Day 286 of Heart Dive 365. I'm your Bible study friend, Holly, and welcome to the Heart Dive podcast. Hi, and welcome to Bible study. I'm the co-host here at Heart Dive Ministry with Kanoi Gibson.
I'm Holly Regos, and welcome to this Sunday, if you're in real time with us. We are reading in the book of Luke chapter 11, and if you've gotten any nuggets over the last few days as we've... dove into the New Testament because it's really meaty.
There is so much content. I want to remind y'all that some sermons literally just go over one verse in the New Testament and we are trying to cover entire chapters, several chapters at once. So there's absolutely no way we can push so much into these little daily Bible studies because they'd be hours long.
So I'm going to say that before we dive into chapter 11 because it's a lot. I could do hours on just prayer. and prayer is only the first section. Now, if you are brand new and all that was like, whoa, I'd like to know how you found us and why you're here.
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Honestly, we do no matter the faces you pause at. All right. We are reading from the English Standard Version from Crossway Publishing. Thank you once again, Crossway, for allowing us to do this.
And before we read a chapter about prayer, let's bow our head in prayer using the prayer that we are going to study today. Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins.
For we. ourselves, forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. In Jesus'name, amen.
All right, let's dive into Luke chapter 11. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. So right there in the first line, Jesus is leading by example. And often, often, often, he started to pull away more and more from the crowds and from his disciples and was praying and leading by example, emulating that he had a very powerful prayer life.
Now, if you followed yesterday, we said that no one can know the father except through the son and only the son knows the father and the father knows the son. So can you imagine what's happening when he goes and prays? He's talking to his father. He's having deep communication with God through prayer life.
And I want us to hold on to that nugget because that's all that prayer is. It's communication. with God through Jesus Christ.
So in when he finished, so they waited, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. As John taught his disciples and he said to them, when you pray, say, let's stop. I really was taken aback when I saw that it didn't say Jesus teach us how to pray.
It was Lord. teaches to pray. What does that one missing word mean? They want to learn discipleship.
That means to teach. They wanted to be disciples of prayer life. What that looked like. How to develop a pattern of prayer life.
And he's essentially saying, you pray, you learn to pray by praying. You're not going to get better at baseball. My son, a baseball player, is not going to get better at pitching if he's not pitching.
So my husband makes him goes out and practice and he's like, throw 50 pitches, throw 75 pitches, throw 100 pitches. And then come back and tell me each day when you hit your target. And when he first started, it was hard work.
And now, years later, at 13. He is hitting his target more and more often, and he's able to go out and throw pitches more and more and more often because he practiced by doing. And so he doesn't even explain the two. He's like, when you pray, he's saying when this, this is the pattern. This is a template that you can do.
And so once we go through this, I have a template that we've made here, Kanoi and I, in Heart Dive Ministry to guide you, to help you kind of pull this apart and dissect it. So prayer does not become a rote memorization. Do you notice that I read that today, but how often we don't actually use that as our opening prayer?
Or that our opening prayers are never the same from one day to the next or from her to myself? Because every day is a new opportunity to have direct communication with the Lord. So one of the things that we're going to note right off the bat is that this one is shorter than the one that's in Matthew.
So when you pray, say, Father. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day your daily bread. He starts off with line one, Father, which in translation in Aramaic is Abba, and it implies a warm, intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Hallowed be your name. Hallowed also can mean holy, so he has a holy sanctioned name. He is above and set apart from all other names. So acknowledging his name, directly addressing him. Your kingdom come.
So establishing and recognizing, acknowledging his rule, his sovereign rule. Give us each day our daily bread. We start to go into personal human petitions. And here they're saying this is actual physical bread, not just our spiritual bread, which you can also imply that the Lord knows our hearts. Give us our daily bread.
There are so many people who need daily bread right now. Food in their bellies, a roof over their head, and clothes on their back. The next human petition, forgive us our sins. Our sins, our own personal sins.
We need to go and confess and ask for forgiveness daily. Well, it didn't say daily, just so you know. For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
Now that one's a hard one. That is saying we also must forgive others. We represent an have forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Like we are the message bearers of that forgiveness for others.
Through our example of forgiveness, they can see the Lord. And then lead us not into temptation. Now there is that line that's missing, deliver us from the evil one. But lead us not into temptation means that during our tests and trials, may we not be tempted by the evil one.
That the devil may not come and make us fall flat on our face and fail once again. So protect us from his schemes and his plans. Okay, so now that I kind of pulled apart, dissected what this prayer looks like, what a pattern and template would look like. Here's one that we then went and took and applied everything we just learned there using each of those lines. And this is using a heart approach, our heart dive approach.
So you have five things. H, honor his name. So our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Lord, we begin by lifting up your name. recognizing your holiness. May our hearts be full of reverence and awe as we honor you in all that we say and do. Help us live our lives that bring glory to your name.
The next letter, E, establish your kingdom. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Father, we ask that your kingdom come into every part of our lives.
May your will be done in our families, communities, and throughout the world. and let your love and truth transform us in the world around us. A. Ask for provision.
Give us today our daily bread. Lord, we come to you with our needs, trusting in your faithful provision. You know that we need.
You know what we need before we even ask. We depend on you for our physical, emotional, and spiritual sustenance each day. The next one, see if I can hold that up. An R.
receive forgiveness and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Thank you for the forgiveness you offer through Jesus. Soften our hearts so we may receive your grace and extend forgiveness to others. Help us walk in love and release bitterness as you have forgiven us. And then the last one, T, turn away from temptation.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Lord, guide our hearts away from temptation and protect us from the traps of the enemy. Give us the strength to stand firm in faith and live in a way that honors you.
And so here we have hands wide open, releasing and surrendering to the Lord in an intimate, private communication with our Heavenly Father, Abba. And again, I did the five because when I pray and I'm really moved, I ball up my fist and I hold it to my heart because I want him to penetrate deep within me. And so you can use this, transform it, apply it to your lives in specific petitions.
And it's a gift from us to you. OK, now we're going to move on to the parable on to pray. And he said to them, which of you has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine who has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. The whole a friend coming to another friend in the middle of the night because one friend visited another friend is very normal.
During this time, it was very difficult to travel during the day. So people would travel at night and it was not uncommon for someone to arrive at your home in the middle of the night expecting to be fed. And so a friend's now going to his neighbor and saying, hey, I don't have any food. Do you have some? In verse seven, and he will answer from within.
Do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed and I cannot get up and give you anything. The neighbor is saying, don't bother me. I'm in my one bedroom house and my family bed with my whole family.
If I get up and turn on the light to get food, I'm going to wake up everyone in my family. So in eight, I tell you, though, he will not get up and give him anything. Because he is his friend, yet because of his impotence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. So let's explain that.
He's not going to get up because he's his friend. He's going to get up because of the persistence of the friend and his own shamelessness. When the morning light comes, he does not want his friend to go and ruin his reputation and say, well, you know, so-and-so didn't give me bread last night when so-and-so came to visit.
So afraid of the shame. He's going to give to the friends. And then verse 9, And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you.
Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives.
And the one who seeks, finds. And the one who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a serpent?
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? This is not a comparison.
God, Jesus, is not the unwelcoming friend. He is not the evil parent who will give a serpent or a scorpion to a child. He is saying in contrast to fleshy human selfishness, who at our core are evil, we are all sinful.
That's what I mean by that. We all have a sinful nature that is bent towards our own selfish preservation and pride. He's saying even with that type of proclivity. We still give good things.
We still get up and give, but our Heavenly Father is not so. You can ask freely, seek freely, and knock without reservation. And with it, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the greatest gift of all. And you will find what you are seeking, and it will be opened to you, the revelation of God's Word.
Because God is available to all who seek him and he will reveal his word to those who seek him. And so our heart check question here is, do we persist in prayer, trusting God to provide what is best for us, or do we give up when we don't receive an immediate answer? All right, the next section is another argument and dissension against Jesus and his power.
So in verse 14, now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute then spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, He cast out demon by Bezabel. Now, Bezabel or bull is the Canaanite Baal.
Alright, we hear about him all throughout the Old Testament and he's the prince of the demons But this word means the Lord of Flies the Lord of the Flies So he cast out by Satan or by demons or a bezel bell So he cast out demons by bezel bell the prince of demons while others to while others to test him Kept seeking from him a sign from heaven, but he knowing their thoughts. All right that divine power he still has even his human form so he can hear thoughts he knows their thoughts he knows their inner most so but he knowing their thoughts said to them every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and a divided household falls and if satan also is divided against himself how will his kingdom stand for you say that i cast out demons by bells of bull so if Jesus is endowed by the power of the Lord of flies. He's then using his own power to his own demise. And he's saying, no, like that doesn't make sense. He's not a house divided against itself.
Satan is not giving me power to then come up against him and fight him. And actually, so in verse 19, and if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? So sons, he's talking about the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day who were also practicing exorcisms. Therefore, they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. By his power to cast out demons, it is proof that the kingdom's presence is here on earth. Again, what people thought was going to be a physical kingdom with a physical king and ruler, such as King David, he's come for a spiritual kingdom. And so the spiritual kingdom is at hand.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. This is implying that Satan is the strong one.
He has dominion here and he has placed his army quite strategically throughout the world and still is and does do this today. He has strategically placed his army around the world and he has strongholds. But one who is stronger than him will eventually come.
and that person will then have to accept defeat. And so he's saying, I am that one that is stronger. I do and will overcome Satan. So I have the power to cast out demons out of these people because I am stronger than him and his army.
And I will continue to cast out in the name of God because I am endowed with the power and authority to do so. And in the last verse, 23, whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not. gather with me scatters.
And here's the line that again implies that he knows what's about to happen. He's saying you're either with me, you're following in the gospel and the good news, and you understand the revelation of God's word through me, or you are against me. Therefore, you are an agent of Satan and you're working for the adversary and going to rise up against me.
So the hard check question here is, have you joined a side? So return of an unclean spirit. So verse 24, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person and it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none.
Many of the people during this time believe that demons lived in the desert because there wasn't any presence of the spirit or righteousness there. So they went and they spent their time abiding in the desert before they found a host or someone to possess or someone to oppress or influence. And so in finding none, he says, I will return to my house. from which I came. So the house is the previous man that got, that Jesus removed the spirit from, the demon from.
And when it comes, and when it comes, it finds that the house is swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. Okay.
This one's pretty heavy. And again, I could talk about this for over an hour. So Down below in the notes section, in my notes, not Kanoi's, there will be notes for demon, the demonology that people asked about previously. We will still dive more into it. But just for those who are actually following along and keep seeing these references, one specific question was, how do you not become possessed?
How do you guard yourself, safeguard yourself against the evil one? And so what I did is I... created a list, curated a list of different scriptures in an understanding of how you can safeguard yourself.
And this verse is where it stems from. What Jesus is saying is that he came in, he removed this evil spirit, and now this man's body, his spirit, his mind, his soul has now been cleaned and cleansed. And he is clear. But now the house is all in order and structured and empty. You can be clean, but you can also be empty.
He did not fill himself up with the word of God and therefore the Holy Spirit. spirit. He did not accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. That's what we do today and are indwelled with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit and an evil spirit cannot coexist. That is how you protect yourself from the demonic forces.
The word of God, relationship with the Lord, the Holy Spirit indwelled in you. And how do you do this? Do that. You accept the Lord. Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.
And you're indwelled and filled up. You don't have an empty house, an empty vessel for the devil to come back and enforce. Because now this man's going to actually be living a worse life because he has more evil ones affecting him if he had filled himself up with the Holy Spirit. So you can try to get right in your own merit.
You can be delivered from some strongholds, but yet they'll come back and forth. We've seen this over and over. So let this be a warning that we need to fill ourselves up with the Holy Spirit. All right, verse 27. And he said these things. A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed.
She's praising Mary. But he said, but you always pay attention. But he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
He did not acknowledge his own mother. when she said this. He didn't say, yes, you are right. Mary. He didn't do that.
He didn't venerate or exalt his own mother. And for some people that might be a little hard because you're like, yeah, that's a nice statement. No, no, no. The glory always goes to God and blessings go to those who obey his word. They listen to it and do it.
So we need to be careful that we're not just using flowery. flattery to honor God with our words only and then not and then in that avoiding what we're supposed to be doing which is honoring exalting God and obeying and listening to his word I'm going to add a caveat here that Mary does have a special role in here because if she had not listened and obeyed the word of God herself she wouldn't be in the second statement which is you blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. That's what Mary did. So she is blessed.
I don't want that to get twisted. The sign of Jonah. When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign of the people of Nineveh, so will the son of man be to this generation.
The sign of Jonah, this is a parallelism that Jonah went into the belly of a beast for three days and then was delivered and such Jesus will die and be resurrected three days later. So that's the sign of Jonah, the three days and then the deliverance that we will see in him. He is acknowledging that the people have now come to a barrier or wall where they're unrepentant or indifferent. Therefore, they don't have eyes that see anymore or ears that are going to hear.
All right. So the next line after that is. the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. So even back in the day, people were able to see that there is wisdom in someone such as Solomon, that they were willing to travel long distances for that wisdom.
But he is acknowledging himself as the Messiah, that he is greater than Solomon, a descendant of David. that he is greater than he and people will travel from long long distances just to hear from him the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here and his last remark in this statement is saying that if the sinful idolaters of Nineveh which was very sinful if you go back to the book of Jonah In our series, you can hear about that, that even when... comical Jonah. That's what I read in my commentary because he slept in a fish for three days and then was spit out and came over and lacklusterly, like he didn't do it with enthusiasm.
He preached this message to these people and even they repented that he is greater than Jonah, that people should be paying attention and listening to him because that is the sign. It is his message. That is the sign.
Moving on to the next section, the light in you. Verse 33. No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand. The stand is normally in the middle of a room because they use olive oil and a little wick and it needed to flutter out, ray out throughout the entire room to cast light in the corners.
So they would put the light on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light.
But when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.
If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. I love any of the verses throughout the entire Bible that talks about eyes being, you know, the window and doorway into your soul, into your spirit and light and darkness. From someone personally who struggles in the dark places and in the darkness. I always run to the word of God in prayer and communication with my heavenly father to cast light into the darkness. Anytime we have doubt or difficult situations, what is this light that I do?
It is the word of God. And he is saying, use your eyes. And that is anything that you put into yourself. I'm not talking about just physical things, your thoughts and your desires in your heart and mind, but he's using the eyes and analogy, right? And as a photographer, we talk about that light.
in our cameras because photography and video is all about lighting. Right now I have, you know, manipulated the lights in this room. I have one light back here as a backlight and I have these lights in the front as a four light and a key light.
And those lights are shining directly onto me and into my eyes. I'm controlling that light. And so like the light that we let into our rooms and into our homes, we need to control the light that comes into our bodies and we need to let it come in and illuminate into all the dark places. especially the crevices that we hold dear in our heart. That is the places that the Holy Spirit needs to come in.
We need to also turn the lights off in the areas that we don't need in our life. Is there anything that is coming in and feeding in and causing dark places in your life? For me personally, I'll share doom scrolling on my phone. And that's exactly what it is.
When I'm overwhelmed or I hit a burnout point. And with this ministry, there's been lots of those because I'm constantly, I'm like, we're running a race to get this word out. And then when I have. 30 minutes to myself, I'll sit down and I'll start scrolling and I will fall into an abyss. And that's a dark place in my life that even admitting it to you makes me feel vulnerable because you're probably thinking, that's time she could have been studying and getting this word out and be pre-recording and batching.
Because that's what I tell myself. I'm like, you are wasting time. And that's a dark place that I'm trying to shed light on. And now that I have confessed it and shared it with y'all, hopefully I'm convicted anytime that dark place tries to show up in my life again.
And that's just one little piece. Maybe it's something else. Let the word of God come into your body and illuminate everything. Because when you're wholly bright, the evil one who loves the darkness cannot come in and tempt you and make you fall.
Because that's the other piece. In the darkness is where his dominions and little minions like to come into our lives and tempt us and make us fall. So this next section is woes to the Pharisees and lawyers. Now remember, woe means doom or warning.
So this needs to be a warning to us, just like the previous verse of be careful, don't let the dark places live and, you know, breed the temptations of the evil one. We need to be careful here in this section of all the things that he's about to attack, which is mainly legalism and ritualistic etiquette. While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at a table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Was anyone triggered by that?
Let's do it again. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Another. gut wrench to myself. This hit me so hard.
I literally had to stop studying and just have a moment with the Lord and cry. And I had to go into a separate deep dive on this one verse. And with that, I'll drop it down below.
So you've got like 10 extra pages of notes tonight to go through if you want. So right off the bat, a personal heart check will be, were you triggered or astonished by Jesus's lack of etiquette? I don't talk about as simple as not washing your hands before you sat down at the dinner table. Yeah, I paused. I want y'all to think about that before we dive into how he responded, which also broke etiquette rules because he did not respond in like, oh, I'm sorry.
Let me go up and wash my hands for you. No, he laid it down. Shots were fired.
And the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools. Did not he who made the outside make the inside also but give as alms those things that are within and behold everything is clean clean for you he's saying god created everything from the outside to the inside and he created each and every one of you but you pharisees you you think you're clean because the outside looks clean because your cup and your dishes are all cleansed and look sparkly clean on the outside but on the inside Your heart, your mind, your spirit, you are greedy and dirty. And you need to go get some cleansing on the inside.
And he doesn't end there. He keeps going. But woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. So the first woe is they were tithing and adding to the tithe that the Lord had given.
Instead of just tithing the, you know, the 10%, they said they would count every leave on every branch, on everything, and even to the weeds. Oh, we tithe everything from our garden, even the weeds. Oh, well, aren't you holier than thou? That was another rule that they burdened and threw onto the people in neglecting the love and justice that they were supposed to do for the people.
The next woe, woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. This one is the love of self, the love of fame and being in the publicity. They would sit in the places that garnered all the attraction and they loved the greetings in the marketplace. They wanted the attention.
Oh, hear how mighty they are and how great their prayers are as they went through the streets praying. Woe to you for you are like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it. Now this one is shots fired. That is one of the most unclean things you could do is touch a dead body.
And he's saying you're a dead body disguised. They don't even know they're becoming unclean when they interact with you because you're so dirty because you're already dead inside that when people interact with you, they become unclean. That's how unrighteous you are. That one, that one shook them to the core.
I promise you. Verse 45, one of the lawyers or scribes answered him, teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also. And he said, woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. This woe is, here are all the rules.
Here it is. They just throw it down at your feet and say, do it all. Goodbye.
Good luck. So that is what we're trying to do here at Heart Dive, is not just give you the word and give you all these commands and things from the New Testament and then say, good luck. No. The next step is discipleship.
It's walking with you hand in hand. How do we do this? What does prayer look like? What does service to those look like? What does love and justice look like?
How do we put it into action? How do we love people? And these people didn't do that. Woe to them.
The next woe. Woe to you for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you are consent to the deeds of your fathers for they killed them and you build their tombs.
Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against the generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Again, shots fired.
The Pharisees. had put the prophets up on a pedestal and honored them and glorified them. Remember Elijah, Elisha, Zechariah. Zechariah was killed because he was proclaiming the word of God.
What about Jeremiah who was thrown into a cistern and was going to be left there to rot and starve to death? The prophets that they say are all so mighty and that they honor with all these monuments, they also are consenting to the evil deeds that were done for them and he's saying you will be judged because guess what you're not done. See again he is foreshadowing that he knows he's going to be killed just like all those other prophets. And this goes back to what I said previously of misinterpreting the law. The scholars had reinterpreted, overinterpreted, to the point where they misinterpreted the messianic prophecies, to the point that they have misconstrued the key of the gospel.
That's why we have to approach it with a childlike faith and understanding, because the truth is simple. And 53, and as he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say. And the very last piece is this is where they were choosing sides.
They finally said, all right, now all we want to do is find other words he's going to say and trap him and call him a blasphemer. When he is finally crucified on the cross, it's because he spoke truth and they didn't want to hear it anymore. So our final heart check from this section is, are we living in a way that reflects Jesus'teachings, or do we sometimes act in ways that are more focused on outward appearances than inward transformation?
For our deep dive questions, what can we learn from the structure and simplicity of the Lord's Prayer? Why is persistence in prayer important, and how does it strengthen our relationship with God? How does Jesus'teaching on demons challenge us to be vigilant in guarding our hearts and minds against spiritual attacks?
What is the significance of Jesus'rebuking the Pharisees for their hypocrisies? And how can we apply that to our own lives? How can we grow in our understanding of God's provision, especially in seasons of waiting?
Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you when all of your goodness and faithfulness has shown to us throughout this chapter of Luke. We thank you for teaching us how to pray, for giving us a model in the Lord's Prayer that focuses on your will, your kingdom, and your provision. Help us to remember that Prayer is not just about asking for what we want, but aligning our hearts with your purpose for our lives.
Lord, we ask for persistence in our prayer lives. So often we become discouraged when we don't receive immediate answers. But your word remains to keep asking, seeking, knocking.
May we be diligent in prayer, trusting that you hear us and that you will respond in your perfect timing. Forgive us for the times when we're focused more on outward appearances. than on the transformation you desire within us.
And just as Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, remind us that true faith is not about checking off religious boxes, but about living in genuine relationship with you. Cleanse our hearts of hypocrisy and help us be to live lives that honor you. We also pray for the strength to resist the temptations, spiritual battles we face daily.
Protect us from the schemes of the enemy and fill us with your spirit so that we can stand firm in our faith. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for being a God who provides, protects, and leads us. And in Jesus'name, we love you. Amen.
Heaven and salvation is a divine gift that is given to us by grace. None of us deserve it. In fact, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, and every single one of us have fallen short, and then we desperately need someone to pay that price. And Jesus did it.
He didn't do it because we are righteous on our own merit. He did it because he loves us and he wants to spend eternity with us. But it won't happen if we don't receive him before we leave this earth as Lord and Savior. Hell is a very real thing and there is no second chance after we take our last breath here. So I want to be able to give someone the opportunity today who is saying, I'm ready.
I've never given my life to Christ. I don't know where I'm going to end up after I die. But I don't want to live another day without knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt where I am going to end up. I see now that this is real and I want to believe. So if that is you, we're going to say a prayer and I'm going to put the words on the screen so that you can say them audibly with your mouth because the Bible says that when you believe and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that he died and rose again, then you will be saved.
So we're going to say this prayer together. Believe it in your heart. Speak it with your mouth. and know that this is indeed the day of your salvation. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus.
Jesus, thank you for dying for me. I believe that you came, you died, and you rose again. I confess my sins to you today, and I turn from them, and I now live my life for you. I know that I am forgiven of all my sins, so I receive you now.
as Lord and Savior, and I belong to you, Jesus. I pray these things in Jesus'name. Amen.