We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church.
This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication,
redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church.
Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org.
Today's scripture reading is Psalm 103 as printed in your liturgy, a Psalm of David.
Praise the Lord, my soul, all my inmost being. Praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed.
He remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass.
They flourish like a flower of the field.
The wind blows over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children,
with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.
Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.
Praise the Lord, all his works, everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.
Good morning, Christ Church.
I want to say as we begin that that new song, I felt like this side did a pretty good job,
but this side did a lot better.
It's just, that's just kind of how I felt being on this side.
So, we're 22 days out from an election.
Maybe you've heard about this election.
And I thought I'd begin today with a prediction of the outcome of this election.
And some of you are like, wow, my anxiety just went really far.
But here's my take.
You know, in the days following the election, half the country is going to be really glad,
and half the country is going to be really sad and mad and anxious.
How's that for a prediction?
I'm pretty confident that that's what's going to happen.
And you know what our nation's going to need?
You know what the Bay Area is going to need, regardless of the outcome?
They're going to need Jesus, and they're going to need people who know how to pray to Jesus.
They're going to need people who've cultivated a daily habit of prayer,
who have the ability to access heaven, who know how to engage the presence and the power of God,
who know how to pray,
Father, your name be hallowed over all the other names that are out there.
Your kingdom come over all the other kingdoms that are out there.
Your will be done over all the other agendas that are being jockeyed about.
The religious right and the religious left, right now they're very focused on power
and following either the elephant or the donkey.
And what we really need are serious godly Christians who are focused not on power but on prayer,
following not the donkey or the elephant, but following the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world.
We need people who know how to pray to the king
and people who know how to pray that his kingdom would come down
in a place like this as it is in heaven.
Amen?
So we're talking about the holy habits of grace.
That's what our sermon series is all about.
And it's these Christian practices, these predictable patterns in our lives
that enable us not to earn God's grace but just to respond to God's grace
and to receive and experience more and more of his grace.
And we talked so far about the practices of solitude and silence
and a culture of hurry and busyness and noise.
We talked about the practice of Scripture meditating on and reading Scripture
and a culture of ideological idolatry.
And today we want to talk about cultivating this holy habit of prayer.
What is prayer?
How do we define and understand prayer?
I would like to suggest that prayer is answering God.
That God speaks to us through his word and we simply answer him in prayer.
That God initiates and we respond.
That we inhale God's grace through his word and through his spirit
and then we exhale our response to that grace in prayer.
And we're looking in the Psalms because the Psalms is the prayer book of the Bible.
And it teaches us how to answer God.
Eugene Peterson wrote a book called Answering God.
It's all about the Psalms and prayer.
And here's how he intros that book.
He says this,
If we wish to develop the life of faith, to mature in our humanity,
and to glorify God with our entire heart, mind, soul, and strength,
the Psalms are necessary.
We cannot bypass the Psalms.
They are God's gift to train us in prayer that is comprehensive and honest.
The Psalms are necessary because they are the prayer masters.
Christ prayed the Psalms.
The Christian community was early convinced that he continues praying them through us as we pray them.
It is imperative to recover the Psalms as the primary tool for developing a life of prayer.
And so today our prayer master is going to be King David.
And he's going to teach us how to pray today through this 3,000-year-old hymn
that was sung by the Son of God himself.
It's one of the most familiar, one of the most beloved of all the Psalms.
And I'm just going to follow the three stanzas of this poem,
the three principal parts of this prayer.
And I want to talk about praying God's benefits,
praying God's attributes,
and praying God's promises.
Okay, praying God's benefits,
his attributes,
and his promises.
First of all, let's think about praying God's benefits.
If you just look again at verse 1.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
all my inmost being.
Praise his holy name.
He's summoning his soul.
He's calling his whole being to be spiritually engaged with God.
You know, part of pouring out our soul to God
involves dialoguing with our soul about God.
Right?
It's not just listening to our heart,
but talking to our heart.
And actively exercising faith by taking your soul in hand
and saying, soul, listen up.
Soul, right now is the time to praise the Lord.
And I know you're focused on yourself,
but right now is the time to focus on one
who's much greater than yourself.
David says,
all my inmost being.
Praise his holy name.
Here's the king of Israel,
and he's urging himself,
and he's urging us to give all that is deep down inside of us
entirely to God
with boundless enthusiasm and praise.
Now, how in the world do we do that?
Well, David tells us it's by remembering
all of God's benefits to us.
Right?
When he says, forget not,
that's a strong double negative
where he's warning his soul not to forget
because it's far too easy to forget
what God has done for us.
And think about it.
How much of our fear,
how much of our anxiety
and anger and discouragement
is due to forgetting
all that has been given to us
and all that's been promised to us
by God in Jesus Christ?
Or another way to think about this
is that if your first habit,
the first thing that you do in the morning
is to coat your brain with cortisol,
you know, that stress hormone cortisol,
is to go down and you go downstairs
and you pick up your phone
and you just coat your brain with cortisol
by reading news about violence and injustice.
And then you go from there
to read some tweets about people's outrage
over their political enemies.
And then you go from that
to scrolling through social media
to see how everybody else
is living a better life than you
and there's photo evidence for that
and you are missing out.
And then you go
and you just read your fantasy novel
to sort of numb out
and live in denial
and put in your AirPods
and listen to Spotify.
And then you think to yourself,
gosh, why am I so depressed?
Why am I so anxious?
Why do I feel so stressed out
and so lonely in this world?
Well, I want to suggest to you
an alternative habit to that one.
And that is to just simply ask the question,
what are all God's benefits toward me?
If I were just to sit down
and write a quick list,
like what are six benefits
that God has given to me?
And of course, that's not my idea.
It's King David's idea.
He lists six benefits right here
starting in verse three.
He says,
He forgives all of your sins.
He heals all your diseases.
He redeems your life from the pit.
He crowns you with love and compassion.
He satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
Now in David's story,
if you know his story,
it seems likely that all those benefits
and blessings from God
flow from the very first of those benefits
because you might recall that
he had this moment of grievous adultery
with Bathsheba, right?
And then from there,
he moved on to eliminate her husband, Uriah.
And because of that,
the army of Israel suffered incredible losses.
And the prophet Nathan,
he comes to the king
and he tells David,
he says,
you deserve to die
because you broke God's commands
and you abused your position
of authority and power.
And this loving accountability
is what led David to humbly repent
and to put his faith in the grace of God.
And here in the psalm,
David's saying,
you know,
that experience is what led me then
to experience God's forgiving of my sins.
And then that led me to experience
God healing me soul and body
or at least having a fresh hope
that God is one day going to eliminate
all the disease and suffering in our lives.
And that realization led me to an awareness
that God has actually redeemed my life from the pit.
He's redeemed my life from Sheol,
which is that place where the unrighteous go
when they die.
And that realization has caused me
to see that God has actually crowned me
with his steadfast love
and his merciful compassion.
And that has led me to see
that I've been so satisfied
in all my desires for goodness in my life.
And God has been so good to me.
And all this realization of these things,
these benefits,
is causing me,
the result of all that
is my inner strength,
my inner vitality deep inside of my soul
is being renewed.
So that just as the eagle is fearless
and majestic and soaring,
that's how my soul feels.
It feels fearless and majestic and soaring.
Do you follow David's progression of praise?
Now if you're like me,
often my mind knows,
but my heart forgets
that in Jesus Christ,
I'm forgiven.
That I have been,
by the Holy Spirit,
I've been given access
to God's healing power.
That I'm delighted in
by God the Father's redeeming grace.
That I've been crowned
with the love and the mercy
of Almighty God.
That the goodness
that I'm experiencing now in my life,
all of that's just a mere foretaste.
It's just a signpost
to all the goodness
and abundant life
and resurrection life
that's coming for me
in the kingdom of God.
And so the question today is,
you know,
how can we drive
the reality of these benefits
from our head
down into our heart?
How can you apply this tomorrow morning?
Perhaps you literally
just need to write down this list
and pray it.
And say,
Lord,
I gratefully praise you
for forgiving me,
healing me,
redeeming me,
crowning me,
satisfying me,
and renewing me,
and then just sit there
and meditate on all the ways
He's done that for you.
Last week,
some of you came
and took my handouts,
which has really made me feel great
as a pastor.
And so I have another handout today.
If you'd like to come get it,
you can after the service.
It's called
Guide for Morning Prayer
or something like that.
And you'll see
that the first thing on there
is a Trinity prayer
that I got from a pastor
named John Stott.
I think we have some slides
if we can pull that up.
But basically,
I just,
I get up in the morning
and I go outside,
I take my cup of coffee,
I walk around our block,
and I pray something
like this prayer.
And I say,
good morning,
Heavenly Father.
Good morning,
Lord Jesus.
Good morning,
Holy Spirit.
Heavenly Father,
I praise you
as the creator
and sustainer
of the universe.
And I pray that today
you'd enable me
to live in your presence
and please you more and more,
to love you
with all my heart,
soul,
mind,
and strength.
And Lord Jesus,
I worship you
as the savior
and king of this world
and I pray that you'd enable me
to deny myself,
take up my cross,
and follow you today.
And Holy Spirit,
I worship you
as the Lord and giver of life,
the sanctifier and guide
of all the people of God
and I pray that today
you'd cause
the fruit of Christ's character
to ripen in me,
love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
and self-control.
Oh,
most holy,
blessed,
and glorious Trinity.
I worship you.
Have mercy on me.
But what I do
is I kind of just,
I get to each person
of the Trinity
and I kind of can't help myself,
but just marinating
on all the benefits
that I've received
from each person
of the Trinity.
And so typically,
my mind will go to like Luke 15
and I'll say,
Father,
this is the story
of the prodigal sons,
right?
And I'll say,
Father,
I praise you today
because when I was
way off in that far country
by myself
and I was filthy
and I was starving
and I was filling myself
with pig's food,
you awakened my heart
to your love
and you were searching
the horizon for me
and you came running for me
and took my shame upon you.
You gave me your hug,
you gave me your kiss,
you put your robe
and your ring
and your sandals on me,
you killed the fattened calf
for me,
you set the house
to music and dancing
and rejoicing
because I was lost
and now I'm found,
I was dead
and now I'm alive
and Father,
you promised
that I'm always with you
and everything
that's yours is mine
and so Father,
thank you
for the benefit
of coming home.
And then usually,
my mind will go off
to something like Romans 5
and Romans 8
and I'll say,
Father,
thank you so much
for that golden chain
of salvation
that before the foundation
of the world,
you predestined me
and elected me
to be yours
and that one,
at that one moment in time,
you called me
by the gospel of your grace
and you regenerated my heart
and gave me new life
and you gave me the gift
of repentance
and saving faith
and you justified me
by the righteousness of Christ,
you caused me
to reign with him
in righteousness and life,
you've adopted me
into your family,
Heavenly Father,
you've empowered me
with your Holy Spirit,
you're sanctifying me now,
you've prepared for me
a future
where I'm going
to be glorified
with a resurrected body
and a beautified soul
to be like Jesus.
Father,
thank you.
Thank you for making me
more than a conqueror.
Thank you that there's nothing
that can separate me
from your love.
And I just do that,
I do that when I get to Jesus,
I do that when I get
to the Holy Spirit.
If you want to know more
about how I pray,
I'm happy to teach you
after the service.
But I want to say
that that's a way better thing
than coating my mind
with cortisol
in the morning.
Right?
Because there I'm remembering
who I am
and who I belong to
and who God is
and what he's done for me.
That's what it means
to pray God's benefits.
And maybe that's something
we could grow in a little bit
as a church.
But I want to also think together
about praying God's attributes.
Praying God's attributes.
I didn't start my timer,
so this could be
an interesting sermon today.
I have no idea where I am
and who knows
what's going to happen today.
But praying God's attributes.
Many people persist
in contrasting
the wrathful God
of the Old Testament
with the loving God
of the New Testament.
And when you hear people say that,
you just know
they've never read Psalm 103.
In fact,
they've probably never read
the Hebrew Bible.
They don't know much
about Jesus' Bible.
Right?
And his theology
of who God is.
They probably haven't read
much of the New Testament either.
But this second stanza
of the psalm
unfolds for us
the beauty
and the fragrance
of God's grace
that informs
the forgiveness
that David has experienced.
And he begins
by saying in verse 6,
he says,
the Lord works righteousness
and justice
for all of the oppressed.
And the main illustration
of this
in the Old Testament
is the Lord
liberating his oppressed people
from their bondage
in Egypt.
When he came
and he met
the unrighteousness
and the injustice
of Pharaoh
and he met it
with a greater power
that just unraveled
and dismantled
his empire.
And David's taking us
back to that great moment
in the scriptures.
And then he says
in verse 7,
he made known
his ways to Moses,
his deeds
to the people
of Israel.
King David
loves his Bible.
He takes us back
to Exodus.
He takes us back
actually specifically
to Exodus chapter 33
where Moses prayed,
Lord,
show me your ways.
Lord,
make known
to me
your ways.
And that prayer
comes right in the middle
of the story
of the golden calf.
And just so we can remember
what that story
is all about,
while Moses is going up,
he's on Mount Sinai
and he's receiving
the Ten Commandments,
the people of God
are down at the foot
of the mountain
and they've made
this gold-plated image
of a calf
and they start
to worship it.
And you know,
a more blatant breaking
of the first two commandments
could hardly be imagined,
right?
The first commandment,
you should have
no other gods,
no counterfeit gods
before me
and you should not
make any image
that would limit
my majesty
and my glory
in any way.
And they say,
well forget about that,
we're going to make
this golden calf.
And God is angry
and Moses is angry.
And so as Moses
comes down the mountain,
he smashes the tablets
on which those
Ten Commandments
are written
as a symbol
of the idolatry
of God's people
that has smashed
God's covenant.
covenant.
And the Lord
threatens to destroy
the whole nation
of Israel
except for Moses
with whom he's going
to make a fresh start
and Moses falls down
on the ground
and begins to plead
with God
in passionate prayer
and he says,
oh Lord,
please don't do that.
Please relent.
And God does relent
and in the midst
of that prayer,
Moses says,
Lord,
show me your glory.
Show me your glory.
And what Moses hears
in that moment
is the most significant
theological statement
in the Bible
because it's God's
own definition
of himself.
And here's what God says.
He says,
I am the Lord,
the Lord,
compassionate
and gracious God,
slow to anger,
abounding
in loving kindness
and faithfulness,
maintaining love
to thousands,
forgiving wickedness,
rebellion,
and sin,
yet I do not leave
the guilty unpunished.
Because I'm absolutely
righteous and just.
That is,
that statement
reveals the character
of God definitively
and that's why
the Old Testament
quotes that statement
constantly.
And anywhere
you see
the phrase
steadfast love
mentioned in the Bible,
Exodus 34
is ringing there
in the background.
If you're looking
for a scripture
to memorize,
that is the one.
Exodus 34
illustrates more clearly
than anywhere else
what God's steadfast love,
what his unfailing love
is all about.
And that's what David
is meditating on
in verse 8.
The Lord is compassionate
and gracious,
slow to anger,
abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor
his anger forever.
He does not treat us
as our sins deserve
or repay us
according to
our iniquities.
See, this speaks of a God
who's righteous and just
and yet he allows
his mercy and his grace
to outrun his justice.
Right?
He's prepared to forgive
the most grievous
and the gravest
of our sins
in response to our prayer
and our repentance.
And, you know,
the prophet Micah,
he's reflecting on this
and he's blown away by it.
Here's what he says.
He uses this vivid image
in Micah chapter 7.
He says,
long ago.
See, what Moses is saying
and David is saying
and Micah is saying
and the whole Bible is saying
is that God's anger
is different
from our anger.
Right?
Because we are quick
to become angry.
And most of the time
our anger is triggered
by our hurt ego,
isn't it?
And we make people pay
who wrong us
and then even after
we've made them pay,
we nurse our grievances
with resentment.
Maybe it's just me.
But the scriptures tell us
that God is slow to anger.
And in the midst of that,
he provides forgiveness
for sinners
and then he remembers
our sins no more.
He hurls them
into the depths
of the sea.
See, King David
is marveling here
at the comprehensiveness
of God the Father's
pardoning mercy
and his forgiving grace.
In verse 11,
he says,
For as high
as the heavens are
above the earth,
so great is his love
for those who fear him.
And as far as the east
is from the west,
so far has he removed
our transgressions
from us.
He's using
immeasurable distances
to just try to convey
to us the immeasurable
love that the Lord
has for us.
The vertical
and horizontal axes
of God's love
for sinners
has no limits.
And really,
it's only on the vertical
and the horizontal beams
of the cross
of Jesus Christ
that we see
what it costs
for God to do this,
what it costs
for God to punish sin
without punishing us.
It's only on the cross
that we see there
the perfect son of God
being treated
as our sins deserve.
Jesus being repaid
according to our iniquities.
It's as if Jesus
is stretching out
his arms
on the hardwood
of the cross
and saying,
look to the east
and look to the west
and know that
that is how far
God is removing
your transgressions
from you
by laying them
onto me.
See,
verse 13 says,
the father has compassion
on his children,
so the Lord has compassion
on those who fear him
for he knows
how we are formed.
He remembers
that we are dust.
Parents,
you know this.
The more weak
and needy
your child is,
the more your heart
goes out to him
or her, right?
And on the cross
of Jesus,
we have a demonstration
that our good
and gracious father,
even though he knows
us all the way down
to the very bottom,
way better than
we even know ourselves.
It says he loves us
to the skies
and beyond.
He doesn't just
pardon our sins
by the blood
of his son,
but he adopts us
into his family
as precious daughters
and treasured sons.
He fills us
and empowers us
with his Holy Spirit.
He grants us
24-7 access
to him
in prayer.
He guarantees
to us
an inheritance
for us
in his kingdom.
And what I want you
to see
is that Psalm 103
is giving us
the vocabulary,
it's giving us
the language
to rejoice
in the attributes
of God's character
from which flows
all the benefits
of his salvation
to us.
And the question is,
don't we want
to pray this way?
If this is true,
if it's real,
don't we want
to pray it
into our lives?
I want to end
by talking
a little bit
about praying
God's promises.
We talked about
praying God's benefits,
praying God's attributes.
But I want to talk
about praying
God's promises.
If you look again
at the Psalm
in verses 14-16,
it says,
God the Father
has compassion on us
because he knows
we're dust,
he knows we're
these dependent
and fallen creatures.
And it talks about
these images
of grass
and flowers
and wind,
which speak
of how our lives
are so short
and transient.
We're here today
and tomorrow
we're gone.
And then in verses
17-18,
in contrast
to the frail
and transitory
nature
of our existence
is the enduring
love of God.
And hear what
David says.
He says in verse 17,
but from everlasting
to everlasting,
again,
this side's saying
it better,
but from everlasting
to everlasting,
the Lord's love
is with those
who fear him
and his righteousness
with their children's
children,
with those
who keep his covenant
and remember
to obey his precepts.
But that right there
is a massive promise
of God
that the saving power
of my love
will extend
beyond just you
and it will go out
to your children
and to their children
and to future generations.
But I do want to say,
as amazing as that promise is,
it's not automatic.
It's not inevitable.
Because who is this promise for?
It's not for everyone.
It says it's for those
who fear the Lord,
who keep his covenant,
and who obey his precepts.
And what I want to suggest
to you is that this is
one of those promises
of God
that needs to be prayed
into reality.
This is a promise of God
not to be presumed upon,
but to be prayed upon.
I read a book last summer
by Jean Twenge,
who's a psychologist
at San Diego State.
And she wrote a book
in 2023
called Generations.
And she says
at the end of that book,
she says in 2017,
for the first time,
fewer than half
of high school seniors
said that religion
was important
in their lives.
And in 2018,
for the first time,
fewer than one
out of four
high school seniors
attended religious services
at least once a week.
It's not just
high school students.
Young adults
have also become
progressively less religious
in both public
and private ways.
And if you want to
study her charts
or Ryan Burge's
graphs about religion,
it'll wake you up
from your slumber
and your sleep.
And what it's done for me
is it's caused me
to begin to pray
this promise of God
into reality
where I've begun
to humble myself
before God
and say,
Lord,
you know
that I'm just dust
and I'm just grass.
You know that I don't
have the power
to guarantee
that your love
is going to be transmitted
from this generation
to the next generation.
You know, Lord,
that I don't have
the ability
nor the authority
to ensure
that even my own children
and their children
will be part
of God's covenant people.
I can't change
these social trends.
I can't even change
one human heart.
God, you know how hopeless
and helpless I am.
And then I remember
verse 19.
The Lord has established
his throne in heaven
and his kingdom rules
over all.
And I begin to pray,
Lord,
you're the everlasting king.
Your throne
is established in heaven.
You have all authority
and all power.
You promised your love
and your righteousness,
your covenant
and your precepts
to be passed on
to our children
and to their children.
You promised
that your unfailing love
will go out
to future generations
and we cannot do it.
I cannot do it.
I'm just dust.
I'm just grass.
But Lord,
you can do it
because you're enthroned
on high
and you're in control
of everything.
And so,
Lord,
I'm pleading.
I'm pleading with you
that your sovereign rule
and reign
would break in
with new light
and new glory
in the next generation.
And I'm contending
with you, Lord,
that more and more
young people
would open their hearts
to the presence
of the king,
that more and more people
would be awakened
to the power
of your kingdom.
I'm begging you, Lord,
that your kingdom
would come
in the lives
of the next generation
as it is in heaven.
And I don't know
if I'm the only one
starting to pray that way,
but I would love
for this church
to join me
in praying
the promises of God
into reality.
You guys want to pray
that way?
We are,
this Friday,
October 18th,
we have a day of prayer.
We've been doing this quarterly
for the past couple years.
And if you're new with us,
the way it works
is we have
one-hour slots
where you can pray
from 6 a.m.
to 9 p.m.
We have these
one-hour slots
from before sunrise
to after sunset.
We hope that
those who can
would come on site
and pray with others.
Those who can't,
you're free to pray remotely
and hopefully find
a buddy in the church
you can Zoom with
and pray with.
We created a guide
for how to pray.
You're not just
left on your own,
but we've shown you
how to pray
the first 30 minutes
of that hour
for revival
and for the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit
here in this place.
The second 30 minutes
is all about
our alpha course
and our attempt
to invite people
to come
and ask their questions
about God.
If you're not able
for whatever reason
to pray for one hour straight,
you can pray for 30 minutes
in the first half
in the morning,
30 minutes in the second half
in the evening.
Right now,
we have 13 folks signed up
and we have 37 spots open
and my hope is that
we'd have 50 people there,
which would be the most
we've ever had
at a day of prayer
and if you want to make
your pastor's year,
sign up.
Seriously,
it would encourage me massively,
but it will strengthen
you spiritually
and it will change
our world significantly.
If the church
would just do
this basic thing
that we're called to do,
which is just to pray.
And so if you take
your QR code
on your worship folder
and you're welcome
to pull out your phone
right now,
permission granted,
you can scan
that QR code.
The first thing
that's going to come up
is that sign up sheet
and if God's leading you
either right now
or later on
at the end of the service
to sign up,
I encourage you
to do that.
If you're an elder
of this church,
a deacon,
a staff member,
community group leader,
a ministry team leader,
consider yourself
called to prayer.
If you're part
of our youth,
if you're in middle school
or high school,
consider yourself
called to prayer.
If you're a parent,
consider yourself
called to help
your kids learn
how to pray.
I just love to see
our church grow
in this kind of praying
because it's biblical prayer.
It's King David prayer.
It's Messiah Jesus prayer.
Moses and David
and Jesus and the apostles,
they prove that
praying the promises of God
is a powerful
and effective way to pray.
And so I wonder,
what if we were to prove
in our own time,
in our own place,
that this kind of prayer
actually works?
What if we gave God
the opportunity
to be faithful
to his promises
by believing in them
and then showing
that we believe in them
by humbly asking him
to make his promises
a reality
in the next generation?
We can't just presume
and sit back
and be comfortable.
We've got to engage
in prayer.
And so Lord,
may your love
and your grace,
your steadfast love
and grace
be poured out
on Christ's church.
And Lord,
may your kingdom,
which is an everlasting kingdom
and a very gracious
and merciful kingdom,
may it come to rule
over this city?
We pray in the name
of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.