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So as you can see, God has been 
doing a miraculous work through 

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IJM over the last 28 years, and 
that initial spark of hope 

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really is becoming a flame. 
And I'd love to tell you a 

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little bit more about IJM so 
that you've got a full picture 

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of who we are this morning as we
introduce this organization to 

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you at Verso. 
So IJM International Justice 

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Mission is one of the world's 
largest anti slavery 

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organisations and we're 
currently working on 32 justice 

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system strengthening projects 
across 20 countries all over the

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world. 
That initial spark has spread 

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across the entire globe now. 
And we exist because on our 

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watch there are 50 million 
people in slavery in our world 

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today. 
And shockingly, one in four of 

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these is a child below the age 
of 18. 

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And the thing that I find 
compelling about IJM is that not

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only are we seeing one life 
transformed, one person brought 

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to safety from slavery and 
violence, but we're also seeing 

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entire justice systems 
transformed. 

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And you'll see up on screen here
now that six of the 9 

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jurisdictions that we've seen 
between A50 and 86% reduction in

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slavery in the communities where
we've worked. 

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It's an extraordinary 
transformation that is going on.

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And it seems to be that the key 
to this breakthrough is, is 

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twofold. 
First of all, it seems to be 

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that there's this tipping point 
that happens because of the way 

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that we work, where we see 
slavery go from a low risk, high

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reward activity to a high risk, 
low reward activity, as we see 

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perpetrators held to account for
some of their crimes and support

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survivors through the justice 
system. 

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But also, we are a movement that
is underpinned by prayer. 

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And so this is how we're seeing 
this miraculous transformation 

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happen around the world. 
One of the first ways that I was

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introduced to IJM, Claire 
mentioned that my husband and I 

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are involved in leading new 
wine. 

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And through new wine, I met IJM 
and was invited out to Ghana as 

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a church leader several years 
ago. 

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And on one of the days in Ghana,
the trip organisers told us that

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they were taking us to see one 
of the slave castles that was 

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built in the 1600s by the 
Europeans. 

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And if I'm honest, as someone 
who doesn't love museums, I was 

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a bit like, why are they 
spending one of our precious 

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days in Ghana going to see this 
old museum? 

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What I didn't realise was that 
beneath, as you'll see up on the

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screen, beneath these white 
stone washed walls, beneath the 

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the beautiful banqueting suites 
and the bedrooms, looking out to

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see there is a dungeon. 
And in this dungeon, the the 

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person showing us around told us
that our British ancestors would

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round up natives from that area 
in Ghana and hold them in this 

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dungeon thousands at a time, in 
close confines in the heat, with

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no sanitation, bodies decaying 
left on the ground. 

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And if this isn't shocking 
enough, the thing that really 

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got our attention, that arrested
my heart that day was when the 

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tour guides told us that right 
in the middle of that castle, on

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top of the dungeon, there was a 
church. 

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And the slave masters would walk
over a grate in the ground which

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led down to the dungeons with 
the smell and the sounds coming 

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up through this grate. 
And during that worship 

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services, they prayed, just like
we've been doing of their 

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worship. 
And thanks to God, if the sounds

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of suffering were too loud, they
would sing a little louder. 

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And in that moment, I just had 
this realisation again, I guess 

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that it's possible to be around 
church, to pray, to worship 

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even, and yet to not be people 
who are seeking first the 

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Kingdom of God on this earth. 
To be paying attention to the 

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least and the lost to the most 
vulnerable in our world. 

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John Tyson, who is a pastor in 
New York, I heard somebody tell 

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me recently that he'd said to a 
group of UK church leaders that 

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we are seeking, we're not 
seeking revival, we're seeking 

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the Kingdom coming. 
And that's, that's what we're 

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about, isn't it? 
I know that's what you're about 

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here at Verso and I believe that
this heart cry is what Jesus 

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meant when he's taught his 
closest friends and followers to

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pray your Kingdom come, your 
will be done in Matthew 6. 

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And so this morning we're going 
to dig into this prayer and I'm 

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going to read from Matthew 6, 
verse 5 to 15 if you want to 

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follow along either on screen or
on in your Bibles. 

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So verse 5 says, And when you 
pray, do not be like the 

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hypocrites, for they love to 
pray, standing in the synagogues

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and on the street corners to be 
seen by others. 

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Truly I tell you, they have 
received their rewards in full. 

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But when you pray, go into your 
room, close the door and pray to

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your Father who is unseen. 
Then your Father, who sees what 

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is done in secret, will reward 
you. 

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And when you pray, do not keep 
on babbling like pagans so they 

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think they will be heard because
of their many words. 

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Do not be like them, for your 
Father knows what you need 

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before you ask Him. 
This then, is how you should 

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pray. 
Our Father in heaven, hallowed 

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be your name, your Kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it

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is in heaven. 
Give us today Our Daily Bread 

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and forgive us our debts, as we 
also have forgiven our debtors. 

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And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil 

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one. 
For if you forgive other people 

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when they sin against you, your 
Heavenly Father will also 

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forgive you. 
But if you do not forgive others

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their sins, your Father will not
forgive your sins. 

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So as you might know if you've 
read this passage, this teaching

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on prayer is in the middle of 
the Sermon on the Mount, which 

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is goes from Matthew 5 through 
to Matthew 7. 

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And the Sermon on the Mount is 
this big chunk of teaching that 

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Jesus gathered his closest 
friends and followers to tell 

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them what the Kingdom of God 
looks like and how to live in 

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it. 
Essentially think church 

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weekends away. 
It's kind of those type of 

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vibes. 
He took his his friends up to 

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the top of the mountain, hence 
Sermon on the Mount. 

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And it becomes clear as you read
through it that this Kingdom is 

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not like any other Kingdom. 
This is an upside down Kingdom. 

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He teaches that here you're 
blessed if you're poor in 

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spirits, You're blessed when you
hunger and thirst for 

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righteousness, you're blessed 
when you're being insulted and 

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mistreated. 
This is not a Kingdom that the 

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world recognises. 
And if we want to understand a 

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little bit more about what the 
Kingdom of God looks like, we 

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can look at Jesus's wider 
ministry. 

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And I love looking at Luke 4, 
which is almost like Jesus 

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inauguration speech as he steps 
into public ministry and he uses

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that famous passage from Isaiah 
61 and he, he proclaims that the

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spirit of the sovereign Lords is
on him. 

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And, and he says that he's here 
to proclaim good news to the 

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poor, doesn't he? 
Freedom for the prisoners, 

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recovery of the site for the 
blind and to set the oppressed 

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free. 
That was his priority as he 

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stepped into his public 
ministry. 

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But I wonder if this this 
Kingdom mindsets can sometimes 

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get missed from our Western 
Christianity, from our churches.

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I know that I can certainly do 
that. 

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I love what NT Wright, who is a 
theologian some of you may have 

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heard about, says that in 
Western Christianity there can 

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be a tendency for the theme of 
God's Kingdom coming on earth as

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it is in heaven to be quietly 
lost from view. 

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But he's clear that the gospel's
main message at the centre of it

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all is about how God became king
of the whole world. 

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The Kingdom of God is at the 
centre of what our faith is 

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about. 
And so the Sermon on the Mount 

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is central to our understanding 
of the Kingdom of God. 

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And it's no surprise to me that 
prayer is right at the centre. 

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In chapter 6, Jesus is teaching 
that the Kingdom of God's life 

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has prayer at the centre because
prayer is where the 

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transformation happens. 
Prayer is where the power is. 

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And so prayer is where we must 
start because prayer 

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acknowledges that the power is 
is in the spiritual realms. 

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Our fight is not against flesh 
and blood, is it? 

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And so if we want to see 
transformation, we need to pray 

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for the power to change in the 
heavenly realms first. 

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And do you know, this is one of 
the things I love about IGN 

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because we really believe this 
and the culture that's been 

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created there really models 
having prayer right at the 

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centre. 
So our whole working rhythm is 

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modelled completely around 
prayer. 

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So in the morning, as a staff 
team of 1400 all around the 

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world, we have half an hour in 
stillness asking that God would 

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transform us. 
And then at lunchtime, we have 

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another half an hour coming 
together as teams around the 

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world asking that as transformed
people, we would be people who 

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transform the world. 
But that God would do the work 

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that only he can do, because 
there's only so much we can do 

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in our own strength, isn't 
there? 

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It's God who needs to do the 
things like bringing down the 

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giant of slavery. 
Only he can ultimately do that. 

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So prayer has to be at the 
centre as we seek for God's 

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Kingdom to come on earth. 
Carl Bartz puts it like this to 

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clasp the hands in prayer. 
It's the beginning of an 

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uprising against the disorder of
the world. 

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So I wonder when you remember 
first praying the Lord's Prayer 

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For me, I didn't grow up in 
church. 

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I didn't become a Christian to 
my 20s. 

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And so my first memory of 
praying the Lord's Prayer was in

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a tiny little primary school 
room sitting alongside where the

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peers probably nudging them and 
a bit of giggling and stuff. 

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And it was a lot of praying by 
rote and sort of chanting and 

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that kind of thing. 
I don't know what it brings back

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for you, but beyond liturgy and 
and memorised lines, this prayer

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is absolute fire. 
It summarises what it is to be 

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in relationship with our 
Heavenly Father, but also to 

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contend for a move of God, to 
contend for God's Kingdom to 

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come. 
So it starts by reframing how we

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should relate to God. 
In Jewish culture, God was often

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referred to as Father, but in 
the place of prayer he would 

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have been referred to as Lord. 
So they would have said adonai, 

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which was the words that they 
would have used. 

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So when Jesus teaches his 
followers to refer to God as 

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Father in the place of prayer, 
it was this moment of bringing 

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in a new kind of intimacy into 
that place. 

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I loved Lechio 365. 
Some of you may use that app, 

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00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:31,240
and this week it actually was 
featuring the Lord's Prayer, and

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00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:35,000
it had this beautiful image of 
imagining curling up on our 

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Father's lap as we say these 
words. 

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I love that image, but at the 
same time, it combines the word 

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Father with reminding us that 
he's in heaven, that his name is

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to be hallowed. 
And we were singing it at the 

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beginning, weren't we? 
Our God reigns above it all. 

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He's sovereign, He is holy. 
And so this duality of intimacy,

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but also majesty is 
foundational. 

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00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:10,240
As we pray your Kingdom come, 
your will be done. 

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00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:18,480
Because here's the thing, if God
is a God of intimacy, a God who 

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has a father's heart, who's 
compassionate, who loves his 

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00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:25,200
children. 
But if he's also a God who is 

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00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:32,160
holy, who is separate from sin, 
who longs to see his rule and 

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00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:36,840
reign on the earth, it it 
logically means that all of his 

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00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:42,960
being, all of his will, will be 
longing for his Kingdom to come 

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00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:49,960
to be established on earth. 
And justice is all about what is

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right and restoring the earth to
what it should be. 

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00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:59,240
And so it flows out of God's 
holiness. 

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00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:05,880
So to pray for God's Kingdom to 
come is to pray for the things 

206
00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:10,360
that Jesus announced in Luke 4. 
Good news for the poor, freedom 

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00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:12,560
for the prisoner and the 
oppressed. 

208
00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:18,920
God longs for the world to be 
set right, and He longs for his 

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00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:22,120
followers to long for the world 
to be set right. 

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00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:26,040
Do we long for the world to be 
set right? 

211
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:33,680
And so he teaches his followers 
to centre their communication 

212
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with their loving Heavenly 
Father around this same heart. 

213
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:42,280
Cry, Let your Kingdom come and 
your will be done. 

214
00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:49,400
So the last line that we're 
going to look at in the first 

215
00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,920
half of this prayer is on earth 
as it is in heaven. 

216
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:59,880
And Tim Mackey, who is part of 
the Bible Project, lots of 

217
00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:03,520
amazing videos that you can 
watch online, says that the 

218
00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:08,160
Lord's Prayer is ultimately a 
prayer for the reunication of 

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00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:14,599
heaven and earth. 
So Jesus is is teaching his 

220
00:17:14,599 --> 00:17:18,359
closest friends a prayer for 
God's presence, for God's rule 

221
00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:23,440
and reign to be restored on the 
earth, for his presence to be 

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00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,960
here, just as it was always 
intended. 

223
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:31,480
And we know, don't we, that one 
day heaven will come to earth. 

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God will be restored on the 
earth or will be made new. 

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Every tear will be wiped from 
every eye, but in the meantime, 

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as followers of Jesus, our job 
is to pray your Kingdom come on 

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earth as it is in heaven. 
If we look at history and look 

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at the awakenings of the Church,
we see that these awakenings of 

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the church led to His Kingdom 
coming on earth, to society 

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being transformed, to people 
being healed, to nations being 

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changed. 
I loved some words from Pete 

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Gregg recently who said And 
it'll come up on screen. 

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The quiet revival within 
Wesley's heart during the First 

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Great Awakening in England would
spark one of the greatest 

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awakenings the world has ever 
seen. 

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Detonating the Methodist 
movement, reforming British 

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society, averting a bloody 
revolution, repopulating dying 

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churches, mobilizing the lazy, 
rescuing millions from 

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generational cycles of poverty, 
catalyzing the planting of 

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countless new churches, and 
ultimately, through Wesley's 

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disciple Wilberforce, 
criminalising the slave trades 

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in the British Empire. 
From our churches being renewed 

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and awakened, society was 
transformed. 

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What would it look like for this
awakening to lead to our world 

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being restored and transformed? 
What would you love to see? 

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What do you long for? 
And I know that you guys at 

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Verso are doing an incredible 
job through Verso care, meeting 

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the needs of some of the more 
vulnerable people in your 

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neighborhoods. 
I know that you're partnering 

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with Azalea, a local charity who
work with survivors of 

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trafficking, and we're so 
thankful for your new 

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partnership with IJM. 
We're so thankful for churches 

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like yours around the country 
and around the world because 

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it's means that we can work with
more local agents on the ground 

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to see God's Kingdom come in the
ways that I've been explaining. 

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Your support is like a stake in 
the ground that says that an 

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awakening of the Church must. 
Include justice and the 

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Reformation of society from your
local street right to the ends 

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of the earth. 
And so as we come in towards the

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end, I want to tell you about 
one of the newest areas of work 

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is you step in to partnership 
with IGN. 

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It's an area that we are just 
stepping into and it's in the 

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nation of Bangladesh. 
And I just want to give a 

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trigger warning that I'm going 
to be speaking about sexual 

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exploitation. 
And so if this is something that

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you will find hard to hear, feel
so free to step out. 

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And I know that there'll be 
pastoral care around if that's 

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something that you would like to
access. 

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So our office in Bangladesh has 
been opened over the last six 

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months, but we've been working 
there over the last few years 

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because we've been aware of the 
issue of commercial sexual 

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exploitation of children. 
Our investigators have been 

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working on the ground for, as I 
say, the last few years and what

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they found has kind of blown our
mind. 

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It's beyond what we expected. 
What we found is that of the 

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200,000 people in the commercial
sexual exploitation, commercial 

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sexual industry in Bangladesh, 
we believe that 50% of those 

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children are children, which 
means that there are up to 

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100,000 children who are 
currently being exploited for 

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sex just in one nation. 
In fact, we found the 

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investigators my colleagues 
found as they went around 

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brothels in the 14 brothel 
villages that are licensed in 

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Bangladesh. 
They found in 100% of the 

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brothels they visited there were
children who were being who are 

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available for sex. 
Let's take a moment to take in 

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those figures. 100,000 is about 
the population of Watford. 

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And of course, inside these 
figures, our siblings, our 

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children, our friends, each one 
of these 100,000 is a person 

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with dreams, with hobbies, with 
hormones. 

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They're just normal people like 
you and I. 

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One of the IJM team over there, 
someone called Marie, told us 

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that she chatted to a 16 year 
old girl and this 16 year old 

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00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:30,360
girl had a four month old baby. 
And she discovers it in 

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conversations with the other 
women in the brothel that when 

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the 16 year old was servicing 
clients, she was hand her baby 

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to other women in the brothel. 
But if there weren't other women

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to look after the baby, the baby
was put under the bed while the 

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16 year old serviced clients. 
When we pray the Lord's Prayer, 

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we're praying for people like 
this 16 year old girl, but we're

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also praying that the systems 
and the structures that have led

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to her and many others being 
exploited would be smashed, 

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would be transformed and 
changed. 

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Amen. 
Amen. 

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And the great thing is that we 
know that change is possible 

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00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:34,880
because God answers prayer. 
God is powerful, and we have 

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seen God bring miraculous 
transformation. 

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As I said at the beginning, in 
nine jurisdictions around the 

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world, we've seen up to an 86% 
reduction in slavery and 

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violence. 
We know that he will do it again

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in Bangladesh. 
So light is breaking in. 

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But as the video said at the 
beginning, this is just the 

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beginning. 
And so we're so thankful Verso 

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00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:10,560
for your partnership as we step 
into works like Bangladesh and 

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00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:15,680
many others around the world. 
In a minute, we're going to 

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stand and pray the Lord's Prayer
together. 

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00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:23,800
But first, I'd love to give you 
an opportunity to individually 

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step into praying with us as you
journey with IJM as a church. 

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If you look on the screen, you 
can see the the part of our 

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website. 
So if you go to IGMUK, you may 

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00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:41,040
even want to get your phone out.
Now you can go to 

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00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:48,040
igmuk.org/prayer and you can 
sign up to be a prayer partner 

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00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,080
with us, which means that you 
get an e-mail and there's an 

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00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:56,800
option to also get SMS text, 
which gives you updates on some 

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00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,280
of our work, like the work I've 
been talking about this morning,

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and gives you avenues to pray. 
Your Kingdom come on, earth as 

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00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,600
in heaven. 
So if you would like to do that,

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00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:12,040
we would love you to join the 
thousands already in this 

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00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:17,160
country who are doing that. 
Should we stand and pray? 

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I think Claire's going to join 
me. 

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00:26:27,290 --> 00:26:30,290
So Verso, let's pray this 
together. 

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00:26:32,130 --> 00:26:34,130
I think there might be a slide 
before this one. 

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00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:38,480
We know the prayer. 
Come on guys. 

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00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:47,960
Our Father who art in heaven, 
hallowed be your name, your 

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00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:55,040
Kingdom come, your will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven. 

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00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:01,600
Give us this day Our Daily 
Bread, and forgive us our 

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00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:09,000
trespasses, as we forgive those 
who sin against, and lead us not

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00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:13,400
into temptation, but deliver us 
from evil. 

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00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:20,440
For thine is the Kingdom, the 
power, and the glory, forever 

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00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:22,600
and ever. 
Amen.