I think that's it for the announcement. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 13. I'm going to read all the way from verse 8 to 14, but our focus is going to be on verses 11 through 14. Reading out of the ESV. "Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to the neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to awake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that it is by your mercy and your grace, Lord God, that we are able to come to your throne to worship, to hear from you.

I pray, Father God, that only your word would go forth, no human reasoning, no human experience, no human logic, only your word, Lord God, that your children will hear from you. We know, Father God, that there's no human comforter, no human counsel, Lord, can take the place of encountering you.

So we ask, Lord God, that you would be gracious to us, that you would allow your presence, Lord, to be known in a tangible way. May this room be filled, Lord God, with your grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. One other announcement is that, as you guys know, we've been trying to incorporate more corporate prayer in our church, and we've been having various discussions in our leadership on how to do that.

And one of the things that we've implemented on Friday nights, once a month, we have praise and prayer night, and so we just had one this last Friday, but we're also very aware that meeting together once a month is not enough. The early church was devoted to prayer, and so we want to make sure that we're devoted to praying.

So another thing that we wanted to implement is try to implement more corporate prayer in Sunday service. So we had various discussions, and the conclusion that we came to, without disrupting what's happening already, is that what we're going to do, starting from not next Sunday, but the Sunday after that, when Elder Joe is back up here leading worship, we're going to have a shorter worship service in the front, and then the main worship time is going to be after the sermon.

So it's not going to be a major change, it's going to be just priority in the worship after the sermon. So the reason we're doing that is, one, I think we worship better, you know, oftentimes after we hear the Word of God and are convicted, and also we want to give extra time for people to respond in prayer.

So during that time, as we are worshiping, as the Lord leads, that our church would spend extended period, again, if you want to sit down, stand up, and just really come before the Lord in praying together. And so again, we're not saying that that is enough, but we're trying to implement more ways that our church can be more mindful of how we are desperately in need of prayer.

So that's one of the things that we're doing. So Friday, praise and prayer, and also on Sunday, we're going to do that. And again, we're going to implement that in a couple weeks, and we'll give you a heads up before that happens. And again, Elder Joe is going to lead us in that time.

Prayer, as we've mentioned on Friday, and as I've been talking about, is one of those disciplines that you just absolutely cannot do in the flesh. You can read your Bible when you're not spiritually focused. You could have had a week where you just kind of indulge in the flesh and you come to Bible study because all you have to do is engage your mind and just kind of study like you did at school.

You can serve the church because it's physical. You can have all kinds of things going on in your heart, but you can physically come in here and do these things. But prayer is one of those things that if your mind and your heart wasn't sober before you began to pray, you'll see right away where you are in your walk with God can easily be seen as soon as you close your eyes and try to discipline to pray.

Because the scripture says that the Holy Spirit is in us and groaning on our behalf. And he also said that if you abide in me, my words abide in you. Then ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you. So in other words, if our mind and heart and our life is going one direction and we come to pray and we're praying the other direction, the Holy Spirit in our flesh is in conflict.

And so as soon as we come before the Lord in prayer, you see that conflict that's happening even in your own mind. So it's just even trying to get the words out. Because your mind is thinking about things that have nothing to do with God, and yet you're trying to say things before God that you know that God wants us to pray for.

So therefore we see that conflict. So if you want to see where you are in your walk with God, you can tell immediately in your prayer life. Whether you are consistently walking according to the Spirit or whether you are walking contrary to the Spirit, you can see the fruit of it immediately when you are praying.

And again, prayer is not one of those things that you can do simply in the flesh. And that's why it says in 1 Peter that our relationship with our wives, and again, it's not just with our wives, but to treat her with honor so that we can pray. So in other words, if we're not honorable at home, if we're not living soberly, it'll affect the way that we pray.

And that's true not just in our home, but in everything else that we do. See, Christianity was never meant to be a half-hearted commitment. It was never meant to be given to God half-hearted worship, because the very idea of worship requires full commitment. You can't come in and say, "You know what?

I'm going to give a part of myself to worship," because then that isn't worship. That's religion. That could be superstition. That's just going through the motions. Worship requires a pouring out of our heart. When we see who God is, when we see who Jesus is, and we're enamored and we forget everything else and we're just focused on his glory, that's worship.

So the very nature of worship requires a full commitment. That's exactly what Jesus says in Luke 10.27. What is the greatest commitment? Considering all the other things that they were committed to do as Pharisees, over 600 different laws, what's the greatest thing? Because we can't possibly do all of them, which one should we focus on?

Jesus says, "Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind." The point of that is not, "How do we worship God with our heart? How do we worship God with our mind? How do we worship God with our strength?" The point of it is the "all" part.

He says the greatest commandment is to surrender all of it. Isn't that what Paul says in Romans chapter 12.1, in view of this mercy, to present your body as a living sacrifice? A sacrifice isn't half-offered. There is no lamb walking around with one leg or two legs. If a lamb was sacrificed, it is dead.

It's complete. There is no half-sacrifice. So when he says, in view of this mercy, to offer your body as a living sacrifice, it automatically means to die, to give all that you have. In Deuteronomy chapter 4.29, God says, "This is the nation of Israel, but from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if," and that's a big "if," "if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul." He made a condition.

You will seek me and find me once you make up your mind that this is what you want. Isn't that what Joshua challenges the nation of Israel after all those years of being in the Promised Land? And at the end of his life, he challenges them, "Stop teeter-tottering between two opinions.

If the Lord is God, worship him. If Paul is God, worship him. But make up your mind, for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." He says, "You will find me if you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29 verse 13. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.

And over and over again, the Bible says, God is not somebody that you can find half-heartedly. God is not somebody that you're going to meet when you have not fully surrendered. And that's what repentance means. The call to repentance is not to simply recognize that what I did on Monday was wrong, that the way I spent my money was wrong.

Repentance basically means my whole life was wrong. All of me, everything that I sought, everything that I thought was good, everything that I thought was righteous was wrong. And so repentance is coming before God and surrendering your life, not just your youth, not just a part of your finances, but your life.

This is consistent all throughout Scripture. And that's why Paul says in the new covenant in 1 Corinthians 9 24, "Do you not know that in all, in the race, all runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it." But even in the new covenant, God requires a worship from people who have absolutely surrendered their life.

You can't give a nonchalant, half-hearted worship because by definition that's not worship. You can't give leftovers to God because by definition that's not worship. The definition of worship in and of itself requires an absolute surrender. And see, nothing reveals that more than in our prayers. Because you cannot pray.

You can motion in prayer. You can say and regurgitate information. You can say, "Wrote prayer." You can write down your prayer and read your prayer. But prayer that is powerful, that comes before God petitioning, requires all surrender. It requires crying out to God. And until we make up our mind that that's what we want, we cannot pray.

You can do religious praying. You can gather together for small group praying. You can write down your prayer. You can rehearse your prayer. You can memorize your prayer. But the prayer that Jesus says that he will answer, "If you abide in me, in my words I abide in you.

Ask whatever you wish. It shall be done for you." The greatest asset to any Christian is prayer. Because prayer is what connects us to this holy God. Everything that you and I know, everything that you and I know was created by this God that we pray to. And we have this access to this God.

So what else do we have? There's no amount of money that can replace that. There are no amount of talent. There's no amount of organization. There's no amount of hard work that will ever come close to simply praying and the Holy Spirit coming and supernaturally doing what he chooses to do.

So prayer is the most effective, most powerful thing that we can do as a Christian. And yet, prayer is not something you can do half-heartedly until you have absolutely committed. We've all prayed powerful prayers before. But we've only prayed when something was urgent. Whether someone was sick, something desperate, there was an emergency, and you prayed.

Whether it was your life or someone else's life, you prayed because there was a sense of urgency. And that's the struggle that you and I are in. It is not like that all over the world. There are some parts of the world where just by saying that they're Christian, there is a sense of urgency in them because it's not safe to gather together.

It's not safe to pray together. But that is not our problem. Our problem in Orange County is that there is no sense of urgency. And Orange County is not a place that people come to necessarily do things. This is where people come to settle down. This is what Orange County is known for.

And it is a blessing because I'd rather have my kids here and not have to worry about them being shot or having to eat. So I'm glad we're in Orange County. I remember talking to a friend who's a pastor out in Seoul, Korea. And he's doing English ministry. And we were just sharing about the challenges that we have in ministry.

And his challenges there and challenges here are so different. And I asked him, I said, "It must be so challenging for you because the group that he works with are all transient. Because they're all expats who are there for work or vacation or something. But they're all in the context of moving around." And I asked him, "It must be hard because here in Orange County, most people are here for good.

In fact, a lot of people move here because they want to get a job and it's a good place to raise your children." And he said, "On the contrary." He said, "He's a pastor who actually did church planting in this area before he went out to create." And I said, "No, actually, it's a lot easier to do ministry out there." And the reason why, he said, is because the majority of the expats already left home.

So they're not home. So they're not comfortable. So when they come to church, they cling to each other. And it's easy to mobilize people who have already left their home and living outside of their comfort zone to gather them together and gather the energy. So it's easy to kind of mobilize them and send them out to missions and do challenging things because they've already left their home.

But that's not the challenge that we have here. Orange County is where we come to settle down. We go out to missions and then we come here to raise kids. None of these things are evil. These are, in my opinion, blessings that God has given us. But when we don't recognize the stewardship that we have of what God has given us, this blessing can easily cause us to blind us, to harden us.

And there's no longer a sense of urgency in what we're doing. And the reason why Paul is getting to that in verse 11 is because he's given these instructions. And typically in a situation, it's not a "no." When there is no sense of urgency, it's always, "I will, just not now." Paul is reminding them of the sense of urgency of the gospel.

And that's why Apostle Paul, when he preached the gospel, he said it was his passion to preach the gospel where it was not preached. In fact, this very letter is written to prepare and to get some support so that he can go to Spain. He never gets there because he gets imprisoned and then he ends up dying in prison.

But the letter is written in the context of urgency. And that's the danger that you and I are in. It's not that we're not good people. It's not that we're not doing our part. It's not that we don't take the Bible seriously. But because there is no sense of urgency, we pray.

We pray casually. We evangelize casually. We seek the Lord casually. And even when we see our hearts hardened, we always think to ourselves, "We have plenty of time to deal with this, if not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the next day." Not realizing that whole time, your condition is getting worse and worse and worse.

Paul has made this plea to the Roman church to live out their salvation, to practice this love that the world is not going to understand. But now, in four different ways, he talks about the urgency of time. So my intention originally was to cover all four verses, but I didn't get to that in first service, so I'm not going to get that here.

So I'm just going to cover this morning Paul's plea for urgency to practice what he's been saying. You know how if you get a mail, a lot of times the way that people try to get you to open the mail is that this mail is time-sensitive, right? And you must respond in three days.

So I'm sure all of you have experienced that. And automatically, you know it's junk mail, but just in case, right? What if it's money? What if it's the IRS? You know, 10 out of 10 times, it's usually nothing, right? But just in case. But they do that because they want to get your attention, that this is important.

And that's exactly what Paul is doing here. He uses the idea of time to instill in them that this is not something that you can postpone. This is not something that you can do tomorrow or the next day. Delaying obedience is disobedience. Any of you who've raised children know exactly what I'm talking about.

If you tell a child to do something and they don't want to do it, they don't say no because they have to eat. They know the trouble that's coming if they say no. So if they don't want to do it, what do they say? I will. And then they won't do it.

You come back later, "How come you didn't do it?" I will do it. Then you come back later, "I said you were going to do it." "Well, I got caught up doing something." "I told you I was going to do it." And it doesn't get done. Then you get so frustrated, you just end up doing it yourself, right?

To delay obedience is disobedience. And that's why he is giving a sense of urgency. So the first thing that he says in verse 11, after giving these imperatives, he says, "Beside this, you know the time." The time that he uses here, the word kairos. Kronos is the word that they use in Greek to say it's one o'clock, ten o'clock, or today.

But the word kronos, or kairos, oftentimes is translated season, a particularly appointed time. And so Paul says, "All of these things I'm instructing to you, there's a sense of urgency because you know that I'm talking to you because the time has come." And then he says, "You know," meaning that he's not saying anything new to them.

That if you heard the gospel, that there was a certain level of urgency that came with the gospel truth. So apostle Paul, obviously, was going from city to city, even being beaten, stoned, jailed, whipped. And so even by his very life, you could tell that there's an urgency to this.

But the very message itself is not simply because Paul said it. It's not simply because he modeled it. But the message itself comes with a sense of urgency. You can't say that without Christ there's damnation and not sense a sense of urgency. Because that betrays our message. If we share the gospel without a sense of urgency, it nullifies the message itself.

If somebody comes into this room and says, "The building's going to be condemned in a few minutes, and if you're interested in living, just make an orderly line and come and stand outside and I'll meet you in a couple minutes." And he just walks out. The way he has shared that message betrays the message.

Because I don't think he believes it. And no one's going to follow him out. The message itself comes with a sense of urgency. And that's what Paul is saying in 2 Peter 1.3. He says, "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness." There's nothing more to wait for.

Everything that we need has been completed. That's why Jesus says, as he's hanging on the cross, "It is finished." He didn't say, "It's almost done." He didn't say, "I'm almost there." And if you just wait for a little bit, he says, "No, it is finished." Everything that the Jews were waiting for, for salvation, everything that was promised in the Old Testament, he says, "It is finished." And that's what Paul means.

He says, "Kairos, we're here. We've been here." And the only reason why he didn't come back is so that the church could continue to preach the gospel with urgency, so that the gospel would go to the remotest part of the world. He's saying, "Kairos, this is that time, now." He goes on even further, and he says, in verse 11, he says, "That the hour has come." The hour.

The word "hour" also means a point in time, but it is a lot more specific. And the word is "now." In fact, if you've ever studied through the book of Hebrews, Hebrews is written to second-generation Jewish Christians who are simply drifting back to their old life. They got tired of fighting.

They got tired of fighting and going against the stream, so they just kind of let go. And so the warning in the book of Hebrews is, how will you escape if you simply neglect this great salvation? And warning after warning after warning. Do not neglect. Pay attention. Pay attention.

And so the author repeats over and over again, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart." Hebrews 3, 7-8. "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'" He calls the Jewish rebellion as simply hardening their heart.

And the reason why God calls the nation of Israel and their sins "stiff neck" is that they were hard to mold. God would tell them one thing, and they would resist. So he says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart." The temptation that we have living in Orange County is that, and especially when we're young, we think we have a lot of time, which is not the case.

And you know it. We fool ourselves as saying that today, tomorrow is going to look the same because that's the way it's been for the last year or two. It's been like that for the last decade. And we just automatically lull ourselves to sleep to think that that's the way it's always going to be.

But scientifically, you know that's not true. You know that we all die. You know that the world at one point is going to die. We know the end is coming. We know that everything that we experience, that even though it may have been the same for the last 10, 20, or 30, or 40 years, we know the end is coming.

That's a fact, Christian or non-Christian. And yet, we convince ourselves that nothing's going to change because everything looks the same. And that's why the warning, he says, "Today, the reason why you hear the Word of God, and if you're convicted in any way, if the gospel message itself, it makes any sense to you, the scripture says it's the kindness of God that leads you to repentance.

The fact that you are even attracted to the Word of God, the fact that you hear the Word of God, and there's any part of you that desires to obey, the scripture says that is God's kindness in your life. You didn't do that to yourself. You didn't wake up one day and say, "You know what?

I'm going to be a good person, and I'm going to open my ears to hear His Word." You didn't do that. The scripture says that it is God's kindness that this morning, as the Word of God is being taught, the only reason why you're even interested in listening to the Word of God is because God led you here.

And so therefore, he says, "If you hear His Word today, do not harden your heart, because tomorrow it may not be here." Tomorrow you may have hardened your heart, and you will hear the same Word, and it no longer has the same effect on you. Tomorrow you'll be at the church, and you'll hear the same Word of God, and you're annoyed by it.

That's why it says, Hebrews 3.15, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion." Hebrews 4.7, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." You see how he says not to harden your heart? We typically think, you know, hardening your heart just happens.

It just happened. You know, it's just my heart. I don't know how I got here. But he says, "No, you did it. You do not harden your heart." Well, how did that happen? When did I make a decision to harden my heart? When you did not obey. You didn't make a decision and say, "You know what?

I'm going to harden my heart. I'm going to harden it and harden it and harden it." He says, "No." And that's why he commands them because you have a choice. When you hear your voice, hear His voice, whether to respond or to delay. Is there a sense of urgency to this gospel message that we profess, that we sing, that we memorize, that we study?

Because the very nature of this gospel requires absolute surrender. He says thirdly, "Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed." Not only are we in the time of season, he says it is now, not tomorrow. And then thirdly, "Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed." Didn't Jesus say the time or the hour of His coming that He did not know, that only the Father knows?

So what does Paul mean here? Does Paul know something that Jesus didn't know? Is that what he's talking about? Clearly, that's not what he is saying. He's saying to every Christian for every generation after the death and resurrection ascension of Jesus Christ, if you've been a Christian for three years, you are three years closer to meeting the Lord than when you first met Him.

If you've only been a Christian for three days, you're three days closer to meeting Him. In other words, our days are limited. Time is ticking. As non-Christians, it makes sense to live their lives as if they're going to be here. And at the end of your life, you can look back and you can look at your bucket list and say, "I did this and I did this and I did this." And then when you die, you say, "Well, at least I milked everything I could of this life before I left." I can understand why non-Christians would do that.

But as Christians, this is our preparation to invest long-term. That this life that we have, this bucket list that so many people have, at the end of our life, if we are true believers, we'll look at that bucket list and you'll say, "Vanity, vanity, all of vanity." But you can't take any of that.

It had nothing to do with where we're going. See, as Christians, it would only make sense that if we are preparing ourselves for eternity, that we would be packing our bags. That we'd be measuring what's going to fit in this bag that we can take. Because the airplane that you're riding would only allow one bag, and so you are contemplating which to take and which to throw away, which to leave behind.

So we would be spending a lot of time preparing for this travel. What's going to fit? What is worth taking? Do I need a hair dryer? Do I need these shoes? And that's what we would be preparing for. We would be preparing for our departure. And as long as we are here, we're counting our days.

We're counting our days until that day comes. See, that's the logical response, a reasonable response to the gospel that we profess. But to live our life like the rest of the world, it betrays our witness. It betrays the gospel message. It betrays the sense of urgency when our lives don't look any different than the world.

To say, the building is burning down and there's only one exit that's going to save you, and then for us to live and to act like everybody else. As Christians, we've learned and we've adjusted our lives to accept that. But non-Christians see right through that hypocrisy. They see right through that hypocrisy.

Because I don't think you believe it. The thing that you are so desperate for me to believe, you believe it first. See what Paul is saying here in Ephesians 5, 15-16, he says again, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil." The word here for "make the best use" literally means to redeem.

To redeem the time. Not to simply spend the time. Not to simply spend the money. But to redeem it. Remember what Apostle Paul says, "If it was up to him, he's ready to go." We look at that, "Oh man, that's so challenging. Apostle Paul wanted to be with the Lord." That's reasonable.

A man who met the Lord, who lost everything for the sake of Christ, I mean, it wouldn't make sense if Paul said, "I'm sitting in prison, I'm just afraid, like I don't want to be with the Lord, I'm not ready yet." That would contradict his life. That would contradict his message.

It would only make sense a man who truly met the Lord to say, "I'm ready to go." Because everything about his life was hard. But he says, "Knowing that my work is not done yet, and me staying means fruitful labor for me, that I get to preach more gospel, and more people to come to Christ, that I will stay." And that's the only reason why he would want to stay.

And that is the only reason why any Christian would try to stay and live hard here. It is the only logical reason for any Christian to live their life with that purpose. Our lives, what we choose and what we don't choose, it betrays our message. See, Paul is saying that we are closer now.

We're ready to go. The time to meet the Lord, our salvation, glorification, is nearer now than we first believed. In other words, be ready, be prepared, pack your bags. Fourth and finally, he says, "The night is far gone, the day is at hand." The night is far gone, the day is at hand.

And as you guys know, the scripture oftentimes uses the night to refer to darkness and sin, and the day to refer to light and righteousness. When I read that passage, it automatically triggers memories. When I was younger and I was working the night shift at the gas station in Norwalk, 76, and we probably only had about three customers per night.

And the only reason why they kept it open was because corporate office told them that they want to advertise, "We're a 24-hour gas station place." So they were hiring people, students like myself, and I worked from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. And initially, I thought, "That's great, 11 to 6 a.m.

I can go there and study." And I was going to school full-time, so I was working to pay for my school and pay for my bills. And so it'd be great. And again, you have to remember, this is a period when internet was not invented yet. There was no cell phones.

TVs usually turned off by about 1 or 2 a.m. at most. And whatever was on at 1 a.m. was complete trash, infomercial type of stuff. So there's nothing to do. So I remember reading the Book of Acts four times, just one night, literally just out of boredom. And I was doing small group discipleship, and my disciple would give me a book to read.

And literally, I would show up next day, it's like, "Do you have something else?" Because I just finished. Because I had basically seven hours of doing nothing. So initially, I thought it was great for a college student that I get to go there and study, but I realized that I'm not that sober at 1 a.m.

I'm just trying to sleep. So my mind wasn't alert enough to do that. And then there was no human interaction because there's no customers, and it wasn't at least where we were at. It wasn't necessarily a good neighborhood. So I was constantly concerned that the wrong crowd was going to show up.

So it was miserable. So after about two months of this, I mean, it was torture. What I thought was a great idea, but it was torture because right around 1 o'clock, when all human activity stops, I'm just sitting in this booth, and there's no gum, there's no snacks, there's nothing in there.

And the gas station was like, it was not like today where you had a.m. p.m. It was just cash register and buttons I push, and that's it. And I was sat there for seven hours every single day. You know? And then every time a human being would come and be like, "Yes!" Some interaction.

So I remember after about two months, it was miserable. So about every day from 11 to 1, it would go fairly okay because there's some traffic, but 11, 1 to 6 was just looking at the clock, like 1101. You know what I mean? 1102. And I just remember just sitting in the booth just five, six hours just doing nothing, and then every morning I would wait for that sunrise to come up because that sunrise meant people are waking up.

There's going to be some traffic, and then I get to go home. And I did that job for about seven months, but that was so like deeply embedded in my head. Just every morning at 5 o'clock, just looking out. I was literally in this position for seven hours and just waiting for the sun to come up because that sun coming up meant life for me in that context.

So whenever I read this, it reminds me of that time. Just sitting in darkness for that long and waiting for the sun to come up so that I can go home. See, that is exactly what Paul means. He said the night is not, it's going to go. He said it's gone.

Jesus didn't say I'm going to resurrect, he said he's resurrected. Everything that we need for life and godliness has happened. It's here. So in other words, what are we waiting for? What exactly are we waiting for? Are we waiting for our situation to change? Are we waiting for a small group?

Are we waiting for older people to reach out? What are we waiting for? Everything that we need for life and godliness, he said the sun has come out. We're in the day. We're not waiting for the day to come. We're not waiting for something to happen. He said it's here.

It's here. Everything that we need is here. To stop waiting. To live. To cling to God. To run to him. To share the gospel. What else are we involved in in life that has distracted us from the core message that we profess and sing every single week? Whatever it is, it is not from God.

All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father. None of that is from the Father. And so Paul, the reason why he pounds this time, because it is not enough to simply profess I believe that.

It is not enough to come to church and just mentally consent and dabble here and dabble there. The message itself requires a response. It requires a response today. Or else we can't pray. We won't be able to pray. We can pretend to pray. We can say the words. We can gather together and share our hurts and our concerns.

And we can soothe our brokenness with superficial band-aid. But there is no healing until you come to Christ. And you can't come to Christ if you don't pray. And you can't pray if you have lost a sense of urgency. We are lost without Jesus. I don't care how much money you have.

I don't care how healthy you are. I don't care what kind of job promotion you got. I don't care how good your life looks. There is no healing outside of Christ. There is no life outside of Christ. There is no refuge outside of Christ. There is no fruit outside of Christ.

There is no fellowship outside of Christ. There is no light outside of Christ. There is no hope outside of Christ. And the only way that we can come to Him is by prayer. That's why Jesus came and died. That's why He came and died. Not so that you can be healthy.

Not so that your children can have a good education. Not so that people who are lonely could have friends. Life is in Christ. In Christ alone. And it isn't until that message grips our hearts and changes our lives can you say that you met Jesus Christ. These aren't just words.

These are words of a man who gave his life preaching this. Surrounded by other men who had their heads chopped off. Or burned at the stake. Driven from their homes. Loved ones leaving them. Left their homes and went to foreign countries. Because they found this treasure in Christ and they sold everything to make sure they had it.

Until we come to recognize the preciousness of what it is that we have in Jesus, we will live the rest of our lives fooling ourselves. Playing games in the name of Jesus Christ. But never knowing Him. I pray that that is not the case with us. Jesus is real.

He is real. I know we talk about it every week. Every week we say the same thing. But He's real. The Jesus I know was resurrected from the dead. And even now after all these years, He calls us, "Come to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and have been laden.

Because rest is in Jesus, in Jesus alone." Pray with me. Let me lead us in prayer as our worship team. Heavenly Father, we're all tired of playing games. There's a disconnect with the songs that we sing and the lives that we live. There is a disconnect with the theology that we profess and what has filled our hearts.

Lord, we want you. Not just words of you. Not just other people's testimonies. Not just things in history. Lord, bring revival. Drive your church, Father. You deserve worship, true worship in spirit and in truth. If we have become numb, break us. If we've been walking our lives, Lord God, nonchalantly, open our eyes to see the darkness that is around us, the desperation, Lord God, of the non-Christians who are like sheep without shepherds, we implore you, bring revival.

We implore you even in this room, Father God, to break us from our sins, break us from our pride. Break us, Lord God, from complacency. You are our hope. Only you. Not our wives, not our husbands, not our children, not our bank account, not our friends, not our church.

Only you. Please, Father, let us see that. Be convicted of that. Your children may come to you and live. Help us, Father God. We believe. Help our unbelief. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.