Let's open our Bibles now to
Genesis chapter 21. Genesis the 21st chapter. We'll begin reading in verse
14. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it
unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder and the child and sent
her away. And she departed and wandered
in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the
bottle and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And
she went and sat her down over against him a good way off as
it were a bow shot. For she said, let me not see
the death of the child. And she sat over against him
and lift up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the
lad And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said
unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard
the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and
hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation. And
God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she
went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad, And
he grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. And he
dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother took him a wife
out of the land of Egypt." We'll end our reading there. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this evening, a thankful people. Lord, how thankful we are that
out of your goodness and mercy to your people, You've provided
us yet another opportunity to meet together and to worship
your matchless name. Father, I beg of you that you
would send your spirit upon us and enable us to worship this
evening. Enable to worship Christ our
Savior. Let his name be exalted. Let him be lifted up high above
everything else. And Father, enable us to be in
the dust at his feet, worshiping him. Oh, how we thank you for
your mercy and your grace for your people, the people that
you chose, that you redeemed, that you are calling out by your
gospel, that you're keeping and feeding through your gospel,
keeping by your grace. Father, we're so thankful and
pray, we beg of you that your continued mercy and grace would
be upon this congregation and upon this whole area, Father,
that you would use the preaching of the gospel to call out your
sheep, Call your people to come to Christ. Believe him. Rest
in him. Father, we're thankful for the
good report we've had on several who are still recovering in difficult
places. Father, we pray you continue
to be with them. Heal your people. Deliver, Father,
according to thy will. Above all, we pray that you would
give them a special portion of your presence and comfort their
hearts with your presence, with your word, with your precious
promises in the midst of the darkness and the trial. All these
things we ask in that name which is above every name. For his
glory, his praise we pray. Amen. I've titled our message this
evening, Prayer that God Answers. The scripture tells us that our
God is a God who answers prayer. And that ought to encourage us
to pray at all times about everything, shouldn't it? God promises that
he answers prayer and he tells us to pray. He tells us to pray
at all times about everything. Now we know this, that the Lord
does not always give us everything we ask for when we pray. And
there's a good reason for that is we often ask for the wrong
things with the, with the wrong motive for the wrong reasons.
But our text gives us four characteristics of a prayer that God answers.
And it also interests me that these four things also describe
the people that God saves. He saves people. He saves his
people for the very same reasons he answers these prayers. And the first thing is this,
God hears the prayers of the outcast. Verse 14, and Abraham
rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of
water and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder and
the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered
into the wilderness of Beersheba. Now I know this was a traumatic
morning. Don't you? I mean, it was a traumatic
morning for Abraham to send them away. And it was a traumatic
morning for Hagar and Ishmael to be sent out into the wilderness.
just with what bread they could carry and this bottle of water.
You know, up until now, Hagar and Ishmael, they lived a pretty
comfortable life in Abraham's home, in the compound or whatever,
however it was that they lived in tents, you know. But they
lived under Abraham's hand, under his provision, under his protection.
You know, for many years, however many years it was, 15, 16 years,
Ishmael lived as the only child. I mean, Abraham's only child.
How he loved that boy. They lived pretty comfortable.
And now, all of a sudden, in one morning, they're out alone,
just the two of them, out there in the wilderness. Now, that
had to be scary, didn't it? They're out there with very little
provision. I mean, just whatever bread they're
carrying, this bottle of water. And when they go out there in
the wilderness, I mean, they're not going to find anything to sustain
them. There's not plants and fruits and things growing out
there, you know. And while they're out there,
just two of them, they don't have protection from traveling
thieves and bands of marauders and, you know, and all those
things. I mean, it just had to be pretty scary to suddenly be
an outcast like they were. But this is given to us as a
picture. You know, nobody will ever cry out to the Lord until
they find themselves as an outcast in the wilderness with no provision
for themselves, no way to protect themselves from the wrath of
God against their sin. You know, the only time it's
recorded that, that Hagar cried or she cried unto the Lord was
when she was an outcast. That's the only times it's recorded
in scripture. Same thing's true, you and me.
I'm not picking on Hagar here, because she's just the same as
you and me. In chapter 16, remember, Hagar fled from Sarah. Sarah
was being mean to her, and she ran away from her. And she was
there crying. And Lord found her all alone
out there in the wilderness. There was a well of water, and
he found her there. There she was, an outcast. And now, here she is again, an
outcast. And she cries and the Lord hears
her cry. And the reason for that is God
hears the prayers. He hears the cries of people
who are outcasts. You know, when we find out that
we're outcasts, we're aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers from the covenants of promise, we're without God,
without hope, without Christ in this world, we find out we're
an outcast, that's when we'll cry to the Lord. And the Lord
will hear that prayer, because when we're an outcast, what we're
crying for is mercy. We're crying for protection.
And the Lord, we're not asking for, we're an outcast. We can't
plead for any merit of our own. We're an outcast. Everybody's
kicked us out. We're an outcast. An outcast is not asking for
merit. They're crying for mercy. And spiritually speaking, if,
If you live very long, you found yourself in the wilderness, haven't
you? And we don't like it. We don't like that feeling like
we're in the wilderness. You can come to the service,
you can be around folks who are enjoying the message, enjoying
the service, and you just feel like dry and dead. You're not
getting anything from it. You're all around it, but you're
in the wilderness. Spiritually, you're in the wilderness.
a time of winter for your soul. That's what, in Song of Solomon,
that's the way it's described, is a time of winter. We don't
like that. But you know, when you're an
outcast out there in the wilderness, that's typically where you find
a message from God for your soul. We find a message from God for
our soul when we're in the wilderness. Because you know, that's also
where you find God's preacher. God's preacher's an outcast too. He's
an outcast from religion. They don't want him around. They
don't want him there with them. So he's out there in the wilderness
preaching. If you want to hear John the Baptist preach, you
couldn't go to the temple, could you? He wasn't welcome there.
He had to go out to the wilderness. For a long time, if you wanted
to hear the sweet psalmist of Israel, he wasn't in the palace. If he was up there, Saul would
have run him through. He wasn't able to spear. For
many years, David was out there in the wilderness. If you want
to hear from David, you got to go to the wilderness. Same thing's
true of Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel. They were all out there in the
wilderness. So we don't necessarily like being in the wilderness
that way. But that's where you're going to find a message from
God for your soul. And that's where God hears prayer
for somebody that's an outcast. They don't have anybody else.
They don't have anybody else to cry to. They have anybody
else to help them. They don't have anybody else
to provide for them. That's who God saves. And that's who God
hears pray. All right, number two. God hears
the prayers of the poor and the needy. Verse 15, and the water
was spent in the bottle. She cast the child under one
of the shrubs, and she went and sat her down over against him
a good way off, as it were a bow shot. For she said, let me not
see the death of the child. She sat over against him and
lift up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the
lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said
unto her, what aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard
the voice of the lad where he is. Now Hagar and Ishmael are
in a bad fix. You mothers, you try to imagine
this, that it's so bad, you put your child under some bush somewhere
to get whatever little shade you can get in the desert, and
you go off a bow shot and turn your back to him, because you
don't want to see him die. I mean, this is tough business
right here. I mean, this is hard, hard, hard trial. And there Hagar
is. She's crying. I don't know, I
kind of assume she's crying to the Lord, but it says here she's
crying. Well, you know why she's crying? The last of her hoarded
resources is gone. The last ways that she thinks
that she can provide for herself and for her son is gone. She's
empty. She didn't cry. She didn't cry
unto the Lord. She didn't cry at all until her
water bottle was empty and she had nothing. Now you and I are
the very same way. Nobody will ever cry to the Lord
and ask for mercy as long as we think we've got something
of our own that will help save us. We'll never ask for grace. We'll never ask God to save us
all by himself as long as we think there's some merit in us.
You know, really, the only things we truly pray about are things
that we know we're helpless. If we think we've got some control,
we think we can manipulate the outcome in some way, that's not
truly praying. It's when you're truly helpless
and you can't do anything to affect the situation. That's
when we pray. We don't cry to the Lord for
mercy until we see our guilt. We don't cry to the Lord for
grace until we see, oh, everything I've been trying to do to please
God is sin. And the wages of sin is death. So I have to have grace. That's
the only time we'll ever cry for grace. We'll never cry to
God and ask him to forgive our sins as long as we think we've
got some little bit of righteousness. But when we see all we are is
sin, Then we're empty. We're empty of any righteousness.
We're empty of anything that would attract us to God. That's
when we'll pray and ask God to forgive us. We don't cry unto
the Lord until he teaches us we don't have anything he requires.
We've got to ask the Lord to give us what he requires. We'll
never cry until we do, until we see we're empty. We're not
going to cry to the Lord and ask him to give us life until
we see we're dead. We don't cry to the Lord until
there's no other option. See, we have to be brought to
the end of ourselves where there's no other option. Brother Henry
always used to use the term shut up to Christ. That's what he
means. When you're shut up to Christ, you don't have any other
option. Then you'll cry. Then you'll cry unto the Lord.
And when you cry that way, the Lord answers. The Lord answers
those who are poor and needy with mercy, grace and forgiveness
and life. God hears the prayers of the
people that he saves. That's his children. How does
he describe the people he saves? They're poor and needy. They
can't save themselves and nobody else can save them either. But
God will. God saves them. And when all
hope in herself was gone, then Hagar cried to the Lord. And
he showed her a well of water, verse 19. And God opened her
eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled the bottle
with water and gave the lad drink. Now you see the well was there
all along, wasn't it? She just didn't see it. She didn't
see it until God opened her eyes and showed her the well of water.
And when he showed her the well, Well, she went to it. Nobody
had a beggar to go to it. No, she knew what it was for.
She went to it and she realized, oh, there's more than enough
water here for me and Ishmael. That's a picture of a sinner
hearing the gospel. I can identify with this. Hearing
the gospel, hearing of the water of life, hearing of this well
of water. For years and years and years and years, And when
a sinner finally realizes, even though they've been hearing the
Gospel, they finally realize, the Lord finally makes it dawn
on them that there's no hope in anything I do. There's no
hope in anything about me. When the Lord brings us to the
point we're completely helpless, that's when we cry to the Lord.
And the Lord reveals His Son to us. And we think, wow. He was there
all along. In my case, somebody was preaching
Him to me all along. He was there all along, but we
couldn't see Him. We couldn't see our need of Him.
We couldn't see Him. We couldn't believe Him. We couldn't
love Him. All but when the Lord, by His Spirit, is pleased to
reveal His Son to us, nobody has to beg us to make a decision.
Nobody has to beg us to go to Christ. If the Spirit will reveal
Christ to you, you'll go running to Him. And when you get there,
you know what you're going to find? He's everything I need. There's not one thing lacking.
He's everything that I need. And notice here, too, this is
important, how helpless Hagar was. But that's what made her
an object of mercy. She was empty of any resources. She was empty of any strength.
She was just given up to sit there and die. If she had any
strength to keep walking, she'd have kept walking. She didn't
have any more strength left in her. And the Lord came to her
when she was so helpless. And I love this. The Lord didn't
say, now, Hagar, if you'll take the first step, then I'll do
the rest. He didn't say, now, Hagar, if
you'll walk about another mile, you'll find a well of water.
He didn't say that, did he? He came to her and said, Hagar,
I'm going to do everything for you. I heard you, and I will. I've heard you, and I will make
of your son a great nation. And that is the very way the
Lord saves sinners. I tell you, if you would be saved,
if you have some sense in your mind that you're lost, that you
don't know Christ, I tell you the thing to do. Pray and ask
the Lord to do all the saving for you because you can't do
any of it yourself. That's the people that God saves. And don't be afraid. Don't be
afraid to ever ask the Lord for mercy. Don't be afraid to ask
Him for forgiveness. The Lord tells Hagar something
else here we need to hear. The Lord told her, fear not. Fear not. Here you are helpless,
you're given up, you're ready to die, and the Lord says, fear
not. I know you're full of sin, I
am too. We're full of sin. There's nothing in us beautiful
at all. But don't let your sin, Your
failure, your wickedness, how defiled of a sin you are, make
you so full of fear that you won't ask God for mercy. Don't
think you gotta clean up a little bit first and then ask God for
mercy. No, don't fear. Don't fear. Call on God for mercy. Now listen
to me. Your sin is not what's stopping
God from saving you. Your sin is not what's making
God not hear your prayer. Your righteousness will stop
God from hearing your prayer. God's not gonna save you as long
as you have any righteousness of your own, but never your sin. Now be ashamed of our sin, but
our sin's never the reason God won't hear us. Actually, it's
our sin that makes us objects of mercy. The Lord hears the
prayers of real sinners. Now let's just get Let's just
get genuine here. I don't want to have a false
religious veneer, you know. You know how we all say, well,
what a sinner I am. And all the time you're trying
to make yourself look good. The Lord hears the prayers of
real sinners. Then let's admit honestly who
and what we are before God and call out to God and beg for mercy. The Lord hears the prayer of
people who are in real need. then quit trying to solve the
problem yourself. Quit trying to solve the problem
of your sin yourself and end your need and your utter helplessness. Ask God to reveal his son to
you. Ask him to give you faith in
Christ. Ask him to forgive you. Ask him to forgive you because
you're a real sinner who needs forgiveness, who needs a savior.
Ask the Lord for mercy because you're guilty. What you deserve
is God's wrath, but ask him for mercy. Here's something, I don't want
to say this selfishly, but I wish y'all pray and ask the Lord that
he give your pastor a message for your heart. For your heart. God answers those kinds of prayers.
He answers the prayers of the poor and needy. All right, here's
the third thing. God answers prayer for Christ's
sake. Same reason he saves his people,
for Christ's sake. Verse 18, the Lord says, arise,
lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand, for I'll make
him a great nation. Now, you know, the Lord didn't
hear the cry of Hagar and the cry of Ishmael and save them
for their sakes. He didn't hear Hagar's cry. He
didn't hear Ishmael's cry because, you know, they're so pitiful,
they're so notable or whatever. The Lord heard their prayer.
He heard their cry and he saved them alive in that wilderness
for Abraham's sake. And I'll show you that. Look
back a few pages, Genesis chapter 17. This is some years before
this, probably 16, 17 years. before Hagar finds herself out
there in the desert. Verse 18 of Genesis chapter 17. And Abraham said unto God, Oh,
that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Sarah, thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name
Isaac. And I'll establish my covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I've
heard thee behold, I've blessed him and I'll make him fruitful
and will multiply him exceedingly. 12 princes. So he begat and I'll
make him a great nation. Now that's God's promise to Abraham
about his son Ishmael. He's going to make a nation out
of Israel. 12 princes are going to come
from him. Well, some years later, Hagar and Ishmael find themselves
out in the wilderness with no hope. They just don't see any
way out of this thing. The only thing Hagar can see
to do is just sit here and die. And the Lord heard their cry
for Abraham's sake. The Lord heard their cry and
he saved them alive. He didn't let them die out there
in the wilderness because the Lord promised Abraham that he'd
make a great nation out of Ishmael and he's going to do it. Here's
one thing you can bank on. God's going to keep his promise.
God made this promise to Abraham and he kept it. He heard their
cry. He saved them for Abraham's sake
because of the promise that he made to Abraham. I bet you, you
see the picture here, don't you? You know why the Lord answers
the prayers of his people. It's not because we're so special.
It's not because we got all of our doctrinal ducks in a row.
The Lord hears the prayers of his people for Christ's sake. The Lord answers the prayers
of his people and he saves them, gives them spiritual life for
the very same reason. It's for Christ's sake. See,
we don't deserve to be heard, do we? But Christ our Savior
does. We don't deserve eternal life. We don't deserve righteousness.
We don't deserve any blessing from God, but Christ does. And the Father accepts us for
Christ's sake. Not because of our merit, but
because of Christ's. And when God saves one of His
elect, He very closely follows this picture right here with
all of His people. He's going to bring them to the
end of themselves. Just like He did Hagar and Ishmael.
He's gonna make it where they've got no hope but God. He's gonna
make it before God saves us, He's gonna make us real miserable.
He's gonna make it where We've got no hope in ourselves and
we're going to be afraid. We're going to make, he's going
to make us say, I deserve to die. I'm getting ready to die
and I'm on the very brink of hell and if God pushed me in,
he'd be right to do it. Then and only then will we cry
out to God for mercy. And the Lord answers the prayers
of his people. And he saves them, he's merciful to them for Christ's
sake. See, the father made a promise
to his son a long time ago, before God created anything, when the
only God existed. And the father, the son, and
the Holy Spirit, they entered into the eternal covenant of
grace. And in that covenant, the father made a promise to
his son. He chose a people. to save, and he gave them to
his son. He told his son, you become flesh. You obey the law
for them. You obey the law perfectly for
them. You give them a righteousness that they can't earn. You obey
the law for them. And you suffer and die. You make
yourself, you make your soul an offering for sin, and shed
your blood to put their sin away, and I'll accept them. The Spirit
said, I'll go give them life. I'll go give them faith in Christ. And in the fullness of time,
the father brings that one of his elect right to the very end
of themselves. And when they think they're going
down for the last time, and they cry out for mercy, the Lord hears
their prayer for Christ's sake. And he saves them. He delivers
them from going down into the pit for Christ's sake, because
he promised his son he would. See, the son did everything he
promised his father that he would do in the covenant of grace,
didn't he? He did become flesh. He was made
flesh. He did obey God's law perfectly.
He obeyed the law so well, he magnified it. He honored it and
he magnified it. And then he traded his perfect
righteousness for the sin of his people. And he put their
sin, he sacrificed himself to pay for that sin. And the father
said, it's enough. I'm pleased. The payment has
been made. There's no more debt. The justice
of God will not allow him to damn anyone for whom Christ died.
So instead of damning them, he gives them life. Ultimately,
he'll glorify them, and he's all doing it for Christ's sake. Not because we deserve it, but
because Christ earned it as our substitute. And I tell you, if
you would pray, and have your prayer heard and answered by
the Lord. Ask God to be merciful to you
for Christ's sake, because he paid a debt you could never pay. Lord, be merciful to me because
you punished my sin and my substitute. The Lord answers that kind of
prayer. It's for Christ's sake, not for my sake, but for Christ's
sake. And then here's the last thing.
God answers prayer that's according to his will. And he saves his
people according to his will. Again, verse 18, he says, arise,
lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand, for I'll make
him a great nation. Now the Lord had revealed this
to Abraham, and he also had revealed it to Hagar earlier. This is
God's will and purpose. He's gonna make a nation, a great
nation, out of Ishmael. And the Lord worked it out, so
Hagar thought, She and her son are gonna die, and Lord never
is gonna make a nation out of this boy, because he's gonna
die and I am too. And she cried out to the Lord. And she asked
the Lord for what she needed. She asked the Lord for what she
wanted. See, here's what happened. She prayed, absolutely, she prayed.
But the Lord made it. He's put her in a situation where
she prayed according to the Lord's will. that he made her pray for
what was already the Lord's will. Hagar prayed and God gave her
what he already promised. See, the Lord answers that kind
of prayer. And if you would plead with God, don't make bargains
with God. If you had plead with God, my
dad used to call it arguing with God. If you'd argue with God,
plead his will, plead his revealed will, plead his word. Now, I don't know what the will
of the Lord is in most things, in almost anything, really. Do
I know what the Lord's will is? You know, and rightfully so. There are things that scripture
calls the secret things. Well, the secret things belong
to the Lord, not to us. So, you know, in those matters,
maybe it is a secret thing. We don't know what the Lord's
will is in this. My advice is pray for what's
on your heart. Ask the Lord. for what's on your heart and
then pray, Lord, thy will be done. It would just be a mighty
good idea to ask the Lord, make me pray according to your will,
not my will, but thy will. And you know, there's going to
be cases that the Lord will answer that prayer and he'll give us
a heart to pray for God's will against the will of the flesh.
I'll give you an example. This has been repeated a number
of times that I know of. The Lord may bring us, or he
may bring one of our loved ones to such a low and painful, diseased,
sick place that instead of praying, Lord heal my loved one, that
we pray Lord take them home. Now that's against the will of
this flesh. That's against the will of this flesh. But you know
what? That's praying according to the
Lord's will. In John 17, in our Lord's great high priestly prayer,
he said, Father, I will, that all those whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Now,
if I'm constantly praying, Lord, heal my loved one, heal me, raise
me up. There's gonna come a point I'm
praying against the Lord's will, aren't I? Could be the Lord will
put it in my heart to pray according to the Lord's will. Lord, take
your child home. Please deliver him from this.
He's gonna have to make me awful miserable to do it, but Lord,
deliver him from this. Take him home to be with you.
It could be the Lord will work those circumstances like that
for us, that we'll pray according to the Lord's will. I don't have
an example like that for everything. But there are a few things. I
do know what the Lord's will is. I know this. I know it's the Lord's will to
save sinners. I know that. Here's what I can
pray. Lord, save me because I'm a sinner. That's praying according to the
Lord's will, isn't it? I know this. It is God's will in everything
that he does to glorify his son, especially in the salvation of
his people. God has arranged the salvation
of his people so Christ gets all of the glory. Well, then
here's what I could pray. Lord, save me in a way that Christ
gets all the glory and I get none of it. Lord, save me. by the doing and dying of Christ
the Savior without any of my works, oh Lord, you sure would
get glory to yourself if you'd save someone as wretched and
vile as me. I mean, you talk about a lost
cause, or if you'd save me, oh my, you'd get glory to yourself.
That's praying according to the Lord's will, that his son be
glorified. And like I say, I don't have
any idea. what the Lord is going to be pleased to do in almost
any area. But I do know a few precious promises of our God.
And remember, just like Abraham, God always keeps his promise.
Well, if you plead with God, ask God to do what he already
promised he'd do, he's going to answer that prayer. In every trial that comes our
way, we always, and we should pray, Lord, deliver me. We have
to ask the Lord to deliver us. He's the only one who can. But
you know, the Lord had promised to deliver us from every trial,
has he? But he did promise to give grace
sufficient for every trial. Then I can pray, Lord, give me
grace sufficient to endure this thing. To endure this thing,
trust in Christ the whole way. I do know this. Our God has promised,
I will never, no never, leave nor forsake my people. And this is one of my great fears,
that God leave me alone. That he leave me to myself and
the damage that I would cause. This is my prayer. Lord, don't
leave me alone now. Oh, I thank you for your mercy.
I thank you for your grace. I thank you that you revealed
your son to me. I thank you that how you've brought
us together and how, oh, God, thank you that you give me faith
to know you and trust you. I thank you how you've led me
every step of the way. Most of you, I guess, know our
daughter, Savannah, and son Clark are expecting their first child.
We've been with them last couple days. And the things that are
on their mind, and the worries that are on their heart are the
very same worries me and Janet had when she was pregnant. And we talked to them about that. Well, the Lord's not gonna leave
you alone. I mean, how me and Janet got from there to here,
I mean, I just, we're a testament to this, the
Lord will provide. He will not leave you alone.
Now, Lord, you haven't left us alone all this time. Don't leave
me alone now. Lord, you've guided me every
step of the way. Don't leave me to my own devices
now. Lord, be with me. Lord, guide
me, lead me, comfort my heart with your presence. Show me the
way that I could go. The Lord will answer those prayers,
because that's praying according to what God already promised
he'd do. God's gonna keep his promises. And I know prayer,
we overcomplicate. The reason it's hard for us sometimes
is we overcomplicate it. But maybe we keep those four
things in mind. We might find it a little easier to pray. I hope so. I hope that'll be
a blessing to you. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father,
how we thank you for your word. How we thank you for this time
you've given us to look into your word and see Christ our
Savior. And Father, how I pray that you
would bend our will to yours, and that you'd cause us to pray
less selfishly and more for thy will, more for thy glory. Lord, we do ask as you've taught
us, give us this day our daily bread. But oh Lord, how we pray
that in this dark, dark day, that you would reveal to us,
to our loved ones, to this community, the redemptive glory of Christ
our Savior and cause us to run to him. Father, it's in his name,
for his glory, we ask these things and we give thanks. Amen. All
right, Sean.