Well, good morning and happy Labor Day. I really, I have no idea. I was thinking I should say happy Labor Day. I don’t even know what Labor Day is. Like we celebrate work. It’s just a day off school or a day out of work. So happy Labor Day and whatever you’ll do. And it’s great to have Elena back with us this morning in worship. So good to see her and good to see you. If you have your Bible, we’re going to be in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 15. And we’re going to consider, I think, a very familiar passage.

But I hope we can come to this passage with fresh eyes and see it anew.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 9. Here’s what Jesus says. He says, Pray then like this.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive… Forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Have you ever, I’m sure you have, if you haven’t, good for you, but you say something and right as you say it, you wish you hadn’t said it, but there’s no way to like bring the words back in. Like it can’t be unsaid. That happens. I remember earlier on in ministry, a dear lady, her husband passed away in the middle of the night from a heart attack. And so I never walked into a situation. I’m like 22, 23, and of course I’m very intimidated. And I go into this lady and there she is weeping. And I walk up to her and I say, hey, how you doing? And it’s like, why would you say, hey, how you doing? Like, you know, she gave me a look like, how do you think I’m doing? My husband just, you know, passed away in the middle of the night. It’s like, I can’t unsay that. And it’s very much so like that in prayer. Prayer is not a place for us to just say what comes to mind. You think about prayer and all the ways that’s thought about in a variety of religions. And even as we’re talking about following Christ and what it means to be a Christ follower, prayer is not our opportunity to just throw up things to God. Jesus is teaching us what it means to speak and speak well to the Father. He’s talking to us about prayers that God hears. So the question becomes, will we listen?

So Jesus starts by saying, pray then like this. And I want you to, and I think it’s difficult with a passage like this. You’ve heard a thousand times. Sometimes it’s hard to be wowed by it, right? But this is really a rarity of a situation. If you have any Catholic family, I have a lot of Catholic families. So growing up, there would be times where, you know, my Catholic family, they’d riff off the Lord’s prayer and it’s very cold. It’s very robotic. They know it by memory. But I want you to think about what Jesus is doing here. He’s willing to teach us, one, what we’re ignorant to do. And two, what we have no right to do. And that is this. Talk to God. We’re ignorant and dull to it because we are, in and of ourselves, apart from Christ, we’re wise to the world. We’re wise to its priorities, its values, what matters here. We’re very dull and dumb to heaven and its priorities, its conversation, and its culture. So we don’t know God, His country, and His culture. We’re below it. Secondly, we’re distant from talking with God in the language and priorities of heaven. Because as the human race, we’ve long since abandoned conversation with God in the garden. It is the loftiest thing to know God, to know His ways, to talk about God, to talk about His ways. Yet we abandon it wholesale at the fall of man. So the God who owes us nothing, not even a conversation, is here standing before us once more, teaching us what it means to talk to Him. Teaching us what it means to talk to Him. Teaching us what it means to pray.

Christ condescends to our level that by grace we would be lifted up to heavenly discourse. Not just to talk about the things of God, but to talk to God about the things of God. So Jesus in that one little phrase, coming to earth and saying to you, pray then like this, that He would say that to us. Friends, that is a statement drenched in the mercy and the kindness, of God. So we’ve got to listen to hear. So He goes on to say, pray like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Jesus brings two things into harmony that for us should not be into harmony. First, Jesus speaks of God as Father. A very personal, familial tie. A father to a child. But at the same time, Jesus declares God’s name and everything associated with God as hallowed. Now you don’t go around saying, well that’s hallowed. What does that mean to be hallowed? It means it’s sacred. It’s unique in how holy and good and pure it is. So everything that God is in His nature, in His character, in all of His actions in the universe, God is hallowed. He’s pure. He’s majestic. He’s all-powerful. The Apostle Paul reminds us God is the God who dwells in unapproachable light. No one ever has or can see Him. So it’s strange then, isn’t it, that Jesus would encourage us lowly creatures who are sinful, not hallowed, call this hallowed God Father. And it’s not the general sense. I think you say, well, we’re all people, which means God created us all. So in this general sense, you know, we’re all children of God. It’s not that at all, what Jesus is talking about. This is the close, familial, intimate bond of being a child to a Father you know well, who knows you well. How is it possible? Well, the prophet Isaiah, he gives us a remarkable answer. In Isaiah 57, 15, he says, For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place. So there’s your hallowedness. But then he goes on to say, And with Him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. So see what Isaiah is looking forward to. Jesus then has not come on God’s behalf to judge us for being God’s adversaries. Rather, Christ has called us to come back into this intimate father-child relationship. Jesus Himself is only… He is only the bridge between the great divide of our sin and God’s holiness. We were in an orphan state, but God sent Christ to softly and tenderly woo us back to Him again. And He did it in such a way, friends, not that we’re like black sheep. You know, like black sheep, like I’m in the family, but like everybody knows I’ve messed up, and it’s always awkward to be here. I hate being at the family reunion. You know, like you feel browbeaten, like, Yeah, you did that. That’s what’s wrong with you. That’s not how Jesus like barely worked it out so we could get back in the family. Jesus did it in such a way that we are drawn into the very chest of the Father, and He loves us dearly, and He loves us intimately so much so that we are like the Father again in our own desires that is like Christ and like His Father. So how is it possible? How could He have done that? Well, here’s how Jesus made that great thing possible. Jesus put His own Spirit on us.

So Jesus who is hallowed, Jesus who is perfect, and yet also knew the Father intimately, He put His Spirit of perfection on us. So when God the Father sees me, and He sees you if you’re in Christ, He doesn’t see all your mistakes and all the way you’ve profaned God’s holiness. He sees the holiness. He sees the righteousness of Christ. He sees desires within you that are for God, that are for the Father. So the Father’s will is my will. He doesn’t say, There’s Chad. He has his own will, and he’s living for his own glory. He says, No, there I see the Spirit of Christ in Chad. I see it there in that church. That is a church that resonates with me because they’re for my glory. They’re for my will in all of their life.

Jesus says in John chapter 16, Hey, I’m not going anymore. And when that day comes, speaking of when the Spirit comes, He says, I’m not on that day. I’m not speaking on your behalf anymore. You’re going to talk to God. The Apostle Paul says in Romans, the Spirit testified, and us back out to God what?

Abba, Father.

Friends, if we’ve been restored to the place of child through Christ, if He is our brother and we share the same Father by grace, amazing as it is to say that we have nearness to God, we have desires for God once more, it means our wills must die and have died, and the Father’s will have taken its place. The prophet Habakkuk looks forward to this day. He says when the glory covers the earth. It’s going to just cover it and fill it. So if I’m in Christ, that excites me. That brings joy to me because I’m looking forward to this day when there is no sin. There is no sin. Everything looks like heaven on earth. I’m looking forward to that. But if I’m looking forward to that, you know what that means? It’s not like, well, I can’t wait for that to come. I’m going to just go about my business until it comes. Not at all. It’s going to actually change the way I live in everyday life now. Like, if that’s what I love and that’s what I’m about, that’s like literally the spirit that’s within me now in Christ. I’m going to be praying, God, make me look like you. Like, I want your will. I want your glory. I want your holiness to be worked out in my life. It’s like what I’m obsessed with. That you would be honored in my own life.

I think the question becomes then, why do we pray, if you’re thought about it, why do I have to pray for this on a regular basis if it’s true that God’s going to bring His glory? Like, if God’s so powerful, why am I praying for this? Like, if He’s going to bring His glory, if His Spirit’s so strong, like, why do I have to pray for this on a daily basis?

One, because it saves people, even though we have the Holy Spirit, we have a very great tendency to regress. It’s very, very easy for us to by and by forget we exist for God’s glory. Little by little, we start to live for our own little kingdoms. So remember our definition of the kingdom of God. It’s the spiritual rule and reign of God in our hearts, minds, and lives. In regular prayer, I’m reminded, my little kingdom, it’s petty.

My little kingdom, it’s not worth anything. My little kingdom, it’s going to fade away. I’m living for the eternal kingdom to come. So daily prayer, it’s both like a medicine to me that keeps me suffering when it’s difficult for that kingdom. I don’t want to suffer for that kingdom. It’s hard. But praying, it keeps me in the proper framework. But secondly, when you pray daily for God’s glory in your own life, it wages war against the enemy who would say to you, you ought to pick that crown up. Crown yourself, Lord of all. And like I hear Him saying that to me. I hear my flesh saying that to me. I hear the world saying, live your own life, your own way. But prayer reminds me I exist for God’s glory.

Second reason to pray it daily is because the Spirit, it reminds us of the gravity of God’s holiness. When we stop understanding the weight and gravity of how much God loves His own holiness and He does love His own holiness, it leads me to take sin lightly. And you know what happens when we take sin lightly? We deal with God’s temporal punishments that we never had to deal with, but He disciplines us. But secondly, I’m looking forward to in terror the day of judgment in which I know God is going to judge the living and the dead. So God becoming my Father doesn’t like He’s dad now, so I don’t have to take His holiness serious. It’s the opposite. Having been brought that close to the character of God, we of all people should be fearful to transgress God’s holiness. So I need in prayer to be reminded of how precious and beautiful a thing God’s holiness is. And thirdly, here’s why you pray for God’s glory daily to come to pass in your life and in our world.

Because prayer is real communion and conversation with God. Prayer is not some religious routine to make yourself feel good about yourself. Listening, God listening to us and we praying to Him, that’s what happens in a very real father-child relationship.

So how do I reconcile these two things? That God is in control, He is going to bring His glory, but He’s telling me to pray. I can’t reconcile that. I just know that mysteriously God says, hey, you need to be praying for my glory in your life.

And, and I’m in control of all things, and my glory will be brought. I don’t have to reconcile that. I just in humility need to say, God, your word says that. So in some way, you’re actually using my prayers in your great, grand sovereignty to bring it to pass. So I just need to be obedient to that and know that God is entrusting prayer to me.

Ellie Holcomb, she’s like a modern hymn writer. You may have heard of her. She made a statement this past week in an article, and I thought it was profound. And she was commenting on really the negative celebrity culture that exists inside the church. You know, we tend to idolize pastors. We idolize, you know, Christian artists. And it becomes really unhealthy, especially in light of she was talking about, you know, a couple, you know, very well-known artists, pastors who have, you know, apostatized, left the faith as of recent. And she said this. She said the heart was not built for notoriety. And I feel like. I feel like that the church, like we’re sometimes the first ones to forget that we were not created for ourselves. We are not the star of our own lives. Friends praying for God’s glory, seeking his glory daily. It’s a framework that you and I need for all of life. It keeps us fixed on the hope that is to come and not get obsessed with the petty things of life. Now, fixating on God’s glory. It gives us patience in all suffering, helps us tear down our little kingdoms and know it’s not worth it. It’s not worth living for anyways.

Whose kingdom are you living for? Whose glory are you praying towards? Jesus says that’s the first category you should be obsessed with in the morning when you wake up. I’m not running. God, I need this. God, it would be great if this worked out. God, did you see this? No, I’m going to stop. I’m going to pause and I’m going to say, hey, God, you are worth being adored and praised every morning. I need that deep in my bones because I’m a sinner and I’m really quick. Like if I missed it one day, it might be a week for I could get back to that place. Like I don’t want to miss a week of living outside of that framework that I exist for God’s glory.

But Jesus goes on to say in verse 11 concerning prayers that the father hears. He says, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts. As we have also forgiven our debtors. So the second kind of prayers the father hears are prayers that seek God’s provision for all of life. Having begun with a proper mindset of adoring God, asking for his way in all things, Jesus tells us move to asking God for things. It’s not dirty. Like, oh, I’m supposed to ask? Yeah, if he’s a good father, then yeah, you should ask him for the right things. And Jesus says, here’s what you’re asking for. You ask. You’re asking for provision needed. It’s not wanted. It’s different.

Provision needed for the day in which you are in the moment in which you are in. So it’s a daily request. These are daily prayers Jesus is teaching about. Now, why can’t I ask Jesus for like my weekly bread?

Monthly bread. Hey, Jesus, can I have decade bread?

No, you can’t ask him for that for the very same reason you want to ask it in the first place, because you don’t want to daily trust in the Lord. I don’t want to have to. I don’t want to daily have my faith stretched. That hurts my flesh. So Jesus is saying, hey, God is your provider daily in the moment.

Yearly bread, monthly bread, weekly bread. It helps you and I do this. Forget who our provider actually is. It helps us forget God is my good father. It becomes bread I work for. We start using words like mine. We start saying things like independent. We start saying things like self-provider. And what we think we accrued, it becomes ours. And when it’s ours, it becomes devoted to what? Our purposes. And it robs God of his glory and being our very good provider and being our father in every moment. He wants us to live with that trust. But when I’m my provider, it’s about me and what I have and what I’ve accomplished and what I’ve done. Amen. Amen. Amen. Also, Paul says a very similar thing to Timothy in his first letter. In 1 Timothy 6, he says this, For godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

He says, For the love of money, not money, but the love of money, is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

So Jesus is saying, Be careful that you don’t want to always have to have all the stuff you think you want in your life. Let it be enough that God is providing your needs and that Jesus is enough for you. Just Jesus.

What we have, we have because God has allowed us to have it, that we would trust Him more and more. Seeking God’s provision and prayer, then, it’s a wonderful reminder, like the health in my body, the sound mind in my head, which I don’t ask or thank God for these things. I take them for granted. The shirt on my back, the food that I’ve eaten, my house, however big or small that is, I have one. Friends, these are reminders to us, that we are dependents and God is good to give to us.

So I think you could say this, exalting in your riches is just as wicked as fretting whether or not the Lord is going to take care of you. It’s pride of the human heart, not trusting Jesus.

And I think whether, you know, we’re in a season of feasting, and then God’s blessed me, He’s given me here, or I have empty cupboards, either way, the prayer of faith for the child, it shouldn’t change. It really shouldn’t change. Because I’m trusting God for provision. I’ve got a 401k. I feel good about it now. Like I’ve got enough food to last me. Like there’s my comfort. Not at all. And if the Israelites had learned this lesson, it would have saved them from so much disaster, you know.

God miraculously saved them from slavery. He literally dropped bread out of heaven. He literally had water burst forth, from the rock. But they can never believe that God was a God who’s good in the moments that we need Him to be good in. On the precipice of coming into the promised land, a land flowing, the Bible says flowing with milk and honey, meaning God wanted to be their supplier. They said, no, we don’t trust you to that. And what did they do? They self-condemned themselves to 40 years of wandering around in a barren desert.

Friend, will you trust God? Will you trust God to be your provider

when it is difficult? And it is difficult.

Don’t set your heart on what you can see. Don’t fear what you cannot see. Don’t rest in what you think you can do for yourself. Rest in the God who is good to His own.

But I do want to press that further here. Because I think when Jesus is talking about daily bread, I think He is chiefly talking about our physical needs. And those aren’t bad things to consider. Like God knows you have a body. He knows you have a family. Like He knows you have needs. Those aren’t bad things to tend to. But I do believe we can press this further considering God’s provision, not for our bodies, but even for our souls, to address the heart of man. And Jesus says that the heart of man past asking for daily bread, He says you must ask the Lord for forgiveness.

And again, I want to note about the Lord’s Prayer. We take it sometimes to be like this poem we should recite every once in a while. It’s not. These are just healthy categories to live in. This is not like, hey, I’m going to give you guys this prayer. It’s magical. It’s got special powers. Once you pray it ten times, God can’t hear it anymore. You’ve got a number. So be careful you don’t send too much. Or if you get in too many binds and you need some bread, I hope you don’t have to use up all your ten times on this prayer and then it’s done.

Jesus is teaching us about daily prayer.

Daily prayer. So Jesus is teaching us that God who forgives, He forgives daily.

He is bountiful in His mercy and forgiveness when we need it. Let me tell you, I think that’s really good news because I don’t need like a drink of God’s forgiveness. I need rivers of God’s forgiveness like washing over my life all the time. And Jesus says if you come to the Father daily, you know what you can expect? You can expect to get it. Way back in Lamentations, you think about the book of Lamentations. It’s a sad book. It’s called Lamentations. Because the people have royally messed up as always. Deep sin.

But even in that deep sin of the people of Israel, here’s what God speaks over the people.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. Pretty definite, isn’t it? They are new. Every morning, great is your faithfulness.

So do you rest in that truth that the blood of Christ, it runs that deep. The blood of Christ, it runs that red. It is a fountain ever flowing with mercy for us in our time of need.

Jesus challenges us to make sure we really understand the nature of God’s forgiveness.

God’s forgiveness is not something to just get. It’s something to give out. When we have truly experienced God’s love and forgiveness, that by grace alone He’s forgiven us and Christ has paid for our sins, we’re given an ability in the Spirit to also forgive. Because if I can’t a sinner withhold forgiveness from someone else while knowing in the face of Christ Jesus, He’s holy and He’s without sin, yet He’s forgiven, who would I dare to be to withhold forgiveness? I could say all day long that I am forgiven by God for my sins, but my inability to forgive others shows I haven’t really seen the goodness and the love of God. It’s beyond words. It’s beyond what I deserve. I don’t deserve it. Well, neither do the people deserve your forgiveness, perhaps who have hurt and wronged you. But if you’ve known Christ, you will desire the love and forgiveness of Christ to be made manifest in all parts of your life. So you can’t receive God’s forgiveness, and not simultaneously give it out.

It’s not a cold transaction.

It’s God loving us that we would know how to love others as well. So God is our provider, friends, for both body and soul. And it made me think about John Bunyan. I don’t know how much you know about John Bunyan or even about the Pilgrim’s Progress. I bring the Pilgrim’s Progress up all the time. But John Bunyan sat in prison, and think about this, because it’s pretty radical. He sat in prison for 12 years because he preached in his house without a permit from the government. He would not submit to the Church of England. And he sat in prison and suffered. He said, I know I bring the house down on my own family for this. He knew he impoverished his family for this.

But such a man could write this, He that is down, needs fear no fall. He that is low, no pride. He that is humble, ever shall have God to be his guide. I am content with what I have, little be it or much.

God was his provision. And friends, God is our provision. And I do think it’s a hard word to hear, because let’s be honest, we live in the 21st century. There’s this thing called Amazon Prime. And I can, anytime, I want, that thing. Great, you can have it in two days. Like you can have it in two days. You can have it customized, like whatever color, size you want. And they’re making new stuff. And there’s new technology. And my car, man, I had this great car, but have you seen the newer model? It’s even sharper. And man, this house is nice, but it’d be nice to have like a little bit bigger house. And we’re so stuff crazy in the 21st century in the Western church. And I really think we need to plea with the Lord, like tear down these idols in my heart, because they’re keeping me from seeing you. You as my good providers. I mean, it’s a very rough sickness. So I’m not like, hey, what’s wrong with y’all out there? How come y’all, how come y’all have a problem with stuff? Like I have a problem with stuff and I need God to constantly challenge me on my love for stuff. And is it, is it competing with my love for Christ? And I think about in the New Testament, Paul says, you know, when they’re given to the churches, they didn’t give out of their extreme generosity. He said they gave out of their extreme poverty. They were impoverished people, but they gave because they, they knew what I have, I have because the Lord does or doesn’t allow me to have it. So friend, don’t think it’s your stuff. And don’t think you need stuff. You need Christ and Christ has given the fullness of himself to you. Let’s let go of the stuff that we value and cherish so much. How that’s a word for our hearts this morning.

Verse 13.

Jesus says, and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil or it can be rendered the evil one.

So God is glorious. God is a provider.

But last, I want us to note here from Christ’s prayer. God, our father is a deliverer.

And the question becomes, if I’m going to, if I’m going to take the time to daily pray, Lord, deliver me from evil. Like, what is that? Like, what is this thing that I need to constantly be praying, God, keep me from evil about?

Well, in Genesis chapter 3, Satan in the form of a servant, he comes to man who knows God’s fatherly glory. He knows how great God is. He walks with God in the garden. The scriptures tell us like he knows God’s glory.

Man knows the provision of God. Oh, how the whole earth and the fullness of it is his to have dominion over. Like man is provided for in the garden. Yet the moment that man disobeys, it says that man hid himself.

And the Lord cries out to man, where are you? For the first time in the garden, then man cut himself off from God’s glory. He cut himself off from God’s provision. Friends, you and I have an ancient enemy. That crafty, serpent, the devil. We cannot save ourselves from him. We couldn’t in the garden and we cannot now. He’s too strong for us. Jesus says he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I’ve been reading Richard Sibbes, the bruised reed, and he says there are so many times when Satan tempts you. And you know why you’re given that temptation? Because you’re not in your glorified body yet. There’s still something in you. It resonates when Satan, like you want to obey, like you’re listening and his call to sin, like, ooh, that sounds good. Like, I want to go with that. Paul says we’re born children of wrath. We’re born under the prince of the power of the air. So Satan has a clutch on us and we can’t do anything about it. In daily life, it’s true. In living for God, we cannot do it. But in an eternal sense, when judgment day comes, we will be found on his side, on his team, not on God. So, friends, that is the evil that is manifested in our world. That’s stealing God’s glory, God’s provision. But also, it’s what’s robbing us of knowing God. It’s what’s robbing us of joy. Now, it’s what’s robbing us of knowing Christ’s salvation and victory.

But the good news for us is that God did deliver us. And here’s how He delivered us. He sent Jesus to carry the weight of our sin on the cross. He sent Jesus to die to death once and forever. He sent Jesus to break the teeth of the serpent so that we would be saved. So that though you and I sin, we can look at the cross and say, hey, look, God’s been my deliverer. Yeah, I’m struggling with this sin, but you know what? God has already forgiven me and He’s washed me clean and I’ve got power in the Spirit. And when judgment day comes, I’m not going to cower and go, oh, Lord, I’ve done so many things and now you’re going to judge me. God’s going to look at me if I place my faith in Jesus. He’d say, no, I see Christ. I see how Christ has carried your sin in His body. I see how my son Jesus defeated that serpent of old. I see how He broke the serpent’s teeth. God has been our deliverer. Deliverer in Christ Jesus.

He became for us propitiation, the Hebrew writer says. It’s an old word.

Everything that you and I needed for God’s wrath to be satisfied because of our sin, Christ provided that on the cross. He satisfied the wrath of God.

And Christ gives us power day after day after day to withstand evil, never lacking in supply. His Spirit always, always faithfully bearing us up under every trial. Friend, God is your deliverer. Have you trusted Him as your deliverer?

Now, in day-to-day life, in everything, you know, I need to be delivered from a lot of things. I need to be delivered from my gross impatience with my children. I know like, well, they’re kids. It’s not a big deal. It’s a big deal. You know why? Because it shows me like I don’t look like Jesus somewhere in my life. You know, sometimes I fret about money like Chase was talking about or my mind goes places I shouldn’t go. And I’m reminded like daily I’ve got this enemy who wants to take me back. He wants to get me away from Jesus. But I’ve got to constantly fight and pray, Lord, deliver me from evil. Deliver me from evil. Deliver me from evil. And the rest in that, friends, is this when judgment day comes. It’s not a day of dread, but it’s a day of glory. Because in that day, I’ll see my Savior’s face. I’ll see His hands. I’ll see the holes. I’ll see His side. I’ll say, there is my Deliverer.

So, friends, this morning, here’s what Jesus has said to us.

Pray for God’s glory. Pray for God’s provision. Pray for God’s deliverance. Because if you pray for those things, He’s going to hear you. He’s going to hear you. And I promise you, He promises you, He’ll answer those prayers. And so, it’s another way of saying this. The Father hears prayers that seek His kingdom. Because in God’s kingdom, His glory is known, His provision is ample, and everyone celebrates the victor, Jesus Christ, who has delivered us from death. So, let’s be a church that prays and prays some more, seeking that God would alone bring His kingdom.

Let’s pray.

Father, You are good. And Lord, even as we’ve considered in Your Word to be able to call You Father, that’s a grace to us. That’s a kindness to us. I pray we would never stop to celebrate the name of Jesus

who has made it so that we could be called children of the Father. That we could be sons and daughters. That we, through You, Christ, could be co-heirs with You in the heavenly places. And though we have a spiritual inheritance, that can’t be lost.