Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #238 MADE TO PRAY (Part 5 - Fellowship)

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#238 MADE TO PRAY (Part 5 - Fellowship) · The OneCry Podcast

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  What's our willingness to come into His presence and say, hey Lord, I see, this is what confession
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  really is.
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  Lord, I see what You see.
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  I see what You see.
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  And I'm going to say about it what You say about it.
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  I'm going to say, You say it's sin.
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  I say it's sin.
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  You're saying it's wrong.
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  I'm saying it's wrong.
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  Now transform me in that.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual healing.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and
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  reports.
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  We are so thrilled that you're joining us today on the One Cry Podcast.
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  I'm Bill Oliff, and this is my buddy, Kyle Reno.
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  And Kyle, you've been walking us through a series the last three or four weeks that is
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  life-changing.
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  It really is.
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  It's the foundation for the Christian life, and that is, you're teaching us that we were
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  made to pray.
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  And Jesus was so beautifully defined this for us in six movements.
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  You described them as six ships, right?
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  Relationship, and worship, and partnership, and stewardship.
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  And now we come to one today that, boy, this is where the rubber meets the road.
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  It's going to get real, real fast, ain't it?
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Man, I just love the Lord, Bill, and just the way that He's kind to us and walks us
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  into this.
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  And, you know, only the Lord Jesus knew in that moment when He was writing, when He was
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  saying this, knowing it would be captured and written, He knew so much more than we
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  would understand in one sitting reading the Lord's Prayer or decades of meditating and
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  pondering on it.
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  So I would, one, say, you said really well in the first weeks, man, you could spend this
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  whole season in this prayer and learn how to pray in ways you've never prayed before
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  and come back to it again in the next season, and you would just learn more.
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  So there's just, there's just the goodness of God is inexhaustible in light of teaching
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  us to pray in these moments.
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  So lean in, lean in.
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  And we have learned that God made us to pray because we were made for relationship with
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  Him.
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  And in the moment that the disciples asked the question that, man, I hope you're asking,
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  Lord, teach us how to do this.
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  Teach us how to pray.
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  And then the Lord gives us what I've said is the approach.
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  This is how, this is how you should approach God in prayer.
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  You should approach Him in relationship with His Father, as Bill just said.
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  You should approach Him in worship because He's worthy of that.
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  And the more you exalt Him, the more you see everything else better.
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  You should approach Him in partnership, that God has decided to advance His kingdom in
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  partnership and cooperation with us.
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  And prayer is the place that it starts, is empowered, sustained, and brought to completion.
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  And man, on the other side of your praying is the kingdom of God coming.
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  Think about that.
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  On the other side of your praying is the kingdom of God coming, to people's lives, to cities,
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  to areas.
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  So man, don't believe in God as you pray.
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  And then last week, stewardship, man, it started getting really personal.
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  It's almost like God lifted our eyes to Him, got us in proximity and approach to Him, let
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  us look out into the world, see the kingdom.
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  And then He helped us unpack our daily need, our need for Him in everything, and really
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  understand stewardship.
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  Everything comes from Him, everything's for Him.
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  And then today, I just want to encourage you to not run from the light, because I think
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  this is where the Lord turns the light on in prayer.
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  And that's when He says, verse two again, and when you pray, say, and then we're at
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  verse four today, so pray, say something like this, approach God like this, and forgive
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  us our sins, our sins.
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  And I don't know how to say this the way I want to say it, Bill.
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  And I'm speaking specifically to the believer here, you know, those that you are forgiven
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  because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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  It's one thing to know that you're forgiven.
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  It's another thing to feel forgiven.
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  It's one thing to know to have a right theology around it.
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  It's another thing to have the relational connection to it, that you don't feel dirty
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  in the presence of God.
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  And what I think the Lord is teaching has many avenues to it and aspects of it, but
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  it's trying to help us, listen to me, feel clean before God, to be able to come into
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  a relationship with God every day and talk to Him about that last two percent that you
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  want to hide, the parts of us that even if we know theologically God is all-knowing,
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  we don't want Him to know it from us.
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  And it's pretty interesting that one of the first moves we see mankind make in the garden
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  is that we hide.
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  And I think it's still a tendency in us that it's just so devastating.
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  It's just so devastating.
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  And one of the most precious gifts God gives us in prayer is the ability to come into His
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  presence and say, hey, Lord, will you forgive me for this?
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  Man, I got this motive.
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  I got this ambition.
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  You know, I got this action.
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  Hey, you saw what happened?
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  You saw what I've done?
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  So I'm asking you, and here's the truth, you've never met a person that doesn't need to come
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  into the Lord's presence and to rightly confess.
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  Every one of us does.
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  And if you just take the time to slow down enough to let God help you see some things
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  that's going on in your mind, that's going on in your heart, that's happened in your
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  life, that's played out in your actions and stuff, the Lord wants to, here's the thing,
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  He wants to clean us up.
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  It's like my kids when they're real little, when they're outside and playing or they eat
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  ice cream or whatever, I don't shame them over the fact that they got dirty, right?
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  I want to help them get clean, and then I want to teach them how to do it better.
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  You know, I want to teach them how to approach that differently in that moment.
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  Here's the truth, 1 John 1, 8, 9 says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
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  So if today you're going to walk in and practice these things, if you're going to practice
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  this approach we've given you in relationship and worship, you're going to be in partnership
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  with God and stewardship, if you were to say, no, I'm good, I ain't got anything to talk
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  to God in light of to ask Him to rightly forgive you of things that's played out today,
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  even this morning, 1 John would say, hey, if you say you have no sin, you're deceiving
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  yourself.
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  If you can't imagine there's anything in there, then come on now, let's be honest for a second.
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  The truth is not in us, if we confess our sins though, He is faithful and just to forgive
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  our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
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  And so here's my encouragement in prayer for us, Bill, let's talk about it some, because
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  there's a second part to this in a second, but the first is us and God, it's us and God,
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  it's that vertical between us and the Lord.
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  What's the one thing that you've not been willing to talk to God about, maybe ever,
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  and today would be the bravest move you could ever make, ever make.
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  It's going to call for other moves, but that's the first move.
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  It's that King David moment when you go, hey, Lord, against you and you alone, have I sinned
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  against you and you, and it starts first and foremost with you.
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  So I found in me, when it comes to God, and those things, when I first came to know Christ,
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  they were a lot easier to identify.
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  They were more on the outside, but I've learned the closer I walk with the Lord, the Lord's
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  moving beyond that and trying to prevent those things playing out in my life as much as He's
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  trying to get on the inside.
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  He's trying to get on what's going on in the inner world that needs to be cleansed and
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  really transformed by the power of the gospel.
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  So what's our willingness to come into His presence and say, hey, Lord, I see, this is
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  what confession really is.
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  Lord, I see what you see, I see what you see, and I'm going to say about it what you say
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  about it.
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  I'm going to say, you say it's sin, I say it's sin.
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  You say it's wrong, I'm saying it's wrong.
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  Now transform me in that.
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  Bill, don't you know that that breakthrough changes everything?
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  You know, I have people, you know, guys that have said, well, we don't need to confess
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  our sins to God because He's already forgiven us, and if I die, I go to heaven.
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  I get that part that, you know, technically I have been forgiven my sins past, present,
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  and future.
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  So why does He keep saying, why does He say, why does He address this, of all the things
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  He could address in the Lord's prayer, why does He spend one-sixth of this prayer telling
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  us to come daily and confess our sin?
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  Well, there's a lot of reasons for that, but you know, one of the foundations, reasons
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  we don't ever overcome sin is we hide, we cover, we excuse, we blame.
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  And that's why those phrases God keeps bringing up in the Scripture.
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  He who covers his sin, Proverbs 28, 13, will never prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes.
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  Psalm 32, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning, day
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  and night your hand was upon me.
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  And then I said, I'll confess my sin to the Lord, and you forgave me my sin.
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  So there's something about bringing things to the light that is not only therapeutic,
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  but it's life-changing for us.
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  It's this process of growing us more into the, and there's something about me being
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  willing to let God, by His Spirit, bring out my sin, and I look at it, and I see it like
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  God sees, and I begin to deal with it like God deals with it, and I want to forsake it.
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  I want that part changed in me.
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  So it's not just, you know, this little, oh Lord, forgive me my sins, you know, and
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  the guy comes the next night, and he just says, okay, Lord, just the usual, you know.
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  I mean, no, it's this willingness to get before God and say, God, what is displeasing to you?
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  That's right.
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  What did I do?
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  How did I talk to my wife that grieved you and quenched your spirit?
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  What did I do with my kids?
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  How did I do it to work that was, that you don't want me living that way, because you're
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  in the process of conforming me to the image of your Son.
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  So again, we back up to 20,000 feet, and we see that the Lord's prayer is just defining
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  Christianity.
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  This is our walk with Jesus.
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  This is everything that's contained in this.
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  So we partner with him in the kingdom.
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  We take care of daily.
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  Brad, now he's saying, I want you to deal with the issues in your life, and we need
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  to get those cleaned up just day after day after day, until you come to be with me, and
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  you'll be like me in heaven.
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  Well, and you know what, I feel like the Lord has shown me in light of the different ships
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  that you see in the Lord's prayer.
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  This is about fellowship, that the Lord wants us, the Lord's not going to play some game
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  and act like everything's okay when it's not, because that would be so unloving.
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  If the Lord's watching a ticking time bomb in my heart, and he's like, hey, can we talk
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  about that now?
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  Because what he wants is, he wants that genuine fellowship, where he can show me what I need
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  to see, because it's hindering when you hide, you can't be near.
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  When you're covering, you can't be seen and known.
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  So what the Lord is after in this is, hey, I don't want anything to hinder our fellowship,
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  so let's unpack.
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  And I remember, I've talked about him in here before, Andy Heiss.
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  He told me, he said, boy, let me tell you what you need to do.
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  He said, you need to go get in the presence of God, and you ask him to turn on that divine
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  flashlight and show you anything you need to see.
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  Boy.
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  I'm going to tell you, I'm almost 45 years old, and I was 19 when he told me.
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  And there's never been a time, Bill, not one time, that I genuinely, sincerely asked the
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  Lord to do that, that he didn't show me something.
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  When you're praying the prayer of David, search me, O God, and know my heart.
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  Try me and know if there's any wicked, that word also means hurtful, way in me.
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  And then lead me in the everlasting way, but I can't find your way to go forward if I'm
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  still stuck back here, holding on in the shadows to my sin, and not even being willing to talk
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  to you about it, and let you cleanse me and purify me.
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  This is so essential, and it's a real part of our relationship with him.
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  Well, here's my encouragement, and then I want to get to the second part of this fellowship.
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  So to all of our listeners, and this is for Bill and I as well, man, if we're going to
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  walk and approach God in prayer as the Lord is teaching the disciples, and we're going
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  to need moments in prayer where we ask the Lord, Lord, and many times you'll already
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  know.
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  You know, the Spirit of God's already done his preceding work and say, hey, Lord, what's
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  the things I need to bring in your presence?
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  Say, hey, Lord, forgive me for the way I responded, and forgive me for the way I thought about
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  that, or forgive me I went down that, Lord, I agree with you that, and here's the thing,
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  the Lord has already promised you his forgiveness.
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  You ain't got to beg, you ain't got to barter, you ain't got to, you just got to bring it.
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  You got to bring it into his presence.
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  And then I'm going to tell you what, what that is for me is that when it's like God
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  cleaning me up, and I just, I sense that, I know I'm forgiven, but I feel his forgiveness.
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  I feel his forgiveness in a fresh way, but the Lord doesn't leave it there, okay?
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  So it doesn't, like the gospel was never intended to stop with you, neither was forgiveness.
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  So he says in the second part of that prayer, and forgive us our sins, and we ourselves
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  forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
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  It's a daily decision to not only, listen, be forgiven, but to forgive others.
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  Ephesians 4, and I'm going to kick it to you, Bill, because I know the Lord showed you many
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  things in this, Ephesians 4, 32, it's just, it was a foundational verse for me in making
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  the decision to forgive others.
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  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
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  So here's my encouragement, as we learn to approach God in prayer, that we know that
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  we come into his presence, let today's divine light shine on us, show us, search us, that
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  we ask for forgiveness, and then we look out, and listen to me, in everyday ways, in
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  everyday ways, and let the Lord show you someone that you need to forgive.
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  Hey, I forgive the way they said that, I forgive that moment that felt like this, or maybe
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  it's backing up to see I'm harboring bitterness and things that are hindering my, listen to
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  me, it's not just hindering my fellowship with them, it's hindering my fellowship with
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  God.
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  Like, it is a hindrance to me flourishing in every way.
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  Bill, I know the Lord showed you some things with that.
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  Well, you know, it's fascinating that over and over in the Bible, God uses, when he's
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  talking about this, he uses this picture of debt, of debt.
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  I'll give you an illustration, 1 Corinthians 13, when God is describing to us his love,
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  and he says, if you don't have my love, all you have is nothing, all you do, all you receive
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  is nothing, so I want you to walk in love.
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  And then he describes it, and right in the middle of that, love is patient, love is kind,
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  he said love, and then he uses an accounting term, logizimae, love doesn't keep a record
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  book on other people's wrongs.
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  That image, Kyle, has stuck in my head so deeply for years, all of us have little ledger
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  books in our heart, and when somebody hurts us, and they do, we write it down.
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  There's only one reason you write something in a ledger book, you want to make them pay.
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  You mowed my lawn, I owe you 50 bucks, and so you write it in a ledger so that you can
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  make sure that I pay.
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  So when somebody hurts us, we write it down, and we say, I'm going to make you pay, and
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  we hold on to that, that's unforgiveness.
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  I'm not going to forgive that debt, I'm going to make them pay that debt.
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  And then we're real creative about how we make them pay.
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  We can criticize them, we can gossip about them, we can withdraw, we can lash out in
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  anger, I mean, we've got these little means of how we make people pay around us.
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  We can tear down their reputation, you know, well he's a great guy, yeah, but you know
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  what he did to me, you know what he said to me, so we're making them pay, right?
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  And God said, I don't do that with you, I don't do that with you, why would you do that
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  with somebody else when you're my representative?
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  And that's why he told that story about the guy that owed millions of dollars to a guy,
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  and the guy said, well, I'm going to forgive you, and the guy walks out, and there's a
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  guy that owes him 10 bucks, and he says, now I'm going to make him pay, and when the
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  master finds out about that, he says, man, throw that guy in debtor's prison, that's
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  not like me.
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  And so that's why the Lord says, I want you to forgive everybody just as you forgive me.
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  So listen to this, Kyle, forgiveness is releasing that debt, it's crossing it out.
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  I say it like this, it's, when somebody hurts me, I'm holding them in my courtroom, and
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  I'm judge, jury, and executioner.
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  But forgiveness is an act of faith where I transfer that to the Lord's courtroom, and
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  I say, Lord, I don't have to make them pay, if any repayment needs, you're capable of
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  exacting that, I'm going to love them.
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  That's why he says in Romans 12, never take your own revenge, but then says, leave room
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  for the wrath of God, vengeance is mine, I'll repay.
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  If your enemy hurts you, feed them, love them, bless them.
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  And in this way, they're going to know that you're sons and daughters of the Father.
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  So I think, and I've just experienced over years of ministry, Kyle, I don't find any
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  greater problem among believers than unforgiveness, that comes from that, if you hold on, if you
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  let it harbor in your heart, I've written books about that.
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  And so we've got to learn this part of this prayer, as we keep the roof off, as Norman
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  Grubb says, nothing between us and God and the wall's down, nothing between us and anybody
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  else, and there's this wonderful liberation and freedom that comes with the roof off and
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  the wall's down.
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  And that's the picture of fellowship, between you and the Lord and you and other people.
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  And I don't know if any part of this prayer, where there's a greater promise for freedom,
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  that if a person, if you come today, and this is the courage of the listener, and Bill,
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  you can pray us out of this today, man, but if you'll come today and let the Lord show
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  you things that you need to get clean before Him, get clear before Him, just you and Him,
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  there's freedom there for you, man, there's freedom, you'll sleep better tonight, you'll
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  walk better and closer to communion with God today.
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  And then if you look outward and say, God, who's anybody that I have, you know, it's
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  interesting, I just thought about this, it's a real popular word in our culture right now,
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  when somebody's blasting somebody, and a lot of times it's between athletes, a team says
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  something about another team, and they'll say, well, I'm keeping receipts, I'm keeping
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  receipts, you know, and what they're saying is, I'm going to remember what you said, I'm
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  keeping receipts, I'm going to make you pay one day, and the opposite of that's true in
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  the kingdom, saying, I free you of this, I'm going to tear it up, I'm going to entrust
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  that to the Lord, man, and that's the way to live in great liberty.
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  Yeah, and you know, the first time I ever sat down and asked the Lord to turn the spotlight
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  on my heart, I wrote it down, a sin list, number one, number two, had seven pages, front
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  and back, legal size, just all this junk, just bricks on the wall, and that's why this
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  should be part of our daily praying.
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  You just want to keep short lists, you don't want to, and I know people, listen, I've counseled
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  people who have pages and pages of things they're holding against people, pages and
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  pages of sin and covering and hiding things from their mate or their friends, and trying
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  to hide it from God, which is just about the stupidest thing you could possibly do, because
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  He knows everything, and we need to come, and we need some, for some people that are
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  listening today, it's going to be a huge but wonderfully life-changing, liberating
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  exercise to make that seven-page list, to go back and clear your conscience with people,
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  to forgive some people that have really hurt you that you need to forgive, and you can
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  by the grace of God, you can on your own, but you can forgive anybody by the grace of
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  God.
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  But then for others of us, we've gone through that exercise, we just need a tune-up, we
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  need to keep short lists, we just don't let it build up in our lives.
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  So why don't we pray about that, Kyle, and I'm going to ask all of us to just bow right
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  where you are, and I wonder if you would, maybe just for the purposes of our time, you
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  would pray right now this prayer, Lord, turn the spotlight on my heart.
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  Show me anything that's between us, between me and you, anything that's displeasing, anything
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  you want to address, anything that you want to say, okay, son, okay, daughter, it's time
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  for us to deal with this issue.
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  And we know there are things there, Lord, but I pray, Father, that you would turn the
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  spotlight on and give us the grace to humbly be honest and transparent with you and others.
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  Just ask Him right now.
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  And then one more prayer, Father, is there any body or anything on the ledger book of
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  my heart, any debt I'm holding, and Lord, I think I'm keeping them in bondage, but I'm
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  the one that's in bondage.
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  And I pray, Father, that you would give them the grace to let it go, to transfer it even
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  right now from their courtroom where their judge, jury, and executioner in the courtroom
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  of heaven, just to give it to you, Lord, I'm not going to try to make them pay anymore.
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  That's your, you're in charge of that.
• 27:27
  And I pray that you'd be as gracious to them as you've been to me.
• 27:32
  So Father, cleanse us, just cleanse us and transform us and purge us and purify us.
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  And Father, let us be men and women who keep short accounts, who just don't let this build
• 27:48
  up anymore by the daily practice of confession and repentance and forgiveness.
• 27:56
  In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
• 27:59
  Amen.
• 28:00
  Well, Bill, thanks so much for praying us into it, and I know this has been helpful
• 28:05
  for me, just spending time thinking about it, and even as we was praying, making sure
• 28:10
  to stay clean before the Lord.
• 28:12
  So I'm encouraging our listeners, man, we're five weeks into this made to pray, and one
• 28:17
  more to come.
• 28:18
  I want to encourage you, don't just hear these things, like each one of them, make
• 28:22
  some notes, maybe make some prayer cards, and make it an additional resource to keep
• 28:26
  these things before you pick up, maybe in your Bible, pick up the Bible you have near
• 28:31
  you when you pray and write these little words that spark you to pray in light of what God
• 28:37
  has for us as we approach, because there's more to come.
• 28:40
  If it's been encouraging to you, maybe it'll encourage somebody else, send it on to somebody,
• 28:45
  and we look forward to next week being together.
• 28:49
  Have a great week.