Prayer & Fasting

Good morning, good morning to all of our campuses, Niagara Falls, Cheektowaga. Special hello to Lockport, those here at Crosspoint. My name is Edwin. So grateful to be together, those watching online, hello. There was a story I was reading about in regard to the greatest heavyweight boxer, Muhammad Ali. I was reading about how he was on an airplane on his way to some engagement, and the aircraft was experiencing some significant turbulence. And as a result, the pilot encouraged everyone to fasten their seat belts. And everyone on the plane complied except for one, as the story goes, Ali. So then of course, you know, the flight attendant comes on over and is like, hey, you know, we really need you to fasten your seatbelt. Can you do that? And here's what Ali says. As the story goes, "Superman doesn't need a seatbelt." And without missing a beat, the flight attendant says back, "Well, Superman doesn't need an airplane either." We all deal with pride, don't we? Pride, man, we all deal with it. It likes to infiltrate everything that we do. Whether you're a famous boxer or whether you're here today or whoever we are, pride likes to infiltrate everything that we do. And as soon as we think we have dealt with it, it just kind of pops back up in another area of our lives. It's kind of like this fly in our house. Man, I kid you not, this thing just keeps coming back time and time and time again. As soon as we think it's gone, it's back, and it comes back with vengeance with even more flies. And it's like, what is happening, right? That's kind of how pride likes to work. That as soon as we think it's gone, it's back. And maybe it's back with a little bit more vengeance and showing up in different areas of our lives. Pride also, by the way, pride likes to work its way into the spiritual disciplines and habits that we are talking about. Here's how this works. We want other people to see how holy, to see how righteous or to see how godly that we are. This is how pride can work its way into the spiritual habits, the spiritual disciplines that we're talking about, where the motivation becomes more about other people and impressing other people so that they can say, wow , you're super holy, you are godly, you are righteous, rather than genuinely pursuing God. If you haven't maybe guessed at this point, we're gonna be in Matthew chapter six, because Jesus has some very direct words to say about this. And as we continue in this series called Habits of Grace, we're gonna learn about how pride can infiltrate spiritual habits such as prayer and fasting. And that's not where we want to be, right? We don't want pride infiltrating the way that we pray or infiltrating the way that we fast. Rather, what would it look like? And that's a question I'm asking all of us, right? Every campus, everybody here, what would it look like to view prayer and fasting as habits that position us to more deeply commune with and pursue our Father in heaven? Because that is where we want to be. These are gifts given to us. These are habits given to us to be able to more deeply pursue the Lord. But as I mentioned, pride likes to work its way into these. And in fact, in Matthew chapter six, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Be careful not to practice your righteousness "in front of others to be seen by them. "If you do, you will have no reward "from your Father in heaven." So as we look at Matthew chapter six, to begin right there, Jesus gives instruction that a disciple is not to practice their righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Why? Because the Christian life is not for us to try to impress other people with our godliness. That's not what it's about. And there's plenty of examples in the scripture that help us to understand that if our motivation is to please or impress people more than God, man, we've missed it. We've missed it. And so what Jesus does in Matthew chapter six, is he gets at the motivation behind our righteousness. So are we living the Christian life to please God or man? You know, if someone were to comment on your life with the Lord, by the way, this is not right. If someone were to comment on your life with the Lord, and it's genuine and it's true to who you are before him, that's great. That's encouraging. But right, hopefully the glory goes to our Father in heaven more so than it does to ourselves. Because if the motivation, again, if the motivation is to exalt self, Jesus addresses that very specifically here. And he gives this introductory remark on not practicing our righteousness in front of others, and then illustrates this idea with three different examples on how this can manifest. Maybe our giving can be done to impress others. Maybe our prayer and fasting can be done to impress others. And then fasting, right? So giving, prayer, and fasting, if we're not careful, can all be infiltrated with pride. But if, and if that is the case, then that's your reward. If your motivation is to impress other people with those three things, giving, prayer, fasting, that's your reward. But if we want to live for a greater reward, if we want to live for something deeper that lasts, then we must heed to the words of Jesus. Now, I'm not gonna be talking about giving today, all right? That's coming, don't worry, we'll talk about it. But I'm gonna zero in on prayer and fasting. So why don't we move to verse five of Matthew chapter six. And when you pray, Jesus says, now here's what Jesus doesn't. So I just want us to stop right there in verse five. And when you pray, right, if we're all looking at it, Jesus does not say this, right? He doesn't say if, right? He doesn't say that. But what does he say? He says when. When you pray, not if you pray. Not perhaps, not maybe, right? But when you pray. And the same thing is true with regard to fasting. And when you fast, Jesus talks about. And so that's kind of how I want to build right here this message point and some of the message points that will follow is just the expectation, right? When we pray, when we fast, these are habits that are built into the fabric of a disciple. So maybe the question we can ask ourselves is this, how do we engage prayer and fasting with the right heart motive that honors God, right? How do we engage with prayer and fasting with the right heart motive that honors God? Let's start with prayer. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. Again, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. Let's pick up in Matthew chapter six, the rest of verse five. "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, "for they love to pray standing in the synagogues "and on the street corners to be seen by others. "Truly I tell you, they have received the reward in full." So when Jesus is talking about life in the kingdom and the Sermon on the Mount related to prayer, he said, do not be like the hypocrites. And throughout the Book of Matthew, we see this term used quite often in a few different areas. But very notably, very notably, we see Jesus calling the teachers of the law and the Pharisees hypocrites in Matthew chapter 23. Very notably, here's what Jesus said to them, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, "you hypocrites! "You are like whitewashed tombs, "which look beautiful on the outside, "but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead "and everything unclean. "In the same way, "on the outside you appear to people as righteous "but on the inside "you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." You see, this is exactly what Jesus is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount when he's addressing this crowd of people, but specifically talking to his disciples about life in the kingdom. He's saying, it's not about the exterior righteous deeds that you do on the outside. That is not how we are to engage prayer, right? It is not about the righteous deeds on the outside, but rather it's who you are on the inside. It's who we are before God. Do you know what that word hypocrite originally means, in the Greek language? Here's what it originally means, a theater actor. A theater actor. Now, growing up in school, or if you are a student, and if you've been involved in theater before, it's great. It's awesome. I've actually shared here very publicly about my experience in theater and how I was Aladdin in seventh grade as my claim to fame. And then it all downhill from there. Don't wanna talk about it. No, I'm kidding. But what do you do when you are acting? Just think about it for a second. What do you do? You're playing the part for an audience, right? It's what you're doing. You're playing the part for an audience. It's show business. And that's great when you're in theater, that's great when you're going to see a show. You wanna be a great actor in theater who can captivate an audience. But ladies and gentlemen, that should not be when it comes to our life with God. In the context of theater, great. We pay money to see it. In the context of life in the kingdom, that should not be. We do not wanna be good actors when it comes to our discipleship. We don't wanna put on a show where maybe we engage in all of these exterior things on the outside, but inwardly, our hearts are far from God. Maybe some of us have been coming for a while, and we know the lingo, we know the language. And everybody on the outside can say, wow, they look like a super Christian. But do you actually love God? Is your heart in pursuit of him? Because while you might have many people fooled, you don't have God fooled. He sees it all. He knows it all. And rather maybe than than hiding behind maybe this appearance and putting on a show exterior, on the exterior, what would it look like to instead say, God, here I am. God, I give you my heart. God, I turn from that. God, I repent. 'Cause God will meet you in repentance. You don't have to hide from God. He sees it, he knows it. He wants to heal you. He loves you. He cares for you. Hiding behind exterior righteousness, maybe even how we engage prayer, just so other people can think, wow, how awesome, how holy. We're missing it. We're missing it. Because Jesus is talking about a reward that is greater, is greater, is lasting than just temporary applause. He cares about your heart. So let me implore you. Stop acting. Stop acting, and let God change you. Let God actually change you. 'Cause we don't need good actors in the kingdom. We need disciples who build their life on Jesus. But these hypocrites and actors in verse five, they love the public places to be seen by others, whether that was the synagogues or the street corners. And the motive was to find an audience in order for people to hear you pray. And Jesus says, those who do this, they've received their reward. That's the applause of people. But when you pray, kingdom citizens, followers of Jesus, when you pray, spend time alone with the Father. Spend time alone with the Father. As we continue in Matthew chapter six, verse six, "But when you pray, go into your room, "close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. "Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, "will reward you." It's an interesting contrast that we see right in our text here, right? That we have the hypocrites, these actors who look for an audience for their prayers. And then Jesus instructs his disciples in such a way that says, that's not to be your heart posture behind how we are to pray. The contrast is this, rather than running to the public eye, run to the private room. Rather than running to the public eye to be seen by others, run to the private room. And maybe we might understand this kind of in American context, in a western culture kind context, because we might be thinking, okay, well the average American house might have a couple of rooms, and okay Jesus, I'm just gonna go in one of those rooms, close that door, and we're good. By the way, that's great if you do that, that's wonderful. I actually do that myself. But Jesus is actually using a hyperbole here. Because what he's saying, because the average Palestinian home would probably just have one, you know, have a room, have one closed door that could actually be shut. So probably only one room, secluded room in a Palestinian home in this context that could actually be shut. The rest of the house was fairly open. And so what Jesus is doing here is he's saying, rather than running to the public eye, run to the most secluded place in your home, which was likely a store room or a closet. Go there so that no one will hear you. Because the point isn't to be seen actually by other people and to impress people. The point is actually to pursue the Father. Maybe I could just say it this way, right? Spend time alone with the Father. Find the secret place. That's the heart of what Jesus is talking about here. Find the secret place. Jesus modeled this for us, didn't he? He all often got alone with his Father. In fact, take a listen to Mark chapter one. "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, "Jesus got up, left the house, "and went off to a solitary place where he prayed." Just leave that up just for a second. Listen to all the actions here that Jesus took just to be alone with his Father, right? "Very early in the morning, "while it was still dark, Jesus got up, "left the house and went off to a solitary place, the secret place, "where he prayed." When you look at all of those actions, and you see all of these different factors here, what I want to tell us here is this, is that you don't have a deep prayer life by accident. You don't have a deep prayer life by accident. It takes intentionality. It takes time away, pushing pause, finding the secret place somewhere. Maybe for you, if you're up at the crack of dawn, that's great. Do that. For others, if you're up late and that's your time, great. Afternoon, just the point, find time to be alone with your Father in heaven. Find time to pray to him because a deep prayer life does not happen by accident. It takes intentionality. Now, when we hear this message point, right, about being alone with the Father, it's important that we understand that Jesus is not saying that we should only pray privately. We need to pray privately. That's very important. But he's not saying that that should be the only way, because corporate and public praying is very appropriate with the right motivation, right? 'Cause even later in our text and throughout the New Testament, we can see the need and importance of corporate, public praying, right? Even Jesus later, as he taught his disciples to pray, our Father in heaven, or the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching fellowship, the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Or in James, confess your sins to each other and pray for one another so that you may be healed. So we need to spend time alone with the Father, but also together in prayer. It's both. And they really do work together. But when we go to the public eye, it's about the heart motivation. It's about our hearts. And that's what Jesus is talking about here. And then Jesus continues in Matthew chapter six. Do not keep on- Don't do that. Do not keep on babbling. Do not keep on babbling. Matthew chapter six, verse seven. "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, "for they think they will be heard "because of their many words. "Do not be like them, "for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Do not keep on babbling, Jesus talks about. And instead of the way that the hypocrites maybe might pray and talking about the public eye, Jesus turns his attention to the pagans, and pagans, meaning those that don't know God personally or the outside world. They perhaps thought that prayer was about the many words that you can use in order to be heard by God, where the thinking was this, where the more words you can use, then somehow God would take notice of you or hear you. And Jesus just talks very plainly here and just says, that kind of praying is babbling. You're just talking. It's meaningless. If you're just talking using words, just trying to get God's attention, that it's not about the amount of words that you use. And so that's what Jesus is addressing here. And I find it very powerful that Jesus draws this contrast, right, where prayer is not about the amount of words that you use. Because what does Jesus say? Before you even speak a word. Before you even speak a word, the Father knows what you need before you even ask him. He knows what you need before you even ask him. It's not about the amount of words that you use because he actually knows what's going on in your world. He knows what's going on in your life. And what a freedom in that. I actually think that this should encourage us to pray more often, not less, because we're not trying to inform God of our need. He already knows. What we are doing is we are depending upon him for his help in what we need. We're depending upon him, we're relying upon him. And that's where we want to be when we're talking about prayer. It's not about babbling and just using words just to talk, but it's actually about pursuing our Father in heaven. And then Jesus says, when you pray, follow the pattern of Jesus' prayer. Follow the pattern of Jesus' prayer. He actually gives an example of a prayer here and says this in Matthew chapter six, verse nine. "This, then, is how you should pray", knowing that the Father's already aware of our needs. He knows us, he loves us, he's for us. "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 also have forgiven our debtors. "And lead us not into temptation, "but deliver us from the evil one." And as we see this prayer here that Jesus gives, it's loaded. There is so much to unpack with this. In fact, we actually did a series on this. Pastor Jerry taught a wonderful message series on this prayer exactly, walking through this line by line back in the fall of 2021. And to access that, 'cause I don't have time to fully unpack that here, but to access that, you can go again, thechapel.com/habitsofgrace, okay? We've linked that series there, thechapel.com/habitsofgrace. But let me just say this from a high level. We see movements in this prayer that can really help guide our praying as children coming to our Father, right? We see prayers of exaltation, hallowed be your name, prayers of surrender, your kingdom come, your will be done. Prayers of daily dependence, prayers of forgiveness, prayers of deliverance for the spiritual battle that we find ourselves in. And praying like this ought to guard our hearts from praying with the wrong motives. So Jesus gives this pattern and a model in which we can pray to more intimately know our Father in heaven. And then he gives this discourse here on forgiveness and says this, "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 Father will not forgive your sins." And essentially, Jesus is saying, disciples will be people of forgiveness because they recognize how much they have been forgiven by God's grace and his grace alone. You see, a person who's unwilling to forgive has not fully understood what it means to be fully forgiven by the Lord. And that is the teaching here that Jesus gives on prayer. We do not want to be prideful. We do not want to be like the hypocrites, right? We don't wanna be actors, but we actually want to spend time with our Father very intentionally. Not necessarily about all the words that we use, but it's about our heart pursuing him, following the pattern of Jesus' prayer. And that's what we see here. You see, a person who's unwilling to forgive has not fully understood what it means to be fully forgiven by the Lord. And that is the teaching here that Jesus gives on prayer. We do not want to be prideful. We do not want to be like the hypocrites, right? We don't wanna be actors, but we actually want to spend time with our Father very intentionally. Not necessarily about all the words that we use, but it's about our heart pursuing him, following the pattern of Jesus' prayer. And that's what we see here. And then Jesus now turns his attention to fasting. Right here on the Sermon on the Mountain, I wanna break that down a little bit here for us in the same way that we walk through prayer. Because again, the expectation is that disciples of Jesus pray and fast, right? When we pray, when we fast. But before I do, I sense when it comes to fasting specifically, I sense in our day and age that we have lost to some degree the significance of fasting. And I'm sure that there are reasons why, I'm sure that there's plenty of reasons. Let me give you two. I think maybe the first is that maybe fasting can just be associated with a healthy diet plan. You know, like, man, I just wanna lose weight. I wanna look fit, I wanna look good. Like all of that, right? And fasting is just a part of that. And maybe we've lost a little bit of the significance behind what it means from a biblical sense. Or maybe, let me give you a second reason why we've lost maybe the significance of fasting in our day and age. And let me give you that by asking this question. I mean, who doesn't love to eat, right? Who doesn't love to eat? I can think back to my one friend coming into town. He's from this area originally, but moved out of state. And every time he comes back, every time, we just have to eat all of the Buffalo staple foods. You know, it's just like, just prepare to eat when he is in town, because I mean, we have to go place to place and eat very poorly. It's not healthy food either. It's not good for you, right? But I don't know, I can remember this one time we were younger, this was a number of years ago, and we end up going to, you know, this cafe, I think we went to Tim Horton's or something for breakfast, 'cause of course he's gotta go there. They don't have 'em where he's from or where he lives now. Then we had to go to Ted's Hot Dogs, right? And he had to order a bunch of hot dogs and burgers and all of that. Then we went to some pizzeria. I won't name, I won't tell you the pizzeria because there'll be debates about which one's the best in Buffalo, and just stay locked in here, right? But I can remember we did this. There was this day, I kid you not, and then he's inviting people to come and join us at breakfast, at lunch, at dinner. So it's prolonging our time at each particular restaurant. It turned out that we started our day in the morning and all we did was eat. We went from one restaurant to the other, to the other. And then on our way home, we're looking at each other like, do you realize that all we did was eat today? And then at that point, I think we realized that our lives were going nowhere. Like it was like, okay, Lord, you're gonna have to take over here. And he did, thankfully. But I bring that up because when it comes to the topic of fasting, maybe we feel a bit apprehensive about it. Or we don't really see the point, or maybe we're not really sure what to do with it. Or maybe we just view it as merely a dietary exercise. So what actually makes pushing aside from food, a habit of grace for the disciple of Jesus? What actually makes it a habit of grace? Well, Jesus talked about this in another place, Matthew chapter nine. And I wanted to point your attention here to what he said. "Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, "but your disciples do not fast? "Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn "while he's with them? "The time will come when the bridegroom "will be taken from them. "Then they will fast." You see, the point of fasting for the disciple is this. Jesus. It's pushing aside from food to more deeply pursue Jesus. And in that passage in Matthew chapter nine, we learned something remarkable that Jesus is saying there. The bridegroom of Israel, the long awaited Messiah has come. And in that context, it was a time of feasting. It's joyous. So why fast in that context? It's celebratory in nature. But Jesus was talking about and said that there would be a time coming when the bridegroom will be taken. And in that time, the time that we're in now, by the way, they will fast. You see, we fast because we long for the bridegroom to come again. We fast because we long for Jesus to return. We long for his presence, we depend upon him. And when we push aside from food because we realize how much we need it, we actually recognize how dependent that we are upon the Lord, that we depend upon him. And it creates a deeper hunger, a deeper hunger for the things of God. I love how John Piper actually wrote about it. He said, Christian fasting at its root is the hunger of a homesickness for God. Christian fasting at its root is the hunger of a homesickness for God. We long for God to come again. We long for heaven to continue to come to earth and all of its fullness in all of its beauty. We fast, maybe I could say it this way, we fast to feast on Jesus. You see, we fast, we push aside food in order to feast on Jesus. That is the point. So going back to Matthew chapter six, when you fast, again, built into the fabric of who we are as disciples. When, not if, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites. Jesus again talks about that in Matthew 6:16. "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, "for they disfigure their faces to show others "that they are fasting. "Truly I tell you, "they have received their reward in full." And so in this context, right, do not be like the hypocrites when you fast. Very similarly to prayer, don't make it obvious to everyone that you are fasting. But here's the instruction, right? Don't be like the hypocrites. You know, 'cause they would disfigure their faces to show that they were fasting. They would walk around somber and say like, you know, I don't know exactly, but maybe. How's your day- Oh, I'm fasting. Like, oh, I'm fasting, you know? Such a hard day. But I'm doing it because I love the Lord. And then, right, other people are, okay, cool. And that's exactly right, that the heart motive that Jesus was talking about. And they would maybe even go ungroomed, put ashes on their head and face to show that they were repentant. And the goal was to maybe just portray the physical hardships that they were enduring so that everyone would know around them that they were fasting and that people could applaud them. So don't be like that, don't be like the hypocrites. But rather, when you fast, let it only be obvious to your Heavenly Father. When you fast, let it only be obvious to your Heavenly Father. Verse 17, "But when you fast, "put oil on your head and wash your face, "so that it will not be obvious to others "that you are fasting, "but only to your Father, who is unseen, "and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, "will reward you." In very simple terms, there is no need to draw attention to yourself when you fast. Take a shower, wash your face, brush your teeth, go about your everyday life as you normally would from an outward appearance standpoint. This is because the Father who is unseen sees what is done in secret, and he will reward you. That doesn't mean of course, similarly to corporate praying here, it's about heart motive. Corporate fasting is totally appropriate and good if you wanna do that with other people. But it's about heart motivation. It's pursuing God, not allowing our righteousness to be seen in such a way by other people where it's boastful. So if I could summarize everything that I've talked to us about, about prayer and fasting here from Matthew chapter six, let me put it this way. Pray and fast not to be seen by others, but to be seen by your Father. Pray and fast not to be seen by others, but to be seen by your Father. That's the point. Because why? Because your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And that reward, by the way, is different than temporary applause. This reward is eternal, it's lasting. And if there was one who could have practiced his righteousness in front of others, it would've been Jesus. He was perfect in every way. Yet the scripture says that he made himself nothing. He became a servant, taking on human flesh with all of its weaknesses and temptations. Yet the scripture says he did not sin, as he modeled dependency on his Father in heaven, even through prayer and fasting. He was obedient in every way to the point of death, even death on a cross. And do you know what his reward was? He rose from the grave. He was exalted to the highest place. He was given the name above every other name, where every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And the reward and glory that Jesus has achieved, he shares with us as we will rule and reign with him as co-heirs of Christ. So when you pray, when you fast with the right heart, here's what happens. The very righteousness of Jesus, not our self-righteousness, but the very righteousness of Jesus is being formed in greater degrees in us as we are being fitted for heaven, as we are awaiting heaven coming to earth in all of its fullness, in all of its beauty. And so, ladies and gentlemen, on every campus, let me say this to you, live for that kind of reward as I can't even begin to fully describe what that will look like. But pray. We pray, we fast. May it be with the right heart motive, because as we do, we are more deeply getting to know God and being more shaped by God. That's what's happening. We are more deeply getting to know God and being shaped more by God. And can I ask you a question? Is there a greater reward than that? Is there a greater reward than your heart having a deeper hunger for the things of God? For God moving in power in your life and preparing you for the day that Jesus comes again and you'll be able to enter into your master's presence? Is there any greater reward than that? And I think the best way, even as we talk about prayer and fasting, we apply these habits of grace by actually doing them. Just, that's how I wanna apply this, right? Do it, do it. For fasting, again, if you go to that site that we've been talking about, thechapel.com/habitsofgrace, there's ways that you can engage this. There's ways that you can practice this as a family, as a couple, as a single, whatever situation you're in, there's ways to engage with this content. But in terms of fasting, you know, it's not prescribed, so to speak in the New Testament, what exactly this needs to look like. There are plenty of examples of the scripture of what it can look like, but it can be longer, shorter, a couple of days. The point is to push aside from food and seek the Lord for the particular need that you have. Maybe you can't fast from food for a health reason, that's okay. Maybe I could just encourage you, fast from something. Just maybe give up something that would be good for your soul and fill that time with pursuing the Lord. Fill that time with seeking Jesus. Fast, to feast on Jesus. And for prayer, I can't think of a better way to be able to apply this than to actually spend time in prayer together. And so we're gonna do that on every campus. And so at this time, our campus pastor's host can take over as we will go through the Lord's prayer together. So you can take over now. For those of us that are here, I would just encourage you now to just spend some time with the Lord, seek his heart, go before him. And what we're gonna do is we're actually going to work through the Lord's prayer together. I briefly talked about this 'cause I actually wanted to spend more time praying through it, right? 'Cause Jesus said, this is how, this is a pattern in which we can pray. And I wanna do that by actually putting the Lord's prayer bit by bit up here for us. And as I do, I want us to corporately altogether, say aloud the phrase of the Lord's prayer together. So we'll say the Lord's prayer altogether, verse by verse. We'll do that progressing in progressive order, and then I will give you a prompt to be able to pray, alright? So we'll take the first one. We'll see our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And so why don't we together all say that. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And now let's pause, take a moment. And I just want you to express worship to the Father and express that his name is holy. It's to be revered, it's to be honored. Just take a moment and express the holy nature of the name of our Father. And then we can say this all together. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Take a moment and surrender your will to the Father's will. Ask for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, in every area of your life. Your will, not my will. Take a moment to pray that. And then altogether, we can say, give us today our daily bread. Ask the Lord to increase your trust and dependency upon him for what you need each day. What you need each day, depend on him. And then maybe is there anyone that you could bless with what God has given to you? Maybe out of an overflow, is there anyone you can bless with what God has given to you? Take a moment and pray along those lines. And we could say this altogether, and forgive us our debts as also have forgiven our debtors. Confess any sin before the Lord and ask for his forgiveness. And take a moment to ask the Lord, is there anyone that I need to forgive? We forgive as disciples of Jesus. And again, spend some time before the Lord with that. And then let's pray. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Let's pray against the work of the enemy, and ask for God's deliverance in any temptation, sin, or stronghold in your life, ask for his deliverance. Father, I thank you for what you've said to us by your word today. And God, we want to be people who pray with the right heart, to seek you. Oh God, may you increase the hunger in us for the things of God. May we hunger and thirst for righteousness, hunger for the things of God in greater ways and greater degrees. And I thank you, that prayer and fasting are habits of grace that actually help us to do that. So I pray that we would not just be hearers only, but that we would be doers as well, that we would put these things into practice. Jesus, thank you for who you are for speaking to us today. And may we be shaped more and more like you as we leave here this day. We pray all of these things in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said. Amen and amen.