back to index2021-01-03 WATCH AND PRAY
00:00:00.000 |
All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to 1 Peter 4, verse 7. 00:00:10.920 |
Because it is a new year, we want to introduce our theme verse and the focus that we were 00:00:22.200 |
We have no idea what's going to happen in 2021, but we want to be intentional in what 00:00:27.880 |
And so each year we do an evaluation of where we are as a church and according to our fourfold 00:00:35.640 |
vision, what are some areas that we need to be strengthened in. 00:00:38.640 |
And so this is the verse that we want to focus on, "Watch and pray." 00:00:47.480 |
And so that's going to be something that you're going to see. 00:00:49.800 |
And so I wanted to introduce that to you before I jump back into the book of Hebrews. 00:01:01.520 |
Therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. 00:01:10.960 |
And we pray, Father God, that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes. 00:01:18.720 |
Convict us, Father God, that we may see your glory, that we may have a greater and greater 00:01:24.320 |
deepening appreciation and love for who you are, that our whole life would simply be a 00:01:30.560 |
reasonable response to what we profess to believe. 00:01:39.280 |
And we pray, Father God, that same grace would continue to guide and lead your church in 00:01:45.720 |
Lord, as we give our first fruits to you, may it be multiplied. 00:01:52.160 |
May it be something, Lord God, that you push our church toward and asking, Lord, for your 00:02:08.040 |
So prayer is our primary focus that we want to push in 2021. 00:02:14.320 |
Every year we look at our church, we look at, you know, our strength, our weaknesses. 00:02:18.960 |
We have meetings, we take evaluation and say, you know, these are things that we should 00:02:23.400 |
And obviously there's a lot of things that we can give our attention to, but this is 00:02:27.680 |
something that we've actually pushed and talked about for many years. 00:02:31.160 |
And if you've been at our church for more than three, four years, you know, probably 00:02:35.000 |
this has been our theme going forward each year. 00:02:38.840 |
And so, but as we evaluate, we come again that this is something that we really need 00:02:43.680 |
to give our attention to, not just to talk about it, not just to give sermons about, 00:02:55.280 |
You know, there's certain things that you're kind of aware of, but you don't realize how 00:03:02.320 |
And then your wife or your husband will make sure you know, right? 00:03:05.280 |
And so that's a benefit of being married in some sense. 00:03:10.600 |
When you're a community, you have blind spots that you kind of get poke at. 00:03:20.080 |
We have a blind spot in the Western church that we are aware of, but I don't think we 00:03:28.760 |
If I came up here on Sunday, this morning, and I say, you know what? 00:03:31.680 |
I didn't have any time this week to prepare for my sermon. 00:03:36.880 |
I'm going to let the Holy Spirit speak this morning. 00:03:39.960 |
Every other week it was me, but now I'm going to let the Holy Spirit speak, right? 00:03:43.280 |
I think most of you, you know, who came to hear the Bible and said, what are you doing 00:03:49.440 |
If you didn't prepare for the sermon, don't get up there and waste our time. 00:03:57.520 |
We need to have high priority in making sure that the word of God is taught, preached. 00:04:05.640 |
But in the Western church, including our church, you know, if I said, I didn't have time to 00:04:12.040 |
pray, I didn't spend much time in prayer, I didn't think about it, you know, say, yeah, 00:04:17.680 |
That's a discipline that we're weak in, and then we just move on. 00:04:22.280 |
Prayer in scripture is just as important a proper exposition of God's word. 00:04:27.680 |
In the Eastern church, you know, in the Asian churches, they tend to be strong in prayer, 00:04:34.240 |
maybe weak in theology, but very strong in prayer. 00:04:37.400 |
Their response would be exactly the opposite. 00:04:39.400 |
The pastor came up and said, you know, I didn't prepare and I didn't pray much and I haven't 00:04:43.200 |
been praying at all, you know, and they said, what? 00:04:46.640 |
How can you be a pastor and be preaching a sermon if you're not praying? 00:04:52.520 |
And in the same way, this blind spot in the Western church is not a small problem. 00:05:01.560 |
The Bible says you did not have because you did not pray. 00:05:05.000 |
Our typical response to whenever there's a problem is let's get organized, let's have 00:05:08.440 |
a meeting, let's see what theological things that we've missed, you know, let's have a 00:05:13.360 |
class, let's train these people, let's do these things and let's get to it, right? 00:05:27.300 |
But if you know the scriptures as well as I do, right, which, you know, all of you know 00:05:31.460 |
the scripture and you've read it, the Bible places prayer just as high as value as the 00:05:42.460 |
So that is a big blind spot in the Western church. 00:05:45.820 |
And part of the reason why we talk about the weakness of the church is probably that. 00:05:52.220 |
Without prayer, we automatically become anxious. 00:05:57.300 |
When things happen and things don't go according to plan, we become anxious because we're not 00:06:00.540 |
sure where God fits into all this because we haven't been engaging with God. 00:06:06.040 |
In fact, sometimes it's even worse when you are successful and things are at peace because 00:06:10.140 |
we automatically think it must be because something I'm doing. 00:06:13.340 |
So either we are prone to anxiousness or we're prone to pride, thinking that we know the 00:06:21.540 |
Either way, when we don't pray, it is detrimental. 00:06:27.280 |
Knowledge and experience without prayer causes us to rely on knowledge and experience. 00:06:34.300 |
If you think you have greater intellect, if you have more experience, maybe you're a bit 00:06:43.640 |
Without prayer, it automatically leads to self-glory. 00:06:50.940 |
Prayer is essential, not important, essential in our walk with God. 00:06:56.540 |
Without it, we don't even know if we're right with God or not right with God. 00:07:06.220 |
And so this is something that we've, every time we talk, it's like this is something 00:07:13.180 |
This year, we're hoping that we would do more than just give you a verse or give a sermon 00:07:19.180 |
We've tried to implement morning prayer, Friday night prayer. 00:07:22.020 |
We had praise and prayer implemented, but I think all of that is just a slight nudge 00:07:29.660 |
We want to emphasize prayer to the extent that we emphasize the Word of God. 00:07:35.360 |
And so that may not happen overnight, but we want to make sure that we're headed there 00:07:38.760 |
as a church because I believe, and I think we all believe, that it is that important. 00:07:44.340 |
And it is a weakness in our church beyond anything else. 00:07:48.500 |
1 Peter 4, 7, the text that we want to focus on this morning, he says, "End of all things 00:07:54.340 |
Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer." 00:07:58.580 |
So I want to break this down into three parts. 00:08:25.220 |
If the motivation is that the end is coming, well, 2,000 years have passed, so how can 00:08:29.660 |
we have any kind of urgency talking about something 2,000 years ago and then say, "Well, 00:08:39.020 |
So how are you going to preach a sense of urgency in prayer when 2,000 years have passed 00:08:49.020 |
Well, some people have thought that maybe the end that he's referring to is the physical 00:08:55.140 |
death of the Christians, which was exactly what was going on. 00:08:59.220 |
First Peter has written during the period when Nero's persecution was intense. 00:09:03.660 |
People were literally being torn apart by lions. 00:09:06.760 |
They were being crucified on the cross publicly to shame them. 00:09:10.800 |
This is the period when the apostles are starting to get caught and beheaded, and one by one, 00:09:17.700 |
So some people thought that maybe what Peter is saying, the end, meaning physical end of 00:09:26.720 |
Some people thought that maybe this is referring to the end of Israel, that the old covenant 00:09:31.780 |
is ending, and so Israel, there's no place for them anymore, and so we know what happens. 00:09:36.140 |
This is written around 65 AD, and in AD 70, the Romans come in, completely abolish the 00:09:44.160 |
They got sick and tired of their many rebellions, and they came in, destroys the temple so that 00:09:48.460 |
they can't worship, and Israel as a nation just disappears. 00:09:52.340 |
So they scatter all over, but as a nation, they disappear. 00:09:55.020 |
So some think that Peter saw this coming and saying, "The end of all things is near, so 00:10:01.840 |
The word that is used here for end in Greek is telos, where we get the original word is 00:10:10.380 |
Back in seminary, this word was so significant in our understanding of the New Testament 00:10:16.820 |
that I did a whole paper just on this particular word, teleos. 00:10:20.860 |
The word teleos is never used in the New Testament to refer to the chronological end of something, 00:10:27.220 |
that there's a beginning, there's a middle, and there's the end. 00:10:30.180 |
So it can't be referring to the nation of Israel where there was a beginning, there's 00:10:33.180 |
a middle, and then now he's going to abolish the nation of Israel. 00:10:39.940 |
The word teleos basically means a completion or consummation of something. 00:10:46.460 |
So when the Bible says that the end is near, it's that God's intended purpose or what he 00:10:52.620 |
was trying to accomplish is coming to an end. 00:10:57.900 |
He says in 1 John 2, 18, "Children, it is the last hour." 00:11:01.100 |
The last hour he's talking about is not the very last chronologically. 00:11:07.820 |
In God's salvation history, there's the last thing that God is preparing and trying to 00:11:16.900 |
And what he says, again, the end of all things is near. 00:11:22.820 |
And that's why Peter is able to say in 2 Peter 1, 3-4, "Seeing that his divine power has 00:11:28.780 |
granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of 00:11:35.260 |
him who called us by his own glory and excellence." 00:11:40.180 |
He says, "Everything that you and I need for life of godliness, for our salvation, for 00:11:44.860 |
our sanctification, for our glorification has been given to us." 00:11:50.100 |
They are no longer waiting for something to happen. 00:11:53.440 |
The Jews were given the law, but the law was not the end purpose of that. 00:11:57.020 |
The law was for the preparation of the coming of Christ so that they would see sin as utterly 00:12:05.020 |
But all of that is to bring Christ, and so in his death and resurrection, he would complete 00:12:15.540 |
So when he says, "The end of all things is near," he's meaning that what God had ordained 00:12:25.500 |
That we are no longer waiting passively, hoping the Messiah would come and deliver us. 00:12:31.700 |
We're no longer waiting for the Holy Spirit to be indwelling in us to give us power so 00:12:37.140 |
that we would become witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and the remotest part of the world. 00:12:41.180 |
We're no longer waiting for the new covenant. 00:12:44.400 |
We're no longer waiting for the establishment of the church and the apostles, and we're 00:12:47.780 |
no longer waiting for the word of God to be given explaining the mystery of the gospel. 00:12:54.380 |
He says, "All has been given to you that is necessary." 00:13:02.060 |
So the challenge that he's giving to them is not, "Life is hard, but you hold on to 00:13:08.420 |
the hope of Christ, and hopefully you hunker down, find a good cave somewhere, and just 00:13:14.820 |
hold on to the word of God and make it to the end." 00:13:17.820 |
The end of all things is near, so you better just hold on to Christ. 00:13:24.820 |
And that's why Jesus says at the end of his ministry, "Go therefore and make disciples 00:13:31.340 |
He says, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." 00:13:35.980 |
The statement there is not a defensive statement. 00:13:38.140 |
He doesn't say, "I'm going to build my church so that you can gather together when the world 00:13:45.220 |
He says, "When the world is falling apart, you guys gather together, hunker down, create 00:13:48.700 |
a little bubble where the outside world is not going to be able to attack you." 00:13:52.620 |
He says, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." 00:13:56.180 |
No matter what is happening outside, they're not going to be able to prevail against the 00:14:10.040 |
You know, I know there's a lot of temptation with all that is going on around us, that 00:14:14.240 |
we want to find a cave somewhere and just hunker down for a period, but he says, "No, 00:14:20.280 |
He says, "What God has consummated at the end time, the establishment of the church 00:14:24.400 |
to take the gospel and be the light in the darkness." 00:14:27.560 |
So the darker the world becomes, the greater necessity there is for the church to be in 00:14:33.840 |
And that's what he means when all things is near. 00:14:37.960 |
In Romans 13, 11, it says, "Do this knowing the time that it is already the hour for you 00:14:46.800 |
That if you've been sleeping, if you've been just kind of wandering around in the darkness, 00:14:53.800 |
And when he says to be awakened, he's not simply saying to be alert and open your eyes. 00:15:00.680 |
Everything that you and I need for a life of godliness, everything that you and I, to 00:15:04.120 |
be the light to the world, has been given to us. 00:15:26.520 |
Because of the pandemic, one of the most common questions that I've been getting outside of 00:15:30.600 |
is our church going to be open or closed, right? 00:15:34.960 |
The number two question is, do you think Jesus is coming? 00:15:48.480 |
Now if I tell you when, you shouldn't listen to me anymore. 00:15:52.280 |
The Bible says I will not know the time or the hour. 00:15:54.680 |
But we should be able to tell the signs of the time. 00:15:59.320 |
And so whether he comes in our generation, next generation, there is more awareness of 00:16:04.440 |
In fact, more and more non-Christians are asking the question. 00:16:12.400 |
Now the fear of death and this pandemic has caused people to be more aware of the finiteness 00:16:19.960 |
And so he's basically saying, "Gear up, open your eyes, be ready." 00:16:29.120 |
Persecution is going to increase, but the opportunity to share the gospel is also going 00:16:34.680 |
And he's basically telling us our motivation to pray, to gear up for this spiritual battle 00:16:43.600 |
When we are not in battle mode, if we're constantly living in a state of seeking the 00:16:50.100 |
comfortable, most comfortable place for us, then there's no need for prayer. 00:17:09.460 |
Sometimes the way that we pray, we kind of sprinkle Jesus on everything that we do. 00:17:12.680 |
We sprinkle in Jesus' name, kind of like the Catholics. 00:17:16.300 |
I cringe every time I see somebody do that because they think that this has some sort 00:17:21.180 |
But the thing is, the Protestants do the same, in Jesus' name. 00:17:24.140 |
You attach Jesus' name, kind of like doing this. 00:17:26.500 |
As long as I sprinkle Jesus on our fellowship, sprinkle Jesus on Bible study, sprinkle Jesus 00:17:31.980 |
on this, then God is obligated to answer our prayers. 00:17:35.140 |
So the kind of prayer that he's calling us to pray is a battle cry. 00:17:42.060 |
And so the motivation is, get ready because in the end times, God is going to establish 00:17:47.180 |
the church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 00:17:54.820 |
Gates of Hades is going to do its best to break down its walls and destroy the church. 00:17:59.340 |
But he said, because I will establish my church, they will not prevail against it. 00:18:08.140 |
So if we're not aware of the times, if we're living our life to be as comfortable as we 00:18:12.220 |
can, making sure we have the best life that we can during this life, then again, not only 00:18:19.220 |
is our perspective wrong, it will affect the day-to-day way that we live our lives. 00:18:27.980 |
We're going to go to only places where we are safe. 00:18:31.860 |
We can only share the gospel if we are welcomed into that area. 00:18:35.440 |
And we will constantly live our lives based on the value that we have. 00:18:41.540 |
That's one of the benefits of persecution and hardship because it forces us out of our 00:18:48.260 |
He's speaking to a group of people whose lives have been torn upside down because of the 00:19:06.860 |
If you're properly motivated because the end of all things is near, he says, you need to 00:19:10.540 |
prepare for prayer by being of sound judgment and of sober spirit. 00:19:15.980 |
Sound judgment in Greek is sophroneo, which literally means to be wise in thinking. 00:19:22.180 |
And that's what it means in Romans 12 when he says, do not be conformed to the world 00:19:25.900 |
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 00:19:31.980 |
And that's where we are committed to the Word of God to make sure that we have a biblical 00:19:37.260 |
That our opinions are not based upon what's happening around us politically, socially, 00:19:44.840 |
If we're not in the Word of God, we naturally are going to have a different perspective. 00:19:51.600 |
Where does your knowledge, where does your truth come from? 00:19:55.060 |
But when he says, not to be conformed by the renewing of your mind, some of us may think, 00:19:59.080 |
you know, I've been studying the Bible for a long time. 00:20:06.320 |
You can have all of that and be completely wrong because the Bible says in the book of 00:20:12.840 |
First and foremost, judge the thoughts and intentions of my heart. 00:20:18.600 |
If we pray, when somebody is studying the Bible without much prayer, typically what 00:20:26.600 |
happens is the Word of God is used to judge the thoughts and intentions of others' hearts. 00:20:32.920 |
Because I know the Bible, it becomes a tool to weed out sin in our community. 00:20:37.800 |
It becomes a tool to weed out sin in other people's hearts. 00:20:40.440 |
But we are completely unaware of what's going on inside of us. 00:20:46.760 |
So that's what happens when you study the Bible without much prayer. 00:20:49.520 |
In fact, I will say it is dangerous to study the Bible without prayer. 00:20:56.960 |
It is dangerous to have right theology without prayer because right theology gives you self-righteousness 00:21:04.620 |
The primary purpose of the Word of God is to keep us sober, sober in judgment. 00:21:12.720 |
You know, again, the benefit of hardship that we faced or some people faced in 2020 and 00:21:20.680 |
even prior to that, many of you have experienced hardship unrelated to the pandemic, just your 00:21:26.320 |
family economically, maybe something else happened. 00:21:30.780 |
But there are times when God, when we are sober and in our right thinking, we recognize 00:21:37.960 |
that what God is doing in the hardships and the world that He's shaking up is actually 00:21:42.660 |
the best thing that could have happened for us. 00:21:46.960 |
When we're not sober, our greatest concern is our safety. 00:21:51.440 |
When we're not sober, our greatest concern is making sure that we have our best life 00:21:57.800 |
But when we are sober, we recognize that we're going to live in eternity in Christ, whether 00:22:03.480 |
you live 90 years or whether you live 50 years or 30 years, it is trivial in light of eternity. 00:22:09.760 |
So our greatest concern should not be that I'm going to be living a healthy life till 00:22:16.100 |
But when we're not sober, that becomes our primary concern. 00:22:20.240 |
When we're not sober, the primary concern is, do I have enough money to take care of 00:22:24.120 |
Am I going to be able to buy this house or am I going to be able to invest in this? 00:22:28.800 |
In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with any of that. 00:22:32.640 |
We should be shrewd with the things that God has given us. 00:22:36.160 |
But from an eternal perspective, all of that stuff, according to Apostle Paul, is rubbish 00:22:43.560 |
So when we're not sober, we're naturally given to worldly concerns. 00:22:49.120 |
And so that's why he's saying the end of all things is near, so therefore be sober in your 00:22:53.940 |
judgment so that what we are thinking, how we are feeling, is being dictated by what 00:23:05.160 |
You know, it is the most, when we are the most frustrated, when we long for eternity. 00:23:12.360 |
And that's the best thing that can happen to Christians. 00:23:15.600 |
So God will allow you to feel frustrated because it shakes us up from our temporary safety. 00:23:25.760 |
People who can't gather together long for fellowship. 00:23:29.400 |
One of the benefits of when our church shut down for a period when people couldn't come, 00:23:33.780 |
one of the things that I kept on hearing is how much they love the gathering of the church. 00:23:39.560 |
Not that it wasn't there, but it brought it out. 00:23:42.600 |
I didn't realize how important fellowship was until it was taken away. 00:23:47.560 |
You ever see videos of people who don't have direct access or easy access to the written 00:23:54.040 |
You ever see videos of that in remote parts, even some parts in China where they don't 00:23:58.640 |
have the written word and they get the Bible for the first time and it's just amazing how 00:24:02.720 |
much they cherish the word of God because they didn't have access. 00:24:09.080 |
Part of the benefit of the persecution and the hardship that is here and that will continue 00:24:14.280 |
to come is that it causes us to long for eternity. 00:24:18.680 |
That's what he means by being sober in our judgment. 00:24:23.960 |
That we should not be shaken back and forth by what's happening outside the world. 00:24:29.720 |
The Bible says that that was going to happen. 00:24:32.360 |
We shouldn't be taken off guard by that because it's been here in the scriptures all along. 00:24:38.440 |
Sometimes, God will allow certain things to happen. 00:24:41.680 |
When we are sober, when we are biblically sober, spiritually sober, it causes a hungering 00:24:49.000 |
and thirsting for righteousness that probably wasn't there before. 00:24:53.520 |
And that's what he means, to be sober in judgment and then to be sober in spirit. 00:24:57.480 |
In the King James Version, literally it just says to watch, to be sober-minded and to watch, 00:25:05.520 |
The former emphasizes internal thinking and internal feeling. 00:25:08.740 |
The second part, the latter, is talking about clear judgment in the way that we live, to 00:25:15.200 |
Ephesians 5.15, it says, "Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise." 00:25:23.520 |
You know, remember Pastor Nate's sermon last week when he was giving the sermon about the 00:25:31.840 |
And he said that the difference between the wise and unwise is preparedness and unpreparedness. 00:25:38.440 |
And preparedness and unpreparedness is directly linked to what you value. 00:25:47.000 |
And a distinction between the virgins who are saved and the virgins who are not saved 00:25:51.280 |
is how they live their lives to prepare for the coming of their master. 00:25:56.560 |
And that's exactly what he is saying, is be careful how you walk. 00:26:00.320 |
Is the way that we live our life consistent with the second coming of Christ? 00:26:06.920 |
Is it consistent with the gospel that we profess? 00:26:14.400 |
When I say young families, I'm talking about all of us. 00:26:22.040 |
The danger when we're young, when we're starting to raise our children, or even when they get 00:26:26.120 |
older, is that raising our kids and protecting them, providing for them, becomes our greatest 00:26:35.160 |
It is important, but it becomes the greatest value in life. 00:26:39.920 |
And we evaluate what is godly and ungodly based upon, am I taking good care of my kids? 00:26:50.120 |
Yes, there are times when the Bible says that in order to be an elder in the church, you 00:26:55.600 |
have to have, right, you have to manage your household well, right? 00:27:01.800 |
There's many commands in the scripture telling us to be good fathers. 00:27:06.160 |
But at the same time, it also says, "He who loves his father and mother more than me is 00:27:17.640 |
And so sometimes living in Orange County, we think that providing what is physically 00:27:22.680 |
best for our children is what it means to be godly. 00:27:27.280 |
We have to be careful that we do not get fooled. 00:27:30.300 |
And Satan often uses that to distract us from our primary pursuit of honoring and glorifying 00:27:38.040 |
And what is best for your children is what causes them to love Christ the most. 00:27:50.240 |
It's not always teaching them everything they need to know. 00:27:56.360 |
That's when, so when he says to live in such a way that we recognize that it is temporary, 00:28:02.560 |
even if they go to the best schools, even if they get the best education, even if they 00:28:05.800 |
get the best job, even if they have the best marriage, that is not our primary goal. 00:28:12.840 |
Our primary goal is, are they also walking soberly with Christ? 00:28:19.200 |
What's the difference between foolish and prudent living? 00:28:29.640 |
But third and finally, the motivation of prayer is clear. 00:28:36.040 |
Preparation of prayer to live righteously, to be sober in thinking, to engage in the 00:28:39.720 |
word of God, to memorize it, to meditate it, to apply it, let it judge the thoughts and 00:28:45.160 |
If I stop the sermon here, it may be good to say, "Okay, I like a few things that he 00:28:58.240 |
Because the conclusion of what he says here is so that you can pray. 00:29:03.360 |
He says the reason why you need to be sober is not simply so that you can walk around 00:29:19.680 |
So if you're studying the Bible, have the right theology, memorizing scripture, even 00:29:23.560 |
teaching other people about scripture, and yet we do not pray, you missed the whole point. 00:29:28.360 |
Because the power is not me and you in our discipline. 00:29:32.840 |
The power is not in the training or in the organization. 00:29:42.600 |
You notice here in 1 Peter 3, 7, and I'm going to give you a warning ahead of time. 00:29:48.640 |
If you have any feminism in you at all, the word of God is going to blow it out of the 00:30:06.120 |
You husbands in the same way live with your wives in understanding way as with someone 00:30:19.640 |
Let me read it again for emphasis, all right? 00:30:24.000 |
You husbands in the same way live with your wives in understanding way as with someone 00:30:31.360 |
Now if I stop right there, some of you guys are going to say, "That's in the Bible?" 00:30:36.080 |
We should switch to NIV or something, you know what I mean? 00:30:41.480 |
In this day and age, you're going to write this and you're going to read this and you 00:30:48.880 |
When you understand what's going on culturally, you read this completely different, right? 00:30:54.600 |
You know, you guys all know like we live in what we call a cancel culture. 00:31:00.240 |
And so we have the new generation who's judging the old generation of certain things that 00:31:03.680 |
they used to say and now it's like it's unacceptable, perfectly acceptable 20 years ago but you 00:31:10.360 |
One of the clearest things that I've noticed in the last 20 years is that you can't say 00:31:14.400 |
Some of you guys are in a generation where the Oriental is offensive to you. 00:31:18.360 |
I heard that growing up, you know, since I was a kid, Oriental. 00:31:21.920 |
There's that Oriental kid, it's like, "Yeah, right here," right? 00:31:27.200 |
In fact, when we lived in Kansas, my teacher, you know, I was still using my Korean name 00:31:31.600 |
at that time, she couldn't say my name so she would just say, "That China boy back there." 00:31:36.200 |
And I don't remember standing up thinking like, "China boy? 00:31:42.200 |
Whenever she said, "China boy," I said, "Here?" 00:31:46.120 |
Because I was the only Asian kid in that room and she wasn't being racist, she was, you 00:31:49.800 |
know, she was just distinguishing me because she couldn't say my name. 00:31:54.960 |
So I didn't feel the need to like, "Oh, I got to confront her." 00:31:57.360 |
I never even thought twice about it until, you know, I got older and I said, "Yeah, 00:32:07.280 |
Now if she said, "That greasy Chinese kid over there," that would have been, right? 00:32:13.960 |
But I didn't hear it that way because in that culture, it was just, you know, maybe there 00:32:17.760 |
are some things that are positive that progress that maybe we shouldn't say. 00:32:21.960 |
But the fact of the matter is today, we have a younger generation who grew up in a different 00:32:25.640 |
culture judging the older generation saying, "You did this, you did that, that's unacceptable," 00:32:31.360 |
And sometimes I think we get way carried away with that. 00:32:33.320 |
Now I say all of this because the Bible was written 2,000 years ago in a completely different 00:32:40.700 |
You have to understand that when this passage was written, women had no right to vote. 00:32:51.560 |
They were actually considered property of the man. 00:32:55.360 |
So if she didn't cook the food right, he could have just said, "You know, I don't like her," 00:33:00.600 |
And because she had no right, she was forced to either be homeless or sell her body to 00:33:05.040 |
take care of herself and possibly her children because the wife and the children had no rights 00:33:11.240 |
That's why when they had the, if you're eating under 5,000, they only counted the men. 00:33:16.280 |
With 600,000 people went into the desert, they only counted 600,000 men. 00:33:23.440 |
So when the first century Jew read this passage, this is how they would have read it. 00:33:30.600 |
You husbands in the same way, live your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker 00:33:40.360 |
And show her honor as fellow heir of the grace of life. 00:33:56.040 |
"Thank God I'm not a Gentile, a dog, or a female." 00:34:03.840 |
And the reason why they prayed that is because they were treated so poorly by the Jewish 00:34:12.800 |
So it wasn't necessarily that they were being, you know, like harsh. 00:34:17.920 |
It's just like somebody who you see suffering. 00:34:25.480 |
So what would have shocked a first century Jewish male is not they are weaker because 00:34:37.200 |
They're prostituting their bodies because their husband who was a jerk let her go because 00:34:43.680 |
But the shocking part of it is, "Show her honor as fellow heir of grace of life." 00:34:52.880 |
And so the way that we respond to this text is exactly the opposite of how the Jewish 00:35:01.200 |
Because what God was doing was completely revolutionizing that the value of a woman 00:35:10.280 |
But she has value because God says she is a fellow heir of the grace of God. 00:35:17.160 |
There is no male or female in the kingdom of God. 00:35:22.160 |
And so he was demolishing the prejudice of men at that time that might is power. 00:35:29.720 |
And so what he was doing was completely the opposite. 00:35:32.440 |
So when we read this with a feministic mindset, we say, "How can he possibly say that?" 00:35:37.280 |
Not realizing it was because of Christ, he completely revolutionized not only Christianity 00:35:44.120 |
Because Christianity was the first religion, first paradigm shifting toward female. 00:35:55.920 |
Now why do I say all of that and what does this have to do with anything? 00:35:58.840 |
Because he says, "All of that, treating your wife with honor," which would have been very, 00:36:03.680 |
very difficult for them to do in the first century. 00:36:11.560 |
Think how radical that is that God elevates women to the point that if you don't take 00:36:20.680 |
And the reason why you need to honor women is so that you can be effective in prayer. 00:36:25.560 |
That's how much he was elevating women at that time. 00:36:48.800 |
Have you ever seen with your own eyes the coronavirus? 00:36:52.040 |
I mean, I'm not talking about on the screen or television. 00:36:56.520 |
They call it the coronavirus because corona in Spanish is crown and if you look at the 00:37:03.720 |
There are certain parts of it and that's why they call it coronavirus. 00:37:07.440 |
You and I have never seen that with our eyes. 00:37:11.080 |
It's so small, I mean, we don't know until we see the effects of it. 00:37:15.760 |
Well that tiny little thing that you and I can't even see with our own eyes has shut 00:37:23.960 |
You get sick enough, you know, you could even die from that. 00:37:33.080 |
That's something that tiny can destroy us, mankind, period. 00:37:37.960 |
And so for us to think that if we get organized, if we're smart enough, if we're educated, 00:37:41.800 |
if we have the right teaching, right theology, that we're going to change the world. 00:37:45.280 |
He said, no, all of that has to happen so that we can pray. 00:37:49.760 |
In the Bible it says in a large house there are articles of ignoble things and noble things. 00:37:54.120 |
He says, if you want to be used by God to get rid of ignoble things, so that we can 00:37:59.800 |
bring an empty container, an empty container, not filled with, you know, I got this experience, 00:38:06.120 |
I got this talent, I've done this, I have that. 00:38:08.980 |
And then we bring a container that's full and he says, all that is ignoble. 00:38:15.440 |
That's why the Bible keeps telling us, humble yourself, humble yourself. 00:38:19.240 |
And that's why the Word of God first and foremost judge the thoughts and intentions of my heart. 00:38:23.400 |
If the primary concern that we are overly concerned about is other people, you're probably 00:38:37.040 |
You're not wrestling with your own inclination to be proud because the primary problem with 00:38:45.280 |
And that's why he says, so that you can pray. 00:38:49.960 |
John chapter 15, the whole chapter is about abiding in Christ. 00:38:53.240 |
You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in Christ, right? 00:38:58.800 |
He says, you cannot if you do not abide in Christ. 00:39:04.400 |
John 15, 7, if you abide in me, my words abide in you, then ask whatever you wish, it shall 00:39:20.060 |
So if we get into theology and we get organized and we have all these proper training and 00:39:24.800 |
Bible classes going and we're doing all this kind of discipleship and yet we are weak in 00:39:33.480 |
The whole purpose of salvation is so that we can come to God so that God can do his 00:39:40.520 |
And when we don't pray, naturally we want to be worshipped. 00:39:46.280 |
When good things happen, we want to be recognized. 00:39:50.560 |
The very core of human rebellion is wanting to be glorified. 00:39:55.400 |
And so when good things, godly things happen, when we bear fruit or seemingly bear fruit, 00:40:00.080 |
church grows, discipleship happens, people acknowledge us and thank us, and we're not 00:40:04.840 |
praying, we naturally think, I had some part in that. 00:40:09.400 |
So even the good things that happen in our lives, it leads to self-glory. 00:40:14.880 |
Some of us are more sophisticated so we don't say it in our mouth, but you know it, you 00:40:18.960 |
feel it, you think it, and that thought of I did something is ruining us and we don't 00:40:31.400 |
Just like Jesus said, it's like a small yeast, right, leavens the whole bread. 00:40:40.320 |
I don't bake so I don't know how small it takes. 00:40:45.160 |
It only takes a tiny little bit for that whole thing to rise. 00:40:51.280 |
It only takes a tiny little, tiny little pride, ruins everything that we're doing. 00:40:59.640 |
That's the primary reason he says don't establish young Christians in leadership because he's 00:41:03.840 |
going to fall into the same temptation as the devil, that he wants the glory. 00:41:06.960 |
So one of the biggest struggles as leaders in the church, especially, you know, since 00:41:12.160 |
I'm the senior pastor, the greatest struggle is not to get people sober, is not evangelism, 00:41:19.520 |
the greatest struggle is not training, Bible teaching, all of that is important. 00:41:23.200 |
The greatest struggle is I need to stay humble. 00:41:28.360 |
I need to recognize that I'm just a vessel for him to use. 00:41:32.600 |
And so that's why this is so, so important because the point of what we're doing is to 00:41:37.920 |
bring us to God and be dependent upon him and him alone. 00:41:41.480 |
See, in John chapter 16, 20 through 24, Jesus says, "In that day you will not question me 00:41:47.080 |
Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in my name, he will give 00:41:52.800 |
Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. 00:41:54.960 |
Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full." 00:41:57.960 |
He said, "Up to this point, you've been praying from a distance." 00:42:02.200 |
It wasn't an indwelling of the Holy Spirit that's groaning on our behalf. 00:42:06.240 |
But because the end of all things is near, because Christ has given us everything that 00:42:09.880 |
we need for life and Godliness, now you can pray in my name. 00:42:15.440 |
So up to this point, you've been praying from a distance, but now you can draw near. 00:42:21.840 |
So the greatest benefit of our salvation is that we're able to pray unhindered. 00:42:28.380 |
That's the gift of salvation that God has given us. 00:42:31.200 |
So if we do all these other things and yet we are weak in prayer, we are weak in everything. 00:42:37.080 |
Ephesians chapter 6, 18 to 19, after he says, "Gear up for battle, put on the full armor 00:42:41.860 |
of God," and he concludes by saying, "With all prayers, petitions, pray at all times 00:42:46.520 |
in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition 00:42:51.260 |
for all the saints and pray on behalf that the utterance may be given to me in opening 00:42:56.220 |
my mouth to make known what boldness the mystery of the gospel." 00:43:01.500 |
He ends this spiritual battle by saying, "Put on the full armor of God, helmet of salvation, 00:43:06.420 |
breastplate of righteousness," and then he says, "Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray." 00:43:13.740 |
After you've done all of that, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. 00:43:19.500 |
Whatever is happening in your life, whatever is happening in your life, if you're not praying, 00:43:28.720 |
Whatever is happening in our culture, whatever that may be, if you're not praying, the primary 00:43:37.080 |
Whatever you notice in your marriage that you're frustrated with, whatever you are 00:43:41.860 |
thinking about your husband or your wife, if you're not praying, the primary problem 00:44:02.060 |
So the primary problem of politics is we're not praying enough. 00:44:06.900 |
The primary problem with fellowship is we're not praying enough. 00:44:09.880 |
The primary problem with discipleship is we're not praying enough. 00:44:13.740 |
The primary problem with our children is we're not praying enough. 00:44:18.820 |
Until we have prayed and we have devoted ourselves to pray, until we have committed ourselves 00:44:25.780 |
and are known for prayer as much as we are known for Bible study, everything else is 00:44:34.940 |
Because what you and I do with our own strength is like trying to jump the Grand Canyon by 00:44:49.300 |
And so we recognize that this is our weakness. 00:44:57.260 |
This is something that we've recognized for years. 00:45:00.980 |
But I feel that we've gotten to a breaking point as our church continues to grow, you 00:45:08.180 |
know, and we have a lot of different thoughts and opinions of what we should do or should 00:45:15.140 |
And, you know, we have all kinds of opinions. 00:45:21.660 |
Some people who are angry that we're not meeting. 00:45:23.400 |
Some people who are angry that we are meeting. 00:45:26.260 |
Some people who are angry because we don't pay enough attention to social justice. 00:45:29.860 |
Some people are angry because we're not—we're paying too much attention. 00:45:35.740 |
Out of all the different opinions that we have, there's one opinion that I welcome, 00:45:54.260 |
And until we pray, until we really give ourselves to prayer, everything that we're doing is 00:46:05.340 |
You cannot bring somebody to Christ by being articulate. 00:46:14.780 |
The Holy Spirit is the one who judges people of their sins. 00:46:20.700 |
And let me tell you something that you and I absolutely cannot—we do not have the power 00:46:32.920 |
But the Scripture says that the world will identify us by love, but not any kind of love, 00:46:40.020 |
The love that he says in Romans 8, "In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for 00:46:50.740 |
The best that you and I can practice is love people who are likable. 00:47:00.340 |
And try not to slander people who have hurt us. 00:47:04.820 |
But to practice the love that Christ practiced with us, that's not in you, and that's not 00:47:13.420 |
So until we humble ourselves and recognize that we are feeble and we are desperate, until 00:47:22.500 |
Christ intervenes, we may have a form of godliness, but not know the power. 00:47:31.940 |
Let me finish with this, 2 Corinthians 7, 12-16. 00:47:36.380 |
Right after the temple was built by Solomon, in dedication, this is what the Lord says 00:47:42.780 |
"The Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, 'I have heard your prayer and 00:47:47.880 |
have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 00:47:52.680 |
If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour 00:47:58.140 |
the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, and my people who are called by my 00:48:05.380 |
name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then 00:48:12.260 |
I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 00:48:17.700 |
Now my eyes will be opened and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.'"