Okay, so, um, how's your posture these days? Didn't see that one coming, did you? How's your posture? I mean, a, a lot of times people think posture. Oh, that's when mom used to make me sit up for dinner, right? You gotta sit up straight. Uh, or, or, or, uh, like somebody is posturing. Oh, they're just posturing for those people. Or it could be like, what's your posture on something? Or, or, or it could anybody remember that Ted talk from a few years ago we're posture was supposed to make you feel more confident? Anybody remember the power pose? Yeah. Some of you do. You took a wide stance and this, if you stood like this before you were like speaking publicly or something, you know, you would get more confidence and more optimism and an overall super hero vibe for just a minute. You would just kind of, that was now the research really didn't bear that out, but it was a fun thing. We all watched the video. Okay, so, but there's different posture too. Like, how's your posture these days in the world? Like, what would sum you up best these days? Is it, Ah, Is it, I could you some help? Is it, is it, I'm so worn out, I just gotta take a nap. Is it, oh, so you want to talk about that? Let's go. You see, we all have different postures and if you don't really know kind of what yours is, uh, you know, maybe ask somebody later, like, where do you think I am on this? But now let me ask you, what's been your posture when we talk about the Lord's Prayer? Are you, are you praying the Lord's Prayer? Some of us are, some of us are praying it more, you know, this prayer, uh, for 2000 years, when the followers of Jesus have gathered, they have prayed this prayer. For 2000 years, people have been coming to this prayer like from, uh, John Wesley to St. Francis of Assisi, to Martin Luther, to Corey tin boom, to Mother Theresa, to my friend Lin Donny Dube to the disciples who learned it from Jesus himself. People have come to this prayer. I would even say for almost that long, people who are trying to figure out who Jesus is, people who are interested in spiritual matters are drawn to this prayer. 'cause there's something about it. I mean, why wouldn't they look at this prayer speaks of like relationship and power. There's something to it. Jesus said, pray like this. We, we should, we should pay attention, right? So it won't be the last time today, but I think we should pray this prayer together. So I'm, I'm just telling you now, full disclosure, this whole posture business, I'm trying to stretch you out for something later. Okay? So what's your posture gonna be as we pray this prayer? You can, you can, you can approach this prayer however you want for some people. Honestly, you're not there yet. It's kind of like, I don't know that I'm buying it. For some of you, it's like, I need it. I need him. I, but I'm like really nervous to be too demonstrative. So it's kind like, God, I need you. For some people it's like, help. For some people it could be any number of things. I just want you, like, what's your posture? You're gonna be, now it's your call. As we pray this prayer already you've got, you've got a bunch of different options. I mean, one of them would just be to, to sit there. But you could bow your heads. You could, you could do any number of other things. Uh, you know, I you do know it's okay to keep your eyes open when you pray, right? Some of you thought the only posture for prayer was every head bow and every eye closed. No, you can, like, if you look in the gospels, Jesus is looking heavenward when he's praying to his father. You can do that. I, I pray with my eyes open. I pray with my eyes closed. If I'm driving, I pray with my eyes open. Hands at 10 and two, eyes open. So, you know, I mean, that's just, you know, but you get to do this now how you want to do this. So you ready? So we'll put the words up here on the screen. If you want to say these words out loud, then say these words. But I'm gonna ask it now. Like some of you, if you feel this is a moment where, no, I wanna stand, I, I wanna stand. And this is your moment. I would ask you at each of our sites, go ahead and stand as we pray this prayer together. So now, if you want to stand, and if you don't, then don't. If you wanna raise your hands, raise your hands. If you wanna bow your head, bow your head. It's your posture. 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. For thine. He's the kingdom and the power and the glory for amen. Now, there's an awful lot to that prayer. You can have a seat. We're gonna get to that nineties. The kingdom power and glory. We'll, we'll get to that in just a minute. But of those phrases that we prayed before, that, which one of those phrases is God using to, to speak to you these days? See, what we wanna do now is we're gonna talk to some folks around us. We're gonna use the app. We're gonna kind of all take a poll. We've been doing it from service to service throughout the weekend, through which of these phrases that are so rich and thick and spiritually dense, through which of these phrases has God been speaking to you? Which one can you not shake these days? So you let us know in the app and then hang out and talk to some people around you. Remember now, they may not have been here for all of it. They may not have an answer. They may not want to talk. It's okay. Just lean over, see if anybody wants to start the conversation. Go ahead. Okay. Alright. Uh, can I tell you why you guys are answering that? That there are lots of stories flying around this church these days regarding this series. We've been in this for eight weeks. Can you believe it? Those of you who took the whole ride eight weeks, eight weeks ago, we started this thing. And so many beautiful things. So many of you had said, you know, um, I I, I'm like, I'm gonna learn. Like you have resisted the urge to go, I know this, I've known this thing since I was eight years old. You have resisted that urge and have leaned in and gone deep and applied this to your life. And the Holy Spirit is doing something. You know, we have between like 15, 1800 people who jumped into these pray like this. Small groups, specific, small groups of people looking at this from week to week and opening God's word and doing this. What a cool thing. There's a group of, uh, there, uh, like there are young couples that got together and like connected so well that it's like this is over. They're gonna continue to meet. There's a group of moms like intergenerational groups. So they're at different stages of transition. So like one of them just sent off a child to kindergarten for the first time. One of them has a senior in high school and one of them is an empty nester. Now, can you imagine the kind of wisdom and beauty that's just kind of going, flying back and forth? There are, there's a group of, of, of men that meet at six o'clock in the morning so that they can gather, look at this, study God's word before they go to work. Come on. So we're seeing these things happen in a variety of ways. And I just wanted to say thank you, way to go. For those of you who have jumped in way to go, I know there were lots of reasons why some of you couldn't be in a group, but you were here and you jumped in and you were taking notes with our journals. 'cause I see you doing it here and I know you're doing it at Fenton, mid Rivers, grants Trail, even online. I know this is happening. So way to go. And, and, and, and if you, like, if you're new and you miss the whole thing, or maybe you missed a week, I would say go back. Like go back and catch them all because they, they're in a, they're in a package set. You want all of 'em, right? And some of this stuff is gonna keep coming up. I I just like, you want to, we covered a lot of ground from Fridge Scaping to Yes, yes, yes. And you want everything in between, right? Okay, so that's it. But let's go on ahead and say, this is not the only prayer we pray. Now it is, it's an important prayer. I mean, it's, it's just, Jesus said, pray this prayer. Pray like this. So we wanna pay attention to that one. Uh, philosopher slash theologian who was writing on the Lord's Prayer said, the Lord's Prayer is kind of like the base, the upright base in a symphony. It's that beautiful, thick, rich tone. It's the one that sets the tone. It's the base in the powerful symphony of prayer. You need that to set the tone and to set the pace. You want to come back to this prayer. I know people that are praying this prayer slowly to allow the, the presence of God to kind of sneak into their, uh, awareness. It's like, oh yeah, he's here. I know people that are praying it like phrase by phrase and allowing God to give them like, okay, this is how it applies to me right now. I know people that are picking like one phrase, like working their way through and saying, this is the phrase for the day. This is, this is it. Or maybe for the week, I think it's important for us to pray. By the way, uh, tonight at respite, we are going to pray through the Lord's Prayer, and it'll be a chance for us to just catch our breath one more time. Cannot, I mean, hope to see you there. Uh, but, but as we do this, I just want you to understand, we are accepting the invitation from Jesus when he says, pray this our Father, like you and I get to come to God the way a child runs to a trusted parent. Now, we've been saying this, we've been saying this, but do we realize it? I'm asking you right now when you pray, because I'm telling you sometimes when I pray like that parallel processing that's going on, you know, like you're, I'm doing this. But then there's that other thing. And there are times that it's like you don't even realize who you're talking with. And it's like, wait a minute, I'm talking to the creator of everything and I get to approach him. Look at what the writer of Hebrews says. I know we've been in Hebrews already, but look at this. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. The only way we can come to God that boldly, the only way I can say I don't need a middleman, I don't need an appointment, I'm going directly to God. The only way that happens is through Jesus in John the gospel of John, the first chapter, one more time. How do we have this access? It says, all who did receive him? Who's the hymn? It's Jesus all who receive Jesus to those who believe in his name. He gives them the right to become children of God. This is why we pray. When I pray, I stay connected to God, I get a sense of who God is. If there are parts of my life that maybe my posture is a little bit off, it's that prayer that begins to soften my heart. It's that prayer that begins to give me strength. It means I can look at this world, we said last week with our eyes wide open. We're not denying anything. And I still don't have to give into discouragement. I still don't have to give into to to the ugliness. I still don't have to get into. Um, how about this one? Fear. So Amazon, Kindle, y'all familiar, you know, when you highlight in Amazon Kindle, you know they're tracking that, right? Like they track all of your highlights. Now, I know that sounds creepy and you can turn it off. Uh, so you're welcome if you want to not be tracked, then you go in and you do that. But they track and collate the stuff that you highlight. And a few years ago, somebody said, well, I wonder what the most highlighted verse in the, in, in the Kindle app is. Like, you take the top translations of the Bible. I wonder what the most highlighted verse is. Do you know what it was? It wasn't John three 16. I mean, that would've been a good guess. That's probably what I would've said. It was Philippians four, six. Anyone committed that one to memory? Do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God. The, the the Greg like, uh, cookies on the bottom shelf translation. Don't be anxious about anything, but pray about everything. And yes, you're right. There's so much more to that. There's the peace that begins to guard our hearts. There's all of that, right? But I wanted that. That's like 10 years old. That news is 10 years old. I wanted something that was more current. So I went at it from a different angle. What's the most highlighted, the most bookmarked verse in the u version Bible last year. Now the U version Bible has like a gazillion people using that app. Okay? What's the most highlighted, shared and bookmarked verse. Now I want you to see if you notice a pattern here, because it's Isaiah 41 10. You know what that says? So do not fear for I am with you. Seems to me like there's a theme here. We don't wanna be afraid. We wanna know God is with us. We want to know that he is, he's hearing our prayers. See, we live in a sea of anxiety, a sea of worry, a sea of concerns. A a, a sea of fear about today and tomorrow and next week. I don't know if anybody has told you this or not, but, uh, there's an election next week. Anybody else hear that? Anybody else get a text? How are they getting our numbers? You see, every four years when we get up to a presidential election, I cite this survey because it happens every four years from the a PA, the, uh, American Psychological Association. Every year they election year, they measure this. This year when they measured this, they said, uh, now I'm glad you're sitting down. They said that this election has been a significant source of you ready stress for the American adult, and we're not getting better at it. I want you to, I want you to just see how it's looked over the last three cycles. It's going up. We are trending up. We are not getting any better at handling this. So what are we to do about it? Well, I think we should talk for a minute. We will get back into the, to the watch how, watch how God leads us right back into where we are at the end of this message. It's almost like he knew what was coming, but I think we should talk for a minute. Now, if you're new here, you're like, ha ha, here we go. Is this, when when, when you tell me how I'm supposed to vote this way or that way? Nah, I, we simply won't tell you how to fill out your ballot. And that always seems to frustrate some of you. But I think you got it. You can do it. You're smart people. And I so believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit. I so believe in God leading us. I so believe in the power of God's word that you can do this. It doesn't mean that we can't talk about this. I I think we, we can talk not not so much about, about what or who, but I think we can talk a little bit about how, now I realize some of you have already voted, right? I know that because Robin and I saw you in line when we voted earlier this week. But, but, but, but usually about this time, like right before the election, I think every time for years and years and years, am I right Randall? We always say the same thing. This is right about now that I say Jesus is king, not Caesar. There is a kingdom and there is a king, and his name is Jesus. And the kingdom of God is the long play. You know why? Because he shall reign forever and ever. Can the preacher get an awkward amen in the middle of this? I see what you're doing. I've never been with you in one of these things before, but I see what you're doing. This is where you now go into a whole big politics. Doesn't even matter. And God doesn't care point, is that, is that what you're about to say? No, I think some of us would wish I might just say that and then we'd be done with it. Because I think there's a general, uh, I dunno if this is a word or not. Fed upness with it all, no matter where you are, it's like, oh, but I think this stuff matters. I think we've been given a unique privilege in history when you look at the course of all history, for us to have a say so in our government, it's a big deal. And so as we always say, be a part of the process. Like allow God to lead you. Who to vote for how to vote when it comes to particular propositions and yes amendments. So how do we do this? Do your homework. Do do like, get the facts you want the facts and, and don't accept it just because somebody sent you something or sent you a link. If you've been with us for a while, I just want to like lovingly remind you of algorithms and echo chambers and you ought to just be savvy. Just when, look, why is this coming to me? You can go get the information yourself, read, listen, study the, the proposals and the propositions and the amendments, all of this stuff. You read this for yourself. You can be informed and then seek God's wisdom. I actually believe that the power of God's word and the presence of his Holy Spirit can lead us. So here's, here's an action point. Let's pray as we walk into the voting booth and then let's pray as we leave the voting booth, because God is calling us into a lifelong commitment to his kingdom. The kingdom is the long play and he's calling us into a world that he is not finished with, but I really do believe his word and biblical values can shed light on how we live our lives and even how we live our lives as citizens. So lemme give you just a quick example here and then we'll be done. This is something that we talk about from our weekend services to various classes and dinners, to private and sometimes difficult conversations. But every life born and unborn bears the image of God. It informs how we do what we do. David says, you have knit me in my mother's womb. It informs how we do what we do. We champion life unborn and born. Because in Genesis one twenty seven, it says, male and female, he created them in the image of God. Now, watch how this goes because it, it's, it's, we champion life. It's why, it's why we try to create safe spaces where women are welcome to bring their concerns and questions at a pivotal moment. It's why we have women who will speak openly and lovingly and privately with them about the value of life in that moment of decision. It's why we can't disregard what someone is going through and, and, and some of the unimaginable situations, some that were simply not of their own doing. It's why we listen hard when it's hard to listen. And we lean in and we pray even harder. It's why we speak truth. But it is why we love intangible ways. It's why private and healing conversations take place years after a heartbreaking decision was made. And it's why we move in close to men and speak to them about sexual ethics and responsibility in a godly way to honor a woman and to own your part of the responsibility we believe and will always proclaim the value of human life as the old preachers used to say, from the womb to the tomb. It's all of it. And it all matters to God. And we love, we love how this works. Now listen to me. We are saying this because every life bears the image of God. Yes. But even as we now, uh, speak of protecting the unborn and the born, and then once they're born, the the, the overlooked and the least of these, even then I still hear people who will disagree politically. Now, uh, in Missouri we have people joining us from all over. But, but here in this state at this time, there is an amendment which is more clear cut. Now with us having this value of biblical life, I am finding people who, when it comes to that particular amendment, go, yeah, we all agree on that. And they still are coming to different conclusions about particular candidates because of various and other biblical concerns that they're looking at. And they're related to each other. They're friends with each other and they all follow Jesus. What are we to do with that? Some of you're like, but I some of you're so passionate about your positions that you're like, I, I can't, I can't hardly believe that's possible to suggest that someone could disagree with you and still be a thoughtful follower of Jesus who loves God's word and cares about the future of this country. And they disagree with you. It's just making your head hurt. And gang, I'm talking to people on both sides of the aisle, if I could use that term. And it, it's just, it makes you wanna stand up and scream. And I'm glad you're not, by the way. 'cause I don't think the screaming is helping. I don't think it's moving the conversation along. I don't think we're learning from each other. I don't think that the research is in the screaming isn't helping. So can we at least start there? Let's do this differently. I'm not at all thrown that people have, uh, passionate, uh, commitments at, at all. But let's just get better at conversations and at listening hard when the, when it's hard to listen, it will do me no good. And I think it does the kingdom significant harm. If I turn on someone who follows the same Jesus I follow just because their ballot doesn't look like mine. I wanna say one more time, it makes sense to be passionate. Jesus is not saying to not be passionate about these things. He's just saying we can be passionate and do things differently. Let's be the people who do things differently. Let's ground our convictions in God's word. Let's ground up an old-fashioned things like right and wrong and common decency and common sense as it makes its roots and takes its roots in scripture. Let's do that. And some of you're like, Greg, you can't quote scripture and this, that's, that's naive man. We're, you can't, you can't quote scripture in these things. I'm just telling you, I still believe that God's word stands for something. And, and I'm gonna follow all of his words. So when his word says, speak the truth, we're gonna speak the truth. But his word also says, speak the truth in love. His word tells us this. Listen gang, we cannot use our words as weapons against people who do not think, look, or act like us. We can't do that. It is not the way of the king. Proverbs 1218 says, rash words are like sword thrusts. If you go into the Hebrew, it is a very violent image. God warns us against that and is saying, that's not my way. And speaking of violence, I can say this 'cause I don't know. I I don't, I don't know anything yet. Can we be the people who stand against violence and destruction in the streets and chaos no matter who wins, let's be the people who push back darkness. Let's be the people who take a different posture than the rest of the world. So here's what I say. Uh, do your homework, pray, vote, and then keep your eye on Jesus. Because he's the whole ballgame. Yes, we're gonna keep our eye on him. And I know sometimes people go, oh, that's such an out, that's such a cliche. No, I actually believe that. I'm, I'm just gonna tell you that. And I I'm not trying to be dramatic here. I'm just telling you my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. He's what I've got in these moments. And by the way, that's what we're gonna talk about next week. See, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm on record. I've already written about this. It's in a book after every election we commit to, to preaching out of Jeremiah 29. Because some of us are, are gonna feel great and some of us are gonna feel like we're in exile and we're all gonna follow the same Jesus. It, it's just what we do every time. So you're like, oh, you're picking that. But nope, we do it ahead of time. In fact, just so that I can, like, we just wanna make sure that that we're on record. Is it, is it's the one screen. Okay. Through the miracle of time travel. I wanna speak to next week's service. Okay? So first of all, when do you get a load of this little series we're gonna do in November? And how these stages and these, these rooms are gonna look different. They're gonna look so good. It's just gonna be a completely different feel. Looks good, doesn't it? Yeah. So, so here's the thing. Um, we may not know, even by the weekend who's won this thing. Now you're either nodding with me and going, we don't know, or you're laughing at me either way. 'cause you do know. But here's what I know. No matter what, here's what I know, the king is still on his throne. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And this is what we're gonna celebrate no matter who wins. This is where we're going. This is what God has called us to. Now, uh, I I I know that there are some of you who are going to want to share with me like how you disagree with, with, with this. And I get it. I mean, and, and hopefully you'll do it in a, in a kind and a direct and a helpful way. It's probably because I didn't say something clearly enough. Uh, some of you might, I don't know, you might say it in a not great way. Uh, 'cause that happens too. Some of you're frustrated because you wanted a little bit more or a lot less from this very imperfect pastor. But here's your news flash. He's an imperfect pastor. This isn't an all shucks kind of a posture thing. I'm just telling you the truth. You know why? Because I don't want you to keep your eyes on me. Let's turn our eyes on the king and let's follow the king because he's calling us deeper into this. And I believe as we go further and further into this, we need to remember a couple of things. You see, if we follow Jesus, then we don't have to give in to toxic anger. If we follow Jesus, we don't even have to give into destructive fear. Okay? I want you to hear me. I don't wanna live with indifference. This stuff matters to me. Please do not hear, oh, I guess he just doesn't care. No, I'm not gonna live with indifference, but I'm not going to give into fear because I believe the God of the universe, the sovereign creator who stands outside of time, he is not intimidated by tomorrow, he's got us. So here's what I say, if you haven't vote on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, let's get about the business of making a difference in the name of Jesus for his kingdom's sake. Because we're gonna keep chasing after the king. Which as best I can tell, means that we could go back and look at this prayer. See what I did, there we're out of the politics and I we're back in the prayer. Let's go ahead and look at what your answers were of the phrase that kind of rang so true to you. Uh, I think we have enough results in that we are able to make a projection of who. No, it's probably too soon for that. So, uh, but let's just see what you, wow. It's so interesting. Each of the services, it's been different. Mm mm Wow. I love how honest you are. I I love how each of these, I promise you the answers have been different. We're all sensing this differently. But the power of God's word is that we can, we can hear this, we can do this right? Protect us from evil. God protect us from, i, I I will even say fear. Protect us from the urge to just to walk away from our neighbors and our friends and from, from, from pushing in deeper into the story. See, what I love about the prayer is it always takes us back to who God is. It always takes us back to what he's doing in, in, in our lives. Let's just say it this way. Who can handle this world besides God? Who can handle the hurt and the questions and the, the, the, the, the struggles who can handle the, the, the, the fear. Who can handle the brokenness of this world? But Jesus, it's Jesus. Only Jesus. And if you wanna think of how the kingdom advances, it happens in these big huge ways that we all see. And it happens in these tiny little ways that hardly anybody sees, but you. It happens in ways where we, we are, are loving, uh, our neighbors and we're listening to our friends and we're coming alongside people. It happens in ways where we serve people whose names we will not know. This side of eternity. So I was in a gathering in Atlanta this week and I ran into one of the leaders of this organization that, uh, we partner with when it comes to disaster relief. Convoy of hope is that they're the world leaders in disaster relief. We trust them. We make sure that we partner with them when something happens. And one of these guys said, Greg, like you should take a look at this video because it really sums up how you guys are loving people. Well, people whose names you don't even know. So watch this. It was Loud. It was loud and whistling. You are literally watching trees that don't move and have been there for years. You're watching them just like come out of the ground and fall over. The trees were just falling on every angle. And I just stood in the middle of the trailer just on the floor. 'cause I didn't know what to do. I was terrified. You don't even know if the world is alive out there. You don't know what's going on until you start driving around and then you start realizing you need to get gas. Where's the food all? Oh no, the water is off now. So it's like one thing on top of another. There's not been a big hurricane here in a hundred years. Lake McGorry is overflowing and it's at least knee deep. The trailers have the roots ripped right off. There's no power. There's trees down. I mean, big, huge trees down everywhere down there. I mean, I lost a really good friend. He was on his roof of his house. He perished. You know, I'm one of those fortunate ones that don't, you know, that I didn't lose my life or, or I didn't have a lose my home. So yeah, it's gonna be at least 18 months till everything's back to normal. Normal, yeah, it's horrible. Uh, I know water, we're not gonna have, they're talking a month, maybe six weeks to two months To see people coming together now and like trying to make sure everyone's okay. They're checking in. They're, they're, they're just showing support and being there. It's a, it's a huge different feel. It's like a dark cloud. But the pe the help is here. I mean, getting Clorox, because I need to be able to sanitize some things. And you know, I know we need water and wipes, Uh, convoy of Hope, um, amazing organization. Truckloads of supplies. That's why I'm always telling people Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you. This means a lot because there's, there's people that need this. I'm grateful for everybody that's been helping. Like, I love it. For those of you who weren't here when the first storm hit. And then the next storm. These are historic storms. We took money out of our disaster relief fund here. It's not an inexhaustible fund, but we took money out here, 25,000. And we gave it through Convoy. 'cause we wanna do this as a church so that people know there's a church in St. Louis cheering for them. So we did that. And then that next week, if you weren't here, I just wanted to remind you, we just, in one week, we said, Hey, would you like to help us with this? And we were able to double that gift. So $50,000 from here went towards these people who most of you folks don't even know. Here's Yeah, praise God. Here's the point. Sometimes our daily bread comes from somebody who shares a little bit of their daily bread. Praise God. And it is happening there, but it's happening here with Give Food Plus it's happening with people going, wait, how can I, how can I do this? This too is the kingdom of God. When I'm walking through, there's a, a, a youth, uh, I dunno what we call it, a weekend retreat, whatever. It was extravagant the last weekend. And, and I'm walking through on a Saturday before, or maybe it was a Friday, walking through the lobby and there's a whole bunch of teenage guys that were in a circle with an adult leader and they all look up and they go, Hey Greg. And I said, Hey. And I kept walking, and I never told you this, but there were two things that fired in my head. The first one was, God, thank you for a, a, a, an adult that's pouring into these students. And that those students are sitting there wrestling down. Oh, so this is how you live out your faith. I walked away and I said to God, that's how you're gonna change the world. I'm just grateful for that. When a woman scoops up a little 2-year-old who is still trying to figure out if going to, uh, his class at Kids Crossing is a good thing or not, but she knows him and he knows her and she welcomes him. That's the kingdom of God. When some of you write a note or text somebody and say, I was thinking about you, I was praying for you. I know what you're going through. That is the kingdom of God. When you invite someone to an explorations class, or maybe you invite 'em just to come back to church, that is the kingdom of God advancing. When, when a group of men say, Hey, we're not, we're, we're, we're done with this now, but we're gonna keep, we're gonna keep gathering and we wanna study. Get this, the concept of biblical humility, that's the kingdom of God advancing. When a woman after the forgiveness, uh, weekend said, I don't think like, I'm not getting it. And she realized the missing piece was that she's never received God's forgiveness. And so then surrounded by her circle, she becomes a daughter of the king. That's the kingdom of God advancing. That's the king still having his way in this world and in our hearts and lives. And we're close. We're not done. We're close. But I think we should, we should worship him for just a second. Don't you think? Sights, will you join us? Darnella, would you lead all of us? How great He's our God. Sing with me. How great is our God? And no will see. How is God? Amen. Amen. Yes. You Okay? Some of you know this one. Let's just keep singing Then Sings. Amen. Amen. Amen. We're close. Now we're close. Have a seat for just a minute. I want to explain this last, this last close to you and then we're done. You see that last for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. I told you in week one that it's not in the oldest manuscripts. So in some of your Bibles it's not even there. Now there's, there's evidence that it goes way back. I could talk to you about how at Jewish prayer would never end with deliver us from evil. So Jesus expects there to be a wrap up. But either way, whether he said it or didn't say it, it's thoroughly biblical. Don't have time to go into it. But in one Chronicles 29, this is lifted directly from that prayer. An oh doctor, is that a prayer? You should go spend some time there where David is praising God because this is what he says just in one of the verses, yours, Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory, and it keeps going. Yours, Lord is the kingdom. You see, that's the whole ballgame. So we end our prayer with, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. And if you remember from last week, what's a good, like paraphrase of the word? Amen. Yes, yes, yes. And for some of you, the first yes is to say yes to Jesus and his offer of grace. For some of you, if you wanna unlock this prayer and unlock this life, you turn to him and say, I can't make things right, but you did this for me. Will you forgive me? Will you lead me? And I'm telling you, he will do all of that. And he will. He will. And for the rest of our days, he is a walk with God, having a conversation your way, your will, your kingdom. And yes, we do pray. Protect us from evil. God, please. But leave me. I, I i lead me. I wanna I wanna do this your way, your way. See here we are. This is posture again. So remember I stretched you out for posture. I don't know what your posture is for prayer. You see all sorts of things in the scriptures. Hands up, head bowed, eyes open. There's even places in there where you see face down, there's a tradition in the Orthodox church of praying face down before God. You ever done that? I pray face down before God. Not, not in front of people, but I do it. So I'm in Asheville, North Carolina, uh, teaching at a conference. And it's, it's, it's, you know, it was a day, it was a busy day. Uh, like lots of breakout sessions and things like that and you know, talking to people and it was great. But then I was the teacher for the main session. So I had to get big to the big room. I had to get all wired up and all of that. And I kind of wanted to go over my notes, catch my breath. So it's kind of like, okay, so I'm just getting back to whatever room it was there. I'm breathing, I'm looking at my stuff and it's like, okay, okay, okay. I'm God, I I need to kind of, oh, okay. And all of a sudden the, the CEO of the organization that, uh, is sponsoring this thing, he walks into the room 'cause he's speaking to it. I'm like, oh, okay. I gotta be nice. And so then we're talking for a little bit and then I sit back down because he's got some notes he needs to look over. So I'm like, okay, all right. I still got time. I'm like, yeah, okay. Then a guy from South Africa walks in because he's introducing me and he wants to make sure he gets the details right. And so we do all of that and it's like, okay, I still have time, Lord, I gotta, okay Lord, okay. And then the guy, the executive says, I don't know about you fellas, but I feel like I need to get on my face before God. And we're like, yeah, yeah, we're with you, man. I was just getting ready to pray right now. And he like got down on the floor on his face before God. And then he looked up at us and said, are you guys joining me? And I made eye contact with the South African guy and he was like, well, uh, yeah, sure we were coming. And I'm like, okay, all right. And he starts praying and I'm like, okay, God, here we go. And I'm now down on, and I wish I could tell you that I immediately dropped into prayer, but I immediately started to complain, God, I wanna do a good job. I need to look at my notes. I need to calm myself. This is so weird. And Father, this floor is filthy. I'm gonna look like I was rolling around in a, on a hay bale. When I get up, what am I doing here? And I'm really fighting with God over this thing. And then a guy, like a tech guy comes in, like walks into the green room and sees all three of us. And I'm like, oh, this isn't as weird as it looks. I mean, three guys plastered on the floor, he's still praying. And I'm like, oh God. And so eventually this humility of this man and his prayer, it got to me and the Holy Spirit got to me. And I started listening to him, the Holy Spirit. I mean, and I, I just, I, I started confessing, God, forgive me for caring what other people think of me and what I look like when I stand up there. God forgive me for thinking I gotta get all of this just right. I mean, I just really started doing some business with God. And you know what? God in his mercy, I wasn't covered with shame in that moment. I was covered with mercy. I felt it. I sensed it. And now I'm grateful. And now I'm praying. God, I'm so thankful that I get to do this. I'm so thankful for my family. I should have prayed for my family. And as sure as I'm here planted on the floor, I started thanking God for what it was to be a pastor at this church. It's like, God, how did I get this? Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't wait to go home. God, please bless the team. Please bless our people. God, we get to do this together. And I mean, I'm just praying. And it's just at the end, it was just like, God, it's, it's, it's your glory. Not mine. It's well, however you want to do this. It's you, God, it's you. Do you have any idea what happens when we pray? God, not my glory, yours, when we're open about how much we need is power When we say it's not my kingdom, it's yours. It's yours. Now, the cynic in the room right now is looking at this goofball and saying, you're posturing. You are trying to get people's attention and you're trying to actually, like, you're trying to play on their emotions. I don't think I am. I want you to know the invitation at the end of this series is to pray to the God of the universe. And I don't know what posture it is. I just know we pray to the king, get this Jesus faced evil and he won. You know what that means? It means those of us who cast our lot with him, we have hope no matter what today, tomorrow, or five years from tomorrow holds, we have hope because we have cast our lot with the king. And I'm asking you now here at the end, would you pray with me? Some of you, honestly, it might be on your knees, like you're gonna need to come find a place to be on your knees. It might be standing, it might be bowing your head. It might be, would you pastors just kind of land in different parts of the room? Uh, would somebody, would one of you, Ben, will you go up there on the landing and pray for those people? Will some of you guys, Tim, will you guys go to different spots and going ahead and scooch up David into like, uh, onto the steps so that you can kind of get up into the risers there. Same thing at the sites. If you would do this, would you all just begin to pray for these people? But I want you now, Whatever the posture is, Like, You could come forward and pray with us. Come on. There's, there's, let's just do this. Some of you, I've seen people come alongside and just sit with a pastor and say, Hey, will you sit with me and can we pray? Come on, let's pray. For some of you, it's hands high. For some of you it's bowed heads. For some of you, it's like, Jesus, I need you. For some of us, it's like, I need help. For some of you who you've been going through something for eight weeks now and nobody else knows it, but God does, some of us are praying for a, a, a family member for a relationship that's just, it's just torn apart. Some of us are praying for, for all sorts of things. For next week, we're praying for protection from evil. Let's pray. God, we come before you. You Are the king. You are the king. There is no kingdom without a king. And you are the king Jesus. You are the king As we. So we're gonna continue in a time of prayer now, and, um, I'd ask that you, you know, honor that with other people. If you need prayer, come find us in each of the, uh, rooms, in each of the ways. If, if, if there's any way we can help, please let us know, but let's keep praying. Prayer is one of those things that you get better at, the more you do it. In fact, I would invite you at each site to join us tonight for respite to breathe and to pray and to remember who the king is. So until next week when we celebrate the king, let's leave here now praying and seeking the one who is inviting us to go to our father. So thank you.