Deliver us from Evil

1. Read Matthew 6:9-13. How has God called you deeper in intimacy and grown your prayer life over the last three weeks?
2. Why is it important to grasp both God's goodness and his power in your prayer life? How can you develop a deeper understanding of his nature?
3. How can we become more aware and wake up to the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us? How should that change the way we pray?
4. Share a personal experience where you felt God didn't answer your prayer. How did you grow from that experience?
5. Discuss Jesus' great "unanswered prayer" in the garden of Gethsemane. What comfort does it bring that Jesus was not granted escape when he asked, "let this cup pass", but that he was granted the strength to endure?
6. When considering our trials from the perspective of either escaping or enduring them, do you believe there is any such thing as unanswered prayer?

Prayer + Practice:

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Well, when I was a kid, I grew up in a, in a trailer park. And when I was about seven years old, for whatever reason, I started praying that we would move into a house. And so I prayed without fail every single night for a year. I had specific things I was looking for that I was asking God for. I wanted my own room.

We had three of us, and we only had one bedroom. So we literally swapped beds every single night. So not one person had to sleep on the futon in the living room. I wanted my own room. I wanted a fireplace.

I thought I was the only person in the world that didn't have a fireplace in their home. I wanted an upstairs. And so I prayed every night without fail for about a year. And my parents had started looking during this time for, for a house. And I remember my mom crying after a meeting with a realtor one time.

And she just came back in the car and she just said, I just don't think we're going to get a house at seven years old. I didn't know any better anyway. Why wouldn't God answer this prayer? So I just said, it's okay, mom. We're going to get a house.

Don't worry about it. And one night, weather started getting really bad. And a tornado started coming for a trailer park, as they do right. And so we left to go find shelter. And some of our neighbors were the kind of Texans that would just stay out there and lasso the twister if they were close enough to it.

And so when we got back, they told us that the funnel cloud literally went over our house. Our trailer reached down and touched it, flipped the roof over onto itself, went back up and went on its way.

My mom always said it was like God's finger just came in and said, all right, time to go. And that was the push that we needed to get out of there. I don't know if it was the insurance money. I don't remember exactly what it was. That was the push that we needed to get us out of there.

And God brought us into a home in Denton. I had my own room finally. We had a fireplace. We had three stairs going down into the playroom because my mom's knees were bad. So she always said it was a compromise.

God compromised with us. But there is like, we were just singing about, there's so much power in prayer. I mean, that tornado, it could have wiped out the entire neighborhood. And yet God wielded it with surgical precision to get us out of that place that we had been praying for just to build up the faith of a seven year old kidde who didn't know any better and knew he could ask his God for something good. And if you know, if you're in here and you, maybe you're apathetic in prayer, maybe God has not woken you up to just the power of prayer.

I will tell you, apathy in prayer is rooted in not understanding the goodness and the power of the God that we're praying to.

If you know the kind of power that you're tapping into, if you really know what that is, when you pray and you really know that God is your good father, I'm convinced you will be driven to your knees.

But when those prayers are delayed, when they're seemingly unanswered, when we go through trials that test our faith can be hard, can be hard to hold on to that God confidence, that faith that he's good and that he's powerful and that prayer is effective.

We've explored God's goodness in this series, but we need to know his power, his power that's available so that we can wake up from being apathetic in prayer and move toward him earnestly. So today we're finishing up our series on the Lord's prayer. And we've covered a lot of ground over the past two weeks because we've seen that while this prayer is simple on the one hand, it's comprehensive in its scope, that all prayer in scripture is encompassed in this model prayer, that Jesus gives us a. That he tells us to pray. So scripture, we said, is like a big fold out map that we'll be exploring with God our entire lives.

But this prayer gives us, it breaks it down into moves so we can know exactly where it is to go. And we never graduate from this prayer. We only go deeper into it as we're exploring these themes with God. Just like in our 21 days of prayer prompts that we've had exploring the themes of the Lord's prayer through the psalms.

So praying through scripture grounds us in truth, it gives texture to the complexity of our lives. Because if I only pray what I feel or what comes to mind in the moment, out of just the poverty of my own heart, I will never experience the fullness of what God has for me in prayer, what's really possible. And we said it's not like a scientific formula trying to force the hand of God, but more like dance moves.

So we divided the prayer up into three main movements. This first one here, we focused on the purpose of prayer in this upward move with God, in this second one, last week we looked at this inward movement of prayer. We focused on the daily practice of prayer and what it means to wrestle with God as I am bringing him my concerns and as he is bringing to me the things that concern him about my life. And then today we're going to talk about this outward movement of prayer, the power of prayer over the circumstances that we find ourselves in, over the forces of evil that we have to encounter. And I'll ask you as we start, what difference does prayer make?

What difference does prayer make over, over the circumstances and the evil that I am faced with in my life? This is what we're taught to pray in the final petition, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And we're going to define these two terms a little bit, because temptation, here, the word is interesting because the greek word really, it has to do with temptation, but it has to do with testing and trials that we find ourselves in. Because testing and trials always lead to some form of temptation, right? We are wired as human beings to try to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

So in trials and testing, we are tempted to sin, but God himself doesn't lead us into temptation. You remember in James, Pete's going to get back into that until the fall. Remember, in the beginning of James, it says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. God doesn't lead us into temptation, but he does allow trials and testing in our life. And those can actually be good.

They can also be very dangerous, the risk that's involved, because we're tempted in those times. So while the Lord's prayer, it starts with this confident affirmation in that upward movement, it starts with this confident affirmation of who God is. And it ends with this recognition that I am weak and needy, that I am completely dependent on God for my salvation. The psalms say, on God, my salvation and my glory rests. It ends with this dependence on God.

Jesus promised trials would come, but none of us can ultimately withstand the trials on our own strength. So in that sense, trials are always challenging our faith. They can be dangerous, but they make us stronger when we rely on the Lord's strength in the middle of those challenges. That's why David said in psalm 119, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. Then he says, it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

Trials and suffering can be good for us because they produce in us this eternal weight of glory. Paul says in two corinthians, this eternal weight of glory that's not even on the same level. It's not even on the same level as the trials. And they do this, they create this eternal weight of glory, because they're causing us to rely on him for everything that we need. So this final petition, this outward movement, is a prayer for deliverance from the trials and the circumstances that we find ourselves in, where we do battle with the forces of evil.

Now, in the Greek, there's a debate, too, on whether this deliver us from evil, whether it's generic evil, or whether it should be translated, the evil one in the Greek. It's really ambiguous. Scholars disagree on whether this should be evil or evil one. And I will tell you, a lot of ink has been spilled over this, and I don't think it makes a huge difference. I'll tell you why.

I'll tell you why. Because we're told throughout scripture that we're caught up in a spiritual battle all throughout scripture, and it says that we have a very real enemy, an evil one who wants to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus says in John ten, so deliverance from the evil one has to be a part. It has to be a part of a model prayer, has to be included. And at the same time, this would not be a comprehensive model prayer without also acknowledging the generic evil that we come up against, the natural disasters, the sickness, the death.

It wouldn't be a model prayer if it didn't include that. So people spill a lot of ink arguing over this issue. But the last petition has to include both general and specific evil in order to be the model prayer that Jesus intended it for it to be. So we pray for deliverance from all evil, both the spiritual forces at work and also the natural disasters and all human suffering. And that's really what this last petition is.

I'm asking God for deliverance to either escape the trial, the evil, or to endure it. I either need to escape the situation that I'm in. I need you to deliver me, helicopter me out of this, or I need the strength to stand up in ithood, deliver me, God, from anything bad. Now, if you weren't here last week, we started a conversation on the imprecatory psalms, the psalms that call judgment over the psalms, the psalmist enemies.

And I would encourage you to go catch up if you weren't here, because we're not going to recap everything that we talked about last week when we were looking at forgiveness. But basically, the imprecatory psalms. You could look at them in two different ways, in how they teach us to pray. Last week we saw that they give us permission to pray honestly, that we bring the raw emotions, including hatred, when we're having trouble forgiving. We don't just start where we think we should be.

We start with God where we are. And he takes that hate and he transforms it into what it should be. So on the one hand, we're praying. We're praying very honestly. It's giving us permission to pray bad prayers.

On the other hand, over here, we're praying against Babylon. All of this has to do with God's justice. All of the impregatory psalms, whether I am handing over my debt, my right to call in a debt, handing that over to him and giving him the vengeance that he says is his, or praying against the evil forces in the world, praying against the structures, the power structures of evil that we find ourselves up against. We looked at psalm 137 last week and remember, this is calling us to remember, or this is calling God to remember what happened to them when they were taken into captivity. And so he's saying, remember, o lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem.

How they said, lay it bare. Lay it bare down to its foundations. O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed. Blessed shall be he who repays you for what you have done to us. Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock.

Now, there are a lot of beloved psalms. This is not one of them.

On the one hand, this is a profound outburst of hate. Last week we considered it from the perspective of the parent who lost the kid while they were getting conquered. How would you process for a people who, their law says, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth? They're saying, hey, let's just make it a child. For a child, it's a profound outburst of hate that they're giving over to God and letting him do something with it.

But on the other hand, the second part of this has to do with spiritual warfare. If one side is permission to pray badly, the other is a good and holy way to pray against the forces of evil.

So last week, since we considered this from the perspective of the parent, right, how would you process and leave room for the wrath of God? The psalmist is also, we can look at it from another perspective because these imprecatory psalms, they don't just give us permission to pray badly. They also call us to pray to for the destruction of Babylon, for these evil forces. Another reason that the psalm is so violent is because if a nation doesn't have children to pass on the succession, the kingship to, then it dies away. If there's no progeny, the kingdom cannot get passed down, and it's the end of that kingdom.

So while this may have originally been a hateful outburst for what they did to the Jews, it made it into Israel's prayer book and ours because it calls for an end. It calls for an end to the oppressive cruelty and the wickedness that Babylon represents. Overall, Babylon was a real place. It was a real place. But it takes on sort of this spiritual significance as scripture progresses, especially in revelation.

Babylon sort of becomes a symbol for the evil power structures of the world that are in opposition to God. Represents oppression and immorality and idolatry. It becomes a shorthand or a metaphor for the evil systems of the world that seduce us away from true worship.

So while the imprecatory psalms teach us it's okay to pray bad prayers, to be honest with God, to allow him to transform it, they also teach us, on the other hand, on the other end of the spectrum, that we're called to pray against the evil structures of the world, the very real enemy behind them. And we're called to pray for the destruction of Babylon, because this is the natural result of this prayer that says, your kingdom come. For God's kingdom to come, the coming of the kingdom of God means the destruction of Babylon. And right now, while we're caught up in these systems of the world, we're called to pray for deliverance. So we have to consider sort of two aspects.

This deliverance from evil. We have to consider two aspects of this. First is the war, the war against the evil one. And second is the deliverance from suffering in general and why some prayers seem to go unanswered. So let's talk about the war.

Satan's all time favorite tactic is to make you think he's not there to make you unaware of his presence. If he can either convince you that he doesn't exist or lull you into apathy about the war around you, then he can do so much more damage than just an open frontal attack. Spiritual warfare is less like a riot on the streets and more like hackers that are working in the shadows. Did you read this week there was a hack that took the Social Security numbers of every american. And I don't know what you did, but what did we do collectively as a society?

We shrugged.

We're tired. It's in the background. It's in the shadows, we don't see the effects of it. A lot of times, things that happen in the shadows are so much more destructive than just the open warfare because of the apathy that it produces. So Satan wants us to just be apathetic, to not take action, to be convinced he's not there.

In the book, the screw tape letters, CS Lewis imagines these two demonstration riding back and forth, conspiring together. One of the demons in the book writes this to the other. The fact that devils are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. He's given him advice. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that, it's an old textbook method of confusing them, he therefore cannot believe in you in another place.

Cs Lewis says this. There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors.

And hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. See, most people in our secular age, I believe, fall on the side of just not recognizing the spiritual warfare that's going around all the time. Most people fall more in that camp, but I've met plenty of people who fall on the other side, too. This is a silly example, but years ago we had a youth event, and it was in the summer, and there was ice cream. And we discovered that the ice cream in the cooler was melting.

And the person that discovered it said, satan's melting the ice cream. Well, Satan wasn't melting the ice cream. She forgot to put ice in there. Sometimes it is your fault. Even though there's a spiritual war, we can't see Satan under every single rock.

But you can also see how most people today are totally unaware or apathetic to the spiritual warfare that's going on all around us. Ephesians 612 says, it tells us to wake up and suit up, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. When Paul says to put on the full armor of God in this passage, the sword of the spirit is the only offensive weapon. The rest of them are defensive. What did Jesus do when he was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan?

For it is written, he used scripture to fight the devil.

So when we come up against the enemy. That's what we do. We pray scripture. We pray for God's deliverance and his strength to either escape the situation that we're in or endure it. But we have to wake up and see the war.

You know, we're struggling every day to just make ends meet, to raise our kids, to make time for spiritual matters. But we have to wake up to the fact that our job is not just a paycheck, it is a spiritual outpost that God has put you in. You will be challenged, you will be tempted there in your integrity to be a light there in the workplace. You know, our kids, the biggest battle that we face with them is not that they become the next sports star or that they become the next entrepreneur.

Satan is in a real battle with our kids. He wants to dash them against the rocks. We have a real enemy that wants to steal and kill and destroy.

The enemy has a plan to defeat our kids with anxiety and depression and distraction and pornography and gender ideology and identity crisis. We are called to pray to. We are called to pray for daily deliverance for our kids and to wake up to the fact that a bad teacher or a bad grade or not getting on the sports team is not the greatest threat to your child.

We are called to go to war in our prayer against him, the evil one against Babylon. I mean, think of just the power structures of the world, whether it be politics or big tech, trying to distract us, trying to take all of our attention so they can make money off of us, trying to keep us anxious and depressed and fighting with each other.

The best way that the imprecatory psalms can be prayed is against these power structures of evil in the world. Anytime that I am reminded of another dictator that comes in and starts some unjust war or some new way they want to kill or mutilate our kids. Every time that I'm reminded of this, I start praying in precatory psalms. I've got one. I told you about my prayer cards that I use.

I've got one specifically for this. So when something like this comes to mind, I've got psalm 59 comes to mind, talking to God, saying, awake. Come to meet me and see. Look at it. You Lord God of hosts, our God of Israel.

Rouse yourself to punish all the nations. Spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. While I am called to pray for my enemies, to do good to those who persecute me, to repay evil with good, I'm also called to pray against the power structures of evil that at the present time rule in this world.

And until we become a praying people, Babylon will continue to take ground.

Your alone time with God is your war room. I don't know if you've seen that movie. It's such a good picture of just turning that prayer closet, that prayer space into a war room to go to battle. And if we're not tapping into the power of God in prayer, we're just missing the whole point. Because prayer is not supplemental to your spiritual life.

It's not supplemental. It is the spiritual life. Connecting with God in prayer is the point. It's not a vitamin C supplement or even bulking up with a protein powder. Prayer connection with God is where life is.

That is where life is found. Prayer is central to the work of God in the world. Prayer is the work. One author said, prayer is striking the winning blow, and then service is gathering up the results.

Service is reaping the harvest that has already been wondez in prayer, because prayer is where the action is. That's why the psalms and psalm 127 says, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. If we come in here and we try to do everything prayerlessly, no matter how good of a work it seems, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

No work that we do means anything unless the Lord is doing it with you and through you. And that's why for the greatest prayer warriors in history, the days that seemed the busiest were the ones they spent more time in prayer.

Andrew Murray, oh, I love this. He says time spent in prayer will yield more time than that given to work. Prayer alone gives work its worth and its success. Prayer opens the way for God himself to do work in us and through us. He says, let our chief work as God's messengers be intercession.

In it, we secure the presence and power of God to go with us. It is the chief work. That's why Samuel Chadwick said the one concern of the devil is to keep christians from praying. He said he fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.

Satan trembles when the weakest Christian gets on his knees.

Charles Spurgeon is considered the prince of preachers. And when anybody asked him, what's the success for your ministry? What's the key? He always pointed to this intercessory team that prayed in the basement, underneath the stage in what he called the boiler room. And they prayed through every second of every service.

He said, that's it. They're looking for a rhetorical device or a church growth strategy. He says, no, it's the intercessors that are going to work in prayer.

He said he would rather teach one person to pray than ten how to preach. Are you getting the picture?

We often pray as a last resort.

We say there's nothing left to do but pray.

Praying should be first. Praying is the first work. Praying is the chief work. When we pray as a last resort, it's because it can take a while for our modern self reliant egos to get out of the way and realize how dependent we are on God for everything. And that's a lot of what the first two movements of the Lord's prayer do.

They're cultivating a spirit of dependence on God, the Lord's prayer. It's cultivating this posture of dependence. We learn to go to God first in prayer, rather than just as a last resort. One author said this about prayer. He said, when Elijah prayed, the nation was reformed.

When Hezekiah prayed, the people were healed. When the disciples prayed, Pentecost appeared. When John Wesley and his companions prayed, England was revived. When John Knox prayed, Scotland was refreshed. When the Sabbath school teachers at Taneybrake prayed, 11,000 were added to the church in one year.

When Luther prayed, the papacy was shaken. When Baxter prayed, Kidminster was aroused. In the lives of Whitefield, Payson, Edwards, Tennant, whole nights of prayer were succeeded by whole days of soul winning. He says, to your knees, then christians, plead until the windows open, plead until the springs unlock, plead until the clouds part, until the rains descend, until the floods of blessing come. Prayer is where the action is.

Prayer is where we overcome the enemy. Prayer is where we discover that authority that we have in Jesus. We've talked in this series about the praying imagination that wakes us up to reality. That's one of the purposes of revelation, to wake us up to the spiritual reality, to wake up that praying imagination, to see the war for what it is now. War arose in heaven.

Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. Who accuses them day and night before our God, and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives, even unto death.

There's power in prayer because there's power in the blood of Jesus.

And we're called to the front lines of a very real war, one that nobody is exempt from. So the upward and inward movements of prayer, they prepare us for this outward movement of prayer into the circumstances and evil that we find ourselves in, in the world. You may find yourself in an apathetic place, unable to wake up. And my prayer has been that the spirit of goddess just wakes us up. Every single one of us wakes us to the reality of prayer.

On May 15 in 1940, during World War Two, Winston Churchill got a call in the middle of the night that woke him up, and it was from the french premier in France. And this is what he heard on the other end of the line. He said, we have been defeated. We are beaten. Hitler already had taken Denmark.

He had taken Norway, and just a few days earlier, he took Holland and Belgium and Luxembourg. And so England had sent, I think it was 200,000 troops. 200,000 troops to hold off this attack. And Winston Churchill, he was so shocked that it had just come so soon.

The Nazis had broken through the front and they were pouring through. So the British, the french troops, they found themselves surrounded, and the only escape was crossing the English Channel through a town in northern France called Dunkirk. You may have watched this movie, but they'd be funneling all of these troops into one space, and they'd be sitting ducks for the 1800 tanks, the 300 dive bombers. It really. It seemed like a suicide mission.

So Churchill, he goes and he briefs King George VI. He tells them what's going on. And they only had a few boats to ferry the men across to prevent. They had no way to prevent an air attack while they were doing it. So King George says, we must pray next Sunday.

I am calling for a national day of prayer. So all across England, churches were filled, so much so, they were filled down the street, down the blocks, people just holding vigils in line. And the whole country came together in prayer over this situation. One newspaper said, nothing like this has ever happened before. But the next day, the german high command reported that they had the british army encircled and that they were moving forward to annihilate them.

And then something happened that no historian has been able to explain in the time since for a reason. Nobody knows. The three days that England was in prayer. Hitler stopped his advance for three days. Nobody knows why he stopped the advance for three days.

His tanks were rumbling just 10 miles outside of Dunkirk, and he paused while England was on its knees. It was the time, it was the exact window that the Brits needed to put up a front to fend off the Germans, to fight them back, and to create this funnel into the English Channel. And so that was just the first miracle. Then the weather starts to get bad, this cloud cover and rain comes. And so while the Germans were coming in and bombing in Dunkirk, while they were bombing, they had no way, because of the coverage, to go in and do any kind of follow up.

And this wind had come through and it took the smoke from the bombs and it covered the area so they couldn't see, and so there was coverage for them to start making their escape. At the same time, word was spreading across England that this was happening, that they needed boats to cross the channel, and so they were getting whatever they could. There were rowboats, tugboats, fishing trawlers, motor boats. Hundreds of people responded. Many of them had never been outside of, been away from seeing land.

They'd never been that far out before. Many of them didn't have compasses. None of them had any, any way to protect themselves. They weren't armed. And the English Channel that's normally known for being very choppy, they said there was barely a ripple, is normally very choppy.

These novices wouldn't have been able to get across in these little boats, and they said there was barely a ripple, and it just looked like rush hour going across. So in the first five days, they returned, 100,000 men left, another 200,000. Well, eventually, 338,000 soldiers safely make it across from Dunkirk, across the Channel into England. Miracle after miracle, from Hitler halting his offensive to the cloud coverage, to the English Channel becoming still and hundreds of boats just coming out of nowhere. God answered this prayer for them.

But I'll tell you, when I was twelve, I went to Maffhausen in Austria, one of the concentration camps from the war. I was in the gas chambers. I got to peek into the ovens. I talked to a survivor, and I can't describe the feeling there, other than just this palpable feeling of evil, like a blanket over this camp.

And when we hear these great stories of God's power and him answering prayer, you have to ask, why did he save them at Dunkirk? And he didn't answer the prayers of so many in the camps. Why, if the victory has been won, why doesn't it always seem like it. Why does God delay or not seem to answer at times? You know, we could talk about free will versus God's will.

We could talk about his perfect timing or when he sees things that we don't see. But I just want to talk real quickly. Wrap all of this up with Jesus great unanswered prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.

You know, he told his disciples there that he was grieved to the point of death. He was sweating drops of blood. It was so difficult. And this was the prayer on Jesus lips. He said, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Jesus addresses his father, the one in the heavens who fills the heavens, the one who is always near. And he asks him to be delivered from evil.

This was the reason that Jesus came. But this moment when it was there felt like so much.

But then he continues, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. He's praying. The themes of the Lord's prayer.

It's not a formula for moving God's hand. He had walked this road so many times with his father, it was just a dance there, just to dance in the garden. He prayed for deliverance, but he was ultimately submissive to the will of the father because there was a bigger picture. Everything that we discussed today about victory and about the enemy was dependent on Jesus enduring the cross.

The father did not grant an escape when Jesus asked for deliverance, but he granted him the strength to endure Gethsemane. The name of the garden, it actually means oil press, because the only way to get olive oil is to beat the olive to a pulp. And then it's used for all sorts of things, from cooking to a fuel for light to healing remedies, to worship and anointing people. But it had to be beaten to a pulp to get it. So Jesus unanswered prayer was the perfect answer to ours.

Are there really unanswered prayers? One author, Pt. Forsythe, he says, we shall come one day to a heaven where we shall gratefully know that God's great refusals were sometimes the true answers to our truest prayers. Sometimes that's hard to see. Timothy Keller says it this way.

God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.

The enemy, Babylon. It may rule this world for now, but like the poet Dylan Thomas says, we do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. We're called to pray for the destruction of Babylon.

This world was rightfully ours. From creation, we were called to take dominion over it, and we sold ourselves into slavery because of our own desires. Well, Jesus has come, and he has won it back.

Every one of us will suffer. Every one of us will have trouble. Every one of us will eventually die. But Jesus said, take heart, because I have overcome the world. So that means, like Paul says in two corinthians, all the suffering of this world, all of it is momentary and light compared to the eternal weight of glory that's coming.

He says it's beyond comparison. So we can walk in confidence today, hold on to that victory. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We can pray with great boldness this morning because we have a good father who fills the heavens and wants to give us good things and who rules his kingdom. We pray with great boldness because that Father and king has promised to give us what we need.

We pray with great boldness because he has forgiven our sins and he is transforming us from one degree of glory to another.

We pray with great boldness even in the time of trial when we can't see the light or an answer to our prayers, because we know he went through a more total darkness in order to bring us out of it.

So we pray with a boldness for deliverance because revelation has said it's already told us the end and that we are conquerors by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Our 21 days of prayer will finish up this Saturday. So in the meantime, I just encourage you, listen to God's prompting, be steadfast in prayer.

Pray with boldness as we finish out this last week. And my prayer for us is that God would just continue to call us deeper as a praying church. So if you'd stand, we're going to end like we have every week. And Kelly is going to come up, pray these themes of the Lord's prayer in her own words. Thank you.

All right, would you prepare your hearts and pray with me? Father? Thank you. That over the last few weeks, we've been able to learn more truths about prayer. And we are grateful that we have time now to join together as a congregation and praise you as our great and all powerful God.

You fill the heavens and the earth with your majesty, and our hope is in you alone. Your unfailing love is so great that you sent your son to save us, and he willingly gave up his life to cover all of our sins. Because of his sacrifice and your great mercy and grace, we can draw close to you as your children, and we rejoice that we will be with you forever and ever. We are grateful that we can come to you anytime with all of our needs because you are our refuge and you protect us and provide for us no matter what our current concerns may be. You hear every prayer we speak and you promised us that you will never leave us or forsake us.

Thank you, Father, for that wonderful assurance and hope because it brings us such comfort. We know we can rely on you fully as our all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent God who is faithful and just and merciful. We ask you, Father, that you would fill us with wisdom and understanding so that we might grow in the knowledge of you. And may any knowledge we gain not cause us to be prideful, but instead help us to love you and others more. Continue to show us new things every day about you from your word so we will know you better and help us to fall more deeply in love with you so that our hearts may be filled to overflowing with the light and love of Jesus.

Guide us how to share your great love more with others and to tell them about salvation through your precious son. Help us live lives that are blameless and that please you in every way until Jesus comes to take us home. Thank you that you have a purpose and a plan for each of our lives, and we trust you in all things, and we're eternally grateful for the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. Your grace, through Christ's death and resurrection, has provided forgiveness for all of our sins. So show us any paths we are taking that are not pleasing to you and help us to be obedient and hold fast your truth.

Guide us in how to take captive any lies or doubts or misunderstandings that cause us distress and instead lead us to your truth. Help us stay in step with your word and increase our faith and take away all of our fears. And when we are afraid, help us to run to you because you are our strength and you are always ready to help us in any trouble that we face. Guide us to trust you in the midst of the chaos of the world. Remind us that your word tells us that whatever is causing us any harm, such as anxiety or depression, panic or fear, anger or resentment, jealousy or selfishness, sickness or financial burdens, oppression or abuse, addictions or anything else that we ourselves or the enemy is doing to damage our lives, that it will not ever be able to separate us from your love that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So Father, we put our trust in you to deliver us from all evil because you only are our protector and our provider. Help us to be strong and courageous in any battles that we face, and place your full armor of salvation, righteousness, truth, the gospel, your word and faith upon us to protect us from the enemy. We cling to the words in scripture that tell us that you are close to the brokenhearted and you rescue those who are christian spirit. And if we have any self condemnation, fill us with your peace once we've confessed our sins, because it's all been covered with the precious blood of Jesus who has set us free. Father, as we close this series on prayer, increase our desire to meet with you daily and protect us from our individual struggles and the enemy's attempts to distract us so we spend less time in your presence.

Take us deeper in our practice of prayer individually and as a congregation so that seeking you becomes the most important part of our day as we show you how much we love you all. Glory to you, God, as we praise and trust you because you are able to do far more than we can ever ask or imagine. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.