It doesn't rate in my top 10 of all-time favourite movies.
That's because I've actually never watched it.
That's because I saw the shorts and decided not to watch it.
But it did, however, win a 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture.
It's called Driving Miss Daisy.
It doesn't rate up there amongst my all-time favourites.
There's no guns from what I understood in the shorts,
and Clint Eastwood doesn't star in it, so it doesn't rate for me.
But it is apparently a good movie, from what I understand.
I've read all about it and so on and so forth.
There is, throughout the movie, an undercurrent of racial tensions in the movie.
But the main plot is the developing relationship between the two main characters.
The two main characters are Miss Daisy, a stubborn 72-year-old widow,
and her African-American driver, Hoke.
Miss Daisy has an accident because she puts her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake.
I mean, that's the sort of thing that can happen at any time.
You see it occasionally, they pop up in the newspaper.
And no insurance company will touch her.
And so she has to get a driver in order to drive her around.
And she hates the thought of losing her independence.
She wants nothing to do with Hoke.
In fact, on one occasion, she angrily blurts out to him,
I don't need you, I don't want you, I don't like you.
However, over the years, their relationship develops.
And the film ends, the movie ends on Thanksgiving Day in a retirement village where Miss Daisy now lives.
It's sort of 25 years since they first met.
Miss Daisy is 97, Hoke is 81.
And Hoke is visiting Miss Daisy.
And he notices that she has not eaten her pumpkin pie, which is tradition on Thanksgiving Day.
And she tries to pick it up with her fork, but he gently takes the plate from her and her fork from her.
And he says, let me help you with it.
And he cuts a small piece of the pie off and he gently feeds her.
And she's delighted, it tastes great.
And then he gets another piece and feeds her and then another piece and feeds her.
And the film ends with a car apparently fading in the background, sort of making all the connections come together.
What the film does, it documents the wonderful transformation of their relationship
from a refusal to be dependent on Hoke, the driver, to a delightful dependence upon him for even a piece of pie.
And the movie portrays beautifully, I think, the journey of the Christian life.
It is a journey from self-reliance and independence to God-reliance and dependence.
It's a journey from self-confidence and strength to God-confidence and a humbling and acknowledgement of our utter total weakness in everything.
And so we have this core value as a church called devotion to prayer.
And this core value makes a statement as a church, it's a statement to God, to the world, even to our own consciences,
that we exist to do things that we cannot do without the supernatural grace of God.
It's a statement, devotion to prayer is a statement that says we are weak and our confidence is in the supreme majesty of God and his goodness.
We are totally dependent upon God for everything, no matter how big or small.
St. Paul's as a church exists mainly to do the humanly impossible.
Everything good, everything worthwhile, everything eternal and God-glorifying that we want to do as a church,
we cannot do without the supernatural grace of God.
And it is pride and it is arrogance where we think we can build the church, we can see ministry flourish,
we can see people come to Christ just by putting in the right strategies, saying the right words,
having the right programs in place, even the right people leading the programs in place.
Our culture is a culture of independence.
And when we let that culture permeate the church, you have pride and arrogance.
And Ephesians 6, this is why we're reading this passage for us tonight,
Ephesians 6 verse 12 puts all of our ministry visions and plans and activities in their rightful context.
It says, and you should have Bibles open at this point, Ephesians 6 verse 12,
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms.
The context in which we're gathering right here, right now at 6.42 on a Sunday afternoon,
and the context in which we seek as a church to labour, to know, to treasure and to represent Jesus is a battlefield.
We're in the middle of a long and protracted wall.
And I suspect that most of us, when we came to church tonight, never even had that on our radar.
You know, we didn't jump into a sort of Humvee with a big gun on the back of it, fighting our way to church.
It's difficult for us to understand as we sit here in church, in this building in Chatswood,
in the most affluent city of the luckiest country during the longest period of peace that we've known.
It doesn't seem like a battlefield, but what did I say last week?
What I said last week is that what the Bible does for it,
what God, who is ultimate reality, helps us to see things the way they actually are.
And that's what the Bible does.
And so here, Paul helps us to see reality.
He helps us to see things the way they are.
So verse 10 of Ephesians 6 opens with the word finally.
Now it's not Paul signalling that he's getting to his final point of his letter.
You know, finally, this is my last point.
Everyone goes, breathe a sigh of relief.
It's nearly supper time.
The word is better translated for the remaining time.
Paul is making a statement in his final verses that the whole of the remaining time before Christ returns will be characterized by conflict,
tension and hardship for the Christian and for the church.
And frankly, this should not be a surprise for us.
We've just finished going through the book of Revelation.
Revelation deals, a whole chunk of Revelation in the middle there, deals with this cosmic war that rages until Christ comes and finishes it all.
And so our expectation of the Christian life and Christian ministry is that it will not be easy.
It will be hard work.
Verse 12 says that the war that we're engaged in is not against flesh and blood.
It is a supernatural war.
It is therefore futile if we fight this war by and in our own strength.
We're involved in a battle with a formidable enemy.
And Paul is quite specific about our enemy.
He says our struggle is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world,
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
And so if we attempt in any sense to try and spread the influence of the kingdom of God,
that is to see people in Chatswood to know, treasure, and represent Jesus,
we try and spread that influence by using conventional human tactics and wisdom,
that is we trade strength with strength and sarcasm with sarcasm and cunning with cunning and manipulation with manipulation and power with power,
we will lose.
Our opponents are too great.
You see, the devil and his angels are a great demonic enemy with a defined and disciplined chain of command.
And even though he doesn't possess anything like the power of God himself, Satan is still terribly powerful.
He can only be at one place at one time, but with his army of evil spirits,
he imitates God's presence everywhere and he imitates God's power over all things.
And he imitates God because he desires to be God more than anything else.
And it's that desire to be God, which is at the center of his terrible total spiritual evil.
Verse 12 alludes to this by describing the enemy as the power of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.
So there are plenty of people in history who have gone pretty low in terms of perpetrating evil.
You can think of a few, you know, Stalin and Hitler and a bunch of others like that.
But they're not even coming close to Satan's evil.
You see, Satan has no conscience.
He has no compassion.
He has no remorse.
He has no morals.
He feeds on pain and anguish and filth.
He is supremely cunning.
Verse 11 speaks of the devil's schemes or the devil's methods, if you like.
And he's been honing his schemes and his methods for millennia.
He is an accomplished philosopher and theologian and psychologist.
He has studied for thousands of years enough time to be astonishingly brilliant at every discipline.
He is the ultimate manipulator and subverter and actor.
And 2 Corinthians 11 says that one of his deadly methods is he masquerades as an agent of God.
He sets himself up.
He presents himself as one on God's side.
Whatever his tactic, he seldom attacks openly.
His strategies, which are administered by his devils and nearly always unseen, shrewd and perfectly tailored for the victim.
He operates best when he can convince people and even God's people that he doesn't exist or that he's not powerful.
And can persuade us that life, in fact, is not a battle.
He is evil beyond our comprehension and without conscience or principle.
He is diabolically cunning and he is against us.
He hates Christ.
He hates God's children.
He hates the church.
He hates the mission of St. Paul's Chatswood to see Jesus known, treasured and represented in such a way
that more and more people are rescued from his evil clutches.
He hates the plans that we have to go deeper together in fellowship with Christ,
to serve each other in love and to connect better in our community for the glory of God.
He hates what we're doing with our building project right now.
He hates the establishment of ICS.
He will do whatever he can to destroy the work of the gospel in your life.
That is Paul's cosmic perspective.
With all its chilling implications.
See the value of prayer so far?
And frankly, all would be despair except that it's only part of Paul's cosmic perspective.
You see, on earth, amongst mortals, Satan has no equal.
You don't match him in power.
Not even close.
But in the heavenly realms, on the other hand, he is far exceeded by the triune God.
Colossians 1 and 2 says that the entire spiritual realm owes its existence to Christ.
Thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, invisible and visible in heaven and on earth.
And so Christ is not only more powerful by virtue of the fact that he created Satan,
but because he also defeated Satan at the cross.
He has sealed Satan's doom.
Although in this present age, he still exercises control over those who have not found freedom in Christ.
And for those of us, and this is a warning, for those of us who neglect Christ's resources
and rely upon our own strength and human wisdom, we place ourselves in harm's way.
When we decide to take matters into our own hands, rather than patiently relying upon God,
we take matters into our own hands, we place ourselves in harm's way.
And so what are we to do?
That's what the rest of this section is about here.
In Ephesians 6.
Paul leaves us with two commands that dominate his advice in this last letter, verse of the letter.
The first is in verse 10.
It says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
That is, for the remaining time, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
And this command is in fact a passive command.
That is, it says, be made strong in the Lord.
In other words, don't find your strength in yourself.
Be made strong in the Lord.
Find your strength in Christ.
We are totally dependent upon Christ.
The power is his.
The victory is his.
And without his strength and his victory, we will falter and we will fall.
And yet, we still need to pursue being made strong in him.
And so what Paul does here is he sort of expresses here a proper combination of divine enabling and human cooperation.
And he does it again in verse 11, where he says, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
So if your aim is to persevere in the Christian life and not be defeated by the cunning schemes of the devil, then you must put on the armor, take up the weapons as described here in these verses.
The armor is meant to protect us from the attack of the evil one.
And it's really simple.
Truth, verse 14.
Righteousness, verse 14.
The gospel of peace, verse 15.
Faith in 16.
Salvation in 17.
And the weapon is the word of God in verse 17.
All things referred to earlier in Ephesians as gifts coming to us from Jesus himself.
Now, when you look at Ephesians 6 and you see this bigger picture of the Christian soldier in the armor of God, they look pretty formidable.
It's like you've got the whole armor on, the helmet, the breastplates, and all of a sudden, your big sword, and you feel like you're 10 foot tall.
Sort of like I do when you give me a big gun.
I feel like a whole bigger man than what I actually am without a gun.
That's what happens in movies as well, I think.
It kind of feels a bit like that.
And that's kind of what this soldier can feel like.
Because they've dressed up, formidable image, and there's a call to action.
And so the soldier gets ready for action.
They've got their sword, they've got all their armor, and then they do something incredibly amazing here.
They fall to their knees and they pray.
Now, that doesn't mean that there's no action.
It means that every action of this soldier, dressed out, ready for this formidable battle, is that every aspect of it is bathed in prayer.
You see, prayer isn't just another one of the bits of the armor.
It's just not another sort of weapon you've got.
It's meant to pervade everything, all aspects of the cosmic wall that the disciple of the Lord Jesus is engaged in.
But there is a temptation here, I think.
You know, you've got truth, you've got salvation.
You know, I'm a Christian.
I've got my theology worked out.
Come into a good church.
And you start to think, I can fight this battle.
In the same way, I feel like I'm pretty much indestructible when you've got a 308 strapped over your shoulder.
I feel like I'm pretty indestructible here.
And yet, in verse 19, we see that's not Paul's temptation.
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.
Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.
Now, let's be frank here.
If ever there was a fearless and competent soldier in the cosmic battle, it would have to be Paul.
You see, he's the Chuck Norris of the early apostles.
That's his picture, or the Clint Eastwood, or the John Wayne, depending how old you are.
This is Paul.
He's an awesome figure as an apostle of the Lord Jesus.
Wrote one third of the New Testament, planted churches all over the Middle East, spread the gospel as far as you can imagine.
He stood before people like Felix and Agrippa, officials of Rome, soldiers and commanders.
And he fearlessly spoke the gospel.
And he says here, I can't do that without your prayers.
He says, I am fearful that I would lose courage and I would fail in the pressure of this battle.
And so he asked them to pray for him.
I need your prayers that I would be fearless in this battle.
And that's why he instructs them in verse 18.
To pray in the Spirit at all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints, including me, the Apostle Paul.
Now, the prayer he's calling for here is comprehensive.
We're to pray on all occasions.
That means it's both regular and it's constant.
And what he's calling us to do here as Christians who have been adorned with the armor,
he's calling us to consistently be praying.
Adopt an attitude of prayerful dependence on God for everything in their life.
That's why he says pray with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Being alert and always keep on praying because you don't want to give up.
You don't want to fall asleep.
Prayer is essential.
And if prayer is so essential for Paul in this cosmic battle, I seriously have to ask the reason.
Is the reason why we're losing ground, particularly in the Western church,
has it got anything to do with the lack of genuine prayer and commitment to prayer?
Have we got comfortable?
It's my conviction that we are weak because we do not pray as we ought.
As American theologian Joel Beeky says, the greatest prayer problem with the church is prayerless praying.
And prayerless praying is where we don't really see our need and our dependence upon God,
but we just mouth it anyway.
It's where we can articulate real and right knowledge and needs,
but actually don't give ourselves up to God,
pour our hearts out to God,
as if we actually needed God to act in order for there to be a victory.
Prayerless praying is mouthing words without a heart or an attitude of prayerfulness.
It's praying,
Lord, give me today my daily bread.
But having a fridge full of food,
not really needing to pour my heart out to God,
because I know there's some in the freezer.
I pray the prayer,
but do I really, truly believe
that God provides for my needs every single day
and without his provision,
it doesn't exist.
It doesn't happen.
That's prayerless praying.
Mouthing the right words,
but with a heart that says,
I'm not really dependent.
The other problem with prayer is a lack of prayer altogether.
Because a non-existent prayer life means that I'm self-righteous
because I don't confess my sins to God.
It means I'm ungrateful because I do not give thanks to God.
It means I'm presumptuous
because I just assume he's going to provide my daily bread for me.
I don't ask God for my daily needs.
I'm self-centered because I don't ask God to bless other people.
I'm irreverent because I do not praise God or seek his kingdom to come.
I'm unfriendly to God because I don't enjoy relating to him.
And let me tell you,
I've been a Christian for just over 20 years.
And nothing makes me feel more like a faithless hypocrite
than prayerlessness.
This is the one Christian discipline
that I have struggled with for 20 years.
And for the last few years, I've worked out why.
Because I like to be in control.
And I suspect I'm meant to feel like a faithless hypocrite
because of my prayerlessness.
Jesus ends his parable on the persistent widow in Luke 18
with a really important question.
You see, the beginning of the parable in verse 1,
Jesus tells the reason why he's sharing this parable.
It's to show them, that is to show his disciples,
that they should always pray and not give up.
The very thing that Paul has encouraged the Ephesians to do in chapter 6,
to keep on praying.
That's the point of the parable.
And so his question at the end of the parable
has some real force to it.
It's there in verse 8.
When the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on the earth?
See what Jesus does there?
He connects prayer,
that's the point of the parable,
with the question of,
will there be faith when I come?
He connects prayer and faith,
trust, dependency on him,
together.
Together.
Jesus is saying in Luke 18,
that continual prayer until he comes
is not only the evidence
that we are people of faith,
but also the means of building faith
and dependence on him until he returns.
prayerless praying or non-existent prayer life
reveals an independent,
self-confident,
faithless heart.
Can you see the conflict
between that and the person
who declares themselves
to be someone who trusts in the Lord Jesus?
You see,
we can say all that we like,
all we like that we believe
in the sovereignty of God
and that God ordains everything
and that he elects stuff
and he purposes all things to be,
he's in control of all stuff,
and we can marvel people
with our knowledge
and of these doctrines of grace
and,
but the place where we demonstrate
that those things that we say
that we value,
we actually value in our hearts,
is metaphorically
on our knees in prayer.
Prayer is where our theology
of the sovereignty
and the goodness of God
translates into actual action,
which is what core values do.
My friends,
the context in which we as a church
exist to know Jesus
and treasure Jesus
and represent Jesus
for God's glory
and the joy of all people
is a cosmic war.
That's the context
in which we gather here right now
and in which we seek to do
all the ministry that we're doing
and it doesn't look like it
on the surface.
It doesn't look like
we're involved in cosmic war.
The people driving past there
at Fuller's Road right now
are not thinking,
ooh,
battlefield going on there.
That's not what they're thinking
and let me tell you,
when they drive past here
and if they do,
you know,
if they're not watching
where they're going,
they have a glance over here
and they see a sign
on the front of the building
that says time to build
and they notice
that we've got some building program
going on here
and if they drive a bit further
just before they turn left
or go straight ahead,
they'll notice
there's another one
right next door.
Alto are doing a building project too
and on the surface,
both of them look
the same kind of thing
except Alto's bigger than ours.
It's the same kind of stuff.
Alto's got a building project
and Paul's Chatswood's
got a building project.
It all looks the same
but our one draws the attention
of Satan
in a way that Alto's one doesn't.
Satan is against us
in the way that he's not against them.
Alto will sell and service cars,
Holden cars, mind you,
on their site
and ours is a battlefield headquarters
for the souls of lost people
in Chatswood.
Two very different things.
We are locked in battle
every day for everything we do
and let me tell you,
right now,
your leadership,
God,
and I can only thank God for this,
your leadership in your church
right now
is more acutely aware of it
than I've noticed
in the last number of years.
More acutely aware
of the battle that rages
every day
and it's causing us
to pray.
We've been walking
in some very hard days
for months now
and we are being driven
to prayer
and God is revealing
that he is in control
on a whole number of things.
But bit by bit,
God has been humbling us.
We have become
less confident
in ourselves
and more confident
in God.
Everything we want to see
happen here as a church
will happen
will not happen
without the supernatural
grace of God.
Are you aware of it?
Are you aware
that he's in control
of everything
in life?
You see,
we don't exist
to preach.
We exist
as a church
to preach
in the power
of the Holy Spirit
so that people
are supernaturally awakened
from unbelief
and changed
beyond what
any human being
can cause
in their life.
We don't exist
to teach kids' church.
That's going on
over there right now
somewhere.
We don't exist
to teach kids' church
but to teach kids' church
in the power
of the Holy Spirit
so that young people
are supernaturally converted,
built up in the faith
and loved beyond
what any of the kids' church
teachers can do
for them.
We don't exist
to sing
but to sing
in the power
of the Spirit
because the affections
of our hearts
have been supernaturally awakened
and the glory
of Christ
is treasured
beyond what
any music
can produce
for us.
We don't exist
to do evangelism
and missions
but to do evangelism
and missions
in the power
of the Holy Spirit
so that hard
unbelieving hearts
will be supernaturally changed
to soft
Jesus receptive
believing hearts.
Friends,
I want to see people
come to Christ,
treasure Jesus,
I want to see people
living lives
for his glory,
I want to see people
healed from scars,
from grudges,
grudge bearers
turning into forgivers
and haters
to lovers
and grumblers
and whingers
turned into joyless
rejoicers,
I want to see
joyless people
into hopeful people
that judgmental
turned into
people who are merciful.
I want to see all that
happening in people's lives
and I can't do it.
It is a supernatural
work of God.
Everything we aim
to accomplish
as a church
is impossible
without God's
supernatural action
and frankly
that is so liberating
but it's also
so incredibly humbling
because it means
that I am weak
and I guess
weakness
and humiliation
which always
comes before
humility
is one of the
first things
needed for a
vigorous prayer life.
Recognizing
that you have
no power
in this world
but God does
and so friends
I want to call
for you to pray
right now
for our building
project
for it to be
finished on time
and in budget.
There is right now
and I can't believe
I'm saying this
with a smile
on my face.
Right now
there is
$50,000 to $60,000
that could go
against us
and the immediate
response is
take control of that.
Don't spend the money.
No, no, no, no.
It's stuff that's
already committed
and it could go
against us.
You know
if you stick
an excavator
out there
in the car park
and all of a sudden
they start digging
stuff and they find
dirty dirt in there
I know that's
a weird statement
they find
dirty fill in there
all of a sudden
the bills go
through the roof.
Find a couple
of sheets of asbestos
in the car park
boom
through the roof
and expenses
and we can't
cover that
and so
there's about
50 to 60
in this project
that could go
against us
we've got no
control over it
whatsoever
and if it goes
against it
it's going to
hurt us a lot.
So pray
that it will
go in our favour.
Pray that God
would act.
Pray that
George Altamonte
the chairman
of the Altai group
over there
who's been
generous to us
already
will be even
more generous
towards us
just because
we're his neighbours.
If God
can get
Pharaoh
to move
Pharaoh's heart
to say to the
Israelites
yeah go
and take
all the wealth
of Egypt
with you
he can move
the head
of the Altai group
to give us
a few more dollars.
Seriously
pray that
God
would move.
God
has promised
to do for us
things that we
cannot do
for ourselves
when we
pray.
God
has designed
and ordained
and planned
and promised
that he will
act when we
pray.
God
has promised
to act
when we
get on our
faces
before him
and we
confess our
sins
and give
thanks for
his grace
and plead
for him
to pour
out his
supernatural
blessings
on our
lives
and our
families
and our
church
and our
city.
when we
pray we
are declaring
that the
supernatural
action of
God
is essential
in the
life of
St. Paul's
Chatswood.
So is it
not breathtaking
to hear Jesus
say
ask
and it will
be given
to you?
Is it not
breathtaking
to hear Jesus'
brother James
say
you want
something
but you
don't get
it
because you
do not
ask God
or to put it
out positively
if you'd
asked me
I would
have given
it to you.
It's astonishing
that God
acts in
response to
prayer.
It's astonishing
because the
all-knowing
all-seeing
all-planning
all-powerful
God
wills
for our
Christ-exalting
prayers
to be the
occasion
of his
action.
that's
mind-blowing
in my
mind.
And so
devotion to
prayer is a
core value
of this
church.
My desire
for us
at St.
Paul's
is to be
more like
the 97-year-old
Miss Daisy
than the
72-year-old
Miss Daisy.
Joyfully
dependent on
our gracious
God's
provision
daily
provision
in such
a way
that when
we pray
give us
today
our daily
bread
we
actually
mean it.
We
actually
mean that
we are
dependent
upon him
for
everything.
And so
may this
core value
not just
be written
on the
paperwork
and on
the walls
and posters
and stuff
around the
place
but written
in our
hearts
in such
a way
that it
shapes
the
attitude
and
activity
of our
lives.
Let me
tell you
what it
does for
the full
time staff
here at
St. Paul's
this is how
we shape
it.
Likewise
with Christ
in a
Bible
situation.
I give
full time
staff here
one day
a month
committed
to just
prayer
for this
church
and for
the
ministry
of this
church.
One
day a
month
and I
think
it's
the most
valuable
thing
not that
they do
other things
which are
valuable
but it's
the most
valuable
thing.
I'm
always
encouraged
when I
look at
my
diary
and know
that staff
member is
committed
today in
prayer.
They're
praying
today.
And
they also
report to
me on
their private
devotional
lives.
They're
actually being
saturated
in the
scriptures
and actually
have a
life of
prayerfulness.
And so
St. Paul's
as a church
we're committed
to constantly
bringing all
things to
God in
prayer,
intentionally
building
prayer into
the centre
of our
life together
and developing
a culture
where
natural
and
unstructured
prayerfulness
just comes
out in
our
interactions
with one
another.
Not just
it's time
for prayer
meeting.
Not just
that.
I pulled
the face
kind of
stuff.
But not
just the
prayer meeting
time but
natural
interactions
with one
another where
we converse
about stuff
and we
share things
with one
other.
We just
pray for
your
brother.
I just
want to
pray for
your
sister.
Natural
prayer
flowing
out.
We're
as a
church
committed
to
encouraging
and equipping
for prayer
on a
personal
family level
and incorporating
prayer into
every church
activity.
And so let
me just
take Jesus'
question and
make it a
little bit more
pertinent for
us at
St.
Paul's.
When the
Son of
Man comes,
will he
find faith
at St.
Paul's?
I want to
ask you,
are you
more like
the 72
year old
Miss
Daisy
clinging
to
independence
or the
joyfully
dependent
97 year
old
Miss
Daisy?
I believe
Christ will
find faith
at St.
Paul's if
we learn to
live a
life of
prayerful
dependence
until he
comes in
every day
across all
the church
and all the
activities of
this church.
And my hope
and my
prayer is
that we
become more
like 97
year old
Miss
Daisy.
And this
core value
of devotion
to prayer
is written
in our
hearts.
Let's pray.
Gracious
Father,
you are
sovereign
over all
that is
and we
are so
dependent
upon you
and yet
Lord,
in our
sinfulness
and our
sinful
pride,
we cling
to our
independence.
Oh,
Father,
there is so
much more
power and
freedom just
by surrendering
to you
the God
who is not
just a
God who
is sovereign
but a
God who
is merciful
and good
and just.
Father,
we pray
that we
would be
delightfully
and joyfully
dependent
upon you
in all
things.
Lord,
as I've
asked our
church across
all the
services today
to pray
for our
building
project,
I pray
that this
50,
60 grand,
whatever it
is that
could go
against us,
that it
will go
for us.
I pray,
Father,
that you
would
intervene
and act
in amongst
the lives
of all
these people
that we
have no
control over,
builders and
Alto Group
and everything
else.
Willoughby Council,
everyone,
so that it
will go in
our favour.
And when it
does,
that it
would cause
us to
rejoice,
deeply rejoice
and give
thanks to you.
may we
be reminded
constantly,
Father,
that you're
in control,
you have
all the
power in
the world
where we
virtually have
none.
May that
be a comfort
and a joy
for us,
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.