Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? We are going to look at the application of all that we've been studying in terms of prayer, and that will be putting together a prayer notebook. And we're going to look at adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, intercession, and spiritual warfare as it pertains to us having a prayer notebook to guide or shape our prayers. So let's go the Lord in prayer, shall we? O Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have prayed for us, O Lord. Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, and errant written word to set us apart to your service and to your glory. Show us now great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you are sending it out and for which you have gathered us together. Protect us from Satan, who will snatch your word. Protect us from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests, which choke your word. Protect us from a wrong reactions to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your word. Rather, plow out now the hard ground of our hearts, O Lord. Give us good soil that your sown word would send roots downward and bear fruit upwards. Unsheathe now the sword of your spirit, O Lord. Cut to the dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of each gathered here. Spread your word before us as a banquet table, O Lord. grant grace that we may eat of the rich meat and drink of the sweet milk of the great doctrines of your word. Give us the heart of the prophet who cried to you. Thy words were found and I did eat them. And thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Lord we live in a dark and a wicked age. Broad is the way and many are on it which leads to destruction. Make your word a lamp to our feet. Make your word a light to our path. Show us that narrow way that you would have us run. And Lord, as we run in the paths of your commandments, enlarge our hearts that in loving you we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make your word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and go away and forget, but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of your written word. O Lord, because of our fealty to you, because of our undying love and devotion to your Son, our resurrected Savior. We pledge to you our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant written word, and we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. in the name of our lord and resurrected savior jesus christ we pray great okay we're going to look uh... we're going to spend three weeks on this i hope we could get it done in three weeks but we're not in a hurry in these studies these are in-depth studies and i would rather cover the material than meet an objective So we're looking at how to put together a prayer notebook. Now we've studied, see this acronym, AXIS, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, Intercession, and Spiritual Warfare. Well, when I first had a prayer notebook, I had a little notebook with six pages in it, and that was it. And that's great. That's how most, the average layman, you know, you don't have three hours to give to a prayer notebook. And so, that's what you should do. But we remember the Word of God, we begin, that should shape our prayers. So, Deanna, if you would look at John 15, 7, And, Dr. Arnold, if you would look at 1 John chapter 5, verse 14 and 15. 1 John chapter 5, verse 14 and 15. Diana, I know you're doing eye surgery, if in these studies, if you ever want to not read, that's fine. I think I can do it here. Okay. If you abided me, and my words abided you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Yeah, so it's, if we abide in Christ, that's faith in Christ, but it doesn't stop there. The word of God must also be abiding us. it's a rule of thumb that god will never do anything that contradicts his words in the bible and so the the greatest confidence we have in our prayers is when our prayers conform to holy scripture doctor arnold would you read your passage please this is the confidence So if we ask anything according to his will what is the revealed will of God That would be his word, isn't it? So we'll contrast two things. Deanna, if you would look at Joshua 1.8, and Dr. Arnold, if you would look at 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1-4. So when we pray, we want to pray with confidence according to God's will. Now, we know that our thoughts are God's thoughts. So just because we think something is God's will, doesn't make it God's will, does it? Yeah, God's will is not what we believe. We believe God's will is revealed in His Holy Word. Deanna's not going to heaven because I believe she's going to heaven. Deanna is going to heaven because God has said it. She has eternal life. John 5.24, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word, believes in me, has eternal life, does not come into judgment, but passes out of death into life. Dr. Arnold should not be faithful to his wife because he believes he should be faithful. because somebody else may believe that he doesn't need to be faithful. But Ephesians 5.25 says husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. Christ is faithful to the church irrespective of the church's behavior. So Joshua 1.8, Deanna. Oh, I'm sorry, Joshua. That's alright. No, you've got one good eye and one bad eye right now. So we'll spot. So you got one good eye. The eye on the right was wanting to look at Joshua, but Judges is the next book. That was your eye on the left, picked up Judges. I kind of see devils a bit. Yeah. Joshua. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Yes, when we meditate, we do not degenerate into so-called listening prayer where we just empty our minds and whatever comes into our minds that is God's will. No, we meditate upon the Word of God so that we can obey the Word of God and that is the same thing we want to do with our prayers is to be praying, we know it's the will of God if it's in the Word. The further we get away from the Word of God, the less confidence we have to know that it specifically is the will of God. Now, there's nothing wrong to pray that God would give you a car, but you cannot claim a verse in the Bible saying that you're going to get a new car every year. But we can claim passages in the Bible that are directly cross-referenced. Now the danger of not using the Word of God we can see in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1-4. Dr. Arnold, would you read that? How the spirit explicitly says that in later times, stop with the path of the faith. Pay attention to the simple spirits and the teachings of them all. Through the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are still obscene, they forbid marriage. and demand abstinence from foods that God created to receive in gratitude. Okay, let's stop there. So, the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit floating around in the world. Satan and his demons are deceivers. And you might empty your mind and be waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak and Satan whispers in your ear, you know priests shouldn't marry. well, that must be from God, but it's not from God, is it? And they might whisper in your ear, oh, you should keep the dietary requirements of the old covenant, of the law. Oh, maybe I should be doing that, too. I mean, anything can pop in your mind, can't it? But if you're conforming it to the word of God, and you think, well, maybe priests shouldn't marry, but you say, ah, no. God wants pastors. 1 Timothy is a pastoral epistle. God wants pastors to marry. In fact, he has ordinances in chapter 3 for the behavior of pastors and their relationship with their wife and their relationship with their children. I don't know what the Catholic Church does. with those passages, because it's part of the pastoral epistles. It's for all of us, but Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, was specifically writing to Timothy, who was the pastor of the church of Ephesus, giving instructions for him and the church leadership. So by using the word of God we can guard ourselves from doing that which is not God's will and we can aid ourselves in doing that which is God's will. So we want to be careful and not drift into mysticism, listening to spirits, but allow our prayers to be shaped by the Word of God. So, the first page of our prayer notebook would be Adoration. That would be the first page. So when we're thinking about our prayer notebook, The first thing we would want to do is to have a section in our prayer notebook on the Word of God. That's where my prayer time in the morning begins, being shaped by the Word of God. So I seek to read through the Bible every year. And so as I read the Bible there, I will put a tick mark or a check mark each day like this would be Genesis. And then when I finished Genesis, I would start Exodus. I try to read five Old Testament pages and three New Testament pages every day, you'll read through the Bible. Just read seven pages. That's not overwhelming. That allows you to miss a great number of reading times, you forget your Bible, you're sick, many other things can happen. You don't have to read on Sunday. That's a pretty full day and still get through the Bible every year. And when I do my reading program, I ask three questions. What does God want me to know? What does God want me to be or do from today's reading? Now, That's directly God speaking to me from his written word, and not just off the top of my head. So I seek to allow God's word, first of all, to shape my initial prayers. I try to find out a verse that something God wants me to know, a verse that something God wants me to be, and a verse that something God wants me to do, and then I pray over those things. Now, notice when we open our time in prayer, you'll notice that's shaped by the Word of God, isn't it? Turn to Deanna, if you would turn to Mark 4, please. Dr. Arnold, if you'll turn to James 1. Mark 4. Yeah, Dr. Arnold is going to James chapter 1. Mark 4.15, Deanna, Mark chapter 4.15. And these are the ones along the path where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. Yeah, so you'll notice that one of the things I pray is that Satan wouldn't be able to do this. James says, oppose the devil and he'll flee from you. So I ask for protection as I sow the word of God. I ask for protection. Dr. Arnold, if you will look at James 1, verse 23 through 25. Because if anyone is the hearer of the word and not the doer, it is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer who walks And you'll notice when I'm praying, that's one of the things I pray, that we will not be like people who look at a mirror and forget what we've heard. We won't be forgetful listeners. We'll be active doers. So you'll find that every aspect of that opening prayer I give you is direct cross-references from the Word of God. And that's how we know and can have confidence that our prayers can be answered and will be answered. Now, when we think about our prayer notebook, The first aspect of our prayer notebook would be adoration, worship of God. Remember the worship of God is His praise without reference to us. You think, how can I praise God when things are going bad? Well, the way you can do that is it's not about us. It's about God. It's, for instance, if we were all asked to a testimonial dinner and our senior pastor, after 20 years of faithful service, was retiring. And you were asked to get up and just offer some words of praise for his service to the church. And you showed up there and they said, okay, you're up next. And you said, well, I don't have anything good to say about the pastor. I had a bad day today. Well, that doesn't make sense, does it? I don't care how bad your day is, you can still acknowledge the faithful service that this pastor has rendered over 20 years. And it's the same in our relationship with God. Our worship of God is not in reference to how good our day has been. It's our reference to God, our reference to adoration of God, it has to do with His divine nature and character. And that remains constant irrespective of our circumstances. See Psalm 211, you see up here, it's one of the first verses I read to prepare my heart for worship. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. And we want to remember that worship is reverential. I know in the charismatic Pentecostal churches, I hear on Christian radio, every once in a while I hear a testimony. They'll say, you know, you go to a football game and people are screaming and shouting and jumping up and down, but here in church, you know, your worship is stale and it's dead. And I take offense at that. First place, you go to a football game, people are drinking beer, some people are fighting with each other, they're shouting, they're jostling. There's no reverence at a football game, is it? They're simply fans. When we go to worship our Lord, we are not fans. We are His children, we are His disciples, He is our Lord, and we are worshiping Him. not simply cheering as fans. Now, Jesus had fans, didn't he? They wanted him to be fed. They wanted to see miracles. They were just there for the spectacle. They were the fans. And just as quickly as they came to hear Jesus, they would leave. go on to the next spectacle. But that's not who we are. So, this passage reminds me to worship the Lord with reverence. Psalm 63-3 says, because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips will praise thee. And I want to reflect on that, how loving God has been to me and all he has done for me, not just what my immediate life situations are. Now, one of the times that I read through the Bible, and I read through the Bible every year, I was looking in Psalms, and I was going to categorize them by the types of Psalms they were. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. What I found out, though, that some Psalms were instructional. They were educational. So as I went through and put a letter by the different Psalms, I found that some Psalms I put an E by. That means educational. God is teaching me something. Like Psalm 1 is not a worship psalm, it is an educational psalm. We can find things to worship from Psalm 1, from Psalm 139, but they are primarily educational psalms. It's one, I feel like one of the Achilles heels of the modern worship movement is, is it's all worship, whereas in the past the church had educational hymns such as blessed assurance, such as all hail the power of Jesus' name, such Psalms, holy, holy, holy, that were both worship and doctrinally instructive. That was very important for the church. Amazing grace is an important doctrinal instruction in that hymn. that's been lost in many of the modern worship psalms. There's nothing wrong with praising God, but hymns can also instruct the congregation. So, to get back on task, I was looking in the psalms for worship psalms, and these are some worship psalms which I found. Now, most psalms contain multi-aspects of prayer, not just one aspect. So, I felt like these Psalms emphasized it. So, I sent you an email, has the attachment to it, and this page is on there. So, if you, as part of your worship time and adoration, if you choose to, you could choose a Psalm and pray over that Psalm. When you've done that one, the next day, you could pray over Psalm 18. The next day, Psalm 29. Work your way to the end. Then start over at the beginning. Another attachment I gave you had to do with the attributes of God. Now, there are 66 attributes on this attachment. If you just spend three minutes on each attribute, that's three hours of prayer, so you're not going to be able to do that, are you? So what I do is I choose the first attribute, Adopter. and then I will spend two to three minutes really praising God that He is the Adopter. Ephesians 1, 5 and 6, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. So, God has adopted us What? For the praise of his glory. And so, I pray over these passages that I've given you here and worship him that I am his adopted son, that he is my father. And then for the rest of them, I will simply say, and I praise you that you are the God of anger, you are blameless, you are awesome, you are a caretaker, you are compassionate, you are complete, and I go down to the end. I don't try to do all of the attributes like I do the first one. So then I put a tick mark or a check by adapter. And then the next prayer, the next day, I'll do angry. God is a God of anger. So I'll just say, Lord, I worship you that you are my adoptive father. I praise you for your anger. Then I will Linger for two or three minutes over these verses But then I will go back and that you are blameless that you are awesome that you are caretaker I don't have to develop each one Now Turn with me Deanna to Jeremiah 15 16 and and then if you were to read that your words were found and I ate them and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart for I am called by your name Lord God of Hosts now the word of God is our spiritual food It is a blessing to us whether we realize it or not. But people will say, well, that's so shallow just to say, to spend three minutes over he's the adopter. And just to mention angry, blameless, awesome, caretaker, compassionate, and just say, I worship you for that. But no, it's not shallow. Deanna, do you have a refrigerator in your home? I have two. Okay. Do they have food in them? And you have a cabinet with dry goods? I do, I have a couple. Yeah, us too. So every day do you eat everything in your cabinets in your refrigerator? No. No, but there are resources for you, aren't there? And that's what this prayer sheet is. Every day we do not have to spend three or four minutes over each of these attributes and feel guilty because we're not spending two or three hours on each attribute that's here. Rather, we give the time that God has allowed us in each of these attributes. Hold on just a second Deanna, I hear something happening in the background. So we don't feel like we have to consume everything right there. If there is a testimonial dinner for the pastor, and they say, okay Deanna, we're gonna have a testimonial for the pastor, we would like you to do it in about three minutes. And so, you don't feel guilty that you don't talk for an hour, do you? No, that's how much you have time for, is three minutes. So, in our attributes of God section, we don't feel guilty about not consuming everything. What these are are resources. The last thing I want to do is place you under the law and make you feel like you have to labor and spend time over each of these attributes. Now these attributes are meant to be given to you as resources so that you have them to pray over. You can pray over these Psalms and work your way through God's, worshiping God's attributes through the Psalms. If you have time, you can do one psalm and one attribute. The next day, one psalm and the next attribute. You can approach this any way you want, but what it is, it's here for you, to help you as a resource. It's not a catechism. It's not a qualifier. Sometimes your heart may just be filled with the knowledge and the love of God and you just want to praise Him for those attributes you're aware of without using the prayer notebook. But what the prayer notebook does is start us out with worship. When we worship God, one of the things it does is help us remember that God's attributes are there even though they've been fulfilled in Christ. Deanna, read Matthew 5, 17. We've lost the Cameroonians, Deanna. They've lost all their electricity. And so you're going to be doing most of the work here. Matthew 5? 17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." So what the Law and the Prophets teach us about God is true. It's just in that truth, there are aspects of it which have been satisfied in Christ. Deanna, turn to Isaiah 53, please. Many times we begin to think sin no longer angers God. But God is angry at our sin. God's wrath is kindled by our sin. God is grieved by our sin. only we do not experience it and there is a reason read verse six deanna please in isaiah fifty three all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all yeah so god is angry at our sin and god will judge the sin But in whose body is sin judged if you are a Christian? Christ. That's right. Read verse 5, Deanna. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. God has said that he will visit the sins of the father on the sons up to the third generation, but not children of Christians. Not Christians, because our sins have been imputed to Christ. So the sins of our fathers won't be visited upon us. We have the righteousness of Christ and our sins were imputed or visited upon Jesus and Jesus has been punished for them. So one of the things that as we worship God for his anger, it brings about humility. because we realize that this anger, where in Psalm 2.5, then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, that was visited upon the body of Christ. And so it causes us to love God even more and love Jesus even more when we realize what was suffered for us So, God's anger doesn't go away. Deanna, read Revelation 20, verse 15. Revelation 20, verse 15. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. So God's wrath is not that the God of love is the New Testament and the God of anger is the Old Testament. No. God's love is in the Old Testament and God's wrath is in the New Testament. What it is, is the wrath of God is expressed upon those who reject Christ. And the love of God, since His wrath has been satisfied, is freely expressed upon those people who have received Christ. So we can worship God for that. We can worship Him and we can praise Him. God is our Father, we see here. God is good. God is gracious. God, see, here we again, He is a God of hatred. God hates sin. Psalm 5-5, the boastful shall not stand before thine eyes, thou dost hate all who do iniquity. God is not what we believe. We believe what God is as revealed in His Holy Word. But we do not experience the hatred and wrath of God because we have been born again. John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life. So when we say that God hates and that God is a jealous judge, We worship Him for that, but we also worship that that has been satisfied in Christ. Now, Deanna, you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but you know your verdict. Read Romans 8.1, please, Deanna. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, what will be the verdict? That's right! Not guilty! So, you don't have to fear God. Look at 1 John 4, verse 18. 1 John 4, verse 18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." Now, God will do fearful things, but not to us. Revelation 20.15, there is a hell, and God is sending those who reject Christ to hell. But we don't fear that. It is a fearful event, but we don't personally fear it, do we? In fact, we look forward to the judgment because for the Christian, the judgment is the motif of the athlete. Deanna, look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 Oh, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6 through 8. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. Not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearance. So, we athletes want the judge to show up, don't they? Yeah, that would be a real disappointment, wouldn't it? Let's say one of our children were running in the Olympics. And they go all the way for the Summer Olympics and they're all ready to run the 100 meter dash and they announce the judge didn't show up. Well, they would be disappointed, wouldn't they? Because people who run in the Olympics have already won by being chosen for the Olympics. I mean, if one of our children were chosen for the Olympics, we would be famous, wouldn't we? Just that they were there. And we would videotape the race. And we would keep it. It would be on the news, wouldn't it? If one of your children or grandchildren were running in the Olympics, it would make the Austin News, wouldn't it? They would show it on TV. They were already winners. whether they won or not. And that's what God the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us. As Christians, when we think about the judgment, it is the motif of the athlete. We are all winners and we will all have rewards for running in this race. We just want to run to the best of our ability. We also want the judge to pay attention, don't we? That's really frustrating, and the lower grades, when they have a field day, and these third or fourth graders are really doing their best, but the teachers are talking to each other and not paying attention, and they just award the ribbons willy-nilly. That's really frustrating for those kids, and I've seen it happen. but they want judges who pay attention. Well, but the criminal doesn't. The criminal wants the judge to be asleep so the verdict will be kicked out, or better yet, for the judge not even to show up. Sorry, case dismissed. Jury, you can leave. Judge just decided not to show up. But for the Christians, we don't fear the judge. He's our father. And if a Christian fears the judge, he doesn't understand the love of God. The verdict is not guilty. What's left are the rewards. The rewards for the service of God. But we don't worry about being judged. So it's very important as we worship God that we remember who and what we are. that we remember that God, we worship Him for being merciful. We worship Him for being omnipotent. So we are able to worship God for who and what He is. And so that's what these attributes are for. As we worship Him, we not only bring glory to His name, but we also grow in our understanding of God. and who he is, what he is, what he does for us. Who he is would be an attribute such as God is omniscient. Psalm 147.5, Great is our Lord in abundance and strength. His understanding is infinite. Psalm 33, 13, and 14. The Lord looks from heaven, he sees all the sons of men. From his dwelling place he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. Well, when we read Psalm 33, 13, and 14, it keeps us from saying things during the Easter service like, God cannot look on sin. Well, of course God can look on sin. God is perfect. The reason we say God can't look on sin is we assume if God looks on sin, he'll have the same reaction we would have, and that is to sin. God can look on sin and respond righteously. First, in compassion, to bring non-Christians to Christ, or in righteousness, to bring about judgment for those who continue in sin and refuse Christ. But of course, God looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. So he sees everything without sinning. So God is omniscient. So we learn about the nature of God. It helps us in our confidence of God that nothing is taking place that God does not understand and that he is not bringing about. We learn, for instance, that God is omnipotent. God is in the heaven. He does whatever He pleases, not whatever we please, but He pleases. Thus we understand that God can do anything, but He doesn't do anything. He only does His good pleasure. His good will. In times like this, Job 42.2, as we worship the omnipotent God, I know that thou canst do all things and no purpose of thine can be thwarted. Things are not spinning out of control. Everything is moving forward in terms of God's divine plan and fulfilled prophecy for not only the church but for the ages will be completed. Nothing could stop Jesus from being born of a virgin, could he? It was prophesied in Isaiah and it was going to happen. Now, King Saul killed all the babies in Bethlehem, didn't he? But that didn't stop anything. God's preserved the life of his son. Nothing was going to stop Jesus from being crucified. The crowds wanted to make him king, didn't they? He said, no. He had set his face towards Jerusalem not to be made king, but to die the substitutionary death. Nothing was going to keep Jesus from resurrecting. Nothing was going to keep him from ascending. Nothing was going to keep him from giving the Holy Spirit to the church. And nothing is going to keep the church from existing until it is raptured on the return of Jesus. Nothing will stop that. No purpose of God's can be thwarted. That keeps us from panicking and losing our perspective. It doesn't keep us from being persecuted. Daniel, the great prophet, was thrown in the lion's den and what happened? He got out and got to be prime minister. John the Baptist, an even greater prophet, in fact the greatest of all prophets, Jesus said, was thrown in prison, and what happened to him? He had his head chopped off. So, God's purpose cannot be thwarted, but our purpose is to die and go to heaven, so that's going to happen. It's going to happen by trauma, by disease, by wear and tear, by persecution in some form or another we will go to heaven but God's purpose remains there. So we never confuse what's happening in the temporal world with what is taking place by God in God's plan. What do you think the people who were looking for the birth of the Messiah and had heard that the three wise men, the three magi, had come to worship Jesus and that Jesus was in Bethlehem, what did you think they thought when they found out that all the babies three years and under had been killed? Well, of course, they thought, oh, game's up. It's not, you know. We didn't even get off the launch pad. The starting gun didn't even go off and it's over. But it wasn't over. God's plan moved ever forward. And when we worship God as omnipotent, we learn more about Him, but we also gain confidence in our circumstances that He is in control. We worship God as Savior. Psalm 3.8, salvation belongs to the Lord thy blessing upon thy people and we remember that our salvation is a result of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and not us that's one of the confidences we have that we it is as Ephesians 2.8 says 9 not by works lest no man should boast Salvation does not belong to man. It is not ours to gain and to lose. Salvation belongs to God. If Jesus Christ died as our substitutionary death, as a result, God the Father visited His wrath upon the body of Jesus, and as a result, we are sealed when we trust in Christ by God the Holy Spirit. for eternity. So salvation belongs to God. So as we worship God and come to understand that salvation belongs to God and not man, it brings us great comfort. God is self-existent. God is transcendent. And we go through all of these different attributes and we worship Him. So that's the first page of our prayer notebook. the adoration section. It can be as long or short as you care to make it. You can print out from the handout I sent you all of these 66 attributes in their totality or you can reduce them down to just the 66 attributes themselves. or you can pray over just the worship Psalms. You can do whatever you want. Remember, these are all the things in your spiritual refrigerator. You don't have to eat them all up in the same day. Now let me give you a little project to do if you would like to do a Bible study project with these attributes. One is, as you read the Bible, I started out with about 15 or 20 attributes. Now I'm up to 66. So during my reading program, if I find a new attribute, now remember, it's not what God does, like God parted the Red Sea. So we don't say God is the sea parter. No, it's what God, it's a passage in the Bible that says what God is. God is gracious. God is merciful. Those are his attributes. God is judge. God is a God of wrath. God is invisible. So, we might find in you God is verse. We would put that there. There are attributes to which we may aspire. It would be good to reflect on these attributes and think down, now, are there any attributes here to which we may aspire to? Well, mercy. We can aspire to mercy because we're commanded to be merciful. How about attributes to which we are forbidden? Well, one of the attributes is judge. We're not allowed to judge people. It says God is judge. What about attributes that are satisfied in Christ? Well, one of those would be number 65, wrathful. So if you want to, you can turn these attributes of God into a Bible study for yourself or your small group. But they're primarily meant to start out each day worshiping God. So what do we have from this first section of our prayer notebook? Well, we're going to read a chapter or chapters in the Bible. and reflect on what does God want me to know, be and do. Then we're going to take time out to spend a few minutes worshiping God for who and what he is, knowing that the worship of God is to praise God without reference to our circumstances. Well, may God add his blessing on his holy word. In Christ's name we pray, amen.