All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to 1 Peter 4, verse 7. Because it is a new year, we want to introduce our theme verse and the focus that we were trying to establish in 2021. We have no idea what's going to happen in 2021, but we want to be intentional in what we're pursuing.

And so each year we do an evaluation of where we are as a church and according to our fourfold vision, what are some areas that we need to be strengthened in. And so this is the verse that we want to focus on, "Watch and pray." So you've probably seen our artwork.

And so that's going to be something that you're going to see. And so I wanted to introduce that to you before I jump back into the book of Hebrews. So we're reading 1 Peter 4, verse 7. The end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask for your grace. And we pray, Father God, that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes. Convict us, Father God, that we may see your glory, that we may have a greater and greater deepening appreciation and love for who you are, that our whole life would simply be a reasonable response to what we profess to believe.

We thank you for your grace in 2020. And we pray, Father God, that same grace would continue to guide and lead your church in 2021. Lord, as we give our first fruits to you, may it be multiplied. May it be something, Lord God, that you push our church toward and asking, Lord, for your help to do so.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So the theme for 2021 is "Watch and pray." So prayer is our primary focus that we want to push in 2021. Every year we look at our church, we look at, you know, our strength, our weaknesses. We have meetings, we take evaluation and say, you know, these are things that we should focus on.

And obviously there's a lot of things that we can give our attention to, but this is something that we've actually pushed and talked about for many years. And if you've been at our church for more than three, four years, you know, probably this has been our theme going forward each year.

And so, but as we evaluate, we come again that this is something that we really need to give our attention to, not just to talk about it, not just to give sermons about, but really give attention to. You know, every person has a blind spot. You know, there's certain things that you're kind of aware of, but you don't realize how bad it is until you get married.

And then your wife or your husband will make sure you know, right? And so that's a benefit of being married in some sense. And whenever you live in a community, right? When you're a community, you have blind spots that you kind of get poke at. So if you're humble, you'll receive it.

And if you're not, you'll fight back. We have a blind spot in the Western church that we are aware of, but I don't think we know how serious it is. If I came up here on Sunday, this morning, and I say, you know what? I didn't have any time this week to prepare for my sermon.

I didn't get to read my Bible. I'm just going to wing it. I'm going to let the Holy Spirit speak this morning. Every other week it was me, but now I'm going to let the Holy Spirit speak, right? I think most of you, you know, who came to hear the Bible and said, what are you doing up there?

Right? If you didn't prepare for the sermon, don't get up there and waste our time. Just pray and get off. Because we value the word of God. The word of God needs to be exposited. We need to have high priority in making sure that the word of God is taught, preached.

And in order to do that, I need to prepare. But in the Western church, including our church, you know, if I said, I didn't have time to pray, I didn't spend much time in prayer, I didn't think about it, you know, say, yeah, it's understandable. That's a discipline that we're weak in, and then we just move on.

Prayer in scripture is just as important a proper exposition of God's word. In the Eastern church, you know, in the Asian churches, they tend to be strong in prayer, maybe weak in theology, but very strong in prayer. Their response would be exactly the opposite. The pastor came up and said, you know, I didn't prepare and I didn't pray much and I haven't been praying at all, you know, and they said, what?

What are you doing up there? How can you be a pastor and be preaching a sermon if you're not praying? And in the same way, this blind spot in the Western church is not a small problem. I would say it is the problem in the church. The Bible says you did not have because you did not pray.

Our typical response to whenever there's a problem is let's get organized, let's have a meeting, let's see what theological things that we've missed, you know, let's have a class, let's train these people, let's do these things and let's get to it, right? And let's do a good job. And that's our typical response.

And none of that is wrong. And there is a place for all of that. But if you know the scriptures as well as I do, right, which, you know, all of you know the scripture and you've read it, the Bible places prayer just as high as value as the Word of God.

So that is a big blind spot in the Western church. And part of the reason why we talk about the weakness of the church is probably that. Without prayer, we automatically become anxious. When things happen and things don't go according to plan, we become anxious because we're not sure where God fits into all this because we haven't been engaging with God.

In fact, sometimes it's even worse when you are successful and things are at peace because we automatically think it must be because something I'm doing. So either we are prone to anxiousness or we're prone to pride, thinking that we know the answers. Either way, when we don't pray, it is detrimental.

Knowledge and experience without prayer causes us to rely on knowledge and experience. If you think you have greater intellect, if you have more experience, maybe you're a bit more gifted. Without prayer, it automatically leads to self-glory. It leads to pride. Prayer is essential, not important, essential in our walk with God.

Without it, we don't even know if we're right with God or not right with God. So this is a glaring weakness in our church. And so this is something that we've, every time we talk, it's like this is something we need to deal with. This is something we need to deal with.

This year, we're hoping that we would do more than just give you a verse or give a sermon and to encourage you to pray. We've tried to implement morning prayer, Friday night prayer. We had praise and prayer implemented, but I think all of that is just a slight nudge and we want to do more than that.

We want to emphasize prayer to the extent that we emphasize the Word of God. And so that may not happen overnight, but we want to make sure that we're headed there as a church because I believe, and I think we all believe, that it is that important. And it is a weakness in our church beyond anything else.

1 Peter 4, 7, the text that we want to focus on this morning, he says, "End of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer." So I want to break this down into three parts. First, the motivation of prayer, right?

Why we should pray. Second, preparation for prayer. What is it that we are called to do? And then third, the power of prayer. And that's the outline for this morning. The motivation for prayer is pretty simple. He says, "The end of all things is near." Peter wrote this 2,000 years ago.

If the motivation is that the end is coming, well, 2,000 years have passed, so how can we have any kind of urgency talking about something 2,000 years ago and then say, "Well, end of all things is near." Clearly, it didn't end. So how are you going to preach a sense of urgency in prayer when 2,000 years have passed and clearly things didn't end?

What does he mean by that? And is this relevant to us today? Well, some people have thought that maybe the end that he's referring to is the physical death of the Christians, which was exactly what was going on. First Peter has written during the period when Nero's persecution was intense.

People were literally being torn apart by lions. They were being crucified on the cross publicly to shame them. This is the period when the apostles are starting to get caught and beheaded, and one by one, the church is being destroyed. So some people thought that maybe what Peter is saying, the end, meaning physical end of Christians is near, so you better be ready.

Some people thought that maybe this is referring to the end of Israel, that the old covenant is ending, and so Israel, there's no place for them anymore, and so we know what happens. This is written around 65 AD, and in AD 70, the Romans come in, completely abolish the nation of Israel.

They got sick and tired of their many rebellions, and they came in, destroys the temple so that they can't worship, and Israel as a nation just disappears. So they scatter all over, but as a nation, they disappear. So some think that Peter saw this coming and saying, "The end of all things is near, so you better get ready." The word that is used here for end in Greek is telos, where we get the original word is teleos.

And I think I mentioned this to you before. Back in seminary, this word was so significant in our understanding of the New Testament that I did a whole paper just on this particular word, teleos. The word teleos is never used in the New Testament to refer to the chronological end of something, that there's a beginning, there's a middle, and there's the end.

So it can't be referring to the nation of Israel where there was a beginning, there's a middle, and then now he's going to abolish the nation of Israel. The word teleos doesn't mean that. The word teleos basically means a completion or consummation of something. So when the Bible says that the end is near, it's that God's intended purpose or what he was trying to accomplish is coming to an end.

He says in 1 John 2, 18, "Children, it is the last hour." The last hour he's talking about is not the very last chronologically. He's talking about the last period. In God's salvation history, there's the last thing that God is preparing and trying to get the church ready for.

He says, "It is here." And what he says, again, the end of all things is near. That's exactly what he's referring to. And that's why Peter is able to say in 2 Peter 1, 3-4, "Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence." He says, "Everything that you and I need for life of godliness, for our salvation, for our sanctification, for our glorification has been given to us." They are no longer waiting for something to happen.

The Jews were given the law, but the law was not the end purpose of that. The law was for the preparation of the coming of Christ so that they would see sin as utterly sinful. But all of that is to bring Christ, and so in his death and resurrection, he would complete what is necessary for salvation.

That's what he means. So when he says, "The end of all things is near," he's meaning that what God had ordained is about to be consummated. That we are no longer waiting passively, hoping the Messiah would come and deliver us. We're no longer waiting for the Holy Spirit to be indwelling in us to give us power so that we would become witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and the remotest part of the world.

We're no longer waiting for the new covenant. We're no longer waiting for the establishment of the church and the apostles, and we're no longer waiting for the word of God to be given explaining the mystery of the gospel. He says, "All has been given to you that is necessary." That's what he means by teleos, the end.

The end is here. So the challenge that he's giving to them is not, "Life is hard, but you hold on to the hope of Christ, and hopefully you hunker down, find a good cave somewhere, and just hold on to the word of God and make it to the end." That's not what he's saying.

The end of all things is near, so you better just hold on to Christ. This is a battle call. And that's why Jesus says at the end of his ministry, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." He says, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." The statement there is not a defensive statement.

He doesn't say, "I'm going to build my church so that you can gather together when the world is falling apart." He says, "When the world is falling apart, you guys gather together, hunker down, create a little bubble where the outside world is not going to be able to attack you." That's not what he's saying.

He says, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." No matter what is happening outside, they're not going to be able to prevail against the church, so gear up. So this is not a call to escape to Colorado. You know, I know there's a lot of temptation with all that is going on around us, that we want to find a cave somewhere and just hunker down for a period, but he says, "No, the suffering is coming." He says, "What God has consummated at the end time, the establishment of the church to take the gospel and be the light in the darkness." So the darker the world becomes, the greater necessity there is for the church to be in that darkness.

And that's what he means when all things is near. In Romans 13, 11, it says, "Do this knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep." That if you've been sleeping, if you've been just kind of wandering around in the darkness, he says, "It is time to be awakened." And when he says to be awakened, he's not simply saying to be alert and open your eyes.

He's saying, "See the times." Everything that you and I need for a life of godliness, everything that you and I, to be the light to the world, has been given to us. Now the ball's on our court. And that's what he means to gear up, right? Get out of your shelters.

You don't need to wait. The Holy Spirit's been given to you. Get out of your shelter and gather together. And so he says, "So we need to pray." Because of the pandemic, one of the most common questions that I've been getting outside of is our church going to be open or closed, right?

That's probably the number one question. The number two question is, do you think Jesus is coming? And of course the answer is yes. Of course the Bible says he's coming. The next question is when? Now if I tell you when, you shouldn't listen to me anymore. The Bible says I will not know the time or the hour.

But we should be able to tell the signs of the time. And so whether he comes in our generation, next generation, there is more awareness of something going on. In fact, more and more non-Christians are asking the question. There must be something beyond this world. Now the fear of death and this pandemic has caused people to be more aware of the finiteness of our life.

And so he's basically saying, "Gear up, open your eyes, be ready." Because the end of all things is near. Persecution is going to increase, but the opportunity to share the gospel is also going to increase with the persecution. And he's basically telling us our motivation to pray, to gear up for this spiritual battle that he called us to.

When we are not in battle mode, if we're constantly living in a state of seeking the comfortable, most comfortable place for us, then there's no need for prayer. You know how to find jobs. You know what to do to get good grades. You know how to make money. You know how to make friends.

You know how to get organized. You don't need Jesus for that. Sometimes the way that we pray, we kind of sprinkle Jesus on everything that we do. We sprinkle in Jesus' name, kind of like the Catholics. I cringe every time I see somebody do that because they think that this has some sort of power.

But the thing is, the Protestants do the same, in Jesus' name. You attach Jesus' name, kind of like doing this. As long as I sprinkle Jesus on our fellowship, sprinkle Jesus on Bible study, sprinkle Jesus on this, then God is obligated to answer our prayers. So the kind of prayer that he's calling us to pray is a battle cry.

And that's why he tells us to gear up. And so the motivation is, get ready because in the end times, God is going to establish the church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. You know what that means? That the gates of Hades are going to try.

Gates of Hades is going to do its best to break down its walls and destroy the church. But he said, because I will establish my church, they will not prevail against it. So he says, that's where the motivation is. So if we're not aware of the times, if we're living our life to be as comfortable as we can, making sure we have the best life that we can during this life, then again, not only is our perspective wrong, it will affect the day-to-day way that we live our lives.

We're going to look for caves to hide in. We're going to go to only places where we are safe. We can only share the gospel if we are welcomed into that area. And we will constantly live our lives based on the value that we have. But he says, no.

That's one of the benefits of persecution and hardship because it forces us out of our comfort zone. And that's what he's speaking to. He's speaking to a group of people whose lives have been torn upside down because of the gospel. And he's saying, good, get ready. Get ready because the time has come.

The end has come. Motivation for prayer. Secondly, he says, to prepare. If you're properly motivated because the end of all things is near, he says, you need to prepare for prayer by being of sound judgment and of sober spirit. Sound judgment in Greek is sophroneo, which literally means to be wise in thinking.

And that's what it means in Romans 12 when he says, do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Renewing of your mind. And that's where we are committed to the Word of God to make sure that we have a biblical perspective.

That our opinions are not based upon what's happening around us politically, socially, economically. If we're not in the Word of God, we naturally are going to have a different perspective. Where does your knowledge, where does your truth come from? But when he says, not to be conformed by the renewing of your mind, some of us may think, you know, I've been studying the Bible for a long time.

I know this text. I know the biblical principles. I know the theology. You can have all of that and be completely wrong because the Bible says in the book of Hebrews the Word of God does what? First and foremost, judge the thoughts and intentions of my heart. If we pray, when somebody is studying the Bible without much prayer, typically what happens is the Word of God is used to judge the thoughts and intentions of others' hearts.

Because I know the Bible, it becomes a tool to weed out sin in our community. It becomes a tool to weed out sin in other people's hearts. But we are completely unaware of what's going on inside of us. So that's what happens when you study the Bible without much prayer.

In fact, I will say it is dangerous to study the Bible without prayer. It is dangerous to have right theology without prayer because right theology gives you self-righteousness to judge other people. The primary purpose of the Word of God is to keep us sober, sober in judgment. You know, again, the benefit of hardship that we faced or some people faced in 2020 and even prior to that, many of you have experienced hardship unrelated to the pandemic, just your family economically, maybe something else happened.

But there are times when God, when we are sober and in our right thinking, we recognize that what God is doing in the hardships and the world that He's shaking up is actually the best thing that could have happened for us. When we're not sober, our greatest concern is our safety.

When we're not sober, our greatest concern is making sure that we have our best life now. But when we are sober, we recognize that we're going to live in eternity in Christ, whether you live 90 years or whether you live 50 years or 30 years, it is trivial in light of eternity.

So our greatest concern should not be that I'm going to be living a healthy life till I'm 90. But when we're not sober, that becomes our primary concern. When we're not sober, the primary concern is, do I have enough money to take care of my family? Am I going to be able to buy this house or am I going to be able to invest in this?

Am I going to have enough for retirement? In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with any of that. We should be wise. We should be shrewd with the things that God has given us. But from an eternal perspective, all of that stuff, according to Apostle Paul, is rubbish in light of knowing Christ.

So when we're not sober, we're naturally given to worldly concerns. And so that's why he's saying the end of all things is near, so therefore be sober in your judgment so that what we are thinking, how we are feeling, is being dictated by what we profess to believe in eternity.

You know, it is the most, when we are the most frustrated, when we long for eternity. And that's the best thing that can happen to Christians. So God will allow you to feel frustrated because it shakes us up from our temporary safety. People who can't gather together long for fellowship.

One of the benefits of when our church shut down for a period when people couldn't come, one of the things that I kept on hearing is how much they love the gathering of the church. I didn't hear that before. Not that it wasn't there, but it brought it out.

I didn't realize how important fellowship was until it was taken away. You ever see videos of people who don't have direct access or easy access to the written word of God? You ever see videos of that in remote parts, even some parts in China where they don't have the written word and they get the Bible for the first time and it's just amazing how much they cherish the word of God because they didn't have access.

Part of the benefit of the persecution and the hardship that is here and that will continue to come is that it causes us to long for eternity. That's what he means by being sober in our judgment. That we should not be shaken back and forth by what's happening outside the world.

The Bible says that that was going to happen. We shouldn't be taken off guard by that because it's been here in the scriptures all along. Sometimes, God will allow certain things to happen. When we are sober, when we are biblically sober, spiritually sober, it causes a hungering and thirsting for righteousness that probably wasn't there before.

And that's what he means, to be sober in judgment and then to be sober in spirit. In the King James Version, literally it just says to watch, to be sober-minded and to watch, to look carefully. The former emphasizes internal thinking and internal feeling. The second part, the latter, is talking about clear judgment in the way that we live, to be self-controlled.

Ephesians 5.15, it says, "Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise." You know, remember Pastor Nate's sermon last week when he was giving the sermon about the ten virgins? He had the five wise and the five unwise. And he said that the difference between the wise and unwise is preparedness and unpreparedness.

And preparedness and unpreparedness is directly linked to what you value. If you value something, you prepare. If you don't value it, you don't prepare. And a distinction between the virgins who are saved and the virgins who are not saved is how they live their lives to prepare for the coming of their master.

And that's exactly what he is saying, is be careful how you walk. Is the way that we live our life consistent with the second coming of Christ? Is it consistent with the gospel that we profess? You know, let me talk to our young families. When I say young families, I'm talking about all of us.

We're all part of that, right? The danger when we're young, when we're starting to raise our children, or even when they get older, is that raising our kids and protecting them, providing for them, becomes our greatest value in life. It is important, but it becomes the greatest value in life.

And we evaluate what is godly and ungodly based upon, am I taking good care of my kids? Now, does the Bible teach that? Yes, there are times when the Bible says that in order to be an elder in the church, you have to have, right, you have to manage your household well, right?

Not to aggravate your children. There's many commands in the scripture telling us to be good fathers. But at the same time, it also says, "He who loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy to be my disciple." And so the Bible tells us both ends. And so sometimes living in Orange County, we think that providing what is physically best for our children is what it means to be godly.

We have to be careful that we do not get fooled. And Satan often uses that to distract us from our primary pursuit of honoring and glorifying God. And what is best for your children is what causes them to love Christ the most. And it's not always the physical safety.

It's not always the best schools. It's not always teaching them everything they need to know. Do they love Christ? That's when, so when he says to live in such a way that we recognize that it is temporary, even if they go to the best schools, even if they get the best education, even if they get the best job, even if they have the best marriage, that is not our primary goal.

Our primary goal is, are they also walking soberly with Christ? What's the difference between foolish and prudent living? Are we preparing for what is coming? Or are we preparing for a better life here? But third and finally, the motivation of prayer is clear. Preparation of prayer to live righteously, to be sober in thinking, to engage in the word of God, to memorize it, to meditate it, to apply it, let it judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

If I stop the sermon here, it may be good to say, "Okay, I like a few things that he said. Yes, we need to be righteous. We need to disciple people. We need to be able to do this and that." But you've missed the whole point. Because the conclusion of what he says here is so that you can pray.

He says the reason why you need to be sober is not simply so that you can walk around and say, "I'm sober. I'm studying the word. I'm biblically sound. I have the right theology." He says, "No. All of that has to happen," for what? So that you can pray.

So that your prayer life will be effective. So if you're studying the Bible, have the right theology, memorizing scripture, even teaching other people about scripture, and yet we do not pray, you missed the whole point. Because the power is not me and you in our discipline. The power is not in the training or in the organization.

The power is always in God. You notice here in 1 Peter 3, 7, and I'm going to give you a warning ahead of time. If you have any feminism in you at all, the word of God is going to blow it out of the water. If not, I didn't do my job.

Now you're nervous. Now I'm nervous. All right, 1 Peter 3, 7. You husbands in the same way live with your wives in understanding way as with someone weaker since she is a woman. You nervous now? Okay. Let me read it again for emphasis, all right? You husbands in the same way live with your wives in understanding way as with someone weaker since she is a woman.

Now if I stop right there, some of you guys are going to say, "That's in the Bible?" We should switch to NIV or something, you know what I mean? In this day and age, you're going to write this and you're going to read this and you think we should be okay with this?

When you understand what's going on culturally, you read this completely different, right? You know, you guys all know like we live in what we call a cancel culture. And so we have the new generation who's judging the old generation of certain things that they used to say and now it's like it's unacceptable, perfectly acceptable 20 years ago but you can't say it now, right?

One of the clearest things that I've noticed in the last 20 years is that you can't say Oriental. Some of you guys are in a generation where the Oriental is offensive to you. I heard that growing up, you know, since I was a kid, Oriental. There's that Oriental kid, it's like, "Yeah, right here," right?

Because that was not a problem, right? In fact, when we lived in Kansas, my teacher, you know, I was still using my Korean name at that time, she couldn't say my name so she would just say, "That China boy back there." And I don't remember standing up thinking like, "China boy?

You racist." Whenever she said, "China boy," I said, "Here?" Because I was the only Asian kid in that room and she wasn't being racist, she was, you know, she was just distinguishing me because she couldn't say my name. So I didn't feel the need to like, "Oh, I got to confront her." I never even thought twice about it until, you know, I got older and I said, "Yeah, she used to call me China boy." I don't think it was anything derogatory.

Now if she said, "That greasy Chinese kid over there," that would have been, right? That would have been racist. But I didn't hear it that way because in that culture, it was just, you know, maybe there are some things that are positive that progress that maybe we shouldn't say.

But the fact of the matter is today, we have a younger generation who grew up in a different culture judging the older generation saying, "You did this, you did that, that's unacceptable," right? And sometimes I think we get way carried away with that. Now I say all of this because the Bible was written 2,000 years ago in a completely different culture.

You have to understand that when this passage was written, women had no right to vote. They had no right to own property. They were actually considered property of the man. So if she didn't cook the food right, he could have just said, "You know, I don't like her," and send her off.

And because she had no right, she was forced to either be homeless or sell her body to take care of herself and possibly her children because the wife and the children had no rights of their own. That's why when they had the, if you're eating under 5,000, they only counted the men.

With 600,000 people went into the desert, they only counted 600,000 men. And that's the culture that they lived. So when the first century Jew read this passage, this is how they would have read it. You husbands in the same way, live your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker since she is a woman.

Of course. That's what they understood. And show her honor as fellow heir of the grace of life. What? Fellow heir? You know what a Jewish male used to pray? "Thank God I'm not a Gentile, a dog, or a female." And the reason why they prayed that is because they were treated so poorly by the Jewish community.

So it wasn't necessarily that they were being, you know, like harsh. It was just, "Thank God." It's just like somebody who you see suffering. "Thank God God didn't make me like them." That's where the women were. So what would have shocked a first century Jewish male is not they are weaker because they're women.

Of course they are, because we see it. We see it. They get treated poorly. They're living homeless. They're prostituting their bodies because their husband who was a jerk let her go because she burned food. But the shocking part of it is, "Show her honor as fellow heir of grace of life." And so the way that we respond to this text is exactly the opposite of how the Jewish male would have read this text.

Because what God was doing was completely revolutionizing that the value of a woman is not dependent upon her physical strength. But she has value because God says she is a fellow heir of the grace of God. Fellow heir. There is no male or female in the kingdom of God.

And so he was demolishing the prejudice of men at that time that might is power. And so what he was doing was completely the opposite. So when we read this with a feministic mindset, we say, "How can he possibly say that?" Not realizing it was because of Christ, he completely revolutionized not only Christianity but world itself.

Because Christianity was the first religion, first paradigm shifting toward female. It was because of Christianity. Now why do I say all of that and what does this have to do with anything? Because he says, "All of that, treating your wife with honor," which would have been very, very difficult for them to do in the first century.

He says, "So what? So that your prayers would not be hindered." Think how radical that is that God elevates women to the point that if you don't take care of your wife, you can't even pray. And the reason why you need to honor women is so that you can be effective in prayer.

That's how much he was elevating women at that time. But the point of it is so that you can pray. We need to live righteous lives. We need to understand scripture. We need to have right thinking. All of this so that we can pray. Because the power is in prayer.

Think how feeble you and I are. Have you ever seen with your own eyes the coronavirus? I mean, I'm not talking about on the screen or television. They call it the coronavirus because corona in Spanish is crown and if you look at the virus it looks like a crown, right?

There are certain parts of it and that's why they call it coronavirus. You and I have never seen that with our eyes. It's so small, I mean, we don't know until we see the effects of it. Well that tiny little thing that you and I can't even see with our own eyes has shut down the world.

You get sick enough, you know, you could even die from that. That's how weak and feeble you and I are. That's something that tiny can destroy us, mankind, period. And so for us to think that if we get organized, if we're smart enough, if we're educated, if we have the right teaching, right theology, that we're going to change the world.

He said, no, all of that has to happen so that we can pray. In the Bible it says in a large house there are articles of ignoble things and noble things. He says, if you want to be used by God to get rid of ignoble things, so that we can bring an empty container, an empty container, not filled with, you know, I got this experience, I got this talent, I've done this, I have that.

And then we bring a container that's full and he says, all that is ignoble. He says, no, empty yourself. That's why the Bible keeps telling us, humble yourself, humble yourself. And that's why the Word of God first and foremost judge the thoughts and intentions of my heart. If the primary concern that we are overly concerned about is other people, you're probably missing the whole point.

You're not wrestling with your own sins. You're not wrestling with your own pride. You're not wrestling with your own inclination to be proud because the primary problem with mankind is mankind. And that's why he says, so that you can pray. John chapter 15, the whole chapter is about abiding in Christ.

You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in Christ, right? He doesn't say it's hard. He says, you cannot if you do not abide in Christ. But after he says that, what does he say? John 15, 7, if you abide in me, my words abide in you, then ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you.

Why do we need to abide? So that we can be effective in praying. So if we get into theology and we get organized and we have all these proper training and Bible classes going and we're doing all this kind of discipleship and yet we are weak in prayer, we missed the whole point.

The whole purpose of salvation is so that we can come to God so that God can do his work. And when we don't pray, naturally we want to be worshipped. When good things happen, we want to be recognized. The very core of human rebellion is wanting to be glorified.

And so when good things, godly things happen, when we bear fruit or seemingly bear fruit, church grows, discipleship happens, people acknowledge us and thank us, and we're not praying, we naturally think, I had some part in that. So even the good things that happen in our lives, it leads to self-glory.

Some of us are more sophisticated so we don't say it in our mouth, but you know it, you feel it, you think it, and that thought of I did something is ruining us and we don't even know it. Just like Jesus said, it's like a small yeast, right, leavens the whole bread.

I don't bake so I don't know how small it takes. I've just seen baking happen. It only takes a tiny little bit for that whole thing to rise. It only takes a tiny little, tiny little pride, ruins everything that we're doing. That's the primary reason he says don't establish young Christians in leadership because he's going to fall into the same temptation as the devil, that he wants the glory.

So one of the biggest struggles as leaders in the church, especially, you know, since I'm the senior pastor, the greatest struggle is not to get people sober, is not evangelism, the greatest struggle is not training, Bible teaching, all of that is important. The greatest struggle is I need to stay humble.

I need to recognize that I'm just a vessel for him to use. And so that's why this is so, so important because the point of what we're doing is to bring us to God and be dependent upon him and him alone. See, in John chapter 16, 20 through 24, Jesus says, "In that day you will not question me about anything.

Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full." He said, "Up to this point, you've been praying from a distance." It wasn't an indwelling of the Holy Spirit that's groaning on our behalf.

But because the end of all things is near, because Christ has given us everything that we need for life and Godliness, now you can pray in my name. So in my name, you can come. So up to this point, you've been praying from a distance, but now you can draw near.

So the greatest benefit of our salvation is that we're able to pray unhindered. That's the gift of salvation that God has given us. So if we do all these other things and yet we are weak in prayer, we are weak in everything. Ephesians chapter 6, 18 to 19, after he says, "Gear up for battle, put on the full armor of God," and he concludes by saying, "With all prayers, petitions, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and pray on behalf that the utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth to make known what boldness the mystery of the gospel." He ends this spiritual battle by saying, "Put on the full armor of God, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness," and then he says, "Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray." After you've done all of that, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.

Whatever is happening in your life, whatever is happening in your life, if you're not praying, your primary problem is you're not praying. Whatever is happening in our culture, whatever that may be, if you're not praying, the primary problem is we're not praying. Whatever you notice in your marriage that you're frustrated with, whatever you are thinking about your husband or your wife, if you're not praying, the primary problem is we're not praying.

You do not have because you do not ask. And then when you ask, you're not sober. You're not sober. You ask for your selfishness. So the primary problem of politics is we're not praying enough. The primary problem with fellowship is we're not praying enough. The primary problem with discipleship is we're not praying enough.

The primary problem with our children is we're not praying enough. Until we have prayed and we have devoted ourselves to pray, until we have committed ourselves and are known for prayer as much as we are known for Bible study, everything else is going to be impotent. Because what you and I do with our own strength is like trying to jump the Grand Canyon by running faster.

You and I do not have that power. And so we recognize that this is our weakness. This is our weakness. This is my weakness. This is the weakness of our church. This is something that we've recognized for years. But I feel that we've gotten to a breaking point as our church continues to grow, you know, and we have a lot of different thoughts and opinions of what we should do or should not do.

We need to focus on this and focus on that. And, you know, we have all kinds of opinions. Even with this pandemic, we have extremes. Some people who are angry that we're not meeting. Some people who are angry that we are meeting. Some people who are angry because we don't pay enough attention to social justice.

Some people are angry because we're not—we're paying too much attention. Out of all the different opinions that we have, there's one opinion that I welcome, is that you desire to pray. We do not pray enough. You're absolutely right. We need to pray. We need to be devoted to prayer.

And until we pray, until we really give ourselves to prayer, everything that we're doing is just man's struggle. You cannot bring somebody to Christ by being articulate. The Holy Spirit is the one who judges people of their sins. And let me tell you something that you and I absolutely cannot—we do not have the power to love people that are hard to love.

We can like people. We can tolerate difficult people. But the Scripture says that the world will identify us by love, but not any kind of love, but the love that Christ practiced. The love that he says in Romans 8, "In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." You don't have the strength to do that.

I don't have the strength to do that. The best that you and I can practice is love people who are likable. Tolerate people that are difficult. And try not to slander people who have hurt us. But to practice the love that Christ practiced with us, that's not in you, and that's not in me.

So until we humble ourselves and recognize that we are feeble and we are desperate, until Christ intervenes, we may have a form of godliness, but not know the power. Let me finish with this, 2 Corinthians 7, 12-16. Right after the temple was built by Solomon, in dedication, this is what the Lord says about the temple.

"The Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, 'I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Now my eyes will be opened and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.'"