Jesus models the adoration of God.

"Our Father" makes God intimate.

"Hallowed be Thy Name" reminds us God is also holy and majestic.

To praise God is to vocally adore God, to render honor, to esteem, to love and worship God.

This message provides some practical ways to do so:

Praying the Psalms.

Pausing and Rejoicing

Praising with Music

Posture of Praise

Of all the things the disciples could have requested, they asked, "Lord, Teach Us to Pray."

They didn't ask, Teach us to evangelize, or teach us to preach, or teach us a leadership axiom.  No they asked, "Teach Us to Pray."

So in this series paralleling the "Prayer Course" we will learn to pray using the Lord's Prayer as our model.

Give thanks to God with your whole heart and recount again and again his wonderful deeds!

Declare what God has done and trust God for the future!

Charles Spurgeon once said, "Half heart is no heart!"

This message is a call to go deeper in our relationship with God.  Deeper in faith, deeper in service.

It's a call to take the next step to walk closer with God.

The texts today are a reminder to go deeper in our praise of the Lord.

The message suggests that we can go deeper by reflecting on who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised.  And the Psalms are a great place to reflect upon these truths!

Simeon's song reminds us that we can have hope in the midst of the waiting.

We can hope for Jesus is our hope in the hopelessness.

Mary's Song of Worship is intense and humble.

She is clear that the object of her worship is the Lord and Savior.

She has reason to worship.  She worships because of God's redemptive history and she is assured God will continue those mighty acts in Jesus.

In Jesus, we can have peace with God.

It is peace from our past, peace in the present, and peace for the future.

Christmas and Christmas Songs are beautiful and even enchanting.

But what about when life is not so "Holly Jolly?"

Well, we still have songs of faith and one of those which is part of the birth of Jesus is Zechariah's song in Luke 1:67-79.

Zechariah and the Israelites had been waiting a long time for the Messiah - more than 400 years in fact.

We learn something from Zechariah and even more so from Jesus about what to do while we are waiting.

This message looks at the final two pieces of the whole armor of God: the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.