Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12, I'll be reading from verse 9 through 13, but our main focus is going to be on verse 13 today. Romans chapter 12, verses 9 through 13. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness. I thank you Lord God for the brothers and sisters that you've placed us in the midst that we may practice love, grace, patience, and mercy.

All these things that you command us to use our gifts to build up the body of Christ, that your name may be exalted, that the light of Christ may shine brightly in this dark world, that the world may know that there is hope outside of politics, of finances, and economy, that there is hope in the name of Jesus Christ and him alone.

Help us Lord God to fix our eyes upon Christ and what he has done, and the future hope that is coming with him, that our lives Lord God may reflect the very gospel we profess to love. We pray that your word would be anointed and your Holy Spirit would send forth Lord God, and it would not return until it has accomplished its purpose.

So we pray for your grace this morning, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Again as you guys know, we've been studying through the book of Romans and I counted, I went back and counted about close to 90 sermons that was focused on up to chapter 11, close to 90 sermons.

And so we've been speaking or we've been talking about the justification of Christ, and then recently we made a transition to chapter 12 where it says, "In view of this mercy to present your body as a living sacrifice." So what does it mean to live according to the faith that we profess?

So chapter 12 and on, it focuses on the application of what it means to be a Christian, not to just profess the doctrine and say, "This is what we believe and we are thankful for Christ, for what he has done and all that is important and it is foundational." But based on that foundation, what do we do as Christians?

How do we apply this? And we talked about how chapter 12 verse 1 says, "To offer your whole bodies, not just a portion, but everything that we are ought to be offered up as a living sacrifice." Not just a weekend, not just a portion, but all of it. And then he talked about how in verse 3 to verse 8, that he's given us different gifts to carry this out, to practice this.

And even though not everything about application is about love, the scripture makes it absolutely crystal clear that the greatest of the commandments is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. And all of the commandments can be summarized by loving your neighbor as yourself. So even though he may not be expressly saying that you ought to love in perseverance, you ought to love in tribulation, that in application, the greatest application of perseverance would be in practicing love.

The greatest application in using our gifts is to love. So even though I may not be mentioning the word love throughout every one of these commands, I hope that you understand that that is what's assumed in scripture, that all of the things that God has commanded us to do is ultimately to practice the love that Christ practiced on us.

So again, as I mentioned, we've spent, I forget, I don't know how many years have gone by, but we've spent about 80 to 90 sermons just talking about justification of Christ. And then we go to chapter 12, we're talking about application. But Philemon, I think, is a great book.

If you've never read or studied through the book of Philemon, I really encourage you to take your time, not just to read it, but to dissect it and go through what this letter is about. Because the letter of Philemon is probably the most vivid picture of the power of the gospel.

You know, the theme of this year for our church is to live worthy of the gospel and application. And I don't know of any other letter, I mean, I think all the letters obviously is rich with the gospel, but Philemon is an illustration, it's a picture of the power of the gospel changing people's lives.

If you know the letter, the letter is basically Apostle Paul, he's sitting in prison and he's trying to reintroduce a runaway slave, Onesimus, back to his former master, Philemon. And so this short letter is him pleading with the former master, Philemon, to receive this runaway slave who basically ripped him off and took off.

You have to understand the context of this whole situation that none of this is even possible. You can't even entertain that a letter like this actually was written and something like this actually happened in history if it wasn't for the power of the cross. Humanly speaking, what this letter contains is something that the world will never be able to understand.

Just look at Paul himself, this is a man who before he met Christ, devoted himself to go out and kill, drag Christians into prison. He hated the Gentiles. He's sitting in prison, not worrying about himself, he's worried about a runaway slave to be restored back to his owner. Why would he even care about that?

The very fact that he even writes this letter is a demonstration of what God has done with this man's life. This is a guy who was on the top of the world before he met Christ. He was probably, maybe a member of the Sanhedrin already. He's a direct disciple of Gamaliel, the greatest Jewish scholar of that time.

His dad is a Roman citizen, so he's probably coming from a wealthy family. So humanly speaking, as a Jew, he basically already made it. In fact, in the book of Acts, when he goes out preaching the gospel, the governors and kings already knew about him. He's a man who was so studied, he said, "Your studies have made you crazy." So he was already well known, even before he came into the city, that this great Jew became a Christian.

Now he abandoned everything to talk about Jesus' death and resurrection. And now he's sitting in prison, and he's writing this letter to insignificant in the eyes of the world, this runaway slave to be reconciled to his master. The slave himself, Onesimus. You have to understand that if you ripped off your master and you took off, and your master hired people to catch you, it would have been instant capital punishment.

He would have had absolutely no right as a slave, but as a runaway slave, his life would have ended. So the fact that he's even risking to go back to his master, basically his life could have ended if this didn't go well. The fact that his repentance required him to be reconciled to his master, and he was willing to do that, and that he's carrying and going back to be reconciled, this runaway slave, even this master himself.

This was, again, as far as the world was concerned, that was his property. But Paul is saying, not to receive him as your former slave, but as your brother in Christ. What Paul was asking Philemon to do, was humanly speaking, was not something that they could have understood. Why would you receive him as your brother?

Let him live. At least beat him, and then sell him off, because that's what would have typically happened. So this whole scenario in this letter could not have happened if it wasn't for the power of the cross. The witness of what Christ has done, his death and resurrection, wasn't in the teaching of theology, going back and forth, getting in a classroom, and here's a set of doctrine that you need to memorize.

The power of the cross and the witness of Christ was in the life of the believers in the early church. A Jew and a Gentile slave and a slave owner, Pharisees sitting with Gentiles breaking bread, even as he is being threatened with life, he's sitting in prison, thanking God for the opportunity to preach the gospel.

None of this could have happened by human will. It was the power of the cross. At the core of all of this, that's driving this, is the love of Christ. That's what Paul is using to plead with Philemon to receive him back. He says, "Remember what Christ has done for you.

Remember who you are. Remember the mercy that Christ has shown you, and I encourage you to respond also in mercy to receive this runaway slave back." See, Philemon, verse 4 through 7, Paul says, "I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and of all the saints." So in other words, he's saying, "I know who you are, and there's genuine evidence of your salvation and your faith because of the love that I already see you practicing among the brothers." And then he says, "And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ." Now this is one of those passages that sometimes we memorize to encourage evangelism.

I'm praying that you would share your faith and become effective in all the knowledge and good things that God has given you. But again, every verse has to be understood in the context of the letter and context of the New Testament. The word for sharing here is koinonia. So it doesn't exclude evangelism, but the meaning behind it is much broader and much larger than just sharing and evangelizing.

He's referencing this communion that he has with his brothers and sisters because of what Christ has done in his life. Sharing of his faith. In other words, practicing this love that Christ showed him. And he's using that as a base to say, "Because Christ loved you, now you love to the extent this runaway slave who took everything from you." And then he says, "I want you to practice this love out of abundance of your heart because you're being affected by the love of Christ.

But just in case that's not enough, don't forget you owe me your life. I share the gospel with you." At the core of who we are, we are people who have been affected by the love of Christ. That's who we are. It wasn't just, you know, we heard a bunch of doctrines that say, "You know what?

I think this makes more sense to me." If that is your testimony, it's just in your head, you've chosen what makes the most sense to you, that's probably what will be reflected in your life. Mentally, you know all the right things, but the aroma of Christ isn't evident in your life.

See, Christianity is not simply about laying out the right doctrines and choosing what you think is right. Christianity ultimately is about encountering the resurrected Christ and being transformed. That's what Christianity is. Knowing this resurrected Christ, and as He loved us, we love. That's exactly what the Scripture says. We love because He first loved us.

People who have been affected by the love of Christ, practicing that love with other people, ultimately. The text that we're looking at this morning in verse 12, again, it's in the line of series about 21 to 24 imperatives, that this is what you ought to do. And He started by saying, "Let your love be genuine, or poor, what is evil.

Love one another, brotherly affection." And He basically establishes love as the first priority, and then He goes on and He begins to build imperative by imperative. He doesn't explain, He doesn't go into deep exposition of what it means to persevere, what it means to go through trials. But one by one, He goes and He kind of knocks out.

It's not comprehensive. There's a lot more that He could have added to this, but every single one of these highlight and accentuates what it means to be people who have been affected by the love of Christ and to continue to persevere in it. So our outline in verse 12 is pretty clear.

The first one, He says, "Biblical love rejoices in hope." Biblical love rejoices in hope. The first thing that we see in any genuine conversion, if you've ever participated in sharing the gospel and seeing somebody come to Christ, whether you share the gospel or you participated in it or you were near it, the very first evidence of genuine faith and genuine conversion is joy.

How do you determine if somebody is alive, physically living or not? We check their breath. We check their pulse and we see, "Oh, is this person really living?" As a Christian, when somebody who was at one point dead in their trespasses, and because of the blood of Christ, they become alive in Christ, the very first thing that we see is that very life, because that's what salvation is.

Dead person coming to life. Jesus says, "I have come to give life and to give this life abundantly." So you would think that you would be able to see this life in a brand new Christian. If somebody was dead and they came to life, you'd be able to say, "I'm not sure.

I don't know if that person is alive." The word for life in the Bible is zoe, not bios. Bios is where you use the word for chronological length of life. Jesus did not say that, "I have come to give you extended period of living, that when you die that you don't get terminated, but that you're going to exist forever." That's not what he said.

He said, "I have come to give you life, zoe, to make you alive and to make you alive abundantly." Not just you weren't breathing and then you're breathing. Not just you weren't thinking and then now you're thinking, but he says, "No, to make you alive and to make you alive abundantly, exponentially." That's why the scripture says in Galatians 5, 22 to 23, the fruit of the spirit is first, the fruit of the spirit in 522, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. And of these nine characteristics of the fruit of the spirit, what's the first one? Love. And then the second one? Joy. Right? Now, I've already mentioned to you many times that whenever you see a list of things in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, that it is not random.

He didn't have nine different things and he just went into a bag and whatever came up, he listed it. It's very purposeful. So the fact that the very first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, because it's love that brought Christ down. It is love that caused him to forgive sinners.

It is love that caused him to sacrifice who he knew no sin became sin, that you and I may have the righteousness of Christ. It was love. And so the very first thing that he says, "If Christ is in you," the very first thing that you would see is love.

And then the second thing is joy, this very life that he came to give. So the evidence of true faith is this joy. You can't have worship if you don't have life. If our life is constantly characterized by grumbling and complaining, it squashes the joy that God gave us to make us alive.

You know, if you ever talk to somebody and there's some people in our lives and all they talk about is what is wrong with life and what's wrong with everybody else, and you don't even know if they really have any kind of relationship with Christ, because all they know is what's wrong with everybody, with everything.

See, the very first characteristic, he says, is this joy, is this life in us. And it affects everything that we do. And see, we have this joy not because of circumstances, and this is not the kind of joy that you experience because you got a raise, you know, or you won the lottery, or you found this great pizza place that no one else found, and you feel this temporary joy.

We're talking about a joy that cannot be squashed. First Peter 1, 3 to 6, Peter says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope." Not a hope that is alive one day and dead the next day.

Not a kind of hope that you have to keep going after over and over and seeking different things. He said it is a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Not only is it living, he says, this inheritance, this hope that we have in Christ, it is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

It does not fade. And this is exactly what he meant. If you drink of the water of the world, you may quench your thirst for a minute, but the minute will pass. It may satisfy you for a period, but eventually it passes, and you have to have it over and over and over again.

But he said, the water I give you, if you drink of it, you will never thirst. The bread that I give you, it won't satisfy you for a period. He said you will never go hungry again. He said it is imperishable. How much of your joy is based upon perishable things?

When somebody is nice to you, joy. When they're not, you're not joyful anymore. A lot of times people base their commitment to a church based upon temporary joy. If I have friends, you know, I say, oh, this is great because people are great. And as soon as that gets tainted or somebody says something or the fellowship gets sour and your whole relationship with God falls apart.

It is imperishable. It can't be defiled. No sin, nothing can defile this hope that we have in Christ. We didn't earn it, and we can't defile it. It is unfading. It doesn't disappear as time goes by, just like everything else in this world. No matter how excited you get about your brand new car, brand new relationship, brand new car, whatever it is that you get, it's eventually it fades.

Everything fades. He said, but this hope that we have in Christ is unfading. Not only is it imperishable, not only it can't be defiled, not only does it not fade and it continues, but the power of God guards it in our faith until the end. It is in his hands, not mine, not yours, not the church's.

And the only reason why the church has persevered up to this point, after 2,000 years of corruption and sinfulness and selfishness and politics and even wars, if you look at it and examine every single church, every single church, there is some problem. And these aren't minor problems. Every single church that I'm able to visit, including our church, there is something that you can find.

If you want to take a closer look, there's something that you can find saying, man, this church is not going to make it. And yet we're here 2,000 years later, especially if you look at the Catholic Church for 1,000 years of teaching the wrong gospel, for killing people, for wanting to translate the Bible so that people can read it.

And yet we're still here with hundreds of translations. And the only reason why you and I are here is because it is being guarded by the power of God, not me, not you. Not because faithful men have, with courage, just kind of stood. I mean, God uses all of that, but in the end, it's not because of that.

Because God said that this living hope that he gave to us, that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, is being kept in his power until the end. He's going to fulfill what he has promised. So our joy is based upon that living hope, which doesn't change when you first got saved and then five years later, or it was exciting in college, but then when you got married, it disappeared.

Or in your 20s, yes, but not after you have kids. He says, "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials." It is in this that you rejoice. So the life that he has given us does not shift because of circumstance.

It does not shift because of the people around us, or politics, or whatever is happening around us far and near. It is in his hands. And this hope that we have in Christ that produces this joy is directly an evidence of our genuine faith. Hebrews 11, it says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen." If you don't have genuine faith, hope is just wishful thinking.

It's not real. You're just, you don't really believe it, but you're just buying insurance just in case. And so you won't see the fruit of it in your life. But if you have genuine saving faith, the immediate outcome, immediate fruit is this hope that we have in Christ that we can't see or taste or touch, but we know that because I believe what he has told me, that I live my life and everything I do is affected by that.

What I invest in. What I rejoice in. What I get saddened over. It is all affected by this hope that we have in Christ. And it's a direct evidence of our faith. First Peter 1, 8-9, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory." The obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul.

Do you notice that? How the outcome of our faith is directly linked to this inexpressible joy. Because that's what the Bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have what? Everlasting life." Zoe! Joy!

That's the whole purpose of our salvation. So it doesn't make sense for Christians to be walking around. Every day pointing out what's wrong with everything when we recognize that the greatest problem of mankind has been solved in the name of Jesus Christ. The worst case scenario that I can think of in my life, you know, of most people is just dying early.

Right? What if we do this and we try everything to try to prolong our life. But I think about the worst case scenario for me is, humanly speaking, is dying before my time and leaving my family and who's going to take care of my kids. And I think of, just like any other human being, I think about these things.

But when I take a step back and think about it, the worst case scenario for Christians to die early means to go to Christ earlier. That's the worst case scenario. And then you go, "Well, what about your children?" You know, I wrestle all the time with the, you know, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you." So I struggle with, "Well, who's going to take care of my kids?" And every decision I make and everything I do, I'm trying to like balance between putting God first and taking care of them.

Well, if I die early, He's forcing me to trust Him. Right? That's the worst case scenario for a Christian. We get diseased and we go bankrupt and it forces us to come to Him and beg for His mercy and then He draws near to me. That's the worst case scenario for a Christian.

This joy that we have in Christ can only be squashed if you take your eyes off of Christ and you forget what it is that you have in Him. Otherwise, it is, it says it is unfading, it is imperishable, it is kept in heaven for us. And that first part of joy and hope is directly linked to the second part.

True love is patient in tribulation. Patient in tribulation. In Matthew 13, 20 to 21, you're talking about the third seed that receives the word and it says immediately He's joyful. So Matthew 13, 20 to 21. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

So when you look at that part, it looks like, "Well, He must have genuine faith because immediately He receives it with joy." So there's evidence of His life. Yet, in verse 21, He has no root in Himself, but He endures for a while and when tribulation persecution arises in account of the word, immediately He falls away.

So in other words, He is expressing, there's evidence of this joy superficially, but the reason why it gets squashed is because He has no root. And where is this root? What does the scripture say? If you do not abide in me, you cannot bear fruit. So here's a man who superficially on the surface is happy, is rejoicing, but it's not because of Christ.

I mean, don't we see that all the time? You can go to short-term missions and come back excited. And as soon as that experience of being around Christians and your friends and having a sense of purpose, and as soon as that disappears, your joy disappears. You get a new job and it's, "Oh, thank God." And we always talk about, "Thank God that He gave me.

God is so wonderful. God is so good." And then as soon as you start having problems at work, your joy gets squashed. You find a group of friends, maybe at a new church, and it's like, well, you're starting to connect that, "Wow, these people are really encouraging." And it's, "I love being here because there's a sense of purpose and I love this." And as soon as that gets squashed, your joy also gets squashed.

She says He's describing an individual who is experiencing joy superficially, but it's not because of Christ. He said when the tribulation comes, when persecution comes because of the Word, he immediately gets squashed. He has no understanding of this joy that the Bible talks about. His joy is no different than the world.

It's just that you may find it in the church. Just like in the church, you know, talk about how the world is trying to exalt themselves by making money. You can see that in the church too. That's why the church gets corrupt all the time. You have people in the church trying to find this worldly life in the church.

And that's a description of this man in the third seal. You have people in the church all the time who are looking for the world in the church. He says, "No, but the tribulation, when it comes, it reveals our genuine faith." 1 Peter 4, 13-14, he says, "But rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's suffering, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." How often do we read articles about the Christians who are being persecuted in Iran or Afghanistan, North Korea, or maybe even in India, and we say, "Oh, those poor Christians." Thank God, God has blessed us to be living in a country where we don't have to worry about that.

When was the last time we looked at the intense persecution that's happening in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in Iran, in India, in China, and all over the world, and say, "Wow, I envy these people." And yet that's the biblical perspective. The biblical perspective is, he says, "Rejoice, because that persecution over your faith means that you are blessed." In fact, in Philippians chapter 129, it says, "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake." It's been granted to you.

God doesn't look at the persecution happening around the world and say, "Oh my gosh, they're doing this to my children. I've lost control." He says, "No, it's been granted to them that through these trials that they may also share in this intimacy with Christ." If the greatest gift of salvation is not to live forever, but Christ, because Christ is the author of our life.

If He's the author of life, and the greatest gift for any human being is Christ Himself, then as Christians, wouldn't anything and everything that brings us closer to Christ be the greatest gift? Let me say that again. If Christ is the greatest gift of salvation, if it's the greatest gift that any human being can have, because He is the originator of life, and He's the author of life, He's the sustainer of life, and all hope hinges upon Him, then anything and everything that brings us closer to Christ, isn't that the greatest gift?

When we evaluate what is happening in our life based upon the wishes and hopes of this world, then anything that hinders us from getting more money, anything that hinders us from safety, anything that hinders us from being loved by people that we care about, we don't look at that as a blessing.

But when our perspective changes biblically based upon what He sees, sometimes the greatest blessing that we receive is the brokenness that you've experienced, and that brokenness that led you to repentance, to come to Christ. That's the greatest thing that happened in your life. The greatest tragedy that you may have experienced, the greatest heartache, because that brought you to Christ.

That caused you to long for Him. That created a hunger in your heart that would not have been there if God didn't allow this in your life. So He says not only that He caused us to persevere, He said it's been granted to you. See, this is something that the world that does not know Christ will never understand.

No matter how much we try to explain it to them, if they have not seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if they don't understand the hope that we have in His name, this will make absolutely no sense. In fact, they'll think you're ludicrous. They'll think you're insane for celebrating tribulation.

In Romans 5, 3 to 5, it says, "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces what? Hope." Tribulation ultimately brings us to greater hope in Christ. And it is this hope that we have in Christ that causes us to long for Him, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, that desire Him more than desiring of this world.

So when trials and tribulations come into our life, it reminds us this is not our home. This is not our home. And isn't the frustration and the trials that you have in life as a Christian, because we're trying so hard, every decision that we make is trying to have what the world has and have Jesus too.

Isn't that where our frustration lies? See, tribulation comes into our life because He grants it, because He's trying to draw us to Himself. The third commandment is also vitally linked to the second part. Biblical love is constant in prayer. It is constant in prayer. Hebrews 4.16, it says, "Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." The greatest and the most practical gift that we have been given because of our salvation is prayer.

I want you to really let that sink in, right? Because the curse of man came onto mankind because we've been separated from God, that we didn't have access to this Holy God. So everything about Israel's history was to teach the nation of Israel that a Holy God cannot dwell with sinful man.

So everything that we're learning in the book of Leviticus, it's not welcoming. I mean, if you've ever studied or read through the book of Leviticus, it's not welcoming. It doesn't say, "Come." It actually screams every chapter to stay away, or you shall die. You know, we're learning through all these sacrificial systems, and by the time he's done with his teaching, we're going to get to chapter 10.

And then when we get to chapter 10, they actually start to practice this. And then I'm giving you a preview of what's coming in chapter 10. The very first time the nation of Israel tries to implement it, and they do it incorrectly, do you know what happens? They die.

The first two priests. So nothing about this sacrificial system invites people to come to him, because he was trying to teach the nation of Israel. The sinners cannot be in the presence of a Holy God and live. And that's why it was preparation for the coming of Christ, that he's going to cover you so that you can come, because the whole blessing of life is to be near his presence.

If the living water is in him, I have to get to him. If my sustenance is coming from him, I have to get to him. But we couldn't get to him because of our sins. That's the whole point of the sacrificial system. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.

What goat though? What bull? What pigeon? What lamb would have been big enough? What animal would have sufficed to do away with all of my sins? All of the nation's sins? Past, present, or future. Even as they were practicing these things, they should have been asking themselves, "Really? This Holy God that we can't even look at?

That this one little tiny animal is going to suffice for that?" Obviously it did not. It was only to prepare for the coming of Christ. So the greatest gift that we have received because of the blood of Christ, he took away this barrier between sinners and the Holy God, so that we can have this access.

And so when Hebrews 4.16 says, "Now you can draw near with confidence that you're not going to get killed, not only just gazing at him, but to be in his presence." So the greatest gift that you and I have been given is the ability to be able to pray, to ask him.

If you abide in me, my word abide in you. Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you. But the reason why, especially in the Western church, why prayer is so impotent, it's because of the latter part. It says that you may find and receive mercy and find grace to help in what?

In time of need. That's the problem. The church does pray when we are in dire need. We pray when we are sick. We pray when we lose our job. We pray during disasters. We pray when we feel absolutely helpless. But that's our problem. How often do you feel helpless?

How often do you come before God in dire need? How often do we recognize that we need him and that we run to him in prayer? So sometimes God will bring tribulations from time to time to remind us of our need for him. You know, the Iranian pastor was asked about the increase in persecution that's happening in Iran.

And they asked him, "How did you see this persecution affect Christianity in Iran?" This is what he said. The church, the Iranian church, used to be a sleepy church because there was so much prosperity and so many foreigners living in Iran. Today, referring to Iranian Christians, went from sleepy once a month members to a church on its knees.

God brought persecution in that church and purified the church. And through that purification, right now, the greatest, at least in modern history, of Muslims turning to Christ is happening in Iran. They said that the number of people from Muslims, nominal Muslims who are turning to Christianity, is in record number that they haven't seen until in modern history.

And it was because God brought suffering and the suffering led to dire need in prayer. But here's the challenge. What about us living in Orange County? Well, we're not being persecuted. Do we cause trouble on purpose? Do we invite this persecution? I mean, because we're living in peace. I mean, obviously, you know, I'd rather have my kids living in peace.

I'd rather have worship, not worrying about somebody coming and blowing us up. So how do we fight this? The scripture clearly says, in Ephesians chapter 610, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against rulers. Let me stop right there. Part of the reason why we don't pray is because we forget this.

We wrestle against flesh and blood. And so much of sometimes even Christian work is fighting against flesh and blood. If we have the right programs, if we have the right discipleship, if we say the right things and organize the right things, if we have the right people in place.

If our fight is against flesh and blood, then flesh and blood is the answer. Having the right people, right organization, right method. If flesh and blood is our problem, but he said it's not our flesh and blood. Christian battle is not about flesh and blood. It's against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers, against the present dark age, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

So over and over and over and over and over again, he reminds us, it is not flesh and blood. This battle that we're in is against powerful spiritual beings. You can have the best organization, the best theology, the best preaching, all the money in the world, and all the knowledge in the world, and be absolutely fruitless.

And be absolutely helpless. There's no amount of money, there's no amount of effort, there's no amount of intellect, there's no amount of organization that's going to make us successful against this battle. Because he said it's not flesh and blood. In fact, he says over and over again, he says it is against, against, over and over again, he says against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic power, against the spiritual forces in heavenly places.

Against, against, against, against. In other words, he reminds us, there's a conflict, that you are in the context of battle. And it is not only in Iran, it is not only in Afghanistan, it is here. And the danger that you and I live in is we don't know that we are in this battle.

That there is spiritual forces who are actively going against us, and he is scheming your thoughts, your heart, your worship, your fellowship, is being hindered constantly, and we are unaware. And we are unaware of the spiritual need that we have to come before God and cling to him and beg for his help.

And so we do not recognize that we are in need. So we have this access that is open to God, but because we do not feel the need, we don't go to him. Because I can pay my bills without Christ. I know how to raise my kids. I know how to organize.

I know how to invest for the future. I know how to take money out and put it in a stock that is going to grow. I know how to do all of that, but we don't need Christ for that. But when we recognize the spiritual battle that we are going against, no amount of your money, no amount of your experience, no amount of hard work is going to make a dent in that.

And this spiritual battle oftentimes is not even external. It's in you, your thoughts, your hatred, your selfishness, your unwillingness to forgive, unwillingness to be gracious. That spiritual battle is also in you. It is not just external. It's because we don't recognize that. The people who are not absolutely committed to holiness have no idea how desperate they are, how they cannot be holy without the love of Christ.

Those of you who have never fully committed to love as Christ loved, you have no idea how far that is from you to practice. We're not talking about love like Valentine love that we had this Wednesday. You know, go to Costco and you have all these men who are buying flowers to make up for the rest of the year, you know what I mean?

Trying to be a good husband or could be a good father or good son or a good wife. The whole world practices that. It's not just the Christians that was there on the Valentine's Day. Hindus and atheists, they're all there. We're all trying to be good fathers. We're all trying to be good brothers.

We're all trying to be good husbands and wives. That's not what he called us to be. He says, "As I have loved you, if you love one another, they will know that you are my disciples." God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Where he ran when he saw our sin, to us, not from us. So the love that he called us to love is a love that you and I do not have within us. Anything smells weird, it sounds weird, people act weird, we see selfishness in other people. I mean, we don't want to, life is too short, I don't want to deal with that.

Life is hard enough as it is. And yet, the very core of what he called us to be is to reflect the love of Christ. If you've ever made a commitment to love as Christ loved, you know how desperate you are. You know that it's not within you. Only people that is not aware of that is a person who's never really committed to that.

This knee-jerk reaction to run the other way when you see sin in other people. There are periods, and I'm sure every one of us can remember, there are periods in our life where God has brought certain things and you prayed. I can remember maybe about four or five times as an adult, I'm desperately on my knees praying.

There are periods, stretches of periods, when I couldn't pay the bills and had small children in the house and waking up in the middle of the night just praying to God. You know, I prayed fervently. I remember when Esther was pregnant with our second child and it looked like it was going to have another miscarriage.

And I remember waking up early in the morning, going to morning prayer and praying and praying and praying. So, there are stretches I can think of, but eventually it passes. No matter how hard the trials or sickness, eventually a year, six months, a couple years, eventually it passes. But the trial that keeps me on my knees day in and day out, year after year, is to love sinners as Christ loved me.

And the more I commit to that, the more I get broken. If you ever try to love people the way Christ loved us, there's nothing more draining, nothing more humiliating, nothing more difficult, nothing that calls you more to die to yourself. Because at the very core of our rebellion against God is self-exaltation, self-gratification, self-preservation.

So a sinner opposes that because he's self-glorifying, he's self-preserving. So two sinners who are together opposes the very core of my rebellion against God. So nothing challenges the core of my rebellion than to love a sinner. And yet God calls us to draw near to sinners, and there's nothing that glorifies God, nothing that declares the aroma of Christ more than when people see that love in us.

And that causes us to pray. That causes us to pray. It gets us on our knees to cry out to God, begging for Him, because I can't change my own heart. I can't just turn this off. I can't just tell somebody that I don't like and say, "I'm going to like you today." I can't just have bitterness that's been stored in my heart and say, "I'm just going to turn it off.

I'm just not going to do it. I don't have any power to do that." So it makes me desperate. It makes me in need to come before God, "Help me, God. Change me. Take this away from me." And it is constant until the day we die. He's going to keep us on our knees.

I want to encourage and challenge us as I wrap up this morning's sermon. Paul, again, you know, like his—I know, like, this is the Word of God, you know, and it's always encouraging, always challenging. But the older I get, the more I appreciate this man. You know, an apostle.

Obviously, he's an apostle, so we should be appreciative. Just the depth of what this man experienced. This guy lost everything in light of Christ. He's sitting in prison. He's writing this epistle to the Philippians. And usually when we think of Philippians, we think of the epistle of joy. He's sitting in prison.

He's chained to a Roman guard, and he's worried about their joy. And he's writing this letter, and this is one of my favorite verses. In fact, it's probably my life verse, where he says, "For to me," Philippians 121, verse 24, "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account." You have to understand basically what Paul is saying.

Paul is saying, "I have this choice between living and dying." And to him, it's not hypothetical. Like I can say that, but it's hypothetical. I know I'm not going to die today. This guy is literally, he could die. And he says, "I'm weighing the two. But if you were to ask me if I was selfish, I'm ready to go." And he's not just trying to be godly.

This guy lost everything because of Christ. This guy was possibly a member of the Sanhedrin. I mean, he was a celebrity in the Jewish community. He had money. He had heritage with his father. He lost it all because he met Christ. And now he's going into cities, and as soon as they see him, they pick up rocks, try to stone him.

Getting shipwrecked, going hungry, sitting in prison. If that was not, I mean, the very people who looked up to him, they're the ones who are trying to beat him. If that wasn't enough, he's concerned about these churches that he planted. And every time he turns around, somebody's backsliding. He's allowing sin into their churches.

And I mean, the most excruciating letter, 1 Corinthians 2, very people that he risked his life to bring the gospel, questioning this guy because they didn't like what he had to say. "Oh, he was too harsh on us." See, he's not an apostle. We don't have to listen to this guy.

And he's writing this gut-wrenching letter, trying to convince them, "It's not me. God is speaking to you. I'm doing this on your behalf." And then the very last letter he writes, in 2 Timothy, he's pleading with this young disciple, "Don't let this happen to you. Invest in the word that you have been given because all these people are falling away.

I'm here alone in jail. Don't let this happen to you. You persevere. You preach the word in season and out of season." And whether people want to hear or don't hear it, you make sure that you continue to do what God called you to do. It's a gut-wrenching letter at the end of his life.

So when Paul says, "If you're going to ask me and you want me to be selfish, I want to go," it's Christ who saved me years ago that I've been preaching year after year. And I'm just waiting to be delivered from this flesh. He said, "I'm tired of my flesh.

I'm tired of my own selfishness. I'm tired of the sin that I'm wrestling with. I'm tired. If you're asking me, I want to go. But if I stay, if I stay, it means more fruit. It means more people will be able to meet him. More people will be able to come to him.

More people may know this Jesus that I have come to love." And that's the only reason that I know I'll stay. I mean, this is a man who was burned out for Jesus Christ. We use that term "burned out," I think wrong. Burned out meant you worked so hard, you were so consumed.

I think the term that we should be using is we've rusted out. Most of us get burned out because we're rusted out. We haven't been exercising. We haven't been living in obedience. We haven't been praying. So you just, you have nothing more to burn, so we've rusted out. But to be burned out for the very things that give you the greatest joy, isn't that the life that you want to live?

Really think about that. Don't you want to live? Not just dabble, not just go and eat some good food and ride some good rides and be secure because there's enough money in the bank. Don't you want to live? Live, like really live. And not only do you live, people around you live because of you.

Jesus said, "I have come to give life." And He gave it abundantly. So my challenge for us this morning is that God would open all of our eyes. See, genuinely see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That coming and running to Christ is not something that you even have to be determined to do.

Like the Samaritan woman, as soon as she met Christ, she dropped everything, forgot everything. She went out to tell all the people, became the first evangelist, that that would be us. Fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Would you take some time to pray with me this morning as we invite?

Our praise seemed to come up. If you've been stuck in complacency and you've just been dabbling in the things of Christ, not realizing that that's the very reason why you are in the state that you are, that you've forgotten what it is that you have in Christ, that when you first met Him, what He meant to you.

Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like the farmer who found the treasure in the land and went back and sold everything that he may have as treasure." That is this the Jesus that you know? Is this the kingdom that you are a part of? If not, let's come before the Lord in honest prayer.

I believe, but help my unbelief, that pursuing Christ, that He would help us to recognize our desperation without Him, that we would be fed in Christ and Christ alone. So let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads.