Hebrews chapter 12 verse 12 and 13 Hebrews chapter 12 verse 12 and 13. We're gonna take a short break. Well it's been a long break but we're gonna take a little bit more time talking about the beginning of the year and the projection and what are some things that we want to focus our attention in as a church.

Pastor Mark last week talked about you know making a commitment being resolved towards certain things and how important it is especially in the beginning of the year that we don't just kind of drift along and allow our circumstances to dictate how we spend our time in and our lives.

I want to spend some time maybe week two weeks possibly up to three weeks focusing our attention projecting toward the right direction of what we think that our needs in our church and what we need to work on. So I'm not gonna be in this text but I'm just gonna be reading this text and then we'll jump into the two various passages this morning in Hebrews chapter 12 12 to 13.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we praise you for your goodness we thank you Lord God for your kindness we thank you Lord for safety we thank you for abundance Lord God of blessings we thank you for our health we thank you for allowing us to be in this country where we can freely express our worship and love toward you.

Help us Lord God to give you worship that is pleasing and acceptable not simply ritualistic but our very hearts that we would think carefully Lord God of where where we are going what we are doing what we are thinking that we may surrender all things to you Father that we may bring the maximum glory that we can in this life for Christ and what he has done.

So for that and we pray for your blessing in Jesus name we pray amen. You know at the beginning of every year we think about what are some areas in the church that we need to work on and then we try to focus our attention on that and so whether it's retreat or small groups or books that we read or seminars we try to focus our attention on those needs so that every year we're addressing different needs that we feel like we need.

Now we haven't had a lot of time with the leaders to get together and to really think about it but you know as I was wrestling what is a weakness in our church that we really need to focus on and you know typically every year obviously there's a you know we could focus on pretty much every part of our of our vision statement whether it's genuine worship or you know right doctrine and theology community building missions and evangelism and and obviously every year we can you know we're gonna be striving after that and some years where it's kind of like not clear because there again so many needs there's not one thing that clearly stands out but to me this year when I was contemplating what is a what is a need in the church and I can honestly say that again as a pastor and as one of the leaders in this church that there is a gaping hole in our ministry and that we I believe need to address with the sense of urgency and that is the need for prayer.

Typically when we talk about when we're in a Bible teaching church and you know right theology and right thinking and right community and evangelism and all of these things are necessary but we have a tendency in our culture where we think well that church is about missions or that church is about discipleship that church is about right theology that church is about the gospel this church is about you know about you know social justice and we almost think like that's okay you know because God uses all of us in different ways and so you kind of emphasize one thing we kind of side the other thing each local church does not have the privilege to you know come before God and say well I'm gonna be about this those churches are about theology but we're gonna be about missions.

The scripture doesn't say pick and choose what stands out to you what what you like you know how God created you and do what you think is right. Every part of the scripture is relevant to every local church so we can't say because you know we're solid on theology we're solid on the word and we're doing missions and we're doing this and so therefore the other part you know the charismatic churches they tend to be more spiritual and they tend to be more prayerful we can't make that excuse.

So as we look at our church what is an area that I believe is a gaping to me it's not just a weakness it's a gaping hole that I think we do need to address in the coming year and possibly further on that we need to be a praying church.

First and foremost that we need to be a praying church it's not one of many things that we need to deal with I think we really need to deal with this before we are overly concerned about anything else in the church and so what I want to do is spend today and possibly next week in the week after that to kind of set the right foundation and obviously when I'm talking about this I'm not just talking about church as in like the leadership or just a gathering but church as a whole all of us together your personal lives and our collective gathering in the church how we're gonna address this issue but today what I want to talk about is why why is this so important why is he taking time to emphasize this and say it's a gaping hole why do we need to do that so there are seven things that I want to address this morning of why we need to be a praying church so again if you're taking notes you can say one two three four five six seven if not again just know that there's seven if I only did six it means I missed something okay so I'm gonna go over seven things this morning one the very nature of the church is for the purpose of prayer okay that's number one the very nature of the purpose of the church is for the for prayer if you remember in 2nd Chronicles 7 14 14 to 15 it's a dead it basically is a dedication service that they have because Solomon builds this temple and they want to dedicate it to the Lord and the Lord basically shows up to dedicate the temple the first temple of Israel and this is what God says to the nation of Israel in dedication of this temple if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers that is made in this place so the way that God described this temple obviously their sacrifices there's a lot of social things that are going on in the temple but first and foremost God says in dedication of the temple that this is where my people will come humble themselves and pray and to seek me if you go to the New Testament when Jesus begins his ministry he begins his ministry at the temple and he concludes his ministry at the temple and in both times the Lord is furious what the temple worship has become he says it's become a den of robbers where people gathered together to sell goods back and forth and and I know that there was some cheating going on because of the weights but ultimately the temple was not being used for what God intended it wasn't a place of prayer so he in anger would chase people out and he says my house will be a house of prayer and his disciples would remember later on remembering that he said his son that the that the zeal of the Lord's house would consume him so it wasn't just one of many things that the Lord was disappointed and he said he was consumed with the thought of the temple not being used for what it was intended he begins with that cleansing of the temple and he ends with the cleansing of the temple now some of you guys are maybe sitting here and saying oh you know the temple is not the church you know that's Christianity 101 it's not the building it's not about the building it's about us right if you haven't read that you know you haven't been a Christian long that's a kind of like you know pushback whenever we talk about church well we come to the New Testament you're absolutely correct it is not the building it is not this these four walls that make a church but it's first Corinthians 316 said do you not know and the you there is in plural referring to the gathering of people do you the church not know that you the church are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you so Paul's rebuke to the Corinthian churches do you not recognize that even though we're not at the temple that you guys when we gather together we are the temple and so the rebuke that he was giving to the to the Corinthian churches you're not functioning the way that the temple was intended to function you're competing with each other I'm of this guy I'm a bad guy but you are the temple that same sacred attitude that you had toward the physical temple you ought to have toward the spiritual temple the gathering of the believers so the very nature of what the church is was meant first and foremost a house of prayer now we're gonna be keep talking about this six other things but why this is so important if this is the nature of the church this is why gather God God gathers us together right first first and foremost it is not so that we can get together I want to have some like-minded people to raise our kids with you know it's about discipleship and and all of these things are necessary all of these things are commands of Scripture but first and foremost it has to be a place where me we meet God it is a place of prayer not only that if you look the second reason why prayer is so important in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus describes his people as people of prayer right so number one the gathering of people the church is a house of prayer in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus describes the people of God as people of prayer so if you remember the chapter 5 through chapter 7 or 8 is a sermon of the mount and the sermon of the mount is basically Jesus giving teachings about what the kingdom of God is like he begins by how you enter the kingdom and what what is like to be in the kingdom and then if within the teaching basically he's describing what the people of God what his people basically Christians ought to be characterized by and you know what's interesting in the way that he describes prayer he doesn't say if you're a Christian if you're a follower of the Son you ought to pray he doesn't even say that he assumes it he assumes he says when you pray pray this way see the Pharisees were not guilty of not praying you know the Pharisees were praying the scribes prayed regularly but they were praying for other people to see they were praying hypocritically so Matthew 6 15 Jesus says do not pray like the hypocrites but he assumes that you're going to pray Matthew 6 9 you know Jesus performed all these miracles he walked on water he fed miraculously 510 possibly up to 20,000 people miraculously right they were they had front row seats when a lame person got up and he started walking right they saw blind people open their eyes they had the front seat they saw all of this but when it was coming time for discipleship and and wanted to ask Jesus would you teach us how to do this above all the things that they observed they come to Jesus say Lord teach us how to pray because they must have recognized and Jesus's humanity that there was something different about Jesus now they knew that he was the Messiah and that's why they stuck with him whether they fully understood him or not and they recognize his miracles they recognize all of these things but in his humanity they recognize that there was something about his discipline of prayer and so above everything that they could have possibly asked they asked Jesus teach me how to pray and it is in that context where we get the Lord's Prayer that's Matthew chapter 6 16 says in the way that we fast Matthew 7 7 through 11 that we ought to persevere in the way that we pray ask seek and knock and then in Matthew chapter 9 36 at the conclusion of the Sermon of the Mount he prepares his disciples to begin to go he wants to send them out and at the beginning of his calling to send them out so that they can begin to practice the things that they've learned the first thing that he runs into is that Jesus sees a multitude and he has compassion for them and when he has compassion for them he turns around to his disciples he says these people are like sheep without a shepherd harassed and so he turns to them he doesn't he says therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few therefore pray right and that word for beseech is not just a casual praying it means to me it means to be committed to this to beseech and hang on cry out to God to send out more workers so not only is the gathering of the church the very nature of it is for the purpose of prayer or the character to me one of the main characters of a Christian is a man who prays thirdly the early church they understood this now they had a hard time understanding this before Jesus was resurrected but the early church prioritize prayer the early church was characterized by prayer now we often talk about how you know we need to be like the book of Acts and and you have a lot of churches that are saying we're the axe church or acts 29 because they want to be like the axe church a lot of times when we talk about that we're talking about their fellowship we're talking about evangelism we're talking about you know they're just being devoted but one of the main things that characterize the early church was their devotion to prayer now we look at the early church and say well why were they able to experience so much success in fact you know if you remember the early church went from a hundred twenty people who was praying at Mark's house hundred twenty and then they added three thousand three thousand was just a number of men right anytime you see the numbers in the Bible you know that that's only talking about men so immediately it doubles okay well not they're not all married but including the children immediately an accurate number will be somewhere around six thousand to maybe even ten and if they had you know knowing knowing back at that time if you include the children it could easily be ten fifteen thousand people right so let's just be conservative and I just say ten thousand people got added in the early church can you imagine you know we have somewhere around four to five hundred people in our church can you imagine one Sunday one Sunday you show up and there's ten thousand people here right the kind of logistical chaos right that the lunch team prepare for 200 and we have ten thousand people right I mean you can imagine the kind of problems that they would have had well what caused them to be a church that was so used powerfully before God we see over and over again it said they got together in Acts 241 after 3,000 people convert they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching fellowship breaking bread and to prayer it was a community committed to the Word of God and to prayer in Acts chapter 3 1 we see Paul we see Peter and John he says in it was time for them to pray it was a time of the day for them to pray in other words they had specific times when they went to the temple on a regular basis to pray when they run into this man who was lame and he heals them it was in the context of prayer in Acts chapter 431 when the leaders of Israel tells tells the leaders to Peter and John said if you continue to preach you're gonna get in trouble and said well you tell me if it's right for us to obey you or obey God and they go out and they praise God and they go home what do they do they have a primity and they pray diligently in Acts chapter 6 for you guys know that passage right the Grecian widows were being neglected so again we'll talk about 120 people went to about 10,000 people and one of the first problems that they ran into and we could easily understand that that the Grecian widows the minority widows that was part of the early church they were being neglected in the distribution of food so a lot of them you know if you're a widow at that time you had no other way to eat so they basically came and the church collected funds and and they distributed the food to one another and the Grecian widows were being neglected because they they weren't part of the majority group now you have to understand when we're talking about the problem in Acts chapter 6 we're not talking about boba right we're not talking about dessert you know they all ate is they they're always getting the bigger piece of the cake that's not the problem they weren't eating the food wasn't being distributed another they weren't eating so you talk about an emergency there's a there's a group of people in the church who aren't eating right say man I mean you talk about an emergency we're not talking about a leaking toilet we're not talking about you know water coming down the ceiling we're talking about a old widows who weren't being fed so if there was any excuse to say you know let's stop everything stop everything and we need to pay attention to this because until they eat we can't continue to do ministry but remember what the Apostle said it is wrong for us to neglect the preaching of the Word of God and praying to deal with this now think about that we always say oh there's you know they're so wise imagine if you were in there it's like they're not eating and you're gonna preach we're gonna have a prayer meeting when they're not eating see the early church when the Apostles if you really understand in the context they're saying the teaching of the Word of God and praying is even more important than eating how often do we say you know what I wake up too early in the morning I have so many kids in my in my house and you don't know my schedule and they only if I had more time but again in the church it said this was so important and we're gonna see why this is so important why they had to prioritize this above everything else Acts chapter 13 1 & 2 the first missionary journey happened in the context of praying and fasting the Holy Spirit says to set up a set apart Paul and Barnabas and so as a result of that they lay hands and they begin this missionary journey and they go and preach the gospel and plant churches so not only is the church the identity of the church a house of prayer the people of God are people of prayer and the early church in the very beginning the reason why it was so flourishing and fruitful is not because they were more smarter than the average pastor it wasn't because they were more powerful in some way I mean yes they were the primary reason was because they were people of prayer they prayed you know I know like especially the Bible teaching church is kind of sounds better if I told you like you know I wasn't a Christian and then at one year you know 1983 I was reading the scripture and you know Romans 528 and God demonstrates his own love towards and that while we were yet since Christ died for us and that gripped my heart and changed my mind and I had this revival and Reformation came right it sounds better it sounds more consistent with a Bible teaching church that the Bible convicted me what convicted me was I saw a group of guys my age praying right because I grew up all my life here in the gospel I memorized the gospel I had the Lord's prayer memorized in Korean and English I my dad made me memorize the Apostles Creed in Korean I didn't understand a word I was memorizing but I did it because he's gonna give me a quarter right a quarter was a lot more money back then it was like worth like a dollar right so I grew up in a church we had family devotions I I don't ever remember not coming to church I don't ever remember missing church for any reason whether I was sick or they were I just don't remember right I grew up saturated with the gospel what changed me was I if you asked me at that time are you a Christian I would have said yes because I went to church if you told me what makes you a Christian Jesus died for me you do believe in God I would have told you yes I would have I wouldn't have told you I don't believe I believe all of that but it was just words that I said I went up to a retreat what what sparked my interest was I saw a bunch of guys my age and it was a charismatic group so they prayed you know they prayed fervently but it made me think like man these guys are praying like God's actually listening you know they're actually listening so it just got me curious it's like I've always prayed kind of like many of you may always pray I always pray before meals you know when you have a gathering of Christians you're supposed to start with prayer so you pray yeah you almost feel like if you don't pray before you eat you're gonna get stomachache or something so you know what I mean so you that's kind of part of your ritual right but it was prayer it was these men and women of prayer that caused me to think like if God is actually there and if God is actually answering prayers if these people actually have a relationship with God that makes sense to me why wouldn't you pray to this God and that's what caused me to get on my knees that God if if they know something that I don't know I want to know you that was my repentance I didn't know any better that's all I said like if they know something that I don't know I want to know right and that's what caused me to open my eyes that was my invitation for God to come into my life and I began to see all this sin and and it wasn't because somebody convicted me saying this is wrong this is wrong I already knew I was a sinner and just being in the presence of God caused me to realize how dirty I was see this is why prayer is so important in the church we ought to be characterized by people who pray fourthly we are commanded to pray in Colossians 4 - it says devote yourself to prayer devote yourself it is not a casual I'll pray when I can this is not a casual if I have enough time in the morning he says no be committed to prayer if you can't commit you if you know that you cannot pay your bills next year next week you're going to be committed to finding a way for getting a job whatever you need to do if you have marriage problems and there's tension you're going to be committed to somehow fixing that kid counseling talk to other people he says when it comes to prayer he says to be devoted to prayer first lesson on 517 he says pray without ceasing constantly you know sometimes the way that we pray that we only pray when there are emergencies when something happens in our life we lose our job or we're sick or something something happens where we feel completely helpless then we come before God and we pray right but the problem with that is even the non-christians pray when they're desperate when they're desperate you ever hear see now it's on the Facebook when tragedy happens you see all these people these gangster rappers and then you know they're crossing it up and you know talking about all kinds of debauchery and all of a sudden somebody gets shot and then you hear on their tweet my prayers are with you right after 9/11 the whole world was praying we're praying for America we're praying for these people people have never prayed in their life all of a sudden gathering hands and Republican Democrats in Capitol Hill had a prayer meeting there was no atheists complaining about the prayer meeting at that time if our prayers are only motivated when when the whole world is motivated how is our prayer and relationship any different see the world prays when they see physical emergency when they feel desperate desperate see the difference between our prayers and the prayers of the world is that we recognize by faith what the world does not recognize that there is an urgency in our lives even if our bills are paid even when our children are completely healthy and everything is good we know that there is an urgent need for us to pray see in James chapter 513 is any of you in trouble he should pray how often do we get into trouble and and seek counseling you know we think oh we need to organize our life this way maybe we should stop spending money in that way and maybe if we did this and that but he said first and foremost anyone is in trouble first and foremost he says to pray in fact in first Peter 312 is it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayers or God is listening any desires to listen how often we think of God as just a being or thing or force but not really think of a God who who sent his only begotten Son to reconcile us that we may become his adopted children now we call him our Abba father but do we have the affection that we have for our fathers to our God the way that the Bible describes his affection for us imagine if you made an appointment with somebody you know at four o'clock and they don't show up you know and you guys are gracious and loving and patient people and you're Christians and if you're not patient you're gonna get judged so you're gonna try to be patient you make another appointment you blew it today I'm gonna be merciful I'm gonna be Jesus and I'm gonna be merciful and we'll make another appointment tomorrow at four o'clock four o'clock comes on and they blow you off and they don't come right again this guy just has no respect he's so inconsiderate but you're Jesus you know what I mean like seven times right so you know forgive him you're gonna forgive him we're gonna be patient because this is what Jesus does right do it third time it's like I twice maybe three times that's among me right he needs me to be righteous fourth time forget it I'm never meeting with this guy a fifth time move don't have anything to do with this guy right even in human relationship I mean we would think at some point at some point you would think if you keep blowing off and you you're not interested in having a relationship with this person isn't that what you would think and if you don't think that somebody in your life is gonna tell you that that don't go out how can you last five time you told him you're gonna meet him he blew you off he's not interested in a relationship with you if God continues to plead with his church and his church continues to say I'm busy at what point do you think God was saying maybe he's just not interested in me at some point you would think that that would be the common sense thing to think right we are told to pray we are told to be devoted to prayer why do we need to be devoted to prayer fifth because we are engaged in a spiritual warfare we are engaged in a spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6 12 it says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places so that passage kind of reminds the Church of Ephesus that this is why you need to be devoted to these things because you can't fix you can't win by being smart by having willpower by being determined I mean if you're selling coca-cola maybe go to school get the education and you apply the right techniques which again in our modern church day church growth movement you kind of think like if you just went to the right school and read the right books and talk to the right people and had enough experience or maybe you're just one of those high-caliber people that would have been a CEO in a company now you're just applying your intellect and your your gifts to the church and now you're gonna be successful that's not what the scripture says is spiritual warfare how are you going to overcome the power of Satan by your technique so that's why he says our struggle is not against flesh and blood it's not something you can fix by by applying the right technique that's why he says to put on the all these different armors of God and then he and then he tells us and summarizes Ephesians 618 and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints you notice how often he says all you know sometimes the way that we pray in the church especially in a Bible teaching church is more of a sprinkling than a dunking you know we're a Baptist Church so we believe in dunking that's sprinkling right so the way that we pray is we sprinkle prayer before we have a meeting we pray you know before we play football we pray before we go watch movies or whatever we're doing we pray so we sprinkle prayer in the beginning we sprinkle prayer at the end he's saying at all times in all occasions for all people for all the Saints he's saying to be saturated in prayer to be protected because we're in spiritual warfare the sprinkling is not gonna do he says to saturate your life saturate the church in prayer first Peter 4 7 the end of all things is near therefore be clear-minded and self-control so that you can pray do you notice the priority in first Peter 4 7 you know the priority in force Peter he says in all things is near therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray typically we say you know we need to pray so that we can be clear-minded so that we can we can be clear-minded to do the work of God here he says the work of God is prayer which makes sense doesn't it is the power behind our work was the power behind behind God would you rather you know go into battle knowing that God is going ahead of you or you say you know what get behind me just push me just tell me where to go and sometimes the way that we minister the way that we behave we almost kind of like I'm gonna do it but make sure God has my back right and that's kind of like the way we pray that's kind of we approach spiritual warfare he says pray and let him go and you follow him saturated in prayer remember Matthew 26 41 you know we talk about we talk about you know like Jesus is last teaching and we know that he he washed the disciples feet so we need to be humble and wash our feet and all of that is true that was a formal education that was given to the disciples but the very last commandment very last thing that he demonstrated and showed to his disciples before he left was in Matthew 26 41 where he was praying at the Garden of Gethsemane and the disciples after an hour he would come back and they would fall asleep and humanly speaking I completely understand that they just had a huge meal they had a Passover meal then they have lamb you know filled with their stomach and and then you know like if you're filled with food that's not the best way to prepare for for prayer meeting right you need to be hungry you be fasting but these guys just gorged on food and just and they're like oh what are we doing it we're gonna go pray and I can imagine disciples like what stop a clock at night we just had you know buffet you know this was not ordinary meal this is a Passover meal he was like it was like a feast right they just had a feast and they're going on Jesus going and praying because he knows what's coming he comes back and the disciples are falling asleep right it's in that context Jesus says watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak watch and pray so that you would not enter into temptation Jesus was a human being was he superhuman being that that he didn't he wasn't ever tired which is that not the case remember Jesus was so tired on the boat everybody else was freaking out because a storm but Jesus was sleep you know say oh why was Jesus asleep isn't he omnipotent isn't he I'm the I'm the president isn't he omniscient and why is he sleeping it's simple answer he was tired he was tired he was a human being he was 100% human being and he was that tired but here you don't see the fatigue because he knows what's coming the only difference between him and the disciples that disciples don't see what's coming so all they know is they're tired and that's why Jesus says you may be willing right your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak you know how many times we say oh you know our flesh is weak and people are so weak prayer so hard and you know we all struggle with that because our flesh is weak look what Jesus says he says exactly the opposite because your flesh is weak you need to pray he doesn't say because your flesh is weak God understands he says no because your flesh is weak you need to pray there's a spiritual warfare going on the Bible says there there's a our enemies like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour I'm not saying that to scare you the Bible says that how many of you know that there is an active spiritual force that wants to devour you how many what was the last time you thought about that when was the last time you felt safe because you had a gun in your house completely not knowing not even thinking about that they're spiritual what Satan can do is much more dangerous than what a gun could do right I'm not trying to get political and take any sides here but how secure do we feel because we locked our doors and we bought our house in a nice neighborhood and we don't have strange people walking around our neighborhood when the scripture says that we have an enemy like a roaring lion seeking to devour you and me anybody who has anything to do with Christ he wants to devour so I know you're willing I know your desire but your flesh is weak so therefore he says to pray there's a spiritual battle going on six prayer is the most tangible way to humble ourselves now we talked about many times how the primary sin of mankind is arrogance and pride those of you who've been studying through Isaiah with us where Isaiah chapter 14 a description of Lucifer and his primary description his arrogance he wants to get to God's level maybe beyond that and all his disciples he wants the whole world to get behind him to do that sin of mankind Adam and Eve was it their arrogance they wanted to be lifted Tower of Babel at the core of mankind sin is pride you know we can be successful in the church and it leads to pride we can go to school get a PhD in theology and about humility and that PhD in humility causes you to be proud right I mean it's an oxymoron it's true you know we're servants of Christ but we're servants of Christ you know I mean that's that it doesn't take a lot for us to become proud you play a basketball game and you win by one point and you'll brag about that for the rest of your life remember that time I schooled you I owned you by that one point you barely won right you come into a room right and you're a little bit taller than anybody and it's like my shirt here you know maybe your hair is a little bit thicker maybe you get it you earn a little bit more money maybe you're a little bit more thinner maybe you're a little bit more athlete it doesn't take a lot you went to UCLA or over UC Irvine or you went to whatever it doesn't take a lot all of this is just a little bit of being a little bit better than somebody else and it fills us with pride you read the Word of God it caused you to be proud you're a little bit disciplined it caused you to be proud it doesn't take much you can be successful in a church you can make disciples convert people and at the end of it said look at me and you ruin everything the most tangible way for us to humble ourselves is to depend upon God remember Paul he says in Corinthians that there's a thorn on his side right and he pleaded with the Lord and and no matter how many times I skip through that and people say we don't know what it is we don't know what it is I think it's pretty obvious the thorn on his side are all the people who are who are questioning his apostleship they're causing trouble and the very reason why he's writing first and second Corinthians I think that's a thorn on his side because when he went to Jesus he said because all this revelation I'm trying to keep you humble on purpose so what was humbling Paul all these people who are questioning him and Jesus says in order to keep you humble I'm allowing this in your life right just to keep you humble I'll bet you anything I'll bet you anything that there's somebody in your life that's a thorn on your side you know it's some maybe not so bad that you're clean to God but I'll bet you anything just from years of counseling people that everybody in this room if not majority of you have somebody in your life who just doesn't get you or at least that's how you that's what you think say I that guy you know everybody thinks he's a good guy but that guy you know you don't know him behind the scene he they think he's so generous but no that guy I've seen him with these people there's all there's always somebody in your life that he everybody else you have you have no problems but that there's that one guy in your life it may be a family member and maybe your husband or your wife it may it may be say just a just an acquaintance maybe somebody in this room or maybe somebody outside this room and maybe that's why you came here right and then somebody else happens here right I think there are times when God deliberately in fact not times they're always right there's God places certain people and certain things in your life for that very purpose of keeping you humble and you can't stand it right you can't stand it when somebody questions your integrity questions who you are right well Jesus says to Paul I I'm allowing it on purpose I'm allowing it on purpose to keep you humble because if you don't stay humble you will be ruined you'll be ruined that pride that enters in that somehow you think you can do it that you're somebody outside of God will ruin you not recognizing the scripture says that God is directly opposed to the proud not realizing our desire to be on a pedestal to be seen and to be recognized is inviting God's attention to humble us that God says I will be against you if you get puffed up and lift yourself up and yet every single day we live to kind of be on that pedestal kind of subtly not directly you're too smart for that right people will see right through that so it has to be very subtle right it comes out in our speech in our conduct and in the way we get annoyed when people certain you know question certain things but the whole walk with God is about coming before his throne and humbling ourselves there's nothing more tangible that we could do as Christians but to humble ourselves in prayer even the Lord's Prayer if you look at the Lord's Prayer it says our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name recognizing him thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven a person who is seeking his own will his own glorification cannot pray cannot pray because God says to seek his kingdom to seek his will so if I have my will and trying to bend his will you can't even pray the Lord's Prayer the Lord's Prayer is a prayer of surrender thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread now where does that thought daily bread come from right the Jews when they were in the desert and God gave them manna and told them to only choose daily bread and only the day before the Sabbath collecting up for two days but every other day only one day I mean that doesn't seem efficient right just go and collect for the whole month and you can have the whole rest of the month and do whatever you want there was a reason behind that every day that they are reminded that they are absolutely utterly dependent upon God and that's the prayer of the Lord's Prayer give us this day our daily bread it is a prayer of surrender and dependence forgive us as our debts as we forgive our debtors that we humble ourselves and give it away lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil right that's the Lord's Prayer that I can't fight I can't be delivered by the enemy's influence in my life without God being merciful to me let me say this if you do not pray on a regular basis you do not know how much satanic influence is in your head right now you don't even know you have demonic thinking the way that you view certain people the things that you desire and longing for you don't know how much of that is satanic because the only way that we can be delivered from that is by his power not by our smart not by our experience you can be thinking about godly things and be satanic now let me back that up Peter we can say well you know Judas or my heed we can't be we can't be you know we can't be possessed because we're Christians yeah right you're right but look at Peter he had every good intention Jesus is going to the cross and he says no you cannot go and Jesus sees right through that there's satanic involvement in this get behind me Satan so when an individual is walking by himself not saturated by the Spirit of God even reading the Word of God can lead you astray can it not have you ever met somebody who knew the Word of God and actually absolutely pervert the Word of God have you ever met somebody who justified every sin that they commit and they have a verse to back it up yes I've seen people use the Word of God to back up abortion I've seen people use the Word of God to back up adultery yeah I mean as ridiculous as that sound when our heart is not pure even the Word of God can be perverted and so we even the ability to understand what it says is dependent upon his mercy and that's why he says lead us not into temptation he doesn't just say just point to me where not to go he doesn't say that because even when I know where it's not to go when I'm tempted I will go lead me not into temptation deliver me from evil this is an utter prayer of surrender that's the Lord's Prayer basically what Jesus was telling the disciples is to surrender come before God and be utterly dependent on him saturate your life with the Spirit of God that every single day we are saying it is you not me in Psalm 27 some trust in chariots some horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God seventh and finally the final reason and I think is the most important reason is that the whole point of salvation is our relationship with God if we call salvation reconciliation to be reconciled can you imagine if right now you know that North and North and South Korea you know they have all these tensions and and for the last 60 years a country was just torn in half can you imagine this is basically what happened in Korea you had people who basically during the Korean War was shuffled the whole country was shuffled around right young men were forcefully put into put into the Red Army and then they went up and they went down and then the parents and small children took up their kids and took a few bags they went down to the core they went up north back and forth so basically what happened was all the people in Korea got shifted around nobody was in their home their home got destroyed they were nowhere to go and then right in the middle of that they decided we're gonna split it right in half and so whoever got stuck on this side can never come back down this way and whoever got stuck in the south can never see the parents and children on this way I actually had a lady in my class when I used to teach ESL and she was probably in her mid 70s at that time she would probably in her 80 or 90s now but she was a widower and I so how long have you been a widow and a widow and basically she became a widow about two months after they got married so she was maybe in her early 20s 22 23 she got married and and the war broke out about two months after and her husband got forcefully dragged into the army and he was one of those guys being taken back and forth and when they decided to divide the country in half she was stuck on this side and he was stuck on that side and she never saw her husband again and she never remarried she never remarried one of the godliest ladies I've ever met she spent all her days just copying scripture you know she would just copy scripture you know and it wasn't just her the whole country experiences so you know you can understand that the previous generation why reunification meant everything to them because many of them lost everything can you imagine that your wife your you know you know that some of you guys may know the church in young knock in LA some of you guys know what that church is that big Korean church in LA the senior pastor who planted that church experienced the same thing when he was a young man the war broke out and he lost his wife he never saw his wife and then years later because he was a pastor of one of the largest church in here he's had an opportunity to go into North Korea found out his wife died a year before he came in the whole country I mean I'm just telling you one story of millions of story so you can imagine how important reunification is for a lot of the older people can you imagine if reunification finally one day happens and the 38th parallel is taken away all the landmines are taken out and said now we reunify now we can reconcile and nobody ever moves nobody makes a phone call it's like thank God it's open thank God it's open we need to praise the people who got together and was smart enough and to remove the barrier between us and thank God now we have the access and we're celebrating this open door but nobody goes to the other side the whole point of justification is to take away the barrier that we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence what we could not do because of our sins Christ took it upon himself and he absorbed our sins and took away the landmines took away the wall took away the barrier and he says now come and then we watch and celebrate his work and we praise what he has done but nobody's going nobody's entering there's no affection for Christ there's no hungering for his presence there's no reaching out there's no crying out Baba father we thank you so much for doing what we did now what I could not do because of Christ now I can do I can come before you in prayer and you hear me and there's no barrier between me and you can you imagine the tragedy after that happens and everybody just watching each other and celebrating the open door and that's where it ends we can talk about the intricacies of the gospel or the blood of Christ we can have a PhD in Christology and in the end if you do not have a personal relationship with Christ it's all vanity it's for nothing the whole purpose of salvation is to bring us to him Ephesians 212 remember that you were a at that time separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant as promised having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ our ultimate reason why we ought to pray is because we can because we can God who created us sustained says come to me and he's eagerly waiting for us so let me conclude with this as we continue on in 2016 that again and I'm not saying like this because I want you to all do what I do and become like me but as I evaluate my life and as I evaluate our church it is not just a shortfall it is a gaping hole that I see and I hope that in 2016 that together you know you encourage and challenge me and I will encourage and challenge you that this is something that we want to wrestle together that we would become a church of prayer in Jeremiah 29 13 so you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart would you take a minute to again come before the Lord in prayer that again as we think upon 2016 and the things that we talk about like individually and as a community how can we become more a place of prayer house of prayer people of prayer and to really ask the Lord for his strength okay so as our worship team leads us let's take some time to pray