Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / The Lord’s Prayer Reimagined: Brad Gray & Joel Edwards on Rediscovering Jesus’ Blueprint for Prayer

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The Lord’s Prayer Reimagined: Brad Gray & Joel Edwards on Rediscovering Jesus’ Blueprint for Prayer · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Brad and Joel, thanks for joining me.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's great to be here. Thank you.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Brad Gray and Joel Edwards of the new documentary film
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: The Lord's Prayer. This is an amazing film and verse
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: anything like it. Brad you're the host, Joel, you are
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: the director. It's streaming on Angels streaming platform. The Lord's
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  Speaker 2: Prayer dot Com is the website. By the way, if
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: people want to check that out. It takes viewers. I'm
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: going to read this here for you. It takes viewers
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  Speaker 2: on a cinematic journey through the ancient world to rediscover
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  Speaker 2: the meaning and power of the most well known prayer
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  Speaker 2: in history. For both of you, why a film about
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: the Lord's Prayer? Yeah, it's for me.
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  Speaker 3: It started actually seven years ago without any thought of
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: doing a film or a television series or a book
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  Speaker 3: or anything on the Lord's Prayer. I was literally just
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  Speaker 3: reading the Sermon on the Mountain. When it gets to
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  Speaker 3: the moment where Jesus is about to give the Lord's Prayer,
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  Speaker 3: he prefaces it by saying, this, then, is how you
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  Speaker 3: should pray.
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  Speaker 1: And I just had a moment where I was like, oh.
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  Speaker 3: Man, I think he actually meant this and it had
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  Speaker 3: not been something that had been really central to my life.
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  Speaker 3: I'd been a pastor for more than a decade, I'd
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  Speaker 3: been living in the Middle East for a part of
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  Speaker 3: my educational journey, been leading study trips, and even then
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  Speaker 3: this was not a central part. And so it really
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  Speaker 3: just started with my own journey into the prayer to
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  Speaker 3: better understand what was going on there. And when I
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  Speaker 3: realized how deep and wide and compelling it was, when
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  Speaker 3: we started to talk about doing a documentary film and
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  Speaker 3: television series, we were like, Man, everybody knows the Lord's Prayer,
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  Speaker 3: but nobody knows the Lord's Prayer.
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  Speaker 1: Like, let's flesh this out.
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  Speaker 3: For people and in a very beautiful, compelling, high cinematography,
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  Speaker 3: high teaching. Let's get people to these locations and allow
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  Speaker 3: them to experience the prayer like they've never experienced it before.
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  Speaker 2: Joe, why did you want to be involved? Yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: think kind of taking off.
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  Speaker 4: Bread there, the idea of this prayer and your familiarity
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  Speaker 4: with it. Everyone's heard it, even you know, if you
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  Speaker 4: pray it daily, if you just know a little bit
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  Speaker 4: about the Bible, if you live you know, in Western culture,
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  Speaker 4: in most places of the world right now, you probably
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  Speaker 4: understand this a little bit, this concept of our father
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  Speaker 4: in Heaven, you've at least heard it, But do we
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  Speaker 4: really understand it?
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  Speaker 2: And do we really know what Jesus was doing when
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  Speaker 2: he said this is how you should pray? And that
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  Speaker 2: really compelled me. You know, It's like, well, that's pretty clear.
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  Speaker 4: And so there's so many parts in the New Testament
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  Speaker 4: that I think, you know, if you're in the church,
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  Speaker 4: we reference it a lot, we read it over and
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  Speaker 4: over and over. But this feels like this was really overlooked.
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  Speaker 4: It feels like that is there's a lot of gems
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  Speaker 4: here that are hidden, and there's potentially vast understanding historically
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  Speaker 4: contextually for what it meant to them then and then
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  Speaker 4: what it could mean.
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  Speaker 2: To us now. And so I was really compelled by
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  Speaker 2: that vision when Brad brought it to us. And I'll say,
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  Speaker 2: in a lifetime of storytelling and filmmaking, you know, I
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: do this full time. So we're constantly getting pitches, ideas, stories,
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  Speaker 2: what about this? Where are some new things, whether it
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  Speaker 2: be in the past or in the future. There's a
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  Speaker 2: new angle, a new lens. I hadn't seen anything like
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  Speaker 2: this before, and it was a very ambitious project that
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  Speaker 2: Brad and his team brought to us. It is filming
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  Speaker 2: all over the world all sorts of different sacred and
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  Speaker 2: holy sites in the Middle East that are very challenging
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  Speaker 2: to get into logistically, even if you do get permission,
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  Speaker 2: filming in those locations is challenging. And apparently we're a
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  Speaker 2: sucker for challenging projects, because we're like, that sounds great.
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  Speaker 2: That's about the hardest thing we could try to do
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  Speaker 2: during COVID and then now recently during the war over there,
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  Speaker 2: and so there are endless stories of only God moments
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  Speaker 2: where we experience literal miracles getting into places or getting
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  Speaker 2: out of places. So it's just been an absolute pleasure
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  Speaker 2: and just joy of an adventure to partner with Brad
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  Speaker 2: and to help bring the story to audiences. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's going to be something that people.
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  Speaker 4: Really again, whether you know the Bible well or don't
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  Speaker 4: have much experience or kind of staying away from it.
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  Speaker 4: You're like, I don't know about that old krusty stuff.
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  Speaker 4: This is really gonna turn heads. This is really going
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  Speaker 4: to give people a new lens in which to see
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  Speaker 4: one of the most overlooked and potentially undervalued pieces of scripture.
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  Speaker 1: Ever, are there misconceptions.
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  Speaker 2: Or maybe even overlook truths in the Lord's Prayer that
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  Speaker 2: you guys want to highlight in this I'm sure there
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  Speaker 2: are several, give us.
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  Speaker 1: One or two.
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  Speaker 2: We don't have to talk about all of them.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, just even taking something like holy be your name,
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  Speaker 3: you know which you go, well, why does God's name
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  Speaker 3: mean to be holy? And what does that mean? You
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  Speaker 3: know that that your name is holy? And it's just
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  Speaker 3: a word in Hebrew cadosh, which means to be set apart,
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  Speaker 3: distinct other than. And it's really in the prayer a
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  Speaker 3: plea that God would be seen for who he truly
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  Speaker 3: is distinct other than. But one of the biggest reveals
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  Speaker 3: that we talk about even in the film is that
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  Speaker 3: all throughout the Hebrew scriptures, when God rescues and redeems
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  Speaker 3: the children of Israel out of Egypt, he brings them
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  Speaker 3: to Mount Sinai and he says, I want to partner
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  Speaker 3: with you, and I'm going to put my name on you.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to bear my.
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  Speaker 3: Name, and how you choose to live your life is
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  Speaker 3: going to let people know what I am like. So
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  Speaker 3: carry my name well, which is by the way that
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  Speaker 3: you shall not take the name of the Lord your
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  Speaker 3: God in vain. Literally in the Hebrews says you shall
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  Speaker 3: not miscarry my name or carry my name flippantly. And
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  Speaker 3: the idea is that if you claim to be a
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  Speaker 3: follower of Jesus, you're representing him in the world. And
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  Speaker 3: this is just a daily reminder that the decisions we
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  Speaker 3: make matter, that people are watching our lives, and are
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  Speaker 3: we giving people an accurate representation of who God is
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  Speaker 3: and what he values. And it's just one of many
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  Speaker 3: nuggets all throughout the Lord's Prayer where you go, oh,
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  Speaker 3: I've heard that, but I haven't really heard it.
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  Speaker 1: In that way, or I never knew that it was
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  Speaker 1: in the Lord's Prayer.
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  Speaker 3: You know. That was one of the big kind of
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  Speaker 3: aha moments for us, and putting this together was The
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  Speaker 3: Lord's Prayer is really a blueprint for daily living and
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  Speaker 3: it is the most concise place in all of Scripture
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  Speaker 3: for understanding who God is, why Jesus came, and what
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  Speaker 3: are purposes here on earth.
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  Speaker 2: This has shot a location in the Holy Land or
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  Speaker 2: throughout the Holy Land. As you said, Joel, why was
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  Speaker 2: that important and what were some of your favorite spots?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for both of you.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, this film showcases some areas, locations, and sights that,
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  Speaker 4: to our knowledge haven't seen cameras before, at least cinema cameras.
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  Speaker 4: Several scenes in this movie have never had a cinema
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  Speaker 4: camera in them before filmed. And a lot of that
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  Speaker 4: was because we were attacked by Iran while we were
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  Speaker 4: there and everything was shut down on there were no
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  Speaker 4: doors and they're like, come on in. So one of
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  Speaker 4: the one of the many just miracles in this hole
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  Speaker 4: in this whole production. You know, the idea of seeing
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  Speaker 4: something for yourself, experiencing it for yourself really changes everything.
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  Speaker 4: You can hear a story from someone, but we all
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  Speaker 4: know when you go to the place and you see
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  Speaker 4: it for yourself, it's different. This is the difference of
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: listening to music you know, on a streaming service, are
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: actually going to the concert and being there with the
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: actual performers. It's so much more rich. It's four dimensional,
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  Speaker 4: five dimensional opposed to one or two dimensional. And one
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  Speaker 4: of the things that you know, this has been the
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  Speaker 4: driving force for this movie is that because of circumstances
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  Speaker 4: and reality, ninety nine point nine percent of believers will
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  Speaker 4: never go to the Holy Lands. They just won't be
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  Speaker 4: able to do it logistically, financially, physically, and so yes,
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  Speaker 4: we're talking about the Lord's prayer, but the context of
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  Speaker 4: that is the place where did it happen, Where were
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  Speaker 4: these words given, Who was the audience it was given to,
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  Speaker 4: what did it mean to them? So you need to
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  Speaker 4: go to the place. The place is so important, and
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  Speaker 4: so our hope with this film is that it will
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  Speaker 4: be a virtual cinematic pilgrimage for so many other people
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  Speaker 4: across the world that they'll be able to actually understand
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  Speaker 4: when you're talking about, you know, the amount of beattitudes
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  Speaker 4: and the Sea of Galilee and the people that live
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  Speaker 4: there and what their context was like. You need to
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  Speaker 4: be able to see that. And if you can't get
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: there yourself and can't physically stand there, the next best
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  Speaker 4: thing would be a truly high production value cinema experience,
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  Speaker 4: and that's what we were trying to bring to this
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  Speaker 4: and so much of the motivation behind it is let
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  Speaker 4: people as much as they can digitally stand in and
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  Speaker 4: taste and see and smell these areas, and so we
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  Speaker 4: hope that our best efforts were to do that with
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  Speaker 4: the super high end cameras and lenses that we were
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  Speaker 4: using and really working hard to get the positions in
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  Speaker 4: the angles that really truly show it in its best way,
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  Speaker 4: its best form.
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  Speaker 2: Brad, this might be for you. How do you hope
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  Speaker 2: this film changes the way people pray the Lord's Prayer
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  Speaker 2: in their daily lives or you know, if it's something
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  Speaker 2: loves to say the Lord's Prayers a model, how do
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  Speaker 2: you hope this change the white people pray? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, our goal has always been that
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  Speaker 3: as a result of people watching this film and the
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  Speaker 3: forthcoming television series and the book, reading the book, that
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  Speaker 3: they'll never go another day of their life not saying
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  Speaker 3: this prayer. That they're going to want to say this prayer,
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  Speaker 3: not as a crusty resuscitation of saying something that you've
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  Speaker 3: said over and over and over again, but that people
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  Speaker 3: are going to go this is oxygen to the soul,
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  Speaker 3: Like for me to be able to center myself around
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  Speaker 3: these words to understand what I'm praying. That they'll just
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  Speaker 3: see the way of Jesus differently, that they will live
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  Speaker 3: with a laser focused clarity on the things that truly matter,
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  Speaker 3: that they will want to dig further into the very
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  Speaker 3: word of God as a result of going if that
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  Speaker 3: is true the Lord's prayer? What else have I been missing?
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  Speaker 3: And so there's just a hunger and desire for people
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  Speaker 3: to be captivated aew by the biblical story, by the
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  Speaker 3: prayer of Jesus, by understanding that the Word of God
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  Speaker 3: is living and active, that it is deeper, wider, more compelling.
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  Speaker 3: And we don't want people to become smarter, we want
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  Speaker 3: them to live more faithfully. And so what they're learning
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  Speaker 3: to be able to walk out and want to walk
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  Speaker 3: it out? This film is a really great place to
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  Speaker 3: start to understand the most powerful prayer ever given in
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  Speaker 3: human history.
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  Speaker 2: Joel, you are president and executive producer of a studio
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  Speaker 2: called Eball Studios, and you were a director of another
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  Speaker 2: faith centric documentary called The Mosaic Church. So this is
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  Speaker 2: at least your second I don't know, Bible based, Christian based,
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  Speaker 2: Christian history based, I guess documentary recently. What is it
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  Speaker 2: about these types of films that attracts you personally? That's
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  Speaker 2: a great question.
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  Speaker 4: I think that as you go throughout your life, hopefully you're.
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  Speaker 2: Always learning and growing and.
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  Speaker 4: Taking you know, we're all taking steps somewhere right like
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  Speaker 4: we're walking somewhere with our lives. And for me personally
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  Speaker 4: being raised in the church and then stepping away from
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  Speaker 4: religion and faith for many years and slowly kind of
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  Speaker 4: realizing the older I get, the more truth there is
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  Speaker 4: in these ancient books, the collection, the sixty six books
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  Speaker 4: that now makes up our Bible.
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  Speaker 2: You just want more of it. You get hungry for it.
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  Speaker 4: You realize, like, wow, there is so much here, so
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  Speaker 4: much that we understand that's been passed forward for thousands
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  Speaker 4: of years now theologians and scholars and leaders of the
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  Speaker 4: faith in the early Church. But it motivates all of
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  Speaker 4: our lives. I mean, you have to think about this.
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  Speaker 4: I've got three children. The world that they're being raised in.
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  Speaker 4: Everything in our country and in many places in our
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  Speaker 4: world is shaped by these writings, is shaped by these accounts,
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  Speaker 4: is shaped by these autobiographies. And that's what I love
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  Speaker 4: so much about these projects. Is regardless of where you
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: are in the spectrum of belief, of faith, of practicing
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: those things you know, engaging with religion, everything that comes
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  Speaker 4: from that, we're all connected to it. Regardless of where
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  Speaker 4: you would plot yourself on the board, you all are
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  Speaker 4: on the board. You cannot be alive and be a
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  Speaker 4: human and carry a soul and not be on the board.
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  Speaker 4: And so for me personally, it's been really exciting as
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  Speaker 4: I've gotten older and really started to appreciate.
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  Speaker 2: History and not just look at it as like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: that's just some old stuff that no one really knows about.
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  Speaker 2: I think that the more we see with technology, the
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: more we see of modernization, we're realizing.
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  Speaker 4: The old truths are actually that truths. And I think
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  Speaker 4: we're a society and humanity and civilization is.
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  Speaker 2: Continuing to test this stuff.
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  Speaker 4: But it's just been incredible to be a documentary storyteller
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  Speaker 4: and filmmaker and be curious and hungry about these things
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  Speaker 4: and then get the opportunity to pursue that curiosity and
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  Speaker 4: in storytelling and actually working on projects that are teaching me,
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  Speaker 4: that are growing me or helping me understand more about
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  Speaker 4: the things that I'm interested in in seeking you.
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  Speaker 2: Also were executive predacer of Surprise by Oxford, which was
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  Speaker 2: one of my favorite films in the past few years,
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  Speaker 2: so we should have mentioned that as well. Margareinette, by
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: the way, as an executive preducer of The Lord's Prayer
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  Speaker 2: film as well. Before we let you Go, Brad, you
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  Speaker 2: guys are are you personally have a book as well?
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  Speaker 2: Do you want to tell people about that in a
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  Speaker 2: few seconds before we close here.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Basically, everything we could put into our film and
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  Speaker 3: forthcoming television series on the Lord's Prayer we put into
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  Speaker 3: a book and it's called Bringing Heaven Here, and it
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  Speaker 3: really explores all of the personal implications of the Lord's Prayer,
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  Speaker 3: just fleshing out what this means, what this looks like.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I'm a father of four, so there's a
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: lot of stories of being parents in here. It's about
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: just how do we take these words and what we're
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  Speaker 3: seeing in the film and what people will see in
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  Speaker 3: the forthcoming television series and being able to really flesh
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  Speaker 3: it out.
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  Speaker 1: On a personal level.
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  Speaker 3: This book does that and I co wrote it with
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: my best friend another Brad. So you've got a Brad
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  Speaker 3: and Brad talking about the Lord's Prayer and it's one
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  Speaker 3: of the many pieces around the Lord's Prayer that we're creating.
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  Speaker 2: The documentor is called The Lord's Prayer its Own Angel
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  Speaker 2: streaming platforms. Brad and Joel, thanks so much.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Hey, thank you Michael. Michael.
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: If you enjoy today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: to the team at life Audio for their partnership with
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com,
• 14:37
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• 14:41
  Speaker 5: their network.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: See you next time.