I'm pleased to have a seat and let's in that spirit of surrender, let's come before God,
as we'll see in a short while, our Heavenly Father, and let's pray together as we come
to His Word.
Oh, our gracious, perfect, and loving Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening and
we recognize and we declare that you are in heaven and we are on earth.
And so as we turn to your Word now, Father, would you help us to see something more of
your greatness?
Oh, Lord, would we be struck just by how awesome you are?
And we ask these things, Lord, in the precious name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Well, it's great to be together this evening.
I hope you are well.
My name is Graham.
It's a joy to welcome you as well to church.
And you join us in an exciting time.
We're continuing on in the series that we started last week, looking at this series subject of
why we do the things that we do in church.
That was a mouthful.
Try that one again.
Why we do the things that we do in church.
And as I reflected on it this week, it struck me as a series that requires us to kind of
get reconnected with our inner two-year-old.
Let me explain what I mean by that.
Our little girl is Chloe.
She's one and a half just now.
And her favorite word at the minute is no.
So you'll ask her, Chloe, are you going to finish your dinner tonight?
No.
You Chloe coming for a bath?
No.
Chloe, do you want to read the story?
No.
Chloe, are you saying no just because you like saying no?
No.
And you know what the next word that is coming in six months' time, don't you?
It's the word why.
Why, Daddy?
Why?
Now, I looked this up on the internet.
Don't ask me why I looked it up on the internet.
But I looked up whattoexpect.com.
Why do toddlers say why?
This is what it said.
Toddlers are innately and unendingly curious about the world.
And they want to better understand the things that they see, the things that they hear, and the things that they do.
Well, here we are this evening getting in touch with our inner two-year-old.
And we're asking the why question.
And we're asking the why question because we want to better understand the things that we do as a church.
And so here we are asking the why question of prayer tonight.
And I guess we're thinking about it corporately, in a corporate dimension.
That is, why as a church body, as a community of believers here, why do we pray?
Because on paper, isn't it, it's such a big part of what we're about as a church community.
It's plastered all over our website, if you care to look.
It's fundamental to our mission statement.
It's even plastered on the wall, if you look at it there, our vision diagram, if you like, transformation.
We'll commit ourselves to prayer, to words, and to fellowship.
So we'll devote ourselves to seeking God in prayer.
We pray at our Sunday gatherings.
We have a prayer meeting as a church once a month.
We pray in our small groups.
We pray as we meet up to read the Bible together one-on-one.
As a church, on paper, we're about prayer.
But I wonder if you're like me, and as you reflect on your commitment to prayer,
as you reflect on the fact that prayer is meant to be fundamental to our life as a church,
and as you reflect on the question, rather, why do we do prayer?
And so often I find that my attitude to prayer is a bit like doing the recycling.
So every morning I leave the house.
There's normally an empty toilet roll.
There's an empty carton of juice sitting at the door.
And my job really is just to take it out before I go and to put it in the recycling.
And Edinburgh Council have got these beautiful red recycling bins.
And every morning in the bit of recycling goes into a recycling box.
And I'm constantly told it's a good thing.
Constantly told it's a good thing.
I'm flyered all the time by Edinburgh Council telling me that it's a good thing.
And I love the irony that I take that flyer and I put it straight into recycling.
I'm told it's a good thing.
I do it because I think it's a good thing.
But as I found myself asking myself the other day,
as I took out yet another empty yogurt carton,
why am I doing this again?
It's become so routine.
Why am I doing this again?
It's kind of like our prayer lives.
It's not individually but also corporately as a church.
Scripture is, well we're told it's a good thing.
Scripture is full of exhortations.
God summoning his people to seek him in prayer,
to understand who they are,
to understand who he is and to seek him in prayer.
Scripture tells us it's a good thing.
And so we try our best to carry it out,
to devote ourselves to prayer.
But how often as we go through the motions,
do we neglect to stop and to reflect on why we're doing the thing that we're doing?
Well here we are in our short time this evening
and looking at this subject of prayer.
And really I want us to focus on the why question.
Why do we pray?
And this evening I want to lead us towards
and suggest one answer to that question
that has two elements to it.
Why do we give ourselves to prayer?
Well we give ourselves to prayer firstly
because of who God is.
And secondly, why do we give ourselves to prayer?
We give ourselves to prayer because of who we are.
And I guess my hope is we look at these things tonight
in this short time.
That we wouldn't leave here feeling blue.
I don't know how many sermons I've heard in prayer
that just make me feel awful that I'm not praying.
And I come away thinking, right, that's it.
I'm going to do better.
I'm getting up at the alarms going on at five o'clock tomorrow morning
and I'm going to get up and I'm going to do it
and it's going to be three hours in prayer
before I go to work in the morning.
And then as I hit that alarm snooze for the sixth time,
I think to myself, I'm hopeless at this.
And I leave the day and I start the day feeling dejected.
Dejected.
Well, if that's our feeling as we leave this evening,
then I think we've failed and I've failed.
Where I want us to be this evening
is to spur us on to pray as a church
as we think about the grandeur of the God who we come before.
And that our heart's cry would be,
man, I get to pray.
And very closely followed by that,
boy, do I need to pray.
So can I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 6 and to verse 5?
This is where we're going to just camp out this evening
just for our short time together.
And Matthew chapter 6, verse 5,
what is widely known the world over as the Lord's Prayer?
Such familiar words.
And we all know the danger of being familiar with something,
don't we?
The danger of being familiar with something
is that so often that turns into neglect.
Now, I know this every day of my life
because my walk to work in the morning to the office
is from that side of Princess Street
right up here to the office.
And every morning, I walk past Princess Street.
I walk past the mound.
I walk past the castle.
I walk past St. Giles Cathedral.
I walk past the meadows.
I walk through the university to get to Brunsfield.
I don't even take it in.
And it takes, all it takes is one visitor
from outside Edinburgh to come to our flat
to hang out with us for a bit.
And they say, man, you live here?
You get to walk past the castle every day?
You get to walk through the meadows every day?
Boy, I want to live here.
And you're thinking to yourself,
I haven't even noticed that I walk past those things every day.
It was not like that with the Lord's Prayer.
Such familiar words.
But I guess my plea as we come to it this evening
is that this would become so fresh
and that we would put neglect aside, familiarity aside.
We would come to it afresh
because there's so much gold to dig for in these verses
and so much help for us
as we seek to understand that question of why do we pray?
So all that aside,
that should have allowed you time to get to Matthew 5,
that little story.
Here we are, Matthew chapter 6 rather.
Jesus teaching his disciples to pray.
Now this isn't a sporadic teaching of Jesus.
It's part of a sermon.
It's part of a sermon that we call
the Sermon on the Mount.
And you'll see it in chapter 5 and verse 1
if you flick back a page.
Jesus' disciples have come to him on the mountain.
They've come to him.
And Jesus is teaching them what a kingdom life looks like.
What life in his kingdom means.
And what it means to be a follower of this king.
And as you read it through,
you see Jesus touch on these different aspects of life.
And he's telling them not to do certain things.
And he's telling them to do certain things.
And what he does is he contrasts the way
that the world behaves and acts
against how people in his kingdom are to behave and act.
And what he sees, you read it through,
is how polar opposites the way his kingdom followers
are to live compared to the world.
How they are to think.
How they are to value things.
How they are to long after things.
Their desires.
They're to be completely different
to what the world goes after.
To follow this king
requires you to have a God-centered frame of mind.
Not a man-centered one.
And so to solidify his teaching
and to get it inside the minds of his disciples,
he gives them this model of prayer.
And it's really split into two parts.
Maybe we could get it on the screen.
Firstly, at verses 9 and 10,
Jesus is teaching them things about truths,
about who God is.
And at verses 11, 12, and 13,
he's teaching them stuff about who they are.
So I thought it would be beneficial
to read verses 9 and 10 firstly out loud together
as we think about
what Jesus is teaching his disciples
about who God is.
So let's read this together.
You can take my cue.
This then is how you should pray.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So what has the Lord's Prayer got to teach us
about why we pray?
Was, so often as we noted,
there's a clear progression to the Lord's Prayer.
There's a deliberate progression to the Lord's Prayer.
It starts with who God is
before it moves to who we are.
So it starts with God and his glory
before it moves to man and his need.
And that is no accident
and that is no coincidence.
Because Jesus is teaching his disciples
that it's only by understanding rightly who God is
that you can understand rightly who you are.
So by teaching them this prayer,
what is Jesus teaching his disciples
about who God is?
Well, A.W. Tozer,
a famous theologian from yesteryear,
famously said this,
and think upon these words.
What first comes into our minds
when we think about God
is the most important thing about us.
What first comes into our minds
when we think about God
is the most important thing about us.
So there we are.
Take 10 seconds.
What is it,
as you think of God,
as I think of God,
what is it that comes to mind?
Jesus is teaching his disciples here
that they should pray
because of who God is.
How does he start it?
Our Father in heaven.
Who is this God?
Firstly, see where he is.
He is in heaven.
He doesn't get tired.
He doesn't sleep.
He isn't taken by surprise.
He doesn't have a beginning
and he doesn't have an end.
Rather, he is the all-powerful one.
He is the all-knowing one.
He is the ever-present one.
He is the creator of all things
and he is the sustainer of all things.
He is the one who is over all things
and he is the one who is above all things.
And he is in heaven.
And we come before him in reverence and awe,
the response appropriate
as we gaze upon his holiness.
Now, we were driving up to church this morning.
I was driving the car
with the girls in the back.
And I very, very quickly went from 30 straight down
to 10 miles an hour.
Do you know why I did that?
Because the sun was so bright.
Did anyone else notice that this morning?
Out and about, about 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock.
The sun was so bright.
And it caused me to slow down
because I could not handle the light.
Here is a God of blinding holiness.
And he is in heaven.
And he is singing the cosmos to do its thing.
And we are on earth.
He is the creator and we are the creatures.
And as we come face to face with who he is,
we soon find ourselves on our knees before him
in awe and wonder and majesty
because he is the awesome God.
He's the awesome God.
And what is his relationship to us?
Distant spectator?
Nope.
Ruthless dictator?
Nope.
How is he described as heavenly father?
In fact, if you scan your eyes over verses 5 to 15,
you'll see that Jesus uses that word father six times.
God is a father.
God is a perfect father.
He is a good father.
It's the word Abba.
Now, whatever that word,
whatever the precise usage of that word
in that particular culture,
surely the main point that Jesus is making
is that the relationship between God and his people
is one of intimacy and access.
That he is a God who speaks to his people.
He is a God who cares for his people.
He is a God who acts for the good of his people.
He is a God who has acted to save his people.
And he is a God who knows intimately his people.
And he is a God who has sent his spirit to live inside his people.
Do you see what Jesus is saying here?
The God in heaven is not cold and he's not distant.
He is a gracious and good father.
That's the kind of relationship that this God has with his people.
And as we think about that,
what an amazing mystery.
Is it not?
That the almighty God of heaven would look on us?
And because of his son, Jesus Christ,
as Jesus shed his blood on the cross,
making a way for you and I to be made right with this heavenly God,
this holy God, this righteous God.
And God, because of Jesus, he adopts us.
And he calls us sons and daughters of this holy God.
What a mind-boggling joy that the God that we address in prayer
is holy and we are unholy,
is in heaven and we are on earth.
And yet he is our father.
And as we pray through the son, by the spirit,
we can call on him as our father,
our father in heaven.
Oh, that our Christian lives may never get past
the mind-boggling nature of those four words,
our father in heaven.
And the only response from us is hallowed be your name.
The word hallowed there, the verb,
it's the cry of a transformed heart
that beats for God's glory and says,
God, because you're so great,
I want the whole world to know that you are great.
I want you to make yourself great in my life,
in our lives, in our lands.
We want people in our city to see your greatness, God,
in our world of darkness, in our world of suffering.
Would you make your name great?
And would your kingdom,
would it come to this land and would it rule
and would it reign?
Oh, father, would you come here?
Would you save lost men and women in this city to yourself
as they hear the news of Jesus Christ,
but not just in this city?
Oh, father, would you do it in the whole world?
Do you see the truth for us there?
The truth for us there is that knowing God rightly,
it fuels worship.
That knowing God rightly,
it fuels mission.
And knowing God rightly,
it fuels prayer.
And as we learn about God,
as we encounter him,
as he speaks to us in his words,
and as his spirit transforms us.
And I think there's a real corporate element,
dimension to what Jesus is saying here.
I mean, he could have quite easily said,
pray my father in heaven,
but what does he say?
Pray our father in heaven.
It reminds us, doesn't it,
that this is the prayer of God's people corporately,
called to seek God together,
not just in this church,
but with God's people around the world.
Is that an amazing thing,
that we join in this prayer with the saints across the globe?
Isn't it amazing to think we are part of something
so much bigger than this area,
this postcode,
so much bigger than this city,
so much bigger than this nation,
so much bigger than this island.
We are part of something,
God's amazing plan to rescue a people
for himself across the globe.
And so Jesus begins this prayer
by focusing on the greatness of God.
The disciples, that is where your gaze needs to be.
It starts with him, it doesn't start with you.
It's an amazing truth, it starts with him,
it doesn't start with us.
He is the orbit in which we are operating,
not the other way around.
Jesus is calling his disciples here
to have a God-centered view of life.
And once you have your vision of God,
your Father,
defined and clarified,
then you can begin to understand
who you are rightly.
And here's the second big thing
we need to see tonight.
Why do we pray?
We pray because of who we are.
Why don't we read verses 11, 12 and 13 together?
This is what Jesus proceeds
to tell his disciples to pray.
Let's read this together.
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.
Now, I don't know if you're a fan
of The Apprentice.
Apprentice on TV.
I can't stand strictly.
But I can kind of stomach The Apprentice.
So Alex, my wife and I,
were watching The Apprentice the other night.
And it's that wonderful mixture
of being ludicrous and compelling
at the same time.
I don't know if you find that.
So we're watching The Apprentice.
We're getting to know the,
I was going to say characters here,
but contestants is probably
the right word, isn't it?
Getting to know the contestants.
So after we watch this,
I'm straight on the website, BBC,
looking at their profiles.
And each of them have got
their own little profile quote
of who they are
and why they should win The Apprentice.
This is Samuel.
This is his quote on his profile.
My creativity, my passion,
my charm, and my likability
all roll into one.
And they create the perfect guy.
I mean, that is beautiful, isn't it?
But it's a snapshot into the life
and the mindset of our world.
We live self-sufficient lives.
I mean, what do they call New York?
The city that never sleeps.
And you know the mottos of our age,
don't you?
People say,
you make your own luck in this world.
We talk about self-made men and women.
We act like we're immortal.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
That's what we say as well, isn't it?
This idea that somehow we have got
all the answers to life.
What does Jesus do in these verses?
What does he teach his disciples
about themselves?
What does he draw their attention to?
Unlike the world,
he draws their attention to their need.
Their need.
Very quickly, three aspects of their needs.
What do they need?
Firstly, their need of bread.
The daily things that they need for life.
Those things that originate from God
and come from his gracious and good hands.
God is the one who makes the sun rise every morning.
He is the one that makes the harvest grow.
He is the one who sustains you.
He is the one who provides for you.
You see, Jesus is teaching them here
to have a heart of dependence
and thankfulness and humility.
Let me ask us this evening
as a corporate church body,
do you find yourselves,
do we find ourselves humble this evening?
Do we find ourselves thinking
that we are dependent on God for anything?
It's a big challenge, isn't it?
Or have we grown so accustomed
to God's daily mercies to us?
It's thankfulness, dependence, humility,
three great traits of the true disciple.
This is what Jesus is teaching his disciples here.
Secondly, Jesus draws their attention
for their need of forgiveness.
That they need always to be
examining their own hearts,
confessing their failures and their sin
against the holy gods
and recognizing that he is gracious
and that he is compassionate,
that he is merciful.
And that because of Jesus,
it's because Jesus took their sins on him,
that they know that because of Jesus,
they are cleansed from all unrighteousness.
And do you see how Jesus so tightly
knits our relationship with God,
with our relationships with others?
That knowing that we have been forgiven
with outrageous grace
should affect how we relate with others
and show that same grace to them.
Because this community prayer
should lead us to community action.
That we seek to love one another,
that we seek to encourage one another,
that we seek to make every effort
to be right with one another,
and that we seek to build one another up,
that we seek to deal with issues
that arise between one another
for the glory of God.
You know,
let me ask us this evening,
is there anything that we need to do
to make ourselves right?
Right with God
and right with others?
Is there bitterness in your own heart
against a fellow brother or sister?
Is there unconfessed stuff
that's going on in your life
that's holding you back
from pursuing a walk with God?
What's Jesus teaching them?
That they need forgiveness.
And thirdly,
very quickly,
thirdly,
they need protection.
It's a confession,
isn't it,
that says,
Lord,
I know my sinful heart.
I know that I'm prone to wander.
I know I drift.
There's a reason that in the Bible
we refer to as sheep.
And so,
Father,
by your Spirit living in me,
would you direct my every step?
Would you capture my every thought?
Would you direct my every glance?
Would you put into action
every action that I do today
for your glory?
Would you deliver me from evil?
Would you protect me
from the onslaught of Satan
who would do his utmost
to cause me to stumble?
I would try and direct my attention,
my gaze,
away from you.
I need you,
Heavenly Father.
I need you.
We need bread.
We need to be right with God
and one another.
And we need to be protected.
Let me ask us this evening,
do we even think
that we need anything?
Before we came to Brunsfield
five or so years ago,
we spent a bit of time,
my wife and I,
working in a Christian hospital
in Malawi.
And as a hospital team,
we used to have devotionals
every morning.
And we used to read
our Bible together
every morning.
And then,
to my surprise,
certainly the first time
I ever did this devotional thing,
everybody stands
and everybody belts out a song.
And the song that they used to sing,
and they sang it pretty much every day,
went like this.
Give me power,
Lord Jesus,
give me power.
Lord Jesus,
give me power,
every hour to be strong.
Oh,
give me power.
And this went on
about six times.
I felt like the CD
was on skip.
It just kept going back.
But I sat there
and I thought,
this is so strange.
This is so strange.
And as I reflected on it,
the reason I thought
it was strange
was because of my
complacent mindset.
My comfortable life,
my Western thoughts,
my affluence
had taught me to sing,
and this is shameful,
I've got the power.
Lord Jesus,
I've got the power.
I've got the power
for every hour
to keep me strong.
Let me ask you this evening
and let me ask
me this evening.
Do we think
we've got
the power?
Do we think
we've got the answers?
Do we think
that we can do this
on our own?
Because we put on
nice events
and we've got
a lovely church website
and we have
nice Bible studies
and we've got
lovely coffee.
We can function
as a church.
My prayer this week
has been,
O Lord,
would you rid us
of our complacency?
Would you rid us
of believing the lie
that our busy lives,
the fact that we run
from here to there,
that we do thing
after thing,
task after task,
is an excuse
for failing to stop
and seeking you
in prayer.
Martin Luther,
he famously wrote
in his diary,
I have so much
to do today
that it leaves me
with little option
but to spend
the first three hours
of my day
in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
would you convict us
that we need you?
We need you
every hour
of every day
and we need your power.
As we move
towards a close
this evening,
let me just tell you
how this has worked
out in my life
this week.
I think it's only
been this week
that the news
of John and Aileen
moving on
come Christmas time
has actually hit
and has really
began to sink in
and people are
coming up to me
all the time
and you'll probably
say it after this
as well,
but people come up
to me all the time.
Graham,
asking me and the elders,
Graham,
what's happening?
What's happening?
What's happening
after Christmas?
What's happening?
Who's coming?
Do you want me to be honest?
Don't know.
I just don't know.
We don't know.
But here's the really
interesting thing.
Let me tell you,
I'm praying a lot more
this week than I was
last week.
A lot more this week
than I was last week.
Why?
Because I am so
out of my depth.
I've never experienced
anything like this before.
I am so out of my depth.
And then we come to
Wednesday night
as a church.
We gather to pray
and it is the best
attended prayer meeting
I think I've ever been to
in four and a half years here.
So well attended.
Why is it so well attended?
Because we know
we're out of depth.
We don't know
what's going to happen.
Now two reflections
on that.
One,
that's a great thing.
Let us seek the Lord
in this like we've never
sought him before.
If ever there was a time
for us
to get together
as a people
and be united
and be purposeful
in prayer
than it's now.
Because we don't know.
We don't know.
But what a tremendous
comfort
that we come
to pray to one
who knows the end
from the beginning.
Who knows all things.
Who is not taken
surprise by anything.
And we can come
before him
and we can pray
to him
and call him
father.
And to see signs
that we are doing that
as a church
can I just say
is a massive encouragement.
Let's keep going
for that
at every opportunity.
A second reflection.
If my feeling
way out my depth
this week
has stirred me to pray
and it stirred us
to pray
then what does that
reveal about my
heart attitude
two weeks ago?
What does it say?
That I didn't pray.
It tells me
that I felt
very much in my depth.
I can do these things.
I've got it covered.
I know what I'm doing.
Yeah I'll get to pray
if I ever get to it
but we've kind of
got it sussed.
Like Lord it's nice
that I know you're there
but I'm kind of
doing alright here.
And as I thought
about that this week
as I thought about it
I thought about
my complacency
the reason
that I was doing that
is because I lost sight
of who God is
and I lost sight
of who I am.
Well brothers and sisters
as we come to a close
this evening
let us be those
who pray.
Let us be a people
who devote ourselves
to prayer
because we know
who our God is
and let's be a people
who devote ourselves
to prayer
because we know
who we are.
And as we close
let me just read you
some words
from this wonderful book
I've been reading
over the past few days.
It's called
Sounds from Heaven.
I don't know if anybody
here has read it
but it's a collection
of stories
and testimonies
about the great revival
that happened up in Lewis
up in the Highlands of Scotland
in the 1950s.
This mighty work of God
where many men
and women
gave their lives
to Jesus Christ.
Let me just read to you
how this Christian community
in this island
this tiny island
of Scotland
is described.
This is a testimony
from the time.
This is how this community
is described.
It was a community
at prayer
said Margaret MacLeod.
What a statement.
Others agreed with me
the Christians
were praying.
In 1949
everyone who was
truly longing for God
was seeking the Lord
for an outpouring
of the Holy Spirit.
The Christians
were praying.
Prayer was spontaneous.
As people visited
each other in their homes
they would pray
and then they would
continue on
until they felt
they had got through
to God.
A huge volume of prayer
ascended from Christian folk
all over the Barvis area
for revival.
The place
was soaked
in prayer.
It became
a way of life
to seek the Lord
for his mercy.
And then let me read
to you the author
as he reflects
on all these things
and he looks at
his current generation
which I guess
is almost our generation
what he sees
as he reflects
on these things.
The testimonies
glow with an
indescribable warmth
and the reality
of their experience
is there for all to see.
The gospel
is so clear.
God manifest
among his people
is a thrilling reality
and the power
of the Holy Spirit
in the midst
convicting,
constraining,
converting,
confirming,
comforting
causes the reader
to bend before God
in awe and adoration
in love and consecration
in wonder and amazement.
One senses
the powerful
operation
of the Holy Spirit.
But when we review
our own lack
of burden,
our dim understanding
of God's mighty working,
oh we can but cry
to God
to engulf us
with flood tides
of divine refreshing
and bring reviving
streams to all of us
sweeping sinners
into the kingdom.
So let us read,
ponder,
reflect
and humble ourselves,
pray and seek
God's face
and turn
from our wicked ways
and surely
he will hear
from heaven,
forgive our sin
and heal
our poor land.
Oh that our community
here at Brunsfield
would be described
as a community
that was soaked
in prayer.
That we would be
a people
who know
who our God is
and that we would be
a people
who know
who we are.
So I thought
it would be only
right tonight
and fitting
and a great way
to respond to this
to have an open
time of prayer
as we respond
to the Lord's Prayer.
Johnny,
can we have it
back on the screen?
And really the Lord's Prayer
splits into five,
well there's five words
if you want to remember
it like this.
There's Father,
there's hallowed,
there's forgive,
there's give
and there's lead.
So five words.
So what I'd love us
to do is we pray
corporately tonight
as we respond
to the Lord's Prayer.
Maybe if five people
want to lead us
in praying
for those five things.
Father,
hallowed,
forgive,
give and lead.
Why don't we just
stand up
if you want to pray
and just belt it out
and we'll do this together.
But this is a community
prayer this evening
and once we've finished
I'll close
and we'll stand
to sing
our final song.
Let's pray together.
Father,
so we thank you
Heavenly Father
that we can call you
Father.
What an amazing mystery.
Oh, by your grace
we ask that you would
fill each of us here,
Father,
you would fill us
as a church community
with a fresh passion
to see your name
hallowed in our land
and in our lives.
Oh Father,
would you make yourself
great
and we pray these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.