WWUTT 2460 Q&A How to Pray, What to Pray, Why Pray

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August 29, 2025

Responding to questions from listeners about the Cracker Barrel fiasco that happened this week, another tragic school shooting, how do we pray in these days, what should we pray for, and why should we pray at all. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: What is up with the cracker barrel fiasco that happened this week? Why should we pray even when it feels like it's not working?
00:09: And how do we pray when we don't know what to pray for? Always a good reminder when we understand the text.
00:24: This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word.
00:30: Be sure to tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is
00:36: Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Psalm 143. Hear my prayer,
00:42: O Lord. Give ear to my pleas for mercy. In your faithfulness, answer me in your righteousness.
00:52: Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
00:58: For the enemy has pursued my soul. He has crushed my life to the ground.
01:03: He has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore, my spirit faints within me.
01:10: My heart within me is appalled. I remember the days of old.
01:16: I meditate on all that you have done. I ponder the work of your hands.
01:22: I stretch out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
01:31: Selah. I did not have a Psalm planned for when we opened up the program, but just right before we hopped on the mics,
01:40: I opened up my small little ESV New Testament that I'm using here, which also has
01:45: Psalms and Proverbs in it, and it just fell right open to Psalm 143, and I was like, that's it.
01:51: Yeah. That's what we're starting with. We've got a question on the program today, which we're gonna get to in a moment, that's about prayer.
01:58: Okay. And it's intriguing. This question is coming on behalf of somebody else and saying, how do
02:05: I encourage my friend to pray? And I'll let Michael ask his question in a moment instead of me just kind of building up what he's going to ask here.
02:12: But we'll talk about prayer here in just a little bit. I just got done preaching on prayer.
02:17: Well, preaching, teaching on prayer with my students at the Christian school that I teach at.
02:23: So our first two lessons this school year were how to read your Bible and how to pray.
02:30: We just took a test on it. So they got done with their test yesterday. Awesome. Every time we do a test,
02:36: I make the students memorize a passage of scripture. What they had to memorize was the Lord's prayer. So they had
02:41: Matthew 9, sorry, Matthew 6, 9 through 13 was what they had to memorize. I gave out that part of the test first.
02:48: So they have to write out the whole Lord's prayer. Then they give that back to me, and then I give them the rest of the test, which they can use their notes to do.
02:58: So if they've been taking good notes, then they should be able to answer those questions pretty easily.
03:03: So I was looking over the Lord's prayer, and I was touched that the vast majority of them got it.
03:09: Awesome. And it wasn't just that they wrote the Lord's prayer down on a paper. They had to write each petition. So the first petition of the
03:17: Lord's prayer is this. The second petition is this. So we're gonna look at that too, because this is the model for prayer, kind of the blueprint for prayer that Jesus gave us.
03:27: Many of the major catechisms cover it. Luther's catechism does. I believe the Heidelberg Catechism, also the
03:34: Baptist Catechism, Westminster Confession, shorter catechism, will go through the
03:39: Lord's prayer and look at the different parts of it that we may learn how to pray. What are we asking
03:45: God for whenever we pray? What sorts of things should be in our prayers? What should the attitude of our hearts be?
03:52: So we'll look at that here in just a little bit. All good things that we tend to forget. Yeah, how often do you think about what you're praying?
04:01: Do we give much mindfulness to the words that are actually coming out of our mouths when we pray? Because so much of our prayers, the vast majority of our prayers are probably routine.
04:11: Right. Praying for your meal. Yes. Praying at bedtime when the kids are going down. And when the kids pray,
04:18: I noticed that it sounds more like a Christmas wishlist or something. Like, I can ask the genie for these three things, kind of thing.
04:28: And I'm like, yeah. That's where our three -year -old is. I wanna go to the ostrich farm tomorrow. I wanna go to the pool tomorrow.
04:36: But I will say, it's very touching how much he always wants to pray for Omi and Opa.
04:42: Oh yeah. And Papa and Amama. And great -grandpa. And great -grandpa. Yes. So that he won't be lonely.
04:49: Yes. He'll pray those things. And then people will feel better. Yes. That he'll remember at the end of the day that somebody wasn't feeling well.
04:58: And he'll pray for them. Yeah, he will. I remember when Mariah was pretty close to his age, I think, maybe a little older, four or five.
05:05: And she would pray like, I want everybody in the world to feel better. She still prays like that. Yes. I think we even made a joke about that on the podcast once and said, hey, if you guys are feeling pretty good today, our daughter prayed for you last night, that you would be feeling better.
05:23: Every time. The Lord loves to hear our prayers. He loves to answer our prayers.
05:29: And so we'll be coming back to that, considering prayer here in just a moment. This is the
05:34: Friday edition of the broadcast when you can submit your questions to us and we'll do our best to try to answer them.
05:41: Yes. The email address is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com or you can go to our website, www .tt
05:49: .com, click on the voicemail tab and send us a voicemail. And that's what I have to play here in just a moment.
05:55: First, to give you just a brief update on the surgery situation for our three -year -old, nothing's really changed since last week.
06:04: I made the comment last week, since you weren't on with me last week, I did say that our insurance wasn't gonna cover it.
06:12: So we're gonna have to look for alternative means. It's still not left to us to have to pay everything out of pocket.
06:20: There are some other things that we can look at. Praise the Lord. Yeah, praise God. But we thank you for our prayers and for those who have given a donation that is very meaningful to us.
06:29: Yes. Some of you have also donated to our church because we have a building project coming up in the future.
06:35: We're going to be looking at building a building. I haven't pushed that a whole lot because we're still working on the land deal.
06:43: Certain aspects of this project have to be accomplished before we move on to the next phase, as has been the case with any kind of building project.
06:53: So yeah, like I said, I haven't pushed the money thing that much, but some of y 'all have given a donation.
06:59: We were able to do something with the building that we've been in ever since we got here. So same building that we've had since we moved almost two years ago.
07:07: Do you realize this weekend is two years since we came in view of a call?
07:14: Two? Yeah, two years. It feels like so much more. This is 2025.
07:20: Yeah, it was. And it was the Labor Day weekend of 2023 that we came. How crazy is that? It was only two years.
07:26: Only two years. That's so weird. Personally, when I look at what
07:32: I wanted to have accomplished in a year and where we are, I don't feel like I've gotten as far as I wanted to.
07:38: Oh yeah. I can say as a pastor, I wish I was a little further along. Don't we all? Yeah.
07:45: It's good to set goals. It's the Lord's timing. Exactly. In everything. Let it be your will and not mine be done.
07:53: Amen. Yeah. But anyway, what was I saying before that? Oh yeah, with the building project. Yes. So with the building we have, we have finally decided just to knock out a wall and expand the sanctuary.
08:04: Instead of finding a space at the moment, temporary space. Right. Before we move into the new building.
08:11: Which we've been on a lookout for, for over a year. Have been looking for another space that we can meet in.
08:17: Yeah. If you follow us on Facebook, if you follow the church's account on Facebook, you might remember that I posted a video in June of last year.
08:25: Saying we have finally outgrown this space, we need to be finding something else. Yeah. And we did have a proposal, which we gave to the congregation.
08:35: Basically everybody in the church said, no matter what we do, I'm still gonna come. But I'm not crazy about it.
08:42: Right. Like the proposal that we gave. Right. Which was at a, we were gonna be meeting at a different location.
08:47: It was not gonna be on Sunday morning. And so we as elders just decided, nobody's really excited about this.
08:54: Why don't we wait and see what else we can get? I had conversations with several other churches.
09:01: We have had, this is just wild. I had conversations with three other churches that have buildings two to three times larger than the one that we have.
09:13: That they're not even using from 10 o 'clock to noon on a
09:19: Sunday morning. And they won't let us use it. Yeah. Now on the one hand,
09:26: I mean, I can kind of understand the hesitation. It sounded like all of them were burned by something.
09:33: You know, like something went wrong. Yeah. Like really wrong apparently, but nobody talks about it.
09:40: Especially with like the stories that have come out in the last year of guys like J .D. Greer or David Platt that moved into another church and kind of took it over.
09:51: So I can understand why a church would kind of have a feeling of, okay, what are you gonna do here?
09:56: Right. Are your members gonna, and our church is bigger than the ones that we were looking at wanting to.
10:04: Temporarily. Yeah, temporarily be there and worship there. Right. While we're building our building.
10:09: Can we just have a larger space we can rent out from you guys? I wasn't asking for it for free. No. We'll pay.
10:17: But anyway, it was the Lord's will to close the door on that. Definitely. And there were at least one situation and at least one situation where a church told us no.
10:27: A couple of months went by and I was looking at some of the things that church was doing and I was going, you know, probably best that we did.
10:36: That didn't work out. So God and his providence knew better than we did. Yes, definitely.
10:42: Because we have had those conversations and everything has fallen through and everything else that I've looked at was either too expensive or too inconvenient, just nothing.
10:50: Everything was closed doors. Yes. A door after door kept closing. So finally we just said.
10:57: Which is fine. We only need one. That's right. That's right. We have a long -term plan.
11:03: We have a good long -term plan. We just can't find a short -term plan. Right. So we finally just said, hey, why don't we just go ahead and knock these walls out?
11:12: Let's just do it. Yes, we're gonna lose the classroom space, but we gain more in the sanctuary and then maybe we can get a modular or something outside and try to expand the classroom space that way.
11:22: So we did knock out a wall. We got that done. This coming Sunday, we've got a little bit more extra space.
11:28: We can add at least a dozen chairs or something like that to get more people in there.
11:34: My office is a little bit smaller now, but that's fine. I didn't need as big a space as I had anyway.
11:40: It was being used as a classroom. It was. My office was being used as a classroom. So I just sit at my desk in the corner anyway.
11:47: What do I need a big room for? And so we thank you for helping us with that and encouraging us along the way, even in some of the ministry needs that we've had in our church.
11:56: Pray for space. That's still an ongoing prayer need for us. And the building project that we have, although it's probably two or three years from being completed, but pray that those things would move along rapidly and doors are opening there in the right order which they need to open for us to complete this project also.
12:16: So anyway, that's the update on the surgery. We're moving along there. Don't have another date planned.
12:22: Still needing to raise funds for that. But then, as I said, I've got another means to be able to help us out even though our insurance won't cover it.
12:31: And the update on the - Update on the building. You kind of smushed those two together. I did.
12:36: I just kind of went from one to the next. That's the way my sermons go too. I'll give you an outline, but you catch my transition because I'm not gonna tell you when
12:45: I went to the next point. Thank you to everybody who's listening to the
12:51: Roman series on Sunday. And thank you so much for your donations. Yes. We really, really appreciate it.
12:56: As I've said, everything means a lot. A little means a lot to us.
13:02: So even when somebody sent a PayPal donation and said, hey, buy yourself a pizza, that means a lot.
13:08: Yes. You wanted to buy us food. It's always touching to me every time
13:13: I see something like that. Oh, babe, I wanted to mention this too before we go on to the questions. So there was,
13:19: I attended an ordination panel last week. I was on the ordination panel for somebody who was being approved for pastor at one of the churches within our association.
13:30: And as members of that church were coming in to sit in on the ordination panel, there was a gal that came up to me and said she was praying for Bubba because of the surgery coming up.
13:44: And she said she missed you because you weren't on the podcast, which would have been the day before.
13:49: Oh. So this was Saturday, was the ordination panel. That podcast episode dropped on Friday and you weren't on last week.
13:58: So she did have to say, hey, tell Becky we missed her. Oh, well, thanks.
14:05: It was my decision to give Becky the week off. It was. Because you were having a bad headache.
14:11: Yeah, probably. Migraine was what you were having last week. I think so. I think that was the day that it was really struggle.
14:18: Yeah. You probably would have toughed it out if I said, hey, let's go record. I would have, yep.
14:24: I think by then it was starting to subside. Okay. If I remember right. Well, good, then you can fall asleep faster.
14:31: Mm -hmm. Yeah. No, wait, Thursday was when I was sick.
14:36: Thursday, so it was something else. Yeah, and then that weekend I had the migraine. Then the weekend was a migraine.
14:42: Right, right, right. So it was the pre -migraine. Yes, yes. The pre -migraine bug that you had.
14:48: Yeah, it was, it's been a week. Oh, speaking of having been just a crazy week.
14:57: Yeah. Cracker Barrel. Oh my goodness. You're gonna open up that can of worms.
15:04: Man, just in the span of the last few days. You had this major announcement of this massive rebrand of Cracker Barrel.
15:12: Huge overhaul. There was a huge outcry against it from the people who actually eat at Cracker Barrel.
15:20: I mean, did they not like put out feelers of how this would go over? No, no.
15:26: In fact, there was a member on the board of Cracker Barrel that when the
15:33: CEO was talking about this rebrand and how they were gonna redo all the stores and the logo was gonna change and all this stuff, he wrote like 140 page thing on like, here's why this is going to fail.
15:45: Oh, wow. And the rest of the board. That was dedication. Yeah, the rest of the board wrote him off as, well, he's a
15:53: Trump supporter, so he's just a radical. Oh my goodness. And everything that he warned was going to happen.
16:01: Lo and behold. Is what happened. Oh my goodness. I know you had made this comment about like, wasn't all of this just so they could get everybody's attention and now
16:09: Cracker Barrel's on. I mean, Cracker Barrel is just one of those things that you think of like,
16:16: I don't know, as you drive by. It's not something that you're like, hey, I think it's a great idea tonight to go to Cracker Barrel.
16:23: You know what I mean? Like it's always on the back burner. It's a quiet country restaurant sort of a thing.
16:28: They don't quite pop like any of the other restaurants around, yeah. Right, and so I thought that it was just a gimmick.
16:36: Like, so we can rile people up and get them passionate about Cracker Barrel again, but apparently it was not a fake thing.
16:46: It bombed so bad. Oh, so bad. That even if this was like a PR stunt, there's no way that they can recover.
16:53: There's no way they can pull back. That is so sad. The money that they lost in their stock from this announcement.
16:59: I mean, it was a massive backlash. Now I regularly eat at Cracker Barrel.
17:05: So you're hearing from a regular Cracker Barrel customer. When you're listening to this podcast,
17:11: I'm probably eating at Cracker Barrel right now. That's probably true.
17:17: Every other Friday morning, me and a friend of mine, we get together and we encourage one another.
17:23: We'll read a theology book together and then we'll talk about what we've read and encourage one another in our family life and stuff like that.
17:31: We meet at Cracker Barrel. That's our meeting spot. And as long as I've been a pastor,
17:37: I've been a pastor of three churches now. If you've been with us since the beginning of when we understand the text, you've been with us through Kansas, Texas, and now
17:44: Arizona. Yes. And in every one of those towns that I lived in, no matter how small the town might've been,
17:50: Lindale was only five or 6 ,000 people or something like that. Something like that, yeah. Much larger with Tyler right next door.
17:57: Yes. But every town we lived in had a Cracker Barrel. So that became my primary meeting spot.
18:04: It was my default meeting spot. Sometimes we would go to a Chick -fil -A or something like that because we've also had a
18:11: Chick -fil -A in almost every town. Not in Junction City, but there was one in Manhattan, which was just 20 miles away.
18:19: So I might meet there too. But Cracker Barrel was kind of the default place. You can go and sit and have a good conversation, eat your food as slow as you wanted to.
18:27: Yeah, and they don't rush you. Right. They don't try to clean up some of the places they even get out their cleaning supplies and they're almost like cleaning your table while you're still sitting there.
18:39: Yeah, passive aggressively trying to get you out of there. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I've sat at Cracker Barrel long enough that the waitress has changed.
18:49: Yeah. And we're like, oh, I'm sorry, we're still here. They're like, no, no, keep on going. I get the last gal's tip, you know.
18:57: That's true. That's a joke. They'll split it between the waitresses. But, and I try to be a good tipper.
19:04: You know, the waitresses know me over there. It's - But anyway. It's my place to go and eat.
19:09: Yes. You're hearing from a regular Cracker Barrel customer, not just somebody who is chiming in on this because it was what hit the news cycle in the past week.
19:16: Right. So this was obviously absurd to me to see all of this happening transparently.
19:23: I wanted to do a thing where we were gonna open up and I was gonna go, guys, major announcement to make.
19:30: We're boycotting Cracker Barrel. Right. I'm not eating there anymore. Oh, wait, another major announcement to make.
19:38: I've changed my mind. Just kidding. Just kidding. They've gone back, so I'm going back.
19:44: So a question for clarification, because I have not heard. They're not just going back to the,
19:51: I can't say original, but the - Uncle Herschel logo. Right. Okay, thank you.
19:57: The Cracker and the Barrel are still on the logo. So are they revamping the inside without the antiques?
20:06: That I don't know. Okay, that hasn't been said. But I mean, they need a major overhaul in the entire ideology of the company.
20:17: Oh my goodness, yes. Because in the last several years, they become very pro -LGBTQ. They've incorporated
20:23: DEI standards. They have pushed out all the stuff that I loved about Cracker Barrel.
20:30: I remember Michael W. Smith and Stephen Curtis Chapman CDs on the CD rack. I remember you getting some of those.
20:37: Man. Like every Christmas. I ate them up. Looking forward to that. I'm not a country music guy, because that's mostly what's, it's either gospel music or country music.
20:45: But when a country, a country, a Christian artist that I like did an album that would be commissioned by Cracker Barrel, it would be a
20:54: Cracker Barrel exclusive release. Yeah. And I would get it. Every time. It was a down home
21:01: American values kind of establishment. And since America has at its roots,
21:07: Protestant Christianity, there would also be elements of Christianity throughout Cracker Barrel.
21:13: But they've pushed all of that out and have tried to pull the world in, which regular
21:18: Cracker Barrel customers don't want. Right. So it needs to be more than just preserving the logo or the aesthetic of Cracker Barrel.
21:26: They need an entire ideology overhaul. Yeah. And so - Well, it doesn't sound like they're getting very much feedback from their customers.
21:35: Oh, they're getting lots of feedback from their customers. No, I meant like before they make changes. Oh yeah, they're not looking for the feedback.
21:43: That's what you meant. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. They're not seeking it out.
21:49: Right. But you know, for a lot of us, the way that it would go with just about any kind of establishment, if Cracker Barrel were to change that much, and we who like a good ham and egg sort of a meal, would just find another place to go eat it.
22:03: Yeah. It's like, okay, well, Cracker Barrel's not gonna be the place anymore. I mean, why didn't they just change, like sell their brand or their restaurant to different, name it something else?
22:16: Yeah, right. If they're gonna go through that much - It's just a whole new restaurant at that point. Yeah. And still call it
22:22: Cracker. And when you're changing that much - No. Just change the name. Just change the whole thing. Because it's obviously not what we've come to know as Cracker Barrel anymore.
22:32: Anyway, there are other bigger things for us to talk about, but that just hit my head when you were talking about what a week it's been.
22:40: It's like, oh yeah. It's been a week. We've had all the Cracker Barrel news in there too. But those of you all listen to the podcast, you're used to us being all over the place.
22:49: Yes. One of the things to mention with regards to this, so what sort of like Christian worldview application can we make to this?
22:55: The whole thing with wokeness and DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
23:03: You're used to hearing about the warnings of cultural Marxism. We've talked about it here on this broadcast as well.
23:09: The inherent racism that exists in critical race theory and intersectionality, the way that it's made inroads into the church.
23:17: There's even racial divisions that have happened in the church as a result of this. All of these things are still very, very prevalent in our culture.
23:26: Yes. Just because the more conservative president, I won't call him conservative because he's not, but just because the more conservative president won this past November doesn't mean that all this stuff went away.
23:40: Right. And at the end of his term, if the next conservative guy doesn't win and the liberal guy or gal ends up winning the next time and comes back in, we just go back to all the stuff that was going on before.
23:55: I see it getting worse even. Right. Like much worse than what it was before this president.
24:02: Yeah. What we need in our churches is holiness. Amen. We can lament what goes on in the culture, but the church needs to be holy.
24:12: It needs to be set apart. If we need any image change, it's that the church needs to get back to the gospel, to biblically centered preaching and to calling out
24:26: Christians to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see God as said in the book of Hebrews or as Peter says in 1
24:33: Peter 1, be holy because God is holy. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
24:40: We have to pursue holiness, Christ likeness, growing in godliness, resisting sin, walking in those ways that Christ has called us to walk in, being a prayerful people, being somebody who calls out sin, our brother or sister that we see walking in a path that is contrary to God's commandments, that we admonish, which means to rebuke with goodwill and call them back to the path of righteousness.
25:09: Holiness is not just something that we do by ourselves, but as the church, we're looking out for each other.
25:15: A verse that you often reference, Romans 15 one, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves, but to please our neighbor for his good to build him up.
25:28: And so this is what we need to be committed to, no matter what happens in the culture, the responsibility of the church hasn't changed, commitment to the gospel and that all of us as the saints of God would be sanctified, being made more into the image of Christ, growing in holiness and holding fast to those promises that we've been given in Christ Jesus until that day that we will be with him forever in glory.
25:52: Yes. Now, something that we need to be doing also all the way up until that day that we join
25:59: Christ in glory is praying. We need to pray. Amen. So let me get to this question here from Michael.
26:06: He's got a question about prayer. Here we go. Pastor Gabe, my name is
26:11: Mike Riley. I have a coworker who is doubting or questioning the reasoning for prayer.
26:21: If it doesn't seem in his eyes to do nothing at all within society, children are getting assassinated in church and I need to be able to give him a reason to believe.
26:40: Could you help me with this, please? I understand that I may not convince him of anything.
26:48: I am using the Bible to build an argument towards prayer, but if you can add anything more to it,
26:58: I would truly appreciate it. This week has been terrible and it only gives precedence for non -believers not to believe.
27:10: Could you please help me with this? Thank you. Keep up the good work and may
27:17: God bless. God bless you as well, Michael. And that was a very heartfelt appeal. And I can tell that this really matters to you and you very much care for your friend who is struggling with this as well.
27:31: Why should we pray? Especially when, as Michael said regarding his friend, he doesn't see things changing.
27:40: He looks at the culture, he looks at society and he sees it going down the tubes. And like the school shooting that happened this past week, which by the way, our prayers with that school and with those families at the
27:51: Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. The gunman who claimed to be trans, a man,
28:00: I think, what was he, 23 or 24 years old? I know you and I talked about it, but I can't remember what his age was.
28:06: I think he said 23. He had things written on his weapons that talked about,
28:12: I mean, just frankly, I'm not gonna go into the details, but how much he hated people. And I did watch the video that he recorded before he went into this school and shot these kids.
28:24: Demon possessed. I mean, just absolute, utter wickedness. And so a horrible tragedy that happened.
28:32: Last report, at least at the time of this broadcast, two children were killed, 17 have been injured.
28:38: It could have been way, way worse because he was armed to the teeth. He had tons of weapons and lots and lots of bullets.
28:48: So it could have been worse, but that's not to downplay the seriousness of the situation because,
28:55: I mean, imagine being the parent who sent your child to school that day and your child's not coming home.
29:01: So it is a monstrous tragedy. And so our hearts break and go out to the people there.
29:08: And then for the rest of us, even if you weren't connected with the school in any way, maybe you don't live in Minneapolis or in Minnesota, but you see this kind of thing happen and it still causes in your heart a vexation.
29:20: This goes back to what I had said before. We're gonna see all kinds of things change in the culture.
29:25: It's gonna happen constantly. There will be shifting winds of change on any number of issues.
29:32: This week, it's Cracker Barrel and a school shooting. Next week, it's gonna be a whole other set of news issues, some big, some small, which is why
29:41: I single out Cracker Barrel, not a huge thing, a school shooting, very life altering, life crumbling for somebody that would be in that particular situation.
29:52: So what do we do in the midst of all of these things? Well, one of the things that said to us in the book of Revelation, after John is given this vision of the end of redemptive history, he gets to see how everything wraps up ultimately in the end.
30:08: And in the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, the angel says to John, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near.
30:21: Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.
30:37: Behold, I am coming soon, Jesus says, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.
30:45: I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Christ is coming back to make all things right.
30:54: And we end, we end the book of Revelation, the Bible ends with a prayer.
31:02: Come Lord Jesus, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all, amen.
31:10: That's the way the Bible closes. And amen, the question that I asked my students on the test that I gave them yesterday, amen means.
31:21: Truth. So be it. Yes. To be in agreement with everything that was said.
31:26: And so what a word to end the Bible on. Yes. Amen, I agree with all of this.
31:35: Everything that has been written down for our edification. I quoted Romans 15 a moment ago, verse four says, for what was written in ancient times was written for our benefit, that through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.
31:52: Now the scriptures even teach us how to pray. I mentioned the Lord's prayer, but not just the Lord's prayer. I opened with Psalm 143.
31:59: The Psalms as much as being song lyrics are also prayers. Yes. So they also teach us how to pray.
32:06: One of the questions that I put on the test that I gave to the students, I quoted a passage of scripture.
32:12: This was one of the essay questions. I quoted a passage and then I said, how can you take this passage and turn it into a prayer?
32:22: Because this was something that we talked about when we did our lessons on praying. So you can go to like say
32:28: Colossians chapter three, verse four, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
32:37: So turn that into a prayer. God, I know I have been raised with Christ.
32:43: Help me to seek the things that are above where Christ is. Yeah. Seated at the right hand of God.
32:49: So you can take the scriptures and pray the scriptures. We've talked before about the book from Donald Whitney, Praying the
32:55: Scriptures, I think is the name of it. So if you're looking for a good like devotional to help you in, how can
33:02: I take what I'm reading in the Bible and turn it into prayer? Yeah. That's a good book to help out with that.
33:09: I was doing this long before I ever read that book. And it was kind of like reading that was going, I agree with all of this, amen.
33:16: Just confirmation. I'm in agreement with this, yes. So why should we pray even when we see everything in the world around us going as it does?
33:27: And we might even feel like as we're praying, nothing is ever getting any better. Even Revelation 22 tells us, evil is still gonna be evil.
33:35: Filthy is still gonna be filthy, but we still need to be holy. Right. So the number one reason why we pray, here is the number one reason.
33:46: It's because God says so. Yep. That's the number one reason why we pray.
33:55: To be obedient. Listen to this from R .C. Sproul. We might ask, what if prayer doesn't do anything?
34:04: That's not the issue. Regardless of whether prayer does any good, if God commands us to pray, we must pray.
34:14: It is reason enough that the Lord God of the universe, the creator and sustainer of all things, commands it.
34:22: Yet he not only commands us to pray, but also invites us to make our requests known.
34:32: This verse here is something that continually convicts me on my prayer life, okay?
34:39: So 1 Peter 5, verse six. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
35:00: So we are instructed to cast our anxieties on him.
35:05: And that instruction, that's an invitation, but it's also a command. It is an exhortation.
35:11: Yes. So cast your anxieties on him. But it's in the same sentence where we are told, humble yourselves, casting your anxieties on him.
35:23: When you feel like I just don't know what difference prayer is making, I don't see any change.
35:32: I've prayed for this, that, or the other, doesn't ever seem to make a difference. Or even if you think this is a matter
35:39: I can handle myself, I don't think I really need God's help. Mentioned Donald Trump already.
35:45: There was a comment that he made one time about, I don't wanna bring God into it. When he was asked, have you ever prayed and asked
35:52: God for this, that, or the other? He said, you know, sometimes I just think I can do it myself and I don't need to bring
35:58: God into it. And it was just like, you arrogant man. Whenever we have that kind of attitude, we don't cast our cares upon God, we don't think it makes any difference, or we think that we can just do this on our own, that's pride.
36:15: Definitely. Every time it's pride. Yeah. So casting your anxieties on him is not just because I don't have anywhere else to turn.
36:24: I don't know what else I'm supposed to do with this. I can't make heads or tails out of this, I can't control this situation, so I'm just gonna go cast my anxieties on God because it's the only place
36:34: I have to go. No, you cast everything on the Lord. Yeah. Because it is a humble spiritual act of worship.
36:43: God loves us and he wants to know our cares and concerns.
36:49: He wants us to bring those things to him. So it is an invitation. Yes. It is
36:55: Christ standing there with his arms open saying, come to me, all you who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest from Matthew chapter 11.
37:05: So there is an invitation there, but it's also a command. Yes. Cast your anxieties here.
37:11: Two things come to my mind. Okay. Praise. Praise God from whom all blessings flow?
37:19: No, I mean, yes, but. I mean, that's still a prayer. It is. You know, the doxology. It is.
37:24: You don't have to have in the word, explicitly the word pray for it to be prayer.
37:31: Right. Like where Paul says in Philippians four, rejoice always. Yes. There's prayer behind that.
37:37: We give praise and thanks to God. Right. So when you rise and.
37:45: Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do. Do it all to the glory of God. Amen.
37:51: And then there was also the pray without ceasing. Yep. First Thessalonians chapter five.
37:58: And then that, I mean, that whole passage. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
38:13: Right. And Philippians four is very close to that as well. And that's another passage that talks about casting our anxieties or not being anxious, but having a thankful heart to God.
38:26: So Philippians four, four rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.
38:32: Yes. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. So if we're losing our heads and we just get an attitude of like, this is just going terribly.
38:43: I don't see there being any difference, any change, what good are my prayers going to do? That's unreasonable.
38:49: So you've lost your head and you're not letting the peace of Christ dwell within you.
38:55: But if you know that God is sovereign and he is in control, then you understand what's being said here.
39:03: Let your reasonableness be known to everybody. Everybody is losing their minds. Why do you still have it all together?
39:11: Because I trust God. Right. And I was also thinking that it sounds like when somebody says, what good is my prayer doing?
39:21: It's like they've lost hope. Yeah, that's true. Hope is something that we're storing our treasures up in heaven, kind of hope.
39:31: It sounds like the focus is more on the earth and -
39:37: The things of the world. Yes. Yeah. Than it is on heavenly things. Yeah, right.
39:43: And so, yeah, it just sounds like he needs to refocus on hope.
39:48: Seek the things that are above where Christ is. Yes. Or Matthew 6 .33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the things that you need will be added to you as well.
39:59: Yes. So even praying today, God help me to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness.
40:08: As we've been in the devotional lessons throughout the week, as we've been in Luke chapter 17, where Jesus talks about the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
40:19: We have the kingdom of God dwelling within our hearts if we're citizens of that kingdom. So we don't lose hope.
40:25: There's an already and a not yet to that. Everybody who becomes a Christian, that's another citizen that's added to the kingdom of God.
40:33: And the kingdom of God keeps growing. Yes. But then there's also the heavenly kingdom that we've not yet entered into.
40:40: So we're in the kingdom of God now and not yet. Yes. And I mean, whenever there is a tragedy, see how you can be a blessing in that.
40:53: Like, can you pray for them? Can you tell them that you're praying for them in hopes of, if you're close enough, then you can go be hands -on and helping in like a tragic cleanup or something like that, you know, like weather -wise, if there was bad weather or fire or something.
41:12: Just see how you can be a blessing in that and share the gospel while you're there.
41:18: Tell them why you're there. And so that way it's, there is a blessing.
41:24: There is a hope in things that are lost. Yes. Showing that we care as well as praying.
41:30: Yes. So going on in Philippians 4, as I said, the exhortation about casting anxieties upon God is there in Philippians 4 as well.
41:40: Do not be anxious about anything. Yes. Now, what is anxiousness synonymous with?
41:47: This was another question that I asked my students too. So don't be anxious about anything. What is anxiety?
41:52: It's synonymous with worry. Yeah, it's not trusting the Lord. Yeah, if you're anxious, then you don't trust
41:58: God. So don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
42:11: Yeah. Even when there's tragedy. Yes. Still having a thankful heart because we know and trust the words of Christ that he is making all things new.
42:22: He is coming back to judge the living and the dead. All of this will at some point be wiped out, all the evil
42:30: I'm talking about, everything around us that is transient and passing away and coming to corruption and perishing.
42:37: It will all be gone by the breath of his mouth. Yeah. As quickly as God made it, let there be light so he can take it out.
42:44: Let it be no more. It's so beautiful. And then we will dwell forever with God in his eternal imperishable kingdom.
42:53: And if we know those words are true and we trust those words, then we have a spirit of thankfulness that undergirds every request that we make to God.
43:03: Because we know that in Christ Jesus, because he died on the cross for us, he rose again from the dead, he's ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God.
43:13: 1 John 2 ,1 says that he is our advocate before the father. So he's speaking favorably of us on our behalf before God.
43:23: If we know that Christ has done these things, then we're always thankful because we know we've always got an entrance into that kingdom.
43:32: We even have an entrance into the throne room of God that we may come to the maker of the universe and bring our cares and concerns to him.
43:39: Amen. Yes. And so that should be with an attitude of thanksgiving every time we let our requests be made known to God.
43:48: And like you said earlier, humbleness, because I know whenever I'm anxious or worrying about something,
43:54: I find that if I'm really going to reflect on why am
43:59: I anxious, it's because of selfishness usually is what I've narrowed it down to.
44:04: I'm being too selfish. And I'm like, wow, that was eyeopening. Yeah. Prayer is humbling.
44:11: It is. I mean, the very nature of Peter saying, humble yourselves before God and cast all your anxieties upon him.
44:19: So prayer is a very humbling thing, which we need to do all the time. James even talks about us being humble and coming before God.
44:26: So consider again the Psalm that I opened with, Psalm 143 in verse three, the enemy has pursued my soul.
44:34: He has crushed my life to the ground. He has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.
44:40: Therefore my spirit faints within me. My heart within me is appalled. And yet even in that prayer, the
44:47: Psalmist has thanksgiving. Verse five, I remember the days of old. I meditate on all that you have done.
44:57: I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you.
45:03: My soul thirsts for you like in a parched land. Let me go to another
45:09: Psalm that's even more grievous at heart than that one. A heart that is even more at grief.
45:17: So this is Psalm 13. I come to this one often and I could quote it from memory, but I'm turning to it here anyway.
45:24: Psalm 13, verse one, how long O Lord will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
45:34: How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
45:43: How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me.
45:49: Oh Lord, my God, light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death.
45:56: Lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
46:05: Isn't that what Jesus was quoting when he was on the cross? No, no, no, that was Psalm 22. Oh, okay, nevermind.
46:11: But even there, even there it's still a prayer. God, oh
46:16: God, why have you forsaken me? Eli, Eli, lemme subachthani when he's on the cross.
46:23: That was what it was in Aramaic. So yeah, same sort of thing. The grief that is being poured out of the heart of David here before God.
46:31: My enemies are triumphing over me. Why won't you answer me? I just have counsel in my soul. That's all
46:36: I feel like. And so Michael, when you present this request, I wonder if your friend's not feeling the same thing.
46:42: I just feel like I'm counseling myself here. Where is God in the midst of this? Is David wrong to pray like this?
46:52: Well, listen to the last two verses of the Psalm, verses five and six. But I have trusted in your steadfast love.
47:03: My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
47:09: I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.
47:18: And so even in the midst of a struggle or a circumstance in which David doesn't feel like he can even see
47:26: God, where are you in the midst of this? Why won't you answer me?
47:32: And why are my enemies laughing and taunting me? And you may not be in a situation where you feel that way.
47:39: Maybe you don't have some adversary that is against you in some real earthly sense.
47:46: Maybe you're not on the other end of having lost a child in a tragedy or a shooting or something like that.
47:53: But you're seeing people grieve over something like this and it causes your heart to grieve.
48:00: God, are the enemies of God going to continue to prevail over this? Even though you know that I have plenty of criticisms about Roman Catholicism, it's an apostate church.
48:12: It's not the true church. But this guy who attacked those kids at that church hated
48:17: God. It really did not matter what was on the church sign. He had a target set up in his room that had the face of Jesus on it.
48:25: So in his mind, he felt like he was attacking God. It doesn't matter what the name was on the church sign.
48:33: And then the people who are grieving in the midst of this are fellow image bearers. Like it wouldn't matter if even if it was a secular school, any of the school shootings that we see happen anywhere in the country, our heart still grieves over that.
48:45: Even though we know some of the stuff that's being taught in those public schools. It's still grievous to us.
48:51: It still makes us ask, God, how long are you gonna let this go on?
48:57: Like Habakkuk asked at the beginning of Habakkuk chapter one. Yeah. How long am
49:02: I gonna say violence and you're just gonna keep letting it happen? And God's response to Habakkuk was, watch and see for I'm about to do something in your days.
49:12: You would not know even if I told you what it was going to be. Amen. Yeah.
49:19: And so that's why even in difficult circumstances, whether it happens to us or somebody else, we need to trust in God, trusting in his steadfast love.
49:29: So back to Psalm 13 again, maybe you don't have an earthly adversary, but we always, always have a spiritual adversary.
49:40: And Michael, your friend is asking these questions because that spiritual adversary is causing him to doubt.
49:48: And is he going to let these lies that Satan is whispering to him into his mind, into his heart?
49:57: Is he gonna let those infect him to the point of thinking God's not really there, so why pray to him at all?
50:06: David turns to the Lord, still wondering where he is though he doesn't hear his voice.
50:12: And yet David knows God has dealt bountifully with me. So I know what he's done for me in the past, and he will be faithful to do it for me in the future.
50:24: I am going to hold on to Christ. Yeah. And that's something that we tend to forget very quickly is the blessings that we've already been blessed with and answers to prayer and stuff like that that have already happened.
50:39: It's like, yay, praise the Lord. And then suddenly we're struck with blindness again of, oh, there's tragedy, you know?
50:47: And then we forget those blessings that God has already blessed us with. Or even when times are good, you know, the times when
50:56: Israel was the most rebellious was when things were really, really good.
51:02: Oh, that's true, yeah. And then their enemies would come against them and be, oh God, please save us, help us.
51:09: Over and over again. Yeah, that was their pattern. That was their cycle over and over again. So even when times are good, we can get into that pattern of like, oh, well, everything's great.
51:19: I don't need to ask God for anything. And we can get rebellious in those seasons. When times get tough, we wonder where God is in the midst of that situation.
51:26: And then we cause to doubt. But remember that Paul also said, as we've been quoting from Philippians 4, remember verse 13, it's the most famous verse out of Philippians 4.
51:35: Yes. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yes. The context of that being, well, let me go back to the previous verse, verse 12.
51:43: I know how to be brought low. And I know how to abound.
51:49: In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
51:58: I can do all things through him who strengthens me. So even when times are good, we're sustained in Christ who gives us the strength to sustain us.
52:10: Because even the good times aren't strong enough to sustain us. That's so true, yes.
52:17: And then when times get hard, when things get difficult, it is also his strength.
52:22: And especially they're his strength that sustains us as well. So again, turning to Christ in all things, casting our anxieties upon him because he cares for us.
52:35: Michael, I hope we've provided enough for you here to be able to use with your friend.
52:41: Yeah, it depends on his struggle. Yeah. Because I mean, everybody has their, I don't know, like a different reason for why.
52:50: Yeah, I mean, a different circumstance that causes them to wonder or causes them to doubt.
52:56: The scriptures are our full assurance. Amen. So where are the answers that I need?
53:02: Right there in the Bible. That's where you need to go. I'm glad that's where he said he was pulling from. Yes, right, right.
53:08: Just remember the Lord's prayer too, as I talked about that in the beginning as being something that is a blueprint for us on how to pray.
53:15: The disciples asked Jesus, tell us how to pray. And Jesus says to them, pray then like this, our father who art in heaven, hallowed, holy, glorious is thy name.
53:30: Your kingdom come. We pray for God's kingdom to come because we know the coming of his kingdom, just like John prayed at the end of Revelation, the coming of his kingdom means the judgment of the wicked and the deliverance of the righteous.
53:44: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're asking that our thoughts would be conformed to God's thoughts.
53:53: And we might be able to see his will done in the earth as it's seen perfectly from heaven.
54:00: So we might be able to see what he is doing even in the midst of the times and the circumstances in which we might live.
54:08: Give us this day our daily bread, asking for those things that we need. Now the students chimed in with, well, that's spiritual bread.
54:18: We're asking for God to give us those spiritual things that we need. It's interesting that their minds went there first.
54:24: You went right to spiritual stuff instead of actual bread. The thought I also had behind that was we're such a spoiled culture.
54:32: It's true. Like you don't know what it's like to need bread. Yeah, not have food.
54:38: Yeah, right, right. So saying to them, yes, that's true.
54:43: There is a spiritual aspect to that. May God feed us with even those spiritual things that we need today.
54:50: But it's good and right for us even to ask God for those things that we need. And when he provides for us food, clothing, school, for you kids to be able to come to school.
55:00: Air. Air to breathe. Yeah, whatever. That you have a heart of thankfulness.
55:06: Because I know that all of these things have been given to me by God. My next heartbeat, being able to go to sleep at night in a nice comfy bed and wake up tomorrow morning, all of that was because God sustained me.
55:18: Amen. So give us this day, our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
55:25: We remember that in Christ Jesus, we've been forgiven. And so if we have the grace of God that has been given to us that covers a multitude of our sins, then we need to have that kind of grace and forgiveness with others who have sinned against us as well.
55:40: And lead us not into temptation. This goes back to what I said before about how we as the church, we've just gotta be holy.
55:47: Yes. In the midst of these days. There's a lot of stuff going on in the culture. And any one of those things might have our attention and could be important to any of us at any given time.
55:58: But the church is still called to be holy. And there are still things that you have to do, responsibilities that you have to your brothers and sisters in Christ within your body, the church that you attend, and those
56:11: Christians that you are growing with, be mindful of those things, pay attention to that. The news cycle is gonna change, but the calling for us as the church is still the same.
56:20: Yes. Attending church, encouraging one another, we're hearing the preaching of the word, we're rejoicing in baptism and at the
56:27: Lord's table. We are singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts to God.
56:33: We are encouraging one another, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, admonishing, rebuking, correcting where that needs to be done.
56:43: And then we even go out and evangelize. And we go out together and share the message of the gospel with other people so that they too would know of the forgiveness of sins that comes by faith in Jesus Christ and everlasting life only through him in his eternal kingdom, because all this stuff is gonna perish and the wicked in the world will perish right along with it unless you repent and come to Jesus Christ and be forgiven.
57:08: And then you will have everlasting life with him in his eternal kingdom. These are things that we as a church need to be most devoted to that.
57:16: You've got enough to worry about loving your spouse and your kids today. Yeah. Don't let whatever's happening in the culture disrupt your regular daily responsibilities.
57:27: Yes. Do your job well, do it to the glory of God, provide for your family, spend time with them, turn off the news sometime, turn it off and spend time with the
57:38: Lord. And have a happy heart because out of the heart, yeah, very good.
57:44: Out of the overflow of the mouth, the heart speaks. No, other way, other way. What? Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
57:51: The mouth speaks, there we go, yeah. I didn't even catch that I said that backwards. As it was coming out of your mouth,
57:58: I was wondering, is she joking? No. I thought you were doing a joke. No, it was totally right in my head.
58:06: Yeah, I know, I've done it plenty of times. Anyway, yes.
58:12: So the conclusion, yeah, go ahead anyway. Well, no, I was just gonna say that you have to do all that with the right heart.
58:20: Yes. And keep your mind focused on God. I mean, if you're doubting God and you're not trusting in God, you're not gonna come to God.
58:27: Right, that's true. You're not gonna be interested in praying. This again, goes back to humble yourself, cast your anxieties on him.
58:35: And that is why we pray for one another too. Yeah, praying for each other even. Yeah, the intercession, so we intercede for each other.
58:42: Yes. Supplications, Thanksgivings, we can even rejoice on behalf of somebody else. God, thank you for answering this person's prayer.
58:51: Pray without ceasing, as you said earlier. Yes. And then that conclusion to the Lord's prayer, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the, oh, no, wait, hang on, lead me, lead us not into temptation, did
59:03: I cover that one? Yes. I did say that one? I don't think
59:09: I did. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. So we need to resist temptation and be holy.
59:19: I think it's 1 Corinthians 10, 13, where it says God has, God will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to resist, but with the temptation also comes the way of escape.
59:31: Yes. So that you may get away from it and not fall into sin and beware the schemes of Satan, as said in James four, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
59:41: Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. So in case I didn't cover.
59:48: I was gonna say, you said it, but you didn't cover it. Didn't cover it, okay, maybe that's what it was. Yeah, yeah. Because once you said that,
59:53: I was like, no, you haven't said that part. Right. I mean, that is a huge, that's a huge.
59:59: Yes. Spiritual battle every day, resisting temptation and being holy.
01:00:05: Which is why you have to pray without ceasing. Yeah, that's right. Suddenly the reality of that exhortation sinks in.
01:00:12: Yes. This is why I need to pray without ceasing. Yeah, we have no strength or power or ability to do that on our own.
01:00:21: Being sustained comes from God. And then finally the conclusion of that prayer, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.
01:00:30: Amen. So be it. I am in agreement with all that God is doing. Truth.
01:00:37: So pray without ceasing. Yes. Pray always. Michael, thank you for your question.
01:00:44: Only one we got to today, but that was a good, that's a good question. Yeah. Always an important thing for us to meditate on and we will pray for you and your friend.
01:00:54: And I hope that the things we've talked about here will be food enough for you that you can feed your starving friend.
01:01:02: Yeah. With the good spiritual nourishment that we get from God's word. Babe, any final things that you can think of before we wrap this up for this week?
01:01:14: Thank you to our church family. Yes, of course. And our church for sponsoring this and. Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.
01:01:23: Or Casa Grand. Casa Grand. If you're a local. You say it the whitest way possible.
01:01:32: I guess when you're a local here. So yes, we love our church family. This program is possible because not only do they help support it, but encourage it.
01:01:43: Yes. They want me to keep doing it. So yeah, thank you so much to everybody at Providence.
01:01:49: It has been a wonderful place to be two years now. Amen. Not officially because we moved here in November.
01:01:57: Yeah. But yes. Baba's birthday is coming up. Oh yeah. He turns four.
01:02:03: That's on Monday. Just so everybody knows, he's turning four. That is crazy.
01:02:10: If you all have been with us from the very beginning, you've heard at least two infants. Yep. Two of our infants that have been on the air with us.
01:02:19: Aria had, she was a year old. Yes. We've talked about this already. I'm just hashing this out again.
01:02:25: But anyway, by the time we started the podcast, she was about nine months old or something like that. So yeah.
01:02:31: And then Ezekiel's birthday, and then mine is right after that. So that's what we've got coming up. Our kids are in soccer, in a play.
01:02:41: They're playing in the worship band at school. And in student council. I'm a proud dad.
01:02:46: Seeing my kids involved in all these things. But it means that we're even busier. Yes.
01:02:53: So our sit down doesn't come until November, just so you know. Our sit down?
01:02:58: Yeah, like when you finally get to sit down and breathe. Oh yeah. I don't know, the summer feels pretty relaxed.
01:03:06: Because that's like hibernation season around here. It is. It's too hot to go out and do anything. Yeah. But now we're out of that because the school year started.
01:03:15: So we're back to having to do everything again. But it's fine, it's good.
01:03:21: Yeah. But yeah, busy season. This is gonna be like the greatest place on earth once October rolls around.
01:03:29: Yes. Right now we're still enduring over 100 degree highs every day. But yeah, once it goes from October to April.
01:03:36: But truth be told. Everybody in the world will wish they were here. But truth be told, it's been a relief from last year.
01:03:44: Yes, that's true. This year has been real easy. It's been about 10 to 15 degrees cooler almost than what it was last year.
01:03:52: I remember when we had one of those days that was, oh goodness, 115, 120 degrees or something.
01:03:58: I took one of the kids to soccer practice. He's not exaggerating. Yeah, it was that hot. I took one of the kids to soccer practice right as it was at sunset.
01:04:06: And I'm standing out there going, wow, it feels so cool out here. I pulled out my phone, it was 100 degrees.
01:04:14: Yeah, exactly. But it just wasn't 120.
01:04:20: Yes, in the sun. Yeah, right. And in the sun because it had just set. So suddenly it felt cooler.
01:04:28: It is amazing. The relief that just automatically happens. It makes you grateful for the little things.
01:04:36: But our allergies have been way better living out here. Yes. Anyway, but we've loved our church family everywhere we've lived, whether it's been
01:04:44: Kansas or Texas or here. It just goes to show that the family of God is warm and welcoming no matter where on earth you might be.
01:04:52: We have brothers and sisters in the Lord. It's like a family reunion everywhere we go. It is. Well, thank you again for listening to the broadcast.
01:04:59: If you have any questions, you can send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com or go to wwutt .com
01:05:06: and click on that voicemail tab and record a voicemail to us. Don't forget about the White Harvest Conference.
01:05:12: As a matter of fact, next week, that's exactly where I will be. And rumor has it.
01:05:17: I wish him a happy birthday in person. That's right. Rumor has it that I'm also gonna be on Wretched Radio while I'm out there.
01:05:25: So the White Harvest Conference is in Marble Hill, Georgia, just a little bit north of Atlanta.
01:05:31: You can find out more details about the conference by going to whiteharvestmin .com.
01:05:37: Justin Peters, Jim Osmond, Scott Klusendorf, Jimmy Hicks from Wretched Radio are some of the speakers that are gonna be there and Charlie Parrish, who is the pastor of the church out there.
01:05:48: And if you can make it out, we would love to see you since G3 is not happening this year.
01:05:54: That was supposed to be like side -by -side with G3. But since that got canceled, if you're still gonna be out in the area, come to the
01:06:00: White Harvest Conference. We'd love to see you. Definitely. I won't be there, but you can definitely take pictures with him and he can send them to me.
01:06:09: It's me, I'm flying alone. I don't know what airline I'm on, but I've heard bad things about American right now.
01:06:15: Well, and hopefully Phoenix Airport has fixed their roof and whatnot.
01:06:22: What? You haven't, you didn't hear that? No, I must've missed all of that. So the storm that came through that had that massive haboob.
01:06:29: The big dust storm we just had, yeah. And then the monsoon that followed, there were 70 mile per hour winds clocked and stuff like that.
01:06:37: And there was even a tornado south of here. And so when it hit Phoenix, apparently it tore off the roof, part of the roof of Phoenix Airport, the
01:06:48: Sky Harbor. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah, and so they've got some, like 300 flights were delayed and all sorts of cleanup happening.
01:06:59: And they had to shut down a whole wing or whatever that is called. Probably a wing, yeah.
01:07:06: And it's - Nope, I missed all that. I didn't catch that in the news at all. It was a little bit crazy out here.
01:07:12: I keep up with the national stuff and you watch the local stuff. I do, I do. How that goes. You know,
01:07:18: I had a question. We talked so much about prayer, which was great, devoting our time to that.
01:07:23: But I did get a question about John Mark Comer. And that's a question that's come up before, just to kind of give you the brief version.
01:07:30: John Mark Comer made an Instagram post in which he was talking about penal substitutionary atonement needed to be wiped out.
01:07:43: He thinks it's a false doctrine. He was promoting a book that he thought was like the final nail in the coffin of PSA, which is totally false.
01:07:50: Because this is a biblical doctrine. So I was gonna come back to talking about John Mark Comer. We had addressed him or his teaching back in April.
01:08:00: And so a future episode of the podcast, maybe next week or the week after, but we'll come back to him and what he claims to be the gospel.
01:08:09: What about his teaching is problematic that you need to be aware of? He is really growing very fast in popularity.
01:08:16: Oh, wow. But listening to him, it kind of sounds like Emergent Church 2 .0. So we'll cover some of that stuff in a future broadcast.
01:08:26: Otherwise, if you have any questions, send them into us, because we would love to hear from you. All right, let's finish with prayer.
01:08:32: Yes, let's. And then we'll be done. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have talked about here, even thinking about prayer, how we talk to you, how we bring our requests before God.
01:08:44: May we always have an attitude of reverence whenever we come to you, praying just as Jesus taught us to pray, our
01:08:50: Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your name is above every name. You are seated above heaven and earth itself.
01:09:00: And yet we get to call upon the creator of all things that he himself cares for us and wants to hear from us.
01:09:08: And so Lord, we revere you as holy, but we also humble ourselves before you and cast all of our anxieties upon you.
01:09:18: And at the proper time, you will exalt us, lift us up, put a crown on our head, give us a seat in your heavenly kingdom.
01:09:26: And we pray along with the apostle John, Lord Jesus, come quickly. As we continue to live in this world and we struggle with things that are going on, let it not cause us to despair, but these things cause us to draw all the more near to Christ as the apostle
01:09:42: Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 1 .9. These things happen to us to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
01:09:52: And we know that you are the God who raises the dead, who gave his son to die for us and rise from the dead so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
01:10:03: Give us comfort in these days, again, that we would not despair, but trust in you for all things to sustain us and bring us home when the time comes.