All right, so we're going to be progressing through. I've been working on my outline this week and trying to get some semblance of sequence for all of this. And I'm just going to run through the overall outline for you so that you have an idea of our trajectory here. uh... but first we're going to be dealing with praying informally uh... dealing with the sovereign what is the sovereignty of god what is the wisdom of god what is the omniscience of god what is the love of god and how those things are essential for us to comprehend before we even bow the knee in coming to prayer uh... will deal with the concept of trinitarian prayer how each of the persons of the trinity are essentially involved in that process of us praying We'll deal with what happens when we pray. We're going to deal with a section just on the command to pray, interacting with all of those different passages that are direct exhortations, because we want to understand the imperative here. What does it mean for God to command us to pray? Why is that a moral obligation? And tying that in also to the broader concepts of what do the commands of Scripture have for us? What is our relationship to those? Because we always have to kind of recalibrate on that. Because we are, by nature, after the fall, rebels. And so as soon as we hear a command given to us, our instinct, our sinful instinct, is to push back against it. And to assume that this is something that is uncomfortable and unpleasant. We don't like commands. We push against them. I remember one father commenting to me about his daughter that the surest way to get her to do something was to tell her to not do it. And there's something of that in our nature as fallen creatures. And a piece of that remains with us even after we are regenerated. So we want to look at our relationship to the commands of God, how these things are for our benefit. And indeed, whenever we engage with any of the commands of scripture, those are part of what is working together for our good as well as God's glory. Then we're going to deal with some specific aspects on corporate prayer. what it means for us to unite our hearts as God's people, to function as one body, as well as just some practical concerns of what is corporate prayer meant to look like, how are we to approach that as individuals, and engage with it in a way that's beneficial to all. Then we're going to spend an extended section on the types of prayer, what is a prayer for salvation, what is prayer of thanksgiving and praise, confession of sin, the prayer of petition for things that are promised, as well as the prayer for good things that are not promised, and how there's a distinction between those two. praying in Christ's name, and what that specifically means, because that's such a big theme, especially, there's a big theme in the New Testament of praying in the name of Christ, and how sin, we're going to do a section on how sin hinders prayer, dealing with a bunch of different passages from Job, through Psalms and Proverbs, up into the New Testament. We'll have a segment on how prayer teaches us, prayer as the pedagogue, if you will. And then our final section that we'll be touching on a little bit as we go, but our last big section is going to be on does prayer change things? What does it mean for us to come before a holy and a sovereign God? to present petitions to Him, to plead for specific things in a historical context, with an understanding that God has decreed all of human history. Because the way that our minds work is that if I go to someone to try to change their mind, and they've already made up their mind, then I'm wasting my time. That's how we think, right? And so it's a challenging thing for a lot of people to process what it means for us to pray as Christians, whether or not that actually changes anything. Is it just an exercise of piety? Or is there actually something that occurs? Is there actually a change that occurs? And how does that function in light of the sovereignty of God? And why... How it is, not to give you spoilers, but to have that resounding yes to, does prayer change things, without denying the reality of God's sovereignty of the divine decree, and how all of that functions. We want to deal first with this section of praying informally. And so under this, the first thing that we really need to come to is just simply asking the question of who is it that we pray to? What does it mean to come before God in prayer? And if you're going to have a conversation with someone, the conversation is greatly expedited by actually having an understanding of the person that you are talking to. So when we come to God, we have to ask ourselves first the question of, who is God? And that's important before we actually bend the knee, so to speak. Who is this God to whom we pray? And I believe that one of the most fundamental principles that's presented to us in the Lord's Prayer, and by the way, I don't know if we'll do it after we finish all of these, or if at some point we're going to pause in the middle and shift over, but we're probably going to have my associate pastor come in and do a short series on the Lord's Prayer itself, just specifically breaking down the elements of that. He's taught on that fairly recently, and so when we talked about it this week, he mentioned he would be happy to come in and teach a short series on that specifically. But when we look at the Lord's Prayer, Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. If you look at that opening section, there's an extent, proportionately speaking, as far as the length of that prayer. A large portion of that prayer is dedicated to simply acknowledging God and honoring God, praising God. and specifically seeking His glory in this world. And I think a big part of why Christ prescribes the prayer in that way is to kind of calibrate us as we come into prayer. Because how is it that, and maybe you guys are better than I am, but I know for myself, there's a temptation, especially in the chaos of life, to have the vast majority of my prayers start off with Dear Lord, and then I pull out my laundry list. Here are the things that I need to ask for. And I'm guilty of that, in some ways, especially as a pastor, because I have so many people that I need to pray for. And proportionately, It would be a long time exalting God and describing God and glorying in God before I actually get to all of those petitions, because that's where the bulk of my prayer time is spent, is raising up those people that I know and that I love and that I serve as pastor, in terms of their lives. I go through and I pray through the church family. I try to pray for everyone in the church, both members and regular visitors, over the course of the week. And I also try to have a specific emphasis on particular individuals. Some of you have gotten texts from me periodically to see if there's something specific that you need prayer on. And that's an indication that you are someone that I am praying for more emphatically over the course of that week. That's part of my life and part of my responsibility as a pastor, because I take my job description out of the Book of Acts, where the apostles are examining the nature of ministry and the division of their time, and that's where they ordain the deacons. That's where the establishment of the diaconal office takes place. And they say, we want you to take care of these things so that we can dedicate ourselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. And they're given equal billing at that point. And so I feel that that is my responsibility as a pastor. But when I come before God in prayer, it's good for me and it's good for all of us to be cautious of just having that approach of dear Lord, and then we begin our long list of petitions. Because I think the reason that Christ describes prayer and prescribes prayer in the way that He does, is that it calibrates our hearts. It shows us and reminds us of who it is that we are praying to. We're not just writing out a wish list. We are speaking to an actual individual. We are speaking to God. who has character, who has personality, who has attributes, and who loves us. And it's important that we understand that as we come before Him in prayer. And the first thing that we have to understand about God when we come to pray to Him, is His sovereignty. Because if God were not sovereign, there would be no point in praying. And of course, this is the counterbalance to what we're going to be dealing with at the end. And I'm going to overlap a lot on these sections. They're all so interwoven, I can't really delineate them out very well. But one of the big challenges that we run across, and some of you may have had this question asked to you, if you believe in the sovereignty of God, if you believe that God is in control of absolutely everything, and we don't have, and we can't undo what God does, and we can't change things in that way, then why would you even bother to pray? How can you be a Calvinist and pray? And the answer to that question really is, well, if God's not sovereign, why would you pray to him? Why in the world would you seek somebody who may or may not be able to accomplish this? How can I really follow out Paul's description in Philippians When He says, "...be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication make your requests known unto God." Well, if I come before God and I make my supplication, I make my requests known unto Him. But He's not really sovereign, then I can't really get rid of that anxiety. Because He may not be able to carry that out. The whole point of that passage is that I'm able to take what burdens my heart, what is most crucial and important to me, and carry it before God. And place it in His hands. And say, Lord, I can't do anything with this. I can't fix this. I'm going to continue to try to do what you've called me to do here on earth, but I can't fix this on my own. You are the one who has to fix this. And if you want to use me in fixing it, or if you want to use somebody else in fixing it, or if you want to do it entirely on your own, wonderful. But I can't change this. And so I have to entrust it to you. And when we come before God, we have to see His sovereignty, or there would be no reason for praying. And the very act of prayer, when it is done genuinely, when it is done in genuine faith, it is a declaration of God's ability to fulfill our request. It would be ludicrous in human relationship for me to go up to somebody and ask them to do something that they obviously can't do. It would be foolishness for me to go up to one of my children and require them to read an algebra textbook at this stage of their life. And go up and require that of them or request that of them. They are incapable of doing it. But when we pray to God and we bring to Him our concerns for our loved ones, our concerns for our personal circumstances, our concerns for our nation. When we come to Him, we acknowledge His ability to actually fulfill that request. And this is again, where we really have to recalibrate, right? We have those doubts that rise up in our heart as we make specific requests. When we make the big request about, Lord, bring revival in our nation. Lord, transform this culture. It's broken, it's failing. We're seeing such devastation in the world right now. And we come before God and we lay that petition before Him, we oftentimes have those doubts that begin to rise up in our hearts. Well, this is a pointless prayer. God's not actually gonna do this. When we pray for that one individual, and I'm gonna say with fair amount of confidence that every one of you could put a name to this individual in your lives, but that certain individual that you've been praying for for 30 years, that they are hard-hearted and stubborn, And you've shared the gospel with them a hundred times, and they're not violently opposed to it, but they have zero interest in it. And you pray for that person's soul. You pray for God to work a work of grace in their hearts. And then that doubt begins to rise up in your heart. Oh, this is pointless. I mean, yeah, sure, in a theoretical sense, God can save anybody. Not this person. And we have to be reminded of the sovereignty of God. That God turns the hearts of kings like water. I still think one of the most amazing things is the return of Israel from exile. and the way in which God worked in the hearts of emperors, really against their best interests, to bring these Israelites back into the land. There is no logical reason for the Israelites to be back in that place. And I'm not sure what all took place in the minds of those in Cyrus with his decree and how all of that functioned. But God worked that in an extraordinary way. When we see the salvation of Nebuchadnezzar, what an incredible thing that is. When we see the salvation of Paul. And we're given those narratives to remind us of the sovereignty of God. And when we come in prayer, we have to be conscious of that if we are going to pray in true faith. And we have to be ready to to push down. Well, not even really push down. That's not the right terminology. We don't want to just push down our doubts and pretend that they're not there. But, as D. Martin Lay Jones speaks of, we need to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves. And when my heart rises up with, well, I don't know. I don't know about Steve. I don't know if God can really save him. To speak to myself, to speak to my own heart and go, Chris, you know better than that. You know that if you're saved, God can save anyone. You know from history, you know from scripture, you know from your own experience. that God is sovereign, that He is indeed the Almighty God. How can you question this? So we're going to start working through a handful of passages here. So I'll just, if you guys don't mind, I'll just kind of weave through. I won't pick on you, Kathy. We'll be nice to you today. But Psalm 115 and verse 3. Isaiah 46 and verse 10. Do you guys both have Bibles? Okay. So you're Isaiah 46 and verse 10. Hebrews 4.13. Ezekiel chapter 11 and verse 5. Acts 15 and verse 18. Matthew 6 and verse 8. And Ephesians 1.11. Are you guys sharing a Bible? Okay, do you want an extra one? I can give you one. Alright, I'll just pick on Bill. So you guys have Matthew 6, 8. Ephesians 1, 11. And then Luke 11, 9-13. Luke 11, 9-13. I need my citation. Oh, sure. Hebrews 4, 13. And that's going to be in the sermon this morning. By the way, it was weird to prep this and prep my sermon at the same time. You're going to hear a lot of the same passages in the course of the sermon this morning. But we're going to do it with those first two verses. Psalm 115 in verse 3. "...but our God is in heaven, He does whatever He pleases." Our God is in heaven, He does whatever He pleases. Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 10. "...I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose My purpose will stand. I will do all that I please. And this draws us right into our next section, which is the omniscience and the wisdom of God. And normally we would deal with those in kind of separated out categories, but when we come to examine them in the context of prayer, there really is a phenomenal amount of overlap. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom he must give account. Ezekiel chapter 11 and verse 5. Then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said to me, Speak. Thus says the Lord. Thus you have said, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind. I know the things that come into your mind. Acts chapter 15 in verse 18. You gave me the shortest one. Did I? Yeah. Oh, good. Things known from long ago. Okay, I must have been... Sometimes I don't always see the context as well as I should. Can you read 17 with it? You want me to start with 16? That's the whole... Sure, I'll leave it up to your judgment. I'm not looking at the passage. After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. His ruins I will rebuild and I will restore it. From the rest of mankind they seek the Lord. Even all the Gentiles who bear my name says the Lord who does these things. Things known from long ago. The Lord who does these things. Things known from long ago. And Matthew chapter 6 and verse 8. And Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11. All right. Now, Ephesians 1.11 really draws out for us one of the more challenging subjects that has been debated through church history. And we've engaged with this a little bit in our church history series, especially now that we've gotten into the high and late Middle Ages, and a lot of those debates have begun to take place. A lot of the Well, in the earliest days of Christian thought, nobody asked the question. But once you get up into the realm of the likes of Anselm, there's this developing idea that God is, that the decrees of God, And the outworking of history, the nature of creation and how everything plays out is occurring according to God. And we would all agree on that. But he was saying that it was occurring primarily because of God's nature. The world is the way that it is. History is the way that it is. Because of who God is. And then others came in later. And part of the crescendo to the Reformation, a big part of that was a shifting of thoughts and a realization of what's really present there in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11, that God, it's God's will, even over His nature, that is bringing things to be the way that they are, that God works all things together according to His will. That's a phrase that we use often, but there's a whole history of theological debate that that is pregnant with. And the idea being that it isn't just that God is the way that He is, and therefore the world and history are the way that they are. But the world and history are the way that they are because God so chose to create things in this way. That God could have chosen to create things in a different way. That God could have decreed history to occur in a different way. And to a certain degree, we want to be cautious with that, and we don't want to try to really pit God's nature against His will, because that can't be done. But we want to understand that it wasn't just an automatic process, and we want to understand, in a sense, the existence of the personality of God. There's a limit to how much we can understand the personality of God because we only know Him as He has revealed Himself to us. But we see that there is choice. There is God working these things according to His will. According to His good pleasure. That this isn't an automatic thing that is playing out and couldn't have been any other way. But that there is choice. And that there is love engaged in that choice. That there is purpose engaged in that choice. And we want to understand that when we come to examine the omniscience and the wisdom of God. And like I said, as we engage with it in this realm, they're very much interlocked. Knowledge and wisdom. Understanding that God knows all things. And even that God knew all possible outcomes. God has decreed human history in the way that He has, according to His will, according to His good pleasure, because it best serves His purposes. In terms of displaying His attributes. As we see human history unfold, and I'm going to be dealing with this a little bit in the sermon, but as we see human history unfold, we see the revelation of God's sovereignty, of God's grace, of God's mercy, of God's love, of God's holiness, of God's wrath, of God's justice, and of God's long-suffering. As it's often been said, the real answer to the question of, if God is sovereign and real, then why fill in the blank? Right? The question that we hear over and over again. You know, why did God allow 9-11 to happen? Why does God allow children to be murdered in Rwanda? Why does God allow this, this, this, this, this, this, this? Well, the real answer to that question is understanding the long-suffering of God. God is allowing humanity to exist in its brokenness. And that is an act of mercy. They only want God to be sovereign to fix the things that they don't like. They don't want God to be sovereign over them, but they want God to be sovereign over everybody else, right? But they fail to understand the nature of the long-suffering of God, the way in which God is merciful in allowing these people to continue to exist. These murderers, these horrible, horrible people that deserve the wrath of God as much as the person asking you that question deserves the wrath of God. They don't want to ask the question in terms of, why doesn't God just burn everything and send us all to hell? That's not what they want to ask. But that's the question they're really asking. Because they want to ask, why hasn't God burned everyone else in hell and shown me grace and mercy and love? They want a completely different set of standards for themselves. And we all do that. I'm not placing that just on them. We all fall into that trap. I'm getting way off base. That's OK. Coming back. When we examine the omniscience and the wisdom of God, we see those in beautiful interplay. The way in which God's decree of human history is according to His will, not just according to His nature. And this means that the whole unfolding of history is scripted for the revelation of His nature. Now this is of great comfort to us. When we understand that we come before a God who knows all things and has perfect wisdom in the execution of human history. That is a magnificent comfort to us. Because how often... I try to not be prescriptive about anything that's not directly revealed in Scripture. I can't be prescriptive about anything that's not in Scripture. It's an interesting thing. And it can be a very beneficial thing to actually have a prayer journal. And I encourage this with some of our ladies that are in the church that have more time than the rest of us, to have that prayer journal, to take the time to write down specific things that they think of that need prayer, and to continually bring those before the Lord in prayer. That's an extraordinary way that some of the ladies in our church have been able to serve. And I've told them at points that it's a little hazy as to whether their work for the church is more or less important than mine. That is an extraordinary task to undertake, and a wonderful thing for the sake of God's church. But to have that kind of record, I've often thought is fascinating, because if you go back and see the things that you asked for, What a fascinating thing that would be, to go back and just work through all the things that you, in your wisdom, thought God should do. And then to go back and see how many of those things were answered no, and how many of those no's can you now understand why it was a no, and why your plan was not the best plan. As my brother once said to me, we've had better ideas go worse. And we've had situations where we've been able to look back in that 20-20 hindsight and examine how terrible our idea was. And we went with full confidence before the throne of grace going, Lord, if you just do this, everything will be fine. I've got it all figured out for you. Just listen to me, I can lay out this segment of human history, and if you make it fall out in this way, then everything will go wonderful. It will work together for your glory and for my good. And we lay all that out, and we present it to God, and we're able to look back with 20-20 hindsight down the road that, indeed, that was not the best thing for God's glory or for our good. And how extraordinarily those things work together. I've made mention before of There was a TV show that I was watching, and it's sci-fi, and they have all of this different stuff, and there's this world where people are plugged into a computer, and it's this whole computer-generated world, and the computer is designed to give them the thing that they want most in life. And then somebody gets into the program, and they see just how everything has turned absolutely horrible. And basically, the Nazis have won, and this happened, and this happened, and everything is just a complete and absolute mess. And the person talks to the computer, and the computer goes, well, I've given them the thing that they want most. And this young lady goes, well, sometimes the thing that we want most is the thing that's the worst for us. And I about jumped out of my chair. Because I'm going, good theology in a secular TV show! This is fantastic! And I get a little giddy whenever I see that little glimmer of common wisdom kind of flicker on. But when we examine the wisdom of God and the omniscience of God, understanding that He knows everything that exists and everything that could exist, And that He has decreed human history in that perfect knowledge and perfect wisdom. Then we can see how comforting this is to us. In the stumblings and stutterings of our prayers. Our ability to bring things to God without an awareness of a solution. And go, Lord, I understand the problem. Maybe I don't even fully understand the problem. I know I don't understand the solution. But you do. You know what needs to take place for you to be glorified and for me to glorify you in my life. I can present this to you and I can know that you can take care of it. And on the smaller scale, it's of great comfort to us when we come and we have the wrong name for an individual. We don't remember the need properly. We pray for Steve to get healed from leukemia, and it's actually Tom who needs to be healed from cirrhosis. And we've got it all mixed up in our head, but we know who our God is. And it's okay that I'm fallible. It's okay that I'm finite. It's okay that I make mistakes in my prayer life. The most important thing for me is that I'm actually coming in genuine faith and trusting in the God that I am praying to. And I'm trusting in His sovereignty, in His omniscience, and in His wisdom. And when we have properly given thanksgiving, again, kind of presenting that image of the Lord's Prayer, when our heart has been recalibrated, we've examined who God is, we come in prayer having confessed our sins, we deal with our sins, We deal with and we take the time to actually honor God and praise God in our prayer. That it's a sincere energy of the heart. Hallowed be your name. May your name be holy and sanctified and set apart and glorified. May you receive honor when we have really come in praising God and giving thanksgiving. And we'll deal with this in greater detail later on. But when we have Thanksgiving early on in our prayer, it's one of the best things for us. Like I said, I'm as guilty as anyone has ever been in terms of coming in and just going, Dear Lord, here's my requests. But when we take the time to actually engage with Thanksgiving, to just pray through, Lord, thank you. for my spouse. Thank you for my children. Thank you for the health that you've given me. Thank you for providing me with finances for me to be born in the country where I am. For giving me parents that I love and that even love me in return. Thank you for the church family that you've given me. Thank you for that environment that I have where my soul is nurtured and fed. And as we work through all of that thanksgiving, and that list grows as you start praying through it, you begin to realize more and more how much you have to be thankful for. And we're more and more reminded of His covenantal faithfulness. And then we couch our petitions in terms of, Thy will be done. Not my will. but thine be done." Then we are able to rest in His providence and trust in Him for His future. You see how all of these pieces kind of fit together? We praise Him. We confess our sin, our brokenness, our need for grace. We spend time just thanking Him, which shows us His faithfulness. It shows us His wisdom, the way in which He cares for us when we don't deserve to be cared for. The way in which He loves us and provides for us, and provides for us in ways that we don't even perceive our need until after He's provided for us. And after we've examined all that, we're able to present our petitions and present it in those terms of, not my will, but thine be done. We've all been in some kind of circumstance where we went in and we understood, where we went in as a customer and asked for something, and we weren't entirely sure how it was supposed to work, but the person who's working on it knows a whole lot more than you do. And you just go, all right, I'm looking for something in this spectrum. But I trust your expertise. Right? I do this every time I go in for a haircut. They go, well, what do you want? I'm like... Make people not throw garbage at me when I walk down the street. Like just something remotely presentable. I have to stand up in front of people once a week. So make it not scary. And I just kind of sit there because I don't know what to ask for. Like, at times I've tried to be helpful and I'm like, oh yeah, like an inch off the top. And then she shows me what an inch off the top looks like and I'm like, no, no, don't do that. And they're like, yeah, I didn't think that's what you wanted. And so I just, I've kind of learned, like, I have to find one lady that knows what she's doing and I go to that lady and I say, Not my will, but thine be done. You know, whatever, whatever you got to do to make me look acceptable, do it. I'm going to, I'm going to pull my glasses off and I'm going to be blind the entire time that you do this. And I'll put them back on at the end. And as long as I don't look scared, everything is cool. And we, we present that. And how much more can we do that with God? And come to Him in prayer and go, look, Lord, these are the things that are weighing on my heart. These are the things that I'm concerned for. I may have some idea of how to fix it. I'll present that to you. But at the end of the day, I know you know far better than I do how to fix this situation. Because you knew about it before the world began. Like this isn't a surprise to you. You already know what I need, what your people need, what is best suited to glorify your name. I'm here to present my petition and to declare my dependence on you. That's what's happening right now. I'm praying because I see through the course of scripture that the blessings of heaven are unlocked when faithful saints bow their knees before their God. You don't need me for this, but you've privileged me to be a part of this and to participate in the outpouring of blessings from heaven and the display of your glory. So Lord, here I am. Send me. And of course, whenever we come to understanding who the God is that we pray to, we have to understand the love of God. Luke 11, verses 9-13. See, I didn't forget you. It's just later in the notes. "...And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him, instead of a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, offer him a scorpion? If he then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And of course, we're going to look at this passage a couple of times through the series, but to me, this is the most important passage for understanding the nature of petition. Because I particularly love the way that Christ phrases it in that passage. I think it's so perfectly worded. The way in which he describes the love of God for us, the way in which God gives good gifts to his children. And I think that this is the most carefully worded passage in terms of preventing our diving into what is the magic process by which I can get God to give me the things that I ask for. I think it's beautiful in that aspect. I think if you want people to understand the nature of prayer, this is one of the best passages you can go to. Because he doesn't say, whatever you ask for, whatever petition you make, you will automatically get. He talks about those who ask will receive good things. And what's amazing is the way in which that reveals to us God's providence over us. And all of those things that we've already examined in terms of His omniscience and His wisdom in what He grants to us. And it shows us the love that is embedded in it. We see time and again in the Psalms, the steadfast love of God. And you guys have heard this from me before, but it's one of my favorite words in the Old Testament. In the original text it's hesed, and it carries, it's a very pregnant term, but it's probably the closest literal meaning is covenantal faithfulness. When you read through the Psalms, you see that phrase, let the steadfast love of the Lord endure forever. We trust in your steadfast love. It recurs over and over again. You see that little phrase recur over and over and over. It's one word in the original text and it's chesed. And most literally it means covenantal faithfulness. I don't say that to criticize the translators because it entirely carries that meaning of steadfast love. But it's love within the context of that covenant and God's faithfulness to his people. It is steadfast. And God desires to give us what is best for us. And we can say beneath that, what we desire. But as we said already, yet what we desire, what we want most in this world is often not what is best for us. nor does it serve his glory. But it's a humbling example to us that God loves perfectly. God loves to the uttermost. That's the best aspect of examining a doctrine like the impassibility of God, is understanding that God's love does not diminish. God could not actually love you more That's a good thing to meditate on. That's a wonderful thing. Just take the week. Think through that. Think about the relationships that you have. And the person that you love most in this world, certainly you could love more. And you could certainly love better. But God could not love you more perfectly or more fully than he already does. And He loved you in that way since before the world began. That's astounding. And that can only exist in God. In our human relationships, there's always threads of selfishness that come through. And that's one of those aspects of introspection that is utterly frustrating. You guys ever do that? Take something that you did for a loved one, and then begin to slowly pull it apart on the dissecting table. All right, why did I really do that? Well, I love them. Okay, Chris, but what does that really look like? And we begin to pull it apart and pull all these different threads out and begin to see where there's these little mud veins, if you will, of selfishness that run through them. But that doesn't exist when we look at Christ. We look at John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. So when we understand the perfect love of God, when we understand the selfless love of God, then how can there be doubt in our hearts when we come in petition? Have you ever found the difficulty of laying all your petitions before God and then saying, not my will, but thine be done. You guys ever have that little, that little, it sticks a little bit. You can't quite get that gear into place. I don't know if I really want to add that to this prayer. Cause I really, I really want the things that I just asked for. And I don't necessarily want to give God an out on this one. And we never say that out loud. I know you guys are all thinking, I don't say that in my prayers. That's what's in the depths of your heart. When we come to examine that, it's because there's a lack of understanding of God's wisdom and of God's love. That God will indeed work this together for our good. When we really understand the way in which God loved us, and loved us in that which was most essential, we should have no hesitation in coming to understand that. And I know that we're always trying to balance the knowledge, the hearts, and the practice. And those are the three things that we're always trying to work together in the Christian life. The heart, the head, and the hands, right? I don't think that's a Marley original. I don't think that comes from anybody else. But that idea of we have to understand the doctrines and the principles that exist there. We have to have the heart and the relationship with God that He catalyzes and accomplishes in us. And then we have to have the practical outworkings. And all of us want to emphasize one of those things over the other. You always have those saints that are just all about the heart. Oh, pastor, I don't really want to I really don't want to read theology. I'm okay with showing up on Sunday, but I don't want to read theology books. Those are really dry, and John Owen, just, I can't get there, and I want to just love people into the kingdom. Well, that in and of itself is good, but you still have to be tempering that with the other two. You have other people that are just practical. I don't need to understand things, don't tell me to feel things, just tell me what I'm supposed to do. Let me put my hands to the plow and go. And the reality of it is, those people oftentimes have very good, they really do have much in their hearts, in the right place, they're just not good at expressing it. and they have the essential knowledge, but they still need to be growing in those other two. We all, and for theologians, for pastors, for a lot of the intellectuals that God saves, it's a really tempting thing to just have the head knowledge. Well, yeah, I don't really do anything for God, but I know God. That's all that matters. I don't feel anything when I sit under good preaching and teaching. I do feel some exuberance in my heart when I encounter the word superlapsarianism. But I think that's more intellectual than anything else. If you want to know what superlapsarianism is, I can tell you after the lesson. But we always are trying to balance those three. And we have to have them in balance as we come in prayer. We have to have that willingness to labor. We are most directly engaging with the heart because this is about our relationship with God. But it has to be based on a knowledge of Him, an understanding of who He is, in His sovereignty, in His wisdom, and in His love. I really thought we were gonna get further this morning, but that's okay. We got through point one, so there we go. Any questions or comments on any of this? The Bartons are gone and Jan is gone, so there's nobody asking questions. No, they're separate, but I tend to lump them together just because they go hand in hand. I mean, there's obviously a difference between simply adoring God for who He is, but we really only can do that in light of the love that He's shown us. So, adoration and thanksgiving are very much interwoven. I never use the ACTS acronym, mostly because One of the things I'm going to be trying to avoid as we go through this series is the mechanical mentality of prayer. One of the things that I think has been the biggest stumbling block for Christians, and one of the things that dries up prayer fastest, is to come with a mechanical approach to prayer. I cringe. I genuinely cringe. when I hear someone start praying in King James English. Because that, to me, is the biggest indication that the prayer is dead. And I know there are so many people that when they come to the Lord in prayer, there's this thought of, I've got to show reverence. And how do I show reverence? Well, I've got to sound like a Shakespearean play. That's what reverence looks like. But the reality of it is, that's not really what we're looking at. And the most important thing, I would say, even above reverence, is love. That as we come in prayer, there has to be a genuine love for the person that we are praying to and understanding the love that comes from them. And like you and I were talking about the other day about with Abba, I hate that people translate that as daddy, personal pet peeve, but that's okay. Because it has an element of, it does have that element of love, but it also has an element of respect in it as well. I think dad, is probably a much more accurate equivalent. Because for my child to call me dad has emotion attached to it, certainly. But it also has reverence. I joke with my kids about they need to address me by dear father. But that would be awkward and distant, right? There should be a familiarity there. And that's the most There needs to be reverence, but I would say that the love and affection of us coming in prayer is the most important element. One of the images that we're going to be examining is the way in which we come as the bride of Christ. I was going to draw a diagram, but I changed my mind, so ignore that. But we have God the Father, we have God the Son, We are corporately the bride of Christ and we are by the new birth, the children of the church and of Christ and by virtue of adoption in relationship to the heavenly father. I'm not going to take the time to prove all of that out from various scriptural texts, but those are the mechanics that exist there. So when we come in prayer, it's in the context of that. When we come corporately, we come as, in a sense, the daughter-in-law of the Heavenly Father. When we come before Him, we come as the grandchildren and adopted as children in relationship to the Heavenly Father. I would never go, well, my grandfathers are both long since gone, but it would be bizarre for my children to come to their grandfather in Shakespearean English. There should be love, there should be affection, there should be a reverence and a respect that exists there, and certainly all the more so when we understand that we're coming before the holy God who created the heavens and the earth. But that shouldn't eliminate or diminish the affection and the love that exists there. My wife has no qualms about coming to her father-in-law and making a petition. And it doesn't have to be in great reverence, but she comes knowing that she has this beautiful relationship through me. And that's what we're able to have as Christians, this beautiful relationship that we have to our heavenly father through the bridegroom of our souls. I went way off of your question. Did I actually answer your question? Okay, all right. We're gonna have a lot of rabbit trails on this one, so I apologize. All right, Jed, would you close us with a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we again thank you for this opportunity to come before you. We thank you for our pastor and his work in this. We ask that you be with our service to follow, be with those that are not able to attend today because of sickness or travel. We ask all this in your son's precious name. I had one of those moments. I was at a movie theater watching a movie. I don't remember anyway. It was this guy that was expert at hunting down and capturing serial killers. And so he's following this guy and it's dark and spooky and everything. All of a sudden the scene changes and the guy that was hunting the serial killer is tied up in a chair. And the serial killer leans over, and he whispers in his ear, and he goes, you thought you had everything under control, including me. But control is an illusion. I wanted to jump up and say, hey, did you hear that? That's an illusion. Hey. Good theology. How you doing, Benjamin? I need to stop this.