WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080 The last time we were together looking at this, we were looking at verse 5 to verse 8, 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:11.580 ! which speaks first of all, as the Lord is teaching on prayer, He's teaching first on how not to pray. 00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:21.940 So it says, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. They love to be seen by others and heard by others. 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:29.199 And then He also said, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases. So do not be babblers. Do not be just speaking 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:35.340 with many words to be heard. So He started with how not to pray. But this evening we're going to then go into 00:00:35.340 --> 00:00:44.920 the Lord's prayer itself, as in verse 9. Pray then like this, our Father in heaven. I'm just thinking of these 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:52.920 words in particular, our Father in heaven. This section of Matthew's Gospel is where you find Jesus 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:59.800 giving the sermon on the mount. And you look through it from chapter 5 through to chapter 7, 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:05.579 and you see how He's giving a sermon on how we are dealing with other people, how we are dealing with 00:01:05.579 --> 00:01:11.219 ourselves, and how we are dealing with Him. And a point of interest, if it means anything, 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:18.060 it's that the Lord's prayer is actually at the very centre of this sermon. Half of what comes before, 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:24.060 and then half, the other half comes after. But in the middle is the Lord's prayer. And when you look 00:01:24.060 --> 00:01:29.760 at the kind of things that are either side, so many of them are practical things. Love your enemies, 00:01:29.980 --> 00:01:35.340 giving to the needy. Do not be anxious, lay up treasures in heaven, judging others. There's a lot 00:01:35.340 --> 00:01:42.920 of practical things around either side of the Lord's prayer. But as a reminder to us that in the centre 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:50.900 of this sermon, there is this instruction that our relationship with God is what is key in all of 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:58.500 these things. And that relationship is developed, it grows as we come to the Lord in prayer. And the 00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:04.780 Gospel of Matthew as a whole was written primarily towards the Jewish community, those who had a 00:02:04.780 --> 00:02:10.879 relationship with God, as you see through the Old Testament, but they couldn't see the fulfilment of 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:18.680 the Old Testament in the Lord Jesus, not seeing that this is a continuation, a fulfilment of God's 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:24.919 work. And so Jesus is teaching them, just as he is teaching us, of our dependence on God for all 00:02:24.919 --> 00:02:33.840 things, and that this is through Christ. And this relationship develops, as we have here in prayer, 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:42.319 a dependence on God. So it's not a complete change for the people that Matthew was writing about here, 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:48.300 that Jesus was addressing in this sermon. It's not a complete change, it's just a reminder to keep that 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:56.360 relationship secure, to keep that relationship close. Prayer is a vital part of their lives, just as it is 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:05.160 for us. And for the Jewish people at that time and since, prayer has always been important, and it should 00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:12.080 be to ourselves as well. There's a saying from the Jewish community that says, he who prays within his 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:20.020 house surrounds it with a wall that is stronger than iron. So you see that importance of prayer that is 00:03:20.020 --> 00:03:27.880 there. But it's a devotion towards God. But as with them and as with ourselves, when it comes to prayer, 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:35.080 there are many faults that can creep in. As we looked at the last time, there were those who would 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:41.640 stand, they loved to be heard in prayer. They were called the hypocrites who loved to be heard. Or there 00:03:41.640 --> 00:03:49.140 were those babblers who used empty phrases, many words, but empty phrases just to be heard by others as 00:03:49.139 --> 00:03:56.359 well. But they're being reminded here, and we're being reminded here, that it's so easy for ourselves 00:03:56.359 --> 00:04:04.859 to enter into that kind of prayer relationship with God. That isn't what it should be. We have our own 00:04:04.859 --> 00:04:13.619 faults when it comes to prayer. We can just go through the motions. We maybe find ourselves, it just becomes 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:19.420 a routine for us, where we don't actually think about what we're saying. And the irony of it is, we're 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:25.000 looking at the Lord's Prayer, which is something that we repeat often. We say it every Lord's Day 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:30.759 at the morning service in Kennet Street. We repeat it together. But how often do we actually think, 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:38.220 what do these words mean? What are these words actually saying to us? They just become so formulaic 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:45.580 that we just repeat them, and we move on. But what do they actually mean? Do they just trip off our tongue? 00:04:46.440 --> 00:04:52.820 And so the danger with prayer is that it becomes just so formal that we just go through the motions, 00:04:53.520 --> 00:05:00.960 connected with a certain time or a certain place or a certain occasion. And that's very much what it was 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:09.000 becoming to the people in Jesus' day. And so he's teaching them here of the dangers of that, and how to 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:18.560 keep close to God in prayer. Do you find that yourself? As you pray to the Lord, you can find yourself, 00:05:18.939 --> 00:05:25.539 it just becomes, there's a sameness to it. We just use the same phrases or the same words. 00:05:25.540 --> 00:05:33.000 It just becomes a ritual. Staying fresh in prayer is difficult. It's difficult for me. I'm sure it's 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:39.400 difficult for you. But in order to stay fresh in prayer, we have to realize who we're coming to 00:05:39.400 --> 00:05:48.660 and what he is doing for us, our Father in heaven, to realize who it is that we're coming to. And so as 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:56.260 we look at these words this evening, our Father in heaven, it's just this reminder to us of who we are 00:05:56.260 --> 00:06:05.220 coming to in prayer and how we are to come in prayer. And the first thing is recognizing that word, 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:17.320 our, our Father. The Lord's Prayer as a whole, it's a short prayer. And it can be broken into two parts 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:25.079 with three petitions in each part. So you've got six parts to it. The first three, you notice, 00:06:25.139 --> 00:06:34.939 are focused on God. Your is used. Your name, your kingdom, and your will. So it's focusing on God. 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:46.019 The second three are focused more on us. Our daily bread, our debts, and lead us not into temptation. 00:06:46.019 --> 00:06:55.319 So you see there's an order to prayer there. God first, your name, your kingdom, your will. And 00:06:55.319 --> 00:07:01.959 then our needs, our daily bread, our debts, and lead us not into temptation. But you notice how it 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:10.699 starts with our Father in heaven. You could almost say that they're both there. We begin with that word, 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:21.240 our. We recognize in there that we come to him, our Father. But we're recognizing too who it is that 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:29.259 we're coming to, the one who is over all and able in all, our Father in heaven. And so there's this 00:07:29.259 --> 00:07:35.120 kind of combination there at the start that then leads into your name, your kingdom, your will, 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:43.459 and then our needs coming after that as well. And so as you look at that opening phrase, what he's 00:07:43.459 --> 00:07:51.120 preaching here is that as those who have gathered around him to hear this sermon, they're dependent 00:07:51.120 --> 00:08:02.959 on God. Our Father in heaven. There's a dependence on God. And there's to be a devotion to God. 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:11.620 Otherwise, it can just become that ritual as we've seen with empty words or just standing to be heard 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:19.519 by others and not a relationship with God. Our Father reminds us of this great need, but also this 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:26.899 great relationship. Romans 8, 15, Paul mentioned this verse in prayer. 00:08:27.699 --> 00:08:32.899 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit 00:08:32.899 --> 00:08:42.480 of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. It is that spirit that leads us into prayer, 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:49.539 that relationship. That relationship we're seeing, who it is, our Father in heaven, Abba, Father. 00:08:50.700 --> 00:08:57.960 And so are you being led by spirit into prayer or are you being led by self into prayer? Because 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:06.600 that spirit leads us into a closer relationship with God, giving glory to him, whereas self-prayer just 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:15.420 leads us into almost making demands of the Father. It's like our relationships. When we have a close 00:09:15.420 --> 00:09:20.840 relationship and our love with someone, that is what comes across. That's the kind of relationship that 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:27.420 Jesus is describing here, our Father in heaven. We love you. We know that you can do so much for us. 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:33.580 Whereas a relationship that's not right is, Father, just do this for me. Do that for me. Give me what I need. 00:09:33.580 --> 00:09:41.340 Do as I'm saying. This relationship that's wrong. But it's to see who it is that we're praying to, 00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:51.040 our Father. So we're led into that sense of coming before him in this way, our Father. And when you 00:09:51.040 --> 00:09:56.620 use the word our too, we're being reminded here, there's a powerful statement here that believers are 00:09:56.620 --> 00:10:02.879 one together before the Father. We are praying together to the Father. Even when we're playing by ourselves, 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:10.779 we're praying for our people, our brothers, our sisters, to our Father. There's that family 00:10:10.779 --> 00:10:19.960 relationship that's so important. We read in John 17 for that purpose, that oneness in Christ that is 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:26.480 found through that relationship with Jesus, who was saying, Father, that they might be one as we 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:34.259 are one. It's all about that closeness, that relationship. And his prayer in John 17 is such 00:10:34.259 --> 00:10:41.620 a wonderful prayer. It emphasizes that for us again and again. His relationship with his Father, 00:10:41.779 --> 00:10:48.779 Jesus' relationship with his Father. And then as he's praying for the disciples in verse 11, 00:10:48.779 --> 00:10:56.199 Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we 00:10:56.199 --> 00:11:04.279 are one. That they would be able to call on our Father. And then in John 17, 21, to all believers, 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:11.500 that all of them may be one, Father. Just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:20.000 so that the world may believe that you have sent me. So we are praying our Father. It reminds us that 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:28.100 we have that communion together, but also that communion with the Lord Jesus, our Father, the 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:34.759 same Father that he had to pray for. It reminds us that we are one in Christ. It reminds us of the 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:42.639 benefits of belonging to the church, to the people of God. That we are not alone, but that we join in 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:49.419 with believers all around the world, asking for God's blessing in everything that we seek from him. 00:11:50.899 --> 00:11:58.460 Our Father. Think back a week ago to when we had Derek Maxwell here with the Slavic Gospel Association. 00:11:58.460 --> 00:12:04.059 We are reminded there of the oneness in prayer. And as both Carla and Paul were praying this evening, 00:12:04.059 --> 00:12:12.059 that came across as well. It always does. The power of prayer, the oneness of prayer, as we pray to the 00:12:12.059 --> 00:12:19.859 Father, not just for ourselves, but for God's people everywhere. Praying for Derek and for Carol, 00:12:20.219 --> 00:12:25.919 as they have been with us. Praying for the ones that they mentioned. We heard names mentioned last 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:32.419 week. Peter, Thomas, Alexander, David, Alicia. We heard about these people. If you were there on Friday, 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:39.579 you saw these people that were on the screen in the hall, praying for them in Hungary, in Moldova, 00:12:39.579 --> 00:12:49.579 in the Ukraine. That oneness. Our Father, the same Father for us as it is for them. So we can rejoice 00:12:49.579 --> 00:12:57.860 in that prayer with God's people everywhere, just as we can pray for those in need anywhere as well. 00:12:57.860 --> 00:13:05.419 And just think about it from your own perspective. Many of you, many of us, we've gone through different 00:13:05.419 --> 00:13:11.539 things, different times in our lives, different experiences in our lives. But you know there's 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:21.539 been people praying. Our Father, look after that one who is grieved. Look after that one who is in 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:28.079 hospital. Look after that one who is going through a difficult time. And you know that there are people 00:13:28.079 --> 00:13:34.339 praying. In the same way as you pray for others. And you know that God is listening because we are 00:13:34.339 --> 00:13:42.199 calling on our Father in heaven. We are together in our petition before God, each one of us saying, 00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:52.120 our Father. There is that relationship together and through Christ with our Father in heaven. 00:13:54.200 --> 00:14:01.480 But then you see secondly that it is that Father that we are praying to, our Father in heaven. 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:11.480 And again, Father takes us back to John 17, how often we see Jesus use that. Father, he says again and again, 00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:20.519 through that prayer, it shows Jesus himself dependent on his Father and of that relationship that they had. 00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:29.159 And it reminds us of our relationship in that way, that we are dependent on the Father. But we can call on 00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:36.759 our Father. Just think of how Jesus prayed himself at other points as well as John 17. For example, 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:45.079 in the Garden of Gethsemane, in Matthew 26, verse 39, and going a little further, he fell on his face and 00:14:45.079 --> 00:14:54.039 prayed saying, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, 00:14:54.039 --> 00:15:03.000 but as you will. There is Jesus praying again, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. 00:15:04.599 --> 00:15:12.599 He is depending on the Father. And as a reminder to us as well, that the same is true for you and for me, 00:15:12.599 --> 00:15:19.079 that we are dependent on this Father as well. Another verse that reminds us of this relationship is 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:26.040 John 3, verse 1. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the 00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:33.320 children of God. And that is what we are. The children of God. And he is our Father. 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:41.160 That is our privilege as believers that we can come to God in this way and cry, Abba, Father, 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:54.120 our Father in heaven. We can call upon him. He is our Father in heaven. Again, we're just reminded of 00:15:54.120 --> 00:16:00.360 relationships in this world. Relationships. We all have fathers. We've all had fathers. But we can still 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:09.000 become fatherless in that sense. But God is a Father who is always there. As we sang, he's the Father of the 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:16.519 Father of the Father. And Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 17 says there, For the Lord your God is God of 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:24.120 gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:30.600 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and he loves the alien and giving him food and clothing. 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:40.120 He is a loving, a caring, a gracious father. And it's in this way that we come to him in prayer. 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:47.560 And the people in Jesus' day, they had known this relationship, but it was a relationship that was 00:16:47.560 --> 00:16:55.639 fading and failing in many different ways. And you see it even through the Old Testament. We sang about 00:16:55.639 --> 00:17:01.879 the idols that people would make. And that is the way they lived. They were so easily taken away, 00:17:01.879 --> 00:17:07.319 not looking to the Father in heaven, but instead looking to idols in the same way as you do, in the 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:15.000 same way as I do. We look to idols in this world for help, for protection, for all things. But when we do, 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:24.599 we lose that intimacy with God. When we turn away from our Father in heaven. Like the prodigal son, 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:31.799 we want to go away and live our own lives, do our own thing, but we lose the benefits that the Father 00:17:31.799 --> 00:17:41.719 gives us. Sin does that to us. Sin robs us of that intimacy with God. And yet God is there, 00:17:41.719 --> 00:17:51.000 graciously calling us to himself. Another Old Testament text is in Isaiah 64, verse 4 to 8. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:58.680 And here it reminds us of how sin comes in, and yet God is still there for us. Since ancient times, 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:05.880 no one has heard, nor ear has perceived, nor eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:12.440 those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:19.480 But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:27.000 become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all shrivel up like a 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:36.519 leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you, 00:18:36.519 --> 00:18:42.839 for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. Yet, O Lord, 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:50.759 you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter. We are all the work of your hand. You see, 00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:58.599 there's sin just coming in and destroying that intimacy. And yet it says, Yet, O Lord, you are 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:07.799 our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter, the work of your hand. Have you lost that intimacy with 00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:17.559 God? Where you're in prayer has become just a list of requests rather than a relationship being built 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:22.279 on that dependence and recognizing our Father in heaven. 00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:31.000 But even now tonight, we can approach Him. We can come back to Him. We can call upon Him, 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:41.399 because as His children, He loves us, and He longs for us to come to Him in that way. Our Father in heaven. 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:51.880 The final thing we see here is these words in heaven. This last part reminds us of the power 00:19:51.880 --> 00:20:02.600 of God. He is an intimate and a personal God that we can call our Father in heaven. So we have that 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:13.480 relationship, but we are also reminded of just who He is. Psalm 33, which we sang together in verse 13, 00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:21.159 The Lord from heaven sees and beholds all sons of men full well. He views all from His dwelling place 00:20:21.719 --> 00:20:31.240 that in the earth do dwell. He is the one who is above all. He is in heaven and beholds all sons of men 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:38.680 full well. He sees everyone. He sees everything. There is nothing that is hidden from Him. 00:20:40.120 --> 00:20:45.799 And as you read through the scriptures, you realize just who it is. He created the heavens and the earth 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:51.799 and all that's in them. He upholds them. It is in Him that we live, move, and have our being. 00:20:51.799 --> 00:21:01.720 He is the one who is able to turn wars into pieces. He's able to do so much. But do we recognize Him in that way? 00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:07.960 It's too easy for us to just have that cozy kind of relationship where it's the Father who's going to 00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:16.759 do everything that I want. But to forget that we are accountable before Him as a holy God who has made 00:21:16.759 --> 00:21:25.400 all things. The creator of heaven and earth. The one who sent His Son to die for our sin. The one who 00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:31.640 had the power that He would rise from the grave. The one who has promised that Jesus will come again. 00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:40.119 We have to realize the enormity of who He is. So that we bow humbly before Him. 00:21:40.119 --> 00:21:48.359 That we recognize our unworthiness. That apart from Him, we can do nothing. 00:21:49.479 --> 00:21:57.879 Because He is our Father in heaven. We are so often guilty of those horizontal prayers where 00:21:57.879 --> 00:22:05.559 our prayers are just focused on what's going on around us. Instead of our prayers being focused on 00:22:05.559 --> 00:22:15.159 lifting up our eyes to Him. In John 17 where we read, that's the way it speaks of Jesus there praying. 00:22:16.759 --> 00:22:23.559 In the beginning, when Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, 00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:30.919 He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father. He had that recognition of where God is. 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:38.039 He is above all things. He is in control of all things. We are coming to the one who is the maker 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:46.759 of heaven and earth. The one whom we could not stand before Him if He held our sins against us, 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:55.640 as Psalm 130 says. But the one who has power to forgive us our sins, that with Him there is plenteous 00:22:55.640 --> 00:23:05.000 redemption. Everything is in the Father's hands because all things belong to Him. And yet this is 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:11.720 the one who we are able to cry out together and say, Our Father. He is the one in Him we have that 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:19.160 relationship. We are able to call Him Father. And He is the one who is over all things. There is nothing in 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:30.600 this world that is beyond Him. And so we are to come to Him. A young boy once went into a shop with his 00:23:30.600 --> 00:23:38.759 mother. The shopkeeper behind the counter passed him a large jar of sweets and offered it to him to help 00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:47.480 himself to a handful. And usually the boy was shy at that very moment. He wasn't normally. He would normally 00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:54.680 be quite outgoing. But the boy just shied away and held his hand down by his side. And so what the 00:23:54.680 --> 00:24:00.599 shopkeeper did was put his hand into the jar and pulled out a bundle of sweets and gave it to the boy. 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:09.159 And the boy then took them. And as he went out to the shop his mother said to the boy, Why did you 00:24:09.159 --> 00:24:15.559 suddenly become so shy that you wouldn't take the sweets when they were offered to you? And the little 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:25.000 boy's reply was, Well because his hand is much bigger than mine. He knew what he was doing. He knew what he 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:33.799 was going to get if he left it to the shopkeeper. He wasn't daft. But are we? When we think what we can 00:24:33.799 --> 00:24:40.519 get ourselves and what we can do ourselves, instead of giving it over to God, whose hands are much bigger 00:24:40.519 --> 00:24:48.119 than ours, and who is able to do as Paul says in Ephesians 3, Now to Him who is able to do far more 00:24:48.119 --> 00:24:57.319 abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us. He is able because 00:24:57.319 --> 00:25:06.839 he is our Father in heaven. He is over all things. And whatever you are praying for this evening or in 00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:18.039 these days, remember this, our Father in heaven. Because he is the one who is collectively 00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:27.720 our Father. We have that relationship. And he is the one who is close, the one who cares, the one who 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:37.079 loves. He is our Father in heaven. But he's got power beyond anything else. Because the heaven belongs 00:25:37.639 --> 00:25:46.200 to him. And so as we pray, as we go on praying, and the privilege it is, keep praying. Keep coming close to 00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:54.600 him. Not just in that formal prayer where everything is just orderly and making our requests. But growing 00:25:54.600 --> 00:26:04.120 in our relationship together and individually with our Father in heaven, who hears and is able. Well, 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:11.000 let us do that. Let us call on the Lord in prayer. 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:18.199 Lord, our gracious God, we do thank you for the very fact of being able to call upon you in this way. 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:26.680 that this is what Jesus taught us and taught your people from the very moment that he said these words 00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:33.400 until today and even beyond today. But as your people, we can come, saying, our Father in heaven, 00:26:34.120 --> 00:26:39.960 that relationship that we have together and with all of your people. For we are dependent on you. 00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:46.840 That love and care that you have for us as our Father. The one who remembers us in all our needs. The 00:26:46.840 --> 00:26:54.039 one who provides. The one who does abundantly more than all we ask or even think. And the power that you 00:26:54.039 --> 00:27:02.120 have, Lord, help us to remember that. That you are the one who is in heaven high, in the city on the throne, 00:27:02.119 --> 00:27:08.119 the one who is in heaven, ruling over all things. And we pray, Lord, that you would continue to hear our 00:27:08.119 --> 00:27:15.559 prayers and draw us ever closer to yourself in our prayers. That we would have that realization of 00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:23.879 our very dependence on you for all these things. So hear us and go before us, forgiving our sin in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:25.880 Amen. 00:27:28.280 --> 00:27:31.880 We'll conclude by singing again to God's praise and salvation.