Jesus Christ Teaches Us to Pray

Let's begin by turning over to Matthew 6. We have been going through the model prayer.

Matthew 6, starting here in verse 9. Just a minute or two in way of review.

Matthew 6, verse 9. In this manner, therefore, pray our Father in heaven. So we see we've got a model prayer. This is not something we have to pray each time we get on bended knee. But certainly these are the kinds of things that Jesus Christ wanted us to include in our prayers.

You know, sometimes, as I said last week, we might go just into one area of this, and that would be the entirety of our prayer. But certainly these are things that we need to be praying about. Our Father in heaven. As I may mention in that very first sermon, here we've got two very important concepts in those two words. Our Father, talking about, you know, He is a Father. We are a family. We've got a very high bar. We went through some of the scriptures there in Hebrews chapter 11.

Our Father is in heaven, a place of power, a place of intervention, a place where our prayers can be heard, where we can be helped. Hallowed be your name. Of course, here we look at the names of God or His name with awe and respect and reverence, worship, realizing who—getting our minds in a proper frame as we are in our prayers, realizing who we're addressing.

And then first order of business, verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done. God always wants us to be aware of the big picture and where we are in that big picture. And what is His will? Not that we want to change His will or we want Him to validate our will, but we want to find out what is His will. And we took a look at some of the ways we can come to understand what His will is. Then verse 11, give us today our daily bread, again, in that matter of proper focus of our minds, making sure that we are appreciating that we are asking for our daily bread.

As I talked with one of you after services, it's so easy for us to want the whole loaf. We want the whole picture. We want everything right now. Well, God wants us to have a big picture, but in terms of our own lives, we need to make sure we're taking care of each day as it comes. Bread symbolizing trust in our Father. Bread symbolizing dependence on our Father. Contentment as well with the bread we have been given.

And, of course, the ultimate bread is Jesus Christ. That brings us to verse 12. I touched on verse 12 a little bit last week, but just touched on it. I want to start there. Verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So, as you and I are praying, Jesus Christ is telling us that one of the things that should be an important part of our prayer is an understanding that we need to be forgiving people. We need to have a forgiving spirit, and we need to also ask for our individual forgiveness of sins.

Very important. Christ is so strongly thinking of that. Look what it says there in chapter 6, verses 14 and 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So it is incumbent upon us to make sure that we have and we develop a forgiving spirit. That's easy to say, hard to do.

It takes God's Holy Spirit to be able to have a forgiving spirit. And it takes God's Holy Spirit to be able to forgive ourselves at times as well. How many Christians have you known? How many have I known over the years? Where people simply have a hard time forgiving themselves, making sure that they appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Notice also, as we take a look at verse 12, how does verse 12 start? Verse 11 says, give us this day our daily bread.

Verse 12. And there's a coupling there. There's a coupling. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. There is a linkage there. It's easy for us to always be thinking about the needs we have, our daily bread for God to take care of us. But God also wants us to remember the linkage there that we need to be forgiving people. We need to be like God. Our Father is. Again, these principles begin to build one upon another. He is our Father.

We are as kids. We need to be responding to life as God would have us respond as His kids. Put a marker here in Matthew chapter 6. Let's go over to Leviticus chapter 11.

Leviticus chapter 11.

Leviticus chapter 11 and verse 45. For I am the Lord who brings you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy. You should be holy for I am holy. God brings us out of society. He brought them out of Egypt. God is bringing us out of spiritual Egypt. And He wants us to be holy as He is. We are His kids. We pray to our Father. We have that high bar I made mention of, of following God, remembering the family that we are a part of. And there's a need for us to have a forgiving spirit, to appreciate and understand the great grace of God. Grace has been extended to us. Forgiveness has been extended to us. And how we, as God's children, need to be able to extend that to others. With that in mind, let's go to Psalm 103.

Psalm 103.

Psalm 103.

As we read this particular section of Psalm 103, let's think about how we are doing as God's kids. Psalm 103, verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy.

Are we a chip off the old block in that regard? Verse 9. He will not always strive with us, nor will we keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.

You know, we can ask ourselves, you know, do we want payback? Do we want vengeance? Where is our mind along these lines? Verse 11. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. A forgiving spirit, not going out and burying the hatchet and then digging it back up, but just getting rid of it, putting, you know, the sin behind him, behind his back, just as we are to have that forgiving attitude toward others. And again, it takes God's Holy Spirit to have that strength to do that. Verse 13. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. And, brethren, as we go through life, let's remember Jesus Christ, you know, where he said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

It can be so easy for us to not have that forgiving spirit, and that's why Christ brings that out so powerfully in the Lord's Prayer for us to have that forgiving spirit.

Now, we go back to—I'll go back to Matthew 9 here.

Or, Matthew 6. Verse 12. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Let's begin with that second—or continue out with that second portion of that phrase there. As we forgive. As we forgive our debtors.

If we go back just one other chapter to chapter 7, we were just talking about the Beatitudes, or referencing them in the sermonette. But take a look at verse 7. Matthew chapter 5 verse 7.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. And, again, you and I want that. When you and I are praying, I'm sure that a portion of your prayer is, you know, God forgive me. You know, I've not been what I should be. I've now been thinking, perhaps, the way I should be thinking. I've not cleared out every bad habit spiritually that I have in my life. Please, Father, God, be merciful to me. Extend your grace to me. Give me time, an opportunity, to repent and to show my earnestness and approaching you and heading towards your kingdom. But if we want God to be merciful to us, we need to be merciful to one another. James chapter 2 and verse 13. James 2, 13. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Brethren, when you and I are not forgiving, then it shows God something, and it should tell us something about ourselves. Do we really understand God's mercy? Do we really understand God's grace? Do we appreciate it? If we understand it and appreciate it, we want to, as God's kids, as God's children, be able to share that, to be having the same character as our Father who is a forgiving God, who has forgiven us.

Now, what I'm referring to here, brethren, and I know forgiving is a very difficult thing. You know, if a person has gone through Auschwitz and you say you need to forgive the Germans, that's not going to happen overnight. God understands that. But God wants even those individuals who've gone through so much pain and agony to be working on that forgiving spirit. And sometimes, brethren, as you are well aware of the various situations you have in your life, that you are struggling with, you may be struggling with those things all of your life.

But as long as you're in the fight, as long as you are struggling, as long as with God's help, you're making progress, God appreciates that. He realizes the only reason perhaps you're not overcoming everything totally is just because we're weak human beings. I've done a lot of funerals in my life, but I've yet to bury any Christian who was perfect. I've yet to bury anybody who completely was able to get rid of all of his faults and her faults and failings, and they were in that casket, and they were absolutely perfect.

We're not going to have that in this flesh, but God wants to see that we're fighting for that, that we want to be a part of a family that is a forgiving family. And brethren, if we aren't being forgiving, then there are issues that will crop up in our lives we need to be aware of. And as a pastor for all these years, all these these number of decades, I've seen where that can take a person out of the church.

An unforgiving spirit can take somebody out of the church. I've seen where people have become, they have isolated themselves, you know, they were offended about something, and maybe they were offended about something that was really bad, but they get offended and they say, well, you know, I just have a hard time coming to services, but I'll come to services, and if they're on the right side of the room, I'll be on the left side of the room, and we won't talk.

And people will isolate themselves. Sometimes they become bitter as they are isolating themselves. They begin to have self-pity, depression, and these things begin to escalate, then they begin to find faults with all people around them. Well, you know, that can't really be God's true church.

There are people there with faults. Well, yeah, we all have our faults. We all have our failings, and people then say, well, you know what? I don't need that. And they walk out the door, and they never come back. So we want to make sure we are people who have a forgiving spirit. We need to be asking God to give us that, to have His Spirit fortify and strengthen us in that way. Let's turn to Psalm 51.

Of course, you know what this psalm is all about. Here's a man who desperately needed forgiveness for horrendous sins he had committed, but we know that he was repentant, and we know that God forgave him. And as you and I are asking for forgiveness, we need to make sure we are repenting.

You know, we talked about earlier about having a forgiving spirit toward other people. But if we want our sins forgiven, we have to be repentant people. It's not just a matter of emotion. It's a matter of action. Yes, there's a frame of mind God wants us to have that we hate sin, but it's not just a matter of a frame of mind.

It's a matter of acting on that frame of mind as well. Psalm 51. Whoops, not gonna read that. I'm an Isaiah. Psalm 51. Have mercy upon thee, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. And once again, as we look at those thoughts, and we're thinking about those thoughts we see here in verse 1, about God toward us, again, think about how we are toward other people, about the willingness for us to be having a loving, kind attitude, for us to have tender mercies. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

And in this portion of the prayer where we're asking for forgiveness, this is where we take the time and say, Father, I may not know all the ways that I'm falling short of your glory. I may have secret falls. I really want to be just like you are. I really want to live like you live, and think like you think. But I may not see the things that are in my path that are blocking my path.

I want to acknowledge my transgressions, Lord, but please help me see them. Maybe I'm blind to my own transgressions, to my own shortcomings. Verse 6, Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts you will make me to know wisdom. Yes, help me to understand those truths. Verse 7, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear the joy and gladness that the bones that you have broken me rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. Blout out my iniquities. These are things we desperately want from our God. These are ideas that I'm sure you read every year.

I read every year at Passover time. Again, we're mixing both of the ideas here about God forgiving us of our trespasses as we forgive others, and we want to make sure we're having that attitude toward others as well. Let's go on now with the model prayer. Matthew 6. Verse 13, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Do not lead us into temptation.

Now, that's an interesting phrase, isn't it? Does God lead you or I into temptation? Does God spiritually entrap us? Us weak, fallible human beings. Is that what that is talking about? You know, it's kind of perplexing. We talk about He's our God.

He's our Father. We are to hallow His name. We are to come before Him and ask for our daily bread, and yet is He going to entrap us? Is He going to lead us into temptation? Is that the sort of thing that our Father does? Well, let's take a look. Let's understand. For clarity, let's go to James chapter 1.

James chapter 1.

James chapter 1 and verse 13.

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.

God doesn't tempt anyone, but, verse 14, each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. So, no, God doesn't lead us into temptation the phrase seems to say, because God doesn't tempt us. The Greek word temptation there in Matthew would be better translated as trial or test. Trial or test. As a matter of fact, the New Revised Standard Version reads it this way, do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

Rescue us from the evil one. But that brings up another question. Now, we see that God is not a God who entraps us. God loves us. He doesn't entrap us. He doesn't lead us into temptation the way that phrase seems. But is James here saying that God doesn't allow us to be tested? Is that is that a biblical truth? You know, have you been tested in your life? Yeah, we've all been tested. Matthew chapter 6 with a word for temptation. I'm not going to try to pronounce it here, but Strong's number 3986. Strong's 3986. The Vines Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words defines that word temptation this way. Of trials of a varied character, where believers are commanded to pray not to be led into such forces beyond their own control. Beyond their own control.

So this is where we're getting to understand this whole concept of not being led into temptation, into trials that we can't handle. Let's look at 1 Corinthians. Again, we're adding more scripture here to add light to the subject. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13.

1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. No temptation is overtaken you except as is common to man, but God is faithful. That's one thing we can always bank on. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond which you are able.

But with the temptation, also make a way of escape that you might be able to bear it. Now, the idea behind verse 13 is as you and I are looking to the great God and His power as we are submitting to His will, as we are trying to do His will, and not take everything on our own shoulders, that the trials we go through, as long as we're going through the trial and attest with God's help, He won't take us someplace where we can't go. He won't lead us someplace where we can't follow and learn and grow. God is faithful in that, and we can rely upon His faithfulness. So the intention of the idea about lead is not in the temptation. It's first of all, we understand there is an unseen enemy by the name of Satan who wants us to fall, who wants us to fail, and God wants us to realize we need help. Secondly, we need to be humble and teachable to learn our lessons so God doesn't have to continually allow us to be tried along certain lines. I'm sure all of us have found ourselves in a place where we have found that we are going through the—it's kind of like—what's that? Groundhog's Day. That—was that it? Groundhog's? With what? Groundhog Day. Yeah, Groundhog Day. Boomer. Bill Murray. Very much a part of our sermon today. Where you seem to repeat things over and over, but why do we do that? Is it because we're not learning? We're not really getting the point? And God says, you know, Randy, you're just not getting it. You're getting part of it, but you're not getting all of it. Until you get all of it, we're going to keep on after you until you finally get all of it. I've teased the different ones who've heard me speak at the feast. I don't know how many times I've given the sermon on the last grade day, and I keep on telling people, they ask, why are you doing this? I say, well, till I get it right. Till I get it right. But God wants us to be learning so he doesn't have to take us through those trials. He wants that behind us, behind our back. Let's take a look at 2 Corinthians 12 as an example. 2 Corinthians 12. You know the story we've related this a number of occasions.

Paul here is going through a test that lasted for some period of time.

Verse 7, unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan above me, lest I be exalted above measure. Paul wrote an awful lot of the New Testament. He wrote an awful lot. Luke wrote more, but Paul wrote an awful lot. As he began to go into his travels, I'm sure there were people who just couldn't wait till the Apostle Paul came to their city, their little town, and hoped to have maybe a conversation to listen to a Bible study or to a sermon. And that can really puff a person up. And God didn't want him puffed up. So what was God's will for Paul? His will was that he had this thorn in the flesh. Just like what is the will in your life? Maybe you can think about your health issue. I mean, all of us in this room have, probably all of us other than the little kids, have some kind of a health issue. You know, I've gotten my share. I've been under the knife several times. You know, I can't see properly without my glasses. I can't, you know, one of my ears doesn't work too very well. But that teaches me, hopefully, that brings me into some degree of humility, realizing that this flesh is nothing to be desired. We need to desire God's kingdom. Verse 8, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times. He pleaded. It doesn't say he was anointed, but it does say he was pleading. He was pleading with the Lord three times that a might depart. But what was God's will? And he said, God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

So here we see the will of God, that he wasn't going to be healed. That he was going to have to walk through life day after day with his thorn in the flesh here, relying upon God to get him through and to carry on the work God gave him to do. Now, people in this similar situation could find themselves with a bad attitude. They can find themselves angry. They can walk away from God and walk away from the truth in the church. They can return to a life of sin.

And in that sense, they would be utterly in a state of failure. So when the scriptures are talking about, lead us not into temptation, we need to have an approach where we appreciate what God is trying to do in our lives. He does test us. He does test us. And it's during those times of temptation, those times of testing, that we don't want to find ourselves sinning by being so angry with God and leaving the church that we fall away. So, brethren, it's at this point of the prayer where we can ask God to help us to learn our lessons quickly rather than go through a cleansing over and over again. It's at this point in the prayer we ask God to pray for guidance, to help, help us to see ourselves. What is it that we're not seeing about ourselves?

Okay, last part of the prayer as we move on toward the starting to conclude. But deliver us from the evil one. Deliver us from the evil one. Let's turn to Psalm 18 for a moment.

Psalm 18.

Brethren, we know that of and by ourselves we stand no chance against Satan the devil, none whatsoever. But we're not by ourselves. We have our Father. We've got our elder brother, Jesus Christ, and we need God's help. Matthew 18.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. There is where our strength is. We form a partnership with God in this battle against Satan, against human nature, against what we have in society that is coming at us like waves of the ocean, one wave after another, just wanting to beat you down. Just like water given enough time. Well, look at the Grand Canyon. Look at what water is done to that place we call the Grand Canyon. It took a long time, but look what water is done. Water is a very powerful force. Satan is just like that. He'll keep on coming at us in waves. And so we need to ask God, deliver us from that evil one. Now, as I was thinking about this, I put together some thoughts about how are we delivered by God? How are we delivered by God? Well, number one, we need to recognize and acknowledge our sins and repentance. We want God to deliver us. We need to recognize and acknowledge our sins and repent of them. Stop going the wrong way. Stop digging the hole that we're in. Quit digging the hole we're now in.

We want a right relationship. We want to be moving toward God. We want to be delivered. We've got to start moving toward God, toward His powerful right hand. Let's go to Job. You know what Job went through in his life?

But notice what he says here at the very last chapter, Job 42.

Job 42 verses 5 and 6, where it says, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. I know about you from an academic point of view, but now my eye sees you. I'm beginning to really get the point. I'm really seeing the picture. Therefore, because I'm really seeing the picture, therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Yes, we want God to deliver us. This is key number one. Step number one. Recognize and acknowledge our sin and repent. We want to be delivered from the evil one. Well, there's a process for that. Repentance is the first stage. Number two, we want to have God deliver us. We need to submit to God and God's will. Submit to God and his will.

Whenever I think of that, the book of James comes into mind, James chapter 4.

James chapter 4 in verse 7. James 4, 7.

Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. As I may mention on several occasions in this sermon, we are in partnership with God. We must do our part. We have to have a resistance movement. We can't just be floating down the river expecting God to pull us out. We need to submit to God. We need to understand what his will is. We talked about that last week. What is his will? How does he want me to accomplish that will? Get into the scriptures and understand that. The scriptures will show us many of these things. Thirdly, the key to deliverance is putting on the whole armor of God. Putting on the whole armor of God. We see that over here in Ephesians. I'm sure you've had any number of sermons on this over the years. I've certainly given my share. Ephesians chapter 6.

You know, delivering us from the evil one. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. You know, brethren, I will be gone next week. I'll be in Beloit next week. In the week after that, I'll be in Minnesota. But I really feel as I look at what's happening in our society, the changing of the guard in terms of the running of our nation, we are in tough times. Tougher times are coming. They're coming upon all Christendom, I believe. And there's a lot of anger out there. And that anger, as they keep on saying, is going to be turned toward us one of these days. Maybe sooner than you would think. And we've got to ask ourselves, are we ready for that? Is each of us ready? Again, how tough are we? You know, we think of Jesus Christ as being the great example of love, and he certainly was. But Jesus Christ was also a very tough customer. Very tough. There were things that made him tough. And again, I've got to ask myself, when things really get bad, am I strong in the Lord? Are you? How tough am I? How tough are you? Well, we're going to discuss that here the first week of December. I think I'm up that first week in December. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Being tough is not a matter of tough talk. I've known an awful lot of older widow ladies who are very tough in the Lord. Very tough in the Lord. It's not a matter of your your demeanor or bold speech. There's something that makes a person tough and strong in the Lord. We'll get to three of those points come December. Put on verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And we need that whole armor, not just bits and parts. We need it all. Every part of that armor. Not going to go through that here. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of witness in heavenly places. We wrestle against powers we can't cope with on our own. And it certainly is up to us to make sure we've got all of this equipment that we need to do battle. Verse 13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand in that evil day and having done all to stand. Having done all to stand.

So a fourth point, and I'm sure there's any number of other points I could give you in terms of keys to being delivered by God, being rescued from the snare of the devil, is what I've been covering these last weeks. Be zealous in our prayers. And brethren, let's be zealous in praying for one another. We have people in this room that I believe are very strong in the Lord. We may have, and I don't know everyone's relationship with God, so I say we may have people in this room that need a lot of work. We may have. Only you and your heart know where you stand with that, and me and my heart know where I stand with that. But we need to be praying for one another. We love one another. We're a family. We've gone through some difficult times as brothers and sisters in the faith. We're going to go through a whole lot more. A whole lot more. And we need to be praying for one another. Let's go to Ephesians chapter, where we are at chapter 6. Let's turn over to verse 18. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, be continually in a state of prayer for our brothers and sisters in the faith. Lastly, Matthew chapter 6 verse 13. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Praising God is important. It gives us a proper frame of mind. We started that prayer. God Christ taught us in a model prayer to begin with praise for God. He shows we end with praise for God. It's so very important. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13 verse 15. Therefore by him let us continually offer, notice, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Mr. Armstrong has said, I heard this in a sermon once, I did not hear him say it himself. So I'll just relate it to you that way, that he felt that he needed to make sure that a good portion, maybe half of his prayers, dealt in praise to God. Because he thought that really set the tone, put everything in a proper frame of reference. Therefore continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips. Praise does something for us. It helps us to appreciate the great God. It reminds us of his greatness. It reminds him of his glory. You know, there is a film out there. I don't know if I should recommend it or not. I'll say what it is and give you a disclaimer. So I guess I am recommending. It's called The God of Wonders. Now, has anybody seen that? The God of Wonders? If you subtract out some of the theology, especially at the end of the film, it is a tremendous film. It goes about an hour and a half. In that film, you see tremendous artwork, film, photography. You see the universe and what God has created. Toward the end, they've got some theology we don't agree with. That's my disclaimer. But in that film, you've got physicists, you've got biologists, all kinds of people with a PhD after their name talking about the God of creation. And they're not talking about the God of creation through evolution. They're talking about the God of creation who created. And it's just so fascinating. God of Wonders. When I was in Detroit in Ann Arbor, I was relating this to the members and a couple of members went and got in line. You can go online and find it and look at it, free of charge, if you can find the link. And so many people said, well, I wanted, they say that they could get a DVD. And so I put a sign-up list out there. And before I knew it, we had orders for 150 of those. People were buying them literally 10 at a time so they could give to their family and friends and relatives. We got it down to the price was about four bucks. But it was just so interesting. And as you look at that, you see the great glory of God. You know, they talk about the earth in relation to the sun as an example. How you had a marble and you had a beach ball. That's the earth in relation to the sun. Then they showed our sun to another star that we can see through telescopes. And our sun would be the size of a marble. And that other sun would be the size of a beach ball. And they kept on doing that through several frames. And you're thinking to yourself, wow! Our dad created that. Our dad. The one who says he wants to hear from us. Now to me, that's really humbling to know that that being with that creative power, all the galaxies, all the stars, all the power, he names them all. He wants to hear from Randy Delisandra. You almost think, well, don't you have anything better to do?

But anyhow, when we're praising God, we praise His greatness, we praise His glory. It helps us in our perspective of the great God. It changes our attitude when we understand who and what He is. And here we see in that phrase, let me go back over there, for yours, ownership, yours is what? The kingdom, power, and glory. That's where God lives. His kingdom, His power, His glory forever. Forever. And then it says, amen. Let's turn to final Scripture today over in Isaiah chapter 65. Well, it won't be the final. I've got two more. Isaiah 65.

Isaiah 65 verse 16.

So that he who blesses himself in the ear of shall bless himself in the God of truth. That word, truth, can be translated, amen. Shall bless himself of the God of amen, and he who squares in the ear shall swear by the God of amen, because the former troubles are forgotten, because they are hidden from my eyes. God is the God of truth.

Amen is Isaiah's way of saying the Lord is one who is eternally true. Now, finally, Revelation chapter 3. We know this. Revelation chapter 3.

You can tack this next to Isaiah 65. 16. Isaiah chapter 3 and verse 14. To the angel of the church of the late Aseans write these things says, The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. So, even that amen at the end of the model prayer has deep significance. We're praying to this great God who is the amen. He's the truth, and he's leading us along those lines. So, brethren, today we have finished a series of three sermons going through the model prayer, thinking about the kinds of things that we can think about as we're praying. So many things. You know, people say, I don't know what to pray about. Well, that's really not the thing. The question is, you know, where do you stop and go about your daily business because there's so many other things you want to pray about. But we need to be a praying church. Trouble's coming. Trouble is coming, and I think it may be on our doorstep real, real trouble before you and I know it. So, let's make it a point that you and I are people of prayer.