rest I am I am my Savior I am happy and blessed Watching and waiting Watching and waiting Looking above Looking above Filled with his goodness Filled with his goodness Lost in his love Lost in his love This is my story This is my song This is my story This is my song Praising my Savior

[6:34] Praising my Savior All the day long This is my story This is my song This is my song Praising my Savior All the day long He leads me Oh blessed heart Oh world with heavenly Comfort fraud Whatever I do Wherever I be Still tis God's hand That he leadeth me

[7:36] He leadeth me He leadeth me By his own hand He leadeth me His faithful follower I would be For by his hand He leadeth me Sometimes Sometimes Sometimes He seems Of deepest gloom Sometimes Where he is Power's bloom By water Still Oh trouble See still Tis God's hand That he leadeth me He leadeth me

[8:36] He leadeth me He leadeth me By his own hand He leadeth me He leadeth me His faithful follower I would leave For by His hand He leadeth me He leadeth me He leadeth me By His own hand He leadeth me His faithful follower I would be For by His hand He leadeth me Oh Lord my God

[10:00] When I am awesome in the earth Consider all the world I am to make I see the stars I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout The universe display And sings my soul My Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art And when I think

[11:01] That God is Son not sparing Sent Him to die I scarce can take it in That on that cross That on that cross My burden gladly bearing He bled and died To take away my sin Then sings my soul My Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art Then sings my soul My Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art

[12:21] As I said before we sang them They're classics They're true and deep And powerful and strong Traditional hymns of our faith And so I hope that was encouraging to you I'll be teased by some people I'm sure that Gosh Pastor Kent That was a fairly slow group of songs This morning But I think it's important for us To change it up a little To have times of singing Worship singing Where we're reflecting Times of worship singing Where we're joyous And jubilant So this morning Was the former time To think about The truth of our faith And just reflect As we sing Our praise to God Well this morning We're continuing In our sermon series Titled Spiritual Disciplines Exercise Your Faith And if you've missed The previous sermons In this series And you'd like to catch up Or you'd like to connect With us in other ways You can do that On Facebook We're here on Facebook

[13:23] Live this morning But you can also see Previous sermons In the videos section So previous series Are here As well as Each sermon In this series Exercise Your Faith Will appear there as well So you can also Connect with our church And learn more About who we are At BramardBaptist.com Many of you are familiar With us And know what we're all about Know what we believe Know what our core values are But if you're tuning in And you don't know Who we are Or don't know Where we are Or what we're about You can learn All of that stuff On our website At BramardBaptist.com So please visit us there You're welcome to do that And you can also listen To sermons In podcast format So if you're an On the go Listen to sermons Kind of person Or listen to podcasts If that's something That you do You can find BramardCast Which is our podcast Of sermons On Spotify Apple Podcasts

[14:24] And other places Where you get Your podcast content So there's your Little connection PSA for this morning Public service announcement Well in this series We're recognizing That as followers Of Jesus Christ As disciples We can benefit From some tools And skills That will help us On our journey And these tools Or skills Are known as Spiritual disciplines Christian spiritual disciplines Have existed Since the very earliest days Of the church And we've explored that A bit already In the series These tools And skills Are intended To help us Put ourselves Before God Put ourselves In a state of mind And a state of heart Where we can best Interact with him And some of these Disciplines That we're going to Explore over the series And we have started Already Will be quite obvious And familiar to you Some of them will be Maybe there are things That you already feel

[15:24] You have a good handle on And that is great But others may be New to you And I hope that you Can begin to see How they can be A benefit to you How they can begin To help you In your spiritual journey As you seek to Draw closer to God And deepen your Relationship with him This morning We're continuing To explore What are known as The inward Spiritual disciplines And as I said When we began This section There are four Inward spiritual disciplines And they're referred to As inward disciplines Because these are The most personal The most directly Between ourselves And God One to one And this morning We're going to consider Speaking of obvious disciplines The discipline of Prayer Prayer So it's a relatively Simple concept I believe we'd agree But we can also Recognize the near Limitless depth That it can have

[16:25] As well In fact As I was thinking About this sermon As I was preparing For it I found it actually Comical To consider the idea That I'm going to Talk about prayer In one sermon In this series Because We're focusing On all of these Disciplines And so Week by week We're going to Look at one Each week But we also Need to recognize And I'm doing that For you That there's so Much more depth That you can explore On your own In all of these Disciplines When it comes to Prayer For example We focused In on the Words And the Meanings Of the Lord's Prayer In a Three week Mini series That we did In July So that was Last summer You can find That on the Church website Or on Facebook If you'd like To look at it It was a Three part Series On the Lord's Prayer But we could Easily focus On the Subject of Prayer For sermon After sermon For a Year or more Easily more Than a year

[17:25] I would think And still Barely even Scratch the Surface On the Topic There have Literally Been Thousands Of books Written About Prayer And maybe You've Read some Of them Or maybe You have Some of Them in Your Library And that's A good Thing Prayer Is a Concept That is Familiar In one Way or Another I believe To every Human Being Who is Alive At this Moment And who Has Ever Lived And maybe That's a Bold Statement But I Believe it's True Prayer is A source Of daily Encouragement And connection For many People For others It's a Break glass In case Of emergency Option Something That they May turn To only In a Moment Of desperation Or isolation Crying Out In pain Or need Prayer Is something That is Mocked By some As Misguided Weakness And yet

[18:25] It is Deeply Cherished And valued By others As a True Source Of Strength Perhaps You've This is Of all The kinds Let me Pause For a Second Of all The kinds Of profanity Of profane Language Personally I find The most Offensive To me Are Those That relate To God And scripture Is clear That those Are the Most serious But To me My ears Are attuned To hear People saying Oh God Or oh my God Because if You think About it If you Pause and Listen to People speak It's a Common phrase That people Use We hear The words Oh my God Used Frequently And perhaps People use Them as An expression Of shock Or disbelief For some People It can be A throw Away Filler Expression I used To tease My Young

[19:26] Adults Now But I Used to Tease Them When they Were Teenagers And they Use the Word Like A lot The Beginnings Of their Sentences Began With Like Da da da da da And And I And like I said And then Like Da da da So it was a Filler right And oh my God Or my God Can be Used as Fillers But for Others I think We'd Recognize That Those words Can actually Be a Plea To the Creator Of the Universe Directed Specifically And with Intention The idea Of prayer Is likely Familiar To everyone As I Said And maybe You've Even Heard Some People Someone Who Maybe You Even Knew Wasn't Particularly Faith Focused In Their Life But Perhaps You Heard Them Say In Response To Someone's Grief Or Difficult Situation Our Thoughts Or My Thoughts And Prayers Are With You That's A Common Expression We

[20:26] Hear That Idea Of Prayer Evokes A Sense Of Compassion That Phrase Our Thoughts And Prayers Are With You A Sense Of Compassion A Sense Of Comfort A Sense Of Connection It's Something That We Give To People To Recognize Their Grief And Whether The Person Who Speaks About It Who Uses That Phrase Speaking About Prayer Specifically Whether Whether Or Not The Person Who Receives That Sentiment Whether Either Of Those People Actually Practice Prayer Or Not That Phrase Our Thoughts And Prayers Are With You Is A Transactional Prayer That We Statement That We Use With People Who Are Grieving And We Want To Express Care And Concern So Well We Recognize This Morning That Well Prayer Is Not A Discipline That's Practiced By Everyone It Is Something That's

[21:26] A Familiar Concept So This Morning We're Going To Use Our Time Together To Return A Bit To The Basics Of Prayer What Is Prayer Why Should We Pray How Should We Pray And When We're Also Going To Consider The Importance Of Perspective In Our Prayer Lives And We're Going To Look At All Of This Through The Lens Of Scripture And Through The Example Of Jesus So Some Of What We May Look At This Morning Will Seem Simple And That's Good I Believe Because Prayer Was Never Intended To Be Complicated Or Intimidating As Disciples Of Christ Aside From Scripture Itself Prayer Is Likely The Focus Of How We Would Define Ourselves As Christians At Least I Hope That's The Case For You Aside People People People People People Who

[22:26] Follow Jesus Prayer Is Something That Should Be A Dominant Thing In Our Lives But I Believe It's Important To Recognize The Idea Of Prayer The Act Of Praying Is Not Something That Is Exclusive To Christianity So Simply Saying I Pray Doesn't Then Imply That You're A Christian Every World Religion Recognizes Prayer In Some Form As A Means Of Communicating With A Deity Someone Who Has Died The Universe In Some Broad Sort Of New Age Sense Or Something Outside Of One's Self Prayer Is A Recognized Means Of Communication For Many People And As Protestant Christians Quite Simply We Recognize Prayer As What Talking To God Not A God But The God A

[23:26] Member Of The Trinity The Creator Of The Universe The One Who Created Each Of Us The One Who Sent Jesus His Only Son To Die On A Cross To Make It Possible For Humanity To Be For Sin And Restored In Relationship With God Amen Amen To That We Don't Pray To One God Among Many As Some Religions Do We Don't Pray Directly To Other Christians Who Have Gone Before Us Who Have Died Asking Them To Intercede With God On Our Behalf We Recognize That Only Jesus Himself Intercedes To God On Our Behalf As Protestant Believers As Many Have Stated Correctly Over The Years We Pray To God Through Jesus As Our Intermediary And In The Power Of The Holy

[24:26] Spirit Jesus Made It Possible For Us To Connect With God And We Connect As I Said Through The Power Of The Holy Spirit And The Holy Spirit We Recognize Lives Within Us As People Who Have Recognized And Given Their Lives Freely To Jesus Christ The Lordship Of Jesus Christ So In Answer To This Question What Is Prayer We Can Simply But Not Hear Me On This But Not Simplistically Define It As Talking To God And We Also Remember That This Simple Definition Of Talking To God Has A Near Infinite Depth Of Meaning Well Let's Continue Exploring The Idea Of Prayer Together As We Consider Why Should We Pray Those Four Simple Words To Me Mark One Of The Most

[25:26] Critical Aspects Of Our Faith Journey One Of The Critical Perspectives Imagine Now Let Me Give You Some Examples Imagine Setting Out On A Long Road Trip With No Directions No Previous Knowledge Or Information On Your Destination No Means Of Gaining More Information Along The Way And Yet With A Sense Of Urgency That You Must Arrive At Your Destination At Some Point That Sure Sounds Impossible Doesn't It Connor And Emily Did Their First Road Trip Together They Didn't Go Far But They Went On The Highway And Went To A Destination And They Planned Ahead Right So They Consulted And They Had Their Plans Laid Out So The Idea Of Going Heading Somewhere Not Knowing Your Destination Not Knowing How To Get There Sure Sounds Complicated And Impossible It Sounds Frustrating Confusing Maybe Even Upsetting Anxiety

[26:27] Inducing Have You Ever Tried To Find An Address And Not Had Google Maps Or Not Had Your Phone Or Not Have Or Having Not Been There Before It Can Be Stressful And It Can Also Be Some Illogical When We Have Access To Resources To Help Us And So To Use Another Example Think About The Person In Your Life With Whom Most Treasured Connection Take A Moment To Think Of That Person And Maybe They Pop Right Into Your Head Immediately Would You Ever Voluntarily Choose To Ignore That Connection Would You Intentionally Neglect That Relationship And Choose Any Number Of Other Things To Occupy Your Time Would You Make Them Lesser Than A Priority In Your Life All The While Knowing That That Relationship Is The Thing Or One Of The Things That Brings True

[27:28] Value In Your Life That Brings You Insight Sometimes Our Closest Relationships With Others Make Us Humble Remind Us Of Our Flaws Hopefully In A Loving Way But Encourage Us To Give Us Insight And Joy Give Us A Sense Of Connection And Possibly Even A Sense Of Purpose Well You're Likely Thinking I Hope Of Course Not Of Course I Would Never Never Neglect That Relationship And Yet We Neglect Our Calling To Be People Of Prayer And Now I'm Not Pointing Fingers I'm Not Trying To Make You Feel Guilty I'm Just Wanting All Of Us To Reflect On This I Believe That We Can Neglect Our Calling To Be People Of Prayer And We're Doing Much Of The Same Things That I Suggested In The Examples I Gave You We're Neglecting A Relationship We're Neglecting A Means Of Getting Perspective On And

[28:36] See The Main Difference To Me Between The Examples I Gave You And The Relationship With God Is That In Choosing Not To Tap Into The Amazing Resource That Prayer Offers Us In Choosing To Neglect Our Prayer Lives And Forgo A Deep And Enriching Relationship With The God Who Created Us And Knows Us We Are Choosing To Miss Out On We Are Neglecting The True Richness And Depth Of The Christian Life A Life Lived In Close Relationship With God What That Can Truly Offer Us We Missing It We Neglecting It Can You See Just How Crazy That Is So Knowing What Prayer Is And Hopefully Also Having A Better Sense Of Why We Should Do It How Should We Pray And When Well This

[29:36] Is Potentially A Huge Area Of Discussion And Exploration And We Simply Can't Do It Justice In One Sermon But I Want To Encourage You In Something There Are No Prescriptive Guidelines To Either How Or When We Should Pray And You May Argue That With Me But We Will Get There In A Moment I Believe Our Perceived Need For Structure Can Get In The Way Here When It's Actually A Sense Of Freedom That We Can Embrace In Our Prayer Lives If You're The Kind Of Person Who Thrives On Structure In Your Spiritual Life Here We Are You're In Good Company Because Jesus Disciples Recognized How The Lord Prioritized Prayer We

[30:36] Read About That In Luke Chapter 11 Verses 1-4 And Other Places In The Gospels And I Encourage You Guess What This Is The Lord's Prayer I Encourage You To Check Out That Series On The Lord's Prayer That We Did Because We Explored Jesus Example And The Perspective That We Can Gain From Studying It And Using It As A Model For Our Prayer So I Encourage You To Check That Out Because It It Was A Source Of Encouragement For A Lot Of People And We Learned A Lot As We Looked At It Together I Believe Christians Can Tend To Compartmentalize Prayer To Set It Apart To Bracket It To Separate It From The Rest Of The Activities And Events Of Our Day Is That Your Experience We Pray Before Meals We Pray Before Bed We Pray In The Morning And These Are Valid Things To Do

[31:36] And Prayer Prayer Is Sacred Prayer Is To Be Set Apart In Some Ways But When We Make Prayer One Activity Out Of Many In Our Lives I Believe It Can Get Bumped It Can Get Bumped By Other Perceived Priorities Or Even Distractions And Maybe That's Your Experience It Has Been Mine And As I've Shared With You Before I Love Music Whether I'm Driving Or Studying It Used To Drive My Mom Crazy When I Was In University Because I Would Listen To Music While I Wrote Papers Or I Would Listen To Music While I Was Studying And She Said How Can You Possibly Do This It's Such A Source Of Distraction I Find Music Anchors Me It Gives Me A Framework Within Which I Can Be More Focused Believe Relaxing

[32:36] The Common Theme In My Life Is Music I Tend To Have Music Playing And My Friends I Am Seeking Now To Try And Make Prayer The Intentional Soundtrack Of My Life I'm Seeking To Talk To God Moment By Moment Sharing The Highs And Lows Of My Day With Him As They Happen Is That An Easy Thing To Do No Not Always I'll Admit It It's A Discipline That I'm Trying To Prioritize And Train Myself To Do We've Talked About Discipline And Training Being Important As We Look At How To Draw Closer To God There Are Certain Times When We Can And Should Pray More Formally But God Ultimately Isn't Concerned With The Words Of Our Prayers He's Mostly Concerned With

[33:37] The Fact That We Come To Him In Prayer That We Talk To Him As We Reflected On The Importance Of The Relationship That's The Core Piece That's Important It's Definitely Worth It's It's Definitely Worth It's It's On Our Perspective On And Our Attitudes Towards Prayer That's Found In Matthew 6 Beginning At Verse 5 Where Jesus Cautions His Disciples And When You Pray Jesus Says Do Not Be Like The Hypocrites For They Love To Pray Standing In The Synagogues And On The Street Corners To Be Seen By Men I Tell You The Truth They Have Received Their Reward In Full And It's Not The Reward We Would Be Looking For Jesus Is Reminding Us Here That When We Pray In The Company Of Other People We Need To Remember That The True

[34:37] Audience For Our Prayers Is God Not The People Around Us Jesus Continues In Verse 6 But When You Pray Go Into Your Room Close The Door And Pray To Your Father Who Is Unseen Then Your Father Who Sees What Is Done In Secret Will Reward You We Get An Important Perspective On Our Words As Well In Verse 7 And 8 And When You Pray Do Not Keep On Babbling Like Pagans For They Think They Will Be Heard Because Of Their Many Words Do Not Be Like Them For Your Father Knows What You Need Before You Ask Him So My Friends I Want To Encourage You Don't Wait For The Perfect Words Or The Perfect Time To Start Talking To God Or

[35:37] You May Never Start Our Perspective On Prayer And How We Prioritize It In Our Lives Says A Lot About Where Our Hearts Are At I Believe We Have A Tendency To Turn To God In Two Main Ways First Often When We Want Or Need Something From Him And Second When We Feel Our Circumstances Are Beyond Our Control But Guess What Our Circumstances Are Ultimately Always Beyond Our Control And That's Not A Bad Thing Because It Causes Us Should Cause Us To Lean Into God To Trust God To Reach Out To Him And Talk To Him And When We Talk To God Our Perspective Is So Important We Need To Remember That It's Ultimately His Will That We're Seeking Not Our Own Even

[36:37] In The Specific Circumstances Of Our Lives The Day To Day Things That We See That We Need Or The Day To Day Goals That We Might Have We're Seeking His Perspective On Those Things Not Our Own Because When We Focus On God's Will From The Perspective Of What He Wants For Us 1 John Chapter 5 Verse 14 Encourages Us This Is The Confidence That We Have In Approaching God That Is We Ask Anything That Sorry That Is As We Ask Anything According To His Will He He He He Hears Us So When Our Perspective Is On God's Will And His Direction For Our Lives When We Pray From That Perspective God Hears Us Now, to be clear, that's not a caveat in terms of God won't hear us unless we pray in that way, because he will.

[37:40] But the desire to have our prayers answered requires us to have the perspective of God's will for our lives. We want what God wants, not what we want.

[37:52] Sometimes they align, and that's a good thing. Hebrews 4 verse 16 also encourages us to approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

[38:11] Don't be afraid when you pray. Don't be hesitant when you pray. When you pray, do you pray meekly? Are you afraid to ask God to meet your needs or answer your prayers?

[38:26] Are you unsure if he will? Friends, as I've touched on here, when our prayers are oriented towards, when our perspective is oriented towards his will, he will act.

[38:40] God will move. And so I encourage you to be bold. When your focus is on God, when you turn to him in prayer, pray bold prayers.

[38:53] Pray with confidence. Because that's what we're called to do. Perhaps of all the spiritual disciplines, we must prioritize prayer.

[39:06] As I said earlier, we may begin in prayer with our needs and the issues we want God to address. But I challenge us that while a time of crisis is absolutely a time that we should reach out to God, our prayer lives should also be marked by prayers of gratitude, celebration, joy, love, reflecting on who God is to us, what he has done for us.

[39:39] Sometimes prayer of thanksgiving is all that is needed. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6 verse 18 that we should pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests.

[39:57] And he also wrote in 1 Thessalonians, be joyful always. Pray continually. Some translations say pray without ceasing.

[40:08] Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Instead of being intimidated by the idea of praying all the time, pray without ceasing.

[40:23] I think we get stuck on that. Paul is encouraging us and liberating us with the idea that prayer is an ongoing conversation with God that can happen at any time.

[40:37] It's not about a responsibility to be constantly prayerful, but constantly tuned in to God, constantly focused on with our perspective on him.

[40:49] But you may be catching on this a little bit. You may be thinking, how can I pray in all occasions? Does God expect me to disengage entirely from my life and remain in constant prayer?

[41:01] Well, that's about our perspective on prayer right there. Rather than viewing prayer in solely in a compartmentalized way that's restricted to a specific time and place and framed by dear Lord and Amen.

[41:21] What if we looked at prayer as a constant opportunity for connection and conversation between us and God? What if, in addition to dedicated times of prayer, more compartmentalized and focused prayer, intercession prayer on behalf of someone else, praying for someone else, praying in thanksgiving for meals and so on, praying for someone's needs or our own needs, what if our prayer life could also consist of moment-by-moment conversations with God?

[41:57] An awareness of his presence with us and throughout our lives. Reflect on things that happen throughout your day.

[42:09] Here's a challenge. Reflect on things that happen throughout your day and ask God to teach you through them. Ask him what he is teaching you through them.

[42:20] Celebrate moment-by-moment times of provision and blessing, safety and protection. Ask God's guidance in the moment when you're facing a challenge.

[42:37] From one perspective, I believe prayer is, as we said, an obvious spiritual discipline that every Christian should have totally figured out, right?

[42:48] We make that assumption that everyone should have a good handle on it, be diligent about it, be regularly and deeply engaged in it, right?

[42:58] That's an expectation, perhaps. And others of you, I recognize this this morning, that you may hear the word prayer and suddenly, immediately feel a sense of guilt or inadequacy, that you don't pray enough, that you don't use the right words or that your words aren't as good as someone else's words, that you don't pray at the right time, that you don't pray for the right things, perhaps.

[43:27] My friends, I want you to feel free. I want you to feel a sense, I hope you've gained a sense this morning in listening that the freedom we can gain in our perspective on prayer can enrich and expand our prayer lives.

[43:50] And I hope that now that you've seen, now you've come to see this, that sweet intimacy of relationship that we can have with God in even what we may perceive to be the most mundane moments of our lives.

[44:06] God wants us to talk to Him. Nothing is too small or too big for God. He wants us to talk to Him. My friends, God loves you deeply.

[44:20] His work, His will, is at work for you. And His plan is the best plan for you. I encourage you to train your perspective, train your heart, train your habits towards God in prayer because He is listening.

[44:49] Amen. Well, our closing prayer and benediction this morning will come in the words of the doxology. And we're going to sing that together.

[45:01] The words, as they do with our worship singing at the beginning of the service, will appear on the screen so you can follow along. And the worship leader will guide us. And I encourage you to pray these words of blessing.

[45:15] Pray these words of, because this is God speaking this over you. Take this into your soul. May it enrich you. May it encourage you as you seek to have a new perspective and a new attitude towards prayer.

[45:30] Be free in your prayer life. My friends, go in peace as we sing the doxology together. And have a great week.

[45:41] God bless you. Praise God. Praise God.

[45:59] Praise God. Praise God. Blessing for all. Praise Him. All creatures.

[46:10] He'll be your own. Praise Him. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God.

[46:22] Praise God. Father, Son, let's hold it all. Praise God from all blessings flow.

[46:46] Praise him, all creatures, he will be the one. Praise him above, he heavenly are most.

[47:02] Praise Father, Son, let's hold it all. Praise God from all blessings flow.

[47:23] Praise him, all creatures, he will be the one. Praise him above, he heavenly are most.

[47:41] Praise Father, Son, let's hold it all. Praise God from all blessings flow.

[47:59] Praise God from all blessings flow.