The Friend at Midnight 🌙🍞 : Shameless Boldness in Prayer 🙏| Luke 11:5–8 📖

[0:00] Welcome to Ontario Community Church, where we are encouraging, equipping, and engaging lives for Christ.! I'm Pastor Patrick Daly, and each week I share sermons that balance the grace and love of Jesus Christ with the truth of the Word of God.

[0:15] Together, we'll explore Scripture using observation, interpretation, and application. This helps us discover practical ways to live out our faith every single day.

[0:26] Let's dive in together into God's Word. It's really been great to be able to do these kind of call and responses, which helps us engage with the text.

[0:38] One of the things that has always been on my heart ever since I began in ministry is the importance for not only us to read Scripture, but to study it, to learn from it, and to interact with it.

[0:50] When we read together, there's just something that is so beautiful about that, that we are engaging with the text, and the text is becoming more so alive. I am reminded of how the Word is living and it is active.

[1:06] It helps us not only come to know who Jesus is, but to know the grand narrative of Scripture. To see how things are connected with each other, and to transform lives.

[1:20] Can I get an amen? Amen. It's so important for that. I'd like for you all to turn your Bibles to page 1033. And I'd like to not only welcome everyone here in person, but those who are online.

[1:34] As you guys can see, the people online cannot see. We have two phones that are broadcasting. One of them broadcasts to YouTube and Facebook and Rumble, and the other one is broadcasting to TikTok.

[1:48] So we'd like to welcome all of you that are online. It's just really great to have you join us and just to be a part of this. And so we're going through the Gospel of Luke in chapter 11.

[2:02] And I want to kind of open in here, just showing how important it is for us to see... Turn that off real quick. There we go.

[2:16] So the Gospel of Luke chapter 11. I kind of want to show you what's going on in here. So we have here the Lord's Prayer, where it's starting off saying, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place when he finished.

[2:33] One of his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, When you pray, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins.

[2:46] As we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation. Right? So the Lord is showing his disciples how to pray. This is where we see, and I want to skip over the parable for a second here.

[3:01] There's then the parable. And then it goes on into the importance of prayer. It goes on into there, right?

[3:12] Where it says in verse 9, I got lost for a second here. In verse 9, And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receive.

[3:23] And the one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. So it's showing in here the importance of prayer. For many of us, I want to remind all of us.

[3:35] Listen, not only does God extend an invitation for you to believe in him. Right? To respond to the invitation to receive the free gift of salvation.

[3:45] But God wants to have a relationship with you. Where you communicate with the Lord. And you have to ask yourself the question, how is your prayer life?

[3:56] Please, by all means, don't answer that. But think about it. How often do you pray and communicate with the Lord? How often do you open the word and read and study it?

[4:08] It's not, I'm not saying that one person is better than the other. It's for you to reflect on how your relationship is with the Lord. This is no different than how it is with any relationship that we have.

[4:21] Right? We think of how we have friendships. We have relationships. Marriages. We have relationships with our children. All of these things require investment.

[4:33] And what I mean by that is you got to give quality time. Right? We think of the five love languages. For those of you, I think it's Gary Chapman is the guy's name. Right? The different types of love languages. Spending quality time.

[4:45] Right? Giving gifts. Right? And all of these ways are investing into the relationships that you have every single day. Well, that is no different than when you are continuing in the relationship that you have with the Lord.

[5:00] You are to not only begin a relationship, but to maintain and continue it. Sometimes I have found in my own life when I have felt alone or when I've needed comfort, I need to turn to the Lord.

[5:13] And maybe you can identify with times where you have felt disconnected or you have felt distant from the Lord and you needed to pray and to ask God for that comfort in your life.

[5:24] Because here's the thing. When we think of how God is our comforter, he is our protector, he is our firm foundation, there's all these languages that are describing the attributes of God.

[5:35] We think of God protecting us. What beautiful imagery that gives us. We think of having Christ as the firm foundation for our lives just as we've gone before that when storms happen in our lives, we still have God as our foundation.

[5:53] And so the disciples are asking the Lord the question when we go back to the text here, Lord, to teach us how to pray. What an amazing question to ask Jesus.

[6:04] Teach us how to pray. And so in there, we see that this parable is kind of, it is sandwiched between the importance of asking for our daily bread and the importance of asking, seeking and knocking.

[6:20] And I want to kind of show you not only the context, but the connections that are in here. So we're going to go into verses five through eight, which we've read together, right?

[6:30] It begins where Jesus is saying, which of you has a friend? We'll go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.

[6:42] Now, I want you to think for a moment, how many of you have had someone who's come out of the woodworks and has knocked on your door at a really inconvenient time, right?

[6:56] We can probably think of times when we're running late for a doctor's appointment and then you have someone say, hey, can you help me out real quick? And you're like, are you kidding me?

[7:07] I've got places to go. I've got people to see. I've got, you know, there's all these, don't you understand what a schedule is? I'm sure for all of us, we've had a story like that, or maybe you are the person that has reached out to someone before, right?

[7:22] Not to put you on the spot here, but maybe you have needed help from someone like, hey, my tire is flat. I need some help here, right? I can't tell you how many times in my own personal life there have been times where it's usually when I'm in a rush, right?

[7:36] Usually when you're in a rush and you got to go somewhere important, then God sends someone your way and you've got to have a conversation or they need help or whatever it is. And this is a moment that we're seeing here in the text, right?

[7:49] It's saying here, friend, lend me three loaves. A friend of mine has arrived on the journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within. How many of you got your Bibles open on here, right?

[8:01] Do not bother me. Don't bother me. Get out of here. The door's shut and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you, he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend.

[8:17] Yet, because of his what church? His impudence. Some translations say his persistence. The guy's not leaving.

[8:28] He needs help. And I want you to think for a moment because not only is this relatable to the world that we live in today, it's also very real to the time back in the day.

[8:39] Now, think about it. Now, some of us, you don't have to raise your hand. You probably have ring cameras or a doorbell at least, right? If someone's ringing the doorbell, eventually you're going to get, come on, leave me alone, right?

[8:51] My kids are asleep late at night. Well, when we're considering the culture of the time, it was very common to have a one-room household.

[9:01] Now, here's the insane thing. When my children were very little, very common what would happen would be they'd cuddle with mom and dad, and I would get booted off the bed.

[9:18] Eventually, it would be mom cuddling with all the children, right? And eventually, look, listen, they don't do that anymore. They sleep in their own bed. But when they're very little, it's a common thing that happens, right?

[9:28] I get this image of sleeping on a bed or on the ground, and your children are just there with you, right? Or your entire family is there with you to get up and to answer the door and to kind of step over everyone.

[9:46] Make sure you don't trip and fall. Because, you know, when they're covered in blankets or whatever, you might trip and fall. You might step on a foot. Not that that's happened to any of us before, right?

[9:57] We have those kind of moments. Or the famous, your kid left a very sharp Lego, and my gosh, how sharp is that thing will pierce my skin.

[10:07] I've gotten bruised before by stepping on a Lego before. It's those moments where you're like, okay, I need to help out with what's going on, right? And so it's talking about this shameless boldness.

[10:21] Now, for those of you who were here when we went over the parable of the persistent widow, that is a very similar scene as what's happening here.

[10:32] I'll give you a real quick recap. There was a widow who wanted justice from a really wicked judge. He neither feared God nor he respected man.

[10:43] That was a double negative right there, a double whammy as it were. But the widow was so persistent in demanding justice that eventually it says in the text, we're not going there, but it says in the text that the judge was so bothered by this widow's persistent that he gave her justice.

[11:01] And it's very similar to what we're finding here in the text today. That the friend at midnight who is asking for bread is being persistent.

[11:11] Now, in the original languages, it's very different, but it's the same concept. So it's anadea, which is shameless boldness or being persistent outside the door.

[11:27] Can you help a friend out? Please. And I'm going to be persistent. I really need help here. Now, what's also interesting is that in the culture at that time, it was very important to, if someone came to the door, it was more culturally appropriate.

[11:43] You got to help them. So there's that tension that's going on where it's like, well, I know I got to help this guy, but I don't want to, right? We can identify with that, right? I know I probably should help him, but I don't really want to.

[11:56] But in these moments, it's through the persistence that's happening that we can see this, right? So we think of how, isn't it interesting that the prior verses are talking about, give us this day our daily bread.

[12:09] And here you have a parable that's showing someone who's asking for bread. Isn't that very interesting? Kind of showing a real life example, as it were. We also have the friend and the household, right?

[12:21] Where there's this relationship, right? And this consistency. And what's always interesting in scripture is when you see the case of something happening at midnight, right?

[12:32] An inconvenient hour, an inconvenient time, or an unexpected time. Much like we found in the parable of the 10 virgins, right? Where they were waiting for the bridegroom to come. And at midnight, at an unexpected hour, the bridegroom returned.

[12:46] So there are many times in scripture where midnight is an unexpected or just something that catches you off guard. And we can identify where there have been times someone has caught us literally at midnight or at an inconvenience time.

[13:04] And so we also have anadeia, which is the shameless boldness and persistence. It's not necessarily being rude. It's, well, there's a sense of urgency that's happening here.

[13:16] I really need your help here. I'm really asking my friend for bread. And this is showing the, not only the persistence of the friend at midnight, but it's showing on how we should be persistent in our prayer life when it comes to our relationship with the Lord.

[13:35] There's this direct connection that happens with that. And so in Jewish culture, as I was mentioning, failing to feed a guest was not really a good thing.

[13:46] It was considered a disgrace or uncommon. Like, why would you be so rude to a stranger? We might kind of identify with that, but obviously more so back then.

[13:57] And then, of course, as I mentioned, the one-room home. And then, of course, the friend that was visiting at night. We can think of how, in that time period, a desert climate.

[14:09] You know, it's kind of when you think of, when it gets really hot, if you don't have air conditioning or your air conditioning is broken in your vehicle, you don't want to really drive in the hottest part of the day, right?

[14:20] Or when you're working outside, you don't want to be in the hottest part of the day. I mean, unless you absolutely have to, right? So it's very similar when we're talking about the culture that the friend would want to go at night when it's cooler in the day.

[14:34] And so what I find very interesting, and I want to kind of make it clear as we're going through this, is how this parable is connected with the asking, seeking, and knocking.

[14:45] Very often, that particular verse is used in a more name-it-and-claim-it type of theology, where you find some people are saying, you know, if I think it, it will come into existence.

[14:57] Well, that's not entirely accurate. We have to think that when we are praying to the Lord, when we are seeking the Lord, when we are praying for divine intervention, it is in accordance to His will that it will happen.

[15:13] Because God answers in yes, no, or not yet. And here's the thing. Sometimes we can have ridiculous prayers. Hey, God, I'd like a mansion, right? I'm sure some of us have prayed that prayer.

[15:25] Please, by golly, don't raise your hand on that one, right? Or there have been moments where we've thought of kind of that type of prayer, right? But when we're looking at this, it's talking about the persistence of prayer when it comes to help and provision and guidance and comfort from the Lord.

[15:44] That's very different than asking for a Lamborghini or asking for a McMansion. So I want to make that very clear, as that is something that gets very, unfortunately, gets misunderstood.

[15:59] And the other thing is that I also want you to, another way that when people read this parable, they may think, well, is God a grumpy neighbor? That he doesn't want to be bothered? No, because it's showing how much more God has love for us than the human understanding of things.

[16:17] Much like how when I mentioned the parable of the persistent widow, the whole premise of that was that there are wicked judges and you got to demand for justice and eventually they'll give you justice.

[16:29] But God will give justice far greater than what man has to give. Can I get an amen on that? Does that, that should make sense for us. And in the same way, it's not saying God is some grumpy neighbor that doesn't want to, you know, wake up at night because he's sleeping.

[16:43] No, it's saying that God's, how God provides is much greater than what man can give. It's something that we find very often in scripture. So I want to also make that very clear when we're going through this.

[16:56] And so as we have gone through the text here at Ontario Community Church, we use what is known as the OIA method. It is observation, interpretation, and application.

[17:08] The O is a representation as scripture is our source. We open the word of God and by golly, we're going to read it and we're going to wrestle with it together, right? The I then is what we can learn from this.

[17:21] And the A is what we can do about this. So we go now into the I is what can we learn from this? Well, when we think of persistence, we have to think of the sense of urgency.

[17:33] It's a matter of the heart that this person was going and knocking and trying to get bread because he cared for his own visitor. He cared for the person at hand.

[17:43] And so this is certainly a heart thing. I really need help. We don't know why he needed the, well, we know why he needed the bread, but why he didn't have bread to provide. Could have been he ran out of money, right?

[17:55] It could have been the local market was closed or whatever. We can identify with these kind of things, right? If someone needs help really late at night, well, hey, I'm sorry, but can you help me with my tire?

[18:07] The mechanic or the auto shop is closed, right? We can think of those kind of things. In a very similar manner. And so when we're thinking of prayer, then it begins with the heart.

[18:20] When we are seeking God, it's how is your heart towards the Lord? Why are you praying to the Lord to begin with? Is it with good or is it with evil intent?

[18:31] Those are the kind of things to consider. So we approach the Lord as our friend, just as we sang that song, what a friend we have in Jesus.

[18:44] And so the request is from another purpose for another person. And so very often when we pray, yes, we pray for ourselves, but we also should pray for other people who are in need.

[18:55] Each and every one of you have different relationships with people. And when we think about it, we know who they are.

[19:07] We know our friends. We know our family so well. And we can pray on their behalf. Do any of you know my relationship with my sister? The answer is no. I mean, unless you really know them.

[19:18] So it's my responsibility to pray for my sister. I'll give you a real life example. She's about to have her firstborn daughter on the 18th. You can pray for her by all means.

[19:30] She was told she could never have children. My mother was told she could never have children. And God has a different say, amen? And we should, all I'm saying to bring up my sister and my mother is that we pray for other people.

[19:46] We make our requests known to the Lord and praying on, hey, I've got a friend who is struggling with this. I am praying for healing for a broken marriage.

[20:00] I'm praying for transformation for someone's hardened heart to be softened. We can think of these kind of things. The second thing is what, church?

[20:10] To be what? Be persistent in prayer. Just as scripture says that we are to pray without ceasing. Right? When I mentioned the Greek anadeia or anadeia, shameless, unembarrassed persistence.

[20:26] Pray to the Lord. It's a spiritual discipline, as it were. Right? When we read the word of God, we are going to read it every week. When we take communion here, we do that once a month.

[20:38] And that's on a church level. And we should think about how, what are our spiritual habits? What does that look like?

[20:49] And certainly we should all be in prayer. And so part of the point of the parable is this idea that if persistence can move a grumpy neighbor, how much more will God be moved when we are persistent in prayer?

[21:09] Think of it like that. And as I've mentioned before and I'll mention again, God will answer with yes, no, or not yet. And so in that, we finally have the third point here, which is God provides our daily bread.

[21:28] We think, do we think, I want you to think for a moment. God provides what we need. I'm speaking of spiritual nourishment. I'm speaking of the times where God has provided for you when you had no other way out.

[21:44] I can't tell you, you know, there have been times in my own life where I ran out of money. And I found I had an envelope of $200 left.

[21:55] And I was like, where did that come from? And I had no recollection of that. Or you get your, you know, you get some sort of rebate or something. And that's financial, but there's other things as well.

[22:07] When we think of how God answers prayer in his timing. I mentioned as an example, my sister who was told that she could not have children. I think of my own wife who was told that she could not have children.

[22:20] That's three instances of people that I personally know who, and I'm not criticizing the medical profession. I'm saying that God has a much greater say than medical professionals do.

[22:32] I want to make that abundantly clear. That when my wife and I were dating, we were told we would not have children. And we got married and we just prayed to the Lord consistently and persistently that maybe one day we would have children.

[22:51] And it was very hard four years of our life, but God eventually did answer by, well, you see my five children. So you can, you can see that God has provided.

[23:02] And it's been a blessing. And I thank God every day for what he has provided. And so in all of this, the idea when it comes to God provides our daily bread, he gives us salvation.

[23:18] He gives us what we need. And we are to share that. Much like how we are to share in the gospel message with other people, right? There are, why would we want to not share in our testimony?

[23:32] Why wouldn't we tell people about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ? Why wouldn't we want to do that? It's so important for us as we have responded or received, or if you haven't, you should respond and receive the free gift of salvation.

[23:47] Share it with other people. Or as you're growing in Christ and you're reading the word of God and you're learning what it means to be a Christian, God is working in your life. That's a call for you to share with other people as well.

[24:00] Now, some people may not understand. Some people may not even agree, but it's still our call to share with others. And so, you'd be surprised in how God, very often God will answer through people that you meet.

[24:19] Can you imagine if God is working through you and when you speak to someone that God is working through you to speak to them about a very specific thing they've been praying about or God wants some insight or wisdom, whatever it is.

[24:35] It's just really incredible how all of that works. We now go into the application then. How should we live? How should we respond?

[24:46] How do we act upon this? Well, the first one, as always, is to believe and begin in a relationship with Christ. That is the most important thing. It's very convicting when sometimes I meet up with pastors and the Lord has laid on their heart that they say things that I don't know who is and who isn't saved.

[25:11] That's kind of a scary thought and that's certainly a conviction to think about. But it's always, for every sermon that's preached, we always need to go back to the basics. Believing in that, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

[25:25] That whosoever believes shall not perish, but have eternal life. And hopefully, everyone here has responded to the gospel. If you haven't, believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[25:43] That is the core of our faith. So begin. Believe and begin. Trust in Christ and grow in him. Begin that relationship.

[25:54] Pray to the Lord. Be on a spiritual journey of transformation and newness because God makes things new. God takes what is broken and restores it.

[26:07] When I was on the pastoral retreat in Tennessee, there was a gentleman there. There was a few more charismatic people that were there.

[26:19] You love them. And when we were praying for all of the pastors there, there was this one guy who kept saying, I'm getting this image of a broken bowl and a man who is bringing it together.

[26:34] And I don't understand what that means. I know exactly what that meant. When we think of this church, the history of it, and the idea of Kintsugi, that God takes that which is broken and brings it together, we think of a smaller scale of a broken plate, a bowl, and bringing it together, filling it with gold, making it more valuable than it once was to begin with, and then think for a moment, how often are we like that broken plate?

[27:12] How often are we in needing to be picked up and put back together? And I remember that was kind of, it gave me chills. It made me think for a moment, okay, God is working in this place through this man.

[27:27] And eventually I did tell him, I said, okay, that's known as Kintsugi. Ken what? What is that? But it was a very wonderful moment that just really made me think of who God is and how he restores us and he brings pieces together.

[27:44] And so that's something that is incredible. As you are being restored, as you're brought back together, God is still going to work in you.

[27:57] He's going to mold you. He's going to continue to transform you. And by golly, may you be on a journey of that transformation to become more like Christ, to go into the light, as it were, to know the truth of God's word and to follow in his way.

[28:17] So we have the second one, which is practice persistent prayer, to pray without ceasing. It's important for us to continue to pray, even when it seems like, and don't raise your hand on this, but we can all identify with a time we're praying to the Lord for God to answer now.

[28:38] How many of us had a prayer answered immediately? Nobody's raising their hand. Okay, so what I'm saying is maybe once in a while we might have an immediate answer.

[28:53] But more often than not, there is a time of waiting for God to respond on his timing. If God answers immediately, praise God. If God answers seven days or seven years, praise God for him giving you an answer.

[29:07] It's us faithfully waiting upon the Lord. And consider, what is your habit of prayer? When would you like to pray?

[29:18] Consider the habit. Consider the spiritual practice. For some people, it's when you get in the car. You got to commute all the way to Boise, or you got to go all the way to Portland, or wherever it is you got to go.

[29:29] You're going to pray for the trip, and you're going to pray for people on the trip. Or if you fly all the time. Well, Lord, I pray for safety, but I also want to take some time to pray for other people as well.

[29:42] It could be right before you go to bed. On a very personal note, I'll tell you that my wife and I, we have decided that how important it is to read from Scripture, to pray, and to play a worship song at night for the children.

[29:58] Now, granted, I can't do that every day. Sometimes I'm out late at night. Sometimes we get home so late, it's like everybody's tired. But it's that intentionality that's so important.

[30:09] And it's helped my family, and I'm sure that for you who have a spiritual practice, it helps you. It helps you connect with the Lord, building on that relationship.

[30:23] And so finally, we have, be prepared to what? To help unexpectedly, right? There may be a time where someone will come knocking at your door, literally at midnight, right?

[30:39] Or someone may come knocking at your door at an inconvenient time. That is the idea here. In other words, be inconvenience ready, as it were, right? Expect the unexpected to happen.

[30:53] Sometimes it might be time where you just need to stop what you're doing, talk with someone, pray with someone, reflect on something.

[31:04] It might be literal bread. It might be a neighbor asking, hey, I really like your sourdough. Can I show my neighbor, right? But really, it might be someone who is in need for food or for drink, those kind of things.

[31:18] It might even be, hey, can you pray for me? Absolutely. You know, one thing that I really try to do, and I know as a pastor, it can be very difficult, is pray.

[31:33] When someone asks for prayer, pray right there. Because very often we say, I'll pray for you, and then you forget about it. But if you have the opportunity, and maybe you need to make time in that opportunity, pray right then and there.

[31:46] because you might forget. You might get busy. You might miss the opportunity. So take advantage of that opportunity. And pray and help how you can.

[32:00] You know? Open the door. Share your table. And involve. And think for a moment, who is, is there someone knocking at your door right now?

[32:12] Is there someone who is asking for help, prayer, assistance, in any sort of capacity? And then think about it on another level. How important it is for us to consistently pray, to ask, to seek, and to knock.

[32:26] Continuing to pursue the Lord. The grace and the truth that comes from Him. And the continued transformation. As I mentioned in the beginning of this sermon, it's important for us to pour into our relationships.

[32:42] It's important for us to pour into the relationship that we have with God as God is going to pour into you. How important it is to continue that relationship.

[32:55] Begin and continue and grow. And as I always mention here, be moved to do good in Christ's name. Think of how you can serve the community.

[33:06] Serve the church. be a light in this dark and broken world. These are things for us to really think about. And so, the prayer at, the visitor at midnight, the friend at midnight, it's about trusting in God.

[33:22] It's about persistently praying or the anandia, right? The shameless persistence. Did you know that word is the only time it's shown in Scripture? I always am fascinated when you find a Greek word that is very rare or never shown in there.

[33:39] It'd kind of be a little harder to struggle with because you don't find many connections with that. Which is why I mentioned how important it is for us to look at not just the context, but the connections within Scripture.

[33:50] to see the widow's persistence before a wicked judge is very similar in this persistence that the friend had at midnight. And so, consider all of these things.

[34:07] Don't grow weary. Continue to be in prayer with the Lord. And know that God is there with you. Know that He is awake and not sleepy.

[34:18] Amen? That's a beautiful thing. We fall asleep. We should for eight hours, right? If we're talking healthy habits here. Not a lot of us do. I get it. But our Lord, our God, is awake.

[34:32] He's not dead. He's not asleep. He is alive and He is awake. And so, as you receive bread, share. As you receive the gospel, share.

[34:46] As you receive new insight and when you study the Word of God, share in your insights with other people. And so, in all of this, let us think in our minds and in our hearts this idea of the friend at midnight.

[35:03] May we, if there is someone who asks, may we help. And may we understand that when we are like the friend going to the Lord, God is awake and He is there for us, ready to continue that relationship with us.

[35:20] Let's pray together. And Father God, we thank You for this time and this opportunity for us to gather together. We're just so grateful for all of the things that You have done and the things that You continue to do.

[35:32] You are the God of transformation and may we understand this very interesting parable that is showing the importance of constantly being in prayer.

[35:44] May we understand, may we, number one, learn the importance of helping those in need, but may we also realize that we need to continue to seek God. We need to continue seeking You and let You mold us and transform us and to provide for us.

[36:00] And Father, I pray that if there is anyone who has not made a decision for Christ, may they believe in Your Son, Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. I pray that there is healing in this place, transformation, new insight.

[36:15] May we know You, may we grow in You, and may we be moved to do good in Your holy name. We're grateful for Your Word, we're grateful for this congregation, and we're grateful for everyone who is here and even those who are not here, we pray for their safety, whether they're sick or traveling.

[36:35] Be with them. May everyone who is here present, here watching, or those who will listen or watch later, may they know that You love them.

[36:47] You invite them to the table of plenty, into salvation by receiving, salvation by belief in You. We love You, we praise You, we glorify You, and we honor You.

[37:00] It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and we all say together, Amen. Amen. Thank you for listening for this week's message from Ontario Community Church.

[37:11] I pray that you are encouraged and strengthened in your walk with Christ. For more sermons and resources, visit OntarioCommunityChurch.org. May God bless you as you live out His grace and truth every single day.

[37:26] miracle miracle