And that's why you need to ask God before you go and talk to anybody about Jesus, pray.

It's its work, and it is the power of prayer that begins to condition the human heart

for the receptivity of the life-changing, efficacious seed of the Word of God. Our scripture text today comes

from Matthew chapter 6 in verse 5 through 9 in the New Living Translation. Notice these words,

when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.

I tell you the truth. That is all the reward they will ever get.

But when you pray, go away by yourself.

Shut the door behind you and pray to your father in private. Then your father, who sees everything,

will reward you. When you pray, don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think that

their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

Don't be like them.

For your father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him.

Pray like this.

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

I want to talk today simply from the subject, our father.

Our father.

When Jesus taught us to pray our father,

he was immediately teaching us that all of us are the children of God.

And therefore, no matter our race and ethnic background and culture and nationality,

we are all brothers and sisters.

Jesus didn't say the God of black folks and the God of white folks and the God of Latinos and the God of Asians. He simply said, our father. He didn't say the God of the Jews.

He said, our father. He was bringing us into a common community. He was bringing us into the

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