In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the marvel of God's plan and the importance of having a deep relationship with Him. The sermon begins by discussing the desire for an exchanged life, where Jesus Christ reigns as King in one's heart. The speaker emphasizes the importance of giving to God with a right heart and intimacy, rather than for the approval of others. The sermon also touches on the transformation that occurs when God fills us with Himself, including the change from anger to love. The speaker concludes by reassuring listeners that God is their provider, protector, and sustainer, promising to be with them always.

Tonight, Matthew chapter 6, verse 9 is where we want to pick it up. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Let's pray and we'll look at this. Lord Jesus, how we thank you and we praise you for your love, your goodness to us. Lord, thank you for your unbelievably wonderful sacrificial death on our behalf. Lord, to think that tonight we can literally watch the world go whatever direction it seems to be going on any given day. And yet, fear not, for you are with us. And Lord, to have somebody that has forgiven our sins, adopted us into your family, made us children of God, ascended to heaven you have, and you sit at the right hand of the majesty on high, and you present us faultless. And Lord, we thank you and praise you for that which you do, but we also ask that you would teach us how to enter in to a deeper fellowship with you, a deeper communion and relationship with you. Lord, that our lives would be truly, even more so in these days, just surrendered and given to you fully. The desire, Lord, to be spending, Lord, literally, seemingly the last days of history. Lord, and to spend them with you, living with you, for you, for your glory. And we ask that you would minister your love by your spirit, by your word to each one of us now. In Jesus, your wonderful name we pray. Amen. You know, I think one of the greatest thoughts that there is, before we do get into this, is, you know, one day, of course, the Lord spoke the world into existence. He said, let there be, and there was. Hebrews chapter 1 tells us that one day the Lord will close up or fold up, literally, creation as a vesture. He spoke it into existence. He'll speak it out. But he'll have one thing at the end he didn't have at the beginning. And that's you and me. And I think one of the most awesome things that there is to think of is the end of time. There a time when time shall be no more. Literally, God folding up creation. An end to history. An end to all of this. And the inner end is presence. What an awesome thought. And to believe that we are seemingly right at the threshold of that. We're just watching these events of the world and looking at our Bible and going back and forth and realizing the marvel of what God is up to. And hopefully, though, we aren't only ones that merely see that. We're also ones that, with all of our heart, we want to enter into a deep and a wonderful relationship with him, fellowship with him, that our lives would be wonderfully used for him and for his glory. Well, as we have been going here through the Sermon on the Mount, remember back in chapter 5, nine years ago, whenever it was we started this, but back in chapter 5, there we're talking here about somebody that has come and desires an exchange life. They've come to realize that what they want more than anything else is Jesus Christ to be reigning as king within their heart, to be filled and flooded with him. Thus, they become poor in spirit. They mourn over their own sin. There's a meekness before God, producing an insatiable hunger and thirst after him, and he fills us. And the evidence of that new fullness is now there's a new creature. New creation is literally beginning to emerge before our very eyes as we become the embodiment of his life and of his love and of his spirit as he begins to take over and rule and reign within us. The evidences of that are that we are becoming merciful, a peacemaker, pure in heart, a peacemaker. And we are beginning to become so much like him, wanting to live for him in his glory, that the world absolutely begins to confuse us with him and begins to persecute us for righteousness sake. But for that, we're even to be thrilled. We're to be happy. Thus, we become, as Jesus said, the salt of the earth and the light of the world. He says, this is what you're for. This is what it's all about. If the salt is lost, it's savor, it's henceforth good for nothing. Be cast out and trodden under the foot of men and hear that our lives are to be lived for him. That's why we live above all else. All of the other pursuits that we have in life, and we do have other pursuits, other responsibilities that are given to us, just part of the occupation of being here and abiding, you know, and occupying until he comes. But the great occupation, the great pursuit is to above all else want to know him, want to love him, want to follow him, want to see our lives used mightily by him. He continues on there in chapter six of talking about many of the aspects and the evidences and the battles, you might say, even of his power working within us. The transformations that occur once he is filling us with himself. Somebody there that once found it very easy to hate. And to, you know, he said, you have heard that have been said by them all time, thou should not kill. Whosoever shall kill should be in danger of judgment. And he goes on, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of judgment. And here he's saying, not only now you get person at once, maybe you used to want to kill, you used to be angry. You loved your anger. You used your anger. Sometimes your anger served you well, very well to accomplish other goals and objectives. It got you through life. It was one of your great strikes almost with many people, but now you despise it. Now you didn't even looking at people and calling them a fool. Looking at people is worthless. You're looking there and realizing there that once God, what he's done for you, what can't he now do for anybody else? And we're beginning to see a change and transformation within us. You have heard that have been said by them of all time that now shall not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever looks at a woman to lust after her. And next thing you know, rather than just being able to go out into lust or to covet, to want other things for ourself that aren't given to us by God, but just our own flesh wants it. Now we begin to despise it. Now the old attributes and the things of our nature that we once used to enjoy and lived under its power, under its lust, under its covetous nature, we find ourself despising it. Lord, you've come in. You've loved me. You've redeemed me. You've taken my place. You've filled me. Now my nature seems to want to come back. It wants to be hostile or wants to be angry or wants to be lustful. God, we need to go to battle. I want you here to take up a rule in rain. Continue to work within me. And he goes on that you have been said that thou should not forswear thyself, but shall perform to the Lord all that I knows. And actually I skipped one there, didn't I? But not to put away your wife or that if, pardon me, thou shalt not, if a man divorces his wife, let him give her right in a divorcement. But I say unto you that whosoever puts away his wife, what are you doing? Putting away relationships. What are you wanting to break relationships? You ought to want to build them, make them deep and rich and strong. That's the pursuit now of the child of God. And the other person that maybe you used to be able to just walk in and out of relationships wholesale. Things went well, fine, they didn't go, well then forget it and I can easily move on. But that, you can't do that any longer. And there's new things happening. And here are the inner battles that are going on. Or whether keeping your word. Learning to turn the other cheek. Learning to give, you know, your coat or your cloak also or to walk a second mile. And we're finding these things there where Jesus wanted to teach us, if I'm going to live in you and I'm going to live in power and you really want my lordship, these are the battles of life. These are the things that you really want and ought to be longing to have me change, to have me strengthen. And then as he got into chapter six, then he talks about giving. One of the great areas, as we saw, that he says, if you give, just give to me. Just give in response to me. Give because I'm the one that's changed your life. I'm the one that's loved you. I'm the one that's redeemed you. I'm the one that's filled you. I'm the one that you care about. I'm the one that you fall in love with. Not the world, not the church, not other people. And when you do something, do it in a right heart. Do it as unto me. Do it with the intimacy and the love that is there where you don't even want your left hand to know what your right hand is doing. You want to do something in such a way, you almost want to forget that you've done it after you've done it. And that the great desire is, Lord, I want my heart and my service and my life to be for you. And then in prayer, as he talked about, don't be as the hypocrites. Don't go out where your prayer life is something that's out there public and it's up and down the streets and the beating of drums and the playing of trumpets and things like that. He says, you do it because you want to talk to me. You do it because you want to grow in a deep fellowship and communion with me. And then as we look at here tonight, he says, now when you pray, now he gives us here this wonderful manner of prayer or this wonderful pattern for prayer. Unfortunately, this very prayer itself, as Jesus said earlier, he says, don't pray in vain repetitions. And amazingly, the very prayer that he gave us there as a pattern for prayer or as a manner of prayers and approach to prayer, we have made it repetitious. So often we just run through it and we don't realize that this is a pattern of prayer. When you pray after this, this manner, when you come and you want to pray, have it be something as he says, they're in this process. And here is something there, not so much that we pray the prayer, although it's a wonderful prayer to pray and that we ought to pray the prayer, I think, but not in a repetitious way or not in just a cold way, but to know what it is that we're really doing. And here, I just want to look at it, therefore, as a manner or as a way and approach to prayer. And virtually, as you look at this prayer, every word of it is powerful. Every word of it. When he says our father, which art in heaven, and almost just to take it word for word to look at it, his very first word here, he says, when you pray and you want to talk to God, you want to approach your heavenly father, he says, the first thing he says is our, our father. It's a word of possession. It's a word of ownership. You know, and in this life, you know, it seems it's interesting, you know, we, we come in, you know, this life. And of course, as we come in, next thing we come in naked, but immediately people begin to clothe us and then tell us, you know, we, we got to add everything to it. And you got to grow up and you got to get a job and you got to get a house and you got to get a car and you got to get a wife and you got to get this and you got to get that and all the other things in life sort of things. But everything else, ultimately, though, in all of life, that is really yours, that you may days today have things, this is mine. And this is mine, but virtually most all the things that we have that we say are mine, they're temporary. They're fleeting. You know, our youth, you may be young and say, I'm young and say, well, I think about it and enjoy it because it won't last long. You know, sort of a thing, everything you have, it comes and it goes. And by the way, I might suggest to you, if you're young, don't make fun of old people. You know, the one of the things I used, I used to do that. And then I realized, don't ever make fun of the direction you're going. You know, I mean, it's fine when you're old, make fun of young people. You've been there, done that, and you're not going back there and you don't have to make any friends that direction. But when you're going to get old, but everything else, we're going to get old and, you know, our careers, you know, we think we have and we own this and we have this and we have that. But one day, virtually everything we have will go, even our mind. But the wonderful thing that you will have, that you can honestly say, once you come into a living relationship where you can say, mine, our, I own, I have, is that when you begin to come before God, you can say, our Father. And that is one thing you'll be able to say through the rest of eternity. That is one thing that is the greatest of all possessions. John 17, Jesus said that they may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in them, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And he said, in the glory which thou hast given me, that have I given unto them, that they may be one, as we are I in them, thou in me, that they may be perfect in one. And then he says, Father, for thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. To stop to think of that, that's one of the most astounding verses in the Bible. And I think it'd be easy to argue with, even if it's really could be true, if it wasn't that Jesus said it itself, but Jesus said, Father, you love them as you have loved me. Think of that. Think of that tonight. I mean, to stop to think for a moment that the Father, the love that he has for you is as great as the love that he has for his own son, for our Lord Jesus Christ, his other self, another member of the triune Godhead, but outside of himself, outside of his own shared deity, the purity of the love that he has within. I understand that. But to think of God reaching outside of himself and now there, Jesus say, you love them as much as you love me. There that God, he looks at us and for time and eternity, his commitment, his love, his desire to have us and to have us as a great and wonderful possession of his own, that I in them and they in us and we all one with another to realize there that a Christian, when you begin to pray the very first thing, in a sense, to be able to grab onto this great sense of ownership, claiming our inheritance in the sense, the greatest of all in the things that you will ever have, the greatest and the most long lasting of all your inheritance is God himself. He gives us many things in this life, but many of the things even then that he gives us there, there's something that we have for a time. They're here for a service for a time. They serve as a wonderful blessing in a time that he can use in our life. But at the same time, the one thing that we can have that will never change or lonely, grow richer and deeper, the one possession that we got to be able to say our mind of all the things that I've have. Paul says in Romans eight, the spirit himself, he bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God and that then children are the children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ there to think as much as Jesus could look to heaven and say, father, my father, our father, to think there, that's the boldness, that's the freedom, that's the greatest thing for a child of God to come to the realization. Jesus said, when you pray, you can grab on and realize this is your possession. This is yours. This is given unto you. Wonderful thing. After Jesus, after his own resurrection, I think something that he had to be so anticipating even before the foundation of the world when he had given himself as a lamb slain. And when he came into the world, something always anticipating, we know his face was set like a flint for Jerusalem. And that was from the foundation of the world. That was from the cradle. You know, you know, he was always going to Jerusalem. He was always going there to die for us. And yet one of the very first and the most excited and anticipated things I think he ever got to say after his resurrection, when Mary grabbed on to him and she wouldn't let him go. She said, Mary, don't cling to me now. Don't hold on to me now. There's other things. Not that you won't hold on to me. Not that you won't cling. We will have something so wonderful for you to cling on to and to hold on to with all of your heart and with all your life. But now he says, I want you to go to my brethren and I want you to say unto them. Before Jesus could look at them and he'd call them servants. And then even before the cross, he called them friends. But now he says, go to my brethren. And he says, and I want you to tell them, just simply say to them, I ascend to my father and to your father, to my God and your God. Go tell them, you know, the wonderful thing. I mean, Bible tells us right now, Jesus, he's not ashamed to be called our brother. Think of that. How often are we ashamed of him, ashamed to stand up, you know, for him. And yet at the same time, he looks and in all of heaven, he said, I'm not ashamed to call them mine. And whatever shame or whatever weaknesses they have, heaven has no part of it. The Lord looks at us in his wonderful love. We're heirs. And Jesus looks there and he says, Mary, go tell the world. They have a father right now. They have a God that they can actually claim as their very, very own. And you see, everything else will fail us. Everything else that you and I have, you know, will come and it will go. You know, as Job says, naked came I into this world, naked I'll go out. You know, we know that. We come in and we go. And as I said, even our mind. I remember one time my father-in-law who was actually throwing out a bunch of his diplomas and his things from his medical practice. And I said, what are you doing that for? And for one of the things he listed, among other reasons, he said, well, first of all, everyone on the side is dead. And no big deal to me now. But then he looked there and he started pulling some things. He says, but I'll tell you, they sure were at one time. And he looked at many of these things, this degree and this diploma and this accomplishment, all of which he kind of looked at it. And he says all these things. Now he was, you know, well into his years of retirement and he looked there and he says, none of this means nothing. It's all gone. It comes and it goes, you know, and you realize there, but one thing that you can have is him. In fact, my mother-in-law, some of you may remember she was here in the years ago. She died in 1989. Wonderful, wonderful woman. She died of Alzheimer's. And I saw one of the most amazing studies of life I ever saw when I watched her and go through this, because the amazing thing is her mind is with Alzheimer's. She virtually lost connection with everybody. All of us, one by one, you know, all the relationships began to fade, who they were. And all the way down, you know, her own husband over 60 years, her children, grandchildren, all the people around. She never lost the Lord. She always knew who he was. She could always sing hymns. She could always there talk to Jesus. She knew him and she never lost that. Though her mind lost virtually everything else. And the amazing thing, if you may know anything about Alzheimer's, it's kind of like there's this partition. Sometimes I think within our mind, and I don't know much about it or the, I wish it did, but anyway, but the, the difference between, you know, conscious and subconscious or something, but how many times in life do you think something, but you don't say it? Well, with Alzheimer's, you think it, you say it. There's this little barrier that you kind of think, you know, you look at somebody and you think, man, that's an ugly outfit, but you don't, you just, you with Alzheimer's, you say, man, that's an ugly outfit. You know, whatever you're thinking, it just happens. You know, and I used to think, oh Lord Jesus, please don't ever give me that disease. You know, the stuff I think, you know, where the cat gets out of the bag, you know, the stuff there that can happen. And yet the most wonderful thing is, you know, as I rewatched her, you know, a thing, she had this preciousness. And even when she didn't understand, she didn't know anything. One time when I was, they were over at our house and she, at the time, would just kind of wander blank around. They're always loving. But here, one time she walks through and my father-in-law, I'd gotten picked him up some 10 or $20 and he wants to pay me for it. I said, forget it. I'm waiting for the big stuff. You keep the bucks, you know, and stuff. But anyways, no. And he said, I'm going to, I want to pay. And I said, forget it. I didn't really. And he said, no. So he's got his checkbook. He's insisting. She walks through the room and she stands there. She says to him, what are you doing? And she says, Mark, I've decided to give Don everything we have. And she looks at him and smiles. And she says, Phil, I think that's so wonderful. He loves the Lord and I know he'll use it for God. I said, amen. But anyway, that was the end of that. But it was just amazing on how her heart didn't know anything. It kind of was going on. But the wonderful thing that a person has, even when they lose everything else, to be able to say, our, mine. You know, I have a father that I'll never, he'll never leave me nor forsake me. Though everything else may leave, everything else may go. No one time, Jean, because she was concerned if, you know, maybe I'll get it. And then she, one day she, something slipped her mind. She turned to me. She said, one day she grabs me. She says, Don, she says, tell me, just tell me if I, if I ever get Alzheimer's. I turned to her, I said, honey, I've told you three times already today. But the, she's here. But she won't be mad because she'll forget it. But anyway. But here, Jesus, he says, our father. And then he says that when you pray to be able to turn and look and say, not just simply you have, he is yours. I mean, you've got, Jesus said, here's the greatest introduction. He says, our father. And here, every word, as I said, is so wonderful because the next word here, father, it's a Greek word, pater, in the English transliteration of it. But the word has three concepts to it in the Greek and the word father or pater, it means provider, protector, sustainer. Here is something there that every time Jesus said, when you pray, it's, it's not just a label. It's a content. Here's a word I'm going to give you that when you address your heavenly father, when you say my pater, my father, you're literally turning and you're saying to him, my provider, my, my protector, my sustainer. It has this wonderful concept of somebody there that number one, they provide for you. And then they protect you. They put a, you know, a wall around you and then they sustain you. They hold you up, but you're just entirely encapsulated there within the word father, where the Christian begins to pray. We begin to be to come and be able to realize as he goes on, he says, your father, as he says earlier, he knows what things you have need of. He knows everything about it. Your provider. He knows everything when you and I, when we're praying and we say dear father, we're saying dear provider. I wonder how much prayerless praying I've done through my life. And I stopped to think how many times that I prayed and said, dear father, and then I'll go on for five minutes as if I don't have a provider, dear provider, nobody's providing for me, dear provider, you know, going on as I don't know how I'm going to be taking dear provider, you know, and I, and the concept, I mean, it's just prayerless praying. When the person is praying, Jesus, when you pray, you are coming before the most amazing provider in all the world, a provider who can do the most astounding things. The other day I was in Romans chapter four for something. And as I was in there and it just hit me on how that God, he's teaching Abraham. They're the father of all of the household of faith, the model for every one of us. But to think there, he, a man there and his wife who've been together now for over three quarters of their life, almost a hundred years old. He is in there. God takes him out in Genesis 15. Genesis, but he takes him out and he says, look to the stars of the sky or to the sands of the sea. So shall thy seed be. But Romans tells us they're here. God taking him out and telling him these things. It says, Abraham considered not the deadness of his own body nor the deadness of Sarah's womb. Here was something that everything in him said, but God, there's no provision. You tell me I can have a child. You tell me there's a future. You're telling me that this can happen. Everything, all the facts around say, no, there is no such capacity for a provision. It isn't going to happen. But yet it says, Abraham believed God and was counted unto him for righteousness. There to think of somebody, it wasn't just a week. It didn't happen or a month. It didn't happen or a year. It didn't happen. But for maybe 60 years, I mean, 70 years of marriage, I think after 70 years, you'd have the right to kind of say, you know, God doesn't look good here. You know, we, you know, it just, it just doesn't really look real promising here that we're going to have a child. And yet they're the most amazing and wonderful things. God is our father. He looks at us and he tells us, I am your provider. I'm your protector. I'm this wonderful protector that you have. How many times are we in fear? How many times is the chaos? And oh, no, it's over. But the word father, how to be such a wonderful word. We had a long to be able to say, Lord, teach me to pray like this. I just don't, you know, rip off the prayer. I just don't kind of grab it and, you know, recite it and repeat it over and over and over. But I dwell in the realization when I come to pray in here, there's a manner, there is an order of prayer. There's one there even before when he come, we, when we come in, set, set down everything else that's temporary, everything else that's temporal is as important as your marriages, as important as your children are, as important as the trials and the battles of life are. You have all the other things there. First, Jesus said, you, when you pray in the manner I want you to do is come in and grab on to one thing that is certainly yours and questionably yours. You have and you have a father. Grab on to him. Take notice of him. Set before him. Open your heart to him. Realize that, you know, let God be true in every man a liar. And when I say father, I'm saying provider. I'm saying protector. I'm saying somebody there that regardless of what is transpiring in the rest of the world, I have a father that is going to protect me. Psalm 46, he says, God is our refuge in strength. Very present help in trouble, therefore we'll not be afraid. We'll not fear. And then he gives this amazing illustration of it. He says, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried in the midst of the sea, and though the waters thereof roar and are troubled, and though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. I mean, get a, get, look at that picture here. I mean, here he says there, you take the earth, and the earth is just removed. He says, or the mountains are carried in the midst of the sea. It's just dropped down in the middle of the ocean there, and the waters thereof roar and are troubled, and, and, you know, a tsunami comes back and hits the mountains, and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. I mean, here we got this cataclysm, whatever the word is. We got this big trouble, you know, going on. We got this huge storm. The whole world is falling apart. But he says there, he says, though the earth be removed, and the mountains are carried in the midst of the sea, and the waters thereof roar and are troubled, he says there is a river. There is a river. The streams thereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her. And that right early. I mean, here he looks there, and he says, you know, there's two places for a child of God to live. And one of them is just down here in this world that's constantly exploding, constantly coming to pieces, constantly one storm, constantly something happened with whatever, you know. Wake up, folks. Somebody was falling asleep. The Lord led me to hit that, I'm sure. But anyway, I mean, with all that the events of the world, but the, the thing for the child of God is to realize in the midst of this world, you can live there. And of course, the amazing thing, we're always praying, Lord, you see this world, come and do this and come and help this. And I tell you, but the child of God, the vantage point is God says, no, I'm not interested in coming down there, but you can come up here if you like. Anytime you like, there is a river, the streams thereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High, and God is in the midst of her. We're saying, God, get down here and get in the midst of my troubles. He says, I've been there, done that. You come up and get in the midst of my serenity. In the midst of my protection, get in the midst of my stability. And instead of always waiting for everything, the chaos of life, don't worry about the chaos of life. It's there. It's a matter of life in the world. You'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome it. And the wonderful thing for the child of God is that we can be lifted up and we can dwell in his presence. And the one there, I mean, God, as he says, our refuge and our strength, he looks at us and the wonderful promise here, even when somebody finds that and they go into that and they rest, they find that river, they find that tabernacle, they rest in it. Oh, this is wonderful. Then it goes on to say, he that raged. You know what I mean? They were absolutely in chaos. It says there, the kingdoms were moved. I mean, the fact that somebody left our planet and went to rest in God. The fact that somebody there is finding serenity and stability and hope in him. They want to make the heathen rage. You just go sit in heaven. You want to make the world mad at you. Sometimes you want to sometimes even increase potentially some of the trials. You go find that fortress and you begin to sit there and maybe the heathen or rage, maybe the kings were moved, but it go on. And then it says he uttered his voice and the earth melted here. God just says, quiet, stop it. It's enough. And all the, and the earth just has to submit the world around us. It's got to break. But here are the wonderful thing. He is our provider and he is our protector and he's our sustainer. He's the one there. He said, I'll be with you all. He's into the ends of the age. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you in Psalm 46, four. He says, even in your old age, I am he, even in your gray hairs, I will carry you. He says, I have made you and I will bear you. I will carry you. I would deliver you. Psalm four, Isaiah 46, four. But he says, well, don't worry about getting old. Don't worry about becoming weakened. Don't worry about losing you. Some of your faculties are what's going to carry you or how you're going to get through the very one that brought you into the world. We'll carry you out. He says, I'll be carrying you then. Maybe you thought you carried yourself or you did other things before, but those can be some of the most wonderful times in all of life. And he says, I made you, I'll carry you. I'll bear you, bear you up. I'll deliver you. And when we realize that, and here, Jesus said, when you pray and you just say our father, how many of our prayers, how many of the things right now within many of our lives would be immediately. If we just could say our father, my father, how many things that we would then go on? If we have with our prayer list, how many of we could just shut everything out and just first of all say, wait a minute, anybody who might be God has the right to be approached and loved and worshiped and adored all by himself. Before I bring any other event in any other temporary thing, any other passing thing, any other trial, as great as it is, what has the right to be in the room with him alone? The fact that I am his and he is mine forever. I want to go in my father, approach him. He says before, let's not tell you. He didn't say, you know, when you pray, pray, Oh God, have you seen, did you read the paper today? You know, or something. He didn't say you start with your trial. He's going to go on to that. He's going to talk about her daily bread. And he's going to talk about her trials and talk about her trespasses and talk about our failures and how to deal with a lot of other things. But he says, before we deal with the problems of life, let's deal with the answer. The living answer, adore him and approach him. He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power for his created all things for his pleasure. They are and were created and that we would find herself coming in and wanting just to be there. And then he says our which aren't in heaven. And of course, this just isn't an address, you know, that, so this kind of, we stick it on the letter, you know, make sure you get it that one, you know, or something. And as much as this is a reflection that when, again, this is so much for me, when I'm praying and for us, each one of us, our father, which aren't in heaven, this is to do with his glory and his majesty and to take it in, in a sense, this is there when you realize his almighty being, it's a reflection in a sense on his absoluteness, on his total sufficiency, on his completeness, in a sense, in heaven. It's in this all perceptive being the God of heaven and of earth. That's who I'm talking to. Talking to somebody. Yes, he is my father. He's my provider and my protector and my sustainer. But he is also, I'm talking to the one there who is in heaven. There's no limitation to him at all. The father that has absolutely no human aspects about him, no frailties, no shadow of turning in him, no weaknesses about him, what whatsoever at all, but a father there that he's God and he's omnipotent and he's omnipresent. He's omniscient. He knows everything. And to have there the sense, our father, which aren't in heaven, all powerful, all complete. David, the wonderful thing, I mean, he went just thinking there, looking at the world and looking at the trials and the paddles of the world. And he, you know, one day ponders to himself, he says, why do the heathen rage? The people imagine a vain thing. He says, the kings of the earth, they set themselves and, uh, uh, they, uh, the rulers, they take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands and break their cords or tear their cords asunder. And here, you hear the world saying they're fighting against God. Why do the heathen rage? They imagine the stupidest thing in all the world. They're actually going to take on God. They're going to fight God. They take counsel together against the Lord, against his anointed. And he says, he that sits in the heavens shall laugh. I mean, here God, you know, have them, you know, in, in, uh, uh, vex them in his sore displeasure. I mean, God will just sit there and he said, Hey, I have an agenda and the agendas of my own. And he says, I've said my son on my holy hill in Zion. He turns, he's asking me and I'll give you the heathen for thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possessions. And here he looks at him. And he, as God just looks there, he slaps at the world as it does its thing and it fights and everything. But the wonderful thing is when you and I are praying, this is who we're praying to one that while the heathen rage, while Saddam Hussein sits over there, I mean, heaven, absolutely. Would he almost just laugh? Well, look at this. It was going to defy, you know, he's going to actually think he's going to somehow another, be able to stand before God back in Psalm 46, you know, he, he says, come behold the desolations of the Lord. You know, he looks at them. He says, he breaks their bow. He cuts their spirits under. He burned at the chariot with fire. He absolutely does anything else that would come to fight against him. And that when you and I, my father, the one that is in heaven, the one that is there, that is all supreme, all powerful, just want to finish this one thought. And I'm looking there and realizing I'm not going to finish the Lord's prayer tonight, but the, maybe one more thought though, that I do want to, I think one of the most wonderful things that ever had to happen now in all of history, let alone though for the children of Israel, of course, and the rest of us is that when Moses sat down and he wrote the Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible, you know, and, and there, as he wrote them and he gave them there, of course, the children of Israel. And here it begins by saying God, you know, and you're in the beginning, God. And there he goes on to reveal that this is the God of the children of Israel. This is our God. This is Jehovah God. And here, I mean, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, the God of the children of Israel. You see, up until this time, basically all the theologies of the world, gods were local. There were local deities. There was no, you know, supreme gods. There was nothing that was at all, you know, powerful at all. They were all limited. They, you know, the, the Amalekites had their gods and the Hittites and the Hivitites and the Jebusites and the Moabites and the Edomites and the Termites and all of them. They, every day, when you're in Rome, you worship the God of Rome. And because the gods were, they were so finite, they were all limited. They all had seemingly, they had borders, which fallen gods, by the way, do. Fallen demons seem to have, in a sense, areas that they seem to rule over and principalities and powers. But there, and so in one sense, their gods perhaps had these sort of things that they worship because they were fallen gods. But here to find that your God, here, I mean, there he is the God of heaven and earth. He created it all. There's no limitations. You see, they used to just pray to the local gods. It's kind of like if you and I, you're here tonight in Santa Ana. If you go out here in tonight, you know, you get to your car and somebody has stolen it. And we'll shame on them for stealing the car in a church parking lot. But anyway, but you get out there and your car is stolen. And if you pick up the phone and you call the Costa Mesa Police Department and you say, my car is stolen. They say, well, where are you? We'll send somebody right out. And what's the address? And you say, well, 3800 Fairview, Santa Ana. They'll say, sorry, you'll have to get another local deity for that one. Our jurisdiction is Costa Mesa. We can't even write a report outside of our jurisdiction. Well, that's how they thought of their gods. Their gods were powerful within their own borders. In fact, one of the most amazing things with the children of Israel, when they began to come into the land, you know, of course, the story of Balak, you know, there. And when he went there and he's literally watching, there's the children of Israel, it says in Numbers 21, the children of Israel, they set forward, they pitched in the plains of Moab on this side of the Jordan by Jericho. And Balak, the son of Zipporah, he saw that the Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was so afraid of the people because there were many. And Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab said to the elders of Midian, now should this company lick up all that are round about us as an ox licketh up the grass of the field? And Balak, he then goes and he gets Balaam, you know the story. But here he's literally watching there as they're crossing rivers, they're crossing borders. And here's they came from one place to another. They have a god that seems to go over rivers. He goes over territorial boundaries. And he says they are licking up the enemies as an ox is just licking up the grass. They're just devouring. They've got a god that seems to be movable. He goes with them where they're going. And then so then he says, hey, you go hire somebody. We got to get him over here. And we got to break this, you know, their god spell before, you know, whoever he is, get him out of here so we can fight with them and have a chance. And so you know the story where he goes to one hill and, you know, and God, of course, speaks to Balaam. He says, you say one word, I don't tell you to say, you know, your history. And so he says everything he's supposed to say. And he blesses God. And then, you know, Balak is so upset. He says, oh, no, this guy's moving fast. Let's go over here another mountain. We got to, you know, he's already here. You know, let's get over there. And they keep running to try to find a place to break him. He couldn't. And here, but when God, when Moses picks up and he says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, no limitation to him, no boundaries, no jurisdiction. And here the wonderful thing, when Jesus says, you say, our Father, which aren't in heaven, you are talking to one there with a power and with a glory and with a majesty. Has no limitations. First Kings 2.28 says, there came a man of God that he spake unto the king of Israel, and he said, thus saith the Lord, because the Syrians have said, the Lord is the God of the hills, but he is not the God of the valleys. I'll deliver the great multitude out of his hand. Here, the king, one another, their battle in. And they, when they were up in the mountains, Israel was prevailing and say, okay, now they're God. He's a hill God. We got to get them down the valley. And the Lord said, okay, fight them when they're in the valley. So I can prove to you, I'm God everywhere. And I think sometimes God has to let battles happen in our life here or there, because I think with virtually all of us, every one of us, are there areas tonight that you would look and you've discovered God in the hills of life for you and to the high places, the wonderful place. God is so powerfully, so wonderfully, so sovereign, but yet, is there a valley in your life there where he's not God? Is there a relationship? Is there somebody that, God, I don't think you'll ever triumph here. I don't think even you, and I think so often, not only the enemies think this way, not only the Kings of the Amorites or the Moabites think this way, but I think, you know, oftentimes, secretly, we do ourselves. God, can you work in every area of my life? Can you win a battle? And I think God so often, he looks at us and he says, so you'll know, I'm not only good in the mountains, I'm pretty good in the valleys, and someday you're going to find out I'm pretty good in all eternity. But we'll work on the hills and the valleys right now. And you know, I mean, one hand, God is amazing watching him here on this little plane, you know, you know, again, looking at this little speck of a planet, and it happens to be this little pointy thing, it's a mountain, you know, or something, and there's a little valley there, and somehow or another, they said, he's up there, he's up there at the top of the plate. You know, and God's looking at this whole thing, you know, in his hand, and we're there wondering, oh God, I don't know if you, can you help me in the valley? In the valley, let's see, in the valley, well, let's see, it's about 100 trillionth of a billionth of a speck away, but I'll see if I can get there in time. Hold on, you know, or something, as if let's, I'm always open to trying something new. Give me a shot at it. I used to be pretty good at this stuff, but let's try it. I mean, sometimes, how are we in our life? Maybe there's areas again where you're so defeated, or so, struggles. And you know, I believe God with every one of us, and that's one of the things I think even about life. God has this way, every, every season, every, you get, you, where you're pretty good at it, and you got it locked in, and then God has this wonderful way of changing everything. You ever notice that with school? You know, you go there, and you go with a sixth grade, and you, you know, by the time you're almost through a sixth grade, you're starting to get a, you're starting to get an idea, sixth grade, I think I can handle it. And what does he do? He shoves you into seventh. He says, let's start all over again with stuff you don't know. And he, and it's like life is always that way. He's taking us through into dimensions where we've never been, regardless of how long we've been on this planet. Whether areas there where he says, here's a battle you've never fought. Here's a valley you've never been in. Here's a sequence of events. I want to prove myself to you. And here, when we can come and realize that the Lord looks, and when we can say, God, you be the Lord of the hills, and the Lord of the valleys, because you're the God of all of heaven. And we're going to hold it here, because, well, Chuck went so long. No. Actually, I told him, I said, Chuck, why don't you do the whole thing? And so he said, I'll just do it for a few minutes. But we'll just hold it here and pick it up. Let's pray. Father, may each one of us tonight be able, maybe sometimes it's good, we can only get. Wouldn't it be wonderful, Lord, if for the rest of tonight, tomorrow, and the next day, the next day, we decided, well, I didn't learn much else of the prayer, so I'm only going to work on what I learned. And I'm going to pray about what I need and what I want. And I'm going to pray about all the other list of things. And, oh, not that we shouldn't and won't. But what a wonderful thing that would happen if we would determine, Lord, I want to dwell on that you are mine. You are mine. To think, Lord, the great thrill that you had to rise from the dead and say, my father, your father. Back in Exodus, when you said, they shall be mine when I make up my jewels. Lord, to think that you look at us and you say, you will be mine. And to realize how you long for it. Lord, may we be ones that we long to say, Lord, and you are mine. You are mine. Everything else comes and go, but you will stand forever. You are mine. And then to realize that when I say who the you is, it's my father, my protector, my sustainer, my provider. Lord, may we just rest in that. And while sometimes our faith is tested and it hasn't happened yet, some of the things that we think are so important, may we realize, Lord, I'm still here. I'm still breathing. Other things will pass. Even these great needs that seem so pressing, but more pressing than that is I want to learn that you are my provider. You are my protector. You are my sustainer. And you are the God of heaven with no limitation. There is no place I'll go that you are not God. There is no hill or dale or nook or cranny or valley I'll ever be in that you are not there. That you do not look and want to prove yourself. And then even when we would say, well, you're Lord of the hills, you're Lord in these places of my life. But then we look at other areas, valleys of our life, dark places of our life, caves of our life and say, you're not there. Look at how messed up I am. Lord, I thank you that you look and say, I'll get there. When you can look and say, our father, which aren't in heaven. Lord, teach us to pray in this manner. Teach us to approach you with your glory and your power before we look at our weakness and our inabilities and our insufficiencies in your completeness. Father, help us with all this. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.