Okay, we're gonna get started here. Now, if you're in the lobbies at any of our sites, going ahead and come in and join us. Uh, this is gonna be a different day. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be, I think, powerful and meaningful for each of us. If you're watching this online, we are so glad that you're here. I would suggest that you turn the volume up and maybe scoot the coffee table back just a little bit. What does that mean? Well, I think today we are going to worship. We are going to praise God. Uh, the invitation for you here today at each of our sites is to, uh, is, is to respond as God leads you. So there'll be times that you stand. There'll be times that you sit, there'll be times that you may raise your hands and bow your head. There may be a time, a time when you go, I, I need to kneel. That's okay. All of those, 'cause the invitation now is for us to, to worship, to praise, to cry out, to sing, to remember, to remind ourselves of the goodness of God. Now, there'll be sort of a structure to it all, and I'll explain that to you in a minute. But it really, it will all come back to this idea of, of praise. Okay? So you guys come on out here and let's just get ready for this if we could, and we'll be moving in and out of, of worship throughout. Let me just say this to you. And guys, don't worry about putting this scripture up there, but Psalm one 50, it's the last Psalm, the last verse, the last Psalm, the last word, the last Psalm Hall is hallelujah. Let me hear you say. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yeah. And it means praise the Lord. I mean, that's really where everything ends with the Psalms. I mean, the last verse is called Hanah Te Hall. Hallelujah. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. So, how about we praise our triune God? Let's praise the Father. We'll come back to him in just a minute. Let's praise the Son, because we can't even gather around here without talking about Jesus. Can we? Let's praise the Holy Spirit because he is the one who breathes life into our lives. He's the one who is here with us now. Are you ready? Let's praise our God. Praise God, Lord. He praise him All over the room. We came to have church this morning. Praise. I, praise I that you, I praise, praise. Greater The beginning one, you Christ. What a beautiful name is. What a beautiful name is the name. What a beautiful name is, and nothing what a beautiful name is the Jesus. There's no one like you Jesus. You didn't want heaven without us. My sin was great. Greater who? I A wonderful. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Lord, today we are pouring our hearts out to you, just as we did in a previous service. Lord, we're bringing our longings and our aches, and our dreams, and our hopes, and our questions, our hurts, our fears. God, we are bringing them all to you, Lord. We bring you the joys, we bring you the losses and everything in between. Lord, we are asking you now to speak to us. Jesus, you told us to pray and to not give up on prayer. Lord, there are some here in this midst who are really close to giving up on praying. I pray that today, that you will remind them that you are close, that you hear their cries. Lord, we pour out our prayers every, every thought, every occasion, every every request. Lord, we, we we're, we're doing this now, holy Spirit, help us. Father, we're coming to you the way a child runs to a loving daddy. And Jesus. We can't do any of this without you. So we ask this now in your powerful, beautiful name. Amen. Okay, well, why don't you say hello to a couple of people and tell 'em we're just getting started, and then you can sit down. So, uh, this is, this is like a, this is like one of those softballs that, you know, preachers ask in church. And yeah, I know what your answer's gonna be, but I want you to just hang, just think about it for a nanosecond before you answer. Do you believe in the power of prayer? Yes. Yes. Okay. So some of us do. Have you ever seen the power of prayer? Yes. Now, some of you are going, wait, I don't know that I have, I'm one of those people that's almost giving up on prayer. I'm telling you, prayer changes things. And the disciples saw Jesus praying and they said, whoa, can you teach us how to do that? And in Matthew chapter six, Jesus gives them a prayer for the ages. He gives it to us. It, we've spent time studying this prayer. Uh, we refer to it now as the Lord's Prayer. It's not a, it's not a, it's not a formula. It's not something to be repeated mindlessly. Jesus even wants us against that. But it does shape our prayers. It does shape our hearts and our lives if we begin to understand it. Now, if you want to know more about that, if you're saying, wait, I'm intrigued by that. We did an entire series on that back in the fall called Pray Like This. And we would encourage you to just, to just do the deep dive. But here's what we're going to do for the rest of the day. We're gonna let the Lord's Prayer be our cue in and out of worship, in and out of prayer. That's why there'll be times that you go, I don't know, should I stand? Should I sit? Should I kneel? You do whatever God nudges you to do. But together, we're just gonna go through this prayer and let, let worship kind of be the thread alongside of it. Jesus starts us off by saying, pray our Father, who is in heaven, our Father in heaven. So we pray to the Almighty eternal God. And Jesus says to approach him as Father, but let's not forget, he is the eternal God in heaven. One Timothy six puts it like this. God is the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, who alone is immortal and lives in unapproachable light. The next sentence Paul says is, and no one has seen him, and no one can see him. Like, no one can survive the glory, the awesome power of the eternal God. And yet Jesus says right here, you get to approach him the way a child approaches a loving father. He's trustworthy. He's good. Like you're not an imposition, you're not a number, you're not an interruption, you're not an afterthought. You get to approach him as if you have been adopted into the family. Now, that's a romantic notion. That's kind of a soft and fuzzy notion if we don't put something around it. You see, I'm not just saying, oh yeah, let's call him Father. I'm telling you, the Bible gives us a very clear way that we have that access. The only way I enjoy access to God that way is through Jesus and what he did on the cross. It's the only way John Chapter one puts it like this. Yet, to all who did receive him, that's Jesus. To those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. It's all because of Jesus. It's all because of what he did on the cross. And when we turn to him and when we trust him, Jesus says, we get to call His Father Our Father. Is that settling in? I mean, that's a thing that begins to change how we do everything is is there anyone here? Is there anyone at, at each of the sites? Hello Fenton, but Rivers Grants Trail. Is there anyone here that has seen the faithfulness of God in your own life? Is there anyone here who has sensed the love of the Father, who at a time when maybe you thought you were all alone, he said, I'm here. I mean, is is it possible that right now, like, like let's just allow ourselves to go through all of these these times. Some of you have have been experiencing God for, I don't know, weeks. Some of you have been experiencing God just a tad longer than that is something coming to mind where he was faithful, where the Father came through for you, is there for some of you, like right now, the response is gonna be to just bow your head and to thank him For some of us, I mean, this is crazy, but for some of us, it's like, yeah, I'll, I'll join you, Greg. Any anybody else here? Seen God come through for him? Anybody here willing to just say that in front of everybody? Wait, let's see. Get even crazier. And don't do this just because your neighbor does it. Don't do this just because your neighbor does it. But has God ever come through for you to the point where you would go, no, I'll, I'll stand and tell the whole world. I I'll stand up right now as a testimony to that, because if you would, then just stand with me because this God is faithful. This God is good. Now listen to me. The word says, give thanks to the Lord. For he is good. His mercy endures forever. I love you, Lord. Oh, your mercy moment. I love, I known you as known and God breath. So Amen. Y'all sit down. We're gonna keep going now. But I did actually help me with this lyric here. I love your voice. What's the rest of it? You've, you've led me through the fire. You've led me through the fire. In darkest nights, you're close like no other. In darkest nights, you're close like no other that'll preach. I think that's one of the reasons that song resonates with us, right? I need that. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend. Those are, those are titles, right? One theologian says that all of these titles of script in scripture of God are like windows into his character. They just give us glimpses of this eternal God and who he is and who he wants to be for each of us, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Hallowed be your name. So to hallow means to respect. It means to set apart. It means we are admitting God. You are like no other, but your name. Your name. There are so many names in scripture of God. Just lean over real quickly. And if you, if you have one, great. And if you don't, just say, man, I'm brand new to this. It's kind of freaking me out. But just lean over to someone and say, this is my favorite name of God these days. Real quick, this is not a long conversation. Just give it to 'em. Go ahead. You guys got you, you, you guy. Go ahead. You guys got one over here. Friend. Friend. I love that yours. Provider. Provider. Ooh yeah. Yahweh Gyra. Yes, yes, yes. You guys got one Prince of peace. Prince of peace. I'm loving that. Loving that. We need more of that in this world. Anybody over here? Yes, sir. Being a new father, Being a new father, being a new father, I've Never had a father. So father has been one that I'm learning About. And you've never had a father. So this Heavenly Father, you're learning from him. Okay, man. Okay. Okay. So we hallow his name, we respect his name. God, we, we, we set you apart. We, we respect you and revere you like no other. But what's really interesting in the prayer, and we talked about this in the fall, is that what Jesus is saying here is, father, you hallow your name. Ma Yeah, that's what he's saying here, father, you. Well, what does that mean? Father, set apart your name. Make your greatness known in this world, this world that you have created, this world that you haven't given up on. God, show up in such mighty and glorious ways, Lord, in such a way that others can know you and trust you and love you the way we do. Father, make your great name known. I mean, that's a pretty big prayer, don't you think? Uh, in, in Psalm uh, 1 35, it says, your name, oh Lord, endures forever your renowned throughout the generations. So next question. Anyone here long to see the miraculous today? Anyone here longing to see something happen in this generation? Anyone longing for God to make his name known in such a way that people turn to him like never before? I'm gonna invite us now to pray some big prayers. Let's hallow his name, but let's ask God to make his great name known. So if we could just, let's bow our heads and just pray big prayers in your own life. Where are you wanting God to show up? Like never before. Where are you longing for the miraculous? Where are you longing for God to, to, to, to reveal himself in a powerful, undeniable way? For some of you who are barely in the door, you're, you're, you're barely believing that there's a God who hears you. Maybe your prayer is God, I need you to show up for me. I need you to reveal yourself to me. I'm gonna ask our pastors. Now, I'm gonna ask some leaders in our church now to just pray and, and one after the other. If you guys would just pray, David going ahead. You can come up here and, and let's, uh, let's just begin this time of prayer. Let's submit to the king of kings and the king of glory and the high king of heaven, Lord God, you are name is above every other name. It is by your name that all things are created and have its breath and life. You bring glory into this world. Father, that you will be done over my body, over my mind, my spirit, my family, my business, my finances, that you're perfect, powerful, restorative, forgiving will let it be done. Amen. Amen. We are grateful for your body that is us, that moves into this world to serve, to love, to care for, to come alongside, to help those who are hurting and who are in need. May we be your hands and feet in this world, Lifting Your name up, pointing people to you. Yes. Yes, yes, Yes. Father, your word says, you will seat me in the presence of my enemies Will Lord, make those enemies friends, and make those friends worshipers and let them know it is up for you, your love, your grace, your mercy, your peace and your joy that allows that to happen. Lord, let it be done. Amen. Today day. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In Jesus, it is, it is your kingdom God. May it be here on earth. May your will be done here. May we be instruments of your reconciliation in your kingdom here. And it's your name that gets all of the glory and praise. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So Pastor Randall used a word there, and it comes up, um, several times in the prayer. And I think it's kind of the clue to the prayer. Now, in the old time, translation, it's the word. Thy, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. It's, it's, it's your power. It's your glory. You see, this is about what God is going to do in this world. We've gotta start there. God, this is your way. It's always going to be your way, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The way you are ruling and reigning in heaven. God, please make it so on earth, which is a big prayer, right? But it gets even more interesting when we start to think, and this is not my thought, I think, I think Tom Wright was the first one I heard say this. But if you go all the way back to the beginning of Genesis, all the way back to the beginning of our story. Now remember we just prayed, your will be done on earth, right? But all the way back at the beginning of Genesis, how did God make us? He formed us from the dust of the earth. So in some ways, you and I are made of the stuff of earth. We are like lumps of clay. God breathed life into us. We're lively clumps of clay, but we're clumps of clay. So when we pray, Lord, I want your will to be done on earth. Yes, please, Lord, do this in my, in my church, in my city at work, Lord, on my team, at school, in my family, in my marriage, in my friendships. Lord, please, please, your will be done on earth. But let it start with me. Father, let it start with this clump of clay. Now, when that starts to settle in, I promise you things change. You start to look at things differently. You start to hear things differently. Your world starts to, to to, to feel different. I had coffee with a friend this week who just said, when this really settles in, man, you just feel the joy and the weight of it all at once. It's kind of like you're coming out of a fog. 'cause it's a ho ho. Okay? So this is what matters. You, you ever been under anesthesia, okay? From the groans, some of you have been, maybe you had your wisdom teeth cut out. Maybe it was a real surgery in a hospital, and you came out of anesthesia, you came out of the fog. What was that like for you? Was it weird? Was it gradual? Was someone like holding your hand and saying, good morning, sunshine. The world says hello? Was it a jolt? Did it involve, say, I don't know, a like a, a miniature horse playing an electronic keyboard? Yeah, that's a thing. Made the rounds this week. Somebody thought it was a good idea to train a, uh, a therapy horse to do that, to wake people up out of their surgery. Please don't ever do that to me. Like, I don't even know what's going on there. Right? If that was me, it'd be like, whew, what kind of drugs did they give me? And could I have a little bit more? 'cause I don't like this. I wanna, yeah, yeah, yeah. So why would I even share that with you? There's a point I think I, I think, um, when, when the kingdom begins to settle in and we see what God is doing and the fog begins to lift, like we, we just see things differently. We hear things differently, but it's like, okay, I'm gonna show my work the way they used to tell us in middle school math. I'm gonna show my work. Okay? A couple of my mentors are, I don't know how else to put this, but they're old hippies. They're California pastors who grew up in the Jesus revolution back then. If you've seen those movies that are out there, those guys were there. And I love it when they tell me those stories. And whenever they tell me those stories, I'm like, oh, wow, that was crazy stuff going on. God was just moving through a generation. And then I go and I sample some of the music back then, okay? So I was late to all of that. It's before my time. But there's a guy named Keith Green who has this song and the chorus of this, I, I was just listening to it recently. And the chorus is like waking up from the longest dream. How real it seemed until your love broke through, I was lost in a fantasy that blinded me until your love broke through. Listen to me, you, you and I live in a world that's gonna deaden your senses. It's gonna distract your thoughts. It's gonna try to convince you that this is the way and this will satisfy you. But when the kingdom of God begins to settle in and you understand who God is and what he's done for you and what he's calling you to, it's like a fog lifts. It's like you're waking up from this long dream. It's like something different now. And it's clear and hear me, hear me. It's not disorienting. It's not confusing. It's not a little miniature horse playing an electronic keyboard. It starts to make sense. And you start to go, oh, so this is how life works. This is what it is. It's interesting. It's, it's solid. It's alive. Hmm. Go figure. God knows what he's talking about. And in that moment, when the kingdom begins to settle in, you go, oh wait, I, I'm not talking about a story anymore. I'm in the story. It's the kingdom of God. This is what Tim was talking about last week, the kingdom of God. And yes, he did say that part of it is us being ministers of reconciliation. I'm telling you, we are a bunch. We are just a ragtag bunch of healed healers. God restores us and then says, guess what? Kids Now go into the game. I want you to pass this on to other people. That's who we are. That's what we do. Calvin said once that the business of the church is to make the invisible kingdom visible. Well, how do we do that? We tell the story of Jesus and we live out the story of Jesus. That's the kingdom. And we see it happening around here all the time. God be praised what he's doing in our midst, folks, I'm just telling you it's a thing. Please don't take it for granted. Please don't ignore it. God is doing a thing and he's even doing a new work right now. When you think of the hundreds of people who are coming to Christ, when you think of the people who are serving others last week, the up for the loo and, and backpack attack. When, when I think of all of the other ways that we are serving in our community, in our city. When I saw your pastors praying for pastors in Haiti, y'all, I can't hardly think of a tougher assignment to being a pastor in Haiti these days, but I, when I saw your pastors praying over these pastors and reminding them last week that they're not alone and God is still up to something. That's the church being the church when it's senior adults who feel seen and, and and valued when it's teenagers. You know, Ryan, I said it last night, but when students, they don't, they're not just coming together. They're coming to Christ and they're dreaming up new ways to stay in touch with each other. It's a, it's a thing when 20 somethings are saying, we're not gonna do this alone. We're gonna do this together when there are little ones right now in each of our churches, in each of our sites, little ones who are being sung over and being cared for and being whispered to and prayed for in the midst of what we are doing. If you go over to kids' ministry, then it's those three year olds and those seven year olds, and they are learning about Jesus. And they are the game changers. And every time I talk to a parent who entrusts their little ones to that ministry, they are so grateful. Not just for the chance to worship in here, but because they know something is going on that will echo into new generations. That's the kingdom of God. And last week, Tim said, let's take another step, right? Remember at the end he said, and you need to take a step. Well, by golly, he's taking another step. It's a different step. Same God, same kingdom, same Jesus. And as it turns out, same church family. You see, whenever we take steps, I hope we will always come alongside each other and champion each other and cheer for each other and pray for each other, because that's what family does. So it seems to me like this would be a good time for us to pray for Tim. So Tim, just come up here for a second. He was saying even after last night. Yeah, let's, if we don't need to do this, we don't need to do this. Let's not make it a big thing. Lemme just pray for you. Lemme just pray for you. So Father, we come before you now, and we lift up Tim and Kim and Josiah and Micah. Lord, we lift them up in love to you. We ask now that you would protect them, that you would, that you would provide for them. And we pray for wisdom. Lord, your word says, when we lack it to ask for it. Lord, I pray that you would give Tim wisdom and guidance as he takes the step, this step, and then the next one after that. Uh, Lord, use his gifts, speak through him, work through him in such a way that your kingdom keeps advancing. We're grateful, we're grateful that we get to do this together. It'll feel a little different now, but we're grateful that we get to do this together. And God, I'm grateful that we get to show people you, you can, you can do this. You can love and cheer and champion for each other. So God, we're asking for a mighty blessing now on Tim's life, on Tim's ministry, on his family, and together the people of God said, amen. Amen. Alright, thank you brother. Thanks. Alright, Here's the news. Flash for you. Change will happen in your life. Like there are gonna be changes that happen today, tomorrow, and a year from tomorrow. Some of those changes are gonna be great. Some of 'em are gonna be exciting. Some of them are gonna be, uh, like terrifying. Some of 'em are gonna have it all rolled in one. But let me tell you what they all have in common. You don't want to face any of those moments with, without God. Give us this day our daily bread, God, provide for me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That's what this prayer is. God, I'm admitting that I need you. Will you please provide for me? You want your prayers to take off you. You want, you want things to really kind of start to heat up between you and God. Then tell him the truth. Tell him what he already knows and just confess. God, I need you. It's okay. Physical, emotional, spiritual word. I don't know if I'm gonna make my numbers this year. God help me. God. I need, I, I I I need, I need some new friends in my life. Lord. I'm, I'm, I'm drifting, Lord. I don't even have the courage to call my sponsor. Please Lord, I need your help. Father, our marriage is stalled out. Show us what's next. God, I am freaking out about going back to school. We bring what we have in our hearts to God. Father, please, and please don't know, like, don't, don't ignore that daily business. 'cause we do this daily. We admit it's a humbling thing, but God, I need you daily. Daily. Have you ever woken up one day and you had like big stuff on your calendar, big moments, big meetings, big task. And it was like, man, I just gotta get after it. I gotta get up and I gotta go. And you just charged into your day without asking for God's help and guidance and sustenance. I'm not gonna ask you for a show of hands, I just know that it happens. And then you're about halfway through the meeting, you're about halfway through the day and like it's a mess. And you hear this little like, uh, voice on that internal intercom in your head, and it's like clean up on aisle 12, clean up on. And you're like, yeah, that was me. We come to God daily. God, I need your help daily. Will you help me? This is what we pray. It's a daily dependence. And the truth is, this is where he will meet you. God is in heaven. Y you gotta hear me. He reigns in eternity, whatever that means to our finite brains. But I'm telling you, God reigns in the right now. He is here right now. He is not a distant uncaring father. He is here. He is here and he is leaning in. And so this is why we pray, God, this is what I need today. Dallas Willard puts it like this. I have God and he has the provisions tomorrow it will be the same. Now let's take a break and come up for air. What I wanna do here for just a second is I wanna let the phrases that we've covered so far just catch up with you. So would you just hang out with some people around you and say, man, this is the one that's hitting me. This is the one that I'm thinking. You don't have to go in deeply with it, but this is the one that I'm gonna be thinking about all week. This is the one that I think God is talking to me about so far. By the way, if there's somebody sitting next to you and they don't seem connected to someone, will you just gently invite them into your group? And if they say thanks, but no thanks, then leave them alone. Amen. Talk to each other for just a second. All right, well, hey, as you, um, as you guys were walking in today, uh, I think you saw like already piles of backpacks and supplies and things like that to today is the, uh, the, this is the first weekend of two weekends of our collection, uh, backpack collection event. When I was in eighth grade, like two months into my eighth grade year, my family moved from Kansas City to Memphis just outside of Memphis. And we go to check out this new school that I'm gonna be a part of. I'm thinking I'm taking a tour of the school and I'll start the next day. The next thing you know, I'm at lunch with a bunch of people that I don't know, and I have nothing. I don't have a pencil. I don't have a paper. I have zero things. And this is my first day of school and I have, I have nothing, and I'm just, I feel all outta sorts, right? That's like a little fraction of what it could feel like to imagine being like a third grader going to school the first day and having nothing, right? This is our opportunity to help fix that and to help a whole bunch of families throughout the region start school, um, in the right way with all of the supplies, all of the pencils and markers and erasers and papers and folders that they need to be successful for school, for that first day of school. If you haven't already, text, text the word backpack to 4 8 0 9, 9, and you'll see all of the list of the things that we're collecting here. Uh, you'll also see a, uh, an Amazon link there. You can click that. You need to know this, that expires tomorrow because we need time for all of those deliveries to, to show up this week, because next weekend we start the process of sorting and stuffing backpacks and deliveries and all of that kind of things. In fact, we could use your help with that part of the collection too. So not only do we need you guys to, to step up and, and to give all of the supplies, but we also need a whole bunch of you to, to help sort and pack backpacks and then deliver them to the churches and partners and organizations, uh, that we're linking arms with, uh, for our backpack collection. Uh, so make sure you take advantage of that. Again, uh, text backpack to 4 8 0 9 9. You can also go to the website, go to the calendar page. You'll see a big link there that says backpack collection. That just gives you all of the information, uh, for this weekend and next weekend. So again, it's not too late, okay? Um, I tell you, when you guys step up like that, when so many of you are, are so faithful in the way that you give your tithes your offering out of an act of obedience, out of an act of worship, again, uh, people are coming to Jesus. Uh, they're understanding who he is and the offer of salvation forgiveness, not just within the walls of our church building, but man, those ripples are throughout the community and quite literally around the world. So thank you guys. If you're new here, welcome. So glad you're here. Come down front after the service, we'd love to meet you. Let us know how we can help you get connected and, and find the next step. But we're so glad that you guys are here. Okay? Which is it? Debts or trespasses? Quick show of hands here. Sites, how many of you grew up praying debts and debtors? Okay? How many of you grew up praying trespasses and trespasses or those who trespass against us? How many of you, when you hear somebody praying it the other way, you look at 'em sideways and they go, you're not praying it, right? Let me help you with that. We covered this, but both of those are, are, are fine. And both of them are thoroughly biblical. Uh, it's interesting to me that, that in this Matthew chapter six, Jesus, in just a few verses, talks a little bit more about forgiving others. And in that he talks about trespasses and those who have trespassed against us. And he uses a word there for trespass. But right here in this prayer, in Matthew chapter six, he uses a Greek word that actually denotes a a, uh, it's, it's like something that you owe to someone. Uh, debt. So they're both fine. They're both great words. They're both thoroughly biblical. And they both describe this predicament that we're in When we rebel against God, when we say, not thy will be done, but my will be done my way, I'll, I'm the boss of me. Thank you very much. And we, well, the Bible calls that sin and it wreaks all sorts of havoc in our relationship with him, in our relationships with each other. It leaves just, just all sorts of ugliness throughout the world when we sin. But now, let me just review this real quickly. Uh, when you, uh, wrong someone, okay? And the relationship, there's a c***k in the relationship. Now, part of making that right, is you admitting that, isn't it? I mean, part of part of making that right is you going to that person. We'll even use language like, I think I owe you. What an apology. Now you get to one of these really big violations, like, like a, a society wide thing. We talk about somebody needing to pay their debt to society. You see how this is in our, our thinking and in our language. It just makes sense. And then when we start to talk about God, okay, well, we'll come back to that in just a second. But is it hard for you to get to that place where you admit that you're in the wrong? Is it hard for you to say that out loud? Do we kind of do this in sort of a, a sideways sort of a, you know, we just barely kind of bounce off of it. Let's go even further. Like, is it even harder for you to say, forgive me? 'cause that really hits deep, doesn't it? It's like, Hey man, I'm, it's not just, I'm sorry. It's like, forgive me. That's a thing. Well, I want us to stir this up just for a second as we move into this phrase that we're looking at. So I want you to just talk to each other again and just go right back to those groups. But like, where are you with that? Is it harder to say, uh, I'm sorry. Is it, is it easier to say, oops, I'm sorry, but it's harder to say. Forgive me if if you're like, man, I don't even know where to start with that. How about this? Do you do the three word or the two word apology? Is it I'm sorry, or is it, I'm sorry, but I think you got plenty to talk about. Go ahead, go back to your friends. Okay. All right. We're not gonna, we're not gonna ask you to just share big, deep things, but just corporately, is anyone else willing to admit that? It just sometimes is so hard to say, I was wrong. Forgive me. I'm sorry. I apologize. It, it's just, it's, it's, it's difficult. And whether we wanna talk about debts or trespasses, this is the key that opens us up to this life with God. We are asking God to forgive us our sins. Now, I know some of you're still struggling with this, so let's keep talking about it afterwards because this is something that we will come back to. But I would just suggest that if there is an all knowing God, and if he is pure and perfect, and if he has a plan for eternity, and he will not let sin have the last word, then he's gonna have to deal with this brokenness one way or the other. He cannot just look the other way, or there is no such thing as justice and, and this life, frankly, I don't, I don't even think it, it has much meaning. If God isn't going to set things right, you see, sin is more dangerous. It's more damaging than we can imagine. Now, the best way for me to explain that to you is to point out what it cost God to make things right. You see, God hates sin. God loves us. And you get to the book of Colossians and Paul says, this debt that we owe, that's actually the word that's used there, this debt that we owe God, this, this penalty that is ours to pay to make things right. He nailed it to the cross. You see, the cross is where things are made, right? The cross is where God says, I love you so much. I will pay the debt for you. This is where our freedom comes from. This is the good news of the gospel, and it has nothing to do with us working up a religious sweat. It has everything to do with us admitting that God has done this for us and us admitting how desperately we need it. You see, that's, that's really what it all comes down to. The love of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son. Are you getting a sense of how much he mattered to the Father? I mean, we talked about his faithfulness. We talked about his goodness. What about his mercy? What about his eagerness to forgive? You know, why Jesus, I think one of the reasons he told that story about the runaway son, the prodigal son, was so that we could get to the punchline that father's running towards a kid that doesn't deserve anything but punishment, but he's running towards him. Not to break him, not to berate him, not to exile him, but to forgive him and to welcome him home, to restore him to a new life. That's the love of the Father, which is sang about it. His goodness is running after us again and again and again. So what I want us to do now for just a moment is to like, take a huge risk here and let's, let's start, Thomas, you, you just kinda start playing if you would. And, uh, um, Father, forgive us ours, our trespasses, our debts, huge, huge risk for us to look inward now, but I'm gonna ask us to power heads and do just that. Let me just along the way, just give you scriptures. As you and I come to a holy God who knows everything about us, maybe the Holy Spirit is now just nudging or pointing something out in each of our lives. Psalm 32, 5 says, I acknowledged my sin to you. As scary as that sounds, and as overwhelming as it might feel, don't forget one John one, nine, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. God's grace is enough. It's enough for my stuff. It's enough for yours. Psalm 1 0 3 says that, as far as the east is from the west, that's how far God has removed our transgressions from him. And one that I i clinging to often, um, Isaiah 38 17, you have put all my sins behind your back. This eternal omnipotent, all knowing God is choosing when we ask for forgiveness to not bring it up again. I, So there's more to this. Now, we're gonna move into a time of surrender here, but it says, as we forgive others, Jesus seems to kind of make this a package deal. It's not that we deserve forgiveness because we forgive, but what he's saying here is that if, if the grace is for us, if we have truly let this settle into our hearts, how could we not forgive? I'm not saying it's easy at all. I'm just saying it's costly. If we don't, did you know that there's, there's, uh, there's research out there that now shows that when you think about getting even with somebody and you kind of almost fantasize about revenge, or you just let it stew and turn your thoughts over and over and over, it's processed in the same part of your brain where addictions take hold. It's almost like this idea of seeking revenge is a kind of a drug. There's somebody at, at Yale Medical School who says, it's the world's deadliest addiction. Really? Yeah. It costs us so much. It sours our friendships. It, it, it, it, it hurts our heart health. Our blood pressure goes up. It poisons our thoughts. It isolates us. It shortens our lifespans. I've watched people age before my eyes because they refuse to let go of a grudge. And you know what's interesting? The journal article I read, it said, the antidote to this is we must learn to forgive you. See, that's what I want us to do now, is to understand that we don't have to do this alone. There's a God who is, uh, who is, is willing to help us with this. And so I'm, I'm gonna ask now if we could to just to just come back to him in prayer. And the prayer is something like this. God, I need you to finish the work in my heart. I can't do this on my own. Father, would you help me? I'm admitting this is hard, Lord, I can't, I can't, I I can't live with this weight. We surrender. Let's sing that together. Come on, surrender. You can have glory. Lord, these, these sons and daughters of the King are doing work that's too important for them to carry this weight. Mother, help us, show us how to now walk forward and let go of this. Lord, we want to forgive others as you keep forgiving us. Amen. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Lead us not into temptation. I think it's really important here to say that God doesn't tempt the book of James explicitly says God doesn't tempt you. So that can't be what Jesus is telling us to pray here. So what is he saying? He's saying again, I think we need to admit that we are vulnerable. We need to admit that temptation is a trap and it is a test. And God, please keep me from getting to the edge of something. Lord, you know my life, you know my tendencies, Lord, protect me. Lord, lead me. Keep me away from this Father. I don't want to sin against you. You see, some people will talk about, uh, is it is it evil or is it the evil one? Either way, we are admitting, God, I need your help. Think of it this way. One of the Psalms says, God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble. You see, when we start our days off, not in fear, but in honesty with God, saying, please, will you lead me today? Will you keep me safe today? Will you keep my words from drifting into that lane? God, you know, if I see that headline, if I hear that thing, if somebody at work brings up that topic, Lord, if we're having to work on that thing, God, I just, you know, please protect me, Lord. And when you feel that you are in a place where you're on the edge of something, you run to the God who is your refuge, you run to the God who is your ever present help in times of trouble. What am I saying? I'm saying what we've been saying all day long, what we just sang. It is time to surrender. It is time to admit, God, I can't do this, but you can. Father, please show me. I mean, that's it. That's the, that's, that's, that's the life my friend fleet calls it. A million surrenders. You surrender and then you surrender, and then you surrender. Yes. And as you and I begin to live this kingdom life and the fog begins to lift, there is a father who says, okay, come on, let's go. I'm not even finished with you, which is why we end the prayer with the doxology that, uh, it's not in some of the oldest manuscripts. So some of your bibles will have a little asterisk there, or it'll have an in, uh, italics. And it'll say that, you know, this isn't, doesn't go back to the oldest Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, but history tells us that this, this benediction was prayed like within a hundred years of Jesus time. So it goes way back. And there are some Jewish scholars that say it's a perfectly, uh, it's, it's kind of what you would expect a prayer and how you would expect it to end. And the words are lifted straight from scripture in one Chronicles 29, when, when, uh, David is praising the Lord. He says, yours, Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory. And then he keeps going, yours, Lord, is the kingdom. See, it's God's kingdom and power and glory. It's the whole ball game. It's how the universe works. And so we often end this prayer by saying, yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So now as we head into these next few weeks, I don't know if y'all have noticed or not, but July just happened And it's time to go back to school. And, and here we go, right? We've still got some great weekends planned for you. I can't wait until September when we share some things that God is doing in our midst and the things he's calling us to in the future. Don't even get me started. That's right after Labor Day. And then we're gonna start a series that we're planning for, and, and it's, it's, I, it's an overused word. I promised I would come up with another word. I haven't yet. It's epic. It's epic, okay? It's gonna start in September. It's gonna take us from Genesis through the Book of Revelation, and we will take a little break at Christmas time. We'll start it in September. We won't finish it until after Easter. God is going to do a mighty work here, but it's all God that's doing it. Okay? Let's give him all the glory. It's all God. And let's just say this, for some of you, you're like, well, what's my next step? For some of you, your next step is to admit to God that you can't make things right. I can't. You can. God, I trust what Jesus did. Will you welcome me home? And he will and he walk with you, and we'd like to walk with you too. We wanna walk with each other through this journey. We're gonna keep praising Jesus throughout these next few weeks, months and years. But I figured today, today we should probably end with the prayer. Now, don't you think? Shouldn't we say it together? So if you got it in you, and only, only, only if you can say this from a place in your heart, not like some dusty old thing that you were made to memorize when you were a kid, but if you can find this someplace in your soul and you can say it with meaning, then I want you to stand with me and we are going to say it together. So yeah, go ahead here elsewhere y'all stand, those of you at home stand. Let's do this together. But I want us to pray this as if it's true. I want us to pray this as if there is a God who is leaning in and listening. I want us to pray this as if prayer changes things. I want us to pray this as if God truly is up to something and he's still up to something and he'll still be up to something and he gets the last word. I wanna pray this as if his kingdom does last forever and ever. So that means maybe a little bit of a crescendo here as we keep saying this prayer together. Okay? Y'all ready? Yes. Here it is. Let's do it together. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today 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 the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Right here. This is our prayer.