Father, we come before you thankful for who you are, that you are our heavenly Father who dwells in unapproachable light, who reigns in heaven, who's worshiped in spirit and in truth, and who's worthy of our praise. We thank you for giving us this day, the Lord's Day, as a gift. The market day of the soul where we can come and hear your voice and we can pray to you and sing with your people. We thank you for this gift. We thank you that you have instructed us on how it is you would like to be worshiped, that you didn't leave us to our own devices. And so we pray now as we enter into this worship that it would be glorifying to you. We seek to honor you and glorify you with our worship this morning. And so please join us in this special time with your special presence. We thank you for everyone here today. We thank you for not only uniting us to you through your son, but also uniting us to one another. That we can have fellowship with the saints and a community of believers to walk this spiritual journey with. We pray for the children that you would Save them in your time as they hear the word preached each Lord's Day that you'd plant seeds and that we would as families would water them throughout the week and that you would use your word powerfully in them to save them. We pray again that you would bless this time and bless our worship. We seek to glorify you and also to be conformed more into the image of your son. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Will you please turn with me to Matthew chapter six. We'll be looking at verses nine through 13. Matthew six, nine through 13. So we will be continuing our study of the means of grace this morning. If you'll remember, we began our study last time by looking at the preaching of the word. And in that study, we saw that God's word, when it's preached faithfully and correctly, that the hearers of that preaching are hearing the voice of Christ himself. We saw that preaching is one of the ways that God speaks to his people, right? Speaks to his people on the Lord's day. And it was also a commanded element of our corporate worship, just as the rest of the means of grace are, as we'll see. And so with that in mind, that brings us now to our topic of study this morning, which is prayer. And so, if you'll remember, we defined the means of grace as the typical way or ways in which God communicates sanctifying grace to his people. And these means, which naturally are also the main points of our corporate worship, are channels through which God ordinarily works to conform his people into the image of Christ, right? It's the ordinary means of grace. And so while our last study we focused on the way that God speaks to us, now we'll be considering the way, the prescribed way that we are to speak to God. And so we'll be looking this morning at what is commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer, although I would argue it's better understood as the Lord's Model Prayer. John 17 is a more accurate, Lord's Prayer, that was Jesus interceding and praying for us, but here we'll see Jesus teaching the disciples how to pray, and it's instructional in nature, so I think it's better understood as the Lord's model prayer, but either way, that's what we're gonna be looking at this morning. And so what we'll see in this text, and the main point of our sermon this morning, is that prayer is efficacious in both aligning the Christian's will with the will of God, and is carrying out the decree of God. And so let us begin this morning with a brief definition of prayer, right? What is prayer? And I think that the Westminster Larger Catechism is very helpful as a starting point. So the Westminster Larger Catechism, question 178, The question is, what is prayer? And this is the answer. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of his spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. Now if you'll notice, there's three elements found in the Westminster definition. And these three elements of prayer are clearly taught in scripture. We'll look at some text briefly to demonstrate that, and then we'll also see these same elements brought out as we look at the Lord's model prayer. And so the first element of prayer, according to the Westminster definition, is offering up our desires to God, right? So making petitions and supplications unto God, making requests. We see this in Philippians 4, 6, where we read, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Also in 1 John 5, 14, we read, this is the confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us. And so we're told to let our requests be made known to God, and that if we ask according to the will of God, He will hear us. So that's the first element. The second element of this definition is the confession of our sins. This is found in 1 John 1, 9, where we read, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Also, in Proverbs 28, 13, we read, he who conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. Lastly, we see it in Psalm 32, verse five. I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not hide, I said. I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. So through direct commands to confess our sins to God and by example of the psalmist, we see that confession is indeed a biblical element of prayer. And so lastly in the Westminster definition of prayer, we read of a thankful acknowledgement of God's mercies. Daniel 9.4 says this, I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, alas, oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. Also Psalm 115 verse one says, not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because your loving kindness because of your truth. And so Daniel and the psalmist both acknowledge God's merciful nature through their prayers. And so we see that these three elements of the Westminster definition are valid. The making requests to God, the confessions of sin, and the acknowledgement of God's mercies. And so now we'll move into our text this morning, now that we have that definition of what prayer is. And we'll also, like I mentioned before, we will see those three elements brought out in the Lord's model prayer. So please look with me now at Matthew chapter six, verse nine. Pray then in this way. So, the context of what follows is Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. And if you'll notice, he has already instructed them how not to pray in the verses beforehand, verses seven and eight, where he says, do not pray like the Gentiles do, who repeat words thinking that the length and the wordiness of their prayers make them heard before God. Don't pray like the Gentiles. So I'm just saying, this is how you shouldn't pray. He's gonna go further and give them positive instructions on how it is that they should pray. And so what's important to note is that not only are we going to gain a template and a model for how our own prayers should be offered, but we're also going to gain insight on what prayer is. So Jesus is teaching how to pray, but he's also teaching us and giving us insights about what prayer is. And this will become clear as we work through this model prayer. And so look how Jesus begins, continuing in verse nine. Our Father, Our Father. Now notice, Jesus does not say, My Father. He doesn't instruct the disciples to pray to God and address God as His Father, right? He doesn't say, Pray My Father. Nor does He instruct them to address the Father as King, or Creator, or Sovereign, or Judge, all of which are completely true of the Father, right? No, he says, our Father. Our Father. Do you see the significance? Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is one with the Father in being and glory, who is heir of all things, this Jesus instructs us to pray to the Father by saying, our Father. Jesus instructs the disciples and us by extension to approach and address God as father. And so in doing that, he's saying that all of his privileges, all of his inheritance, all of his advantages as the only son of God are ours as well. Because God is not only his father, but he's our father. The same fatherly relationship that Jesus had with the Father in the incarnation is ours as well. He is our Father just as he was Jesus' Father. And this is profound. How can this be? How can cosmic traitors go from experiencing God relationally as our judge and our enemy to being able to lift our eyes to heaven and address Him as Father. It's only because of Jesus' work on our behalf. It's because of Christ's work on Calvary where He took our sins upon Himself and He bore the wrath that we deserve in order to credit His perfect righteousness to us. So now we can look up to God and call Him Father. And He can look down upon us and say, My beloved sons and daughters, with whom I am well pleased. We have been justified before the throne of grace so that when we approach God rightly, with confidence, we can pray along with Jesus and say, Our Father. We approach God as our merciful Father. But this is coupled with another reality. Moving forward into the rest of the verse, we read this. Who is in heaven? Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. So God is our Father, yes. But he is heavenly. He's set apart. He's holy. And so we address God relationally as Father while not forgetting His holiness and His heavenliness. We do not approach God without reverence for who He is. And some have taken the reality that God is our Father and approached Him with a gross lack of respect. Referring to Him as Dad or Daddy God He's our Father, yes. And we should approach Him as such. But we must not forget that He is our Father who is in heaven. We must approach Him with reverence for who He is. Our Father who is in heaven. Also notice that Jesus starts by fixing His eyes upon the Father. He does not begin this model prayer with his requests. He doesn't go straight for requests. He doesn't even begin with confession of sins. He doesn't begin the prayer by casting their eyes inward upon themselves. The focus is not upon the disciples or on their need for forgiveness, even though that's the most immediate need that they have. He doesn't begin with forgiveness, not yet. No, the attention is immediately turned outward, away from them. It's up towards God and His holiness. And this is for two reasons. The first is that God's holiness, or other than-ness, if you will, that's what holiness means, He's set apart, He's other than. He's so holy and it's so essential to who He is that it would be sinful for us to approach Him without properly acknowledging that reality. The nature of God as perfect, unchanging, and powerful demands that we approach Him with the reverence that's due to His name. He is the one who is in heaven, who dwells in unapproachable light, the one whose glory will one day replace the light of the sun, robed in majesty and infinite perfections, the foundation of all beauty and goodness, perfect in his ways and unchangeable in his decree. This is the God whose name is hallowed, consecrated by those who approach him rightly. And we are the ones who are, and we only are able to approach Him rightly because of the grace that He has given to us. And so we see in the first clause two things. The first is that we have been furnished with the righteousness of Christ, which enables us to approach God rightly and to address Him as Father. And this is because of Christ's work on our behalf. We can approach Him as Father. That's the first reality. The second is that when we approach the Father in prayer, we ought to follow Jesus' example and begin by lifting our eyes or our focus up to God and acknowledging His holiness. He is our Father relationally, yes, but he is the one who dwells in heaven and who is completely set apart from all other beings. He is our father who is in heaven. So the prayer begins by acknowledging God as father and also his holy nature. And so look now with me at verse 10. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Jesus begins now with the first two of five petitions that he will bring to the Father. And there's an intentional order to these petitions that is both consistent with the scriptures teaching on the order of our priorities and also insightful as to how prayer is a means of grace. And so much like how the Ten Commandments are divided into two tables, the first table being our duties towards God and the second table being our duties towards our neighbors, this list of petitions follows the same sequence. The petitions begin here in verse 10 with the glory of God, and then it transitions from there into the needs of man. And so notice that these first two petitions in verse 10 are concerned exclusively with the glory of God. Jesus prays, your kingdom come, your will be done. The prayer for God's kingdom to come and will to be done is a prayer that the desires and the designs of God would reign. And this is not to say that the kingdom of God is not already a reality, but more so it's a longing for the day on which Christ will return and all other kingdoms of this world will be thrown down. All the kingdoms of men that are opposed to God's commandments, as well as the kingdom of darkness that wages war in the spiritual realm against God's people, they will all be brought to nothing. Christ's enemies will one day, and once and for all, be placed under his feet as a footstool. They will all be caught up in judgment as the kingdom of heaven comes upon Christ's return. Your kingdom come. We're also told to pray that the Father's will would be done. Notice the rest of the petition after he prays for his will to be done. He says, on earth as it is in heaven. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so this prayer for the Father's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven is a longing for the glory of God to fill all the earth. The request for God's will to be carried out here in the same way that it is in heaven. And now it's important to highlight, I think, when we are considering this, the distinction that we use when talking about the will of God. There's what we call the preceptive will of God and the decretive will of God. We make this distinction. The preceptive will of God is God's commands and precepts, right, notice in the name, for how human beings ought to live. In other words, it's God's commandments and standards of righteousness. It's the ought to will of God. And because of the fall of man and of sin's reign and Adam's posterity, this will of God is not carried out. We all fall short. The decree of will, on the other hand, is the will of God that's actually carried out in history. It's God's decree also in the name. It's the will of God that actually comes to pass. And the decretive will of God is that which includes the wicked actions of men that are used ultimately for the glory of God, right? What you meant for evil, I meant for good. And so in this context of our model prayer, we are to pray for God's preceptive will to come. How do I know this? Two reasons. The first is that God's decree to will is already taking place on earth. The fact that those specific 12 disciples are sitting there listening to Jesus' teaching is evidence of this. Recall Jesus in John 15, 16 saying this to the disciples, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit. and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give you." So, this is God's decreed of will. Jesus chose these disciples from before the foundation of the world, and the Father decreed that they would follow Jesus, and that they would bear fruit to the world. And so them sitting there, listening to Jesus' instruction, getting prepared to bear fruit, is evidence that God's decreed will is already being carried out on the earth. And the second reason why I know that it's the preceptive will in view here is because Jesus prays for the Father's will to come on earth as it is in heaven. And we know that both in heaven and on earth God's decreed will is carried out. Right, he's sovereign, he rules over, his decree rules over both heaven and earth. But as I mentioned before, the preceptive will is not carried out on earth because of the fall of man and the reign of sin in the world. So sin is what's preventing us from keeping God's preceptive will. And so let me ask you this, is there sin in heaven? Of course not, right? God's perfectly holy and cannot be in the presence of sin. Where God dwells, sin cannot. So in heaven, God's preceptive will is carried out perfectly, both his decreed will and his preceptive will. Angels and saints worship him in spirit and truth and are found without sin in heaven and are able to perfectly obey him. And so this prayer, again, is for God's will, specifically his preceptive will, to come, to reign on earth and reign forever. And we know that this will happen at the second coming of Christ. And that will be a day most glorious. So that's something that we pray for. And so that brings us back to the original point that I want to make. That these first two petitions are rooted in and aimed toward the glory of God. God's kingdom coming and God's will being carried out on earth will bring God glory. And that's the first request that Jesus offers in His model prayer. He's chiefly concerned with the glory of God. And when we pray this way, when we pray as Jesus instructs us, when we prioritize the glory of God in our own prayers, above our own needs, above everything else, when we esteem God's glory as the highest good, Then we can see the first of our main point this morning, that prayer is efficacious in aligning our wills with the will of God. Right? When we pray, focused on and prioritizing the glory of God, our wills are aligned with the will of God. So prayer is effective in carrying that out. God is concerned first and foremost with his own glory, and when we concern ourselves with the same, our wills are aligned. So, Jesus moves now into the next of these petitions. Look with me now at verse 11. Verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread. So, As I mentioned before, we now transition into the second part or second table, if you will, of these petitions. The focus is moving now from acknowledging God's heavenly nature and holiness and asking for God's glory to be manifested on the earth for his kingdom to come and his will to be done, right? Now we're gonna be moving into our needs as human beings. And so the first of these latter petitions is for God to give us daily bread. This is a request for God to provide our physical sustenance. Asking God to provide and give us provisions for that which will keep our bodies alive, and that's a necessary request, right? We need food to live, and it is God who provides that for us, so it's a good and necessary thing to pray for. And now, lest we be confused about the order of these petitions, it's important to note that the fact that the request for food is given first and specifically before the request for the forgiveness of sins, it does not mean that food is more important than the forgiveness of sins or that it's more necessary to us. John Calvin notes of this. by saying in his commentary, we do not ask that our daily bread may be given to us before we ask that we may be reconciled to God as if the perishing food of the belly were to be considered more valuable than the eternal salvation of the soul. But we do so that we may ascend, as it were, from steps from earth to heaven. So this order is not... a priority, right? While the spiritual life is more important in the grand scheme of things, it's our physical life that sustains the sanctification of our soul. Our physical body carries our soul, our vessel, right, through the spiritual pilgrimage in this world. And so while the most ultimate need, the man has a spiritual life, Our physical life is crucial also as we continue this spiritual journey. It carries along our soul. And so we ask God for our daily bread. We know that he's the provider of all things, right? Not just spiritual things, but physical also. He's a God of heaven and of earth. And everything we need in both realms are provided from his hand. And this is an important thing to remember as we pray. I've heard people's prayers where it seemed as if they were afraid to ask God for non-spiritual things. But God's the giver of all good gifts. He provided the salvation of our souls, yes, but he also provided the dinner that we ate last Tuesday. the spouse and the children that you may have eaten dinner with, the table that you ate from, the oven that you cooked it in, the refrigerator that kept the food cold, the money to pay for the meal and the electric bill, the physical or mental capacity to make the money, the opportunity for employment, and on and on and on and on we could go. The point I'm trying to make is that God has providentially supplied you with all the things that you have. And so it's right to pray and ask him to continue to provide those things. Our God is a God of the ordinary, not just the extraordinary. It's therefore right to pray to God to give us our daily bread. Now, moving forward into our next petition, Jesus continues in verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. Jesus instructs the disciples to pray to the Father for the forgiveness of sins. As I mentioned before, this is our greatest and most ultimate need, right? It's more fundamental than food. It's more fundamental than water. It's more fundamental than air. Our need for forgiveness is the most fundamental thing. For although a lack of food and water and air would bring physical death to us, a lack of God's forgiveness of our sins would leave us in spiritual death and awaiting the righteous wrath of God. And so it's clear why it is that Jesus would teach us to pray for the forgiveness of sins in our prayers. But there's one important question to ask. Why does Jesus Teach the disciples to pray for forgiveness if God has already promised to forgive the sins of his people. Remember the promise found in 1 John 1, 9, which is addressed to believers. And John says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So the promise is that the Father will forgive us. So I pray. And the answer's in the first part of that verse. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. So the mechanism that God has chosen to fulfill this promise is through prayer. It's here that we see the second of our main point this morning, which is that prayer is efficacious as a means of carrying out God's decree. Prayer is efficacious as a means of carrying out God's decree. God is sovereign and he has decreed all things from before the foundations of the world. But he often carries out this decree through means, through secondary means. And prayer is undoubtedly one of these means. So here we see, we pray for forgiveness knowing that God loves to forgive. and chooses to assure us of this forgiveness through our prayer. Now, it's important to not misunderstand what I am, the point I'm trying to make here. I am not saying that our prayers to the Father are the basis for our forgiveness. In other words, our prayers are not what earns us forgiveness. Forgiveness can only be received through faith in Christ alone. Right, the expiation, the taking away of our sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness is the only way that we can be forgiven. And so I'm not saying that if we pray, God will forgive us as if prayer is somehow the basis of our forgiveness. I'm saying that through the confession of our sins, we're assured of the forgiveness that we have already found in Christ. His forgiveness is communicated to us anew when we confess and we ask him for forgiveness. And now back to our point that prayer is efficacious as the means of carrying out God's decree. We see plenty of places in scripture where this is taught. We only will go through one for time purposes, but we'll walk through one. And it's found in what we read this morning in our scripture reading. It's in Numbers chapter 14. If you'd like to turn there with me, that would be helpful. And so just as you're turning there, the context of what's going on here is that after wandering through the wilderness, the people of Israel have arrived outside the land of Canaan, the land that was promised to them. And they have sent spies in to see what's going on and they don't like the report that they brought back, right? They're fearful of what's on the other side. And so they begin to complain and say things like, it would have been better for us just to stay in Egypt, stay as slaves. And did God just bring us out here just to let us die? We're gonna fall by the sword. Our children are gonna become plunder. And so in response to this grumbling, this complaining, this lack of faith, lack of trust, we read in verse 11 and 12 where God threatens to destroy the people of Israel. Numbers 14, 11 and 12 says, the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people spurn me? How long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs which I performed in their midst? I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a greater and mightier, make you into a nation greater and mightier than they. Now, remember, these are the descendants of Abraham, whom God had promised to make a great nation, right, as numerous, more numerous than the stars in the sky. And through this same line of Abraham was to come forth the Messiah. And so when we consider the faithfulness of God to His promises, the fact that He can't lie, the unchangeable nature of His decree, He can't change what He's already set out to do, we know that He could not destroy these people. It would have been against his nature as the God who cannot lie. He promised to make them a great nation, right? Promised to bring the Messiah through them. That hadn't yet happened, so he can't destroy them. And so, yeah, that's his decree. We see his decree was ultimately to preserve them and keep them going. And so, as I'm sure you're all aware, he does not destroy the people of Israel. But notice, and this is our point in looking at this, how does this come about? Because he's threatening to destroy them. So how does preserving them take place? Look back at the text with me. Read in verse 13. But Moses said to the Lord, when the Egyptians will hear of it, for by your strength you brought up this people from their midst. And when they tell it to the inhabitants of this land, They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now, if you slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame will say, because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which he had promised them by oath, therefore he slaughtered them in the wilderness. But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great. Just as you have declared, the Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving the iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations. Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of these people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, just as you have forgiven the people from Egypt even until now. So notice that Moses, upon hearing God's desire to destroy the people, he intercedes, right, on behalf of the people. He prays on their behalf. And he prays according to God's decree that he will indeed preserve the people of Israel and forgive them for these sins. And so God sets his desires to destroy this people. Moses intercedes through prayer to not destroy them. And let's see what the response on God's part is in verse 20. So the Lord said, I have pardoned them according to your word. So God turned aside his wrath against the Israelites because of Moses' prayer, right? God, while he had his decree set to preserve this people, he used Moses' prayer as an instrument and a means to carry out his plan. He turned aside his wrath and he extended them forgiveness because of prayer. So Moses was used by God to accomplish his purposes. And this is one of the amazing effects of prayer. Us lowly sinners are actually included in the carrying out of God's eternal plan. Through our prayers, he's chosen to use us instrumentally in carrying out his decree. So we see again that prayer is efficacious in carrying out God's decree. Both in Jesus' instruction to petition God for the forgiveness of sins that has already been accomplished, right, as well as through Moses' intercession being used to preserve the people of Israel, it's made clear that our prayers are used to accomplish God's decree. Prayer is a means of carrying out God's decree. It's one of the ways that it's a means of grace. Please turn back again with me if you've turned to numbers, back to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew 6. So the last, the final petition here. Jesus model prayer summarizes really nicely the two-fold point of the text this morning. First we read verse 13, and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. Lead us not into temptation. So This is demonstrating here that prayer aligns our will with the will of God, right? God's preceptive will is that we would not sin, right? That's God's will. We would not sin. We'd walk in his commandments, walk in his precepts. And so praying for God to keep us from temptation, we're praying consistently with the will of God. Again, prayer. praying rightly aligns our will with the will of God. We're agreeing with God's will for us, that we don't desire to sin. We want to be kept from temptation, kept from sin. And then next, so that's the first point. The next point, if you'll recall, we see summarized in this final petition, Jesus says, deliver us from evil, or a better translation would be the evil one. And this again demonstrates the second point that prayer is used as a means of carrying out God's decree. God has already promised that he would protect us from the evil one. And so we see that in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 3, where we read, the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. Also in 1 John 5, 18, it says, we know that no one who is born of God sins, but he who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. So both these texts, we see that there's already a promise of God to protect believers from the evil one. Yet, even though this promise exists, this promise is ours already, Jesus still instructs the disciples and us by extension to pray for that. So yes, it's promised, but yes, we should still pray for it. Protect us from the evil one. God will carry out this protection from the evil one through our prayers, right? So it's a way, it's a means of carrying out God's promises and God's decree. And so this, now considering the main point again, the prayer is efficacious in aligning the Christian's will with the will of God and as a means of carrying out God's decree, this now brings us to the last portion of our text this morning in conclusion. So lastly, we read in the Lord's model prayer here. He says, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. So God alone, God alone rules over the kingdom of heaven. Yours is the kingdom. He is sovereign. All power and might belong to Him, right? He's also omnipotent. He's most glorious in all His ways. He's holy. He is all of these things infinitely. And yet, in all this splendor, He invites His adopted children to approach Him in prayer, to speak to Him, to lift up our petitions to Him, to cast our cares upon Him. And so what a privilege we have indeed. But let me be clear. God only hears the prayers of those who have faith in His Son. We cannot pray rightly lest we pray by the Holy Spirit in the name of the Son. And it is only by those who have trusted in Christ alone for the salvation of their souls who can do this rightly. So by way of application, the first thing that we should take from our text this morning. The first point is for those that have not placed their saving faith in Christ. Please hear his voice today. For today is the day of salvation. Jesus stands ready to forgive and all of heaven rejoices when one sinner is brought into the sheepfold of God. So hear him call you today. lay your sins upon him and take upon yourself his perfect robe of righteousness. It's through this exchange that you may approach him as your father, praying along with Jesus and the disciples, our father who is in heaven. So the first thing is for those who have not believed, you need to trust in him and come to Christ for the salvation of your soul so you can be adopted into the family of God and pray to the Father rightly. Next is for those that have believed. Please consider this morning what an amazing privilege that we have been given. The freedom to approach the eternal King, the creator of the universe, and to approach Him as our Father, the one who loves us, The one who cares for us. The one who desires for us to speak to him. Pray to the Father. As we have seen this morning, when you pray as Jesus has instructed, your will becomes aligned with the will of God. And your prayers are instrumental in carrying out God's decree. So what a privilege that we have. What a privilege to be, to take part and be used instrumentally in carrying out God's perfect plan that was already in motion long before we were on in this world. May we pray as often as we can as we continue our pilgrimage through this world. Prayer will strengthen us. It will affect real change in God's world, and it will conform us more and more into the image of Christ. To the praise and glory of the triune God. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for making us right before you, justifying us, causing us to be born again, adopting us into your family so that we can approach you as father. Thank you that you are sovereign and that you rule over the kingdoms of men. Thank you that you have a decree that's unchangeable and that your decree is good. We thank you for the privilege that we have to approach you. with a clear conscience because of the work that Christ has accomplished on our behalf. That we can approach you as our Father and know that you're for us and not against us. And that you desire us to come to you and to cast our cares upon you. Thank you for that reality. We thank you for giving us prayer as a means to speak to you and to communicate with you. That you did not save us just to be distant and cold, but that you beckon and call us to speak with you and to fellowship with you. We thank you for that reality and the privilege that we have to pray. We pray that you'd continue to give us the desire, the growing desire to pray and pray more often, and to pray rightly, to follow Jesus' example, and to continue to come to you for grace and for strength as we walk this pilgrimage that we're on as we long for the day when Christ returns and we're taken up with him to worship you in spirit and truth for all of eternity. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.