It's a pleasure to see everybody today, and as I'm assuming you know, this is our last time together for about three months. We have the summer all-church Sunday school program, for lack of a better word. So beginning next Sunday, all the adult Sunday school classes will meet in the gym, and this is the book that's going to be studied. But let me just encourage you about this. This is an abridgment of a John Owen book. John Owen, in theological circles, is considered the greatest theologian who ever spoke English. Actually, he spoke a lot of Latin. Moses certainly wrote in Latin, which is why you abridged John Owen. You're welcome to get his 16 volume complete works. I can't get myself not to recommend it, but you will struggle through it. But some of them are being abridged, and they are abridged by excellent people, pastor, theologian types. And Owen's work on the Holy Spirit is considered, frankly, there's not anything that compares to it, but it's very difficult to read. R.J.K. Law has abridged it and he has done an excellent job with it. So this is an important class and I hope you will attend it. This little book can be purchased right outside that door on the shelf and I hope everybody will get one and go through it with the summer classes. It's really, really good on the Holy Spirit. What we will do, today is go to our next passage, which is in Luke chapter 11. And you will recognize it immediately as the Lord's Prayer. Making our way through this section of Luke, the central section, the large section of Luke, the so-called travel narrative whatever you wish to call it, we're seeing very clearly this sort of staccato nature of it, which is not a problem. Luke is an historian. Luke is giving us these vignettes and the process of Jesus training his disciples. And as he's training his disciples, he's training us as well. So we're going to look today at the first four verses of Luke chapter 11, and I'll go ahead and read them. You may be a little bit surprised by them, actually. It says, now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation. Now, if that struck you as a bit unusual, it's because the Lord's Prayer, as we have all learned it, basically, essentially comes from the King James Version of the Bible. That's going to be important as we get to to the end of the Lord's Prayer but what we are familiar with comes from the Gospel of Matthew and because it's more familiar and the part that we're more used to and because frankly I don't have time to get through of what I want to in Luke 11 with one class. Preaching through this section of Luke, these four verses, I would normally take three sermons. We don't have time for that. And I regret that we're at this juncture where we're... So I'll probably come back to it, frankly, in September. If you want to look ahead, you can be studying the Lord's Prayer. But in Matthew chapter six, you're in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. This is a totally different context. The reason the two passages are different between Matthew and Luke is among other things, there's a different context. This is not the same context that we just saw in Luke. And that's why in Luke, you need to continue past the fourth verse. You need to go all the way through the 13th verse to get the fuller context in Luke. But we're going to just look at this prayer as it's presented in the gospel of Matthew chapter six, it's verses nine to 13. This is the second time, as we see in Luke, that we have this thing that people have come to call the Lord's Prayer. The first time it appears is the section here in Matthew 6. What's so critically important to see in this, we've come to passages in Luke already where we saw such familiarity with things such as the parable of the Good Samaritan. And invariably, when you are very, very familiar with a passage of scripture, that is a, it's not a bad thing. It just means you need to be careful with it because you have become so familiar with it that you perhaps are not seeing it as it needs to be seen. This is probably true, perhaps even more true of the Lord's Prayer than anything in the New Testament. We say the Lord's Prayer every Sunday in worship. We say the Lord's Prayer, you hear it in football games, you hear it, well, you used to hear it in football games. You run into it often, and we miss the significance, the larger issue, the reason that Jesus would put it in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, the reason that when his disciples would tell him, we really want to learn how to pray. There's a reason that he gives them what he gives them. And it has to do with a much larger picture because what he's giving them is a paradigm, a model for prayer. He's not giving them what he hopes they will regurgitate word for word. There's nothing wrong with that, but we're going to learn today, Lord willing, that it's much, much larger than that. So the first thing we want to step back a bit and I wanna give you a few statements from some very famous and wise Christians over the years in terms of prayer in general. Here's what John Wesley said. He held a poor view of any Christian who did not pray at least four hours a day. Robert Murray McShane, an incredibly mature, wonderful Scottish minister, What a man is alone on his knees before God, that he is and no more. Martin Lloyd-Jones, famous English preacher. Prayer is the highest activity of the human soul. J.I. Packer. Prayer is the spiritual measure of men and women in a way that nothing else is. So that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face. Now, when you read statements like that, they're not talking about whether you can pray with erudite, deep theological lucidity. They're not talking about that at all. Jesus has quite a bit to say about long-windedness and all of that kind of thing. The essence of prayer is not whether you would wow the crowd when you pray, should you be called for to pray publicly. It's deeper than that. There's a man named A.B. Simpson. This is a theologian who was quoted by Martin Lloyd-Jones, who has a very interesting take on it. He says, we think God gives the Christian one giant lump of grace for life. Not so. He's saying there that what the average Christian thinks of about God is when you become a Christian, he's poured all that grace on you, then you live out the rest of your life. He's saying, that's not the way it is. He says, God gives to us like a trust fund. Prayer is drawing out the gifts. Why? Because God is love and he wants our communication. That's a fascinating way to look at it. I don't think it's obviously thorough. Again, when we get to these enormous concepts, prayer is one of them. You've got this multifaceted gemstone and you've got to look through a lot of the facets and that's what we're going to do today a little bit. Jesus, in Luke in particular, Jesus, it shouldn't surprise us that when we get to the 11th chapter of Luke, we run into a very familiar set of words. The 11th chapter begins, now Jesus was praying in a certain place. We have seen that throughout. There are at least 12 different times in the Gospel of Luke where Luke will begin his vignette by saying Jesus is off praying. We've seen it already. He prayed when he calls the 12, he prays when the 72 get back, he prays at the Transfiguration, he prays... In fact, some theologians have said that we probably Another misconception, when we think about Jesus and the three years of his public ministry described in the four gospels, it's easy to think that prayer sort of intersperses these major events. He goes from this event to this event and in the middle of the prayer. And a lot of folks who know quite a bit say, you know, maybe a better way to look at it would be to reverse all of that, that Jesus lived a life of prayer and when he wasn't praying, he went off and did these events. That's kind of an interesting way to go about it. But again, as we saw, especially from Wesley, Wesley talking about four hours a day, there were others who would have increased that number. But how many of us pray four hours a day? I remember when I went to Westminster Seminary, the very first, day of prayer we had, I was scratching my head the night before thinking, surely they can't mean a full day of prayer, how could anybody pray for a full day? And we came and we started going through this incredible process of segmenting into certain focal points for prayer and everything, and it was, By the end of the day, there was more to pray for than we'd prayed for during the day. And we did pray for the entire day. And we all said, when are we going? We need to meet again tomorrow. So prayer is a very, very under appreciated, misunderstood, and certainly underutilized aspect of the Christian life. Jesus, as we see, was always praying. And his disciples very, very wisely are observing this. And they know that John the Baptist has taught his disciples to pray. So they come to Jesus in Luke 11 and they say, teach us how to pray. That is a request that I hope every one of us will have at one point or other. It's not something that you learn once. It's something as is true of all of the Christian life. It's something that you continue to As you grow in prayer, you will grow in a willingness and a need to know more about it. So Jesus responds, again, with this pattern, this model, this form, this skeleton, if you will, for prayer that we call the Lord's Prayer. Now there's, I'm going to be going back and forth usually between the Luke 11 passage which begins in the second verse of Luke 11 and the Matthew passage in chapter six that begins in verse nine because as you see, they are different. Let me just read Matthew 6, nine to 13. This will sound more familiar to you. Pray then like this. Let me read eight. That's an interesting difference for Matthew. Verse eight says, do not be like them. He's talking about empty phrases that the Gentiles have. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, our father 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 and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now we would add another sentence to that, a sort of a doxological conclusion. That's why I said it's interesting that we tend to have a King James perspective on the Lord's Prayer. The conclusion that we normally verbalize, and we do it every Sunday, there's nothing wrong with it, is not found in any of the early manuscripts. That's why it is not found in the ESV, it's not found in the NIV. If you go to a New American Standard version, it is encapsulated in brackets, which the footnote says, these are not in any of the early manuscripts. In other words, it probably should not have been added at all to it. It's not a problem, it's certainly in keeping with the flow of the Lord's Prayer. But we will get to that when we get to the conclusion here. Just an interesting dynamic of this Lord's Prayer. So, let's look at this prayer itself, beginning with the lead in. In the Gospel of Luke, he says, when you pray, say, in Matthew 6, verse 9, it says, pray then like this. Both of those statements are tangential. Both of them are illustrative of what we've talked about, that this is a motto, it's a form. He's saying, here you go, if you wanna learn how to pray, here's an example. He's not saying this prayer, don't deviate from it. He says, say it this way, do it like this. It is not meant to be a rote repetition, again, not a problem. To do that, you just need to realize it's something larger. What Jesus is saying to these disciples and to you and to me today is that every prayer we pray should be a form of the Lord's Prayer. Everything that's going on in the Lord's Prayer should be repetitive to all the prayers that we offer up. So what do we mean by that? J.I. Packer has a wonderful seven-point coverage of this form. What is the content of the form? What is going on when Jesus gives these few verses to the disciples? Packer loved alliteration, so all these words are gonna start with an A, if you're taking notes. Number one, approaching God in adoration and trust. And again, what I'm giving you now, it should be typical of every prayer you pray. Approaching God in adoration and trust. Number two, acknowledging His work and His worth. Number three, admitting sin and seeking forgiveness. Number four, asking that needs be met for ourselves and for others. Number five, arguing with God for blessing. What he means by that is the notion of Jacob. You remember Jacob, and that's okay. I've mentioned several times probably that in the Psalter, you get this image often of the people writing the Psalms that they are in a bad spot and they confront Jesus. They confront God with their need, with what's going on in their lives. They do it, obviously, with care and understanding. They're not brash or insulting or anything like that. But the point is, arguing with God for his blessing is something that is perfectly in line with what God reveals throughout the pages of scripture. Because he is our father, We get to that just a little bit. So number six, accepting from God our situation as he has determined it. And finally, number seven, adhering to God in faithfulness regardless of his providential determination. Now, you see that those seven points focus on God. So Packer goes on to say what is very obvious in one sense, that if you have trouble with prayer or with praying, it's probably because you don't know who God is sufficiently. And I'm not saying that as a demeaning thing. There are times that all of us struggle with prayer and praying, but the point is the more in-depth knowledge you have of who God is and how he is interacting with your heart, the better and easier you will be able to pray to him. I even have a quote from Pachelbel that the vitality of prayer lies largely in the vision of God that prompts it. Such a beautiful, beautiful quote. So the Lord's Prayer, model answers to a series of questions that God puts to us in order to shape our conversations back to him. Let me say that one again a little more slowly. What is the Lord's Prayer? Why would Jesus give us a model to spin off of? And when I say that every prayer we pray should contain all seven of those points, that is a true statement But there will be times, there will be issues in life, there will be instances in life, perhaps a better way, when prayers just, I need you now. There will be those kinds of events where you're not going to go into this full Lord, but behind the I need you now has to be who it is you think is going to come and answer that prayer. But here is what the model is doing. It's answering a series of questions that God puts to us in order to shape our conversation back to him. That's what prayer is. Especially the Lord's prayer is this model. Now let me give you four of these kinds of questions that God is asking every one of his children. Who do you take me for? And what am I to you? That's God's question to us, number one. How are we gonna respond prayerfully? You're our Father in heaven. That's the beginning. Second question, that being so, it's coming from God, what is it that you really want most? The hallowing of your name, the coming of your kingdom, to see your will known and done. Third question that God puts to us. So what are you asking for right now as a means to those ends? Provision, pardon, and protection. Those will come in three petitions that we're going to see in the Lord's Prayer. And fourth and final God-oriented question. How can you be so bold and confident in asking for these things? Answer, because we know you can do it. And when you do it, it will bring glory back to you. That's the whole, if you took those four questions and assume those basic answers to them, that is a structure for every relationship, every prayer that you will ever offer up to God. is interwoven with those things. That's why it's a model. That's why it's a form of prayer that Jesus is giving us. He's saying, here's who you are, Christian. Here is who this God is that you want to approach and converse with, aka pray to. Here is what he wants you to think about when you come to him from this format. And everything that we mentioned, those four answers are included in this prayer. So let's get to the prayer itself. First, the invocation. In Luke chapter 11, verse two, he just says, father. In Matthew six, verse nine, he says, our father in heaven. Now this is, we have no means whatsoever to realize what a completely shocking statement this is to these disciples. No one in the Old Testament would ever have come before God and said, Father, That is much, much too familiar. It does not happen in the Old Testament. It happens all the time in the New Testament because something has changed and that something is behind the Lord's prayer. But this is very, very shocking. Jesus' point is not that all men are God's children by nature. He's giving this form of prayer to his disciples and through the disciples to his children, his disciples today, to you and to me, to everyone who is a Christian. He is not saying that God is the father of all mankind. It is interesting to me, and from an analytical format, when I am in a certain audience, certain group, where someone prays, and it's not expected to be a Christian prayer, not only do they rarely end in Jesus' name, They will rarely start with father. And I think that's an embedded Holy Spirit influence that perhaps allows this person to understand that he isn't my father. As we've seen many times before, every human on the planet has one of two fathers. Your father is either the God of Scripture or he is Satan. So Jesus, when he says, start with this word, our Father who is in heaven, that is not something that an unbeliever can pray. That is something that only a believer has at his or her discretion. And that is an incredible change from the Old Testament days. Now, therefore, this brings up kind of an interesting question because clearly in the New Testament, Jesus says, always pray in my name. In order to get to the Father, pray through me in your prayers in the name of Jesus Christ. So is that a conflict? Is that a contradiction? By the way, obviously not here in the Lord's Prayer. And it is, no, it is not. It's because only those in Jesus who have Jesus as Lord and Savior have the right to go to God as Father. The whole notion behind Father is adoption. We're gonna get... into that now. I'll give you five aspects of what it means to be adopted. When we were going through the Westminster Confession on Wednesday nights, you remember the Westminster Confession has a chapter on adoption. It's the only one of all the Reformed confessions and creeds that has a separate chapter on adoption because the Westminster divines realized what an influential, totally transformational concept, that is, that when I become a Christian, I don't just have God who I'm kind of scared of, but maybe he's friendly toward me if I hold my nose the right way. No, no, I have a God who comes down and says, now I'm scooping you up and adopting you into my family. You are now my child, and I am your father. And everything that we think of imperfectly about familial relationships of parents to children is true in spades when I have my relationship with the perfect Father above. So we are adopted children and what this means we are loved by the Father no less than is his beloved Son Jesus Christ. Number two, we are God's heirs and joint heirs with Christ because we are in the family, Romans 8, 17. Number three, we have God's Holy Spirit in us. When one of these disciples, Peter, is going to play a key role in Pentecost after Jesus ascends to be seated at the right hand of God the Father. And the whole thing is about the Holy Spirit being given to every one of God's children from that moment on. Number four, we must therefore honor God our Father by serving his interests and therefore we must fifthly love our brothers and sisters. That's why this Lord's Prayer is going to go out. It's not going to stay in a very narrow self-centered format. Therefore, how does that impact our prayer life? Well, it means we should express faith in Christ, confidence in God, joy in the Holy Spirit, a purpose of obedience and concern for our fellow Christians. All of this is coming out of this couple of verses in this thing we call the Lord's Prayer. So after this invocation of come to me and look to God as Father in heaven, Then the prayer begins six petitions. Now in Luke's version of it, there's only five petitions. Again, that's why I'm going with Matthew's version. It's the one we're most familiar with. In Matthew's version, there are six petitions. The first three are vertical. They are oriented to God. The second three are horizontal. They are oriented to man. The first of these three, hallowed be your name. Hallowed means known, acknowledged, honored. Honored in what way? Honored as being holy. Holy be your name. Name, of course, the person God has revealed himself to be. Therefore, this first petition is that the praise and honor of the God of the Bible and of him only is the issue of everything. Everything goes vertical. Everything goes to this great God whose name is to be hallowed, is to be known, to be holy. This is much, much larger than just that narrow thought. What that means is that this holy God, every aspect of his creation, every aspect of his creative powers, Everything about creation that is so good, so fascinating is within this petition. All of his redemptive work is within this petition. When I hallow God as holy, I'm also hallowing him as holy because he has redeemed a people for himself. The wisdom, the love, the grace, the justice, the power, the mercy. All of his ordering of things for his children's ultimate good is in this, hallowed be your name. All of the truth, trustworthiness of his word is in this phrase, hallowed be your name. Everything that God has created, which is frankly everything, and especially for his children, which is everything good, All of that is wrapped up into this particular phrase. I'll tell you a really good passage that would reflect this thought is the 111th Psalm. It's a 10 verse Psalm. I'll just read a couple of verses. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him. He remembers his covenant forever." And it goes on and on like that. That is what is in, hallowed be your name. That's the first of the three vertical petitions. Second one, your kingdom come. Here, the phrase means God's redemptive relationship to individuals. Now, the phrase God's kingdom has basically two very, very large meanings throughout the New Testament. One is this notion of his sovereign purposeful ruling over a kingdom. That is not what is meant here in this particular phrase in the Gospel of Matthew. What's meant here is this relationship issue. God's kingdom in this case is not a place, it's a person, it's a relationship. His relationship to individuals. Your kingdom come. Here's... I don't know what Rick's covering today, but he may even get to this today. But Mark chapter one has a great, a great capsulation of this. Mark chapter one, verses 14 and 15. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. In other words, Jesus is saying, I am the kingdom. All of this is behind thy kingdom come, your kingdom come. How do you enter it? How do you get into this kingdom? By making Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. but this personal application does not exhaust the petition either, not surprisingly. Requesting a new display of God's sovereignty would be part of this. Praying for the conversion of sinners, someone in the family, maybe. Most folks have somebody that they're very close to, whether family or otherwise, that don't seem to be walking with the Lord. All of those are in your kingdom come. restraining of evil in this world we live in. That's a prayer that goes up pretty often, I hope. So this phrase, your kingdom come, is where general intercession is found in the Lord's prayer. A lot of people complain about the Lord's prayer because they say, well, there's no place in there for me to ask for my cousin or that America would get his act straight or anything like that. All of that is in your kingdom come. What would it mean for Jesus It's kingdom to come and it will come. It is coming. It is already here, but not yet finished. One day Jesus himself will come in and bring that kingdom once and for all in its fullness and in its perfection. But in the meantime, we're fighting it. But any intercession you want to put in any prayer you have is fit under the your kingdom come phrase. Third petition, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, both Luke and Matthew have your will be done. Only Matthew has on earth as it is in heaven. Here, the purpose of prayer becomes plain. It's not to make God do my will, but to bring my will into line with his purpose for me. Your will be done. When I'm praying, I'm not saying I want you to, here's what I need, Lord, come do it for me. It's your will be done. meaning happen, God's purpose for his events and the commands to his people. But here's the problem, how I know what God's will is. I will often come to God and say, here's what I really want. It seems to me that this would be the best way forward, God. But if you don't think so, then I don't want it. But how do I know what God's will is? Well, by paying attention to his word, that's the main way you know God's will for your life. By paying attention to our consciences, by noting what circumstances allow and don't allow. If I live in the United States and I wanna be a penguin in Antarctica, There are a lot of things that don't fit that picture. So the circumstances you're in, where you are, where the Lord has you and so forth and so on are important by taking advice in order to glean the wisdom of a multitude of counselors. That's another way to find God's will. Go to people that you trust, people who know you pretty well and can see the forest. You're stuck against, your nose is against a tree. It would help sometimes to go to people that you trust, who can be trusted and discuss those kinds of things. So all of this is your will be done, finding your will for me. It's perfectly fine. Again, the whole book of Psalms is people saying, here's a predicament I'm in God, get me out of here. if you choose to get me out of here, is behind every prayer. Those are the first three petitions, God-oriented. Second three, man-oriented, horizontal. Here's the first one, give us this day our daily bread. And Lucas, give us each day our daily bread. If we pray the first three to live for God, then we need God to sustain the universe so that each season of each year continues to make our efforts possible. In other words, God hears me. I recognize who you are. I recognize what your will is. I want that will for my life, but in order for that to happen, you've got to sustain me. That's why this prayer becomes horizontal toward the second half of the petitions. So give me this day our daily bread. A concern, by the way, that Jesus is aware of and has already acknowledged in Luke, as far as we've gone, as he feeds the 4,000 or the 5,000. God is aware of this. But note, each day, this day, we're not to go for building up billions of dollars of endowment, whether in institutions or in our lives, but this day, Father, care for me. Implicit in that is I don't know what tomorrow will bring. So the fifth of the six petitions, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Sin, sin throughout scripture, especially in the New Testament comes under various headings, law-breaking, deviation, shortcomings, rebellions, pollutions, missing the target. The focus in the Lord's prayer is unpaid debts, which is very singular. And what that's saying is that we owe God everything for every moment of our lives. We owe God everything and we haven't paid up. We're not acting, we're not living, we're not praying, we're not doing anything that acknowledges all of that sufficiently. We have unpaid debts to God. This forgiveness of our sins are covered, as we know, far as the east is from the west. So why do we need to pray to God to forgive us our sins? Because here in the Lord's Prayer, what you're getting is the difference between God as judge and God as redeemer. between God as father and God as just some power in the sky. Because I am in God's family, adopted into God's family, my sins sadden my father. God the Father is grieved over our sinfulness. And it's important, therefore, that we acknowledge that, ask His forgiveness. It doesn't mean that we are losing our salvation or any of those kinds of things. It means that my Father has been grieved. You know that feeling, every one of us knows that feeling, how our fathers and mothers, when we have done something wrong, Maybe the school gets mad at me, maybe the school expels me, maybe my classmates hate me, but what sticks in my craw is I know I let my father down. I assume that women think they let their mothers down, perhaps, in the same way that Boys tend to think they let their fathers down. I don't know, it doesn't matter. The point is, as a Christian adopted into God's family who has sent his own son to die to cover my sins when I sin, I owe him a debt that is normally unpaid. And finally, the sixth and final petition, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This is only in Matthew, that deliver us from evil phrase. Life is a spiritual minefield, dangers we dare not trust ourselves. Father, therefore, keep us safe. Oh goodness, there's so much here in this final petition. It has to do, of course, with temptation being delivered. I'll read you a quote. The great point is that Jesus' act of giving us this prayer is an implicit promise that if we seek deliverance from evil, we shall find it. The moment we cry deliver, God's rescue operation will start. If you don't cry deliver, if you ignore God, if you have these unpaid debts and you think you can get by on your own and you, You don't come to God for this special prayer of deliverance from temptation, as well as the evil that will follow if I fall into the temptation. These things, God's not gonna live your life for you. He's going to send you temptations. Remember, he tempted Abraham. God goes to Abraham and tempts him. Why? Because just like through schools, from time to time, you have an examination to see what progress you're making. Temptations come to us from God in order to help us see where our own shortcomings are. shortfalls are, where those gaps are, what is it that I tend to fail when I confront this, this, or this, or when that, or that enters my life, where am I liable to fail? Those temptations help me in that position. Goodness, there's a couple of sermons on this one petition. But you begin to see, I hope, that this form that Jesus is giving them is utterly comprehensive. Even though it's three or four verses in scripture, it is meant to basically define the entirety of the Christian's life. and the prayer that needs to be considered. All of these aspects need to be considered when the Christian is praying to the God. Now, I mentioned the doxology. You and I know these words, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Those are not in any of the early manuscripts. You'll find them in a King James Bible, but not in an ESV, not in an NIV. and in brackets in other English Bibles. Again, it's not a problem. It's standard doxology. Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. That's pretty much what we've said already in many different ways. Needless to say, I think we will pick this up again. There's a whole lot here. And when we come back together in September, we will pick up here in Luke chapter 11. There's a much bigger context in Luke's version of the Lord's prayer that will meet these disciples where they are. The context in Matthew is in the Sermon on the Mount, which also has very fascinating presuppositions. But at any rate, that's where we are, and I think it's appropriate that we would end by saying the Lord's Prayer. So why don't we stand? I'm going to begin to pray, not the Lord's Prayer. We do it just like we do it at church. I will get you into it, but let me say a few words first. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you that we can come again to your house and hear from your word. Father, we pray that all the things on our hearts, as we've looked at the comprehensiveness of this form of prayer, we realize how far short we come. We don't always think about these things. Father, grow us in our faith. Be with us this day, those people that we've already prayed for. Father, we also wanna remember that we're in a weekend that honors folks who have given their lives so that we can be in this building in freedom, in a scenario that looks like it's draining away from our ignorance and our sinfulness. Father, forgive us as a nation and help us to get back to where we need to be. But Father, America or any other nation, We are the people of God and our home is above. We are pilgrims on this earth. We thank you that you've given us your son who has taught us how to pray as we pray together saying, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.