We're going to be reading from Matthew 6-9-13.

Pray then in this way, our Father in Heaven, howled 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 do not bring us to the time of trial,

but rescue us from the evil one. This is the Word of the Lord.

So we're continuing teaching series on prayer obviously, but we're also all aware that

tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day when we will remember Dr. King and the contributions

that he has made to the ongoing change and movement of justice that is desperately

needed in taking place in this country. And as we do so, I just want to acknowledge

the simple fact that we're not talking about two separate things here. When we talk

about prayer and then we address Martin Luther King Day, these themes are very much intertwined

that we're talking about night and day prayer in the month of February. And we know many

accounts of Dr. King up throughout the night in prayer over the justice that he's asking

God for. Many rhythms of his life have been documented him rising early and seeking God

first thing in the morning. That we are reading a prayer that's inspired by the prophet Isaiah.

And the last words Dr. King had the last time he gave a public address, he also quoted

Isaiah and said, I've been to the mountaintop. And he used the exact same prophet as his

final prayer for what he would see God do in this land. And we're praying through that

same prophet's words that we have brothers and sisters of color among us who have a different

spiritual heritage than the majority culture might have. And we need to deeply identify

with that spiritual heritage because we talk from the book of Exodus about a God who hears

the cries of the oppressed and enslaved people and then moves Moses to go and seek them

...