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Speaker 1: Hi friends, this is Kelly from Life Audio. Nicole is

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Speaker 1: taking a break from how to study the Bible and

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Speaker 1: we're so grateful for every study she shared with us here.

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Speaker 1: We're keeping the speed going through the holidays with some

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Speaker 1: of her best episodes, plus a few from shows we

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Speaker 1: think you'll love. Today we're revisiting one of Nicole's most

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Speaker 1: loved episodes. We hope you enjoy it as much as

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Speaker 1: we do. Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 2: Life Audio.

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Speaker 3: The How to Study the Bible podcast is brought to

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Speaker 3: you by BibleStudyTools.com and is part of the Life Audio

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Speaker 3: Faith Toolkit series. For more inspirational, faith-affirming podcasts, visit LifeAudio.com.

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Speaker 4: If we're kind of falling into that, like if I

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Speaker 4: pray a certain way, if I chant a certain thing,

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Speaker 4: if I say it a certain way, I can get

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Speaker 4: the Spirit to show up.

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Speaker 2: No, the Spirit is above us.

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Speaker 4: God our Father, His ways are not our ways. His

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Speaker 4: ways are higher than our ways. We submit to what

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Speaker 4: He wants. We don't actually try to get Him to

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Speaker 4: submit to the way we do it. Have you ever

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Speaker 4: wondered if your prayer is effective? Do you ever sort

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Speaker 4: of wonder to yourself, am I doing this right? Is

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Speaker 4: this supposed to be how it feels? Is this how

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Speaker 4: I am to connect to my Heavenly Father? If so,

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Speaker 4: my friends, then you are in the right place. Welcome

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Speaker 4: to How to Study the Bible. My name is Nicole Younis,

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Speaker 4: and I'm so glad to be your guide on this

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Speaker 4: journey as we are about to embark on a Lenten

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Speaker 4: study called How to Pray.

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Speaker 2: And we're going to.

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Speaker 4: Be talking through slowly over the next six weeks the

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Speaker 4: Lord's Prayer that's found in the Gospels. Particularly, we're going

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Speaker 4: to look at the piece that's found in Matthew. And

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Speaker 4: we have lots of ways for you to engage in

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Speaker 4: the study. So if you're new here, let me tell

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Speaker 4: you a little bit about what we do here. And

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Speaker 4: I know that we have some new friends who've joined

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Speaker 4: us for this series. And then I'm going to just

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Speaker 4: cover some of the housekeeping on how we're going to

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Speaker 4: do this study. Now, you can just listen. You can

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Speaker 4: just be here right now. And that is well and good.

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Speaker 4: And I believe that the Lord will use that in

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Speaker 4: your life. But we've also got a couple of other

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Speaker 4: pieces for you. So welcome to this study. So what

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Speaker 4: we do here on this podcast is we just take

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Speaker 4: a piece of scripture and we work through just a

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Speaker 4: way to engage the scripture in a way that it

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Speaker 4: just brings our hearts to life. It brings our minds

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Speaker 4: to life. We ask very simple questions of the text. First,

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Speaker 4: we start with what does it say?

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Speaker 2: We try to be.

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Speaker 4: Good observers of what we're reading and really be able

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Speaker 4: to restate what it says. And then we ask the question,

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Speaker 4: what's the backstory? What do we need to understand about

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Speaker 4: what's going on around this passage so that we can

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Speaker 4: accurately interpret what it means?

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Speaker 2: And that's our third question. What does this mean?

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Speaker 4: What are the principles that we find at play? And

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Speaker 4: we're going to talk specifically about principles.

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Speaker 2: In this study.

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Speaker 4: And then the fourth one is, what does it mean

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Speaker 4: for me? How is God using even just these few

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Speaker 4: minutes that we spend together in God's Word to bring

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Speaker 4: God's Word to life, to transform me?

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Speaker 2: Because my friends... If all we have is knowledge, we

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Speaker 2: are losing.

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Speaker 4: That is not what it is about to follow Christ.

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Speaker 4: What it's about to follow Christ is transformation. It's about

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Speaker 4: becoming more and more Christlike in the way that we

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Speaker 4: live our lives, in the way that we see our calling,

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Speaker 4: our work, our relationships, the way that we engage with

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Speaker 4: the ups and downs of life, the way that we

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Speaker 4: handle our emotions. All of this becomes a part of

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Speaker 4: what it means to be shaped like Christ. And that's

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Speaker 4: what we're doing here. That's what we're really doing. At

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Speaker 4: the end of the day, yes, does knowledge matter?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 4: Do we need sound doctrine in our lives? 100%. But

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Speaker 4: if it is not changing you and changing your heart,

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Speaker 4: then something is amiss. And my desire here is that

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Speaker 4: we would move through Bible study in these 15-minute segments

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Speaker 4: in a way that actually moves you to transformation in

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Speaker 4: your heart. So we've built in some extra things to

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Speaker 4: help with that. So if you're joining us, I want

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Speaker 4: you to know you can join the 1,200 people in

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Speaker 4: our Facebook group who are also going through How to Pray.

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Speaker 2: And our Facebook group is optional. You don't need to

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Speaker 2: be in it.

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Speaker 4: But if you want to be in it, I show

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Speaker 4: up there for some live videos. I answer questions when

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Speaker 4: people have questions through the study. And there's good mutual

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Speaker 4: encouragement from other folks who are walking through this study together.

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Speaker 4: So that's an option for you. And we also have

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Speaker 4: a weekly download, which gives you some experiential practices around prayer.

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Speaker 4: And it is not too late to jump into that.

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Speaker 4: All you need to do is go to NicoleYunus.com slash HowToPray,

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Speaker 4: and you can just put in your email. Everything's totally free.

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Speaker 4: We'll send you a weekly email that gives you kind

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Speaker 4: of a weekly practice of that goes along with this

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Speaker 4: six-week series. So from now until Easter, every Monday, you'll

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Speaker 4: get a new podcast around this series, How to Pray.

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Speaker 4: We're going to work through that Lord's Prayer together. And

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Speaker 4: then in addition to that, you can get an email

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Speaker 4: with that free study guide that will come to your email.

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Speaker 4: So to get all that information, all you need to

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Speaker 4: do is go to It's in the show notes as

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Speaker 4: well if you want to find it there. And then

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Speaker 4: that will give you the link.

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Speaker 2: To the Facebook group. That will give you the email.

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Speaker 4: So you'll get all of those things that we have

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Speaker 4: put together because we really want to help you engage

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Speaker 4: with this really in a daily way. Even though the

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Speaker 4: podcast is only once a week, we've got some stuff

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Speaker 4: to help.

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Speaker 2: You just engage daily with.

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Speaker 4: The experience of prayer. We're going to offer you some

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Speaker 4: things that maybe you haven't tried before. And really the

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Speaker 4: heart of that is to create space. for the Spirit

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Speaker 4: to speak to us and to create space where we

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Speaker 4: can honor our Heavenly Father with our hearts open to Him,

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Speaker 4: with our minds clear to be with Him through prayer.

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Speaker 4: So that, my friends, is what we are doing here.

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Speaker 4: So today we're going to talk about prerequisites to prayer.

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Speaker 4: We're going to talk about the little passage that leads

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Speaker 4: into Jesus' teaching people how to pray. Okay, so this

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Speaker 4: is going to be in Matthew 6, verses 5 through 8.

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Speaker 4: And actually, I'm going to go into verse 9 as well.

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Speaker 4: So if you want to open your scripture, if you

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Speaker 4: want to read in your Bible, underline it if you

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Speaker 4: haven't seen it. Let's go to Matthew chapter 6 together.

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Speaker 4: And here is our passage. And when you pray, do

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Speaker 4: not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray

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Speaker 4: standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to

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Speaker 4: be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have

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Speaker 4: received their reward in full. But when you pray, go

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Speaker 4: into your room, close the door, and pray to your

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Speaker 4: Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what

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Speaker 4: is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray,

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Speaker 4: do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think

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Speaker 4: that they will be heard because of their many words.

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Speaker 4: Do not be like them, for your Father knows what

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Speaker 4: you need before you ask Him.

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Speaker 2: This, then, is how you should pray.

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Speaker 4: And after that, verse 9, then we get into our

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Speaker 4: Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. We're going to

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Speaker 4: work through that over the next several weeks. But I

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Speaker 4: want to talk about this first passage and just work

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Speaker 4: through our how to study the Bible method, right? This

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Speaker 4: all comes from my book, Help! My Bible is Alive.

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Speaker 4: It's a 30-day boot camp to help you understand and

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Speaker 4: understand how to interpret your Bible. So that's for you

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Speaker 4: if you need that. But if you're new here, that's

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Speaker 4: what we're going to do every time we ask those

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Speaker 4: four questions. So that first question is, what does it say?

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Speaker 4: So before we go any further, we want to dig

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Speaker 4: in a little bit and say, okay, do I understand this?

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Speaker 4: What questions do I have about this? What makes sense

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Speaker 4: to me? What doesn't make sense to me? And so

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Speaker 4: when we do that, the first thing that stands out

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Speaker 4: to me right away is this, do not be like

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Speaker 4: the hypocrites. And I just underline the hypocrites in my

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Speaker 4: Bible because even the phrasing the hypocrites is weird. It

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Speaker 4: sounds like it's talking about a title, doesn't it?

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Speaker 2: It's not.

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Speaker 4: We talk about people, you might be hypocritical, right? And

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Speaker 4: of course, the word hypocrite means to not be aligned

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Speaker 4: in your words and actions. So I say one thing

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Speaker 4: and I do another. I say I'm good, but then

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Speaker 4: I do bad things, right? I say that I'm all that,

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Speaker 4: but I'm not all that. Whatever that is, that's how

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Speaker 4: we think of the word hypocrite. But here it says

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Speaker 4: the hypocrite. So I'm going to write a little question

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Speaker 4: mark next to that because I want to investigate a

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Speaker 4: little bit further.

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Speaker 2: What does that mean?

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Speaker 4: And then that goes on to say they're praying, standing

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Speaker 4: in the synagogue and on the street corners to be

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Speaker 4: seen by others. So I wrote next to that part, okay, religious,

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Speaker 4: like outwardly religious, outwardly spiritual. And then it goes on

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Speaker 4: and says, truly, I tell you, they have received their

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Speaker 4: reward in full. So I'm again, what is the reward, right?

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Speaker 4: And then we see the next part. When you pray,

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Speaker 4: go into your room, close the door, pray to your

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Speaker 4: father who is unseen. Then your father who sees what

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Speaker 4: is done in secret will reward you up. There's that

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Speaker 4: word reward again. So we've got this contrast being set up.

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Speaker 4: We kind of have these two groups of people, actually

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Speaker 4: three groups of people, right? We've got the hypocrites, we've

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Speaker 4: got how to do it in the middle, and we've

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Speaker 4: got the pagans, right? So we've got these three groups,

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Speaker 4: and then I put a little list underneath each one.

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Speaker 4: I'm like, well, what do hypocrites do? Well, they love

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Speaker 4: for people to see them praying, right? And what do

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Speaker 4: hypocrites do? They've already received their reward. And then we've

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Speaker 4: got the middle section, but when you pray and it says,

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Speaker 4: go into your room, close the door, pray to your

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Speaker 4: father who's unseen, he will see what you've done in secret.

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Speaker 4: So I've put down like prayer is private, at least

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Speaker 4: in this, this is a, this is a personal private

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Speaker 4: experience with my father. And that is then a reward

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Speaker 4: will come from there, right? And then we've got this

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Speaker 4: third group, which is the pagans, right? And it says,

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Speaker 4: keep on babbling on. They think there'll be heard many words.

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Speaker 4: It says, do not be like them. And then we've

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Speaker 4: got this reminder that your father already knows what you need.

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Speaker 4: So my friends, this is often a misinterpreted passage. People

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Speaker 4: will read this passage and see it as a formula

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Speaker 4: that you have to follow all the time. And the

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Speaker 4: formula is don't pray out loud, pray in private, go

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Speaker 4: into a closet, and pray. Don't use a lot of words,

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Speaker 4: only use these words. And people add a lot to this.

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Speaker 4: And it's very easy to read this passage and interpret

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Speaker 4: it to mean there is only one specific way to pray.

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Speaker 4: But listen, there are many places in scripture that we

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Speaker 4: see and experience prayer. We see and experience Jesus speaking

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Speaker 4: to his father out loud in front of other people.

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Speaker 4: We see and experience him praying privately in the garden.

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Speaker 4: We see and experience him praying for his disciples. And

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Speaker 4: there's other places in scripture that teach us about prayer.

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Speaker 4: So this is not the only way to do it.

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Speaker 4: What happens when people misinterpret the Bible, when they take

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Speaker 4: it too literally, like this is a formula and you

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Speaker 4: have to follow this formula, is that we actually don't

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Speaker 4: look for the principles at play that we want to understand,

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Speaker 4: which is why that's our third question. What are the

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Speaker 4: principles here that Jesus is speaking about? What's the general

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Speaker 4: framework that we can grab from this passage? Let's talk

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Speaker 4: about what the backstory is because that's kind of our

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Speaker 4: question too.

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Speaker 2: What's the backstory?

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Speaker 4: What do we need to know about what's happening here

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Speaker 4: in this passage? The first thing is I've already brought

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Speaker 4: your attention to this word hypocrite. So the word hypocrite

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Speaker 4: in the Greek is the same word that we use

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Speaker 4: for actor. And I love that because it's like, do

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Speaker 4: not be like the actors, meaning people who act a

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Speaker 4: certain way, but their hearts are not in it. And

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Speaker 4: in this passage, Jesus talks about this idea of praying

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Speaker 4: to be heard, to be seen by others, which goes

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Speaker 4: against the nature of prayer. Because if prayer is talking

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Speaker 4: to God, why do we need to do it for

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Speaker 4: other people to hear us?

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Speaker 2: Do you know what I'm saying? Perhaps you know some

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Speaker 2: folks like this.

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Speaker 4: Perhaps you've seen that happen in your life before where

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Speaker 4: you're like, I feel like I'm more about like a

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Speaker 4: performance than I am about an actual prayer. Now, this

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Speaker 4: does not mean that we should not or ever pray publicly.

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Speaker 4: But the principle at play, right, is we have to

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Speaker 4: guard our hearts that we're not doing something to appear

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Speaker 4: a certain way, to appear spiritual, to appear religious, when

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Speaker 4: in reality, we don't have a prayer life with God

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Speaker 4: outside of that public expression, right? And perhaps you've experienced

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Speaker 4: this before, and I certainly have, and I know what

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Speaker 4: it feels like. And the easiest way for me to

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Speaker 4: kind of check my own heart is to ask, what

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Speaker 4: does my private prayer life look like? Like, am I

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Speaker 4: hearing from God and making space to hear from God

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Speaker 4: and experience God on my own, for my Heavenly Father,

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Speaker 4: for my relationship with my Heavenly Father? Because then out

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Speaker 4: of that overflow, prayer that's done aloud, prayer for others,

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Speaker 4: will come out of a place of abundance. It will

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Speaker 4: come out of a place of relationship with God. And

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Speaker 4: so we want to have that sense that we're not

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Speaker 4: doing this for others to notice or for others to

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Speaker 4: affirm our religious nature or our holiness or our spirituality.

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Speaker 4: And Jesus makes it really clear. He's like, if that's

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Speaker 4: why you're doing it, that's the only reward you're going

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Speaker 4: to get. If you want people's likes, if you want

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Speaker 4: them to think that you're great, that's the reward that

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Speaker 4: you're going to get. It's not going to go any

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Speaker 4: further than that, right? And so the other part of

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Speaker 4: the backstory that I want to make sure that we

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Speaker 4: understand is that this is placed within this larger context,

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Speaker 4: which is the Sermon on the Mount.

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Speaker 2: It's sort of the greatest sermon of all time.

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Speaker 4: It's Jesus's full expression of what it means to be

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Speaker 4: in the kingdom of God. So I want you to

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Speaker 4: keep in mind as we're looking at this passage that

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Speaker 4: this is in the midst of a teaching that is

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Speaker 4: about a completely different operating system in life, that Jesus

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Speaker 4: is introducing this concept of an upside-down kingdom that that

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Speaker 4: is nothing like what we experience as power and authority

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Speaker 4: and goodness and greatness often, that Jesus is actually saying, hey,

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Speaker 4: this is how you're.

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Speaker 2: Going to live.

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Speaker 4: And if you want to follow me, if you want

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Speaker 4: to be my followers, this is what it's going to

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Speaker 4: look like to live. So if you're not familiar with

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Speaker 4: the Sermon on the Mount, it would be great to

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Speaker 4: read that alongside of this because this concept of how

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Speaker 4: to pray is fully embedded in all the rest of

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Speaker 4: this teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. Everything that

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Speaker 4: Jesus is giving us is a framework for what it

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Speaker 4: looks like to pray in comes out of the rest

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Speaker 4: of this passage about what does it mean to be blessed?

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Speaker 4: What does it mean to forgive? What does it mean

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Speaker 4: to love our neighbor? All of that comes out of this.

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Speaker 4: So just keep that in mind as we're reading that

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Speaker 4: it comes from that place. Okay, so the next question

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Speaker 4: we ask is, well, what does it mean, right? And

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Speaker 4: when we think about what it means, this is where

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Speaker 4: we kind of elevate above the passage and say, okay,

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Speaker 4: what are the principles that we can pull from here?

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Speaker 4: And I think that what we can see here when

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Speaker 4: we look at these principles is is that Jesus is

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Speaker 4: setting up a framework that says there is a way

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Speaker 4: that you can pray with a Father who loves you

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Speaker 4: and desires relationship with you. This is not about all

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Speaker 4: the words you can say or the ways that you

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Speaker 4: say it. This is not about what you're doing in

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Speaker 4: front of other people. This is actually about a personal

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Speaker 4: relationship with your Heavenly Father. And then in verse 9,

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Speaker 4: Jesus says, so this is how you pray. He does

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Speaker 4: not say this is what to pray. This is not

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Speaker 4: like a spell that we chant in order to get

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Speaker 4: our Father to hear us. And there is a little

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Speaker 4: bit of that vibe that can go on in churches

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Speaker 4: where it sort of feels like if you do it

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Speaker 4: this certain way, then you can get the Spirit to

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Speaker 4: respond to you in this certain way.

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Speaker 2: All of that is false.

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Speaker 4: All of that is completely unfounded because that gives.

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Speaker 2: Us power over God. We don't have power over God.

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Speaker 4: It's like a three-year-old saying, like, if I turn in

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Speaker 4: a circle four times, I can get my mom to

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Speaker 4: do something.

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Speaker 3: No.

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Speaker 2: Moms understand what you're doing.

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Speaker 4: They know, they have authority, they have knowledge and power

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Speaker 4: to understand that you can't magically make something happen when

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Speaker 4: you're a little kid like that. And so if we're

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Speaker 4: kind of falling into that, like if I pray a

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Speaker 4: certain way, if I chant a certain thing, if I

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Speaker 4: say it a certain way, I can get the spirit

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Speaker 4: to show up. No, the spirit is above us. God

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Speaker 4: our Father, His ways are not our ways. His ways

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Speaker 4: are higher than our ways. We submit to what He wants.

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Speaker 4: We don't actually try to get Him to submit to

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Speaker 4: the way we do it. Does that make sense to you?

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Speaker 4: So one of the things that we're seeing here is

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Speaker 4: that Jesus is giving us a framework to say, I'm

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Speaker 4: going to point you to the things that create a

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Speaker 4: vibrant conversation with your Heavenly Father. It's not that you

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Speaker 4: have to say it exactly like this. But this is

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Speaker 4: how you're going to pray. And as the weeks unfold,

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Speaker 4: we're going to look at what those principles are, what

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Speaker 4: it means that God's our Father, what it means that

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Speaker 4: He's holy. What does it mean that we are talking

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Speaker 4: about the kingdom? What does it mean to talk about

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Speaker 4: forgiveness and evil? And that's all in the Lord's Prayer.

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Speaker 4: So we're going to do that together over the next

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Speaker 4: several weeks. But I wanted to just bring those things

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Speaker 4: to your attention so that as we get into these

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Speaker 4: next several weeks, you've got this framework to work with.

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Speaker 4: So finally, what does it mean for me And what

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Speaker 4: does it mean for me.

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Speaker 2: Is this is an invitation.

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Speaker 4: Whether you've been walking with God for a long time

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Speaker 4: or this is new for you, I really do feel

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Speaker 4: like this next several weeks is an invitation to create

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Speaker 4: a place of intimacy and connection with your Heavenly Father.

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Speaker 4: And if you've been following Jesus for a long time

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Speaker 4: or you've been in church for a long time, But

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Speaker 4: this sounds like something that you haven't experienced, kind of

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Speaker 4: where we started as we opened up the podcast.

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Speaker 2: If you secretly feel like, am I missing something?

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Speaker 4: Because prayer doesn't feel to me like it seems to

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Speaker 4: feel to other people. Or am I doing this wrong?

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Speaker 4: Because I get bored and my mind wanders. And is

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Speaker 4: this just me rehearsing my worries? What am I doing

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Speaker 4: with God? How do I experience God? Does He speak

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Speaker 4: to me? If you have those questions, then you are

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Speaker 4: in the right place. And what we want to do

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Speaker 4: over these next several weeks is create that space where

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Speaker 4: you can just be courageous about showing up and expecting

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Speaker 4: God to show up with you. So what you're going

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Speaker 4: to find in your study guide is that we give

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Speaker 4: you a way to engage with God that's called a

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Speaker 4: breath prayer. So if you've never tried that before, it's

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Speaker 4: an ancient practice. It's a way to kind of meditate

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Speaker 4: upon scripture and and to make space in your life

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Speaker 4: for God to speak to you. So you're going to

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Speaker 4: find that in the study guide. I'm really excited to

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Speaker 4: hear how that goes for you. And we are going

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Speaker 4: to have a great several weeks together as we engage

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Speaker 4: with what it looks like to learn how to pray.

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Speaker 2: See you guys next week.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to How to Study the Bible with

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Speaker 3: Nicole Younis, a production of LifeAudio.com and the Salem Web Network.

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Speaker 3: This episode was produced by Kelly Givens and our executive producer,

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Speaker 3: Stephen McGarvey, and edited by Stephen Sanders. If you enjoyed

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Speaker 3: what you heard today, we'd love for you to head

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Speaker 3: over to your favorite podcast app and leave.

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Speaker 2: Us a review.

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Speaker 3: It really does help people find us. To learn more

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Speaker 3: about Nicole, you can check out her website at NicoleYunus.com.

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Speaker 3: Her book on how to study the Bible is called Help!

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Speaker 3: My Bible is Alive, and you can find a link

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Speaker 3: to that plus a link to Nicole's site in today's

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Speaker 3: show notes.