Life is both full. And fragile Right. Life is so full. God is so big. God is so
good. And at the same time, life is so fragile, isn't it? You know, just 2 weeks
ago we had New Year's Eve, Times Square, the ball drops, and when the ball drops
and we begin the new year, what falls from the sky. Confetti, right? Big party,
a lot of fun. Here's how my mind works, um, is that my mind works. I wonder how
much confetti actually falls. And so I start doing some research on it and it's
roughly 3000 pounds of confetti gets dropped from the sky. OK, 3000 pounds of
confetti. Then I start wondering, well, how many, how many pieces of confetti
are in one pound? OK, so I looked it up and they say there's a range, OK, for
those confetti experts out there. They say, uh, between depending on what type
of paper is used or. This whatever is used, you have, uh, on the low end 16,000
pieces per pound up to like 37,000 pieces per pound. So let's just take a middle
number ish in there. Let's say per pound of confetti there's 25,000 pieces times
3000 pounds that equates to 75 million pieces of confetti that dropped down on
New Year's Eve. It's pretty wild, right? You wanna know something that's way
more crazy? Is that I was also curious to uh with this thought is like what if
the stars in the sky were like confetti celebrating God? It was that was the
that was the thought in my head, right, dropping down, because I see confetti on
the screen, I look up in the sky and I see those dots. I'm like, oh, I'm just
curious how many stars are there? Um, have you, and, and the number keeps
increasing by the way, as our technology gets better and our estimates get
better. Do you know what the current estimate of number of stars in the known
universe currently is? It's 200 billion trillion. 200 billion trillion. Like
they can't even like they, they go, they throw them side by side. So billion,
OK, 90s, trillion, 12 zeros, and then 200. So you add all that up. That is one
followed by 23 00. Number of stars in the universe and that number's probably
bigger than that. That's just what we can guess. How crazy is that? I don't know
about you, but 75 million pieces of the confetti is a lot. Right, and hopefully
in a week or so those pieces of confetti will be scarlet and gray, just saying,
right? Come on, we're down to 2, baby. Let's go. OH I oh all right. 3 Buckeye
fans are with me. The rest of the world hates us, but we stand strong.
Perseverance of the faith. OK, so I'm hoping for the confetti to fall down, but
what's crazy to me is that every single time you walk outside at night and you
look up and you see the stars, that the stars are merely confetti for the power
of God, that he knows each one by name. There are entire galaxies that exist
simply because God wants them to. God is big and life is full, right? And Life
is fragile. Or if you've watched the Christmas story, Ralphie's dad, Fragile.
Yeah There's not a single person in this room whose entire life could not change
in a phone call in a moment. Right? A sickness, an accident, a loss of job, a
loss of a loved one. A betrayal So many things can happen to where you might be
sitting in the room right now where I have no idea how I got here. This is not
what I expected. So what do we do with that? Life is full. And life is fragile.
I'll tell you one thing that we can do. We can pray. We can pray. We're spending
the 1st 3 weeks of the new year talking about prayer. We're not just talking
about prayer, to talk about prayer, we're talking about prayer through the lens
of how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. They saw all the miracles, all the
preaching, everything, and the one thing the disciples wanted to know was Jesus,
how is it that you pray? And last week we saw in there that prayer is not a
button to be pushed. But a relationship to be pursued. It's a relationship to be
pursued. This idea, this concept here is that it's not just a box to check off,
but that God actually wants to know you. And God wants you to know him. That at
any point, and at any time from anywhere, you can go to God in prayer. It's not
a button to be pushed, it's a relation to be pursued. And at its simplest form,
prayer is talking with God. It's listening to, it's expressing raw emotion with,
and it's sharing your heart with God and listening for his heart. And as we've
been praying through the prayers found in Luke 11, also found in Matthew 6. We
read these opening verses here, and we, and we're studying each component. So
Jesus says, pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
And today we're gonna look at verses 10 and 11. Your kingdom come, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. So very
common phrases. But what do they actually mean? Right? When we say these words
in prayer, what are we actually asking God to do? And If you're taking notes, I
encourage you to write this down. That we should be praying heaven down instead
of living culture up. We should be praying heaven down instead of living culture
up. If you try to live culture up, you're always gonna be chasing. The latest
car, the latest fashion, the latest house, the latest lingo. And whatever you
have is never gonna be enough because it's always a moving target in culture,
isn't it? What's accepted, what's OK, what's not OK. Why people get upset? Why,
why they don't get upset? Why they what they celebrate, what they don't
celebrate. It's always moving. But what if instead of trying to live culture up,
trying to bring culture into church, we tried to bring church and God's kingdom
into culture. I was sharing this uh as a coach this week with some of my players
that. You know there's the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat
right? a thermometer just simply reads the temperature. And there's a lot of
people in culture that are reading temperature right now, right? There's a lot
of people that just give them commentary. This person's bad. Oh, they said this,
they said this. And in a lot of cases, they are correct. They're angry, but,
right, they, they're just sharing. This is what's happening. Oh. But we're not
called to just simply be thermometers and culture. We're called to be the
thermostat, which is the difference there is that the thermostat actually sets
the temperature in the room. And as a church, we have the opportunity to not
just read the temperature of our community but actually set the temperature with
the good news of Jesus Christ and how we love and serve one another. Amen. So
when you're praying, you're not praying to live culture up, you're praying to
bring kingdom and heaven down. Right? Our Father, that really represents being
in the presence of God. It's personal, right? When we say hallowed be thy name.
That's starting off with God's praise. It's recognizing and acknowledging the
holiness and goodness and greatness of God. And when we say, God, your kingdom
come, your will be done. What we're praying for ultimately is God's purpose.
We're saying, God, you move. And by doing so, you're taking a posture, a stance
of humility. If we learn nothing else from the little movie Finding Nemo, those
little birds, they just chirp, mine, mine, mine, right? You don't have to learn
that, do you, as humans we immediately come out of the world or come into the
world, we start crying, we start wanting, we start needing stuff, right? We just
walk into rooms, and we do this as kids, but let's be where we do this as adults
too, and we just try to grab as much as we can. It just changes as adults, we
just try to change it for attention and popularity and money and resources and
reputation, right? But when you're praying God's kingdom, you're saying, God,
Your will. Your heart You're leading What is the kingdom of God? It's not really
a common concept for us today. Right, we don't think of it that way. Now in
their day, right it's the Roman Empire, the Babylon Babylonians, the Syrians,
the Persians, right, there, there's these kingdoms and a king and a ruler. Well,
for us, when Jesus comes onto the scene and preaches the kingdom of God, right,
they thought when he came riding in on a donkey there in Palm Sunday, they
thought he was gonna overthrow their physical government and come in and, and,
and become the physical king. And he actually offers something even greater, the
spiritual kingdom that not only applied in their context, but in every context,
including ours, 2000 years later in a completely different location. And so what
is the kingdom of God? Simply put, the kingdom of God is the power of God
working through the people of God. It's the power of God working through the
people of God. Another way to think about it is that the kingdom of God is the
rule and reign of Christ, the rule and reign of Christ. Uh, back then they would
erect statues of the emperor to show who's in charge and the currency and the
money right there would be images of the king. And so you would see roads, you
would see markings, you would see certain things, right, to represent who's in
charge. Now what's cool about that idea is that in Genesis 1:27, we understand
that we are made in the image of God. And remember where the image is, the king
reigns, right? Which means for you and I today. That where the image of God is,
the reign of God rules. Well, if you carry the image of God with you as a son or
daughter of God, that means where you go, God reigns. Anywhere you go as a
believer in Jesus, you have dominion over that space. Isn't that cool? Here's
the thing to think about too, is that eternity doesn't start the moment you die,
but the moment you place your faith in Jesus. Right? Whether you're a small
child, or maybe recently, you put your faith in Jesus, you're like, wow,
forgiveness, eternal life. That's amazing. John 3:16, I will not perish. I will
have eternal life. I'll be in heaven with God someday. Awesome. Now what? And
sometimes faith, like, I don't know about you, like, it just, it feels like it
should be more than just waiting to die someday. Like that doesn't feel very
appealing to me. Right? Uh, like I don't really want, I, the Christian life, I
don't think it's meant to feel like waiting in the DMV. And if you're in the
room and you work at a DMV, my apologies, but come on, even you know, right? But
we kind of do that, right? Where we, you get saved, like, wow, God is so good.
And then you find yourself. Hm OK, I'm B 37, um, OK, I don't know when my
number's called, I guess I just kind of wait. Right. Like heaven is so much more
than just going up to play a harp on a cloud with little baby angels that look a
little cherubs that we think of it like Valentine's Day with bow and arrows
apparently, right? Like that's what like like heaven is so much better than
anything you can imagine. Uh, a few thoughts here real quick. This sidebar, OK,
if God created the universe with the 200 billion trillion stars, OK, in 6 days
for the seventh day to rest because he can, what can he do with an eternity? If
you think this broken world is cool, wait till you get to heaven, right? That
the best way you can describe heaven is by describing what's not there. No
sickness, no death, no betrayal, no brokenness, no sin. Full love, acceptance,
relationship, community, purpose, work, joy, adventure. See, when you accept
Jesus into your heart, what that means is you actually get little tastes, little
glimpses into heaven right now. I describe it almost like it's the cocktail hour
at a wedding reception. Right? You know the party's gonna begin. You don't quite
know when it's gonna start, but when they come around with those tiny little
quesadilla trays, you're like, yes, please. Right? Stuff that you wouldn't
normally eat like, I, I, I don't see people out and about eating cucumber
sandwiches, but at reception, I'm in. Right? There are little tastes, little
bites of heaven, right? When you hold a little baby. When you, when you, when
you connect with a friend and you laugh all night. When you try Chick fil A
sauce? I mean, there are glimpses of heaven all around us, isn't there? Right?
Eternity doesn't start the moment you die. It starts the moment you put Jesus
into your heart. And so you get to have these glimpses of heaven. Now, that's
why you're praying kingdom down. You see the broken here's the challenge, OK? If
you think This is heaven It does not make sense. But for some people, the
reality is this is the closest to heaven they're ever gonna get. But for those
who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, this is the closest to hell
you're ever gonna get. Is it tough? Is it, is it hurting? Yes. But not forever.
And God's promised to come down and meet you where you are. Jesus says this on
the sermon of the mountain, says this in Matthew 6:33, says, seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Seek first His kingdom, seek first his rule and reign. Seek first his power to
work through you. You have the power that defeated death available to you, and
yet we walk through life scared and fearful and anxious. That says you don't
have to be. I get it, that's the default mode, that's what the world has, but
you don't live as a world. You're not bringing culture up to heaven, you're
bringing heaven down to culture. Paul writes this in Galatians 1:13-14. He says
he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the
kingdom of his beloved son. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
I love that. He has taken us from the domain of darkness and brought us into His
kingdom. Where you can find purpose and forgiveness and love and joy and meaning
and strength, right? We shared on Christmas Eve that because of Christmas,
because of Easter, because of the coming of Jesus, we can be more than
conquerors, that that word in there really more than conquerors is one word that
means you can have victory over the battle and you can have victory while still
in the battle. The the tough things in life remind us that we're on earth, but
the good things in life remind us that heaven is waiting. That's why you can
travel all over the world and sometimes it's the people who have the least,
weirdly enough, seem to have the most joy. Why? Because their perspective is God
kingdom come, your will be done. Now it's more than just physical blessing.
It's, it's the posture of the heart. Paul writes this in Romans 14:17 says, for
the kingdom of God, it's not a matter of eating and drinking, right? Not just of
material blessing, he says, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit. You can actually have all those things when from an earthly perspective,
nothing makes sense. Why? Because God's kingdom has come. It's here. Jesus
Christ prayed this himself. He actually lived out this example of your kingdom
come, your will be done because it's not easy, right? Did, did the disciples'
lives get easier or tougher when they put their faith in Jesus? Much more
difficult. Right. So Jesus in the garden, about to be arrested and then
crucified as payment on the cross for your sins and for mine. Starts sweating
and like tears of blood dripping down so intensely, but yet in the most intense,
excruciating moment right before the crucifixion, he prays these words, he says,
and he withdrew from them about a stone's throw away, knelt down and prayed,
saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not
my will but yours be done. For those that are going through a struggle and a
battle right now. I encourage you to pray those words of Jesus. Lord, if you're
willing, take fill in the blank from me. But whatever happens, your will be
done. Why? Because it's a posture of humility. Changes things. Our Father,
that's God's presence. Hallowed be thy name. That's that's God's praise. Your
kingdom come, your will be done. That's God's purpose. Give us this daily bread,
that's God's provision. God has promised to provide for us. Uh, Kurt's in the
room. Pastor Kurt, one of his favorite sayings, I just, I hear him say it all
the time, but I love it, so I'm stealing it, Kurt. Is that where God guides, God
provides. It's a great truthful statement. It rhymes, so I love it. But can I
just be honest with you though? Sometimes God's provision doesn't look like we
think it should. Sometimes God's provision doesn't look like we think it should.
Sometimes, OK? It's an offering, sometimes it's an opportunity, sometimes it's
an obstacle. It doesn't look anything like we think it should be. But it's not
our provision, it's God's provision for us. Right. Looking back on my life, I
see so many weird moments that God had orchestrated perfectly. And I shared last
week about how my wife and I got together. The reason we were hanging out that
day and I got nervous before asking her out on a date and all that was because I
had torn my ACL. And I was about to have surgery for my knee at the time I
thought my identity and purpose was basketball, sports, living college life, so
I got really mad that for a moment the thing that I loved was taken away from
me, but it was in that moment that God said, OK, but what are you actually gonna
do with your life? And I ultimately get called in the ministry and then my
friends started hanging out with me. Which then became my girlfriend is now my
wife. And so what I looked at at the time, I was so angry and bitter at God,
God's provision actually was a torn ACL. So I tell students all the time if you
want to find your spouse and your calling just tear some ligaments in your knee.
OK, so it doesn't work like that, but that's how it worked in my life. I, I
think about my parents, they're, they're in a perfect setup in their house right
now and. But the reason they moved initially. Was cuz they were in a condo and
there was a barking dog above them that just wouldn't stop yapping. But yet, lo
and behold, they started looking, they found a house that they got actually
before it even went on the market and then right before everything went crazy,
and now they couldn't even afford the house they were in now if they tried to
get in. And so like for my parents, provision looks like a barking dog.
Provision for us looked like. Paul getting put in prison. What do I mean? Paul
was the most successful ministry leader of all time. He was planting churches,
developing leaders, preaching the gospel. People were getting healed, miracles
were happening, and he gets put in prison. That doesn't seem like God's
provision. But yet, he didn't look at it and go, well, I can't do what I was
supposed to do. Instead, he says, well, what has, what is uh what is possible
for me to do? Well, the one thing I can do is I can write letters. So now here
we are 2000 years later. More Christians than ever before reading and studying
the letters that Paul wrote in prison. You know, I think about calling, uh,
getting a job offer. I was, I, I had like 3 different job offers fall through
before I ended up down in Florida where I was. I had other opportunities and
things fall through. I thought I was gonna plan a church when I was back in
Florida. I didn't, uh, yes, no, not yet. Ended up being called as a youth pastor
out here in Arizona. Lo and behold, it was in my time here in Arizona as a youth
pastor that I came connected with people that would help me start the church as
well as God would place on our heart to foster, and we, we had a child in our
home that was there. We got connected with brother was like, but it was really
tough it was difficult, challenging, but I haven't been in that exact moment at
the exact time God would not have connected us with the people that we ended up
getting Chloe through. And so if God had gone through my plans. We would not be
here with this church, with my family in this moment, in this room right here.
Even the building we're in right now. We thought we were gonna be somewhere
else. And that fell through. But alone, but we had 720 people here on Christmas,
and can I tell you. That 720 people would not have fit at the building that we
thought we were supposed to get. God's provision, a lot of times will not look
like you think it's supposed to look. Sometimes it's an offering. Here's what's
cool. Here's how God works. Sometimes God uses your obedience to be somebody
else's answer to prayer. We were in El Salvador on a mission trip. We're
supposed to share the gospel at this one location. We got stopped because of a
blockade. And so we're like, well, what are we supposed to do? We, we flew like
20 of us down to another country to present the gospel, and now we can't. We're
supposed to sit around. And someone local on the team said, well, actually
there's a school I think we can go over to. I'll call up the principal. And so
we go and we go there and we share the gospel and people start getting saved and
like crying. It's like the craziest thing I've ever seen, probably the closest
thing to revival I've ever seen in person. In other countries if you've ever
been, there's their security is a little bit different than our security like
there were cards with like M16s and they're like they're, you know, like we have
like A plus school like on the sides. The the leader after we were there, uh,
again, I probably wouldn't have gone if I would have known before we went. It
was like, hey, our claim to fame, we haven't had anybody kidnapped in 12 months.
And I was like, oh gosh, OK. So they have guards with M16s that are sitting
there and like we're presenting the gospel and a guy comes up to one of one of
our leaders and it's like, hey, my commander wants to talk to you. I'm like, oh,
this, this is it, God. Uh, my number's getting called, uh, or the best case
scenario, I'm going home losing my job. Like who, who would take students to
this thing? And I go over and I'm like, yes, he's like, um, I see those word
those bracelets that you're and they're like, wordless beaded bracelets. Can I
have one? Yeah, and like we go we lead this commander to Christ and people are
like, this is crazy and it was a crazy day. We get to the end of the day, that
was wild and we go into the principal's office and we're saying like, thank you
so much for letting us come, like how who cancels school like out of nowhere so
that these Americans come in and just, you know, who does that? And she says,
no, you don't get it. Me and one other person who was in the room with her said
we've been praying for a year and a half for God to send someone. We didn't know
it. And I can tell you that. Just being real, the presentation wasn't that good.
No joke, I think one of my leaders almost fell asleep on stage while trying to
say as like it was bad. But God put people down and then put an uh barrier in
the way and then moved us over and put us in this position so that they could
respond and like over and over and over again, that's how God works. See, when
God places something on your heart to give, he's already got somebody to receive
it on the other side. Your job isn't the outcome. Your job is obedience. That
when you give, as God tells you to give, you could actually be the answer to
somebody else's prayer. Isn't that cool? And here's a tough part too though. You
ready? That also means that somebody might be your answer to prayer. Meaning we
have to be willing to ask for help. And that tougher sometimes. We have to be
willing to ask for help. But when we do that, we see God move. Sometimes God's
provision is an opportunity. Some of you are sitting here going, God, what's
your will? And the reality is you just got to get a job. You might not know
100%. Sometimes God's gonna, like, every time he gives obedience, what does he
do? He, he makes somebody take a step. When did Peter know he was gonna walk on
water? Not until he got out of the boat. When did the disciples know that they
were gonna feed 5000? Not till they already sat him down and God broke the bread
here, take the basket and go, right? The blessing, the provision, a lot of times
is on the other side of obedience. I know my wife and I when we started the
church here like. Some stuff happened 11th hour and long story short, we left
and we had about a month of savings and a call from God. We're like, OK, God,
this seems crazy. And we got a a card in the mail and I remember because it was
in front of my house walking back from I opened up and I didn't see like a a
thing drop down and I just saw a card that said praying for you. I was like
thanks, I don't. I can't pay my bills with prayer though, you know what I mean?
I can't go. Here you go, APS some prayer for you. This should cover the year I
remember actually thinking like God, like what's going on here? And then I took
a step and looked down I was like, oh, there's this piece of paper. And it was a
check for $5000. So I went to the mailbox every day. Uh, it's not gonna look
like how you think it, it's gonna look. Sometimes it's an offering from somebody
else, sometimes an offering from you. Sometimes an opportunity, right? You gotta
step through it. I sometimes it's an obstacle. Right? The story is not Daniel in
the comfortable den. It's Daniel and the lions' den. It's not a miracle. There's
no lions there. You don't hear the story of like, Like Tommy in the room next
door. Like you tell Daniel and the lions then why? Because there's lions. It's
not David defeated a slightly tinier Israelite or or Philistine person. It's
David what? Took down Goliath. Sometimes you're obstacle. Is actually the thing
God has put in your way. To put you where he needs to. Psalm 23:1, The Lord is
my shepherd. I shall not want. If you cannot say the first part, you will not
experience a second. If you cannot say that the Lord is your shepherd, then you
will not be able to say, I shall not want. Isaiah 41:10, Fear not, for I am with
you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Does God heal? Yes. Does God
heal how we want him to heal. No. I've prayed with people. I've seen people,
I've heard story after story about where someone was sick and got better, so a
relationship was broken, it got reconciled, some something happened and like
you're like, wow. But I always wonder like Jesus goes into these towns, right?
and heals people. But did you ever notice that not every person got healed? What
do those people do? See, we have a God who heals. We have a God who will someday
heal of everything. That's why he sent Jesus. He can move, he will move, it says
to move. But sometimes I think God doesn't just change your situation, but
rather changes you. So now you have the strength to walk through your situation.
And what if your challenge was actually meant for someone else? Would you be OK
with that? Think about all those people that were healed, right? The lame man.
Lame for about 38 years. In acts I wanna say 4. Um, and they heal him, and they
couldn't say anything about God. Why? Because he was standing right there. What
did he do wrong? Nothing. It was for God's glory. What if the challenge you're
facing actually isn't for you, it's for the blessings that God's gonna do
through you, and he's gonna give you the strength to fight and overcome. So your
story isn't one of being overwhelmed, your story is one of overcoming. And let
me tell you, those are the best stories. Those are the stories that inspire and
change and bring revival. 2 Peter 1:3 says, his divine power has granted to us
all things that pertain to life and godliness. Through the knowledge of Him who
called us to his own glory and excellence. In other words, God has given you
everything you need for today. You know, in the Old Testament, when the
Israelites were wandering the desert, God provided for them with manna that
literally the words translated, what is it? Like I don't get me wrong, I really
wish the prayer was God, give us some yearly bread. You know what I'm saying?
Like, give us some, some monthly bread. Give us some like every other week
bread, Jesus. But our prayer is what daily? Why? Because we need him every
single day. It's a great verse, right? Matthew 6:33, seek first the kingdom of
God. But do you know the context for that verse? Sometimes we miss it. So let's
go ahead and read it. So in verse 25. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious
about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body,
what you will put on. It's not life more than food, is the body more than
clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather
into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value
than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to a span of
his life? Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of
the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he
not much more clothe you, or you, you of little faith? Therefore, do not be
anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink, or what shall we
wear. For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself, sufficient for the day
that is its own trouble. This is a weird comforting verse, can I say that? You
know what he's saying here? Don't be anxious about tomorrow because you can't
handle it. Don't be anxious cause you got other troubles coming. You, you got
enough to worry about today. And I don't, I don't view this as like a shame on
you. How dare you be anxious. I, I view it more so as a promise, like let me
give you the way out. You don't have to be anxious. Because I provide. And my
provision might look different than your. That you're thinking about. Trust me,
seek me. See Some of us lose, and we're losing things and relationships and jobs
and resources and help them things. But when you get to the bottom, when you get
to the core, what you understand is that when God is all you have, you realize
God is all you need. Even pruning is provision. Right we have big, big mesquite
trees in the front of our house, right? And every so often, what happens, the
branches have to be pruned. Why? So they can grow. God wants you to grow. God's
with you. One of my favorite parts of Christmas morning is, is, is the kids and
we're, we're opening gifts and, and, and wrapping paper with kids just goes
crazy, doesn't it? It's like. And there's always one person who's like clean,
clean it, right? Here's the thing though. Your problem, your issue, your
obstacle. Is merely wrapping paper that inside of it is the gift that God has
for you. And maybe that gift isn't just for you, but to be a blessing to the
world around you. For God's kingdom, God's glory. So as a church, there's the
world is crazy and I don't know why certain things happen and I don't know
what's to come. I mean, come on church, we're. These wildfires, the storms,
everything, like we're not even 2 weeks in. Right? It's not even like a buildup
to the year, guy just. I don't know what this year holds, but I guarantee you,
we pray to the God who does. And so as we pray, let us pray. Knowing that he
reigns on the throne and that we can pray. God, your kingdom come. Your will be
done. Will you stand with me? Let us say the Lord's prayer one more time and let
us say it with conviction and meaning. And whatever problem, whatever obstacle,
whatever needs you have in your life right now. Don't shy away from it. But
instead, through God's power, through this prayer, let's give that to God. Cause
God's with you. Let's pray this together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from
evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.