back to index2018-09-30 Power in Living in God's Will
00:00:09.040 |
I know it's been read, but we want you to know which text that we're in. 00:00:13.120 |
So we're reading it again in Romans chapter 15, 30 to 33. 00:00:17.520 |
Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive 00:00:21.760 |
together with me in prayer to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient 00:00:26.800 |
in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints, so that 00:00:31.960 |
I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. 00:00:41.960 |
Heavenly Father, you are a gracious and loving God. 00:00:48.280 |
We thank you, Father, for loving us, guiding us, and giving us the privilege to be able 00:00:57.120 |
We pray that your word would go forth and have its effect on our hearts. 00:01:01.320 |
Sanctify us, renew us, strengthen us, Lord God, that your word would develop, strengthen, 00:01:08.840 |
rebuke, encourage, and train us, Lord God, for a life of godliness for your namesake. 00:01:14.960 |
So bless us this morning, Jesus, and we pray. 00:01:19.160 |
So as you guys know, we're like wrapping up chapter 15 and 16, and I don't know exactly 00:01:25.040 |
how many more sermons are left in 15 and 16, but it's been, again, for me, you know, I'm 00:01:33.120 |
We've been on it for so long, and it's been a, personally, it's been a blessing for me 00:01:37.220 |
to be able to go back and review and prepare sermons, and as we're looking at chapter 15, 00:01:42.440 |
he is wrapping up his presentation of this is the reason why he wrote the letter. 00:01:46.800 |
He's in the context of doing mission and spreading the gospel that he says in the previous verse 00:01:51.600 |
that he's kind of run out of places to go, and now he's trying to stretch his ministry 00:01:57.080 |
out towards Spain, and so his whole intention is to come stop by Rome. 00:02:02.360 |
His goal is not to be in Rome, but to stop by Rome to encourage them, to get some support, 00:02:10.040 |
Apostle Paul was a man who was absolutely committed, obsessed with the gospel ministry, 00:02:15.980 |
and we talked about last week that this was not unique to Apostle Paul. 00:02:21.400 |
All the apostles went all different places doing the exact same thing, that they covered 00:02:26.680 |
what we would consider about the size of the United States in about 10 to 15 years. 00:02:31.840 |
A few men who were just running, some of them running for their lives, and that's how the 00:02:40.200 |
You know, if you've ever been out to short-term missions, you know what it feels like, and 00:02:45.240 |
I think, you know, I've been taking short-term trips with our church and even previous to 00:02:51.240 |
that so many times, and I really enjoy that time. 00:02:55.560 |
Physically, it's draining, but during that period, you know, you have a small group of 00:02:59.960 |
people who are very focused on doing God's work. 00:03:04.520 |
People raise money, and we prepare for two months or three months, and while we're there, 00:03:08.760 |
you know, most of the time, we're not living in comfortable quarters. 00:03:14.720 |
A lot of times, we're physically drained at the end of the day, and usually, I get much 00:03:19.600 |
better sleep out in the mission field than I do here, because by the end of the day, 00:03:22.960 |
I'm so physically exhausted, I hit the bed, and I just conk out, you know, so I don't 00:03:26.320 |
have a problem sleeping as much as when I am here. 00:03:30.720 |
But anybody who's been out to short-term missions will share with you, you know, just 00:03:34.520 |
the joy that they experience in the midst of fatigue and working and sacrificing, because 00:03:42.820 |
You wake up in the morning, you know exactly why you're there. 00:03:46.180 |
You eat breakfast, you meet up with people, you do physical labor, and everything that 00:03:50.680 |
we do, there's a clear purpose, clear reason, and it is obviously to spread the gospel. 00:03:57.680 |
And we want to continue that when we come back home. 00:04:04.040 |
And that's almost always the application that all the team members have when they come back 00:04:12.600 |
But the challenge is when we come home, for whatever the reason, we turn that off. 00:04:21.280 |
And so that's why so many people have been out to short-term, want to continue to go 00:04:25.240 |
out, because they want to experience that experience of being just single-minded in 00:04:33.880 |
See, God did not intend that to be just for the apostles or just a few missionaries who 00:04:40.140 |
pack up their bags and go wherever it is that they go. 00:04:43.760 |
God called us to live single-mindedly for the gospel, whether you are here or you're 00:04:48.960 |
overseas, whether you are short-term missions or you're here raising children. 00:04:52.520 |
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, 22, 27, he sums up his ministry this way, "To the weak I 00:05:00.720 |
I become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some. 00:05:12.100 |
Everything that he does, he does for the sake of the gospel. 00:05:15.740 |
Not just two weeks in the summer, not just over the weekend, not just when the church 00:05:21.080 |
has a program or certain things are going on, but he said everything he does, he does 00:05:28.040 |
He goes on and says, "So that I may become a fellow particular, do you not know that 00:05:31.580 |
those who run in a race all run, but only one receives a prize. 00:05:39.520 |
There's a distinction between a Christian who is frustrated and a Christian who's bearing 00:05:47.740 |
If you are a believer, you are running, you are part of the race, but Paul says God's 00:05:52.580 |
calling for us is not to simply say, "You know what? 00:05:54.580 |
I'm in the race," but he says, "Run in such a way to win." 00:06:02.100 |
Do we do all things for the sake of the gospel or is the gospel just something that's things 00:06:05.900 |
that we do when we're at church or at Bible study or in small group or when we have projects? 00:06:13.680 |
Can we say that when we look at our lives, that meeting Christ changed everything about 00:06:22.260 |
Everyone who competes in the games, exercises self-control and all things, they then do 00:06:24.940 |
it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 00:06:30.620 |
Christians and non-Christians, all of us, we have things that are on our mind and we 00:06:37.820 |
Imagine, even many of you in here, how hard you are working to get the promotion. 00:06:43.420 |
If you're a student, you're working very hard because you have projects coming up, you want 00:06:49.740 |
There's certain things that we're doing in our families. 00:06:51.380 |
We have goals and we want to win, we want to get better, we want to get ahead, but he 00:06:56.940 |
said that the world does all of that for perishable wreath. 00:07:02.380 |
That you may get the promotion, your business may do well, you may have a better retirement, 00:07:07.060 |
but the end goal of all of that is perishable. 00:07:12.440 |
That whether you win or lose, the end product of it is judgment. 00:07:18.620 |
But Paul says, but we do it for imperishable. 00:07:20.960 |
We are consumed, we are focused, we are dedicated for things that cannot perish, which ultimately 00:07:27.380 |
Therefore, Paul says, I run in such a way as not without aim, I box in such a way as 00:07:31.860 |
not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have 00:07:36.860 |
preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. 00:07:42.860 |
It sums up the apostles' life, it sums up the early church life. 00:07:46.780 |
It sums up the life of many Christians even today. 00:07:50.780 |
But they met Christ and it didn't just change a tenth of their finances. 00:07:57.700 |
Tithe was always meant to be an act of dedication of everything that we have. 00:08:05.140 |
But the problem and the challenge that we have is in the way that we give tithe, that 00:08:10.420 |
we give a tenth and so therefore the 90% is mine to do whatever I want. 00:08:16.420 |
We've given our Sundays, so Monday through Saturday is mine. 00:08:20.460 |
We've dedicated this much, so all of this is for me to have. 00:08:25.300 |
Paul was consumed, he was obsessed with the gospel. 00:08:28.860 |
And it would only make sense for somebody who confesses Christ as Lord and Savior that 00:08:38.020 |
Paul, in summarizing that this is the purpose of why he wrote the letter, he concludes everything 00:08:44.220 |
that he's been saying by saying, after you've heard all of this and the reason why I'm 00:08:47.980 |
coming, and I'm asking you, I'm urging you to pray. 00:08:52.820 |
Above all that I have said, before you pack up your bags, before you get challenged and 00:08:58.180 |
you go out on the street, before you organize your finances and give it to anybody, before 00:09:04.260 |
you do anything, he says, I urge you to be committed to prayer. 00:09:13.900 |
Or in New King James it says to beseech, or the King James Version has the most clearest. 00:09:18.900 |
And it gives the real meaning behind this, where Paul says, I beg you, I beg you to pray, 00:09:28.580 |
Not just to pray nonchalantly, not just to sprinkle prayer on all the things that we 00:09:33.700 |
And we have a tendency to kind of make our plans that God, would you help me to do this? 00:09:40.140 |
Romans 12, 12, rejoice in hope, persevering in tribulation, and be devoted to prayer. 00:09:49.660 |
That's the difference between an effective prayer and an ineffective prayer. 00:09:53.700 |
A prayer that is offered up to God nonchalantly is usually very ineffective. 00:10:01.260 |
And I share this many times, when you're raising children, you know, especially when they're 00:10:04.860 |
young, you know when they need you and you know when they're just crying out for attention. 00:10:10.340 |
There's a difference, you know, and I think that's the difference between a veteran parent 00:10:17.820 |
So when you have your first kid, every time they cry, you're like freaking out. 00:10:21.700 |
You know, two in the morning, four in the morning, you hear a little bit of cry, they 00:10:25.180 |
What if they're suffocating and you run in and you're so tired by the time you get to 00:10:28.860 |
your third kid, it's like, eh, they don't need me. 00:10:37.100 |
So there are certain things that they don't really need my attention. 00:10:39.300 |
So when they're younger, you jump at everything. 00:10:41.220 |
But as they get older, you know there are certain kinds of cries where you need to jump 00:10:46.240 |
And there are certain kinds of cries, they're just being kids. 00:10:50.980 |
In the way that we pray, are we simply getting God's attention or are we devoted to this? 00:10:57.220 |
In Colossians 4, 2, it says, "Devote yourselves to prayer." 00:11:01.180 |
In 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, "Pray without ceasing." 00:11:07.780 |
All throughout Scripture, it describes the temple of God as a place of prayer. 00:11:14.020 |
He didn't say it's a place of gathering, he didn't say it's a place of community, he didn't 00:11:21.220 |
And all of these things are true, but primarily it says it is a place of prayer. 00:11:27.060 |
2 Chronicles 7, 14, when the temple of God was being dedicated after Solomon made it, 00:11:32.780 |
the prayer they offered up to God was, "If my people humble themselves and pray." 00:11:39.340 |
It was meant to be a place for people to come and meet with God, first and foremost. 00:11:46.980 |
Jesus himself, when he was angry with the way that the temple was being used, he says 00:11:51.820 |
that the zeal for the house of God would consume him, and he called the temple a place of prayer. 00:12:02.220 |
How much of our frustration is with community? 00:12:05.180 |
How much of our frustration is about peripheral things and not focused on what is central, 00:12:11.660 |
Ephesians 6, 18-19, "With all prayer, petition, pray all the times in the Spirit, and with 00:12:17.700 |
this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." 00:12:23.060 |
You notice how over and over again he mentions all prayer, all times, all perseverance, for 00:12:31.340 |
He says this at the end of the spiritual battle, "Put on the full armor of God so that we 00:12:37.380 |
And at the end, conclusion, he says, "Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray." 00:12:42.860 |
That's the primary thing that God calls us to do in the church, to be a place of prayer, 00:12:51.580 |
Before we are devoted to missions, before we are concerned about community, before we 00:12:57.820 |
are concerned about our family, before we are consumed over the well-being of our children, 00:13:10.540 |
Not only does he say to pray, he says to strive together. 00:13:13.180 |
The word for striving together is "sun agonizomai." 00:13:19.500 |
You can already hear the English word behind that, to agonize, to wrestle, to struggle. 00:13:27.220 |
He says in our prayer, we are to agonize together. 00:13:30.900 |
See, where you and I are, typically when we think of prayer, prayer is offered up kind 00:13:38.260 |
Like, we've already made our plans, we've already figured out how to do church, we've 00:13:41.940 |
already figured out what to do in discipleship, we've already figured out how people should 00:13:45.020 |
behave and not behave, what I like and don't like. 00:13:47.740 |
And then after we have done all the work, we come before God, "Lord, would you bless 00:13:52.780 |
He said first and foremost, the work is the prayer, to struggle. 00:14:00.140 |
That's why Paul says in Colossians 2, "I want you to know how great a struggle I have 00:14:06.820 |
He's been praying for the Colossians even before he ever met these people. 00:14:13.780 |
You know, one of the crucial points in Israel's history where Jacob wrestles with God and 00:14:19.140 |
he changes his name to Israel, calls him the man who wrestles with God. 00:14:24.140 |
So God made the promise to Abraham, but where it actually begins to form is under Jacob. 00:14:32.100 |
But that beginning point in Genesis chapter 22, where he, this tricky man who basically 00:14:38.420 |
tricked his older brother out of his birthright, now he sees God and he says, "I cannot let 00:14:47.940 |
And so the blessing upon Jacob and his family came because Jacob wrestled with God and he 00:14:55.980 |
And for the rest of his life, as a sign of his wrestling, God basically allows him to 00:15:01.980 |
And that limp was a sign of his devotion to God. 00:15:05.700 |
But where we see the greatest wrestling before God is Jesus himself. 00:15:10.140 |
In Luke chapter 22, verse 44, as he is wrestling in the garden of Gethsemane, before he goes 00:15:15.260 |
to the cross, he says, "And being in agony, he was praying fervently and his sweat became 00:15:23.180 |
like drops of blood falling down upon the ground." 00:15:27.580 |
In the NASB, it says it was like a blood, like drops of blood. 00:15:31.940 |
In some of your translations, it just says his sweat turned to blood. 00:15:37.900 |
In the journal of dermatology, there's actually a name for this condition. 00:15:42.500 |
So those of you guys in the medical field, even if I butchered it, just be gracious. 00:15:52.780 |
If you're not in the medical field, that's how it's pronounced. 00:15:58.740 |
He says this is a condition that comes when a human being over exerts themselves. 00:16:06.420 |
He says the cause of hematohedrosis is excessive exertion, psychogenic, and other conditions 00:16:16.960 |
But there's an actual condition when someone has exerted themselves to the point of exhaustion, 00:16:24.940 |
And this is, again, this is coming from a medical journal. 00:16:27.480 |
He says that Christ, when at the Garden of Gethsemane, was wrestling before God in prayer, 00:16:35.740 |
And you can imagine, humanly speaking, for three years, as soon as people thought that 00:16:39.180 |
he might be the Messiah, they would not leave him alone. 00:16:43.820 |
I mean, he starts with a small crowd, but by the time his fame begins to spread, people 00:16:51.860 |
And then once he begins to speak, the group is divided in two. 00:16:56.980 |
One group who couldn't get enough of him, and they were tearing down other people's 00:17:01.000 |
roofs to get to him, and he would disappear because he's tired, break away even from his 00:17:08.060 |
And thousands of them would cross seas and hills and travel long distances just to get 00:17:18.600 |
And then you had the other group of people, once they figured out that Jesus was not for 00:17:24.940 |
Imagine living under that pressure for three years. 00:17:29.220 |
You know, this week is Welcome Week, and so I know a lot of you collegians came back into 00:17:33.700 |
town and there's a lot of events of reaching out, and it's been a busy week for the college 00:17:42.060 |
You know, he got baptized into college ministry this week, and so we knew that the difficult 00:17:47.100 |
schedule was coming up, but I felt tired for him yesterday. 00:17:52.260 |
You know, and on top of that, we had our annual, like all-day leaders meeting right in the 00:17:57.500 |
middle of this, and then he had to stick around. 00:17:59.660 |
We went home and crashed, and then he had to stick around, you know. 00:18:03.940 |
But can you imagine that as tiring as that may be, that Jesus was probably that ten times, 00:18:15.340 |
So by the time he gets to Gethsemane, he is utterly exhausted. 00:18:22.100 |
Even when the disciples, when some of them came, they say, "I'm going to follow you," 00:18:27.460 |
You know, "Fox have holes, birds of the air has net, but Son of Man has nowhere to rest 00:18:40.860 |
He was agonizing before God because he knew what was coming the next day. 00:18:46.020 |
I mean, you know how uncomfortable it is when you go somewhere where you're just not familiar? 00:18:54.180 |
Whether it's some other place or some other place's house, or maybe the food's unfamiliar, 00:19:01.100 |
or you know, it's just tiring because you're not at home, right? 00:19:06.820 |
Christ, according to Scripture, could not dwell among sinners. 00:19:13.420 |
That's what the whole book of Leviticus is about, to describe a holy God who cannot dwell 00:19:18.180 |
with sinners and sinners who cannot approach him. 00:19:20.380 |
So imagine this God who created the universe, everything's made for him, by him, and for 00:19:28.780 |
The fact that he was even just walking on earth must have been completely exhausting. 00:19:36.180 |
Think about you parents who have small children, right? 00:19:41.500 |
Does a three-year-old ever stop and say, "Oh, you must be tired. 00:19:51.100 |
Like, you know, a bunch of three, two, you know, four-year-olds, and it's like, "I was 00:19:58.780 |
I'm just, you know, I want to—today's for you, Mommy, Daddy." 00:20:12.580 |
You could have been sick for three days and vomiting. 00:20:22.140 |
Imagine Jesus walking on earth among sinners, where the whole purpose in life is to glorify 00:20:45.220 |
He knew that the cross was coming, and at the cross, that all the selfishness, all the 00:20:51.060 |
sins, past, present, and future, that they've tried so hard to hide, was going to be laid 00:20:58.740 |
upon him, and he was going to have to absorb all of that upon himself. 00:21:04.380 |
And the only person that was aware of that, it was the Trinity. 00:21:14.580 |
Jesus knew, and that's why he sat before his Father, agonizing, physically fatigued, and 00:21:22.900 |
was wrestling before his Father, because he knew what was at stake. 00:21:31.300 |
Part of the reason why you and I do not agonize is because we are not often aware of the spiritual 00:21:40.460 |
We do not agonize often because we don't recognize what it is that we have in Christ. 00:22:01.180 |
How much of our focus in our walk with God is about building community? 00:22:05.460 |
I want to have good friends when we go to church. 00:22:13.740 |
I want to be able to run together, do things together, and do missions together, and raise 00:22:19.820 |
And so much of our frustration comes from when the community that we want isn't functioning 00:22:27.800 |
So much of our frustration, so much of our relational problems, are because we've paid 00:22:31.760 |
attention too much to peripheral things and not enough in what's at the core. 00:22:36.860 |
Let me ask you, how many of you didn't have friends before you became a Christian? 00:22:48.940 |
Most of you had friends before you became a Christian. 00:22:55.020 |
How many of you guys didn't have a job before you became a Christian? 00:22:59.300 |
How many of you didn't have family before you became a Christian? 00:23:03.660 |
How many of you didn't have money before you became a Christian? 00:23:07.580 |
Like didn't you belong to a club, key club, baseball club, basketball club, I don't know 00:23:16.540 |
Didn't you have goals and purpose before you became a Christian? 00:23:26.460 |
Why has all of that stuff come back in and have become the central things that we're 00:23:33.460 |
looking for when the only thing that you were missing before you became a Christian was 00:23:40.840 |
It wasn't money, it wasn't community, it wasn't friendship, it wasn't family. 00:23:48.100 |
What was missing was your relationship with Christ. 00:23:54.200 |
So the primary pursuit of every Christian ought to be pursuit of Christ because that's 00:24:09.980 |
Prayer is not the preparation for battle, it is the battle itself. 00:24:16.060 |
It's coming before God and acknowledging that I don't have the authority or the power. 00:24:21.460 |
At the core of prayer is acknowledging that He is Lord and not me. 00:24:33.300 |
The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian isn't simply what he confesses. 00:24:37.340 |
Like, "Oh, I believe that Jesus died on the cross." 00:24:41.380 |
Oh, Christian, and I don't know if I believe that, I don't know if there's a God, so non-Christian. 00:24:48.660 |
The book of James says you can confess all of that and still have demonic faith. 00:24:54.660 |
The difference between a true believer and an unbeliever is the one who understands and 00:25:06.140 |
In 1 Peter 4, 7 it says, "At the end of all things is near, therefore be of sound judgment 00:25:13.260 |
He doesn't say pray so that you can be sober. 00:25:18.340 |
So the power is in prayer, not in your soberness. 00:25:25.260 |
He says it again in 1 Peter 3, 7, "You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an 00:25:29.060 |
understanding way as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as 00:25:34.460 |
a fellow heir of the grace of life so that your prayers would not be hindered." 00:25:38.940 |
He says be gracious, be loving, be a good husband so that you can pray, so that your 00:25:49.580 |
The reason why, one of the reasons why we are ineffective in our prayers is because 00:25:54.220 |
our life is inconsistent with the way that we pray. 00:25:59.060 |
If we don't acknowledge God as Lord, you can't come in prayer and say, "Lord, let your will 00:26:10.220 |
It battles against our desire to be independent of God. 00:26:15.660 |
Prayer is when we wrestle before God to establish Him as Lord and not us, where He becomes central, 00:26:25.620 |
We don't do all these things, make all these plans, and then God sprinkles and says, "Lord, 00:26:30.500 |
Help me to raise my children, help me to have this kind of church, and help me to do this 00:26:37.700 |
He says we do all of these things so that we can pray, so that we can be effective in 00:26:43.660 |
Let me ask you, how fervently and devoted would you be to prayer if you knew, if you 00:26:54.220 |
knew that God was waiting for you to make up your mind to pray to save your loved ones? 00:27:03.780 |
And I know most of you know somebody that you are praying that they would come to Christ. 00:27:13.740 |
Every time we ask, we have prayer meetings that you may bring that up and pray. 00:27:17.580 |
But you yourself are not devoted to praying for that. 00:27:24.460 |
You kind of pray in prayer meetings maybe if somebody asks you. 00:27:27.580 |
But you have not committed yourself to pray that that is the source. 00:27:31.180 |
So you sought counsel, you've asked other people, you've asked other pastors and other 00:27:35.820 |
leaders to get involved, but you have not engaged God. 00:27:41.980 |
How many of you would be devoted to prayer if you knew for a fact God says you do not 00:27:54.740 |
But the truth is that's exactly what he says. 00:27:58.360 |
In James chapter 4, 2-3, "You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. 00:28:02.300 |
You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. 00:28:09.960 |
You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend 00:28:15.580 |
He says you do not have because you have not devoted yourself to pray. 00:28:22.200 |
He says even in prayer, he says in verse 30, "I urge you by our Lord Jesus Christ." 00:28:29.420 |
It may sound like something he says in passing, but the key to answered prayer is what he 00:28:36.060 |
"I urge you to pray by our Lord Jesus Christ." 00:28:39.820 |
Next week we're going to be talking about what does it mean to pray by the love of the 00:28:43.980 |
But he says to pray by our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:28:53.220 |
Over and over again, Paul says everything that he does at the end of verse 32, by the 00:28:58.240 |
See, the difference between a Christian and non-Christian is a Christian who, he now lives 00:29:07.520 |
Versus a non-Christian who is continuing to live according to his will. 00:29:11.140 |
On the surface it may look the same, but a non-Christian is a person who's never established 00:29:29.720 |
I mean we repented that for sanctification, but the initial repentance was a repentance 00:29:39.760 |
Where we were living for our glory, for our satisfaction, and as the scripture says, that 00:29:45.080 |
wrath of God remains because people refuse to acknowledge God and to give thanks to him. 00:29:53.200 |
So a difference between a Christian and a non-Christian, a Christian is an individual 00:29:56.760 |
who repented that he's living independently from God. 00:30:01.880 |
He's not living for his will, he's living for his own will, his own life. 00:30:06.780 |
And then you're hoping that God will help you live your life. 00:30:12.960 |
It is absolutely contradictory to say to live your best life now. 00:30:19.720 |
Your best life is to be crucified so that we can have his life. 00:30:26.920 |
That's the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. 00:30:29.600 |
It's a person who lives by God's will versus somebody who's lived by his will. 00:30:35.000 |
Paul says over and over again in 1 Corinthians 1.1, "I'm an apostle by the will of God." 00:30:39.720 |
Romans 1.10, "That if I come to you, it's because of the will of God." 00:30:43.520 |
Romans 8.27, "He prays according to the will of God." 00:30:47.880 |
He says, Romans 12.2, "To renew your mind not to be conformed to this world so that 00:30:54.800 |
1 Thessalonians 4.3, "Sanctification is the will of God." 00:30:58.160 |
1 Peter 4.19, "Suffering is the will of God." 00:31:00.880 |
Hebrews 10.36, "Glory comes after we have done the will of God." 00:31:04.680 |
James 4.15, "Our whole life ought to be given for the will of God." 00:31:09.600 |
1 Peter 5.2, "The church is being led by elders who live according to the will of God." 00:31:14.640 |
1 John 2.17, "The one who lives are the one who do the will of God." 00:31:22.000 |
Our salvation is described as an individual who used to live by his will and now he's 00:31:35.640 |
Because prayer is contingent upon whether we live by his will or not. 00:31:41.440 |
The reason why we are not bold in our prayers is because we are not bold in obedience. 00:31:52.580 |
Maybe you made some plans with your parents and not with your parents, but a bunch of 00:31:56.280 |
your friends and decided you're going to watch this movie. 00:31:58.480 |
But you don't have enough money and you need 30 bucks. 00:32:04.920 |
15 bucks for a movie ticket and 15 bucks for dinner. 00:32:08.080 |
And so, you know, your parents have been on your case. 00:32:10.720 |
You're not doing your chores and you don't have the assistance. 00:32:12.920 |
So you know if you ask them for 30 bucks, you know what they're going to say. 00:32:18.460 |
So before you go and ask, you're going to do your chores. 00:32:22.400 |
You're doing dishes, you know, asking your mom, "Does your feet hurt? 00:32:26.600 |
You're all in preparation to milk that $30 out of your parents, right? 00:32:35.020 |
You wake up in the morning, you're doing all this stuff and your parents notice. 00:32:39.220 |
At the end of the day, he's going to ask for something. 00:32:52.920 |
You know, and you're basically setting it all up because, you know, you're trying to 00:32:57.240 |
get something that your parents probably are not maybe willing to give to you. 00:33:01.880 |
And so you're setting it up, it's like, "Ninckin' ahead." 00:33:08.600 |
Versus, SAT is coming up, your parents have been on your case to study, you know, the 00:33:16.560 |
testing of the deadline to pay the bill, $250, whatever it is, it's coming up and it's Saturday, 00:33:24.240 |
And you know that your parents have been trying to get you to get on top of this and it comes 00:33:29.040 |
and you wake up in the morning and you knock it to the side. 00:33:44.920 |
You know, like everything's exactly the same. 00:33:58.560 |
So he's able to come to the thing, boom, and the parents are like, "What? 00:34:16.080 |
You see the difference between praying according to his will versus praying for my will? 00:34:21.840 |
And the reason why we do not pray with boldness and urgency and desperation and agonizing 00:34:27.680 |
together is because we don't have a clear conscience in the way we live. 00:34:35.720 |
You don't just turn that on and off in prayer. 00:34:40.640 |
Prayer is in line with who we are and what we do. 00:34:47.080 |
John chapter 14, 13 to 14, "Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do so that the 00:34:54.020 |
If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." 00:34:57.200 |
I remember back at Biola, you know, I grew up in a pastor's family and after I got 00:35:03.600 |
saved I went to Biola and I was studying the Bible. 00:35:06.200 |
And I remember the very first time we had an assembly of 3,000 students and this great 00:35:13.240 |
preacher preached and at the end of his sermon he just said, "Amen," and then he walked 00:35:19.440 |
And I remember that's the first time I've ever heard somebody pray without saying, "In 00:35:24.880 |
So all kinds of thoughts were going through my head. 00:35:42.920 |
No matter what you want, if you say, "In Jesus' name," there's power behind it. 00:35:49.800 |
You're more sophisticated than I was back then. 00:35:52.800 |
In Jesus' name means to pray, covered by the blood of Christ, by His will, that we 00:36:00.720 |
are praying what He would pray because we are going where He wants to go and we are 00:36:11.560 |
He said, "When you pray in Jesus' name," he said, "I will answer you." 00:36:19.760 |
He wants the salvation of the lost more than we do. 00:36:24.720 |
He probably wants you to pray for your own sanctification more than you do. 00:36:31.200 |
The people in your lives that do not know Christ and He's desperately waiting for you 00:36:46.120 |
And so when we come before God and we decide for ourselves that this is what we want, He 00:36:53.920 |
John 15, 16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed that you would go 00:36:59.040 |
and bear fruit and that your fruit will remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in 00:37:07.600 |
Repeatedly, over and over again, it says, "I will answer you if you pray according to 00:37:13.200 |
First John 3, 22, "And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandment 00:37:17.920 |
and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." 00:37:20.520 |
First John 5, 14, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything 00:37:39.280 |
When you encounter God, all the other stuff that seems like such a big deal becomes nothing. 00:37:46.840 |
What's exciting about the church, our Christian life, is not the church. 00:37:51.960 |
Because the church sometimes is encouraging and sometimes very discouraging. 00:37:58.560 |
Friends are there sometimes when you need them and sometimes when you need them, they 00:38:14.200 |
Sometimes it's great and a lot of times it's not. 00:38:22.400 |
Because that was the one thing you didn't have before you met Christ. 00:38:30.560 |
You didn't come to Christ because you couldn't make friends. 00:38:34.800 |
You didn't have to repent because you couldn't get a job without Christ. 00:38:40.400 |
You could have joined some key club, some country club and made money and played golf 00:38:53.680 |
It was because we've encountered Christ and we want more and that's why we keep coming 00:39:01.000 |
And the primary way he calls us to encounter him is first and foremost to pray. 00:39:05.680 |
A Christian who does not pray does not know the joy of what it means to be a Christian. 00:39:19.040 |
You may be excited about getting more friends. 00:39:22.380 |
You may be excited about certain things that are happening at the church. 00:39:25.960 |
But you do not know the joy of what it means to follow Christ because the living water 00:39:45.600 |
And that's why he says above everything else be devoted to pray. 00:39:55.160 |
Make meeting Christ the primary thing in your life. 00:39:59.760 |
Not building my family and making sure my children are taken care of. 00:40:06.860 |
Not making sure that my business is successful and then God can you help me to do that? 00:40:11.600 |
But the primary thing that God called us to is Christ. 00:40:16.880 |
And that's why Jeremiah 29, 13 it says you will seek me and find me when you search me 00:40:33.380 |
But have you committed your life all of it to Christ? 00:40:56.720 |
And until we are committed, until we are devoted, the very first place where you will see the 00:41:01.320 |
ramification of an undevoted life is your prayers. 00:41:10.880 |
Because the things that God wants you to pray for is not on your heart. 00:41:34.000 |
Psalm 119, 2, how blessed are those who observe the testament, who seek him with all their 00:42:01.940 |
And then finally in Jeremiah 24, 7, he says in the new covenant, he says, I will give 00:42:07.200 |
them a heart to know me for I am the Lord and they will be my people and I will be their 00:42:11.880 |
God for they will return to me with all their hearts. 00:42:29.400 |
It's not because we don't own the right Bible. 00:42:31.320 |
It's not because we're not surrounded by right friends. 00:42:46.040 |
We go looking for counselors before we ever pray. 00:42:50.800 |
We research books and we attend conferences and maybe even do Bible studies. 00:43:01.680 |
All while avoiding the source that God has given us, the main source, which is God himself. 00:43:12.560 |
Until we are encountering Christ, you will always be frustrated. 00:43:35.000 |
Because if your food is coming from this world, it will rot. 00:43:44.320 |
Because everything in this world eventually rots. 00:43:47.520 |
The only thing that is eternal is God himself. 00:43:58.640 |
So the whole thing was about getting you to come Friday prayer meeting. 00:44:04.200 |
So the reason why we set aside Friday is again, the Friday prayer meeting doesn't mean that 00:44:08.280 |
oh therefore I came Friday so we're devoted to prayer. 00:44:25.160 |
And again, praying together on Friday doesn't mean like oh we're done. 00:44:28.280 |
Once a month on Friday so we pray so we're good. 00:44:35.300 |
We want our church to be a church devoted to prayer. 00:44:45.480 |
Don't just say how come those people aren't praying. 00:44:50.320 |
Pray and then get other people to pray with you. 00:45:03.240 |
If you are frustrated that we're not praying enough, you're the first person that I encourage 00:45:08.280 |
you to help us as a church to be more prayerful. 00:45:14.880 |
Because there's an anxiousness in my heart that all that is happening in our church can 00:45:24.140 |
And I know what man's work eventually ends in. 00:45:29.760 |
As much as we desire for the gospel to go out, as much as we desire a greater community, 00:45:35.200 |
as much as we want to be more hospitable to the newer people coming in, as much as we 00:45:39.240 |
want to be holy and do the right things, if we're not committed to prayer, all of that 00:45:53.600 |
That's why Paul says, "I urge you, agonizomai, together, wrestle in prayer." 00:46:01.760 |
First and foremost, application is going to be this Friday. 00:46:04.200 |
So I want to encourage you to devote yourself. 00:46:07.120 |
Don't casually pray, but devote yourself to prayer. 00:46:09.400 |
So this morning, as we open up the communion table, again, I want to encourage you, every 00:46:16.080 |
Sunday when you come and you hear these messages and you say, "I'm convicted," and every time 00:46:21.360 |
you're convicted and you do nothing about it, it actually has a negative effect on your 00:46:28.320 |
And the Word of God no longer has any effect on you. 00:46:33.160 |
This is, again, this is not new, and I'm sure if you've been a Christian for a while, you've 00:46:42.960 |
Don't wait for your friends or your small group leaders. 00:47:00.960 |
So I'm going to ask Pastor Nate to come help me, and we're going to open up the communion 00:47:08.360 |
And as we open up the communion table, and again, I want to remind you that the communion 00:47:12.000 |
table is for those who have already confessed faith in Christ. 00:47:15.640 |
And so if you are coming and you've been baptized, make sure you come through the sides and go 00:47:20.580 |
down the middle so that we don't create traffic here. 00:47:23.140 |
And if you're visiting us just observing, we ask that you would keep, stay at your seat 00:47:27.780 |
because it is kind of an anniversary for those who committed their life to Christ. 00:47:31.980 |
And again, when you come up, please come prepared. 00:47:34.800 |
Pray, and even though it is symbolic, it is a sacred time. 00:47:38.600 |
It is not to be taken lightly, and so we want you to be prepared when each one of you comes 00:47:44.080 |
So I'm going to open up in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 00:47:50.000 |
Then after I read, I'll pray and I'll open up the communion table for us. 00:47:52.760 |
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus 00:47:56.400 |
in the night in which he was betrayed took bread. 00:47:59.920 |
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. 00:48:04.760 |
In the same way, I took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is a new covenant 00:48:09.920 |
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 00:48:12.740 |
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until