Week 8 | Praying Like Jesus

I surrender everything to God. I cry to God, please God, answer me, I'm tired, I need to see my family. I knew that God was the only person who can answer that prayer. I came to the U.S. in 2006 from Cameroon. Cameroon is a beautiful country, but with a lot of issues. People dying, political issues, poverty. I faced a lot of challenges and oppression in my country at that time. Three years ago, my mom passed away and I didn't see her for 17 years. This was really painful. I really want to see my family and my daughter. I tried to go to Cameroon and that time everybody was saying that you cannot go to your country. If you go, you cannot come back. I prayed, I did everything that I could. I didn't see any door open. For three years, I said, God, I've been waiting for a long time and I know that you are working on it. I cried to God every day I was praying, small group. I asked everybody, please pray for me, I need to go to my country. I put everything in God's hand, but the silence of God is not easy. It was painful. I remember that I have an appointment with my lawyer that I should start to do some paper to go to my country and exactly that week, everything changed. I went to work, I received a call from my daughter. She said, mom, where are you? I said, no, I'm at work. When do you want me to come here in the U.S.? What day? I said, what do you mean? And she started laughing. I was screaming.

I said, you received your visa? Do you have a visa? And she said, yes, mom, I have. Oh my God, I can't believe it. I'm still, I'm talking right now, I'm shaking because that was the biggest miracle that I ever have in my life, that God answered prayer. I can't believe it. That day, God showed me that my daughter, I answered your prayer a long time, but I was waiting for the perfect time. Sometimes you think a miracle doesn't exist or God is not the same. God is the same. He answers prayers, do not give up, never give up. I didn't expect to see my daughter last year, but God did it. Only God can do it. God always answers prayer. That's what I learned, that God always, always answers prayer. Just love stories, hearing about the power of God through prayer. Great to have you here this morning. Do want to welcome our Willow locations. Those of you joining us online, a big shout out to our brothers who joined us from the Jefferson City Correctional Center, if that's you, great to have you with us. We actually have a small team from Willow at Jefferson City Correctional Center this morning, so big shout out to you as well. Now as you can tell, I'm one of the thousands of people who are sick this week, and so my voice is coming back, not quite there, so thanks for your grace in advance today, but I'm excited to jump back into the Jesus way, looking at the Sermon on the Mount. Now you know week one of this series, I challenged our whole church to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. How's that going for you? That didn't seem very impassioned and exciting, but you're working on it.

Just tell me it's a work in progress, Sean, just say it's a work in progress. All right, it's a work in progress, you're good. Now I ran across a young man who's doing a really great job with it. And I thought I would show you somebody who's really taking this serious and really... really jumping into it. Can you put your hands together and welcome Timothy for me? Everybody, welcome Timothy. Now Timothy's been memorizing the Sermon on the Mount. We're gonna not have him do the entire sermon, but you've got a couple of parts that we'd love for you to share with us. Give us Matthew chapter five. Let's start verse 13. Okay, you're the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. That they may see. That they may see the good deeds, your good deeds, and glorify your Father in heaven. You got it, well done. Well done, sir.

That's good. Sorry. All right, deep breath, because I know you got one more in you. Toward the end of the chapter. Let's take it from 43 to the end of the chapter. Okay. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. That you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sons to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward do you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Come on, well done, my friend. Can I just say, it takes a lot of courage to stand up here in front of everybody. Can you put your hands together one more time for Timothy? Great job, buddy. I'm super proud of you. Super proud of Timothy, like it can be done. Now again, the reason why we talked about memorizing is because when it comes to the Jesus way,

we don't want to just know the Jesus way. We don't want to just be able to talk about the Jesus way. We want it to be so imprinted in our hearts that we'd really learn how to walk out and live the Jesus way. And so again, I would encourage you, wherever you're at, continue to lean in, continue the journey. Now, what I need you to do today is to have today's text memorized right now. Now, you're laughing, but I actually think that you're already there. And so I'm gonna start reading today's text. As you think you know it, just join in and recite it with me. You ready? Says this, Matthew chapter six. Our Father, who art 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. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Now, for some of you are like, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. And that is how we say the Lord's Prayer. That's just not in Matthew chapter six. But congratulations, you already have it memorized, right? Well done.

Now, what's interesting about this prayer, the Lord's Prayer that we're gonna dive into, I think for probably at least a lot of us, it's somewhat of a familiar prayer. That even if you didn't have it memorized, maybe it's something that you've heard somewhere along the way. It's somewhat familiar to us. But I would say, don't let the familiarity cost you from understanding the richness of what Jesus taught us when he taught us this really, really powerful prayer. Now, what is interesting is about the Lord's Prayer that we now call the Lord's Prayer, is not only recorded here in Matthew chapter six, it's also recorded for us in Luke chapter 11. Now, when Jesus teaches this prayer in Luke chapter 11, he does so as a response to a question the disciples had asked him. Luke 11 says this, the disciples came and he says, hey, Jesus, Lord, like teach us how to pray. Now, I think this is fascinating because the disciples didn't say, teach us how to preach. They didn't say, teach us how to do a miracle. What they said is, Jesus, teach us how to pray. Now, what's behind this in the ancient world is that oftentimes if you had a rabbi or a teacher, you would ask them how they pray because how they prayed revealed what mattered most to them. And so some rabbis, if you were to ask,

hey, teach us how to pray, they might emphasize spiritual rhythms or some sort of ritual of some kind. Others might emphasize sacrifice, maybe the sacrificial code back in the day. It's when the disciples said, hey, Jesus, teach us how to pray, and he rolls out the Lord's Prayer, it gives us a window. to what matters most to the heart of Jesus. So I would encourage you when it comes to this prayer, it might be somewhat familiar, but if you can allow yourself to, hear it with fresh ears. Open yourself up to allow God to do something maybe in your own heart, in your own life, and maybe allow it to, maybe it allows you to even think about your own prayers in new and powerful ways. What's interesting about the rhythm of prayer is most of us, if not all of us, pray. There was actually a survey done a number of years ago that said, that was polling like, how many people in America believe in God? And 95% of the population said they believed in some sort of higher power of God. The same group of people was asked, how many of you pray? And 99% of the people said that they prayed. So there's 4% of the people who don't believe in God, but still pray.

I don't know who they're praying to. However, prayer is that much of a rhythm in people's lives that even if I'm not sure about God, or I got questions about God, oftentimes there are these moments in life that stop us in our tracks and cause us to think, if there is a God, I need God to intervene on my behalf. And so I would encourage you, wherever you're at in your spiritual journey, for some of you, you're still kind of unsure about faith. That's okay, I'm ecstatic that you're here. For others of you, maybe a little bit further along in the journey, wherever you're at in the spiritual journey, I would say, this prayer of Jesus is for you. And so Jesus walks us through six different movements of this prayer. And so I'm gonna walk us through these different movements. I'm gonna label the movement, then give you the verses and kind of share a little bit of what's behind the heart of Jesus when he gave us this prayer. So here's the six movements. The first one's this, I would say that we gotta be people who start with the relationship. That's how the prayer starts. Here's the words of the prayer, our Father in heaven. Now notice the first word of the prayer. It's this plural pronoun, this collective. Right out of the gates, Jesus doesn't say, my Father. He says, our Father.

It's this indication that prayer, specifically this prayer, is a very communal type of prayer. One that's intended to draw actually all of us together like as one body. Even as the prayer progresses, every pronoun in the entire prayer is plural. It's about our, it's about us, it's about us being together. And so even where you get a little bit later in the prayer where he says, give us this day our daily bread. Like lead us not into temptation. Forgive us. It's all always together. And so we get this sense right out of the gates, this is this collective prayer for all of us, that he says, our Father. Interesting term about how Jesus refers to God in this prayer. You know, if you look up ancient prayers, and you'll find a lot of ancient prayers. You know, these rabbis, these teachers, they taught a lot about prayer. And if you look at all these ancient prayers and you started stacking them up, you'd have volumes of works of all of these prayers. And in it, you'll see God referred to as all kinds of different things. Jehovah, Jireh, Elohim, Almighty. You find all kinds of different terms describing about who God is. But in all of these volumes, of all of these rabbis,

of all these prayers that have ever been prayed, this is the first time anybody refers to God as Father. Why would Jesus refer to God in what would have been an earth-shattering type of way in the first century? It's because Jesus was trying to communicate that our God is a personal God. He's a relational God. He's not just this distant, supreme being somewhere. They kind of created things and set it into motion and remains distant. No, he's a Father. He cares. He wants relationship. He interacts with. In the ancient world, they would have understood the Father to be provider, to be protector, to be the one that was in charge of the household. And Jesus says, I want you to interact with God in that way. He's not this distant, far-off God. He's a personal God who cares deeply about every single one of you. You could call him your Father. Now, notice it says your Father in heaven. That's a really important distinction because the truth is your earthly Father should have given you a picture of what your heavenly Father looks like.

Your earthly Father should have provided love and care and protection and provided and all those types of things. And for some of us, that is the story of our earthly Father. And for others of us, that's nowhere close to describing what our earthly fatherly experience was like. And so it's really important to recognize that this father, this good father, he is in heaven. And maybe he's similar to your earthly father, and maybe he stands in drastic contrast to your earthly father. But know this about him. He is one that sees you, who knows you, who cares about you, who's crazy about you, who wants a relationship with you, he wants to provide for you, he's willing to protect you at all costs. He is a good, good father. Now sometimes it's hard to see God as father if our earthly fatherly experience was not good. It kind of reminds me of the Psalm, Psalm 27, says these words, that though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. So even if you had a difficult father on this earth, Psalms reminds us that your heavenly father will always receive you. And so it's a beautiful piece of how this prayer starts. It always starts with relationship. As the first movement. Here's the second movement.

Second movement is about honoring God first. And so the statement in the prayer is, hallowed be your name. Hallowed is just kind of a funny spiritual word. It's not one that we would use in everyday type of language, but basically means we respect. It's a term of reverence. Of hallowed be your name. It's kind of this statement to recognize that sure, God is absolutely personal and caring and wants us, desires to have this relationship, but don't let that mislead you that he's also not a powerful God. The supreme being of the universe. The one that spoke everything into existence that you see. There is no one more powerful than him and there is no name that's above his name. He's the greatest name. He's the most powerful name. The name is so great, the Philippians reminds us that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and under the earth and every tongue confess that he is Lord. There is no greater name. Now the reason why this matters so much is because we're about to get the type of prayer that we begin to interact with God and maybe asking God to do things that only he can do. Calling it a power that's way beyond ours.

It's important to recognize what power and whose name we're calling on. So in other words, if you're facing maybe a medical situation, you need a power beyond your own to intervene in that medical situation. Please don't pray in the name of Sean. It's not gonna get you very far. Or if you're needing some sort of financial breakthrough or relational breakthrough, don't pray in the name of Fred. And I know a couple of Freds, they're great people. But there's no power in that name. There's only one name that's above every other name and that is the name of Jesus. And so we start here and we recognize that we start with relationship, a personal God who cares about us. But one that demands great respect and great reference and great awe because there is no one, there is nothing in this world that has more power than him. It leads us into the third movement where we surrender our agenda to God's mission. Here's the statement of the prayer. It says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Whose kingdom? God's kingdom.

Whose will? God's will. Now the reason why this matters so much is because if your prayers look anything like mine, sometimes I'm tempted to go to God with everything in my world. And really my prayers are about my kingdom and my will and what I want God to do on my behalf. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with presenting our request to God. There's elsewhere in scripture that actually instructs us to do just that. However, it causes us to at least pause for just a moment and recognize that God is not this genie in a bottle. God is not one that can be manipulated to get God to do what I want God to do. Instead, it's actually the opposite. Prayer actually aligns my heart to God's heart. It aligns my will to God's will. It aligns my kingdom to God's kingdom. It's ultimately about what God desires to do in and through my life. And so in many ways, this is actually a statement of surrender. Now I love how this. statement ends, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What a great statement. Because think about heaven. I mean, heaven is perfect.

Revelation describes it's a place where there's no more tears, no more crying, no more dying, no more pain, it's perfect. It's hard for us to even imagine a world in which there's no struggle, there's no strife, there's no conflict. I mean, it's just this place of perfection. Now, the reality is many times we pray because we live in an earth that has all kinds of struggle. But look at the beauty of the prayer. It's what we're asking God is to take some of what heaven's gonna be like, and would he bring it to earth in the here and now? You know, sometimes we find ourselves in struggle and we think, ah, God came to save us from this world so we could experience heaven. And that's true. God did send his son Jesus to this world to die a criminal's death and to rise from the dead so that you and I could experience eternity with him. That's absolutely true. However, I don't think we have to always just wait for that to be a future reality. Instead, there are moments that we can pray that God would give us a little taste of heaven and we could have it in the here and now. And so every time that we pray for physical healing, we're asking God to bring a little heaven to earth because there's no sickness in heaven. Every time that we pray that God would

restore a broken marriage, we're asking God to bring a little heaven to earth because there's no relational brokenness in heaven. I mean, every time that we're asking God to even intervene for our most basic needs, it's asking God to bring a little heaven to earth because in heaven, there is no need. What's interesting about this prayer is we're not only asking God to do this on our behalf, I think this is a little bit of a dangerous prayer because many times, God will ask us to participate and to partner with him in bringing a little bit of heaven to earth. As part of when we get to be a part of God's work and do God's work in the world, when we see a marriage that needs encouragement, when we go to the hospital to visit somebody who's ill, it's an opportunity to partner with God to bring a little bit of heaven to earth. It's a prayer that calls on the power of God but also connects our heart to his as well. His kingdom come, his will be done on earth. God, would you bring a little bit of peace of heaven? Here's the next movement of the prayer. It says, ask for today's needs. The verse is this, give us today our daily bread. Now, the first century hearers would have heard something very specific around this verse. They would have had their kind of Old Testament stories would have immediately come up

and maybe some of you know this, that when God brought the nation of Israel out of slavery, one of the ways that God provided for them was he provided this substance called manna in the morning when they woke up. They would get up, the manna would be out in the field, they would collect literally their daily bread and they had to collect it every single day except for the day before the Sabbath, they collected two days so they wouldn't have to get out and work on the Sabbath. Now, I've wondered at times, why didn't God just give them like a month's supply? Or why didn't God just give them maybe even like a year's supply? That saved them having to get up every day and go get bread every day. Can they just go and package it up where they can have a few days together? God never did that. Why? Because God was not as interested in just eliminating future uncertainty. What God was very interested in is building daily dependence and trust. Now, for many of us, we're not in a position on a day-to-day basis that we pray for our next meal because we don't know where it's gonna come from. The truth is, there's possibly some people with us

that that is their story. And if that is your story, this is your prayer. That God will meet you every day as your provider. Now, again, a lot of us aren't looking for our next meal, but yet I would argue the same principle is really important to all the other things that we think about and sometimes that we're weighed down with when it comes to prayer. For many of us, the weight that we carry around is around some sort of future uncertainty. Maybe we lost a job and we don't know what the future's gonna look like, or maybe our kid's really struggling and making some decisions that. that we wouldn't approve of at all, and we want God to fix it, we want the outcome to be different. Or maybe we just got a recent diagnosis, and we don't know what that's gonna mean, we don't know if the treatment's gonna, is it even gonna work, am I gonna be able to make, you know, whatever the questions might be. And oftentimes, some of the heaviest weight we experience in life is around future uncertainty, that we don't know the answer, we don't know what's gonna happen. What's fascinating is God is often less concerned about bringing certainty about our future. He more often wants to connect with us personally,

in the present, and give us what we need today. So I don't know exactly what will happen with the future of your child. But the question is, what do you need to pray for today? Maybe the prayer is, God, will you help me love today? God, will you give me the wisdom of whether I should say something, or should not say something today? Or maybe you got a recent diagnosis, and I don't know what the future will hold. But what do you need today? Maybe you need God's peace today. Maybe you need some encouragement from somebody today. Maybe you just need to feel loved today. When we pray this prayer, give us today our daily bread. We're asking God, God, will you meet me in this moment right now? Will you give me what I need right now? God might not give me steps five, six, seven, and eight yet. But God, will you meet me right here and give me my next step? And Jesus says, pray that kind of prayer to build your trust relationship with God now. Here's the next movement. This is the toughest one. Extend the forgiveness that you have received. Here's the verse. It says, forgive us our debts as we've also forgiven our debtors. Now, it starts with the forgiveness that you and I need.

It's kind of this recognition that you and I are all in the same boat spiritually, that all of us have fallen short of God's glory. Like all of us have sinned, we've made mistakes, we've created separation in our relationship between us and God, and God, in his divine mercy, sent his son to pay the penalty of that sin so that we can be reconciled again. And the beautiful thing is that if you desire the forgiveness and the mercy of God, God will forgive you and give you the mercy that you desire. The beauty in that is every single person that becomes a part of the kingdom of God, they got there through God's forgiveness. There is no one who is in God's kingdom who got there without being forgiven. But Jesus reminds us. It still serves us well to go and to ask for forgiveness and to renew that sense of a reminder even of what God has done for us. But forgiven people are expected to become forgiving people. And you'll see this in this prayer. You see it all throughout the Bible the forgiveness we receive from God is undeniably connected to the forgiveness that we extend to others. And so he says, forgive us as we have also forgiven those who've sinned against us. Now Jesus doubles downs on this two verses later. And he says something, I'm gonna tell you,

it's got a lot of tension to it. Now I'm gonna read it to you and you're gonna go, oh gosh, that's really tough to hear. And Jesus does not resolve the tension and so I'm not gonna resolve the tension as well. But Jesus says these words, two verses later. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your heavenly father will also not forgive your sins. That's a tough verse. Because we read that and you're like, but God, they don't deserve it. And you're probably right. You say like, God, they haven't earned it. And you're probably right. They haven't apologized, they haven't owned it, they did the unthinkable. And God says, I want you to be the kind of person that extends forgiveness anyway. Because be mindful of the fact that God says that while we were still his enemies, he sent his son to die for us. He didn't wait for us to make it right. He didn't wait for us to own it, he went first. It's almost as though he's saying, I want you to be the kind of person I want you to be the kind of people that don't just do unto others as they deserve. that extends forgiveness anyway.

Because while we were still his enemies, I want you to do unto others he sent his son to die for us. as I have already done to you. He didn't wait for us to make it right. He didn't wait for us to own it, he went first. Now, for anybody who's been deeply harmed or wounded by someone else, that's a hard thing to hear, right? Certainly a hard thing to do and to follow. And I will say it actually will require a power that's beyond yourself. I don't know that any of us like get up one morning, we kind of like muster up enough power in order to do what's so difficult to do and to forgive. So do you remember that name we talked about earlier? That name that's above all names? The only name that's more powerful to do anything else? We actually have to call on that name to get the power we need to do what we could have never done on our own. So certainly this is a prayer of what we need to receive, but it's also a prayer asking God to give us the power to do what we cannot do on our own. That's to forgive others, especially when they don't deserve it. Leads us into the last movement. Here's the last movement, it says, depend on God's protection in every test. And the statement of Jesus in the prayer, it says,

and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Now, it's interesting about the previous verse about forgiveness. Forgiveness is a reaction after we've already done something wrong, right? That we've already sinned and so God reacts and gives us forgiveness. This statement about temptation is before we sin. It's basically saying on a proactive reality, it's a recognition that God, I'm powerless against certain things. God, I've got vulnerabilities that if I'm left to my own devices, man, they'll get the best of me. It's a prayer that acknowledges that there is an evil one, that you and I, we have an enemy. We have an enemy that the Bible describes as roaring around like a prowling lion. He's looking for a moment that he can devour us. Elsewhere, he's called a thief that has come to steal and to kill and destroy. You're like, well, have a nice day. You and I have an enemy who knows your vulnerabilities. He knows where you're susceptible and he wants to take you down. And so Jesus says, have the humility to recognize your vulnerability and to come to God before any line has been crossed and say, God, I need your help in the face of temptation.

God, I need your help before I look at websites. God, I need your help before I take that drink. God, I need your help before I interact with that person. God, I need your help before I explode in anger, whatever the issue may be. The reality of it is all of our vulnerabilities can be very different from one another, but our enemy knows the unique one to lean into for us. And so Jesus, he implores us to pray this prayer, that that same power that comes from the name that's above every name, it's the power that brings a little bit of heaven to earth. It's a power that gives us our daily bread, what we need in the here and now. It's the power that gives us the power to forgive, but it's also the power that can protect us from the enemy. Here's the truth. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. I believe it. So we come to him. We ask for God to do something on our behalf that we would not be able to do on our own. It's this prayer. 53 words can be prayed in under 30 seconds, but with the right heart, it can change everything. I'm gonna just put the six movements back up on the screen. I mean, it starts with a God who loves us, who wants a relationship, who's the name above every name.

He's got the power beyond anything that we would have on our own. But we surrender to his will, his kingdom, his mission. We say, God, would you just meet me where I'm at today? That I don't know about tomorrow. We'll deal with tomorrow when tomorrow comes, but God, would you meet me where I'm at today? And God, would you give me the power to do what I cannot do to forgive others? But God, would you also give me the power to do what I cannot do, and that's receive forgiveness from you? And Father, I need, I need you to intervene on my behalf. Because God, I can't take on the enemy, I need you to take on the enemy for me. My God, as if we're honest, that's a prayer that every single one of us needs, that every single one of us needs to even sit in and rest in. Which part of the prayer do you need most today? Are you at a place that you're facing something so big that God, I need you to bring a little piece of heaven, and I need you to intervene and interrupt what's going on here on earth? Are you facing a medical diagnosis? Are you facing relational brokenness? Are you facing financial turmoil? Are you facing something you need God to intervene on your behalf? Maybe for others of us, the uncertainty of tomorrow is so overwhelming, and so maybe what you need today is for God to meet you right where you're at today. What do you need today? For some of you, maybe you even walked in here today, maybe overwhelmed with guilt about something that you've done or something that's happened, and what you need is God's forgiveness today. Or maybe you've been recently harmed and what you need is God's power to help you do what

you can't do on your own to forgive. Or maybe you're up against a temptation that as much as you try, you've had a hard time overcoming. And maybe today's a moment that you go, God, I need your help in this moment. I can't overcome the temptation without you. Can you find yourself somewhere in this prayer? Here's what we're going to do. Again, I started this conversation by the first word of the prayer, which was what? Our. It's not a prayer about me. It's about us. And for some of us, we've been praying for these things so long on our own, we've been white-knuckling it ourselves, and frankly, we're frustrated because it doesn't feel like it's moving at all. And so what if this morning we called in some reinforcements? What if this morning was not just about me and my relationship with God, what if it was about us? We came together, we came alongside of one another, we together went before the Father and asked God to do what only God can do. So in just a moment, I'm going to ask if you need prayer to put your hand in the air. The truth is, we should all put our hands in the air, right? I don't know if there's a single one of us that'd be like, nope, not me, I'm good. We all need prayer. But I'm also aware enough to know that to put your hand in the air requires some courage. Have some courage today, okay? Have some courage just to recognize that God, there's some things going on in my life that are out of my control and God, I need you. So I'm going to ask in just a moment that you put your hand in the air. Now you know that every single week we've got prayer team members down front, right? And we invite you to come pray with them every single week.

Today we're going to do it a little bit differently. When you put your hand in the air, I'm going to send our prayer team to you. You don't even have to come down front. You hang out right where you're at and we're going to come to you and we're going to pray for you and we're going to pray with you. Again, this prayer is the Our Father, that we're in this together, that we're coming to the throne on behalf of one another. Now here's the truth. If people are honest, there's going to be way more hands in the air than there are prayer team members. Oh no! What do we do? Well if you see a hand near you and you don't see a prayer team member close, can I invite you to join our prayer team today? And can I invite you to go and just pray for somebody near you, the person sitting in front of you, the person sitting right behind you, and that today would be a day that we come together and just simply pray for one another. So I'm going to ask, if you need prayer, that on the count of three that you courageously just put your hand in the air and allow us as a church to come alongside and pray with you. You ready? On the count of three, one, two, three. And as people make their way towards you, let's just pray the Lord's prayer together to start the opportunity of praying for one another. Keep your hand in the air as we pray these words. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors and lead us not to temptation but God deliver us from the evil one.