Access to God

All right. Good morning, everybody. So glad you're here. Oops. I'm sure you appreciated that. Yeah, glad you're here. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Bob Smith. I'm one of the elders here at the church. And I'm excited to share with you some things that I think that God has put on my heart. First, I want to say, I want to introduce you to some people that are incredibly special in my life, I have some of the heroes of the faith in my life.

And it was about 35 years ago or so that I had the pleasure of going on a mission trip with this family, Tony and Joanne Ramos, who are right there. And these are their grandsons that are with them. When I went with them, their son was about this tall. I think, was he about like 10 years old when we went to Bulgaria? area. And it was right after communism had fallen and exciting, incredible time.

And Tony and Joanne stayed there and worked with the churches there, building them up, you know, and just a wonderful, incredible time. And then the things that they did there, building the church and impacting the pastors in that nation and so forth, and then raising their son Noah there. Noah became, He started his own church there in Sofia after a period of time. And Tony and Joanne have been doing missionary work in Uganda and Bulgaria and so forth ever since that time.

And now their son started this church and had the church going for 20 years or so. Right? It's 20? 12, sorry. And they just went back and for six months they started a Bible college at their church there in Sofia. Sophia, but we're just really grateful for their influence on our lives. They really are heroes to us in all that they do. Amazing, amazing work that God is doing through them. And we're just honored that you're here and appreciative of who you are.

And blessed, really blessed by you guys and the work that God has done in you and through you and so forth. You know, really grateful for that. So anyway, praise the Lord.

Lord, thank you for this time together. We just appreciate the privilege and opportunity to share with each other in your house as believers and growing disciples and doing all that we can to be filled with your spirit and led by you, God, and knowing your word and living by faith and loving people in all the ways that we possibly can. And we pray that you help us to encourage each other every time we're here together.

And as we see each other and are with each other throughout the week, Lord, we just pray that you'd help us to encourage one another and build each other up according to your word. I pray that you help me to speak clearly. You know how easily I get distracted. And so I pray that you help me to stay focused and do the best I can do. I pray that you help us all to hear your word by your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Okay, so about, see, at the beginning of the year, we did this prayer thing on Marco Polo that was really pretty cool. And there was, I don't know, there's a dozen of us or so, maybe 20 of us. I'm not sure. I don't remember. But it was encouraging each other in our prayer walk and our prayer life and so forth. And I realized there were some things that I had been taught 30-some years ago. There was kind of a move in the body of Christ, you know, where there was a movement.

Larry Lee was one of the leaders of it, and it was called Could You Not Tarry One Hour? And then there was one of the incredible men that had the biggest church in all of history, as far as I know, named Younga Cho, started also teaching this message. And I don't know, probably a lot of you have heard it already, so I apologize, but you'll know how important it is in our lives if that's you. And you can just say amen and go, yeah, I know that. You know, that's cool. I'm with you.

But for some of you, I think it will be helpful in the sense of fortifying and strengthening your prayer life. Excuse me. All right. So I call it access to God. And what I mean by access to God, because God is always available, but it is, we need things to pull us out of ourselves to reconnect with God on a consistent basis and a regular basis, because. Anyway, so that's why I call it access to God.

And you could call it a variety of different things, but that's what I called it. So let's go to this first slide, next slide. So. Our pastor introduced me to Dallas Wildred, and my wife and I have been reading one of his books for a year now. We read it just about every morning. We're through 345 pages of it and stuff, and it's taken us a year because it's so powerful and so insightful and so moving. It's just powerful.

So, some of this is going to also be reflective of his influence on us as well. Well, so to reign with Christ, for if by the transgression of the one, death reigns through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, I didn't put the scripture reference there. It's Romans 5, 17, I think.

Those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. That's us who know Jesus and have relationship with him. And one of the things that Dallas Willard would say, we read scriptures like that, and yet, is it reflective in our attitude, the way that we behave, the way that we live our life?

Are we reigning in life? and there's been there's been there's been weird teaching about reigning in life but but we'll get to we'll get to some dallas willard talk about reigning life here in just a moment but that's our that's what christ has given to us provided for us is the opportunity to reign in life so and that is for me it is doing all that we can to live in the fullness of the kingdom of god God, now and forever. So I was saying just a minute ago, let's go to the next slide.

So I was saying just a minute ago of access to God. God is always available. He's always there. And I know this is all one scripture reference here. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there was a word of my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you knew it all. You know it all.

You have enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot attain to it except by faith. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. there, if I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there, your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me.

He is omnipresent. He is everywhere that we are, every place that we're going, he is there, you know, and, you know, another book that I was reading that my wife recommended to me that was, is called, um. Imagine the God of Heaven by John Burke. It was amazing to me because there was all these near-death experiences that people had. They were Christian, non-Christian, every kind of thing, every kind of person that you could imagine. And God walked with them.

You know, when they had this near-death experience, God was with them. And there was dozens of these. And it's incredible. Anyway, the amazing thing to me about it was it reflected the omnipresence of God. He has the ability to walk with you, me, every person throughout the entire world, walking with them, being intimately involved in every difficulty. Every victory, every prayer. He is there with us all the time, always. ways.

And it, it had an effect on me where it's like, I'm really wanted to up my game on being less judgmental towards people because God is working in them every, but every bit as much as he is you and me and, and everyone else. And you don't know, you don't know the story behind it. And this book is just full of, of people that, you know, that like they got to heaven and it's like they got there with God. And there's like so aware of the fact that they didn't deserve to be there walking with him?

So many, so every single one of them, they're in the presence of God and they realize, I have no business being with you. It's only because of your goodness. It's only because of his goodness that we have the ability to be walking with him. And he's walking with us constantly, continuously. He's omnipresent. He's in our life all of the time. Okay. All of the time. Let's go to the next slide. And here's a couple other scriptures just to kind of support that.

For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I forsake you. You know, when we're bad, when we do things that we're ashamed of and all of that, he never leaves us nor forsake us. I remember when I was a brand-new Christian, I was with Judy's mom. She's 95, 94. She got saved in Amy Simple McPherson's church. No, her mom did. Got saved there. Most of you don't know who that is. But anyway, and she said, you know, I never speed. Because if I speed, the Holy Spirit leaves me.

And I'm like, oh, my God, every time I sin, God leaves my presence when I need him most. Like, that was a hard life to live. Anyway, I learned differently from that. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. Okay? And so that we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? And then, for in him we live and move and exist. And I think King James says, we have our being. I think in the, I don't know, in the ASB, it says, for in him we live and move and be.

We just be in him. We exist. It is, you know, we don't have an existential crisis. When we are in Christ, because in him we live and move and have our being. It is there in him. And as Paul was speaking to the people in Athens there, as even some of your own poets have said, for we also are his children. All right. And then some of these are just my favorite scriptures that I pray just about every morning.

But in this next one, for it is God who is at work in you, both the will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2.13 in the Amplified Bible says that it is God, he is all the while effectually at work in us. Energizing and creating in us the power and the desire both the will and to work for his good pleasure, satisfaction and delight. All the while, he's all the while effectually at work in us. Okay, even though I'm dragging my feet, God is always faithful to be working in me.

He never leaves us no for a second. He's always working in us. He's omnipresent and has the ability to be able to do that and certainly has the desire. God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble or in time of need. All right, let's go to the next scripture. I mean, the next slide there. Okay, so this old saying, if God feels distant, guess who moved? And I'm not trying to beat anybody up or, you know, like I said right there,

it's not about guilt or shame. It's about the cares of this world. It's about the devil that wants to keep us disconnected and distracted from God's plan and God's provision and who God is and being connected with him, okay? We are in this distracted world. You know, our phones are constantly, you know, going and computers and everything. And they're fighting so desperately for our attention, you know, that we have to battle against this, you know.

And so part of what I'm just talking about is reminding you that God is always knocking on the door of our heart and trying to get our attention continuously. Okay. So access to God is about us finding our way back to him continuously in the here and now, right here, right now, and doing our best to walk by faith connected to him, okay? Seeing his kingdom, living in his kingdom, experiencing his kingdom every day.

All the conversations that we're in, all of the work that we do, all the play that we do, all those kinds of things. And you don't become some religious, old, haggard, dead person when you do that. I think a lot of people think that. You become more alive. The more that you're walking in the kingdom of God, connected in the kingdom of God, the more alive and more excited and more enthusiastic you become.

All right. So our conversation with him, as I say here, excuse me, is a vital element, prayer in particular. And when we gain competence in it, our faith and our confidence grows. And we've learned from our pastor and Dallas Willard, so much of this is a spiritual discipline that is significant and important for us to develop.

But let's go to the next slide. Let's talk about Dallas Willard a little bit. To reign with Christ, that's what we want to do, is to reign with Christ. And I like what he says here. Prayer as kingdom praying is an arrangement explicitly instituted by God in order that we as individuals may count and count for much. All right, and counting for much in the kingdom of God is so different than counting for much in the world and the world's opinion and so forth.

But we are to count for much. And as we learn step by step how to govern, to reign with him in his kingdom, to enter and to learn this reign is what gives the individual life its intended significance. And we all want significance in our life. We don't want to be chasing things that are not significant. We want the intended significance to happen. So let's go to the next slide. So, yeah, I think this is so true, what Dallas says.

Rain is no doubt wording that is a little too grand for the contemporary mind, though what it refers to is what everyone actually pursues in life. We've been trained to think of raining as exclusionary of others. You know, like we're the big dogs, they're the peons, the peasants that live in the castle around those that are raining. Okay, but that is not at all what God has in mind. Or God. That's not the reality of God's kingdom.

But in the heart of the divine conspiracy, it just means to be free and powerful in the creation and governance of what is good. And what is good is the kingdom of God. In the life of prayer we are training for, we reign in harmonious union with the infinite power of God. That's the life. That's God's will. That's God's plan. That's God's desire.

All right. So what I was telling you about with Dr. Cho teaching about prayer, and Dr. Cho had like, the last time I saw it was like almost a million people in his church, a fairly significant church. My wife and I got to go there a couple of times when we were doing mission work in the Philippines, and we stopped by in there just to go there. They had 55,000 people per service, and they had, I think it was nine on Saturday night and Sunday.

And the church members themselves could only go like once a month to be able to go to their church. And they would pray in the service, you know, and they would all be praying quietly. But when 55,000 people are praying quietly, it's loud. And on the stage, when it was time for prayer to be done, they had this big gong, and it was just a bong, bong, you know. And they stopped praying. It was a praying church, and it still is a praying church.

But Pastor Cho passed away, I think, last decade or so. Anyway, he taught about this. He prayed three to five hours a day. And... And amazing man. But anyway, so let's go to the next slide. So it's about the Lord's Prayer, what's called the Lord's Prayer. It's actually the disciples' prayer. But it is, as I've said there, a gateway for this spiritual discipline of prayer. It is, you know, it's like, this is Matthew chapter 6.

There's two times in the gospel where it gives this reference of the Lord's Prayer, and the other one is in Luke chapter 11. And in Luke chapter 11, his disciples were sitting with him and said. Jesus, would you just teach us to pray? Could you teach us to pray? You know, and he says, yeah, okay, I'll teach you. Teach us to pray like John teaches his disciples, teach us to pray. And so he did. And then he went on to talk about it.

And then on the Sermon of the Mount, which you're going to enjoy the book of Matthew that our pastor is teaching, and it's awesome. The Sermon on the Mount is the big part of—it's the most powerful message that Jesus ever preached and shared. But anyway, this is a part of that. So he elaborated on the Lord's Prayer when he was teaching the Sermon on the Mount, and he shared it with his disciples privately in that moment there in Luke 11.

But the Lord's Prayer, it's not, you know, most people, they know John 3.16, they know the 23rd Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, and they know the Lord's Prayer. Most people, you know, that's about what they know most of the time as far as scriptures are concerned. But it's not about, you know, impressing anybody that we know this or saying it, and it's not about discipline for sin. Those of you that have any Catholic background, you know what I'm talking about

there. You know, it's like you have five Our Fathers and three Hail Marys for absolution of your sin. But that wasn't what Jesus had in mind. It is a versatile prayer the Lord provided for us as an access to God, a means of an access to God. Okay? He's covering a lot of territory in this. So you can think of it as it's topical. Okay? It's not just a few sentences to learn to pray and this is what you pray. It is a topical message, okay?

It's a topical message, and each one of the topics is a part of something that is an access to God, all right? And so the Lord, you know, the Lord didn't go, oh, okay, you guys want to learn how to pray. Okay, well, let me just, yeah, well, hey, how about this? You just go, nothing Jesus ever said was like that, you know, off the cuff, boom. It's like, this is clearly an incredibly important moment.

Teach us to pray. These are the people that are going to be leading the church when Jesus goes, and Jesus knows this. And he's teaching them, you need to know how to pray. This is how you pray. So he's given them, you know, like a full bachelor's degree training on prayer in just a few sentences. Sentences, it's not just those words, it is topics that he is presenting to them, and we'll go through that a little bit.

So, each section of the prayer is an access point to God, as I was talking about. Having said that, and this last little thing, I'm not going to teach about this, but I am going to mention this. I also invite you to reflect on the mindset that Jesus instructs us via the phrasing and wording of the prayer. There's no begging. There's no sorrowful mourning. There's no manipulation. God, I'm really mean at this time. If you'll just do this and I'll do that.

There's not even a, please God, meet my need. There's none of that. And so, and I'm not trying to, I'm just encouraging you to read the scripture and think, this is how Jesus told you, told his disciples how to pray. You know, and I'm sure you're just like me, where it's like, you know, it's like, God, I'm sorry, I haven't been praying as much as I should. I've been neglectful of my prayer life. I've been neglectful of talking to you.

You mean more to me than anything in the whole world. And yet I don't talk to you the way that I should. I'm so sorry, God, please forgive me. I just don't deserve it. But anyway, Lord, I love you. You know, none of that is in there. And I'm not saying there's not a place for repentance because there is, you know, there is right in the scripture. But the way that Jesus teaches us how to pray doesn't include all that stuff. So it's not my message for today.

It's just something to think about, you know, about our attitude towards prayer, our attitude towards approaching the Lord, okay?

All right, let's go to the next one. So, this is kind of the introduction of those topics. It begins with our Father, our Father in the heavenlies, or our Father who is nearby. Dallas Willard in his book called The Divine Conspiracy goes into elaborate detail about the Aramaic meaning of the word, you know, our Father who art in heaven, you know, is a bad translation because it is distance in our minds. Heaven's way off there.

But it's the actual more accurate interpretation is our Father in the heavenlies, which is more addressing the omnipresence of God. He is nearby. He is here. He is with us. So, our Father in the heavenlies signifying He is here with us. He is our very present help in time of need. And the big deal about Jesus teaching them how to pray, to say, our Father. Nobody ever spoke like that about God, okay? They didn't address Him as Father.

They addressed Him, you know, even the word Yahweh to the Jews, you couldn't even say that word in public. You could only say that word in the, I think it was in the Holy of Holies, but I don't know if it was maybe in the temple, but it might have been, I think, even in the Holy of Holies. So, having that kind of relationship with God, who is our Father, was a new revelation. And it is something to think about, you know, in our relationship with our Father.

And I know our pastor addressed this on Father's Day. Father's Day is sometimes a bittersweet thing, because some people have a horrible relationship with their dad. And so, it's hard for them to think about this. but our Father in heaven is a perfect Father. He loves us. He will discipline us. He will help us. He will lift us. He is always strong. He is our protector. He is all these things. He's the perfect Father, okay?

And He's a Father to the fatherless. So, the access point, even just stopping with our Father, my Father in the heavenlies, my heavenly Father, He is available to me. And there's times when perhaps there's a longing in your heart for your relationship of a Father. And so, this is the first access point. He is my Father. I wonder what it would have been like if I had a really, really healthy relationship

with my earthly Father. Well, I can have that relationship, that really, really healthy relationship with my Father in heaven. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And then it goes on to the next slide, access point number two, Hallowed be your name. And that word hallowed is an old word. It just means may your name be kept holy and sacred. And then there's like so many names of who God is, that it is something that we can just get caught up in, just blowing our own minds of who God is.

You know, I've shared before, you know, how that new telescope and all the pictures that it shows and how big the universe is and how God is omnipresent. And this is the magnitude of his creation. And yet his greatest creation is sitting right here, is us. Jesus didn't die on the cross for the development of the universe. He died on the cross for you and me because he loves us in that way.

And so, an access point where you are just, you know, I mean, I'm just amazed looking at how big the universe is, but how much more is to be praised the creator of that universe. I love to have my mind expanded to think about how great and powerful and mighty is our father in heaven. And so these, I'm not going to even attempt to pronounce the Jewish, the names of these, but here they all are. God, the creator. When Moses went to God and talked to him on the mount, he said,

who do I say that you are? He says, I am who I am.

The self-existent one okay just tell him i am sent you he is god almighty he is the everlasting god the eternal god lord and master he is the lord who heals he is the lord our banner this is the time when moses was when his hands were held up the the israelites were winning and when they went down they they weren't winning and and so they were they were erin and were holding his hands up and and they had victory and they named that place Jehovah Nisi, the Lord, our banner.

And then the Lord who is present, he is always with us. And so, how would it be your name? I have another slide of more names. Go ahead, let's go to the next one. He is the Lord, our righteousness, the Lord who provides for us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is Jehovah Rhea, the Lord is my shepherd. And I I love one of Dallas Willard's book is back there, and it's about the 23rd Psalm. What's it called? Life Without Lack. Yeah, and it's not a prosperity book.

No, it is a prosperity. It's the true prosperity of embracing God in his kingdom and having the 23rd Psalm be our reality. But this is to saturate yourself in the knowledge of these words, understanding the name of God to build your faith in this kingdom that lives inside of us. He is Redeemer. He is the rock of our salvation. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And who are the kings? Who are the lords that he is the King of kings of? And who is the lords that

he is the Lord of lords of? Have you thought about that? All right, it's not Prince Andrew. It's not Prince Charles. He's the Prince of Peace. And so all of these things, as you saturate yourself in the knowledge of who God is and all of these different names, you get a different picture of who the Lord is. And that gives us the opportunity to connect with Him. All right, your kingdom come. Let's go to the next one. Your kingdom come, your will be done.

This is not begging God to do something about our situation or our world. It is a declaration. It is a proclamation. It is a time for God's people to speak. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Okay? Your will be done. You know, like in this presidential election. Lord, your will be done. All right? Your kingdom come. I'm not going to be all nervous and worried about whoever becomes the president of the United States.

I'm going to trust in you, and I'm going to say, your kingdom come, your will be done, not the Democrats' kingdom, not the Republicans' kingdom, but your kingdom, Lord, be done in the United States and the rest of the world, okay? It is declaring it. It's not whining, oh Lord, would you please just look down upon your weak people that so humbly try to serve you and follow you and make the votes go the right way. No, it is a proclamation.

And sometimes it's okay to be angry because there is wickedness in our world and you all know it and the internet blasts it all of the time. There's wickedness in this world, but we have been given authority through the name of Jesus.

And this is part of it. So we speak that God's kingdom reign, reign righteousness peace and joy in the holy spirit is the kingdom of god that is who god is that is what god wants and so we declare that and we proclaim that and we say lord your will be done and that's on a of course i'm talking on a very broad scale but it also as it is according to our lives as well we speak that his kingdom would reign in us and his will would be done in us in in our bodies,

in our relationships, in our family, in our marriages, on and on, in our jobs, in all that we do. We just declare his kingdom come, his will be done. All right, so we agree together with God verbally. We're not powerless in this world. John 16, 13, don't be afraid of the world because he has overcome the world. I already read, I already quoted Romans 14, 17. But that's a nice... Succinct description of the kingdom of God.

Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. All right. So, when you're angry or intimidated by the world, God is still on the throne. He is. He's not like, oh my God, Jesus, did you see what's on CNN? You know, it's not happening. He's okay. All right. Let's go to the, how am I doing on time? Give us this day our daily bread. God desires for us to be present. And so that's the word for give us this day our daily bread. All right.

It's not just a matter of feeding us. Of course, he's feeding us and meeting our needs and so forth. But it's like focusing on what's going on in our lives today. And that doesn't mean he doesn't want you to be wise and, you know, prepare for retirement and those kinds of things. It doesn't mean that he doesn't believe in savings account and all those kinds of things. But it is, give us our daily bread. Give us what we need today.

Today, Lord, give us what we need today. And so be present with him. And, you know, the access point that I wrote down there, that we're much more than the sparrow. You know how God takes care of the birds of the air and he dresses the flowers of the field. We're much more to him than birds and flowers.

He will take care of us. It is his desire. All right, let's go to the next slide. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgotten our debtors. God desires us to be free from sin and free from shame. So this is the pathway to do that. And I remember one of my favorite stories of all time was Dr. Cho was teaching us at this church that Joanne and Tony were at, as a matter of fact. And he says, and when I get to this part of the prayer, I have to spend a lot of time because I hate so many people.

I hate so many people. And he says, I have 37,000 elders, and I hate them so much, so much. And so I pray, Lord, forgive me for my hate and help me, but forgive us our debts. You know, and I had the privilege of being in the office with him and the senior pastor of this church after the sermon.

And he says, now, our pastor says, now, Brother Cho, when you say you hate these elders, do you mean you like, you know, you squabble with them and you have arguments and, you know, and you just work through these conflicts and stuff? And he goes, oh, no, brother, I hate them so much.

They don't care about the things of God. They care about their position and their power and all these things. I hate them so much. Anyway, he's a great man, and he spent a lot of time asking God to forgive him of his debts. So anyway. Our pastor just spoke to us a couple of weeks ago, this verse in Galatians. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not subject again to a yoke of slavery. And unforgiveness is one of those yokes of slavery.

So we want to confess our sin, as it says here, 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's him working in us, but we have our parts to do, which is to confess our sins. Confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. And the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much or avail as much.

All right, we're coming to the end here. Let's go to the next slide. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so there's times at the access points like, Lord, lead me, lead me, lead me. I don't know where I'm going. Your word says that the steps of righteous people are ordered by you. Lead me, Lord, in what I'm doing. And, you know, because if we can be led by God, we can avoid things that the devil might have in store for us to destroy us.

It enables us to be led away from temptation. And to be delivered from evil okay so we need to rely on his guidance stand against the enemy and depend on our deliverer let's go to the next slide. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And to me, this comes back to the very beginning of what I talked about was his omnipresence. It is his kingdom. It is his power. And he will always receive the glory for what he has created and what his plans are.

And it will, will, will come to pass. Okay? So, when you really settle into that, you know, as you're praying through this prayer, God knows the conditions of your life. God knows the circumstances of your life, you know, and each one of these access points may be for that day, you know, something that connects you with God, you know, it, it, it, it is, as I said, a versatile prayer.

And so as you're praying through it, you know, you want to be sensitive to allow God to speak to you in each of those moments. And then one particular day, you might land on one of those sections and maybe that's a half hour that you're praying and talking about. It's like, Lord, you know, whatever it happens to be, you camp on that particular section and that could be the majority of your prayer for that day. It is something that you want to consider each topic as you go through it.

Lord, is this an area where I should spend some time really praying about and really be thinking about? Or maybe, you know, automatically from as you just begin to make the prayer. All right, so the worship team is going to come up. I'm going to close in prayer here. Father, we're so grateful to you. We're so dependent upon you. We're so thankful that you are always faithful, always lifting us up, always strengthening us.

We thank you for the calling that you have on each and every one of our lives, Lord. Lord, and we look to be filled with the knowledge of your will in every step of the way in all that we're doing. We pray, God, that your kingdom would reign in us every day. We pray that your kingdom would reign through us. The river of living water would flow out of us, touching and impacting and loving people in the name of Jesus.

Father, I pray for each person in their prayer life, regardless of where they're at, Lord. I pray that they would find a way to draw themselves to you closer and better every day. And throughout the day, I pray, Lord, your kingdom would become more real, and they would become more aware of it each and every day in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Amen.