Hope you guys are doing well. Good start to 20, 25. Yeah, so far, so good. Any New Year's resolution people in here? Yeah, a few. Everybody else? Scared to raise your hands. I get it. Here's what's true. As with most things in life, there's two ditches, right? There's the overly optimistic people. When you hit January 1st and you're like, this is my year. This is going to be the year. And. And one way I can tell if you're overly optimistic is if you're a Vikings fan. Hey, this is not your year. I'm sorry to break it to you. No, jokes aside, there are the overly optimistic, and then there's the overly pessimistic. Where you look at a new year and you're like, pfft, why bother, right? I don't want to get my hopes up because they're just going to get smashed. And I can tell if you're an overly pessimistic person because you're a Cyclone fan. Yeah, I. I know. I know. You look at the current state of basketball, and you're, like, projected one seed in the tournament, and the only thing I can think of is we're going to be the team that gets beat by the 16 seed. So I hope that we can lose a couple games in the Big 12 and get, like, a high two seed. That'd be great. But here's what's true. As you look at statistics on New Year's resolutions, 40% of American adults make them, 88% fail within the first two weeks, and only 9% of American adults that make resolutions complete them. But here's what I the problem is not the resolutions. The problem is you and me. The problem is not the goals. It's us. And when you consider New Year's resolutions, I think one of two things can be true. The first is that we're really not that motivated. If you have to wait until the turn of a calendar or maybe the swipe of a phone to see 2025 to set a new goal, it's like, you weren't really that motivated to begin with. Otherwise you would have started, like, two weeks ago or two months ago. But for whatever reason, we think, oh, now is the time, and it just proves it won't last. And the second reason is we're just not that committed, right? We might be passionate about it, but we're not that committed. And you oftentimes see this because it hits post Christmas and you get that week to kind of, like, plan, and you're like, okay, here's all my goals. I'm gonna goal set. And then it's week one and you're at the gym, but then it's like, really crowded, and you're like, do I still want to be here? I don't know. The passion starts to wane, and then you fall back on this thing called your habits. You fall back on your habits. And your habits, good or bad, are tiny daily choices that accumulate. That's what habits are. And so if you want to actually change your choices, that is what is needed to change your habits. Which is why we're in this rhythms series, right? Week two of four in a rhythm series. The word rhythm means a regular recurring sequence of events, actions, or processes. And we as a church want to introduce or reintroduce some rhythms, recurring events, actions or processes, things that you can do as a part of your daily life to grow in your godliness. That's the goal. There's a man by the name of Donald Whitney who pastored several decades. He's written several books. He now is a professor at Midwestern Seminary down in Kansas City. He says this. I have never known a man or woman who came to spiritual maturity except through discipline. Godliness comes through discipline. That's humbling when you think about a man who pastored for decades. Like, I've never met a man or woman who came to godliness except through discipline. It's another way that we can talk through rhythms, right? Spiritual disciplines. Now, when it comes to spiritual disciplines and quote, unquote, New Year's resolutions or goals, I think one of the greatest problems inside the church is maybe not a lack of motivation or commitment. I mean, the fact is, you're here, it's freezing cold out, right? Like, you want to be more godly. That's why you're here. So maybe it's less about motivation or commitment and rather about the fact that you're trying to do it in your own strength. I think that's one of the greatest problems inside the church is that we try to accomplish spiritual goals in our own strength. Within the last decade, this phrase, new year, new me. I know Matt Hofer talked about that a little bit last week. It's like kind of taken storm by way of social media. New year, new me. Some people do it seriously, some people do it jokingly, but it's this concept of, oh, this year is going to be different because I'm going to will myself or help myself into this being a different story. And I just love that. I'm like, week two of this series to just squash that inside the church, like the first Sunday of January, to tell you that's not going to work. It will not work. And you don't need me to tell you because Jesus already told you, right? You guys looked at this last week. John 15, verse 5. Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. And that Greek word there means nothing, right? You can do nothing of spiritual good in your own strength. It requires the work of God in your life. It requires deep abiding in Jesus. And so though we do have a role to play and spiritual disciplines are necessary for spiritual health and maturity, the key to true transformation is through a discipline not of self improvement, but of self denial. Say that again. The key to true transformation is through a discipline not of self improvement, but of self denial. And my hope this morning as we open up God's word is that we would not be a church that embraces the motto New Year, New Me, but rather for the sake of our godliness, New Year, less of me. We would be a better church because of it. So if you would open up your Bibles. Matthew, chapter six. This is where we're heading this morning. Matthew, chapter six, first book of the New Testament. And we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of Jesus Sermon on the Mount, his most famous and most challenging teaching, right? As he talks about, hey, this is how you can live a life that is dedicated and pleasing to God, free from hypocrisy. You don't have to get more than a verse end of the Sermon on the Mount to be like, wow, I have room to grow. And. And I think we'll see that here this morning as well. We consider the rhythm or discipline of prayer. So if you would just look with me at the first few words Jesus is teaching. Matthew 6, 5. And when you pray, when you pray, we'll just stop there with a quick raise of hands. How many of you feel like you're crushing it in your prayer life and have no room to grow? None of us, right? Everybody that hates church participation is like, thank you. Didn't have to raise my hand when you pray. Jesus is teaching here to his disciples in two crowds, and he's saying, hey, there is this underlying assumption that if you call yourself a follower of God, here's what will be true of you. You will be a praying person. But if we're honest, we struggle, right? And the problem with that is actually not just our prayerlessness, it is our pride that is the root issue. Because pride doesn't pray. Our prayerlessness is rooted in an inflated view of self and a deflated view of God. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden where we say, I can do this in my own strength. Why do I need God when I can do it on my own? Why would I slow down and pray when I can figure it out? Why would I need help when I can do this on my own? You can't. That's the problem. And Jesus here this morning is here to not just tell us, hey, you stink at praying, right? Figure out how to pray. No, he is here to coach and correct and teach us how to pray. To like, swoon us into a thriving prayer life. If you're a note taker, I want to talk through three things that Jesus is going to help us fix this morning. The first is he's going to fix our motivation in prayer. The second is he's going to fix our mindset in prayer. And lastly, he's going to fix our method of, of prayer. So we're going to start looking at motivation, our motivation in prayer. Beginning in verse 5, continue where we left off. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. Alright? This first group that Jesus unpacks, he calls the hypocrites. And actually the Greek word for hypocrite means actor. It was used in ancient times, right, to talk about these people who would be involved in plays or shows, right? And they would put a mask on and they would be on stage as one character and then they would step off stage and put a new mask on as the next character. And it's not that hard to figure out that the word hypocrite means faker. Faker. And who are the fakers here but the Pharisees, the hyper religious, which is really threatening if you think about it. It's like the religious people were the ones who were getting prayer wrong, like what were they doing wrong? And you could look at a passage like this and be like, they were praying publicly. We shouldn't be doing that. Well, that's not true because Jesus tells us, you know, through his word in James Chapter five. To confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we may be healed. So the issue here is not location. The issue here is motivation. What's the Pharisees issue? They pray that they would be seen by others. They care more about being seen as a praying people than they are about being a praying people. Because to be a devout Jew was to pray. And so they said, hey, if I just put myself out there, right? They did the whole social media thing before social media existed. It's like, did I even pray if no one heard me, right? Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Everybody sees me and Jesus says, hey, they have a reward. Here's what it is. Other people see them. That's it. That's their reward. Like, oh, you're seen as a praying person, but you're not actually a praying person. And it's worth maybe doing a quick diagnostic to be like, is this me? I mean, on one hand, I think there is the hyper religious in the room, the person who's like, man, I really care about my image or my reputation. And, you know, I want to make sure that I'm, like, really quick to pray on Sunday mornings out in the lobby, or I'm the first to pray at connection group or fill in the blank. And honestly, I would say the staff of Veritas, like, this is. We are at threat of this. Like, if we pray more in public than we do in private, like, this is a warning to us. But I think there's a second way that this can show up that's maybe unassuming, that I want to just, like, draw to our attention and say, maybe this is you and you didn't even know it. And it would be if someone asked you to pray out loud and you instantly got anxious because the same reason that other people love to pray out loud can be the very reason you don't want to pray out loud. And it's, you care what people think of you. You care what people think about the way that you pray. This was me two weeks old, as a Christian, I'm out to eat at Applebee's with a group of friends, and they say, hey, Jordan, you're at the head of the table. Why don't you pray for us? And I swear my heart rate went up to like, 210. I was freaking out. I'm like, ugh. I didn't know how to pray without saying, come, Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let these gifts of us be blessed, right? And I was so worried about what people would think of me. And the greater promise here, Church, is that we don't have to worry about what people think of us because God hears us. That's the promise. That's the encouragement in this text. That's the fix to our motivation, that we can pray to be heard by God and not seen by others. Now, do you see what Jesus calls God in this passage here? What does he call him? Father. That's important, to pray to God as Father. It implies a sense of belonging, and it should make you say, why can we pray to God as Father? Like, how do we belong to him? Well, First Peter, chapter three, Peter writes this. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But if you've read in the Book of Romans, you understand this. Who is righteous? There is none who are righteous. No, not one. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So wait, if God bends his ear to the prayers of the righteous, how does he hear me? Well, thank God for Second Corinthians 5, 21, amen, which we covered here just a few weeks ago. He who knew no sin, Jesus became sin so that in him we might become the what? The righteousness of God. If you are in Christ, if you have stopped your striving and have thrown your full faith and trust on the finished work of Jesus, here's what's true. You can come before God and he sees the perfect work of Jesus. And now guess what? He bends his ear to your prayer. The God of heaven and earth calls you his child, that he is your Father, that he wants to hear from you. Isn't that incredible, that God wants to hear from us? You see how it's like, man? It's starting to, like, stir within us, our heartstrings, like God. You want to hear from me? Yes. Okay, then that ought to shift our mindset in prayer, too. Gonna continue in verse seven. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. The second group here, called the Gentiles, contextually speaking, was the unbelievers of that day, the pagan worshipers. And these Gentiles were known for praying such repetitive or mechanical prayers because they felt that they needed to persuade their gods. The issue is not that they were praying with persistence. We know we're called to that. Ask, seek, knock. Right? We're called to be persistent in prayer, but their issue is praying Mindlessly and mechanically. And maybe you've heard this said before. It's not a quote of my own. It is better to have heart with no words than words with no heart. And that was the Gentiles issue. They had all the words but no heart. And one way that you can tell if you're praying this way is if you can pray without even thinking about it. There's no intentionality behind your words. I mean, some of you kind of nodded along with me with the come Lord Jesus, be our guest, right? Like that's an example of a Gentile like prayer. One of the saddest realities is that the very verses we're going to cover here in a few minutes have become that for many people, the Lord's Prayer, where it's like, man, you've just prayed it so much, you don't even slow down to think about what you're praying. These rhythmic prayers that have become words with no heart. But I think there's another way we miss, which is when we become more concerned about what we're praying than who we're praying to. And though we wouldn't necessarily say that, we have to persuade God. We pray in such a way that says maybe God needs to hear it said just right from my mouth in order to listen, right? If I say, father God enough, or oh man, I forgot to say in Jesus name at the end of my prayer. Or rather than just praying like, God, keep my kids safe on the drive home to college, we say, give them a hedge of protection. Or, you know, you throw some like, Christian phrase around it and it's like, man, maybe God will listen if we say it just right. We don't need to pray that way, right? We can pray because we have a father in heaven who wants to hear from us again. This is a mindset shift that, like, we can have relational intimacy with God. And so here's how you can fix your mindset. Pray intentionally to enjoy God, not mechanically to appease God. This is less about checking prayer off of your list and more to say, I want to spend time with God. I want to enjoy intimacy with him and all the parents in the room. You understand how differently kids communicate with you, right? Okay, I have little kids. I've already shared that. Oldest are five and four. And over this last week, we had a little bit of a downturn in pace in between Christmas Eve and New Year's, which means I got to sleep in until like 6:30. It was awesome. And Blaze and Leo, my oldest, come into Ellie and I's room. And they wake me up and they say, dad, can we have donuts? And I'm like, this is a great way to wake up, Honestly. I was like, they storm into my room. They don't care that I'm sleeping. Guess what? That's childlike, right? Does the Bible not tell us to boldly approach the throne of grace? Can we not pray with the boldness of a child yet? Yes, we can. And guess what? We can pray simply, too. If you've ever sat at a dinner table with a child who wants to pray for the meal, it's like, dear God, thank you for pepperoni pizza. Pizza's the best. Amen. I'm like, amen. Give me some of that. Right? I think we need to lean in a bit, church, to this invitation to pray like a child, because we know we're needy, right? Why don't we talk to God in such a way that we can enjoy intimacy with him? Yes. Bring our needs to him. Boldly bring our needs to him simply. It would have been so weird if Blaze and Leo came in the room and they're like, father Jordan Charles Howell, may I please? I'm like, dude, it's quick Star Donuts. Just chill out. Just ask me for donuts, right? I. I'm going to say, yeah, because I love you and I love donuts. Side note. But prayer is an invitation, church, for us to enjoy intimacy with God, which ultimately should shape how we pray and should fix our method, which is where we're going next. Verse 9. Jesus says, Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. You would note this is a method of prayer. Jesus says, pray then, like this. It's a description of a prayer, not a prescription of prayer. Which again, I've said, is some of how we've gone wrong before. We've just taken the Lord's Prayer and we've prayed it mechanically, but rather Jesus here is giving us a model to follow, something to say, hey, this is how we can structure a prayer. And it's important to see how he starts. Someone literally just taught this to me like two months ago, and I swear I've prayed this prayer hundreds of times. I've read it countless times as well. Would love to just look at those first few words. Our Father in heaven. Now, Jesus has used the word Father multiple times already in this passage. And the word Father communicates closeness, kindness, and a willingness to answer prayer. Closeness, kindness, and willingness. But what's incredible here is that we don't just pray to our Father. We pray to our Father in heaven, which means that God is also competent, powerful, and not just willing, but able to answer our prayers. This is the God we serve. He is close and kind and willing, and he is big. He is powerful, he is capable to answer our prayers. This is who we talk to. Jesus starts his very prayer with an address to God that's focused on God, that. That calls him Father in heaven. And then his next prayer is hallowed be your name. Now, most of us never say that word in your vernacular. You don't remember the last time you said hallowed unless you prayed this, right? Holy, set apart, great, praiseworthy, like, even as Jesus is praying our Father in heaven, like, I have to believe he's so stirred with emotion to say, you are amazing. You are great. Would your name be praised? It's the natural overflow of who he sees God to be, and that just unravels into the rest of his prayer. God, your kingdom come, your will be done. Like, is that not a better prayer than my kingdom come, my will be done. It's a way better prayer. Like, God, your kingdom come and your will be done in Cedar Rapids, as it is on heaven, right? Like man. God, give me my daily bread. I need your provision. I need you to show up and meet my every need. It's a drawback to Israel in the wilderness when God provided for them miraculously with bread from heaven. Manna, enough bread for today. Lord, give me enough bread for today. Meet my every need. Show up in a way that only you can. Forgive us our debts, forgive us our sins. To focus on God's forgiveness of us, which, yes, overflows into our ability to forgive others. We see that in verses 14 and 15 as well. If you would start before God and seek his face for his forgiveness for your sins, what he will ultimately do is he will turn you into a forgiving person. Because for people who are forgiven much, forgive much, right? And if you can understand, no one has ever wronged you as much as you have wronged the God of the universe. And you can come before him and say, God, I need your forgiveness for XYZ sin. Lay him out before him. He is faithful and just to forgive you. And he's gonna spur you on to be a forgiving person. God, I need your forgiveness. And lastly, lead us not into temptation. I Don't just need your forgiveness from sin, I need your protection from sin. And I think sometimes we're like man, protect me from that sneaky serpent, that devil, he's out to get me. And I don't think it's wrong to say, hey, protect me from the evil one. But I think a prayer we need to grow in more is God, protect me from myself. You are a huge threat to yourself. God, protect me from what my flesh desires. You know where I'm weak, right? Keep me from worthless things and help me to see that you are better. Protect me from myself. What we see here in Jesus model prayer is that he is praying with God at the center, not himself at the center. And that's confronting to us. It's one way that we can fix our method in prayer. To pray God centered prayers, not self centered prayers. And to take inventory and say, do my prayers start more like God you are or God I need. How we start prayer is pretty important, but I think another indicator is when we just treat God like he's a vending machine. Now. I was a terrible college student when it came to calling home. And I regret it deeply because I was the 19, 20, 21 year old. You know, when I called home when I needed money, right? Or food or like I knew I was coming home and I wanted to make sure my mom had lasagna ready by the time I showed up at 6 o'clock. It was always only spontaneous and only need based. It was never just like, man, I wonder how they're doing. I want to hear about their day. I want to hear what God's teaching them in his word. And now hindsight. I mean, my dad passed away in 2016 and I'm like, man, how many moments did I miss when I could have just picked up the phone, enjoyed time talking with my dad, how much would I have benefited if I would have just said, you know what dad, let's just find time every Monday night for us to pick up the phone and talk to each other. Would have been incredible. Would have shown that my relationship with my dad was not strictly needs based. It was relationally connected, right? Like I get to talk with my dad and I think as we just look at our prayer lives, the reality of praying a God centered prayer is that you will not just start to pray God centered prayers, you will start to live a God centered life and you will remember that God is your prize, that he is ultimately what you need and all the things that you used to find yourself frequently worried about and bringing before him that were super self centered have actually started to wane when you find yourself satisfied in the God of the universe because he's all you need now. I was supposed to be done with prayer as my rhythm, but I kept reading and I don't want to be done yet. So are you guys okay if I keep going Just a little bit longer? Okay, a little bit longer. One more rhythm. Can you guys handle another rhythm this morning? I think you can. Jake kind of spoiled it for me with that John Piper book. This rhythm here is called fasting. It's exactly where Jesus goes next. So really good indicator of whether or not God is your prize or not, whether or not you find yourself being a fasting person. Here's what the word of God says next, beginning in verse 16. And when you fast, same language, when you fast, there's an underlying assumption the people of God will be a fasting people. Do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that's another way of saying, like, take a shower, put on your deodorant, carry on with your normal day. That your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. So very similar to this teaching on prayer, right? Like, hey, don't fast just in the name of being seen by people. Don't fast just so you can tell people, oh, sorry, I'm fasting today. Like, that's not what it's about. Your fasting is for the reward that your father who sees in secret will reward you. Well, what will he reward you with? Himself. He'll reward you with himself. To actually be willing to rob yourself of earthly good, to satisfy yourself in that which is eternally good God. And biblically speaking, I will say fasting is the practice of abstaining from food for the sake of seeking God. Abstaining from food for the sake of seeking God. Oftentimes when we think about fasting, all that we think about is what we're not doing, which is eating. And most of us are like, that sounds awful, right? And if that's all you're doing is not eating for the sake of not eating, that is awful. Why would you ever do that? But when you can say, hey, it's not eating for the sake of seeking God. And I would argue this morning, seeking God in more designated time of prayer to replace that mealtime with an opportunity to seek God intentionally, to feel not just a physical hunger, but a spiritual hunger, a sense of yearning for God to move in a way that only he can move, to replace that time with intention. Now, again, fasting from food is the only thing we see laid out in the scriptures. But one thing that is helpful. Pastor and author from Virginia by the name of Chris Davis broadened his definition, which I think is helpful for a variety of reasons. I mean, number one, there's people in here with health conditions, right? Where fasting from meals is just unwise. Maybe it's an existing health condition, maybe it's a previous history with eating disorders, and you don't want to put yourself back in a precarious situation. I would say, then don't. But we still live in a distracted age, perhaps more distracted than ever before. In this definition, Chris Davis broadens from food to say, to fast from anything good but distracting. Anything good but distracting. That's a helpful definition, right? To fast from anything good. Which means you can't fast from things that are bad. You can't fast from gossiping or complaining. That's called obedience Church. That's not fasting. Okay, but here's what you can fast from. Caffeine. Ouch. Every time that caffeine headache rolls around, Lord, I need you fast. From entertainment. Take that break from Netflix a few nights a week and get on your knees fast from your smartphone. Every time you're tempted to scroll, get that prayer list out of your pocket instead of your smartphone. Those are just a few options. Things that are good but distracting. It's a sweet invitation for us to say, God, I need you more than anything else in life. And there's two ways that we typically see fasting played out in the scriptures. One is reactive. And it's a reactive fast because we see that life is hard and we feel our need for Jesus. I'll give you a few examples. You guys can read these on your own later. David. In Second Samuel one, he learns that King Saul and his troops have died in battle. And what does he do? He fasts. It's a form of grieving. Say, God, I need you to show up. I need you to satisfy me. In a moment of great grief. The Ninevites. When Jonah preaches his terrible sermon, yet still the entire city repents. And how do they show their repentance, their grievance over their sin? They fast. Lastly, another example. Nehemiah. Nehemiah 1, he looks around him. He sees that the walls to Jerusalem are still broken down. And what does he do? It says he fasts and prays. So one of the reasons we fast is because life is hard. We feel our need for Jesus. It's not hard to look around and see brokenness and to say, man, I think this warrants a response to say, man, I just. I want to see God show up. But oftentimes, because we live in America and it's 2025, we don't fast because life is hard and we feel our need for Jesus. We need to fast because life is good and we forget about our need for Jesus. Life is just too good. We're too comfortable, we're too distracted. Everything is too easy, and we're too prone to just bow to false idols. We're far too easily satisfied. And too fast is an opportunity to put pause on things that we think we need and to show God that we ultimately need him more. I think it's so sweet that Jesus doesn't just tell us to fast. But if you flipped back a couple of pages in Matthew chapter four, you would see he was a fasting person. Forty days into the wilderness, Matthew four, right? The devil shows up to him and offers him some bread. And what does Jesus say? Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. What Jesus is saying is, I need God more than I need food. He does it multiple times. If you just read in the Gospels, how many times? The disciples are like, hey, Jesus, you need to eat. He's like, my meal is to do the will of the Father. Would we be a people that are so captivated by God that we're willing to deny ourselves earthly good for the sake of enjoying eternal good in God, our Father? Now, I want to give you guys a few quick application points to help you just grow in your prayer life. Lord willing, this week, this month, this year ahead, the first is this. Pray like a child. Already talked about it. Pray like a child. You are needy and you have a father in heaven, one who is willing and able to meet your needs. So go to him with boldness. Go to him with simplicity. Enjoy intimacy with your father. Please. Pray like a child. Secondly, pray with God as your focus. One way you can do this. Start every prayer with God. You are. I think we talk about that almost every year in this series. Like, start your prayer with God. You are. Rattle off some attributes, like, think about who you're praying to. Start your prayer that way, and let it actually unravel into the rest of Your prayer. But don't just start your prayer with God. Start your day with prayer. Any snooze button people in here? Hey, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But if you would stop hitting snooze and start hitting your knees, you would thank yourself for it. Start your day in prayer. Show yourself as someone who is needy from the very first moment out of bed. Delight yourself in the Lord. Start your day with prayer. Lastly, fast with purpose. Don't start with 40 days. Bad idea. Okay, start with one meal. Start with one day. Like, know where you're at and start there. But do it intentionally and don't put your focus on what you're not doing. Put your focus on what you are doing in its place. So if you were to say, hey, everybody, Thursday night we typically watch Survivor, I don't know, don't watch Survivor and get on your knees and pray through a list. Or you say, hey, every Friday night into Saturday night, we're going to go without food and we're going to take those meal times to pray as a family for the nations, for other family members, for friends, for our neighbors. Fast on purpose. One thing I love at the beginning of each new year is to start a new reading plan. And it doesn't take me long to just say, man, I want to get in the Gospel of John. It's my favorite book in the Bible. And you get a few chapters in, you get John chapter three. And you get this man by the name of John the Baptist saying this in John 3:30, he must increase, but I must decrease. Okay, that's the formula. Do we want to be a church that sees more of God this year? Do we want to see God increase? Like, do we want to see the work of Jesus increase in our lives, in our church, in our city, in our nation? Yeah. Okay, here's the method. We must decrease. We can't confuse this formula. It's not he must increase and I must increase. He must increase. We must decrease. One of the ways you see this play out, one of the first descriptions in the New Testament church, it says, awe came upon every soul. What comes right before that. They're devoted to the fellowship, to the teaching, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. And we want to see awe come upon every soul in this place, in this city, in our nation, and to the ends of the earth. But it does not start with us pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, but with us getting on our knees in prayer. Okay, so let's be a praying people and see what God will do this year ahead. Amen. Pray together. God, you are our Father in heaven, which means you are close, you are kind. We see that so clearly as we look at the person and work of Jesus, who, though he was equal with God, did not count. Equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself and took on flesh, becoming a servant and serving even to the point of death, even death on a cross and rising victoriously. Jesus, you are now seated at the right hand of the Father. And because of your righteousness, we can now come before God. We can storm the throne room as children and we can say, God, please, in light of your kindness, in light of your holiness, your will be done. Your kingdom come in Cedar Rapids as it is on heaven and to the ends of the earth. You are our prize God. Every good and perfect gift is from above, which is meant to draw us closer to you. So I pray in 2025 and every year moving forward, that Veritas church would be a church marked by joyful dependence on our great God who hears and answers prayer. Ultimately, God, that your name would be glorified to the ends of the earth. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.