Good morning, destination. We're going to do we are in this series called Foundations is what it's called. We've been in it for about a month.

And what it is is it's building into you these good faithful habits in your spiritual walk and in your relationship. And the reason that we do this is because what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7, which is that there will be storms in life, right. There's going to be bad days. It's going to happen. Sorry, that's the bad news.

We'll get it out of the way first. There is going to be hard times in life, but if we build our foundations strong on Christ, we will be able to withstand some of those storms that come. So that is my prayer for you as a pastor that you would be able to establish good relationships with Christ in your marriage in the next generation.

But today we're kind of taking a little bit of a pivot and we're going away from the relationship side of the foundation and more towards some of the spiritual rhythms or disciplines that some people would call them. , and today I just want to encourage you to take out a notebook, take out a phone, and write some of this stuff down. Not because what I think I have to say is so good, but because I think that you may want to go back and revisit some of this stuff.

The good news is, if you've been here a while and haven't been to our welcome table, we give away notebooks that you can take sermon notes in. , helps me definitely pay attention. And then for the rest of us, let's just be honest. We're taking notes on our phones, right.

Here's what I need you to promise me. Don't get distracted by the notifications. I know it can be easy while you're taking notes to pop open the the notification and tune.

But I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

But isn't it crazy that we have these devices now. Like if you think about it, I've been kind of reading a couple of history things, watching some some shows that take place way back in the 50s lately. And and it's crazy to me to think, just imagine this for a second. Imagine yourself going back like a hundred years, maybe 200 years, and having to describe this device to somebody. Like how crazy would that be to be like, "Yeah, we got this thing that's about the size of a slice of bread.

You don't even know what that is yet, but that's about the size of this thing. And on this device, I can get in touch with almost anyone in the world at any time, face to face, right. That's nuts.

Can we just say that's nuts, right. I can play music, any song at any time. I can unless they're like a really good underground band. I can take really good pictures. I can take really good videos.

I can have a calendar. I can have a calculator. I can use it to read the news. I can use it to argue with random strangers and comment sections.

I can use it to order tacos at 1 in the morning. Like there is so many different things that we can do on this device. And then we would have to tell these people that we're telling all of this to 10020 years ago how much time we spend on these devices. You want to know how much.

Statistically, the average American spends 3. 5 to 5 hours per day on their phone. Younger adults are about at 6 to 7 hours on and off throughout the day. That adds up to about two months a year. Two months of your year spent on the phone.

And why why do we do that. Let's be honest. Because there's so many things we can do with this device, right.

It's our main source of feeling connected to the world. But what about our source of being connected to the creator of the world. Let's talk about prayer for a second.

Let's contrast the phone fact. You ready for it. The average Christian American spends five to 15 minutes in prayer on average per day.

That comes out to about a half a day per year. So 2 months, half a day. Feel convicted.

But we need to see that prayer is so vitally important for us as followers of Jesus. For us as we're trying to find and follow Jesus. And even the disciples back the back when Jesus was walking the earth, the early disciples asked Jesus this question in Luke , they asked him when when Jesus was praying, they said when he was finished, Lord, teach us how to pray. Okay, I want you to think about how important prayer is through this lens. These disciples, these followers were walking with Jesus.

They didn't ask him, "Jesus, how do I heal people. " They didn't ask him, "Jesus, can you teach me how to turn water into wine. Cuz that would be a really cool party trick.

" They didn't ask him, ", Jesus, how do I be successful and make a lot of money. How do I have a good marriage or be a good parent. " They said, "Jesus, teach us how to pray.

" because they knew how vitally important prayer was. Do you know how vitally important prayer is. Martin Luther says it like this. To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Prayer is our breath that carries us. And so we need to just address before we talk about how to pray the tension. Okay, I'm going to stand up here today and say that most of this stuff that I that I'm talking about where as you kind of feel a little convicted over, believe me, I'm there with you. I feel convicted over the phone and the the time spent in prayer.

But just listen to this. The tension for us is that you can sit here today and nobody can feel like they pray enough. Have you ever heard somebody say, "Gosh, I've prayed so much today.

" like I've gotten so much prayer time in today and I'm so much better than you because I've gotten the like you don't hear that. Nobody ever feels like they spend enough time in prayer. And I would contrast and also say that nobody feels like they actually know what what the right way is or what you should do or shouldn't do.

And you can see this kind of play out if you're in a in a group and you're called on to pray and you're like, I'm not a big prayer. And it's like it it's just so intimidating the tension for us that just lingers there with prayer when this should be as essential and automatic as breathing. So big question for today for us is the same as the disciples.

How do I pray. Lord, teach us how to pray. And to do that, we're going to open up our Bibles to Matthew 6.

, and it's on page 831. A little bit about this. By the way, if you don't have a Bible, please take this one home with you. We've given away a ton of Bibles. I don't even know what we're at, like 200 or something like that.

, and we just love giving and equipping with the word of God. , and today we're looking at Jesus's sermon on the mount. And this is in direct contrast to Luke's gospel which I just read a second ago where the disciples want to know how to pray.

And so Jesus goes into a teaching about prayer. Look at verse 5 and we'll start there. It says this. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, that is the church, and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Here's just a side point really quick as we read those verses together.

Listen, prayer is not a performing. The way that you fumble around your words in front of people, it's not it's not a performance. People are not judging the way that you pray because they're not judging the way that you have a conversation with somebody.

You're having a conversation with the father the same that you would in secret. And then verse 7, Jesus goes on to say, "And when you pray, do not keep babbling like pagans, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Isn't that good news.

Let me just stop here just for a second before I get to the the next part. , you should or you could talk to God forever. You could continually be in prayer and talk to God.

But what this verse is kind of giving allowance to do is to say God also likes short prayers. Every guy in the room is like, "Amen. " God likes your prayers because he knows he knows what you're coming to him with.

He just wants to spend time with you to hear your voice. And so you don't need to. God loves short prayers too. Then Jesus gives us this framework.

He says this then is how you ought to pray. Before I go on to this, this is known as what. The Lord's prayer. , for many of us, maybe you grew up in a traditional church that would read this as a part of Sunday morning. And now I, as , you know, kind of contemporary as we are, really value that.

And so, as we learn from this passage today, I first want to do this together. I want to read this as a prayer together. So, would you read this with me. It'll be on the screen. This is the Lord's prayer.

Let's read it together. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. So, , did that remind you of like your childhood for some of you. , this is how Jesus teaches us how to pray.

This is when all of it's said and done. This is how Jesus wants us to pray. And within this prayer, the Lord's prayer, there are four movements that Jesus is kind of moving from.

And I want you to see these four movements. I want you to write down these four movements because these are going to help you in your prayer life on how to pray. I've even wrote some prayer pro prompts on each of them that you can write down too. So the first one is this.

It's adoration. There is an adoration to start with God. What does the Lord's prayer start with. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. And so there's this there's this recognization, this adoration of who God is, of who God is to us, that he is the perfect father, the all- knowing, the allpresent, perfect father that we should be coming to with thankfulness.

Do you guys know thanks thankfulness is not just reserved for thanksgiving. It's reserved for you in prayer. That means if you have breath in your lungs, you have a reason to be thankful. You have a reason to say, "God, you are holy. Thank you, God.

Our father in heaven, you see, you are all knowing. " It is starting with thankfulness. Now, the good thing about this is have you ever had like a really bad day and then you start thinking of all of the other bad things that have happened that week.

I call this the downward spiral. So, it's like, you know, you get a flat tire and then you're like, h, h, and then that bill that came due. Oh, and then that really little scuffle that I had with a friend or h like you would you just go and you add on to it to almost make for yourself this own little like pity party, right.

Now, the opposite of that psychologically is true. And so for us as we express thankfulness and gratitude in our world, in our lives, then that starts to change us and spiral us in a different direction, in a good direction. Think about this.

Science has proved this. Science has proved that being thankful and grateful and practicing this on a regular basis, ready. Improves sleep.

Boosts immunity. You're not getting sick from your kids anymore. It reduces pain.

It has a builds up in you a greater resilience. I used to say this all the time when I was teaching teenagers cuz this was very important to me. The neurological makeup of your brain, the way that God wired you, okay, is that if you have this side of your brain that is expressing feelings of worry and anxiety, okay, and you combat that with gratitude and thankfulness, those two things cannot coexist neurologically for a long period of time in your brain.

That means as you are expressing gratitude and thankfulness, you are pushing worry and anxiety out of your mind. That is amazing. And for me, that is my testimony. That is part of how I've overcome anxiety is to just turn my mind towards the thankfulness and the gratefulness that our God so rightfully deserves for everything that he's done, for everything that he's blessed us with. Because thankfulness reminds you who God is and who is ultimately in control, right.

And then surrender trusts him with what's next. And that's the next movement that Jesus takes us through. It's an invitational movement that just surrenders control in prayer.

He prays this prayer, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. " This is for us to say, "God, what do you want me to do. " Maybe you've heard me say this before, but I often times will say, "Hey, you in your life, the way that you are living your life right now, you are either inviting Jesus's kingdom to come, that heaven comes down, or you're inviting hell up into your life. " And which one is it.

Because for us, we need to be living with this your kingdom come, your will be done mindset. But here's the truth by the way convicted by this too. Sometimes we want our kingdom to come and our will to be done and that is our need and desire for control.

And so we'll come to prayer with expectation. Now you should come to prayer with expectation, right. But when you come to prayer with expectation and then that expectation does not match your experience, here's the question.

What do you do. What do you do with that. You see, because your expectation says, God, I do what I want. Just do what I want. But surrender says, God, you do what you want.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Because the truth is, you can't control everything, but you can trust the one who can.

And so, what we do in prayer is we surrender. We hold these things open-handedly and we say, "God, I I I expect you to move in this way. " And I'm holding this with an open hand, waiting to hear your yes, no, or not yet. Now, listen to me. When God says no, it's really difficult, right.

And there are times where I've heard God's no. But that doesn't mean that he is against you. It means he sees something you don't trust him. There are times where I've heard God's not yet. And I I've wanted to push back and push through, but I have to trust that his timing is better than mine.

But even if those are the answers, we should all come in prayer expecting God's promises to be yes and amen. That is what the word says is that we lean into that God wants the best for us, his children, his followers. And when we come to him in prayer, this is so important that we ask with that kind of boldness. But what happens is when we have an expectation and it doesn't match the experience, we stop coming to prayer with boldness.

And that's what we need is boldness. This is the next movement Jesus gives us. It's called supplication.

It's asking boldly. Jesus says, "Give us this day our daily bread. " For us, that needs to prompt us to say, "What do I need from God. " And and am I asking boldly for it. Let me just explain this to you.

When Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread," this was actually making reference to something that happened in the Old Testament. Back when this guy named Moses, you might have heard him, , wandered the wilderness, they didn't have food, okay. And so they prayed to God and God did what.

He rained mana or bread from heaven and that was their daily bread. He gave it to them daily. And so this is an echo of how God provided boldly back in the Old Testament. It was people praying, "God, give us today our daily bread. " And now for us, we have things like Aldi and Walmart and Cub Foods and all of these different things where we can just go get our daily bread.

And so for us, we're again going back to that first one, we have to be thankful for those things. But now bringing it to this point, we need to pray boldly for the things that we want God to do in our lives to be able to provide and do things boldly in prayer. Now, some of you when you pray are praying.

But you're missing the faith part. You're missing the boldness part. And that's not prayer. That's a wish.

Let's talk about the difference. A wish chases outcome. But prayer seeks God boldly in faith or outcome. There is a difference.

And it's how you walk away from prayer. If I'm praying and then I walk away saying, "Oh gosh, that'd be nice if that happened, right. " No, we should be walking away from prayer as if as if that is coming to pass.

Look at what Jesus says. Look at this. In Mark , he says this.

Whenever or whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. Are we feeling bold destination. That is a bold prayer that Jesus is telling us to pray. He's telling us to walk in and and to just believe that we've received it.

So every guy in this room is thinking, I'm going to believe that I have won the lottery as they leave church this morning. That's not how it works. How it works here is if this lines up, if your prayer lines up with God's will, God's word, and God's way, which we'll talk about in the coming weeks, if it lines up in that way, if it lines up with the truth of scripture, if it lines up with you wanting to to further the kingdom and further God's name, if it lines up with those things, then believe for it.

Believe for it. Don't just walk away and say, "Okay, that would be great. I want this church.

I want you in your life to see how God moves through bold prayers. " God can move through bold play prayers. Believe for it and then trust his power with it. This is the last thing that Jesus kind of moves through is this this idea of transformation to trust his power.

He says, "Forgive forgive us our debts and forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us towards evil. " For us in prayer, what this brings us to is probably the hardest part. The part of prayer that we might skip is how will I turn away from sin and walk towards Jesus.

You see, once you've asked in faith, you also have to forgive in faith. So this verse Mark that we were just talking about, look at what Jesus says to follow this up. He says, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sin. " Now look in verse 14, if you if you have your Bibles open still in Matthew chapter 5, in verse 14, Jesus ends his teaching on prayer by saying this.

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sin. Hear how quiet it is in here.

I'm convicted by this, too. Because everybody including myself just had somebody or something run through their mind of something that still kind of sits not too well with you, right. And so bringing forgiveness in prayer, walking away from sin and towards Jesus, this now becomes personal because we're not just asking for something.

We're not just asking boldly for something, but now we're in examining ourselves and really saying,"Am I ready for that. Am I ready for that. " Now listen, forgiveness doesn't change the past, but it frees you for the future that God has for you.

And you need to know that to know that transformation in Jesus means that you are walking away from bitterness. You're not forgetting. You know, you can still have healthy boundaries. All of those things are important, but you're walking away from bitterness and towards forgiveness in Jesus. And you're walking away further than that, away from temptation.

Jesus says, "Deliver us from temptation, too. You're you're walking away from temptation and into transformation. " Do you know how many studies there are out there about how prayer actually rewires your brain to walk away easier from temptation too. And then Jesus says, "But deliver us from evil. " This is how we walk away from sin and towards the power of Jesus in our life.

And for some of you, maybe you've gotten the first three, but you're missing this part of it. You want to hang on to some of that earthly stuff, some of that behavior, some of that bitterness, some of that stuff that you've been carrying instead of giving it to God in prayer. And I want you to see that by his power, he wants to transform you.

He wants to transform those parts of you. He wants to meet you in your hurt and meet you in your pain to help you see the other side of that. To see the other side of his power in your life.

But for us, we need to be willing to spend that time in prayer. This is what I want you to see by these four movements here. I want you to see that like a phone is our main source of communication with the world, prayer is our main source of communication with God.

And you have access to it all the time. Now, as much as I have this device with me, I can leave it in the other room and not have access to it, right. But I have access to God at any time to throw out a prayer that's the size of a tweet or to throw out a prayer that is long and full and dense, right. Prayer is our main source of communication with God. And if we don't use it, we'll never truly be able to find and follow Jesus because we won't have the foundation.

We won't have the foundation that needs that communication with our creator. And so, , I want to do something different this morning. Are you okay with different a little bit. I'm not going to ask you to do anything except for one person in the room. , I am going to invite Julie up to the stage.

Would you guys welcome Julie up to the stage. Thank you, Joshua. Julie is our prayer team on our prayer team and she shows up early every week. Thank you, Phil. To pray over each of your chairs.

So if you're sitting in a chair, most likely Julie has prayed in over it along with a cute little girl named Renley and and a couple of others. Pray over your seat before you're here in the morning. And Julie's also available with a couple of other leaders at the next steps table.

So I wanted you guys to hear a little bit about Julie's story on why she feels so passionate on prayer. So thank you for being up here and and kind of talking. So first like interview style for this. So first question, how have you seen prayer change your life personally.

>> Okay, so that's a huge question. I'm going to try and keep it simple. But when I got saved, I was about 21. So I was young in the Lord and I lost a baby girl and it was devastating and I really did not know how to come out of that. I didn't know how to pray.

I was asking God to take it away and to help me heal. And it was lasting, you know, and so I had three other little girls to take care of, you know. So I just asked the Lord one day, "God, you got to bring somebody to me to pray with me.

" and I just left it there. And that night, someone came and knocked on my door. And boy, I didn't think I was going to cry. Anyways, so she's like, "Julie, God told me to come pray with you.

" And I was like, "Oh my gosh, he answered that so quickly, but he knew what I needed. So, we sat down the table and she had lost a little sister and she just prayed the most powerful prayer and I just held on to her hand and I soaked it all up. And the next morning, you guys, it was gone. Totally gone. It was just like it never happened.

And I was so thank because that I could pray again. I could praise the Lord again and my joy was back. And you know, it wasn't like I forgot about her because you can't forget about that. But the depression, the pain, and the hurt was gone.

Like it never happened. And h I was just so thankful. And then something else like happened kind of later in the story too because Julie got to share a little bit of this with me.

But what would you say to somebody like here who who doesn't feel like praying makes a difference because there was a difference made there but then that continued. So what happened was I got pregnant again. And so that was my fourth girl that I lost that, you know, that was one that I lost. And I didn't think I was going to have any more kids. And so I just told the Lord, you know, Lord, it's okay if I don't have a boy.

I have three three sweet little girls. And what was it. Probably a month later, my mother-in-law comes to me and she says, "Julie, God gave me a dream.

" And he said that you're going to have a boy and that you're pregnant with a boy. And I said, "No, I'm not. " And I was he was in me already. So anyways, he was born and he had something wrong with him.

After about two weeks, he was throwing up everything I fed him and I breastfed and it was hard. I was constantly breastfeeding him because he was throwing everything up and it was projectile and oh my goodness. And they couldn't find what was wrong with him and they sent me to Rochester and they said, "Oh, well, he's he's got a thing called pyloric stenosis where, you know, the muscle in there closes up and then he the the milk won't go through. " So, they had to do surgery on him and I was terrified, you guys, because I was like, "Oh, no. I can't lose another baby.

I can't lose another baby. " because he had lost so much weight and he turned gray and you know the doctors didn't know what was wrong with him until I got to Rochester but I was a mess. I was a mess.

I was in this on on my own. My husband didn't you know help pray or anything. So I was like Lord I need to learn to pray. I have to learn how to pray because I can't depend on other people. So he I just agreed with the ladies at church for him to come through that.

I was claiming his healing and he came home and he was well. He got well and I just praise God for that too. But anyway, I you know I was going through a postpartum depression after that.

I think I kind of went through an emotional breakdown basically because I was feeling very out of sorts and depressed as well. A lot of anxiety. My mind wouldn't shut off.

And so I grabbed him every morning. I took the kids to Christian school and I wrapped him in a blanket. I went down in the basement of our church with three other intercessors, three prayer warriors.

And I didn't know how to pray, but I didn't care because I was pretty much desperate. So I sat down with them and I listened to them pray from in the morning till noon every single day, 4 hours. And you guys, they bombarded he heaven.

And I learned scripture. I felt the presence of God. I learned to be bold.

I learned to just press in. And I got so close to the Lord. And so I would go home and then I would pray an hour for myself in the spirit and in English. And you know that may sound long to you guys, but it went fast.

I would just rock my baby and I would pray and God started teaching me scriptures and that I needed that would set me free because you know the truth truth set you free and they I would go out throughout the day and I would hear new scriptures. The Holy Spirit would teach me these scriptures. And so I was getting free.

And then I got a little bit bolder and I was able to pray with the ladies at church with them, you know, and we saw things happen, especially about our pastor because there would be things happening with him that we didn't know about. The Holy Spirit would tell us and they would it would he would come and just tell us what happened and we'd be, "Oh, we were just praying about that. " >> Let me know if that happens to you.

I'd just be curious. I know it's such a powerful thing, you know, and we spent most of our time praying for him. The church, souls, our country, our president, whatever, families, healing, whatever it was they needed. >> So you saw how like important it was to be in the church and to pray with others because that in turn taught you, right. >> Oh, yeah.

It taught me. And you know, it's like it don't feel intimidated. Glean from people. Just glean, take it.

You know, and then use it. It's scriptural as long as it's scriptural. I mean, I don't want to do anything weird, you know, but >> Amen. >> So, let's talk about that for a second. Why why should you or why should we be praying as a church like more so less as like you know individuals, but why is why is prayer so important to what we're doing here.

Because we want to see like he said, God's will done on earth. I mean, his word is his will. Basically, it's his his will and testament living word for us.

, we're seated with him and we have got so much power and life in that Bible. All the word that he has given us. All we need to do is pray the word.

You know, it says if you pray according to his word, he hears us. And if we know he hears us, he grants unto us a petition we ask of him. And so, you know, it's powerful.

The word is alive. It's health and healing. It's sharper than any two-edged sword.

>> It's all yes and amen. It none of it. He says he gives us a victory. I mean, that's all we have to do is watch for the victory, right.

When we pray. >> So, we call in souls, right. We take heaven by force. Bible says that he has given us oh gosh, now I can't remember the scripture. Anyways, >> you got it.

So Julie and I have been talking about this for a long time because prayer is really the fuel that's making all of this happen. All of this all of this church was an answer to prayer. You being here today is an answer to prayer. You giving serving an answer to prayer. Everything that is done in and through destination is an answer to prayer.

And so Julie and I have been talking about praying together as a church. And so I don't know how many of you know this, but this Thursday is National Day of Prayer. And then on the 17th of May, they're doing a big White House kind of prayer. And so as a church, we're kind of like earmarking those two dates in our minds to say, "Hey, let's as destination church, pray together for 10 days.

" And so on your way out, you want to put that on the screen there. On your way out, there's going to be these prayer cards. They're going to be available online, too. They'll be sent out in an email. Julie and I want to invite you guys to pray with us.

There's one thing for each day. So, if you still have your phone out, you can take a picture of it. Set an alarm, right.

Cuz otherwise you might forget or whatever. Like, you know, you're 8 to noon. I love that.

Like, I got a time period for it. , but this is just our way of coming together as a church, being united as a church and praying for heaven to come here. And so, , would you guys all just thank Julie for being up here today. Thank you so much. It's 58, I think.

>> Oh, it's fine. , and so as we kind of reflect on these things, I want you to see like just in Julie's story, just in the life of our church, how prayer becomes the real fuel of what we're doing here today. And so, , I want to invite the worship team up. I want to just invite you to just close your eyes, bow your heads, just this isn't something meant to be just kind of like a weird moment, but this is a moment for you to just sit and reflect.

It's something that we do at Destination every week. And I just want you to just think for a moment, what is it in those four things that maybe God is calling you to push deeper in. Maybe it's for adoration. Maybe it's that to just have a a heart of thankfulness and gratitude.

Maybe it's to invite his kingdom to come and to for his will to be done. Maybe it's to pray boldly or to seek transformation and forgiveness. Whatever it is, I believe all of us have a step in prayer to take this morning. The other invitation is that, hey, maybe you've heard all of this today and you're still hurt because your prayers haven't been answered.

I've been there, walked with people that are there. And I want to tell you that Jesus leaves you. He wants to walk with you in that. And maybe for some of you, you just you don't need a better prayer life. You just need to start with Jesus because prayer isn't talking to the ceiling.

It's a relationship with a God who loves you. And so today, for some of you, your step may be putting your trust in a God that loves you. If that's you today, I just want to invite you to just boldly walk over to the next step table.

Myself, Julie, a couple of others will be there. And we just love to pray with you and for you and help you get some next step in following Jesus. But for all of us, let's dive into prayer this week. Let's dive into the transformation that Jesus can bring through prayer.

Let's pray together. God, thank you so much. God, we thank you for who you are, for what you've done, that you are holy.

God, we invite your will to be done in our lives on earth as it is in heaven. We surrender that control, God. We pray that you would give us daily what we need, but God, that we would pray boldly for the things that our hearts long for. And God, we pray for transformation. That we would forgive when it's hard to forgive.

That we would walk away from temptation when it's staring so blindly in front of us. That you would deliver us from evil. Jesus, I thank you for this church.

I thank you for all of the things that you are doing in and through it. We praise you in Jesus name.