Romans 15, verse 30 to 33. Romans chapter 15, 30 to 33. I know it's been read, but we want you to know which text that we're in. So we're reading it again in Romans chapter 15, 30 to 33. Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayer to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints, so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.

Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are a gracious and loving God. We thank you, Father, for loving us, guiding us, and giving us the privilege to be able to come together corporately to worship you. We pray that your word would go forth and have its effect on our hearts.

Sanctify us, renew us, strengthen us, Lord God, that your word would develop, strengthen, rebuke, encourage, and train us, Lord God, for a life of godliness for your namesake. So bless us this morning, Jesus, and we pray. Amen. So as you guys know, we're like wrapping up chapter 15 and 16, and I don't know exactly how many more sermons are left in 15 and 16, but it's been, again, for me, you know, I'm kind of hesitant to leave Romans.

We've been on it for so long, and it's been a, personally, it's been a blessing for me to be able to go back and review and prepare sermons, and as we're looking at chapter 15, he is wrapping up his presentation of this is the reason why he wrote the letter.

He's in the context of doing mission and spreading the gospel that he says in the previous verse that he's kind of run out of places to go, and now he's trying to stretch his ministry out towards Spain, and so his whole intention is to come stop by Rome. His goal is not to be in Rome, but to stop by Rome to encourage them, to get some support, and to move out to Spain.

Apostle Paul was a man who was absolutely committed, obsessed with the gospel ministry, and we talked about last week that this was not unique to Apostle Paul. We saw that in the early church. All the apostles went all different places doing the exact same thing, that they covered what we would consider about the size of the United States in about 10 to 15 years.

A few men who were just running, some of them running for their lives, and that's how the gospel spread in the first 15 years. You know, if you've ever been out to short-term missions, you know what it feels like, and I think, you know, I've been taking short-term trips with our church and even previous to that so many times, and I really enjoy that time.

Physically, it's draining, but during that period, you know, you have a small group of people who are very focused on doing God's work. People raise money, and we prepare for two months or three months, and while we're there, you know, most of the time, we're not living in comfortable quarters.

We might have decent food. We may not. A lot of times, we're physically drained at the end of the day, and usually, I get much better sleep out in the mission field than I do here, because by the end of the day, I'm so physically exhausted, I hit the bed, and I just conk out, you know, so I don't have a problem sleeping as much as when I am here.

But anybody who's been out to short-term missions will share with you, you know, just the joy that they experience in the midst of fatigue and working and sacrificing, because there's a clear sense of purpose. You wake up in the morning, you know exactly why you're there. You eat breakfast, you meet up with people, you do physical labor, and everything that we do, there's a clear purpose, clear reason, and it is obviously to spread the gospel.

And we want to continue that when we come back home. Like, why can't we live with this purpose? And that's almost always the application that all the team members have when they come back from these trips. Like, okay, I was affected. This was great. I don't need to live this way.

But the challenge is when we come home, for whatever the reason, we turn that off. And so we kind of have experiences. It was great when we went out. And so that's why so many people have been out to short-term, want to continue to go out, because they want to experience that experience of being just single-minded in everything that we're doing.

See, God did not intend that to be just for the apostles or just a few missionaries who pack up their bags and go wherever it is that they go. God called us to live single-mindedly for the gospel, whether you are here or you're overseas, whether you are short-term missions or you're here raising children.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, 22, 27, he sums up his ministry this way, "To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel." That pretty much sums up his whole life.

Everything that he does, he does for the sake of the gospel. Not just two weeks in the summer, not just over the weekend, not just when the church has a program or certain things are going on, but he said everything he does, he does for the sake of the gospel.

He goes on and says, "So that I may become a fellow particular, do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives a prize. Run in such a way that you may win." There's a distinction between a Christian who is frustrated and a Christian who's bearing fruit.

It's like everybody runs, right? If you are a believer, you are running, you are part of the race, but Paul says God's calling for us is not to simply say, "You know what? I'm in the race," but he says, "Run in such a way to win." Are we committed to this?

Do we do all things for the sake of the gospel or is the gospel just something that's things that we do when we're at church or at Bible study or in small group or when we have projects? Can we say that when we look at our lives, that meeting Christ changed everything about us?

Everyone who competes in the games, exercises self-control and all things, they then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Christians and non-Christians, all of us, we have things that are on our mind and we run toward. Imagine, even many of you in here, how hard you are working to get the promotion.

If you're a student, you're working very hard because you have projects coming up, you want to graduate, you want to get a job. There's certain things that we're doing in our families. We have goals and we want to win, we want to get better, we want to get ahead, but he said that the world does all of that for perishable wreath.

That you may get the promotion, your business may do well, you may have a better retirement, but the end goal of all of that is perishable. That whether you win or lose, the end product of it is judgment. But Paul says, but we do it for imperishable. We are consumed, we are focused, we are dedicated for things that cannot perish, which ultimately is the gospel.

Therefore, Paul says, I run in such a way as not without aim, I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. That pretty much sums up Paul's life.

It sums up the apostles' life, it sums up the early church life. It sums up the life of many Christians even today. But they met Christ and it didn't just change a tenth of their finances. Tithe was always meant to be an act of dedication of everything that we have.

But the problem and the challenge that we have is in the way that we give tithe, that we give a tenth and so therefore the 90% is mine to do whatever I want. We've given our Sundays, so Monday through Saturday is mine. We've dedicated this much, so all of this is for me to have.

Paul was consumed, he was obsessed with the gospel. And it would only make sense for somebody who confesses Christ as Lord and Savior that their life would look something like this. Paul, in summarizing that this is the purpose of why he wrote the letter, he concludes everything that he's been saying by saying, after you've heard all of this and the reason why I'm coming, and I'm asking you, I'm urging you to pray.

Above all that I have said, before you pack up your bags, before you get challenged and you go out on the street, before you organize your finances and give it to anybody, before you do anything, he says, I urge you to be committed to prayer. The word urge in the ESV is appeal.

Or in New King James it says to beseech, or the King James Version has the most clearest. And it gives the real meaning behind this, where Paul says, I beg you, I beg you to pray, to be devoted to prayer. Not just to pray nonchalantly, not just to sprinkle prayer on all the things that we have planned.

And we have a tendency to kind of make our plans that God, would you help me to do this? He says, no, to be devoted to prayer. Romans 12, 12, rejoice in hope, persevering in tribulation, and be devoted to prayer. To be devoted to prayer. That's the difference between an effective prayer and an ineffective prayer.

A prayer that is offered up to God nonchalantly is usually very ineffective. And I share this many times, when you're raising children, you know, especially when they're young, you know when they need you and you know when they're just crying out for attention. There's a difference, you know, and I think that's the difference between a veteran parent and a newbie parent, right?

So when you have your first kid, every time they cry, you're like freaking out. You know, two in the morning, four in the morning, you hear a little bit of cry, they need me. What if they're suffocating and you run in and you're so tired by the time you get to your third kid, it's like, eh, they don't need me.

They're not hungry. I fed them, they weren't sick. When I put them down, they don't need me. So there are certain things that they don't really need my attention. So when they're younger, you jump at everything. But as they get older, you know there are certain kinds of cries where you need to jump and get to.

And there are certain kinds of cries, they're just being kids. In the way that we pray, are we simply getting God's attention or are we devoted to this? In Colossians 4, 2, it says, "Devote yourselves to prayer." In 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, "Pray without ceasing." All throughout Scripture, it describes the temple of God as a place of prayer.

He didn't say it's a place of gathering, he didn't say it's a place of community, he didn't say it's a place of organization. And all of these things are true, but primarily it says it is a place of prayer. 2 Chronicles 7, 14, when the temple of God was being dedicated after Solomon made it, the prayer they offered up to God was, "If my people humble themselves and pray." It was meant to be a place for people to come and meet with God, first and foremost.

Jesus himself, when he was angry with the way that the temple was being used, he says that the zeal for the house of God would consume him, and he called the temple a place of prayer. How much of our frustration is with community? How much of our frustration is about peripheral things and not focused on what is central, about meeting God?

Ephesians 6, 18-19, "With all prayer, petition, pray all the times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." You notice how over and over again he mentions all prayer, all times, all perseverance, for all the saints.

He says this at the end of the spiritual battle, "Put on the full armor of God so that we can engage the spiritual battle." And at the end, conclusion, he says, "Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray." That's the primary thing that God calls us to do in the church, to be a place of prayer, to meet with God.

Before we are devoted to missions, before we are concerned about community, before we are concerned about our family, before we are consumed over the well-being of our children, he said first and foremost to pray. Not only does he say to pray, he says to strive together. The word for striving together is "sun agonizomai." You can already hear the English word behind that, to agonize, to wrestle, to struggle.

And the word "sun" means to be together. He says in our prayer, we are to agonize together. See, where you and I are, typically when we think of prayer, prayer is offered up kind of as a side note. Like, we've already made our plans, we've already figured out how to do church, we've already figured out what to do in discipleship, we've already figured out how people should behave and not behave, what I like and don't like.

And then after we have done all the work, we come before God, "Lord, would you bless this?" He said first and foremost, the work is the prayer, to struggle. That's why Paul says in Colossians 2, "I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf." To pray.

He's been praying for the Colossians even before he ever met these people. He said he struggled in prayer. You know, one of the crucial points in Israel's history where Jacob wrestles with God and he changes his name to Israel, calls him the man who wrestles with God. So God made the promise to Abraham, but where it actually begins to form is under Jacob.

But that beginning point in Genesis chapter 22, where he, this tricky man who basically tricked his older brother out of his birthright, now he sees God and he says, "I cannot let you go until you bless me." And so the blessing upon Jacob and his family came because Jacob wrestled with God and he wouldn't let him go.

He agonized. And for the rest of his life, as a sign of his wrestling, God basically allows him to limp. And that limp was a sign of his devotion to God. But where we see the greatest wrestling before God is Jesus himself. In Luke chapter 22, verse 44, as he is wrestling in the garden of Gethsemane, before he goes to the cross, he says, "And being in agony, he was praying fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground." In the NASB, it says it was like a blood, like drops of blood.

In some of your translations, it just says his sweat turned to blood. In the journal of dermatology, there's actually a name for this condition. Hematohedrosis. So those of you guys in the medical field, even if I butchered it, just be gracious. Hematohedrosis. If you're not in the medical field, that's how it's pronounced.

He says this is a condition that comes when a human being over exerts themselves. He says the cause of hematohedrosis is excessive exertion, psychogenic, and other conditions that they haven't figured out. But there's an actual condition when someone has exerted themselves to the point of exhaustion, and he says these things have happened.

And this is, again, this is coming from a medical journal. He says that Christ, when at the Garden of Gethsemane, was wrestling before God in prayer, and his sweat actually turned into blood. And you can imagine, humanly speaking, for three years, as soon as people thought that he might be the Messiah, they would not leave him alone.

Understandably. I mean, he starts with a small crowd, but by the time his fame begins to spread, people would travel for days just to see him. And then once he begins to speak, the group is divided in two. One group who couldn't get enough of him, and they were tearing down other people's roofs to get to him, and he would disappear because he's tired, break away even from his disciples and wear easy.

And thousands of them would cross seas and hills and travel long distances just to get to him, and they would not leave him alone. And then you had the other group of people, once they figured out that Jesus was not for them, was constantly planning to kill him. Imagine living under that pressure for three years.

You know, this week is Welcome Week, and so I know a lot of you collegians came back into town and there's a lot of events of reaching out, and it's been a busy week for the college ministry, in particular, Pastor Nate. You know, he got baptized into college ministry this week, and so we knew that the difficult schedule was coming up, but I felt tired for him yesterday.

You know, and on top of that, we had our annual, like all-day leaders meeting right in the middle of this, and then he had to stick around. We went home and crashed, and then he had to stick around, you know. But can you imagine that as tiring as that may be, that Jesus was probably that ten times, three years, nonstop.

So by the time he gets to Gethsemane, he is utterly exhausted. Even when the disciples, when some of them came, they say, "I'm going to follow you," and that's exactly what it says. You know, "Fox have holes, birds of the air has net, but Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." That's how exhausted he was.

But his exhaustion wasn't simply physical. He was agonizing before God because he knew what was coming the next day. I mean, you know how uncomfortable it is when you go somewhere where you're just not familiar? You know what that feels like, right? Whether it's some other place or some other place's house, or maybe the food's unfamiliar, or you know, it's just tiring because you're not at home, right?

Christ, according to Scripture, could not dwell among sinners. That's what the whole book of Leviticus is about, to describe a holy God who cannot dwell with sinners and sinners who cannot approach him. So imagine this God who created the universe, everything's made for him, by him, and for him, and all things sustained through him.

The fact that he was even just walking on earth must have been completely exhausting. Think about you parents who have small children, right? Does a three-year-old ever stop and say, "Oh, you must be tired. I'm going to behave today." Does that ever happen? Has that ever happened to you?

Write some books if that ever happened. Like, you know, a bunch of three, two, you know, four-year-olds, and it's like, "I was just too loud yesterday, you know? I'm just, you know, I want to—today's for you, Mommy, Daddy." Does that ever happen? No. It's like, it's just them, you know?

It's about them, 24/7, three in the morning. You could have been sick for three days and vomiting. They're hungry. You better get up. Imagine Jesus walking on earth among sinners, where the whole purpose in life is to glorify themselves, you know? And he walked among us. It's just the fact that he was here.

Imagine how tired he was just to be here. But that wasn't the real fatigue. He knew that the cross was coming, and at the cross, that all the selfishness, all the sins, past, present, and future, that they've tried so hard to hide, was going to be laid upon him, and he was going to have to absorb all of that upon himself.

And the only person that was aware of that, it was the Trinity. Everybody else was, "What's going on? When is the kingdom coming? Who's going to sit at the left? Who's going to sit at the right?" Jesus knew, and that's why he sat before his Father, agonizing, physically fatigued, and was wrestling before his Father, because he knew what was at stake.

Part of the reason why you and I do not agonize is because we are not often aware of the spiritual battle that you and I are in. We do not agonize often because we don't recognize what it is that we have in Christ. And so prayer becomes a duty.

Prayers become something that we must do. But consider what prayer ultimately is. How much of our focus in our walk with God is about building community? I want to have good friends when we go to church. I want people that are like me. I want to be able to run together, do things together, and do missions together, and raise our children together.

And so much of our frustration comes from when the community that we want isn't functioning the way I want. So much of our frustration, so much of our relational problems, are because we've paid attention too much to peripheral things and not enough in what's at the core. Let me ask you, how many of you didn't have friends before you became a Christian?

Maybe some of you, all right? Most of you had friends before you became a Christian. Maybe some of you had more than others. How many of you guys didn't have a job before you became a Christian? How many of you didn't have family before you became a Christian? How many of you didn't have money before you became a Christian?

Like didn't you belong to a club, key club, baseball club, basketball club, I don't know what club? Didn't you belong to some kind of community? Didn't you have goals and purpose before you became a Christian? Get a job, go to school, right? Make money. Why has all of that stuff come back in and have become the central things that we're looking for when the only thing that you were missing before you became a Christian was God?

It wasn't money, it wasn't community, it wasn't friendship, it wasn't family. You had all of that before you met Christ. What was missing was your relationship with Christ. So the primary pursuit of every Christian ought to be pursuit of Christ because that's what was restored when Christ was crucified.

Prayer is not the preparation for battle, it is the battle itself. It's coming before God and acknowledging that I don't have the authority or the power. At the core of prayer is acknowledging that He is Lord and not me. And isn't that what we were saved from? The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian isn't simply what he confesses.

Like, "Oh, I believe that Jesus died on the cross." Oh, Christian, and I don't know if I believe that, I don't know if there's a God, so non-Christian. Well the Bible goes a bit further than that. The book of James says you can confess all of that and still have demonic faith.

That's not real faith. The difference between a true believer and an unbeliever is the one who understands and acknowledges God as Lord. In 1 Peter 4, 7 it says, "At the end of all things is near, therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer." He doesn't say pray so that you can be sober.

He says be sober so that you can pray. So the power is in prayer, not in your soberness. It's for the purpose of prayer. He says it again in 1 Peter 3, 7, "You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life so that your prayers would not be hindered." He says be gracious, be loving, be a good husband so that you can pray, so that your prayers would not be hindered.

The reason why, one of the reasons why we are ineffective in our prayers is because our life is inconsistent with the way that we pray. If we don't acknowledge God as Lord, you can't come in prayer and say, "Lord, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Prayer is the battle.

It battles against our desire to be independent of God. Prayer is when we wrestle before God to establish Him as Lord and not us, where He becomes central, where He is the source of power, not me. We don't do all these things, make all these plans, and then God sprinkles and says, "Lord, would you help me to do these?

Help me to raise my children, help me to have this kind of church, and help me to do this and that." He says no. He says we do all of these things so that we can pray, so that we can be effective in our prayer. Let me ask you, how fervently and devoted would you be to prayer if you knew, if you knew that God was waiting for you to make up your mind to pray to save your loved ones?

And I know most of you know somebody that you are praying that they would come to Christ. And you ask for prayer. Every time we ask, we have prayer meetings that you may bring that up and pray. But you yourself are not devoted to praying for that. You kind of prayed on the peripheral.

You kind of pray in prayer meetings maybe if somebody asks you. But you have not committed yourself to pray that that is the source. So you sought counsel, you've asked other people, you've asked other pastors and other leaders to get involved, but you have not engaged God. How many of you would be devoted to prayer if you knew for a fact God says you do not have because you did not ask?

But the truth is that's exactly what he says. In James chapter 4, 2-3, "You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." He says you do not have because you have not devoted yourself to pray.

He says even in prayer, he says in verse 30, "I urge you by our Lord Jesus Christ." By our Lord Jesus Christ. It may sound like something he says in passing, but the key to answered prayer is what he says here. "I urge you to pray by our Lord Jesus Christ." Next week we're going to be talking about what does it mean to pray by the love of the Spirit.

But he says to pray by our Lord Jesus Christ. By our Lord. To pray according to his will. Over and over again, Paul says everything that he does at the end of verse 32, by the will of God. See, the difference between a Christian and non-Christian is a Christian who, he now lives according to the will of God.

Versus a non-Christian who is continuing to live according to his will. On the surface it may look the same, but a non-Christian is a person who's never established Christ as Lord. Think about what repentance is. When you repented, what did you repent of? Did you repent of foul language?

Did you repent because you hurt somebody? Did you repent because you stole? I mean we repented that for sanctification, but the initial repentance was a repentance of a general rebellion against God. Where we were living for our glory, for our satisfaction, and as the scripture says, that wrath of God remains because people refuse to acknowledge God and to give thanks to him.

So a difference between a Christian and a non-Christian, a Christian is an individual who repented that he's living independently from God. He's not living for his will, he's living for his own will, his own life. And then you're hoping that God will help you live your life. It is absolutely contradictory to say to live your best life now.

Your best life is to be crucified so that we can have his life. That's the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. It's a person who lives by God's will versus somebody who's lived by his will. Paul says over and over again in 1 Corinthians 1.1, "I'm an apostle by the will of God." Romans 1.10, "That if I come to you, it's because of the will of God." Romans 8.27, "He prays according to the will of God." He says, Romans 12.2, "To renew your mind not to be conformed to this world so that you may know the will of God." 1 Thessalonians 4.3, "Sanctification is the will of God." 1 Peter 4.19, "Suffering is the will of God." Hebrews 10.36, "Glory comes after we have done the will of God." James 4.15, "Our whole life ought to be given for the will of God." 1 Peter 5.2, "The church is being led by elders who live according to the will of God." 1 John 2.17, "The one who lives are the one who do the will of God." Over and over again.

Our salvation is described as an individual who used to live by his will and now he's repented. Now he lives according to God's will. What does this have to do with prayer? Because prayer is contingent upon whether we live by his will or not. The reason why we are not bold in our prayers is because we are not bold in obedience.

Let me give you an example of that. Remember when you were younger? Maybe you made some plans with your parents and not with your parents, but a bunch of your friends and decided you're going to watch this movie. But you don't have enough money and you need 30 bucks.

You need like 12 bucks. What is it now? 15 bucks for a movie ticket and 15 bucks for dinner. So you need 30 bucks. And so, you know, your parents have been on your case. You're not doing your chores and you don't have the assistance. So you know if you ask them for 30 bucks, you know what they're going to say.

Do your chores, right? So before you go and ask, you're going to do your chores. You're doing dishes, you know, asking your mom, "Does your feet hurt? Let me massage your feet." You're all in preparation to milk that $30 out of your parents, right? So you're just kind of squirming.

You're looking for a thing to do. You wake up in the morning, you're doing all this stuff and your parents notice. We notice, right? At the end of the day, he's going to ask for something. So they come meekly. "My friends are going. This is a really good movie, you know.

These are good kids. They're not bad kids. We're going to be back on time. We're going to eat healthy." You know, and you're basically setting it all up because, you know, you're trying to get something that your parents probably are not maybe willing to give to you. And so you're setting it up, it's like, "Ninckin' ahead." Versus, SAT is coming up, your parents have been on your case to study, you know, the testing of the deadline to pay the bill, $250, whatever it is, it's coming up and it's Saturday, you know, and you need to pay this.

And you know that your parents have been trying to get you to get on top of this and it comes and you wake up in the morning and you knock it to the side. I need $250, right? I need it. And he asked with boldness. He's not ashamed. He's not massaging anybody's feet.

He's not cleaning up anything. You know, like everything's exactly the same. He doesn't care. He's like, he knows. This is your will. He knows the parents want him to pay this. And this is what he wants. So he's able to come to the thing, boom, and the parents are like, "What?

$250 for what?" SAT, "Oh, okay, get my book, right? Go get it." "Why are you asking me now? You should have asked me three weeks ago. Why did you wait so long?" You see the difference between praying according to his will versus praying for my will? And the reason why we do not pray with boldness and urgency and desperation and agonizing together is because we don't have a clear conscience in the way we live.

You don't just turn that on and off in prayer. Prayer is in line with who we are and what we do. John chapter 14, 13 to 14, "Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." I remember back at Biola, you know, I grew up in a pastor's family and after I got saved I went to Biola and I was studying the Bible.

And I remember the very first time we had an assembly of 3,000 students and this great preacher preached and at the end of his sermon he just said, "Amen," and then he walked off. And I remember that's the first time I've ever heard somebody pray without saying, "In Jesus' name," you know what I mean?

So all kinds of thoughts were going through my head. He didn't say, "In Jesus' name." Is that legitimate? Is Jesus going to answer that? He didn't say, "In Jesus' name." He didn't give a stamp of approval. Obviously is that what he means? No matter what you want, if you say, "In Jesus' name," there's power behind it.

Is that what he means? Obviously that's not that. You're more sophisticated than I was back then. In Jesus' name means to pray, covered by the blood of Christ, by His will, that we are praying what He would pray because we are going where He wants to go and we are asking what He wants to ask.

That's what it means to pray in Jesus' name. He said, "When you pray in Jesus' name," he said, "I will answer you." He probably wants it more than we do. He wants the salvation of the lost more than we do. He probably wants you to pray for your own sanctification more than you do.

The people in your lives that do not know Christ and He's desperately waiting for you to petition them on their behalf. He wants that more than you do. And so when we come before God and we decide for ourselves that this is what we want, He says, He promises He will answer.

John 15, 16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit will remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you." Repeatedly, over and over again, it says, "I will answer you if you pray according to my will." First John 3, 22, "And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandment and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." First John 5, 14, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." You know what makes Christian life exciting?

God. God. When you encounter God, all the other stuff that seems like such a big deal becomes nothing. What's exciting about the church, our Christian life, is not the church. Because the church sometimes is encouraging and sometimes very discouraging. Friends are there sometimes when you need them and sometimes when you need them, they are not there.

It's not your family. It's not the growth. It's not the activities. All of these things come and they go. Sometimes it's great and a lot of times it's not. What makes Christian life exciting is God. Because that was the one thing you didn't have before you met Christ. You could have had money.

You didn't come to Christ because you couldn't make friends. You didn't have to repent because you couldn't get a job without Christ. Or you wanted to belong to a community. You could have joined some key club, some country club and made money and played golf with other people who are like you.

I mean, you could have gotten all of that. What was missing was Christ. It was because we've encountered Christ and we want more and that's why we keep coming because we want that. And the primary way he calls us to encounter him is first and foremost to pray. A Christian who does not pray does not know the joy of what it means to be a Christian.

You may pretend. You may get excited about certain events. You may be excited about getting more friends. You may be excited about certain things that are happening at the church. But you do not know the joy of what it means to follow Christ because the living water is not in your friends.

The living water is not in the activity. Christ is the bread. He's the living water. And that's why he says above everything else be devoted to pray. Be devoted to pray. Be committed to pray. Make meeting Christ the primary thing in your life. Not building my family and making sure my children are taken care of.

God would you help me to do this? Not making sure that my business is successful and then God can you help me to do that? But the primary thing that God called us to is Christ. To meet Christ. And that's why Jeremiah 29, 13 it says you will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart.

All your heart. Not just some of your heart. Not just on the weekend. But have you committed your life all of it to Christ? Or do you just give tithe? You tithe your time. You tithe your future. You tithe your money. And then the rest of it is for you.

Are we committed? Are we devoted? And until we are committed, until we are devoted, the very first place where you will see the ramification of an undevoted life is your prayers. You won't be able to pray. Because the things that God wants you to pray for is not on your heart.

That's not what you want to pray for. You want to pray for more money. You want to pray for more security. You want to pray for a better relationship. You want to pray for security. You want to pray for all these things. But that's not where God's heart is.

You're not praying according to his name. Psalm 119, 2, how blessed are those who observe the testament, who seek him with all their heart. Psalm 119, 10. With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments. Psalm 119, 15. I sought your favor with all my heart.

Be gracious to me according to your word. And then Psalm 119, 145. I cried with all my heart. Answer me, O Lord. And then finally in Jeremiah 24, 7, he says in the new covenant, he says, I will give them a heart to know me for I am the Lord and they will be my people and I will be their God for they will return to me with all their hearts.

That's at the center of our frustration. It's not because we're not attending church. It's not because we don't own the right Bible. It's not because we're not surrounded by right friends. It's not because of all these other things. We've made friends our resources. We go looking for counselors before we ever pray.

We research books and we attend conferences and maybe even do Bible studies. All while avoiding the source that God has given us, the main source, which is God himself. Until we are encountering Christ, you will always be frustrated. You will be frustrated in evangelism. You will be frustrated in fellowship.

You will be frustrated in mission. You will be frustrated at school. Just a matter of time. Because everything in this world is rotting. Because if your food is coming from this world, it will rot. It's fresh when you take it off the tree. Give it some time. It will rot.

Because everything in this world eventually rots. The only thing that is eternal is God himself. Now what is the application of all of this? Friday prayer meeting. Friday prayer meeting. So the whole thing was about getting you to come Friday prayer meeting. So the reason why we set aside Friday is again, the Friday prayer meeting doesn't mean that oh therefore I came Friday so we're devoted to prayer.

But we have to do something. That's our weakness at church. And I admit it. And we recognize this early on at church. This is like how do we address this issue? And again, praying together on Friday doesn't mean like oh we're done. Once a month on Friday so we pray so we're good.

But that's a start. We want our church to be a church devoted to prayer. Some of you guys are really good at praying. Help us. Help us. Don't just say how come those people aren't praying. Pray. Pray for us. Pray and then get other people to pray with you.

Call other people. Start a prayer meeting. Don't wait for the church. We're not praying. All the leaders are busy running 15 things. If you are frustrated that we're not praying enough, you're the first person that I encourage you to help us as a church to be more prayerful. Because we are in desperate need of prayer.

Because there's an anxiousness in my heart that all that is happening in our church can easily be man's work. And I know what man's work eventually ends in. So we have to be devoted to prayer. As much as we desire for the gospel to go out, as much as we desire a greater community, as much as we want to be more hospitable to the newer people coming in, as much as we want to be holy and do the right things, if we're not committed to prayer, all of that leads to self-righteousness.

All of that leads to just comfort. It just doesn't lead to anything good. That's why Paul says, "I urge you, agonizomai, together, wrestle in prayer." First and foremost, application is going to be this Friday. So I want to encourage you to devote yourself. Don't casually pray, but devote yourself to prayer.

So this morning, as we open up the communion table, again, I want to encourage you, every Sunday when you come and you hear these messages and you say, "I'm convicted," and every time you're convicted and you do nothing about it, it actually has a negative effect on your heart because it hardens you.

And the Word of God no longer has any effect on you. So I want to encourage you. This is, again, this is not new, and I'm sure if you've been a Christian for a while, you've already known this, but be devoted to pray. Don't wait for us to initiate.

Don't wait for your friends or your small group leaders. Pray. Just commit to pray. Come early in the morning to pray. Come before the service starts to pray. Pray with your friends. Pray in the morning. Pray at night. Help us if you notice that. So I'm going to ask Pastor Nate to come help me, and we're going to open up the communion table.

And as we open up the communion table, and again, I want to remind you that the communion table is for those who have already confessed faith in Christ. And so if you are coming and you've been baptized, make sure you come through the sides and go down the middle so that we don't create traffic here.

And if you're visiting us just observing, we ask that you would keep, stay at your seat because it is kind of an anniversary for those who committed their life to Christ. And again, when you come up, please come prepared. Pray, and even though it is symbolic, it is a sacred time.

It is not to be taken lightly, and so we want you to be prepared when each one of you comes up. So I'm going to open up in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Then after I read, I'll pray and I'll open up the communion table for us. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, I took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Let's pray.