back to indexBerean Community Church Praise and Prayer 5/31/24
00:13:47.360 |
And even tonight, Lord, as we come before you, 00:17:51.360 |
♪ You shattered death and freed us from our fears ♪ 00:18:01.360 |
♪ And all would be made right when you appear ♪ 00:18:09.360 |
♪ And all would be made right when you appear ♪ 00:20:10.360 |
♪ Once again I look upon the cross where you died ♪ 00:20:17.360 |
♪ I'm humbled by your mercy and I'm broken inside ♪ 00:21:14.360 |
♪ Once again I look upon the cross where you died ♪ 00:21:21.360 |
♪ I'm humbled by your mercy and I'm broken inside ♪ 00:21:39.360 |
♪ Once again I look upon the cross where you died ♪ 00:21:46.360 |
♪ I'm humbled by your mercy and I'm broken inside ♪ 00:22:46.360 |
We're going to have two parts to tonight's prayer time, 00:22:50.360 |
where the first part is going to be praying for just yourself, 00:22:54.360 |
by yourself, and then we're going to give a good chunk of time 00:22:57.360 |
for you to pray, and then the second part of it, 00:22:59.360 |
I'm going to present, we're going to spend the second part of it 00:23:05.360 |
and so we have our mission team that are kind of spread out, 00:23:08.360 |
and during that period, after I give a brief presentation 00:23:13.360 |
we're going to turn around, and not obviously, 00:23:20.360 |
and so you may be around somebody in the mission team, 00:23:24.360 |
and so they're going to be--they were asked to share 00:23:29.360 |
and so if you're near that group, you're going to be part of that group, 00:23:32.360 |
and they're going to be sharing, but if for some reason 00:23:35.360 |
you're not able to do that, we're just going to have you guys 00:23:38.360 |
in small groups and take some time to pray with each other, okay? 00:23:41.360 |
Let me pray for us, and then I wanted to go over the necessity of prayer 00:23:44.360 |
and then give you plenty of time to pray this evening. 00:23:47.360 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for greater understanding. 00:23:53.360 |
Lord, as you've called us here to corporately pray 00:23:59.360 |
we ask, Lord God, that you would soften our hearts, 00:24:02.360 |
whatever distractions that we have brought into this room. 00:24:05.360 |
Help us, Lord, to put it aside and to truly fix our eyes upon Christ. 00:24:11.360 |
We pray, Lord God, that you would help us to be focused. 00:24:15.360 |
Help us to have a heart of reverence and anticipation 00:24:20.360 |
and urgency, Lord God, to join with the Holy Spirit, Lord, 00:24:25.360 |
groaning, Lord God, to desire to see your name be magnified. 00:24:29.360 |
So we pray for guidance and understanding this evening. 00:24:35.360 |
Can you do me a favor and turn on the light a little bit 00:24:40.360 |
So if you're falling asleep, I'll know who you are. 00:24:43.360 |
All right, so this evening I wanted to go over 10 reasons. 00:24:49.360 |
Obviously, we can give much more than 10 reasons, 00:24:52.360 |
but there's 10 reasons why we are called to pray. 00:24:56.360 |
So I want to go down that list, and then after we do that, 00:25:00.360 |
we're going to give you some time to pray on your own 00:25:04.360 |
Okay, one, we pray to surrender our will to his. 00:25:12.360 |
This is something that every single Christian 00:25:14.360 |
wrestles with all the time, like what is his will for me? 00:25:18.360 |
What is his will for me, whether it is my job or career 00:25:23.360 |
or direction or relationship or whatever it may be? 00:25:31.360 |
Are we surrendered to his will before you seek his will 00:25:36.360 |
And so the beginning of prayer, when Jesus says to pray this way, 00:25:41.360 |
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 00:25:46.360 |
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 00:25:54.360 |
If your will is not surrendered, you cannot pray 00:26:02.360 |
It's like, okay, have you decided what you want? 00:26:04.360 |
Let me know what you want so I can answer your prayers, right? 00:26:12.360 |
and then in prayer we are surrendering to his will, right? 00:26:18.360 |
We pray so that we may establish Christ as Lord 00:26:23.360 |
Number two, we pray to cultivate a heart of Christ, right? 00:26:34.360 |
but you may not know the heart of Christ, right? 00:26:37.360 |
So heart of Christ is you have to interact with them. 00:26:48.360 |
we know his will by studying and knowing the Word of God. 00:26:52.360 |
But you know the difference between I know that person 00:27:03.360 |
but his heart, right, to build a relationship with this Christ. 00:27:11.360 |
Number three, we pray to declare our dependence on God, 00:27:15.360 |
to understand that he is our daily bread, right? 00:27:20.360 |
So every day that goes by that we don't pray, 00:27:26.360 |
And there's a reason why he says, "Pray in this way. 00:27:31.360 |
Our daily bread is in reference to the Old Testament 00:27:34.360 |
telling the Israelites to only collect what you needed 00:27:43.360 |
we recognize that everything important in our life 00:27:50.360 |
Everything we desire to do ultimately comes from him, right? 00:27:54.360 |
Not my hard work, not my skill, not my wisdom, 00:28:00.360 |
So prayer is to declare our dependence on him. 00:28:04.360 |
So again, when we don't pray, we're declaring, 00:28:07.360 |
whether we want to or not, that I can function without him. 00:28:10.360 |
Whatever I'm doing, I can do without him, right? 00:28:17.360 |
Prayer is a declaration of dependence on him. 00:28:26.360 |
You cannot grow in your walk with God without prayer. 00:28:31.360 |
Prayer is what causes God to become real, right? 00:28:36.360 |
Everything that you read about the Word of God 00:28:41.360 |
Until God answers your prayer and you're interacting with God 00:28:48.360 |
you're learning theology, but it's all theory. 00:28:51.360 |
You're regurgitating information without any power. 00:29:00.360 |
but then you see the power of Christ through the Word of Christ 00:29:15.360 |
we can study about him, but you don't know him, right? 00:29:19.360 |
Faith will not increase until you pray, right? 00:29:23.360 |
The greatest testimonies which causes God to seem real to you 00:29:33.360 |
where the divine touches the man because we pray, right? 00:29:41.360 |
It won't increase if you're not interacting with God in prayer. 00:29:55.360 |
and because our flesh naturally desires earthly things, 00:30:02.360 |
The discipline of prayer combats our fleshly desire, right? 00:30:09.360 |
Our flesh doesn't naturally cause us to think about God. 00:30:13.360 |
And so wrestling in prayer is wrestling to buffet our bodies 00:30:18.360 |
and make it our slave, that we may surrender to God in prayer, right? 00:30:26.360 |
and it is an active way to fight against our flesh. 00:30:32.360 |
you're just allowing your flesh to take you wherever you want. 00:30:34.360 |
And the thoughts that you have, the desires that you have, 00:30:37.360 |
are being led by your flesh when you don't pray. 00:30:41.360 |
Sixthly, we pray to engage in spiritual battle, right? 00:30:46.360 |
That our fight is not against flesh and blood. 00:30:51.360 |
that all you need to do is plan and implement. 00:30:56.360 |
and do everything that you're capable of doing, 00:30:59.360 |
you do not understand that this is a spiritual battle. 00:31:02.360 |
You cannot fight demonic forces with fleshly equipment. 00:31:09.360 |
After you've done all the putting on the full armor of God, 00:31:12.360 |
he says, "Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray," right? 00:31:15.360 |
So prayer is the active engagement of the spiritual battle. 00:31:19.360 |
Again, so which means if you're not praying, right? 00:31:23.360 |
It doesn't matter what you're doing on the outside. 00:31:27.360 |
You're learning, you may feel like you're growing, 00:31:36.360 |
This is not something you can do in the flesh, right? 00:31:44.360 |
You cannot love something from a distance, right? 00:31:47.360 |
You don't fall in love with somebody from a distance. 00:31:54.360 |
So any meaningful relationship happens when you draw near, right? 00:31:58.360 |
When you get to know them, when you hear their voice, 00:32:00.360 |
you can see how they respond, you can see their personalities. 00:32:07.360 |
again, you are in love with an image of Christ, right? 00:32:11.360 |
The teaching of Christ, but not Christ himself. 00:32:14.360 |
Christ doesn't become real until you learn how to pray, 00:32:27.360 |
comes in the context of praying and seeking him 00:32:32.360 |
Number eight, we pray to bring glory to God, ultimately. 00:32:45.360 |
Because you were smart, because you have experience, 00:32:51.360 |
because you know theology, because you're gifted, 00:32:54.360 |
you're articulate, and you have a lot of experience. 00:32:58.360 |
When you don't pray and you think you're bearing fruit, 00:33:09.360 |
That if you repeat what I did, if you do what we did, 00:33:13.360 |
then you may have this fruit too, and that ruins you. 00:33:17.360 |
The moment you touch that glory, it ruins you, right? 00:33:23.360 |
and ultimately you cannot bring glory to God until you pray. 00:33:34.360 |
if you take the credit for that, right, it'll ruin you. 00:34:16.360 |
either he's being ruined because he's not praying 00:34:19.360 |
and he's falling into the scheme of the devil, 00:34:31.360 |
because on the surface it looks like you're growing, 00:34:36.360 |
and it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have. 00:34:47.360 |
Do not let a new believer, right, to be a leader 00:34:50.360 |
because he will fall into the same temptation. 00:34:53.360 |
And even Apostle Paul, as he came in Revelation, 00:35:03.360 |
Because of so much revelation that was coming through him, 00:35:11.360 |
to Apostle Paul's fruitfulness was his own pride, right? 00:35:18.360 |
so that he would beg, so that he would need God, right? 00:35:28.360 |
he will do his best to keep us humble, right? 00:35:32.360 |
Because he knows that as soon as pride comes in, 00:35:39.360 |
If we're going to bring glory to God, we must pray. 00:35:41.360 |
Number nine, we pray because Jesus set us an example. 00:35:48.360 |
Of all the things that the disciples could have asked Jesus 00:36:02.360 |
"Teach us how to open the eyes of the blind." 00:36:17.360 |
So clearly, clearly Jesus, by his own example, 00:36:26.360 |
And then finally, we pray because God told us to. 00:36:30.360 |
If anything, if we don't even have the other nine, 00:36:45.360 |
All we need to know is God told us to, right? 00:36:49.360 |
And he's not going to tell us to do something, 00:36:54.360 |
And repeatedly, over and over and over and over again 00:36:59.360 |
to pray without ceasing, to be devoted to pray. 00:37:19.360 |
Maybe some of you watched a movie before you came. 00:37:22.360 |
But wherever you are, I'm pretty sure most of us, 00:37:35.360 |
things that, and they may not be sinful, right? 00:37:38.360 |
And so our natural tendency is as soon as we can't pray 00:37:42.360 |
or we don't have a hard time, we have a hard time praying, 00:37:45.360 |
we have a tendency to quit if it doesn't come natural, right? 00:37:49.360 |
Prayer is a muscle that you need to discipline, 00:37:52.360 |
that when you struggle and if you have a hard time, 00:38:04.360 |
because two minutes later you don't know what to say, 00:38:07.360 |
then that's where your prayer life would be, right? 00:38:10.360 |
And the only time where you're going to have words 00:38:12.360 |
flowing out of your mouth is when you are desperate, 00:38:15.360 |
when you're on your deathbed or something desperate happens 00:38:20.360 |
But outside of that, you will never learn how to pray. 00:38:22.360 |
So learning how to pray requires us to discipline our body 00:38:31.360 |
go drink a cup of water, go walk around outside, pinch yourself, right? 00:38:35.360 |
Do whatever you need to do, but for the next 30 minutes, 00:38:38.360 |
I'm going to ask you guys, if you need to spread out, 00:38:42.360 |
when people are not around, I'll leave that up to you. 00:38:47.360 |
It always helps me to be in a proper position of prayer, 00:38:52.360 |
So if you want to pray that way, we have space here. 00:38:57.360 |
and then I'm going to give you about 30 minutes, 00:39:01.360 |
and then our praise team is going to come up, 00:39:03.360 |
and then I'm going to give you about a five-minute presentation about Korea, 00:39:07.360 |
and then we'll take the rest of the time to pray, okay? 00:39:16.360 |
Again, pray over the things that you've brought into this room, 00:39:25.360 |
Pray over the salvation of those people who are around you, okay? 00:39:32.360 |
and then, again, we'll give you 30 minutes of uninterrupted prayer. 01:12:10.360 |
Yeah, you guys need to spread out right there. 01:12:46.360 |
and give them an opportunity to share with you 01:12:56.360 |
but then one had to drop out because of work issues, 01:13:03.360 |
and last year was kind of like the inauguration. 01:13:23.360 |
one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, 01:13:26.360 |
it went from the poorest country in the world 01:13:30.360 |
and it was like one of the top five economies, 01:13:58.360 |
So all the good and the bad that comes with that. 01:14:01.360 |
So it's almost like the country has two separate people. 01:14:04.360 |
You have one generation that grew up in utter poverty, 01:14:11.360 |
that most of the older generation couldn't imagine. 01:14:27.360 |
spiritually, it was the fastest-growing Christian nation 01:14:45.360 |
it was so poor that they started Compassion International, 01:14:50.360 |
So many of these orphanages started out in Korea 01:15:08.360 |
it became the second-largest mission-sending organization 01:15:16.360 |
it went from receiving nation to supporting nation. 01:15:24.360 |
to second-highest supporting nation outside of U.S. 01:15:39.360 |
But the reason why we started going out there, 01:16:09.360 |
their English is a lot better than they let you know. 01:16:21.360 |
because they kind of like feel shy about that. 01:16:40.360 |
the greatest alcohol-consuming country in the world. 01:16:47.360 |
And so that contributes to a lot of the pressure 01:17:00.360 |
And so that's one of the big problems out in Korea. 01:17:02.360 |
Korea has the lowest birth rate of any country in the world. 01:17:05.360 |
I've heard, and I think I may have shared this, 01:17:07.360 |
and I read that if the Korean birth rate continues as it is, 01:17:19.360 |
So this is an issue not only in Korea, in Japan, 01:17:36.360 |
You know, one of the churches that I attended with my mom, 01:17:40.360 |
during the service, they would baptize an infant, 01:17:51.360 |
because they're so concerned about the birth rate 01:17:58.360 |
and churches just to encourage people to have children. 01:18:06.360 |
And so you can sense that when you go to the churches. 01:18:18.360 |
why you don't have children, it's because of money. 01:18:30.360 |
but they've created a standard of living that's so high, 01:18:36.360 |
So it's financial-related, but it's also spiritual, 01:18:40.360 |
because they put such a high value on materialism, 01:18:52.360 |
where the non-Christians don't have respect for Christians. 01:19:09.360 |
but there's records of Koreans who ran into businessmen 01:19:15.360 |
"Christianity was officially outlawed in Korea 01:19:18.360 |
"until Protestant missionaries came to the peninsula in 1880." 01:19:32.360 |
Their graves are actually still out in Korea, 01:19:35.360 |
'cause then their children and even their grandchildren 01:19:43.360 |
I mean, literally, Korea was a country that was-- 01:19:50.360 |
The early missionaries, many of them were martyred 01:20:00.360 |
And so that's why Christians who became Christian early-- 01:20:04.360 |
so if you're a fourth-generation Christian in Korea, 01:20:13.360 |
And so many of them probably either experienced persecution 01:20:17.360 |
or knew somebody that got martyred for their faith, 01:20:22.360 |
such a huge response to Christianity in Korea, 01:20:27.360 |
literally gave their blood to bring the gospel there, 01:20:34.360 |
and it began to explode after the Korean War. 01:20:42.360 |
10 largest churches in the world, right, is in Seoul. 01:20:47.360 |
So of the 10 megachurches, largest churches in the world, 01:21:02.360 |
South Korea is the most Christian nation in all of Asia 01:21:07.360 |
No other Asian country experienced this type of revival 01:21:12.360 |
was the second-largest mission-sending country. 01:21:23.360 |
So if you look at that, you can see the growth 01:21:30.360 |
And right now, it's not--at peak, it was about 33%, 01:21:41.360 |
much less than 29%, because it kept on going up to 33%, 01:21:51.360 |
is because the next generation, the collegiates and younger, 01:22:02.360 |
of professing Christians on college campuses. 01:22:08.360 |
So at one point at peak, a population was 33%, 01:22:18.360 |
meaning that next generation is completely gone. 01:22:22.360 |
all these megachurches are just going to die off, 01:22:25.360 |
because the younger generation is just not coming up, right? 01:22:39.360 |
they were not necessarily closed off to Christianity. 01:22:42.360 |
In fact, a lot of the young people credit Christianity 01:22:52.360 |
to the Christian missionaries who came and helped them. 01:22:55.360 |
So they don't have a bad view of Christianity per se. 01:22:58.360 |
They have a very bad view of Christianity in Korea. 01:23:05.360 |
to talking to Christians who are coming from outside, 01:23:16.360 |
than they are to the Koreans who speak Korean, right? 01:23:25.360 |
why our denomination has asked us to get engaged 01:23:47.360 |
so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, 01:23:51.360 |
that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. 01:24:13.360 |
So it's not like they haven't heard the gospel. 01:24:31.360 |
"How come they come to an English-speaking church 01:24:35.360 |
They say they don't trust the Korean churches. 01:25:18.360 |
Our desire is to go there and to really connect 01:25:22.360 |
where the gospel and the Word of God is taught. 01:25:26.360 |
really pray for that because that's our real, 01:25:40.360 |
with like-minded people, and that's number two. 01:25:44.360 |
and boldness to make clear the mystery of the cross 01:25:48.360 |
And obviously, we have a lot of young people that are going. 01:26:16.360 |
return with a greater vision for global evangelism 01:26:32.360 |
but every time we go out to mission, our goal 01:26:40.360 |
are going will be able to come back and share the sense 01:26:50.360 |
great commission, even back at home. So if you can 01:27:10.360 |
rest of you, if you can just kind of circle around