Avenues Of Prayer

The title of my sermon today is Avenues of Prayer. Many of you have been down many streets. You may have a favorite street, a favorite road. I enjoy going down A1A when I have time. I don't mind stopping quite a bit. It's one of my favorite streets to go down. You may have a favorite street in your neighborhood. There are many roads in which to get to your home. There are many roads and avenues of prayer. I bring this out because if I were to ask you, and I am asking you now, here we are in Vero Beach. How would you tell me to go to Key West? If I said I was going Key West, what would you tell me? Go ahead. Where are you? Scenic route. Take Federal Highway, US-1, all the way. Is that the only way? No. Turnpike. Turnpike to what? I can take Turnpike all the way to Key West? No. I don't think so. And then what did I do there? US-1. US-1. Okay.

A kayak on the intercoastal will take me there. I might take me a while. And you've actually sailed it? You sailed it twice to get so you can go from here to Key West. Sailing. Okay. So we take a road. Okay. So we've settled. That's how you get to Key West. Is there any other way? Fly a plane. I do? Yes. So as we see, there's many ways to get to Key West. And you're all right. I've been to Key West and taken a... we've just been there once, so we've only taken one way. I think we'll be there twice, but I can't remember. I would like to present to you today with the help of two young ladies that are going to hand this out for me. I have a handout.

So if you will come up here and get one of these out on each of the sides. Thank you very much. This will look familiar to one person sitting here today because I came up with this many years ago. I don't know, Ampe, how many years? Seven? Seven years ago. And I made some little Mickey Mouse drawing, and it looked really bad. So Ampe decided she would help me and assist me as she has done so many times. And so she created this.

That all, Chris? Thank you. She created this, and I appreciate it very much because it gives you avenues of prayer. Now, I bring this out to you, and it's not like we don't know how to pray. We don't know what not to pray for. We know what to pray for.

I mean, we've done this, right? But as I gave the sermon last week about monotonous prayers, sometimes if you've done this for how many years? 20, 30, 40, 50 years. You can sometimes need some help because it can get, feel like repetitive prayers. And so I wanted to finish the series on prayer, but I wanted to give you the avenues of prayer here because, as Bible talks about in Isaiah 35, somewhere in the seventh, eighth verse, about a highway to holiness, or the highway of holiness that will happen in the kingdom of God.

It'll be the highway which leads to and from Jerusalem, where the king will sit. And Isaiah brings that out as he does a very good job of describing what it's going to be like at that time. And so there's no better way to make it to the kingdom of God than to have a highway of holiness in your prayer life. Because it's going to be awfully hard to get to the kingdom of God without a good prayer life.

It's going to be almost impossible to get there with no prayer life. I think there's enough scriptures to back that up. But here, Ampe has laid out for us some streets that we perhaps need to visit.

You may not be able to visit those every day because your personal street you definitely need to address every day because that's where you ask for forgiveness. That this incredible gift of grace that's given to us each day, your family, who you contend with. And maybe it's the kingdom of God street to help you get there.

Maybe you need to drive up and down that street and park there for a while. Maybe Confession Street as you talk to God on things that only He and you know about, which is pretty personal. Not the Supplication Street. How about Thanksgiving? Would you forget to go down that street in prayer? And how about praise? Since we're instructed to praise Him and do that. So I submit this to you for your benefit, hopefully, to help when perhaps you have a bad week because most of us have a structured prayer life, I would say.

Many of you have a prayer list that we go down and so forth. And then there are those people that you know you have to pray for that need your prayers like Phil here. I knew he was having a surgery and other people that it's very important that we do this for our family, our church family. But hopefully this will help you as it's helped me because I've kept one of these around ever since Ampe made this for us and I made copies because sometimes I have my mind in a lot of different places and I have finished my prayer and really didn't know where it went.

Didn't know if it hit the ceiling and came back down. Unlike Samuel, which I am not, God said He did not let one word fall to the ground. I want to make sure that he can keep mine up in the air and that all of us can benefit from having a better prayer life. Most of us have one. Can we have a better one? Can we do one better than that? Can we have a great prayer life? An effective fervent prayer of a righteous man and I can say woman avails what? Much, much a lot.

So as you look at this paper, I'd also like for you now and if somebody would like that's watching on the internet would like one of these, Mary would be happy to send you one this week. I'll mail it to you if you'd like to have one of those. Just contact her. But I'd like to move to another way or avenue of prayer. It's called the progression of prayer because sometimes we need to have a progression of prayer. This is, I came across this probably 15-20 years ago and it's the acronym of the fifth book of the New Testament, Acts. Acts. A-C-T-S. Helps sometimes when you're not exactly in the right frame of mind to pray. It can help you when you're distraught, you're angry, you're not really focused, you look at yourself and you've been beat up all week and you really don't want to pray. And I think I can talk from almost everyone here. There are times when you do not want to pray because prayer is not natural. It's not. You might even say it's supernatural. It's of a divine nature because we're to lay out before God these sins. We're to present to God and talk to Him. Someone you can't see?

It's not very natural and sometimes we need help. You may not, but I do. And most of the people that I've counseled, especially newbies in the church or those who have struggled with various things, a lot of it goes back to prayer life. Lack of it are the ineptitude of prayer life. So the acronym here of Acts gives you a progression from the adoration, adoration of God. Maybe it's something we do need to start out with, as Matthew 6 verse 9 tells us. Who are we praying to? Do we recognize that? Do we? Now we talked about the names the last time we did a Bible study. Do we recognize and do? Does He know that we adore Him? I appreciate that 138 song that you gave about. Let us adore Him with all of our might. I don't do that. Near as much as I should. I want to do that more. I need help in doing that. I mean, those words came from the Scriptures.

Do we show our respect to God as we should? And is that the first thing? We address Him to who He is. Even though I go next week, as a matter of fact, I won't be here next week, I fly out tomorrow and I'll be back Monday, the next Monday night, and flying Tennessee to do some work on my mother's home for her. It's a week of my vacation. It's work. But I'm glad to help her out. So I will go and stay with her. I don't just, because she did give me a key to her house, I don't just walk up and enter her house. I'll knock on the door. I'll show respect. It's her house. It's what we do. It's what most of us would do. We're addressing the God of the universe. We're coming in His presence. You think that requires a little respect and honor as we start our prayer? Because He can't come down here. So our prayers have to go to Him. And so we're addressing Him at the throne with the high priest sitting right beside Him. Big deal! Big deal up there because you've got millions and millions of angels, as it says, around. And our prayers are brought to Him.

Not to be taken lightly, Him.

See! Confession! You want to confess? That's not easy to do.

Even with the prosecuting attorney standing in front of you. For most people, it's not easy to confess. It's not Perry Mason. I was always amazed at their show because no matter what happened, no matter they're about to get out of it, right at the last moment they confess. Or Matlock was that way too, I think. And so on. Oh, okay. What does God... God doesn't want to pry it out of us. He wants us to confess our sins. Christ, our atoning, perpetual atoning priest on the right hand of God, is wanting us to use His sacrifice because nothing we can do can take those sins away. Except we call upon the blood of Jesus Christ. And our sins are gone! Gone! As far as east is from the west. And the last thing I read in a book, it's 750 million light years this way and 250 million light years that way. That's east and west. That's east and west.

In this galaxy. We're a good point. Okay. That should be important to us with our confession. And then He... It was the Thanksgiving. Should we be thankful? Are we a bunch of ingrates? I have been. I've been in great before. Caught myself and did my prayer. And then I'm going halfway in the day and I go, you know, I didn't even thank Him for that. This thing that He did that was amazing for me. I knew His hand was in it. You know, in our confession, we can be like David in Psalm 51. It's a good way to study that. But in our Thanksgiving, we can turn to Psalm 116 and read about truly being thankful for everything. We have Thanksgiving coming up.

This world only needs one day a year.

God needs more than that. God deserves more than one day a year. Don't you think? So it's our job as in our sermon that Jeff gave. What a way to set the tone for the neighborhood.

I had a friend of mine. It's interesting. I hate to digress, Jeff, but you made me do it. A friend of mine in Tennessee, he. He actually. Was driving on the interstate. Mike Fusci, you guys might know him. It's been 15 years ago. He was driving on the interstate. I don't know if you ever heard this story. He was driving on the interstate and all of a sudden there's this bad crash. And people. I mean, somebody's really hurt. And so everybody has to stop. And so the the 10 cars that are closest people get out so they can help. And there's this guy. They had to get out of the car because they were afraid it was going to blow up or burn up or whatever. And so that he was laying there in the grass on the side of the interstate. And everybody's kind of standing around. Is anybody is anybody a doctor, a nurse, a EMT or anything? You know, because he was didn't know if he was even breathing. And so Mike being a church member didn't know any of the other. But he said, No, I'm not. But I know the great physician. How about if we pray? And so he knelt down beside the road and knelt down beside this man and everybody else and lowered their head and the same thing. And you prayed for the man and ambulance then came up and the man survived. An example of someone's doing what comes natural to them. And it should be natural for all of us, shouldn't it? No matter who you are, no matter where you're at, you have a special relationship with the father. Dad. And you have that relationship because you pray. He knows you and you know him. Shouldn't we be more thankful on Thanksgiving days than anyone else? Because we realize there's 364 of those that most people don't recognize. Then the S, supplication. Supplication means your needs. You pray for your needs. You pray for other people's needs.

Psalm 28 covers that so very well.

But this is a progression of prayer. And I give this here because I'd like you to consider it, to use it as a tool. Because now I'd like to go into a prayer that most of you know, maybe probably the most the most.

The most well-known prayer in the entire Bible. And I want to just give you some points. It's not that you don't know. It's not you haven't heard this many times, but I think as I end this series on prayer, it's so important that we go through and look at some of these things. And perhaps I'll bring out things you have not heard before, or things that you can relate to in a different manner. But I'd like you, if you have your Bibles, or you just want to look up here, because by the Word of God, we learn how to do things. And you know, by the Word of God, we learn how not to do things. And it's important that's why we read, and that's one of the things that I've stressed since I became your pastor, is the Bible, getting into the Word. It's interesting because Matthew chapter 6, he does cover something, but in this book, this incredible book here, before he tells us how to pray, he tells us how not to pray, which may be just as important than how to pray is how not to pray. And so he tells us in chapter 6, verses 5 through 8, in New King James, he actually gives two different things here before he tells us how to pray. Don't make a show of it, right?

Don't make a big deal because he said, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites who like to make a show, right? They love to pray standing in the synagogues on the corner of the street that they may be seen of men. And then he said, don't do that.

I don't recall ever seeing you guys standing on the street or standing in front of this church going, oh God! I'm your most blessed child, please. Look to me. No. But in Christ's time, they did that. They did that.

And then, and if you don't think that's done, tune in tomorrow on television. You can probably see you some of those. I want to be shown by these almighty prayers. But then he says also, don't be a hypocrite like you, but also don't don't use vain repetitions. Mary, Mother Grace, Mary, Mother Grace, I mean, some woman on TV does that, I don't know, must be 200 times in a row. So don't do that. Or like the pagans do, make just have chance. Have chance. Like prayers. I might have mentioned, I'll make sure I got enough time.

And the sermon I think I gave in Fort Lauderdale, if you weren't there. But I mentioned that Mary and I go walking through, try to go walking on the beach three mornings, three mornings out of five. And so Monday, Wednesday, Friday, if we can't, it's not raining. There's three-mile stretch, and we try to get into heavy sand. And so it's a good workout. Plus, so we've done our prayer there. It's just something we do. And we get there about 25 minutes before the sun comes up. And so there is a woman there that's got this drum. I don't know if any of you heard me tell about that. She had this drum. Okay, and she's beating this drum as the sun's coming up. And so I've been there for five or six years, I guess, and I never just walk on by her and so forth. Well, I stopped this week. I wanted to ask her because I will usually nod my head, you know, if I'm in front of her to not recognize her. And so she always smiles and so forth and beats her drum. And so I just said, Can I ask you a question? Why do you beat that drum? What does that mean? Is that symbolic of something or do you? Is there a purpose for beating this drum? She goes, I'll tell you. She said, That is the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

I said, Okay.

Don't know if I fully understood, but don't know if I need to. I don't. My mother's not the Earth and my father's up there, so I'll let him deal with that situation. So he tells us how not to pray before then he goes in to give as what's commonly called in religious circles, say the model prayer. And so I want to look at that today. So if you'll go with me to Matthew six and we'll start in verse nine, because he's in my New King James version, it says in this manner, therefore pray.

So he's given this incredible sermon on the Mount, and so he addresses what? Praying in this manner. Therefore pray. We talked about that last week that men always ought to pray, as I talked about my sermon last week. But that's in New King James New Living says, pray like this. In I.V. says this then is how you should pray. Another one says, so pray this way. Another one says, this is how you should pray. Different translations. What's interesting is, is this all we need to pray? Because if you hear various people, they'll quote this prayer time and time again.

Our Father who already in heaven, how be thy name? A King in the world, they wonder without doubt, without doubt. You know, if you just read it, what Christ said here, it's 66 words in the New King James Version. 13 pronouns, and you can read it in less than a minute. Does your father deserve more than a minute?

You have to answer that one. It's one of more than 70 times that Christ called God his Father in the Gospels, which was shocking in his day and time. Father, so I'd like to look at this and just take these verses, not very many, from 9 to 15, and finish my time here with those, because we all know it. But I'd like to make it, if we can, personal, because Christ gave this as an outline, as some said. Some say it's a model for how we should be praying or the areas. So I'd like to look at it from that standpoint, and hopefully it can in some way, shape, or form first help us to have a better prayer life, because it does make a difference when we pray. Perhaps you have friends or people who are not affiliated with any religion or anything else that know that you do have a worship of God, you do have an understanding of God, and they ask you to pray. Anybody have that? Or would you pray for me? Usually I have to ask them, what do you want me to pray for? Because I don't just go, hey, be with what's your name. That's not what I do, and that's not what God really wants from us. I have that quite a bit in the Caribbean, where I will be somewhere in one of the maids or something when I'm traveling. She will come in, oh, I see your pastor. Would you pray for me? I say, what do you want me to pray for? Oh, I don't know. Just pray for me. And I say, you're going to have to tell me what to pray for. And then I say, okay, they tell me. I said, now, will you pray? A lot of them think they really can't pray or they shouldn't be praying because they're not a righteous person. So it's a chance for us to help in that way. I prayed for many of them standing there. I've also asked them to pray. So I'd like to look at this in verse one. It says, our Father in heaven. Well, there's only one up there. We only have one Father up there. We only have one Father up there. It's a personal pronoun. And it's not some father, but it's our Father, our Father, Christ making this personal, because that was not done in His time by the religious people of His day. It wasn't something you got person. God was this thing that you fear. God was this thing, and so many people today feel that way.

He's our Father.

Think about it. It's a family thing. Most of us don't have any problems talking to family members. Right, Julie? You can tell Jeannie right off, right? Or Kathy? You can just tell them what's on your mind, right? Or we can from here. Right, Lily? You don't have any problem, right? With Grace? Yes, Beverly? Even baby Joy? Yes, we can talk. This is what God wants. It's got to be more than... I mean, He is great. He is all this, and we'll talk about that. But you have to start somewhere on a personal relationship. It's family. That's how He views you. If you don't view Him as your Father and one who will do anything and everything for you, you've got problems, and you need a better prayer life. You need to be talking a little bit more for that situation. Our Father in heaven. You know heaven is derived from the old Anglo-Saxon word, heave on. Have you ever heaved something? You ever heaved? You know what I used to tell you? When we used to throw up hay on a farm, you would throw it up on the wagon, you would heave. It came from the word heave on, which means lifted up. And that's where we get the word heaven from. Because He's up there.

Isaiah actually uses meaning high and lofty ones, as you'll see in the scriptures in Isaiah. I think it's around chapter 6. He's telling you this. He's high, way high, not only by location, but by holiness. He's as high as you can get. So He should be high and lifted up, thought to be of importance. And so we're able to actually come and ... dad, father, Mary, you call her father, daddy. I think you used to call her father, daddy, papa. Yeah, anybody else have one that you used to use? Poppy, dad. Yeah, I need father. Why? Because we could. I didn't have some brat down the street come to my house and tell my dad, hey, dad! Because he wasn't his father.

Because I don't know who is his children. That's not my job. That's not my job to look at religions and go, well, they're not really ... that's not my job. That's Christ's job. Christ's going to divide the sheep from the goats. That's not it. My job is to realize who I am. I'm a child of God, the son of God, your sons and daughters of God. That brings that relationship, which means we can come at any time. I never had a time when we lived in Tennessee that my father and mother go, don't you come down to our house. Never had that.

Family typically doesn't do that. I don't know. Do the bratniks do that? You can say, Julie, don't come on Friday. Because I don't want you there. Right. We don't do that when you have close when you love each other. It's a family. It's and you're tied by blood. But guess what? You're tied by God, by spirit, which is so much stronger. That's what we need to be looking at. Because you see, God's always at home. And he's always listening. And he's wonder how many times I mean, we are. He thinks so much of us. The scriptures are full of all the ways in which David tries to tell us how much he loves us. Makes me wonder sometimes if he's doesn't turn to Christ on his right hand instead of he heard from Chuck today.

Have you heard from Frank? I'm waiting to hear from him because you see, it is personal. That's why it's important for us because it's important to him. How would be thy name? Holy is your name.

May your name be honored. Holy revered. This is what Christ is talking because this is what he did when he was a human on earth praying to his father because he wouldn't give us a model pray. Oh, you guys need to do this. I don't do this. No, this is this is what he's trying to tell us. You want that relationship? Because he said, me and my father are one. I cannot do anything except by the father. You see, that's why this is so important. He needs to be revered.

Held in awe. I know how much your family always live in revered your father. A holy man. And he all of you talk so much about that. How much more should we do the spiritual father than just the physical father? I had a great one. He just didn't even come close to my father up there. Not even in the ballgame. And he was a great man.

And here's a great thing.

He says that I am that I am. As we talked about last time about his name, I am. I am that I am. I always was. I always will be. I am now. This tells us that there's not an expiration date on prayer.

There's not an expiration date on when he stops loving us.

And that is just so very, very important. See, your father is not just an important other entity. He is it. He is everything. David knew this more than anyone else. He's a man after God's own heart. He had his issues. He had his problem. It was very physical at times. But he also knew he needed to repent. Perhaps one of the biggest centers in the Bible, but he was even a bigger repinter in the Bible and gives us instructions what we need to do. Are we in awe? Are we humbled by whom we are praying to? That's what this is talking about. Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, sovereign, divine. The descriptions can go on and on. And then we talked about last time, Bible State, these names that you guys brought forward that helped describe the qualities and exactly the descriptions of the power and presence of God. That's why I did that, knowing I was going to give this one, because you have plenty of ammunition now.

And it's not like you don't know who he is. And you don't know what he can do. But then Christ tells us, your kingdom come. All the promises that we talk about. Now, there's Matthew 6, 33 about seeking the first kingdom of God or whatever, but it's like your kingdom come. Are we praying? Do we really want the kingdom to come or what are we going to go? How about two years? Time out, God. Stop this thing and let me have two years to get myself together.

Does that sound crazy? Do we want it now? Because we know what's involved with before the kingdom gets here. And some of it's not very pretty. Do we want it now? Are we willing to pray for it? I was 19 and 20 years old and I prayed at that time. But when I would pray, I didn't want the kingdom come here. Wait a minute, because I need to get married first.

And I'd like another car because the car was kind of ragged. And I'd like another car because if I get the car, then I can get the woman.

Right. And if I get the woman, then I can make more money and then I'll have a house. And then I'll have everything I want. Then, okay, let the kingdom come. Now, I say that in jest because it was true, but also say it because sometimes, subliminally, in our own minds, we're not ready. I'd like to have more time with my grandkids.

Because, you see, we need to pray thy kingdom come, not for us.

But for some brethren in Haiti right now, that's going through all kinds of problems. For people we don't even know. Because we're, as I've said before, we're on this planet called Titanic, and we're in the first-class cabins. A lot of people aren't. A lot of people struggling. Pray thy kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. World peace. Every Miss America says she wants world peace. And they come up and ask, what would you like? I'd like to do this. I'd like to teach you. And world peace. Well, we'd all like world peace, but that's not going to happen until the kingdom comes. There's no way. When this world finally has a righteous ruler, that'll be nice.

Well, pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What's done up in heaven? Righteousness. That can't happen here until Christ comes down. There's no elected leader that's going to bring peace.

There's going to be one or two that claims they're going to bring peace, but they're not. It's only by him.

And it's interesting that Christ, in his high priestly prayer in John 17, prayed for so many others, prayed for all of us, and prayed for so many, because he knew what was going to happen for the next millennial or two. It was not going to be peace.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Do we? Do we pray that he feeds us? Well, he really doesn't. It's Publix that feeds me, or it's Trader Joe's and Aldi. That's where my wife shops. Okay. No, it's God who allows us to eat.

And there will be a time when we probably are going to need to beseech him just for that one meal in a day. It's done daily and weekly in Mary Bele, Haiti, or our churches, or our brethren. If they're blessed, they eat one meal a day.

And we're working on that. Give us this day our daily bread, right smack in the middle of this discourse. He tells us, he tells us, today, not tomorrow, today, this day, you need God. And we need to recognize it. Give us the bread.

And then he goes on in Matthew, for he says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. Okay, so he knows we need the physical bread and we need spiritual bread. He's got both. Give us, give us this day, the air, gods, water, gods, food, gods. He has it all. Those people don't realize it. Someday they will. That he controls it all. And he's asking us to say, give us this day. We recognize what? We recognize who he is, what he's given, and his power, and his sovereignty. That is the ultimate in respect. And we're showing it to him every day, every single day. Give us this daily bread. He said, give me this monthly bread.

Otherwise, that's going to be a long fast for us. But he says daily because he wants to hear from us daily. And he's going to feed us. Do we want spiritual food every day? Or do we just want to give me my food? Give me something to eat. You know, as you grow up as a young person, you need to eat every day to grow up. Be strong.

You know, as we are turning the curve on this life and we start over here and we're getting we're already passing and we're getting down here. You know, we have to watch our diets more than we did back here, didn't we? You know, because when I was eighteen, 1930, I ate anything I want. I did. And guess what? I had to pay the price later on. And now, as I'm getting older, guess what? I can't eat. I don't need to eat. I have to watch my diet. I have to watch the blood pressure. Yeah, but that's for old people. I'm old now.

But you see, God wants us as we are going, erasing towards the finish line because many of us are. We need to have a prayer life set. It's just as important as it was when the day we started. Because when a race, it doesn't matter how fast you start, it's how you finish. How will we finish? I want us to finish strong. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do that. Our trespasses, our shortcomings. What we owe, we owe God a lot because of being able to be forgiven of ours. Because of what Christ did for us. Do we desire for forgiveness in this world? There used to be a TV show with this guy that never wanted to say, I'm... He just, he hated saying it. He hated saying it. Well, say, I'm sorry.

Are we that way? You know, can we give somebody who can say, oh, I'm sorry if you do so. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know how easy it gets? It just rolls off the tongue once you're used to doing it. If you really say, I'm sorry, because you mean it. And this, and we must forgive as we forgive our debtors.

And somebody says, please forgive me. Oh, I forgive you. I just won't forget. You've heard that, right? I hope that didn't come from your mouth, because that's not what this says. Christ is saying, forgive others. As our debt, otherwise, our debts are not forgiven by the most important being around.

There's nothing better than being debt free.

Financially, it's great spiritually out of this world. It's like a shower that you just took after being so nasty and filthy of being outside all day and working. It feels so good. That's what we should do. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Boy, a lot of people look to that and say, well, lead us not into temptation. He wanted to lead us into temptation. Well, no, the correct translation is, let us not be led into temptation. Let him help us not to be led by the evil one. But if we're not even talking to him, who are we going to be led by? This world and the evil one who leads this world?

See, in this book, I can only find one trinity. The world, the flesh, and the devil. That's the trinity I find in this book. The world, the flesh, and the devil. Are we going to do that?

He said, God doesn't tempt anyone. James said that. But he does test us, and he allows us to be tested. He allows us to be tempted to show his power.

So as I wrap this up, being, I look at my clock.

He wraps it up with, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. You know, in a majority of the text, ancient texts, that verse is not in there. Not majority of texts it is, but there are thousands of texts where that's not even in there. But it's put in there because it is in some. Was it added for a good reason? I don't know. I don't know. For yours is the kingdom. It means that everything belongs to him. But I'll tell you what is in, and if you'll join me in this, what was in all the majority of text, all the text from this model prayer, everything that's in here is verse 14 and 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. That is major, major. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Boy, is that big!

Progression of prayer, avenues of prayer. It's so important for us. It's important that we realize that he gave us this model. He gives us these instructions, but there's so much more out here. Well, why do I give this? Because it's so important we pray. If we're going to move forward as a church, if we're going to grow as a church, if we're going to grow as a family, it's going to be on our knees. Because until we've been down on our knees and pray to God, we will not grow. We will stay stunted. And God desires for us to do this. I want to close with a prayer. I want to close with not a prayer. I could close with prayer, but somebody else is going to do that. I'm going to close with a point. Now, the family couldn't find out. I couldn't find who wrote this, but it really fits us. And the title of it is, It Starts with Prayer. It starts with prayer. Very short. It says, a piece of dirt pulled from the earth to be refined and elevated to the divine. It starts with prayer, ourselves laid bare. God's gift of grace, followed by our royal place, to forever see our Father's face. And it all starts with prayer.