the Lord's Prayer. We have seen the example of the Lord's Prayer, how natural, how beautiful, how powerful it was for the Lord Jesus to come into the presence of His Father. We have seen the necessity of it in His life, and thus we feel, we ought to feel, we ought to be aware of and convicted of the necessity of prayer in our life. The disciples saw that example firsthand, and they were moved by that example of the Lord Jesus to ask him, Lord, teach us to pray. And he did so. He said to them, when you pray, and in that we have unceasing prayer, the first elementary point, if we're going to be taught to pray, is that we must pray. We must pray. We must exercise ourselves in prayer. We must stop what we're doing and get to the wilderness. Stop what we're doing and get to the closet. Stop what we're doing with other people and get a part with the Lord. or to take some people with us and go before the Lord and exercise ourselves in prayer. We must get started and get started today, just like go. Going is the toughest part of evangelism. Doing, just getting on your knees and opening your mouth and crying out to the Lord, that's the toughest part. And then the relationship begins to build one day at a time. And so we have unceasing prayer. We have childlike prayer. Once you go, once you do, when you pray, what are you to say? Say, our Father in heaven. Luke 11, two. Our Father in heaven. Come to the Lord on the foundation of the relationship of you, a child of God, coming to the Father whom you love, to the Father whom you desire to be in the presence of, to the Father whom you desire to glorify, to the Father whom you desire to please. Our Father. in heaven, our father infinite in love, our father infinite in wisdom, our father infinite in power, why wouldn't we go to our father who art in heaven? By the way, lest I forget, when you memorize this prayer, I encourage you to memorize it from Matthew's gospel, chapter six, and I encourage you to memorize it in the King James. It is a blessing. Our father who art in heaven, our father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. We come as children. We come boldly as children. We come as children with the rights of children, as heirs of the kingdom of God. And yet we come humble. We come submitted. We come fearing the Lord, even as we love Him. We come desiring that His name would be great, that His name would be lifted up, that He would be feared in our own heart, in the hearts of those that we love, in the hearts of all of humanity. We desire that he would be honored and that he would be loved, that his cause would be carried out and carried forth in the earth. We come with reverent prayer before the Lord. We don't come flippant. We don't come foolish. We don't come falling asleep, if at all possible. We come reverently before the Lord with thoughts clear, and enunciated in words audibly, if at all possible. Hallowed be your name. We do not come as Nadab and Abihu. We come humbly. And we come in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the only mediator between God and men. And then we see kingdom prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Or as the New King James says, your kingdom come. Kingdom prayer, long-sighted prayer, expected prayer, reverse planning prayer, if you will. Thy kingdom come, O Lord. Thy kingdom come. So often as we come to our Father, and as we ought to come to our Father, We're in danger of coming to advance our kingdom. We're in danger of coming to advance our cause. We're in danger of coming to advance our name. And right from the outset, it's about the Father's name. It's about the Father's glory. It's about the Father's kingdom. Thy kingdom come. And this is a great blessing. It's a great comfort. One, one, it is our great cause. This is the great cause. This is why we live and breathe, that the kingdom would come, that Christ would rule and reign, that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Thy kingdom come. That's what we're praying. We're praying that Christ would come, that he would return, that he would sit upon the throne in Israel, and that all nations would be subject to him. Thy kingdom come. We're praying that King Jesus would rule in our own hearts, that he would rule in our minds, that he would rule in our deeds, that he would rule in our words, that he would rule in our hands, that he would rule in our feet, that he would rule in our eyes, that he would rule in the fullness of our being. Thy kingdom come to every facet of our person, Thy kingdom come to every man's heart. While we pray for the eternal kingdom of Christ to come and for His kingdom to be realized on the earth, we also pray until that time that the kingdom would come to the hearts of men, that men would bend their knee, that men would repent, that men would turn to Jesus and serve Him as Lord and God and King. Thy kingdom come is our great uniting passion. It's our great uniting effort. Thy kingdom come. This is our continual prayer, our unceasing prayer. We're to be found expectant and waiting for the return of the King, hoping for that day. We're to be praying, come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly, Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. Thy kingdom This is long-sighted prayer. Instead of short-sighted, we get caught up in nation-building right here. And by all means, we should pray for our nation. And you can even put that as a tagline beneath this point. But pray for thy kingdom to come. Pray for the kingdom of Christ to come. And pray for the kingdom of Christ to come in America. Don't just pray for some party to prevail. that he prevailed the African continent, that he prevailed in Europe, and prevailed in Asia, and prevailed in Australia, and prevailed in North America and South America, that he prevailed this earth and the hearts of men, that he prevailed in the pulpits, that he prevailed in the pews, that he would rule and reign and his people thy kingdom come. It's long cited. and that it's eternal, and it's also short-sighted, and that it's now, but it's the right sight. It's the right sight. It's the right goal. It's the right all-consuming effort. Thy kingdom come. This is an evangelistic prayer, as well as a prayer that the Lord would fulfill properly. The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah, Jerusalem, now that shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords, and their plowshares, and their spears, and their pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Thy kingdom come, the kingdom of Christ, and Isaiah proclaims, Isaiah 2, 1 through 4. May it come to the earth. May Christ come and rule. My kingdom come is in Jeremiah 23, verse 5. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise the David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his day Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Right now, Judah, Israel, they're under threat. Constant threat. The world all around them wants to destroy them. and Gog and Magog are coming, and yet they will be saved. Now, this is his name, the name of he who will come, this branch of righteousness, this one the Lord is sending. This one will come. His name is this, the name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness. The one who will come to Jerusalem, the one who is the branch of David, the one who is the king who is going to reign and Israel is going to prosper and they're going to dwell safely. His name is the Lord. Yahweh, our righteousness. That is such a precious name. Yahweh, our righteousness. And that's what we're praying. Thy kingdom come. Yahweh, our righteousness, come. That's the gospel in a name. Do you get that? Yahweh, our righteousness. How are we saved? Through God's righteousness. God the Son, Yahweh, His righteousness, imputed unto us. Yahweh, our righteousness. Of all the names of Jesus, that might be my very most favorite. He is Yahweh, God, our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that they shall no longer say, as the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives, who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them, and they shall dwell safely in their own land." 2,000 years, Israel did not exist. Israel reborn in 1948. This prophecy is being fulfilled. You're going to think, wow, that was Look, 70 years ago, Pastor. 60-some years ago. That's a blink in time. A blink in time. And it's a miracle that after 2,000 years, a nation long, long dead exists again. The language, long, long dead. And it exists again. And it exists against all the odds. Israel should not exist. And yet it does. Because the Lord, our righteousness, is coming. thy kingdom come that's our prayer we can talk of daniel 2 44 through 45 where the rock kingdom is coming and all other kingdoms will be crushed beneath it, and he will rule and reign forevermore. We can talk of Daniel 7, verse 14, where Daniel prophesied, then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away in his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Thy kingdom come. All of the Bible points ahead to the kingdom of Christ. It all points ahead to the culmination of God's plan from ages past to have a people, his own special people, his adopted children, with him forever. He, our Father, and we, his children, forever, thy kingdom come. Come, Revelation 11, 15. Then the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven. Loud voices in heaven. They're kind of excited about the kingdom that's coming and they're getting loud about it. The kingdom, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. All of the heavenly hosts cry out in celebration that the culmination of God's plan has come to pass. The fulfillment of God's prophecies have come to pass. That the fulfillment of your prayers and mine has finally come to pass. Thy kingdom has come. This is our prayer. This is our aim. This is our passion. that the King would come to the hearts of men here and now, that the church of Jesus Christ would advance upon the earth here and now. There's another kingdom advancing on the earth. Do you know that? The kingdom of Islam, a kingdom of darkness. And they are praying, and they are marching, and they are passionate, and they are diligent, and they are committed. Oh, that we would pray, and that we would be engaged in advancing the kingdom of Christ until the King returned. Thy kingdom come. Kingdom prayer. Kingdom prayer. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Or your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as Luke 11 says. And here we see submitted prayer. Kingdom prayer. Submitted prayer. Submitted prayer. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our prayers are not a laundry list of wants and don't wants. This was pretty good, Lord. We could do that again. That, not so good. Probably leave that off the list. It'd be great if we could do this over here. That's not how we come to the Lord. We come to the Lord in this manner. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And again, this is a vast, universal prayer, isn't it? But then you begin to unpack it. You begin to unpack it. And I always like to start close to home. Thy will be done in my chest, in my heart, in my mind, in my words, in my deeds, in my home, in my wife, in my children, in the church. Thy will be done in the church alone. Every church shouldn't be saying, what's our niche? What's our agenda? What are we going to be doing? No, it's, what's your plan, O Lord? Thy will be done. And then, yes, broadly, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, in our city, in our state, in our nation, amongst humanity. Thy will be done. But unpack the prayer. Unpack it. Cry out to the Lord that his will would be done, beginning with your own life, beginning with your own heart and those in your life. And then reach out from there. Thy will be done. What a life-changing prayer that is. What a precious disposition that is. I will be done. Are we not born crying out, my will be done? I think so. I think you can hear that if you listen close to every infant's cry. My will be done. And they'll hit you. You'll suffer their wrath if you don't do their will when they're young. You must train them. Oh, no, no, no. No, it's my will be done. I am the parents. I am placed by God to teach you other lives. And that's a parental task, to begin to introduce them to the reality that they are subject to the will of God. They are subject to the plan of God. They are subject to the authority of God. This is so very healthy for you and I to pray, thy will be done. And to pray in ceasing is a matter of regular exercise, a regular portion of our prayer, Thy will be done. Oh, we can pray, as we've talked about. Lord, if this cup can pass. Please, Lord. Nevertheless, thy will be done. Lord, it seems like this would be a real blessing if this would work out this way. Nevertheless, thy will be done. Lord, what I seem to see coming there looks terrible. Please, Lord, don't let that happen. Nevertheless, Lord, thy will be done. Think of our prayers. Lord, bless America. Bless America. Grant the election go this way. Grant that the market would go this way. Grant, Lord, that whatever we're praying, and yet the Lord may want to humble us corporately. Lord, stop the advance of Islam in America. That's a right prayer, because that's a kingdom prayer. And yet, the Lord may very well be, in fact, we know he's in control, so he is allowing the advance of Islam in America. Nevertheless, I think we pray against it, because it's the advance of darkness. But we still must say, thy will be done. Would it not have been right to pray if you were Israel? Lord, here come the Babylonian hordes. Here comes Medo-Persia. Here comes Egypt. This is not in order. Here comes Greece. Here comes Rome. Here comes everyone and their dog. And they're all trying to drag us off. Would it not be right to pray? Yes, it would be right to pray. And nevertheless, the Lord's will was done. And they were conquered again and again. And there may, in fact, certainly was always a remnant. There was always a remnant. But the nation was being chastised. The nation was being rebuked by their Holy Father. And so the righteous remnant would be in there praying, Lord! And nevertheless, they would suffer with the whole and suffer in faith. Thy will be done. And pray for eyes of faith and pray for strength to endure. Thy will be done. Your will be done. Albert Barnes, the great commentator of old, says of this, the will of God is that people should obey his law and be holy. The word will here has reference to his law and to what would be acceptable to him. To pray, then, that his will may be done on earth as it happened is to pray that his law is revealed, his revealed will may be obeyed and loved. His law is perfectly obeyed in heaven, and his true children most ardently desire and pray that it may also be obeyed on earth. Like unto, if you will, Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. obey the revealed law. And Deuteronomy 29-29 is perfect in the context of prayer because we often use prayer as like this magic genie thing to try to tap into the secret things of the Lord, the secret plan of the Lord, the future, and how God's going to work things out. And really, here, the idea of submitted prayer, the idea of your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, is that we would obey His revealed will, His revealed law, that He would direct us, and we would follow Him. As Romans 12.2 says, do not be conformed to this world that we transform by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is a good and acceptable perfect will of God. Prove what is a good and acceptable the perfect will of God be transformed in your mind. Don't be conformed to the world anymore, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you can prove what is the good and acceptable will of God. Pray that. Pray that, oh Lord, let me be transformed, that I might prove out what is good and acceptable. What is your will, oh Lord, in the light of your word? Prayer is not to be an attempt to break into the secrets of tomorrow, so much as a plea that we might today, here and now, submit and obey our Lord out of love unto him and love to our fellow man. Obey in every facet of our being. Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy than Jesus. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Submitted prayer, crying out to the Lord with a humble, submitted heart. Free, free, oh yes, to say, oh Lord, if this thing can pass. Oh Lord, this seems like it'd be a real blessing over here. Oh Lord, that thing there looks terrible. And to cry out to Him with prayer and supplication, to bring your heart, your concern, your worry to Him. and not worry, whether leaving or with Him, and welcoming His will in your life, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's perfectly. That's absolutely. That's without error or equivocation. God's will is done in heaven without exception. And when Christ's kingdom comes, when thy kingdom comes, God's will will be done perfectly. And so we need to conform ourselves to that now in prayer. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so we have childlike prayer, reverent prayer, Kingdom prayer and submitted prayer, followed by dependent prayer. Dependent prayer. I think it's very practical here. Very practical. These other prayer issues, prayer facets, prayer topics, if you will, have all been vast in their scope. This is very practical. This is very, very personal. Not that God our Father is not personal. But right here in our dependent prayer, verse three, give us day by day our daily bread. Very, very practical, very personal, and very dependent. And that's really the point, is we're recognizing our dependence. We're coming humbly to the Lord and recognizing that it's not our effort, it's not our will, it's not our intellect, it's not our strong back. It's the grace of God that provides us bread day by day. It's the grace of God that provides our daily bread. Daily bread. Now while we look at the kingdom, and we have kingdom prayers, we're to be long-sighted. When we look at our sustenance, we're to be rather short-sighted. We're to trust the Lord day by day. A Jew following Moses. A Jew in the Sinai following Moses. Day by day, trusting God for his daily bread, the manna of heaven that he will provide. Give us, O Lord, day by day, our daily bread. Again, many of your worries and mine, it's because we're, one, not looking far down the road all the way to the kingdom, and pray thy kingdom come. And two, we're not praying thy will be done. And three, because when we do look long down the road, we're not looking to the kingdom and his will be done, but we're looking at retirement. We're looking at that boat we had hoped to have, and that property that seems so elusive, and that project we wanted to do, and that hobby we wanted to perfect, these problems, these troubles, these... And the Lord says, oh no, no, no. Pray this. Give us day by day our daily bread. Day by day our daily bread. We have very American expectations. We have rich people expectations, always. We live in the richest nation in the world, the richest time the world's ever known. We expect comfort. We expect spare footage. We expect freezers and refrigerators and cabinets full of food. We expect microwaves to turn on and heat that food quickly. We expect to throw a few coffee grounds in, or even beans in, in a button. It grinds them up instantly. Throw those in. In fact, if you put the beans in the thing, and you push a button, and it makes coffee. I mean, you can get quite fancy. It's all easy. It's all simple. And we are apt to forget how dependent we are, how blessed we are. Every now and again, someone gives us a scenario, a scary scenario about a natural disaster or an attack of a certain kind coming, and how quickly we would run out of food, how quickly we would find that the government the food and the water and the protection that you need and things quickly become lawless. We need to recognize God's provision. We need to praise God for his provision and we need to be sure We have bread today. So very thankful that we have water today. So very thankful that God has provided abundantly for us. Abundantly. We as Americans, we cry out if we don't have major medical, completely paid for. And we cry out if our code pays over $10, right? We cry out if we have to pay more than $10 for open heart surgery. And I understand as you compare yourself with other Americans and other jobs and whatever. I understand, mind you. But compare yourself with the world and compare yourself with this prayer and put it into perspective. Give us, day by day, our daily bread. Day by day, our daily bread. We are blessed. Praise His holy name. Give us day by day our daily bread. It's still unfathomable. It's just completely unfathomable that there are people in the world that don't get daily bread. And yet, there are people like millions in the world that don't get daily bread. And so let us not forget that. If we were in their shoes, if we were born someplace else, this prayer would have all new meaning. We bow our heads and kneel. Let's mean what we pray. Let's thank the Lord for His provision. Thank the Lord for His abundance. Let's remember out of our abundance to provide for others. If there are people in the world starving and dying, And we are feasting day by day, meal after meal, doing nothing about it. There will be accountability. There will be accountability. Give us, day by day, our daily bread. Now bread, food, is the issue, the foremost issue there. But again, this is a point, a topic, a title beneath that. career, education, all of God's blessings. All of God's blessings. Recognize that He lashes them upon you. Thankful and satisfied if simply that is answered. And yet recognizing and going to the Lord with all our wants and needs and giving Him praise. 1 Timothy 6.6 says, now godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness and contentment can go hand in hand. It goes on in verse 7, For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Godliness, genuine spiritual godliness, and and there's great gain there. We brought nothing into the world, it's certain you can take nothing out. It would be good to get a hold of that, wouldn't it? What can we take out? Nothing. Except obedience. Obedience. Service unto the Lord. Love unto the Lord and love unto the saints and love unto the lost. And in that you're going to hear, well done. Well done, and there will be heavenly reward. Other than that, you take nothing with you. And so let us be certain of that and live in light of that. Verse 8, having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." Those who desire to be rich. And most of us think, oh, that's not me. I don't desire to be rich. That's not me. Friends, I fear it's all of us to some We all desire the comforts of Costco. We all desire the comforts of the average American home. And on the biblical scale that's being spoken of here, that's rich, rich beyond imagination. Take the average Christian believer out of the New Testament world and walk them through Costco. Blow their minds. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare. Don't work to be rich. Work to glorify God. Work to use the abilities you have to your best to glorify God, to be a blessing to your co-workers, and to provide for your family, and for the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the local church, and other worthy ministries. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation. It's a temptation. It's a snare. and into many foolish and harmful lusts. Because it's all an expression of self-love rather than the love of God and the love of others. Harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. It's a terrible path to start down. Terrible, terrible path. You know, the Muppet Christmas Carol. It really goes into how Scrooge became Scrooge. And it shows you, perhaps more than any of the other Christmas carols I know, the fall of Scrooge into his Scroogeness. As he started out as a pretty average young man, there were some opportunities before him. And he also had a beautiful, sweet young lady. a little more success, and her heart is being crushed, and her heart is wilting, and he's always got a little more success to get before they can get married, and finally she gives up, and her heart is his no more, and his heart becomes all the more cold and dead, and it's gold that owns his cold heart, and it consumes him. to finally grizzle the rat comes the Savior. If you haven't seen Come Up With Christmas Carol, it's very good. Our family enjoys it a great deal. But the point being, it's a path. You don't just jump to be scrooge. It's a path of perdition, starting with a desire to be rich. Oh, but I want to serve God, too. I'm going to love my wife, too. I'm going to love my kids, too. You neglect your wife? You neglect your kids, you neglect God. It's a path of destruction. Verse 10 of 1 Timothy 6, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. For it's some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Don't go down that path. Instead, daily pray this, give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. That is our prayer. And that prayer keeps our heart right, keeps our intentions right, keeps our focus right, and keeps us thankful, thankful for the Lord's provision. Dependent prayer. And so we see unceasing prayer, childlike prayer, reverent prayer, kingdom prayer. Turn this page upside down. No. Must be me. Submitted prayer and dependent prayer. And then we have repentant prayer. Repentant prayer. And these are titles. These are subjects. These are places to stop and stay a while in your list of prayers. You stop here. and you unpack your sin. You stop here, and you confess your sin to God. Repentant prayer, verse 4, Luke 11. And forgive us our sins. Forgive us our sins. Now, I find this interesting. Just first, let's consider its placement. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. we get to sin. I don't want to in any way belittle the importance of confessing sin and repenting. But you aren't first. I want you to put you in your place because you can be very self-centered and self-loving in the midst of all your blathering, tearful confessions. I have seen it too many times. It's a different expression of self-love. when you're continually caught up, constantly unworthy, before God, before men, and blathering on and on and on and on and on about your unworthiness. One of two things is going on there. You've totally missed the point of God's grace in Christ Jesus, and you're not saved. Or you're exhibiting, you are saved, and yet somehow exhibiting this self-centeredness that's going to distract you and detract from your experience of that grace that you have experienced. And so be taught. We've asked the Lord to teach us to pray. He put our sin well down the list. Not because of its lack of importance. It's an important issue. But because God is so much more important. God's agenda is so much more important. The basic issues of basic And because of our own tendency, sin is a funny thing. It has all sorts of crappy ways of coming out. And that is one prevalent way. Historically and presently, historically, there was a whole era in America and abroad where folks got caught up in this kind of woe-is-me-ism Christianity, where it was all the rage to sit around and to write about a form of Christianity. I can't imagine anyone in the world wanting to convert or come to Christ, if there were anything else at all. It's not pretty. It's not joyful. It's not happy. Where's the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. There's no room for it, because I'm such a wretched sinner. And so first, keep it in its place. That's the first point I see because of where the Lord put it. Put it over here. We spend a long time already in prayer focusing on God, focusing on the will of God, focusing on the kingdom of God and others coming to Christ. It's God word and it's other word. Then it comes home to you. Then it comes to you and deal with you and be broken in your sin and cry out to God. Be repentant. But that is not the end all of your prayers. That's not where you stay either. If you're born again from above, you're a new creature in Christ Jesus. You're a new creation. The old is past. All things become new. You celebrate that. You rejoice in that. There is now, therefore, no condemnation. And you rejoice in that. Nevertheless, though, you keep a short list with God. Again, this is daily prayer. Teach us, Lord, to pray. Okay, when you pray, pray this. Now put it in its right spot, and keep it in its right spot. I really am serious in this, because we all like ourselves way too much, and we all get focused on ourselves way too much, and it's so much healthier to focus on God. And that's what God wants you to focus. It's so much healthier to focus on God's agenda, It's so much harder to focus on God's people and lost people becoming God's people. And we want to focus on self. And one of the great temptations that people fall into, because it seems spiritual, because there's an element of truth here. It's right here. It says we're to pray and forgive us our sins. But you, you can tarry there too long. And you can tarry there too short. We're to tarry there regularly. We're to stop by there daily. We're to search our hearts and search our minds and be honest before God and keep a short count. Forgive us our sins. Well, that was easy. That was quick. You might want to pause a bit longer and get a little more personal, a little more explicit. Name those sins and cry out to God that he would not just forgive you, but strengthen you against them, conform you to the image of Christ, renew your mind. Don't just forgive, but by all means forgive. But Lord, help me to truly repent. Help me to turn from it. Forgive us our sins. Forgive us our sins. 1 John 1.7 says, But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. What a comfort! What a joy! What a certainty! What an absolute statement that we are to embrace and rejoice in! and Yet we sin. We're not glorified. Yet we sin. Sheep prone to water. Sheep prone to air. Sheep often stupid in sin. That is what we are. Being sanctified, but not yet sanctified utterly. And so we need a sensitive harps. We need to ask God to show us our sin, and we need to keep a short account of that sin and confess our sins. Not get hardened in sin, not get comfortable in sin, not continue down the path of sin, because sin begets sin begets sin begets sin, and then it consumes you, and you'll wake up and have no idea how you got where you got, but you got there one step of sin at a time. They often become quicker steps. take a little step, a little shuffle of the feet in the wrong direction, a little half step, and then an average step, and then a full step, and then your gait extends out, and well, that's a pretty good stride, and before you know it, that's kind of a lope, and you look back, and there's a clear progression until there's an all-out sprint, and the steps are about as far out as they can get. And that's the nature of sitting, until you fall. Give us our sins, Lord. Father, Father, think about it. I know some of you have a story like mine and my wife's. We were blessed in our young childhood to be caught stealing by parents. The shame of such a thing where mom and dad catch you stealing something from the grocery, something as stupid as a Popeye's spoon. Oh, I've got to have it, I've got to have it mom, I've got to have it. No, no you're not going to have it. And then to exercise my covetous heart and to steal it. To take it out of its package, put it in my pocket and take it home. And remember, sin makes you stupid. And so you show up the next morning at breakfast with sin Popeye spoon in hand. High, it was tan. And that put a mark on my heart. Stealing, thievery is a shameful thing. And amongst the sins of my youth, thievery, for the most part, was not present. I never stole for gain. I did steal for prank time to time. But never for gain, because that left a mark there. But I remember the shame before my death. Oh, and the store clerk, the great shame of sin. And I remember the spanking. They made me wait a long time. I think they were enjoying the night, the unpeaceful night with the sun in the bedroom, waiting for his spanking. What was I going to do? Anyway, point B, point B. Go to your father like that child that you were, because that's a child you still are. Feel the shame of your sin and go to your father, your father who loves you. He will forgive you. He may indeed put the rod to your backside, but he will forgive you. He'll not leave it on your backside forever. He will forgive you. And remember the sweetness of that forgiveness. Remember the sweetness after the rod of how you cuddled up with your father and your mother If you're able to, and if you can't, then remember with me through my experience and others. Know that it's true, your Heavenly Father. He is the perfect Father. He does chasten, Hebrews 12 tells us so clearly. He does chasten. And His chastening of times is strong. But it will come to an end as you learn the peaceful fruit of righteousness. It's not a good idea. Eventually, they catch you. They'll catch you. I think it was him. Mike's got a lot of stories about not having a child like that. I don't know. I don't know. We can edit that out. Repentant prayer. Remember, your father loves you. He loves you. He wants you to come repenting. He wants to forgive you. If only they would ask for it. If only they would turn from their sin. If only they'd stop their rebellion. It is tearing your heart out that they rebel, that they're destroying themselves, that they're putting themselves at odds with you, that they're breaking fellowship with you, that you now have to become the authoritarian disciplinarian and put the wrong on their backside in whatever manner that is necessary. that they would turn, that they would come, that they would run to you, Abba, Father, and make it right. And you, you, you imperfect, wretched, earthly parents are ready to forgive. Do you not think God is ready to forgive? He is. He is. Run to him. Run to him daily. I'm not going to do that. But when they sin, I must. I must. And the Father must, and He will. Will. Forgive us our sins, Father. Forgive us our sins. The longer we go between those prayers to forgive us our sins, the further we're getting relationally from the Father. Our hearts are becoming calloused, and we get used to being at a distance. You all know them. You've all heard of them. You've all experienced it to some level with your own. The further they go in sin, the more callous, the harder it gets. And eventually, they no longer even care. They don't hurt anymore. They don't care anymore. That's just tragic. And we're just like that with God. That's why he said, when you pray unceasingly, daily, when you pray, pray this. Give us our sins. Give us our sins. Give me my sins. Don't let your fellowship, don't let your relationship with your Heavenly Father suffer. Give us our sins. Cry out unto Him. First John assures us that if we do not, we deceive ourselves, we have plenty of sin to ask forgiveness for. And it assures us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But let me add this. He is our faithful Father. He is our faithful Father and our just Father. Just? What? Faithful, I can understand. He's a good Father. Well, ultimately, our sins are already under the blood of the Lamb. And yet in the here and now of our existence, we need to go to the Lord and confess it and make it right. He is faithful and He is just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Unceasing prayer. Childlike prayer. Reverent prayer. Kingdom prayer. Submitted prayer. Dependent prayer. Repentant prayer. forgiving prayer, and protecting prayer, and delivering prayer, and doxology, braggadocious prayer, and persistence prayer. We can do it. Don't look, Duncan. Don't look scared. Do it. Come on now. Do it. Finish strong. Let's pray. Father, what a sweet time this has been. Really, above all else, celebrating your fatherhood in our childhood. And that really, I think, is what prayer is, is the Lord Jesus has shown us and taught us, above all else, is celebrating your fatherhood and our childhood. Draw us near, Lord. Be our eye. Fill our hearts. Let us not wander. Forgive us, Lord, we pray, our sins. Forgive us our prayerlessness. Forgive us our silence. Forgive us the cold shoulder Forgive us our obstinance. Forgive us, Lord, and change our hearts that we would seek you in the morning, in the noontime, and at night, and every time in between, that we would breathe prayer, that it would be our sustenance, that it would fill our lungs and fill our soul We would draw near unto you, Father, and never leave your presence. We ask this, Lord, in your precious Son's name. In the name of Jesus.