If you can turn your Bibles with me to Ephesians 3, verses 14-21. So we're going to be taking, again, taking a couple weeks in this text as we prepare for 2022, and we want to make sure that we understand what our priorities are and what are some things that we're going to be focusing on in the new year in 2022.

I want to take two weeks to dive into this text and hopefully we'll get a better footing of where we're headed in the next year. I'm going to be looking at verse 14 all the way to verse 21. Reading out of the NASB. For this reason I bound my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth thrives its name, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. - Gracious Father, we ask for your guidance.

We ask for your Holy Spirit to lead us. Lord, we know that we can exposit and we can teach, and yet without your Holy Spirit, Lord, we can understand nothing. And so we are dependent on you, asking Father for your grace. Open our eyes, our ears, soften our hearts, Lord God, that we may receive your word.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Some of you guys probably already know that the names of each month of the year is actually based upon some Roman idol or God that they worshiped, because our calendar came from that period. And so the Roman idol that got the name for January is Janus.

And the reason why they named January Janus is because Janus, the God that the Romans worshiped, was the guardian of the arches or doors. And what it represented was that you would pass from the previous year to the new year, and so this God Janus guarded that door to make sure that the right things are passing through, and that's why they named January January.

Appropriately, obviously, because we're making that transition, and then every year around this time, you know, we make New Year's resolutions as we think about the past, what happened in 2021, and where should we be headed in 2022. And so again, we're in this text because we want to make sure that we're grounded and we're on the same page going forward.

You probably heard this quote from Socrates many times, "An unexamined life is not worth living." And so I know many of you heard this before. This is a quote that is quoted quite a bit, but I'm not sure how many of you know the context in which he said this.

Socrates actually was executed because of his influence on the youth of his generation. So he was beginning to question some of the state's mandates of what gods that they're supposed to worship, what gods they're not supposed to worship. And so Socrates in no way was a Christian, but he was beginning to influence the youth, telling them that some of these idols were worthless, and he was introducing idols of his own.

And so they brought him into court basically saying that if you don't stop teaching these youth and begin to have this mass influence, that you're going to be jailed or even executed. So it's in that context that Socrates stood up and said, "A life that is unexamined is not worth living." In other words, I'd rather die than to just give in and just you telling me to think the way I'm supposed to think and do whatever I'm told to do, it's not worth living.

So that's the context in which Socrates says this term, "An unexamined life is not worth living." As we face 2022, what is it that we have thought in 2021 that needs to change? What are some things that we're going through in the new year that we want to examine?

Whenever we want to head somewhere, we need to make sure that we have three things that we need to know. First, let's say if you're going to Fashion Island and you're looking for Nordstrom, as an example. The first thing you do when you get out of your parking lot and you get to, before you start walking, you need to find out where Nordstrom is.

So typically you'll look at a map, find out where it is, and then once you find out where it is, there's a second thing that you need to know. What's the second thing you need to know? You need to know where you are. Knowing where Nordstrom is is useless unless you know exactly where you are.

And so once you find out where you need to go and then you figure out where you are, the next step is what's the fastest way to get there? What's the most efficient way to get there? So whenever we're lost or when we have specific direction, we need to first figure out where am I going?

And so Apostle Paul actually says this very thing in Philippians chapter 3, 12 through 13, as he is in jail with possibility of execution, he says in summary of his life, he says, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." Apostle Paul says his main goal in his life is to possess for himself what Christ has given him.

Now we all know that we've been purchased by the blood of Christ so we belong to him. But Apostle Paul says, "As much as I belong to him," he says, "Christ needs to belong to me." And so his life goal was to know Christ. Know Christ and then obviously his ministry was to make him known.

So his goal is pretty clear and this is not uniquely to Apostle Paul but for every Christian, that our purpose in life is to have Christ and then to have more of Christ, to know him, to love him, to proclaim him, to honor him, to glorify him. This is nothing new to any Christian.

If you've been a Christian for any period of time, you know that the Bible makes it clear this is our goal. But the second thing that we need to know is then where are you in that? Apostle Paul says, "Not that I have already obtained it." He says, "I'm not there yet." If Apostle Paul's not there, for sure you and I are not there.

Typically we can think of our justification, it's like we're saved so from now on we just kind of coast along in life and we'll see where this goes. He says, "No, Apostle Paul, the man who teaches us about justification says, 'I have not obtained this yet.'" In other words, he doesn't have the fullness of Christ.

And so he says, "I'm not there yet," so therefore he says, "I pressed on, I reached, forgetting what is behind." And so for every Christian as we face the new year and look back at 2021 and the previous years, what is it that I need to do in order for me to be able to say at the end of my life that I lived a good life?

If you have a bucket list of places to go, if you check off all of that, at the end of your life you're going to say, "Well, this was a good life because I saw everything I wanted to see. I ate everything I wanted to eat. I made as much money as I could." Is that what you would say at the end of your life and say, "This was a good life"?

I don't think any Christian would say that, right? Because what we value, at least we profess to value, is Christ. And so we live based upon what we would be able to say was a good life, to honor Christ, to proclaim Christ, to have more of Christ. And so what is it that we need to do tangibly when we make applications?

Whenever you make an application that's kind of vague, every year you're going to make the same application, "I need to be a better Christian." And so what does that mean, to be a better Christian? So at the end of the year you're going to look at your life and you're going to have some things that you feel guilty about, and maybe I shouldn't have done this, I should be a better Christian.

The next year, when the new year comes around, you say, "Well, what do you need to do?" "Yeah, I should be a better Christian." Whenever you make your applications vague, you're going to end up repeating the cycle over and over again, right? So if we're going to make application, we need to be specific.

What is it that you think needs to be put away? What is it that you need to actively pursue and prioritize? So if you say, "I'm going to value my time with Christ and I'm going to really prioritize that," when is that going to happen? I say, "In the morning." Well, what time in the morning?

What time do you normally wake up? And what time should you wake up? What is it that you need to do? And so you need to put that on the calendar. So if you say, "I need to be in better health," what does that mean? You're going to go to the gym?

How many times? What are you going to do? What are the exercises programmed? So you take all of that and you apply that, and then after you finish, you can look back and say, "I did it or I didn't do it." But if we're not careful, we make these general sweeping things that I need to be in better health, I need to do this better, but then there's no specific applications that we make in order for us to take this path.

It's just like going to Fashion Ion, I need to get to Nordstrom, I'm way over here, hopefully I can get there. And then you just don't look at the path and you don't start walking, right? And so that's the reason that we want to make sure that as we're headed to 2022, what is it that we lack individually, but specifically today, what is it we lack as a church that we want to make sure that we need to be strengthened in?

Last year, our theme was "Watch and Pray." I put today's title of my sermon, "Hope and Pray," right? So the theme is not much different. And the reason why it's not much different is because at the end of the year, as the elders get together and we evaluate where we need to go, again, we feel like this is our weakness in the church.

And so this is not...through the years, we probably put this as a theme more than any other theme, right? There's a few years where we say we need to build community, we need to have better teaching in this and that area or evangelism, but probably more than any other theme that we've evaluated and said we need to really be strengthened, and it's probably this topic of discipline of prayer.

And I don't think it's any different this year. I feel like we made some progress, but not to the point where we feel like where we ought to be. We need to be a church that is not just known for Bible teaching, but also for prayer. Prayer tends to be weak in Bible teaching churches, and I don't think we're any different if we're being honest with ourselves.

We have a tendency, because we know our theology, we know our Bible, that somehow that gives us an edge to everybody else. If we are theological and if we are Bible-centered, without prayer, without you knowing it, you will easily become proud. Even the ones that may be sitting here thinking like, "I don't know about that." Some of you are thinking that.

Obviously, I'm exaggerating, but almost always, if you commit yourself to the Word of God without prayer, pride creeps in, whether you know it or not. Because you think you know when you really don't. You feel like you're in the presence of God when you're not. You think you know God when you do not know Him.

It's just like it's no different than reading a book about somebody and saying, "I know Him." It's like, "No, you don't know Him. You know about Him. You don't know Him." And that's why a tendency is a strong Bible-teaching church tends to be weak in prayer because we feel confident that we are right with God in this.

And yeah, of course, yeah. Of course, prayer is important, but we don't realize just how important it is. If I teach wrong doctrine, you will be up in arms, and I hope you will be. If you're not, I'd be very disappointed. If I taught something wrong and nobody said, "Amen," and then you went home, I'm not doing my job.

But for some reason, Bible-teaching churches, when prayer is lacking, there is no up in arms. There's no grieving. And again, that's because this is our blind spot, and we need to work on that. We need to emphasize that. And even if it takes the rest of my life, we need to work on that.

And I say this not because I've mastered prayer, but because I desire to, and I want our church to be the same. We need to be focused on prayer. Ephesians 6, 18-19, we are told to put on the full armor of God. The helmet of salvation, but breastplate of righteousness.

And after he goes through all of that, saying that our battle is not against flesh and blood, it's a spiritual battle, and after he tells us all of this, he concludes this statement by saying in verse 18-19, "With all prayers and petitions, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance, with petitions for all the saints, and pray for me on behalf so that utterance may be given, my mouth will be opened to proclaim the gospel." And so in other words, what he says, after you've done all of that, he says, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.

That's how he ends that whole section. So we shouldn't miss that, the whole point that he's trying to get at. After you've done all of that, if you do not pray, you end up relying upon your own resources, your own knowledge, your own experience, your own intellect. After you've done everything that God calls you to do, humble yourselves and recognize that you need Christ in your theology, that you and I need Christ in our ability, in our talent, because easily we can take every gift that God has given us and turn it into a curse, because it brings pride inside of us.

We need to pray. Think about Jesus' ministry, his disciples who walked with him, and all the things that the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them. Jesus, that his disciples said, "Teach us how to do what? Walk on water?" I think I would have asked that, right? That's a cool trick.

You know what I mean? Evangelism would be so easy if I just walked on water. You know what I mean? Just gather people and walk on water. And if I was levitating on water and preached the gospel, in my mind, I think they'd come to Christ, right? You get a bunch of hungry people together and feed them miraculously.

I say, "Man, that might help a little bit." You know what I mean? He raised people from the dead. He calmed storms that even professional fishermen were scared to death because of the storm. And he just comes out and says, "Stop." And you want to think with all the things that Jesus did, that the disciples would teach us how to do that.

Teach us how to multiply fish and loaves. Teach us how to walk on water. Teach us how to heal the sick, the lame. Open eyes to the people who are blind. Yet they observed of all the things that Jesus did, that what they wanted to be able to do, teach us, Lord, how to pray.

I think about it from our perspective. Do you not know how to pray? Of all the things that Jesus did, prayer is the most mundane. Prayer is something that they've been doing for thousands of years. Prayer is something that any one of us can decide to do. Is it because they didn't know how to close their eyes?

Is it because they didn't know the words or they weren't articulate enough? What was it about Jesus' prayer in the midst of all the miracles and the power that He demonstrated? He says, teach us how to pray. There was something about His prayer life that they recognized that this is something that we need to have.

Above everything else that Jesus was doing. Teach us how to pray. Matthew chapter 7, 7, Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. I mean, He's a sovereign God. Why do we need to ask?

Why do we need to knock? If He's so eager to give it to us, why does He wait for us to knock? And to ask so He can answer us. Think about what the point of salvation ultimately is. The point of salvation isn't simply to save us from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin.

For what purpose? So that we can come to Him. That's the point of the gospel. The point of the gospel is not simply not going to hell. That is a byproduct of being reunited with our Heavenly Father, the author of life. So the whole point of salvation, the whole point of justification is to call sinners to Himself.

So when He says, your sins have been forgiven, the very next thing is come. Because you couldn't come before. Sinners could not come to Him. In the old covenant, God didn't tell them to come. He said to stay away or you will die. And if you do want to come, here are all these rituals that you need to go.

Here are the animals that need to be soldered. Here's the blood that needs to be sprinkled all over. And He didn't tell them to come. Sinners were not welcomed into His presence or you will die. So now that Christ has come and washed us with His blood and He took away the barrier, the point of salvation is to come.

And that's why He says ask, seek, and to knock. Because He wants us to take advantage of what it is that He has done for us. And it says in James chapter 4, 2, you do not have because you do not ask. Think about how frustrated we are sometimes with life, the people that we complain about, the circumstance that we're in.

Have we been bringing this to the Lord? Really bringing this to the Lord? Why is this this way? Why is that? Why did God allow this? Did you bring this to Him? Or does this apply to you? You do not have because you did not ask. I don't know how many times I come to the Lord in prayer frustrated and even angry about certain things at church or maybe even certain people.

And I would be on my knees being rebuked in prayer. And in prayer realizing how gracious God is and how loving He is. And it was me who was frustrated. It was me who was bitter that I wasn't practicing the love that He gave to me. He was actually much more patient than I was.

And then there's also times when I'm at perfect peace. Everything seems just fine. And in prayer realizing that God is not at peace. That there is no peace. That He wants me to speak on this subject. He wants me to say and draw the line and be righteous. But I don't know how many times I've thought in my mind that because I have a verse to stand on that I have righteousness.

But my heart is corrected when I come in the presence of God in prayer. I can know all things in my head but there's a huge difference between being illuminated and having revelation. Revelation is just having information. You have information about God. You can study the gospel. You can exposit the text.

And so you have revelation. Illumination is when God takes the revelation and He changes your heart. He opens your eyes. So a sinner is not saved simply because he hears the gospel. If that's the case the whole world will be saved. All we need to do is proclaim the gospel.

It's the revelation where the Holy Spirit comes and He opens our eyes and He illuminates a sinner to bring him to repentance. And so the Bible tells us that you and I cannot bear fruit unless we abide in Him. So what does abiding mean? Abide isn't simply finding more revelation.

Abiding in Him means to be broken in our sins. To be utterly dependent upon Him. To be humble before His presence and to be dependent on Him. So if you are a man or a woman who is very proficient in the Word of God and weak in prayer you're just as weak as somebody who is not proficient with the Word of God and who does not pray.

You are not anymore righteous. You do not know Christ anymore than the next person who doesn't know anything but doesn't know God in prayer. That's how important prayer is. Again, I say all of this because you and I are in a Bible teaching church which I am the primary teacher and this is something that I recognize that we need to continue to strive.

That prayer is not, as long as we have the right doctrine, like prayer is something that we need to work on. No. Prayer is just as important. That if you cannot tolerate wrong teaching you should not tolerate prayerlessness either. It is that important. And so as a church as we face 2022 this is something that we want to continue to emphasize in our church.

We don't want to be known just as a church that preaches right doctrine. We also need to be known as a church that is humble before God in prayer. The text that we're looking at in verse 14-21 Paul is summarizing what he's been saying in three chapters about who God is and then he kind of leads us into prayer.

This is what he's praying for. And so there's five things that I want to point out in this text and so today we're going to cover two and then next week we're going to cover the other three. So the first thing that we want to look at, why do we need to pray?

Why do we need to pray? And he just simply says in verse 14, "for this reason." Well, for this reason means that he's been making an argument prior to this text. So the immediate context of this is for this reason he's talking about his gospel ministry. And I believe that Apostle Paul is not just talking about this immediate context.

He's talking about what he's been saying all throughout the book of Ephesians. And so he's summarizing the whole three chapters and he says, "everything that I've been telling you about your salvation and what God has done, the love that he poured upon you, for this reason we need to bow our knees before our heavenly father for this reason." So a quick summary of the first three chapters.

Ephesians chapter 1, 3-14, and I'm just going to give you a cliff note version of this text. He blessed us. He chose us. He predestined us. He adopted us according to his will, by his grace. He redeemed us by his blood, by his grace. He made known the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention, he purposed, he gave us inheritance to the praise of his glory.

This text, I mean, it's so rich in theology. If you have any text that you say, you know what, I want to really memorize this and put it to heart, it would be this text because it is just rich in theology. From predestination to justification to election, adoption, inheritance, all of it is contained in this short text.

So whenever we go through this text or whenever we study the book of Ephesians, we can get wrapped up in what is predestination, what is election, what is adoption, what is inheritance. Every single one of these topics are rich in theology that we really should master. But if we're not careful, we can miss the whole point of this text.

Because this text, as rich it is in theology, what holds it together? He says the word he and him over 23 times. So when we talk about predestination, election, inheritance, adoption, and all this stuff, he always emphasizes he did it, he purposed it, he provided it, he did it according to his riches for his glory, his grace, 23 times.

So the main point of the text isn't simply what we got from that. The main point of this text is him. He. Him. He did it. He did it. When a child is adopted into a home, the blessing for that child is not a better house, or a nicer car, or better food, or nicer room.

All these things are byproduct. But the main gift is what? You got a new father, a new mother. And so everything that that child gets is a byproduct of being adopted and loved by the mother and the father. We can easily mistaken and celebrate predestination and election, and about eternity in heaven, and not going to hell, and being freed from judgment.

We can do all of that and completely miss the point. Because the whole point of the condemnation of man is that we were separated, fallen what? Short of what? Fallen short of joy, fallen short of the garden of Eden, fallen short of heaven. All of these things are true.

But how is it described? We have fallen short of the glory. We have fallen short of God's glory. We've been separated from the author of life. So the whole point of salvation is to bring us back. To bring us back for this reason. See, if we're not careful, we can spend all our days celebrating how awesome the work of Christ is by taking away the barrier.

And we become, the more we study the Bible, we become the experts in describing how awesome it was for the door to be gone. The barrier's gone. How did He do that? Well, He suffered for us. He took on sin for Himself. He adopted us. He elected us. He came incarnate, became incarnate 100% man, 100% God.

And so we become so proficient in theology, and we become experts in describing what happened, yet never entering the throne of grace with confidence. Because the whole point of salvation is not to simply say, the wall, the barrier has been taken away. Yes! The whole point of salvation is because the barrier is taken away, to come.

To come. It's like receiving a gift and never using it. The greatest gift that you and I have, you have, from the old covenant to the new covenant, is that the curtain to the Holy of Holies was ripped. So the curtain ripping basically meant there was a welcome mat.

Instead of saying, "Return," He said, "Now you can come." That's the invitation of the gospel. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You know why He says, "I will give you rest"? Because we're all striving, the whole world is striving after event after event, job after job, looking for some sort of peace.

It's not peace of mind for our children, peace of mind for retirement, peace of mind in our jobs, in our family. But He says, "No, come to me, all you who are weary, going from place to place, from stage to stage in life, and you shall not find peace there." He says, "I will give you peace, and you shall find rest for your souls.

My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." So the whole point of our salvation is to come to Him. So if we study the Word of God, and we're laboring in the church, and we're doing all of these great things, proclaiming, and yet we neglect prayer, neglect to come to Him, then you've neglected not just a small part of your salvation, you've neglected the whole point of your salvation, to come.

And that's why He says, "Therefore, come." Does your bucket list have anything to do with Christ? Ephesians 1, 18-19, Paul basically summarizes his whole heart. And this is something that I think you and I need to pay attention to. The whole reason why the Bible is taught, the whole reason why we do expository preaching, is not so that at the end of it you say, "Oh, I've heard a lot of sermons from a lot of great preachers, and so I know more than you." Hearing and studying of the Word of God for you has done more damage than good, if that's what you think the end result is.

Come to me. Paul says, in Ephesians 1, 18-19, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." Now, why do their eyes need to be enlightened when Paul basically revealed everything to them? He's like, "Oh, it's because they're not smart? Is he praying for better IQ? Is he praying for all of us to be A students so that we can exposit the text and understand it better?" What does he mean for their eyes to be enlightened when he's the one who told them?

No, he's not talking about revelation. He's talking about enlightenment. He's praying that God would use the Word that you've heard and break you, break me, to humble me, to bring us to himself. He's calling us when he says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe." Our churches are filled with people who have right theology, who know the verse to quote, "Do not know Christ." And that's the greatest place of danger.

The person who does the greatest damage is the person who has the greatest knowledge and yet does not know Christ. This is why we need to pray. We need to couple our efforts in the Word of God with much prayer, not just prayer sprinkled, not just knowing the importance of prayer, but we need to pray.

We need to humble ourselves and pray. As much attention we give to the exposition of the Word of God, we need to give equal attention to prayer. We pray ultimately because we have hope, and that's really the summary of everything he's been saying. Why do we need to know the love and the power that we have in Christ?

Because we have hope. That's what he's saying. Because we have hope. Remember David, because of his great sin, he commits adultery and then he ends up killing Bathsheba's husband, and as a result of that, God said that your kingdom is going to be divided and you're going to lose your first child.

And just as God said, the prophecy is coming true. After Bathsheba has her child, the child falls ill and is about to die. And David gets on his knees and he begins to pray. And he cries out to God and he said he fasted. He fasted so much that his subjects were actually concerned for him.

You should eat something. He said, I cannot. My child is sick and I need to plead to the Lord. And as God said, prophecy comes true and his child dies. And to the surprise of his subjects, he just gets up, he shakes it off, and then he just goes back to work.

And so his disciples are perplexed. I mean, you were so passionate praying and fasting. How do you just, you know, he dies and you just move on? And David's response was, as long as he lived, I have hope. But now that he's gone, I can go to him, but he can't come to me.

In other words, the hope is gone. So there's no point to pray. That's what David was saying. See that's David. He says he prayed as long as there's hope. But here's the difference in the new covenant. In a new covenant, remember the disciples, they were so courageous. Like Jesus, the leaders of Israel were trying to get at Jesus from the very beginning of his ministry.

But remember, Jesus would just walk through the crowd, right? He just disappears. I mean, they hated him from the beginning because from the get-go, it didn't take him a couple years for him to call them out. As soon as the Pharisees and Sadducees came, Jesus said, who told you to come to be baptized, bear fruit in accordance to your repentance?

Your repentance means nothing if there's no change in your life. And so they were angry with him from the get-go. And these are powerful men who could literally put him in jail and possibly even stone him to death. And so the disciples, as long as they walked with him, they were safe.

They were hungry. He was fed. In the middle of the storm, he would calm them down. But all of a sudden, Jesus comes into Jerusalem and he begins to surrender. He's the most powerful person that they've ever met. It's the Messiah, son of God. And yet he surrenders himself to go to the cross.

The disciples are watching him from a distance. He must have something up his sleeve. He's going to pretend like he's going to surrender. And then right before he's crucified, he's just going to go, bam! And the revolution is going to take place. So they're watching him from a distance, watching, watching.

And then when they realized that Jesus was going to be handed over and die, all of a sudden they're disillusioned. This courageous man, Peter, who was willing to take his sword out and go on this fight, even though humanly they were outnumbered, all of a sudden becomes a coward.

And so as Jesus is being crucified, all the disciples scattered in fear and locked doors that maybe that will happen to them. As you know, the story doesn't end there. Christ comes back and resurrected on the third day. And after they meet the resurrected Christ, their hope is reignited.

And it is in this hope Jesus calls them to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Behold what? I am with you. The Christ who was crucified, who was resurrected on the third day, he is with you.

And the apostles say that the power of the cross says even when you die, he said, you shall live. And that's what he means when he says for this reason we have to pray because we have hope as Christians. It doesn't matter how long this pandemic lasts. It doesn't matter what kind of government that we have.

It doesn't matter what kind of economic downturn that it may have. There is no Christian who is never without hope. We have a hope that this world cannot take away no matter what circumstance that we're in. No matter what happens in 2022, our hope remains steadfast and steady. And that's what he's trying to say.

Therefore, he says, we need to pray. First Peter 1 through 36, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

You notice he doesn't say protected by your hard work, protected by your church, protected by your ingenuity or the right program. He says no, protected by what? By the power of God, by faith. Despite. Despite us, God says you have hope, living hope. So for this reason, he says to pray.

Secondly, how should we pray? In this simple statement, he says to kneel down before, kneel down, bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derived his name. He says to kneel. Philippians 2, 10 through 11, he says so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord through the glory of God the Father.

We come to Christ humbled, surrendered. The word kneel, the posture basically is to surrender in awe. Last week, Pastor Nate gave a sermon about fear and the general thing that was kind of proclaimed last week about fear is there's a fear that leads to despair. And that fear we know.

So many of us make decisions based upon what we're afraid of. That if we do this, what will people think of me? If we do this, what about the consequence? And so we hedge every decision that we make, what is the results that's going to hit? So if I do this, am I going to lose my job?

Am I not going to be able to advance in my career? And what if I lose my health? And what if my children don't get what they want? And so everything that we do, we hedge it based upon the fear. Well, if I say this, what are they going to think of me?

If I don't do this, what are they going to think of me? So all of our life is kind of like hedged and bound by certain fears that we have. So there's fear that leads to despair. And then there's fear that leads to worship, which is what the world doesn't understand.

Because the only fear that leads to worship is when we are knelt before our holy God. Every instance in the Bible when men and women are in the presence of God's glory, the first response is terror. The first response is an, "Oh God, we were waiting for you. You know, you loved us.

And so can I come and sit near you?" It's like that's not the response. The immediate response is terror. Ezekiel chapter 128, Ezekiel is in the presence of God's glory, the incarnate Christ. What happens? He falls on his face. He's knelt down, terrified. Matthew chapter 17, verse 6, God speaks of his son, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased." And when the disciples see the glory of God, their first response is they fell on their faces and were terrified.

In Revelation chapter 117, when Apostle John is in the presence of Jesus' glory, it says he fell down. And he says he felt like a dead man. And in Revelation 5, verse 14, the elders in the presence of the glory of the throne, he says they fell down. And then look what it says in Revelation 7, 11 to 12, "And all the angels were standing around the throne, around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and then worshipped, saying, 'Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.

Amen.'" You don't equate ... you and I don't equate fear with joy. If something causes fear, we move away from that. We don't buy houses where we don't feel safe. We don't take vacations where we're fearful. Our whole world got shut down because of fear of this thing that we can't even see.

Fear usually does not equate with joy and peace. And yet, in every instance, a man or a woman who have gotten in the presence of God, they fall terrified. And in their terror, they worship. They worship. And worship is equated with joy. Worship is equated with life. And Jesus said, "I have come to give life and give this life abundantly." And it wasn't until they recognized they were in the presence of God's glory that they felt terrified and then that terror led to worship and joy and life.

So the whole purpose of our salvation is to bring us to this holy God, covered in the blood of Christ, recognizing who we are standing in front of, who we are praying to, and experiencing this life in His presence. One of the most convicting sermons I've heard was on this subject of prayer is Martin Lloyd Jones.

Martin Lloyd Jones says, "Prayer is the hardest, one of the hardest things to do as a professing Christian, and it is impossible for an unsurrendered person to pray." I mean, prayer as a discipline is easy, physically. Close your eyes. When other people close their eyes, you close your eyes.

And you have certain things that you want to say in your head, just say it. And say, "Well, we pray." But he said, "True prayer, you cannot come to God on your own terms. An unsurrendered man or woman cannot come into the presence of God." Jeremiah 29, verse 13, it says, "You will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart." Part of the reason why prayer is ineffective in our generation is because our churches are filled with people who have not surrendered their lives to Christ.

And just like Martin Lloyd Jones says, you cannot pray unsurrendered. Because the Holy Spirit that is residing in us is groaning and interceding on our behalf, contradicting your prayers. The thing that the Holy Spirit wants for us and from us is leading away from what we desire from our flesh.

So our prayers and the work of the Holy Spirit is fighting each other. So when we come to the Lord in prayer, instead of communing with God, we're wrestling with the Spirit. And that's why our prayers are so frustrated. Because an unsurrendered man cannot pray until he has decided for himself that this is what he wants.

And it's in Amos 5, 4, and 6, it says, "Seek me that you may live." It doesn't say, "Seek me so that you may have peace." It doesn't say, "Seek me so that you may experience joy." It says, "Seek me that you may live." Verse 6, "Seek the Lord that you may live." No one casually drifts into the presence of God.

No one wakes up one morning and says, "You know what? I'm just going to pursue life. And hopefully, if I'm around enough Christians, and if I attend Bible study faithfully, that I'm going to wake up at the end of 2022 and just have this passionate love for Christ." Because everything around us is drifting away from Him.

So if we don't actively anchor ourselves, if we don't actively pursue Christ, if we don't actively pray before God, you will find yourself at the end of 2022, further away from God than where you are today. He says, "Seek me that you may live." Even before we pray, we need to make up our mind.

You can't—bowing the knees here is not just talking about physically, right? As long as you don't have bad knees, any one of us can just get on our knees, right? Obviously, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about surrendering. He's talking about worship. He's talking about recognizing who he is to be surrendered.

Remember Joshua? At the end of his life, he was so frustrated with the Israelites because they kept on going back and forth to worshiping God, to worshiping idols. And the reason why they were worshiping idols is not because they were more attractive. I mean, it's just a wood figure that they just carved out.

It means nothing. There's no power in it. But the reason why they kept on worshiping these idols is because they were looking at what the Canaanites had and thought, "Maybe if I worship it, maybe we'll have wealth. Maybe we'll have more children. Maybe we'll have this and that." And so they were willing to compromise because they weren't surrendered to God.

And it's at the end of his life, Joshua says, "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourself today whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your father served which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites," I almost say Americans, "in whose land you are living, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." To bow our knees before the Father, we need to make up our mind.

Have you said this to your family, to yourself? I'm not sure where the other people are going, but for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. He is my Lord. Not my safety, not my comfort, not my retirement, not my wife, not my children. He is my Lord.

As we go forward in 2022, as we focus our attention on prayer, because we need to focus on prayer, the question we need to ask is, "Are you surrendered? Are you surrendered to Christ?" When two people get married, they're entering into a covenant, and it is assumed, and you don't have to be a Christian, but it is assumed when they enter a covenant, Christian or non-Christian, that they're going to put aside any other relationship outside of this relationship, anything romantic.

No one comes into the altar and say, "You know what? I'll try." Then you shouldn't get married. Why do you need to get married? You don't come into the altar and say, "You know what? I feel strong today, but I have no idea tomorrow." No, then don't get married.

Because a covenant relationship, basically, you're publicly professing that this wife, this husband, is going to be my sole love for the rest of my life. So how much more, when we have this covenant relationship with this holy God, that we must be committed that we will serve no other gods but Him?

So a commitment to prayer is a commitment to surrender, to recognize that He's my life, He's my hope, that all the pain and sorrow that you may be experiencing now, have experienced in the past, and may be coming in the future, that my hope is in Christ, in Christ alone, that we would make this commitment together, commit in 2022.

So I want to ask the praise team to come up. And as the praise team comes up, I want to sing this song as our closing song. And you know this song well, "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus," and I've shared this before, but I want to share again before we sing this.

And as we sing this, make this a dedication for our new year. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. This is a very simple song that you probably, if you grew up in the church, you probably learned it in Sunday school.

But the background story behind this is it was composed by a missionary in 1889. So it's been around a while, but the reason why it got so popular is that when Christianity began to sweep through India in the remotest parts of the village, this one particular family came to Christ and they were so excited about their faith, they began to share it with their friends.

And so the village leader, who was very hostile toward Christianity, came out and basically got the crowd to be riled up and took all of his family and in the middle of the village, threatened them that if you do not denounce your faith, that your children and your wife is going to give their life.

Well, this man sat there and he said, "I cannot deny my faith." And he saw his children one by one martyred for their faith. And then his wife martyred for her faith. And finally he turned to him and saying, "If you do not denounce your faith, you also will lose your life." And it is at that moment he began to sing this song, "I have decided to follow Jesus.

I have decided to follow Jesus." No turning back, no turning back. So when he said, "I have decided to follow Jesus," he's not saying that I'm going to go to church on Sunday, that I'm going to give a portion of my wealth, that I'm going to serve the church.

He was facing death. When he says, "No turning back," no turning back, that he wasn't going to surrender this new life in order to hold on to the life that was about to be extinguished. The second verse says, "Though none go with me, I still will follow." Though none go with me, I still will follow.

A lot of us wait until revival breaks out. They wait until other people confess their faith. That I need to be with other people who are passionate for Christ. And we're kind of on a holding pattern until you see a movement happening. And until there's a movement of prayer, until there's a movement of revival, movement of evangelism, you don't participate.

Sometimes our greatest hindrances are our own environment, sometimes even in our own churches. So when he says, "Though none go with me, I still will follow," even if sometimes your greatest hindrance is your own husband. Because you want to do this with him, but he's not coming, so you're waiting.

Sometimes it's your own wife. I want to passionately pursue Christ, but I can't do it with her, so you're patiently waiting. Or maybe my children are a little bit older, and I can do this with them. Or maybe my friends, or my church, or my leaders. And we're just quietly, passively waiting for revival to break out until there's a movement so I can participate in this movement.

But every instance where God calls us, he calls us one by one. And sometimes it will be many people being called one by one. Many times it may just be you. Maybe not even with your own family. It may just be you. Though none go with me, I still will follow, though none go with me, I still will follow.

No turning back, no turning back. Third verse, "The world behind me, though crossed before me." As this man was singing this song, when he says, "The world behind me," he's talking about his life, his very breath. It's behind me now. Our greatest desire in this life is not to live a long, peaceful, prosperous life.

That's the rat race that he saved us from. It's that rat race that's killing us. It's that rat race that's dividing us. It's causing contentions in the family. Sorrow, bitterness, all comes from a result of not letting go of this rat race. And so when he says, "The world behind me," he's not simply talking about having nice things and good things and reputation.

He says, "No, this whole thing that is under the judgment of God is no longer a pursuit as a priority. The world behind me." And so now my pursuit is to cross before me. No turning back, no turning back. So this morning as we sing this song, that this would be our confession, even though we may not be practicing it perfectly, that this has to be our pursuit.

To make 2022 a year where you are deliberately, specifically, and passionately pursuing Christ above everything else, above your job, above your marriage, above your children, above your career, to make the pursuit of Christ the most important thing that I do every single day. So why don't we rise up together, and as we sing this song, may it be our proclamation, may it be our confession for this coming year, 2022.