Good morning, Church family. Happy Lord's Day. Romans 12, verse 12, it reads, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." As we start off this year, may it be our greatest desire to devote ourselves to the Lord, especially to devote ourselves to prayer, that we would seek the Lord through prayer.

And so with that, we will begin our service with the song, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Sing, "What a Friend." What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit.

Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer. Every trials, Every trials and temptations, Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Blessed Savior. Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear. May we ever, Lord, be bravely All to Thee in earnest pray. Soon in glory bright and clouded There will be no need for prayer. Rapture, praise and endless worship Will be our sweet portion there.

Rapture, praise. Rapture, praise and endless worship Will be our sweet portion there. All right, good morning. Welcome to Bering Community Church. We have an announcement from our sisters. I don't know who's coming up. Okay. All right. Members meeting is next Sunday at January 15th at 1.30 p.m. So if you are members or you're becoming members, this is again a quarterly mandatory meeting that we need you to be there.

And so if you aren't able to make it, please let us know ahead of time. And so along with that, you know, typically in the past, we started our members meeting at 2 o'clock, but we're going to--we're upping it at 1.30 so that you guys can finish a bit earlier.

But because of that, we're going to be having lunch. Our BAM ministry, our singles ministry, they're going to prepare lunch for us. And the cost of this, just the cost that they need to put into it, is $5 for boxed turkey sandwich lunch. If you're allergic to turkey, obviously you can get something else, but otherwise to save time, please stick around.

And this is not just for members. If you want to just eat and hang around, it would be, again, $5 for the lunch box. The youth group at the same time is going to be running a fundraiser. They have a retreat coming up, and so they're raising funds to help pay for some of the retreats.

And so there's going to be baked goods being sold. So when you go out there to eat, you'll see tables set up by the youth group to do that. They're also selling Berean sweatshirts for $20. Okay, so we have--I'm not going to call it leftover. They're brand new still, okay, and these are coveted sweatshirts that you all want, but only have a limited supply.

They're going to be selling that for $20 outside as well, and the proceeds for that will also go toward their retreat, okay? Our new membership class is starting on January 15th. That's next Sunday. So if you signed up for that, next Sunday at 9 a.m., they're going to be meeting in the youth group room, right?

Youth group room at the Vine, and it's an eight-week course. So if you haven't signed up and you still want to take that class, and again, this is--at the end of that, there's a covenant signing where you become a member at that time. So if you haven't signed up for that, please sign up.

And if you didn't sign up, or if you did sign up, next Sunday is going to be the first class, okay? Family ministry, community groups, where you're going to be broken up into smaller groups to get to know other family members. That's starting in January 29th, and the sign-up is by next Sunday.

So if you haven't signed up for that and you want to participate, please sign up for that as soon as possible. And again, all of these things are on the website. It's on the Facebook page. It's on the church app. So if you go to those things, there will be a sign-up portal for all of that.

And then for sisters ministry, I'll just give you a quick plug. Women's ministry tea time is Saturday on January 28th at 930. Then intentional sisters fellowship is happening beginning in mid-February to May, and they're going to be reading the book, "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper. So if you want to participate in that, please sign up for that as well.

All right, so after the offering time, we have-- Megan Ma is going to be coming up and giving her testimony and be baptized. So let me pray for the offering, and then again, those of you who brought physical offering, physical offering boxes in the back. All right, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your continued grace throughout this week. And as we face a new year with new challenges, help us, Lord God, to truly be committed to the things that you've called us for, that we would not simply be worshipers in lip service, but that you would fill our hearts, Lord God, with your presence, your grace, that your word would continue to speak to us and guide us and build your church.

We pray this morning as we give our offering, help us even in that, that we would give with a cheerful heart, not under compulsion, and may it be multiplied for your use. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us all rise as we sing these praises. From the brightness, from the brightness of his glory, Jesus, the Son of God, descends, takes on the nature of a servant, Jesus, obedient to death.

The Father willed to crush him, as sacrifice for sin, he satisfied God's justice, and a victory rose again. You are highly exalted, name above all names, worthy of all praise. You are reigning in glory, Jesus, you're the King over everything. Exalted to the highest place, given the name above all other names.

The tomb is empty, Christ is risen, Jesus, the Lamb once crucified. The angels never cease to worship, to bless and glorify. To him belongs the power, the wisdom, might, and strength, all glory and dominion, to the Lord of every age. You are... You are highly exalted, name above all names, worthy of all praise.

You are reigning in glory, Jesus, you're the King over everything. Exalted to the highest place, given the name above all other names. Our knees will bow. Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all. Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all.

Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all. Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all. You are highly exalted, name above all names, worthy of all praise. You are reigning in glory, Jesus, you're the King over everything. Who else can mend all the roofs of heaven?

Who else can make every king bow down? Who else can whisper in darkness from birth? Only our Holy God. What other beauty demands such presence? What other splendor outshines the sun? What other majesty rules with justice? Only our Holy God. Come and behold Him, the one and the only.

Cry out, sing holy, forever a Holy God. Come and worship the Holy God. Who can change the time? What other power can raise the dead? What other name remains undefeated? Only our Holy God. Come and behold Him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a Holy God.

Come and worship the Holy God. Come and behold Him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a Holy God. Come and worship the Holy God. Who else would rescue me from my failing? Who else would offer His only Son? Who else invites me to call Him Father?

Only our Holy God. Only my Holy God. Come and behold Him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a Holy God. Come and worship the Holy God. Come and behold Him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a Holy God. Come and worship the Holy God.

Come and worship the Holy God. Amen. You may be seated. Hi, my name is Megan. I grew up going to a Baptist church with very limited knowledge of what it means to be a Christian. If you were to ask me what being a Christian meant, I would answer going to church on Sunday.

To me, church was a place I could see my friends and I went purely out of habit. The youth pastor at the time had left the church when I was about to enter high school and because a lot of my friends were going off to college, I also stopped going to church.

I made excuses saying I was tired or had a lot of homework to get out of attending church on Sunday. When I entered college in Boston, my parents urged me to find a church, so I visited a church with my roommate, but because of its Presbyterian values were different than what I was used to, I didn't continue to go.

Because I had been away from the church for so long, going to church wasn't a priority for me. I would say my time in Boston is only temporary and never made an effort. The first two years of college were simple, went by without any issues. It wasn't until my third year that I started to feel the stress and pressure to get into PA school.

On top of that, I started to lose a lot of relationships that were very precious to me. I blamed God for this low point in my life and started to harbor bitterness towards him. Without knowing any better, I fell into the wrong crowd and turned to partying as a form of temporary joy.

I continued to party for a year until I started PA school and I had to turn away from that lifestyle to focus on school. I became a very anxious person when I entered PA school, always fearing that I would fall behind or that I didn't have what it takes to become a PA.

God became someone I would turn to when I needed something from him, for example, passing a test. When I achieved something I wanted, I felt like all my efforts were because of my own accord and not God's grace. After a long and stressful year of clinicals, I suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to go back to church.

This is when a family friend had told me about Bruin and I eventually started coming out in March. Coming to Bruin, I realized how inadequate my knowledge of God actually was. Although hard to accept, I realized I wasn't a Christian even though I called myself one my entire life.

Through Bruin, I learned a lot about who God was and how loving he actually is. I learned that God puts us through certain hardships to help us grow. Most importantly, I learned that I'm a lowly sinner. With all these truths, I started to reflect on my past and how sinful my actions in college were.

My heart started to soften, slowly letting go of the hatred I held toward God. I started to remorse over hating him when he was so patient with me. As I continued to attend Bruin, I turned to God and repented of my sin as a way of reconciliation. Life after coming to Christ has not been an easy one.

While I started praying more, reading the Bible more, and attending church regularly, I quickly learned that I was fulfilling my glory and not his. But I am reminded of Christ's sacrifice. Jesus loves us so much that he sacrificed himself for our sins. As I am reminded of the truth, I learned that this life is not for me.

My purpose in life is to glorify God. While I may stumble at times, I know now that I cannot return to living a secular life. With my new identity in Christ, I want to have the right posture before him in all that I do and be obedient. Rather than seeing going to church and praying to God as an obligation, I now desire to spend time with God because he is my loving father and to prioritize him in my life.

He is the one I turn to in times of hardships, in times of blessings, and I will continue to keep him at the center of my life and live my life for him. Thank you. Megan, do you understand when you go into the water, you are being united to Christ's death, and when you come out, you are being united to his resurrected life?

I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Megan, for that awesome testimony. If you can turn your Bibles with me to 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 2-4. This was meant to be a two-part sermon that turned into three because I didn't get to finish last week.

So we have this, and then we'll do the other part next week. 1 Thessalonians 4, I'll be reading from verse 2-4. "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well that God will open up to us a door for the Word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned, that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak." Let's pray.

Father, we pray for soft hearts. We pray for open ears. We pray for a surrendered will, that your Word, Lord God, would not fall on hardened hearts or unwilling and rebellious spirit. Help us, Lord God, to all be good soils, that as we receive your Word, that it may bear fruit 30, 60, and a hundredfold.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As you can see, our theme is going to be up here for the rest of the year because we want to continue to emphasize this. And as I mentioned last week, we want to have a reputation. As we have a reputation of being a Bible teaching church, it's just as important that we grow in our commitment to prayer.

You know, some of you guys are maybe kind of goal-oriented people. I'm naturally that way. If there's a target, if there's somewhere I need to go, I try to figure out what's the fastest way to go. And it's not something that I plan to do. It just happens. It's just kind of my default nature.

Some of you guys are not like that. You just kind of linger. You know what I mean? And so you're kind of used to coming five to ten minutes late on everything because you kind of get caught up in talking to people and whatever you're doing. But I'm kind of like, if I need to go there, I need to get there earlier.

And so I've noticed that when I leave the parking lot here at church, I just naturally, I automatically think, am I going to turn left or turn right? Because if I go turn left, that means I will take the 55 freeway and I get off at Edinger, and then sometimes that-- usually that's the fastest route when there's no traffic.

And then depending on the time of the day, if I make it, if I get on that, there's going to be traffic, and I know there's some construction going on, so it's becoming more congested than normal. So I will take Red Hill all the way down locally, and sometimes that's the fastest.

And then depending on the time of the day, if I make a right turn, there's a 405 that I get on, and I go down and get off on Culver. And then so even as I go, should I make a right turn? What time of the day is it?

Is there traffic? Or is this light turning green, or is it red? And so even that split second, like I'm constantly thinking, if I make a right turn here, I'm going to get caught in this red light, so maybe if I make a left turn and go down straight, it'll be faster.

And if there's congested on Red Hill, I'll make a right turn on Gilbert, and I can go down to Jamboree, make a left, and then right turn on Alton, and then I can go down Harvard, and Harvard, that'll save me about 30 seconds. And so I don't think like that by calculating.

It just happens. As soon as I get in the car, like which is the fastest way, which lane? So if I'm on the freeway, and I see that somebody's congested or is stepping on the brake maybe about a mile ahead, I'll make sure that I'm on the other lane.

If I got on the right lane, there's a lot of people getting on to the highway, and if they get on that, we're going to end up having to merge, and that's going to slow down the traffic, so I'm going to move to the next lane for a little bit, and then once I pass that, I can get back on that right lane.

So when I'm getting on it and I'm getting off the freeway, there's two ways to make a left turn, but if I stay on the left side, it's a little bit more congested than the right side, so I get on the right side. But if I stay on the right side, the traffic coming off the freeway is going to merge onto that lane, so that's going to take me a little bit longer than if I stay on the left side.

So depending on what I see ahead of me, I'll be on the left side or the right side. And then whichever has the most traffic lights I try to avoid, and which is the fastest way? It probably only saves me about 15 seconds. But that's just kind of how my brain's wired, so everything I do, I try to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, and the end result for all of that, I save 30 seconds, and I have many traffic tickets.

Because oftentimes I'm not paying attention to how I'm getting there, I just need to get there as fast as I can. So I know there's a stereotype of men that don't ask directions, but I usually get lost because I-- Now we have GPS, so you just follow what the GPS says, but a long time ago when we first got married, Esther's the opposite.

She does whatever she gets caught up in, and she just pays full attention to that. And she may have an appointment 10 minutes later, and it's going to take her 30 minutes, but she doesn't realize until it's too late. And so she's always a bit late. But the good thing about that is she's always paying attention to what's right in front of her.

And so when she tells me to make a left turn, I just make a left turn. I don't argue with her. Because I know that I don't pay attention to the road, and so she's much better at how to get somewhere. So if we're headed somewhere, and Esther wants to drive-- That's why when I drive, my kids ask me not to drive because I'm always herky-jerky in the car, and I don't know I'm doing that.

And so they get car sick. They say, "We don't want Daddy driving because if he drives, we're going to get car sick." And in my mind, I'm thinking, like, "I'm not doing that," but every time I turn around, they're sick. Now I share all of that because some of you may be like me.

You can relate to me, or maybe you're married to somebody like me, so you can relate to how my natural mind thinks. Again, I don't do this on purpose. It just happens. Now, there are certain things that this is good for. If you have a project that needs to be done, if you have goals that need to be met, if there's deadlines that you need to get-- So somebody like me is good at getting something done.

We started a project. It just needs to get done. But that type of way of thinking and carrying things out is detrimental in certain other areas, especially when it comes to people. Because when it comes to people, people don't function like that. We don't have timelines where you need to be this much maturity by this time, and I'm going to get you to work and get you to get to this point because then you start looking at people as projects.

And then if they don't meet up to that project, and they don't get that goal, then we failed. But that's not how it works, and you can't raise children that way. You can say, "Oh, by one, they should be talking, or walking. By two, they should be talking. By three, they should be reading." And then when they don't meet those criteria, it's like, "Oh, we failed.

Something's going on. We need to send them to after-school program." You're not going to be able to raise your children that way because people have different patterns of growth. When it comes to church, if we begin to apply-- There are certain things that we can do like that, but when we begin to apply and say, "Well, what is the end goal?

Where are we trying to go?" And if our end goal is God wants this church to grow, we want it to be filled, then whatever means and the fastest way to get there is what we end up committing to. And that's basically what happened in our generation. Whenever a church is planted, a goal has been set.

How do we get the most number of people fill these seats? And so the movement has said, "How do we market it so that we can get the point A, church plant, to point B, growth?" And if it is growing, no matter what's happening in the church, if it is growing, we're doing something right.

It is detrimental to the church because if you read Scripture, God didn't set us a goal to meet, saying that if you are a brand-new Christian, by the time you're 5 years old as a Christian, you should be doing this. By 10 years old, you should have done this.

By 15 years old, you should have done that. It doesn't set goals like that. The Bible measures maturity by the means that we are taking to wherever it is God has taken us. That's why you look at Scripture and you look at the Old Testament. God tells them. He doesn't tell them, like, "I want you to get from here to point B.

You're in the desert. We need you to get here. And the fastest route, you figure out how to get there." He doesn't do that. He tells them, "When I tell you to get up, get up. When I tell you to sit down, you sit down. I tell you to touch this, you not to touch this, do exactly what I say." They go into the Promised Land.

They take a fortified city that they need to conquer. And they take the general that has experience for 40 years leading the Israelites. And he just pops them out. Puts a brand-new general in there. They walk in, and don't give him any instruction other than, "Do not turn from my word to the left or to the right.

If you want to be successful, do exactly what I tell you to do." And they say, "Well, what is it do you want me to do?" He said, "Pick up this box and walk." "What does this have to do with this army?" He said, "First day, go around in a circle.

Second day, circle. And the seventh day, run it around seven times." Where is he taking us? I mean, they become expert marchers. I mean, that's what they did for 40 years. If there is anything that they're trained to do is to carry this box and march, they're not prepared for battle.

They're not prepared to conquer this land. But that's exactly what he told them to do, because the end result was something he was going to do if they followed his instruction. We come to the New Testament, we find the exact same thing. What God tells us, he didn't say, "Go conquer the world in my name." He didn't say that.

He said, "Do not turn from my word. Do not add to it. Do not take away from it." He says, "You will be my disciple when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." And then he says in John 15, he says, "I am the vine. You are the branches." "You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me." So the primary thing that he was teaching his disciples is, "If you want to bear fruit, you need to abide in me." "You need to abide in me." So if our primary goal that God has called us to is his glory, the primary means which God has given us to glorify God is the teaching of the Word of God and to be devoted to prayer.

So no matter what you think, if you say, "You know what? We have this Christian. We want him to be here." And you are not devoted to prayer. You're not achieving anything. Even if there is a physical change. If somebody who wasn't doing this is doing this. That's not how the Bible teaches us about discipleship.

Discipleship in the Scripture teaches us about committing to his means. Not be committed to the goal and how do we get to that goal. It's the means is what glorifies God. Because we don't know exactly where he's going to take us. We don't know. We may be wandering in the desert.

Maybe this means is going to lead you to jail. Maybe this means is going to lead you to sickness. Maybe this means is going to cause your church to shrink. We don't know what God is playing. How he's orchestrating and putting the pieces together. Because only God controls the end result.

So the means, he said, do exactly what I say. And when you abide in me, my words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you. In other words, he's going to do it. He didn't give us to do it. He said, he's going to do it if you abide in my means.

That's why it's crucial for us. As we are a church that has a reputation of being the word center. We're nowhere near to that commitment when it comes to prayer. Again, that's my fault. And so I want to continue to stress and emphasize. That even if it takes another 20 years.

That this is the right direction for us to go. That we need to continue to devote ourselves. Dr. A.T. Pearsons says about prayer. There has never, and I don't think that's an overstatement. There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality. That did not begin in united prayer.

No amount of human effort. No amount of commitment. No amount of sacrifice. No amount of know-how or organization. Will accomplish God's work. Because God said, he will work when we are devoted to prayer. So if there's anything that we need to be devoted to. Is prayer, first and foremost.

Before organizing. Before committing. Before identifying what needs to happen. First and foremost, we need to be devoted to prayer. No revival comes where there isn't a devotion to prayer. Not just sprinkling of prayer. Not just prayer so that we can say we did it. But devotion to prayer. There are so many books out there on the subject of prayer.

Anybody who writes books, eventually, if you're studying the Bible, you can't avoid it. The Bible says you have to be devoted to prayer. In every part of the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, devoted to prayer. So anybody who's Bible teaching will have to eventually write something about prayer. Because we know it's all that important.

But to be devoted to prayer. We don't see much of that in our generation. EM bounds. If you're looking for a book, really committed to read a book on prayer, the one book that I really recommend is EM bounds, power through prayer. Now EM bounds, prayer, is a very thick book.

And he's as thorough as you can get on this subject of prayer. You don't have to read all of it, but there are certain sections. And my favorite section in his book of prayer is power through prayer. He basically challenges us about the power that comes through prayer. How we tap into power, how God uses this power when we pray.

And here are some of the quotes that's in this book. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better. Not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use. Let me stop right there. It sounds like he's talking about secret friendly movement today, but this was written many, many generations ago.

This was a constant challenge all throughout human history. Even before the secret friendly movement that we become more reliant upon our resources and upon our strong effort and organization and know-how. There's always been that temptation. So EM bounds says that's not what we need. That's not what the Bible calls us for.

Men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through the methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men. Men specifically of prayer. God's work and His mighty work doesn't happen because we figured out how to do church.

That we figured out a new method of how to disciple people. He says the power in the church has always been when the Holy Spirit is ignited through devoted prayer. The early church was not effective because they were better organized than we are today. It's not because they are men who are more talented than today.

More committed than we were today. The early church has power because the Holy Spirit was ignited. And because they were devoted to prayer. God was working, not men. It was God who was spreading the gospel, not men. It was God who was discipling people, not men. It was when the Word of God got into people through the power of the Holy Spirit, through men who were devoted to prayer, where the gospel exploded.

Again, another part of this book says, "Talking to men for God is a great thing. But talking to God for men is greater still. We will never talk well and with real success to men for God who has not learned well how to talk to God for men." To think that we are going to bring people to Christ through our strong effort is probably the biggest human arrogance.

We can get people to come to church who are lonely. A sense of purpose. Come to church and have purpose. Maybe people who want to be a part of a community. We can get them to come by our own effort. We can get parents to bring their children. If we have BBS and teach them morals and to obey their parents, we can get them to come.

We can fill this church with our own methods. If the sermon is pleasing enough, if people are friendly enough, if the church is organized enough, then we can get the church to come. We can get to the next level. But to think to get a sinner to abandon his whole life to follow Christ by our method is human arrogance at the core.

Christ didn't ask us, the people who didn't go to church, to come to church. The gospel isn't people who are lonely to come and be part of a community where you have a hard time raising children. So to come, so we're going to help you raise your children. That's not the core message of the gospel.

The core message of the gospel is that the foolishness of being in a rat race in and of itself is to be abandoned for a new life in Christ. A new life in Christ. All your ambition, all your desire, everything that you work for, all of that to be abandoned to find new life in Christ.

And he tells us where our natural knee-jerk reaction is, I want to be successful. I want to retire at this age. I want to make this money. I want my children to have success. I want to have this much in retirement. Our natural reaction is to pursue that. And Christ says, no.

He who follows me must deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. He who wants to live, he must first die. He who finds his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake will find it. You're going to convince a sinner to do that by your method?

You're going to convince a sinner by organization, by hard work, by setting an example to them, that by your example that somebody is going to give up their life to follow Christ in that way? No. That's a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. When the Word of God gets into somebody by the Spirit and the power of God.

And that's why he says you must be devoted to prayer. Any human endeavor that has not begun with devoted prayer is human arrogance. That I failed. I tried this method, it failed. So I'm going to try this other method. I tried this and this isn't working. So maybe if we organize, if we taught differently, if we did community differently, that somehow we're going to get the end result.

No. The first and the most important thing that God calls us to do is to pray. The means in which God is going to be glorified is do not turn from the Word to the left or to the right and to be devoted to prayer. There's two things that this says and this is a simple message.

If devotion to prayer is this important, not point 1A, it's point 1, period, co-equal with turning to the Word and to prayer. See, if you are committed to the Word of God and not committed to devoted prayer, it's kind of like, you know, today we live on the internet and we hear about what people said, right?

And we get bits and pieces of what they've said and then they're attacked based upon their words. You know, in any courtroom, you could take pieces of things that they've said. But in the courtroom, it doesn't just matter what they said, it matters what they meant. Their intent. So you can know the mind of God, the Word of God, and if you do not know the heart of God, you do not know God.

If you study the Word of God without being devoted to prayer, you're nothing but a lawyer who is dissecting the Word of God and applying it in context and not being able to represent God. A man who is going to be an ambassador of Christ must know more than his word.

If I come to you and all I am is regurgitating things that I've seen, let's say as an example, you know, I come to you and I'm sharing the Bible, sharing what the Word of God says. The Bible says that if you don't repent, you're going to go to hell.

And so you need to come to Christ and hear some facts and you do with it what you do with it. The Bible doesn't want people—God didn't call us to be regurgitators of information that we have received. God called us to be his witness, to be his ambassadors. The Bible says he is pleading with sinners to reconcile with this holy God.

You can understand the mind of God, but if you don't understand the heart of God, you're not going to be a good ambassador. You're just going to be dissecting information, disseminating information to people. And you do with it what you do with it. A good ambassador understands the heart of God.

If we are not broken for sinners on our knees, we cannot be broken for sinners theologically. Because God did not send people just to tell them, "I said this, so you say this to them." We need to first and foremost be devoted in prayer so that we not only understand his Word, we need to understand his heart.

So that gospel goes forth, not just in word, but in heart. Where we plead with sinners to come to Christ. See, when we're not praying, we're thinking theologically, and you have a big brain that is useless. Because God didn't call us to be big brains. He called us to be his witness.

So we must be devoted to prayer. Two things that hinder us in prayer. One is not staying alert. Not being sober. In NIV it's just translated to be awake. Jesus pleads with his disciples to stay awake and pray in Matthew 26, 41, when he's at the Garden of Gethsemane.

To keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Now, humanly speaking, how many of us would be awake? We can read that and say, "Well, it's the middle of the night. They just had a Passover meal. It was a huge meal." I know at church when we eat, it's just because we're used to eating buffets.

But a Passover meal was a feast. So they just had probably one of the biggest feasts of the year, and Jesus takes them to pray. That was the worst time to pray, in the middle of the night? And of course, Jesus was pleading. He comes back and he says, "Why couldn't you stay awake?" Well, there's a clear reason why they didn't stay awake, because they didn't see the seriousness, the urgency of the situation.

Jesus was also a human being. I'm sure he was tired. But the difference was Jesus knew what was coming next day. Every single one of us, every single one of us, right? Depending on what's in our head and in our heart, it'll cause us to sleep or not sleep.

Every time somebody gets married on Friday night, you have a hard time sleeping. The husband and wife or the bride and groom usually shows up to the wedding with bloodshot eyes. Why not? I mean, it's a big day tomorrow. You should sleep. You should sleep. You're going to be tired.

You should sleep. But they can't sleep. Why not? Because a big day is coming. Maybe when you're young, right? Maybe those of you who are not married, you can't relate to that. But maybe when you're young, your parents promised you're going to go to Disneyland or Magic Mountain, or you're going to take this trip, or something's coming, or you're going to get a brand new car.

Whatever it may be, you remember staying awake because something was happening the next day. The disciples had no clue. They should have, but they didn't. Jesus made it very clear. I'm going to get caught. I'm going to get beat. I'm going to die. And I'm going to resurrect. And it's clear that they didn't understand.

Because when Jesus was, he gave himself, when he was crucified, they were confused. And that's why there was no sense of urgency to stay awake. Because they didn't understand. So the Bible pleads with us to be sober. 1 Peter 4, 7, "The end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer." In Luke 21, 34-36, it says, "Be on guard so that your heart will not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life.

And that day will not come upon you suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of the earth. But keep on the alert at all times." You notice there's three things that he mentions. Not to be weighed down by dissipation. Dissipation is just another word for sin.

If you have ongoing sin in your life, you're not going to be able to pray. You're going to be weighed down. You're not going to be sober. He says, "Do not be weighed down by dissipation." Sin. Do not be weighed down by drunkenness. Drunkenness is not simply, drunkenness is with alcohol.

Obviously that's included in that. But drunkenness is where the consumption of the world has caused you to be consumed and to be tempted by the things of the world. And so you are drunk with the world and then when you come to God, you don't know what to say because your mind is completely somewhere else.

When your mind and heart is headed toward another direction and then you come to God for prayer, you're not able to pray because your mind and your words naturally reflect what's on your heart. So you're not going to come to prayer and say, "Lord, give me a Lamborghini. Give me this.

Give me that." So you're trying to pray theologically correct while your mind and your heart is somewhere else. When you're not sober, you can't pray. You can put in the time to pray. You can check off and say the things. But true, effective prayer where we're coming and pleading for His will to be done, you cannot pray effectively when we're not sober.

You cannot be weighed down by dissipation or drunkenness and simply the worries of life. Worries of life. And the greatest deception of the worries of life are not sinful. I'm just trying to be a good dad. I'm just trying to be a good mom. I was never tempted with money because I thought I committed my life to Christ and I'm going to do homeless ministry.

So money was not something that I was pursuing until I had a kid. All of a sudden, all of a sudden, I wished I had money that I never thought about before. Driving my kid in a car with no air conditioning in the middle of summer and seeing him sweat and seeing other parents and getting their life escalates and going to the mall and buying stuff that they want for the kids.

And for the first time, I was tempted. I wish I had more money. See, the things that weigh us down oftentimes are not sinful. You say, well, it's for my kids. But every stage of your life, there is something that you say, well, I'm just trying to get a good job.

I'm just trying to get married. I'm just trying to have kids. I'm just trying to raise my kids. I'm just trying to get them to the next level. I'm just trying to make sure that they're taken care of. I'm just trying to prepare for retirement. I'm just trying to finish well.

What's wrong with that? Right. There's nothing wrong with that, except if that's your primary pursuit. Our greatest distraction are not evil things. It's just that it's not meant to be our first love. He says, do not be weighed down with that, but keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things.

First Peter 1, 13, "Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." To be completely fixated on what is coming. See, our urgency to plead with the Lord is directly linked to our prayer life.

You cannot come to a holy God casually. You cannot, you know, Martin Lloyd-Jones, probably one of my best favorite sermons on this subject, basically says that one of the most difficult things to do is to pray. It's the most simplest thing to do. You know, starting the Word of God, you need to dissect, ask questions, and look at the context, and understand the Greek, and the different theology, the systematic things.

Well, studying the Bible is harder. I said, no. Praying is the hardest discipline because you cannot do it casually. You cannot casually be entangled with this world and all of a sudden think you're going to have this prayer life. See, an individual who is not sober and pursuing and living each day, pursuing their own flesh, is not going to be able to come before God and plead for the things of God.

I mean, imagine, you know, maybe some of you guys have experienced piano lessons, and you hated it. And then you come to your mom sarcastically, "Please, mom, can I practice more?" Because you know that that's what she wants to hear. "Please, mom, can I stay longer and practice more?

Two hours is not enough, four hours." And the only reason why you're saying that is because you think that's what your mom or your dad wants to hear. It's not a sincere plea. It goes against everything in the fiber of your being. You want to quit. You don't want to practice.

You want this to give up. You want her to change her mind so that she doesn't. But the only reason why you say it is because you know that's what she wants to hear. Much of our prayer when we're not sober and we are weighed down by the things of this world is coming to God pleading for things that we do not want.

We don't want it. "Your will be done." What if his will is pack up your bags and go overseas? What if his will is to not date this girl? What if his will is not to have this job? What if his will is for me to be sick? What if his will is for my children not to be taken care of?

What if his will leads to hardship? So say, "Lord, your will be done, but not really." "Your kingdom come," this aspect, that aspect, but not this one. "On earth as it is in heaven, not completely though." That's why we can't pray. Because we haven't made up our mind. We haven't committed.

So you can study the Bible. You can come to church. You can even become a leader. You can even give eloquent sermons. But you cannot pray until you are surrendered, until you are sober. Because you are standing and praying and kneeling before a holy God who knows all things.

We cannot come to the Lord casually. We need to be alert. You know, second reason why he says that we need to pray, he calls his disciples to pray, is because your spirit is willing, but your flesh is weak. He knew what was going to happen to the disciples.

When Peter says in Luke chapter 22, 31-34, he says, "Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat." "But I pray that your faith will not fail you." You remember what Peter said? Not me. Yeah, Andrew, I don't trust that guy. Lazarus. You know, Philip. What's he doing? Matthew, tax collector?

That guy is going to turn back. I never trusted that guy anyway. Me? Not me. But Jesus says, "No, you are." You are. But I'm going to give you a second chance. When you get back up, feed my sheep. Peter meant what he said. He was loyal. That's one thing about Peter that I appreciate.

He meant what he said. Even though he fails more than anybody else, at least the record of his failure is more obvious to us than anybody else, but he meant what he said. So when, at the Garden of Gethsemane, the temple guards came to get him, we're not talking about just a handful of people, it's a small army that came to get him.

Peter took out his knife and was ready to fight. But the reason why he started getting scared is because he didn't understand why did Jesus give himself up. He trusted. I mean, he walks on water, he calms the storm, he feeds 5,000. So as long as I'm on his side, I can fight.

He's going to do something. But when Jesus gave himself up, his paradigm shifted and I don't get him. And then fear crept in. And then when fear crept in and it was left to his flesh, he cowered and he denied Christ three times. That's what Jesus meant. You may be willing, but your flesh is weak.

No matter how determined you are, no matter how smart, no matter how much experience you have, no matter how much knowledge that you think you have, no matter how much success you've had in the past, all of that, all of that becomes your Achilles heel because it's filled your head with pride.

The worst thing that can happen to a Christian is to experience some level of success without humbling ourselves to pray. Because the natural thing that happens to every one of us, as soon as we make a little money, as soon as we have a little bit of success, as soon as we bear a little fruit, what did I do right?

And how can I repeat that? And how can I tell other people to do the same? The greatest hindrance to our spiritual growth is pride. And as soon as a little bit of pride gets in, we are ruined. And that's why he says, "To pray, if my people humble themselves and pray, so that when God answers prayer, we know he did it." Not because of effective preaching, not because of organization, not because of strong willpower or discipline, not because of some method, not because of some organization, not because of rich donors, not because of location, because God had mercy on us.

Because we humbled ourselves and we prayed. "You may be willing," he says, "but your flesh is weak." In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." The second thing that he tells us is not that we need to be thankful.

A grumbling spirit, a grumbling spirit directly affects the way we pray. In Hebrews 13, 15, it says, "Through him, then, let us continually offer up sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of the lips that give thanks to him." Fruit of our salvation is lips that give thanks to his name.

You read that? The fruit of our salvation is not simply hard work. The fruit of our salvation is not simply point A to point B. It's praise. It's praise. It's thankfulness. How much time do we spend complaining about not getting from point A to point B? When God never, we don't know what the point B looks like.

Point B is we don't know where God has taken us. I could be as faithful as possible, preach the word of God, and be devoted to prayer, and all of you leave one day. You say, "Well, I'm not sure about that." Look at church history. Look at church history.

The people who suffered the most were the most faithful. People who died were the faithful. The people who were the most persecuted were the most faithful. It's not the most faithful who had the greatest churches. It's not the most faithful who had the biggest churches. Look at church history.

The ones who were the most faithful suffered the most. If our thankfulness is contingent upon our circumstance and what we are surrounded by, you will always have a reason to grumble. Let me give you an illustration. Let me give you reasons to grumble. I don't want you guys to be offended by this.

I'm just giving you a heads up. Some of you are very good looking, which means some of you are not. Right? Some of you think, "Oh, yeah, he talked about me." I talked about you on both. Right? Does it make you nervous? It's truth. I mean, for some reason, it's not politically correct to say what we observe.

Some of you are very tall. Some of you are short. Some. Right? Myself. Some of you have a nice looking nose. Some of you can barely breathe. Oh, you're offended. I mean to offend you. Right? Some of you have a full set of hair. Some of you guys don't.

Some of you have very nice skin. Some of you do not. Some of you are perfect weight. Some of you guys are not. Let me go further than that. Some of you guys come from very wealthy homes. You get married and you got a house the first day you're married.

Some of you guys are barely able to pay for the wedding. That's not fair. Some of you guys got into great colleges and some of you guys couldn't. Some of you guys have great jobs, paying your money. God answered prayer. Glory to God. But some of you could not.

And you have low paying jobs. Some of you guys can't afford a Tesla. Some of you guys can't get new tires. If you want reasons to grumble, we have plenty. Right? We have plenty. Why? Why this? Why did God make me like this? Why God put me in this family?

Why this job? How come these people? How come these leaders? If you want to grumble, I can give you a long list of things that you probably have already in your heart. Life's not fair. You didn't choose that. You didn't do that. It just happened to you. You were born that way.

You were born into that family. You were born into your parents. But remember, as Christians, all that grumbling is happening in the context of God sending His only begotten Son. All that grumbling and complaining of what you don't have is in the context of the Son of God absorbing your filth upon Himself.

The punishment that you and I deserve, He, this holy, holy, magnificent, beautiful God, chose to give His only begotten Son and soak up our sins so that we can have this eternal hope no matter how ugly this world becomes. At the end of all of this, we have eternity with Him.

So our complaining about whatever it is we're complaining about is within the context of what we have in Christ. So if you choose to be a grumbler, you choose to be a complainer, it's within that context. And maybe some of you think your grumbling is righteous. Maybe some of you think your complaining is holy.

When He says, "Be thankful in all things," He didn't give a contingency. Because what God desires more than anything else in our lives is what? To worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the reason why He says, "Do all things without grumbling," is because you cannot worship and grumble at the same time.

You cannot. You cannot come and say, "God, You are so wonderful. You are so great. I don't deserve any of this." You cannot be saying that and at the same time, "But why did You make me like this? Why did You put me in this circumstance? Why are these people who are around me like this?" That's not worship.

You cannot worship God. It's impossible. So a spiritual and mature person is not somebody who has figured out the fastest path to get from point A to point B. The most mature person is the person who has seen the beauty of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the rest of his life, he lives in praising God. And that's why He says, "If you're not sober, and if you're not thankful in your heart for what you already have in Christ, you cannot pray." Because fundamentally, your attitude toward God is off. Fundamentally, what God desires of us more than anything else in our life is for us to praise His name for what He has done.

Because what has happened, what is the core problem of mankind because of our sins is we fell short of the glory of God. So the primary work of taking away our sin is to behold His glory and to worship Him for eternity. And the only reason why we look forward to eternity is because we are so enamored with Him today that we want more of it in eternity.

God did not call us because He needed us to do His job. And He's not asking us to do this because He lacked money, He lacked resources. No, He wants our praise. A grumbling person is not a growing person. A grumbling person is not a praying person. First and foremost, God calls us to be prayerful, to be devoted to pray.

Because we believe Romans 8.28, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. The question is, do you believe that? Because the root of grumbling is unbelief. Because the root of grumbling is something went wrong.

Something isn't right. The root of grumbling. But we recognize if we spend all our time on things that we cannot control, we have to recognize that God is in control. And God works all together, even the things that we don't understand. So as a result of that, we give Him praise for good and what we perceive to be bad.

Because God is sovereign. So at the root of discontent is unbelief. So the most important thing that we need to do in this church is to praise God. Praise God. To worship God. To honor God. Not to get to the house the fastest I can. Not to turn left because that's the fastest path.

This is the quickest path. It has the best roads. No. What God desires is while you're in that car, that you're praising Him. Whether you show up 30 minutes late, 10 minutes late, but that you're praising Him. Or serving. You know, last week, the ttukguk thing could have been a disaster.

And maybe some of you guys would say, "Oh, it didn't taste. I had some ttukguk down the street and it was way better than this." Right? So if you have a discontent spirit, you're going to find something wrong. But man, I was encouraged. I don't want to embarrass our sister Rachel.

But I was anxious for her because there's a potential for this to be a disaster. And I wasn't concerned about you necessarily. Because there's always some people who's going to point out, "That flavor is not right. It's not enough salt. The ttuk was not..." There's always going to be somebody.

So I expect some of that. And which I heard some of it. My concern was not for you. That, "Oh, you're not going to like it." I can give you the best ttukguk and I know there's going to be some grumbling. I was really more concerned for her that at the end of this, she's going, "I'm never going to do this again." You know?

It's like, "Ah, man, I was here all week. Nobody came to help out." You know, "Sunday, they didn't pick up." And some people mentioned something, you know, "After all the effort and sacrifice you made, somebody said the ttuk wasn't soft enough." That's what I was concerned about at the end of it.

That's why I kept on checking, "Are you okay? Do you need help? Are you okay? Do you need help?" But man, was I encouraged. First of all, so many people actually volunteered and helped. But at the end of the day, she was praising God. So many people helped out.

And in my mind, it's like, "I don't know if that many people helped." But at the end of the day, it led to praise. So what we ate wasn't the ttukguk. What we ate was fellowship, was praise, encouragement. It doesn't matter how the ttuk tasted. It built the church.

What God wants from us is praise, was worship. And that's why it says, "You cannot be effectively devoted to praying if you're constantly rumbling about something." We need to be a church that is devoted to praying. That we need to be the proper ambassadors of Christ, understanding His mind and His heart, so that the primary thing that the world is missing— You say, "Oh, you know, like fellowship." That's what they're missing.

The primary thing is the purpose, right? We need to give them purpose. That's not what they're missing. The primary thing that they're missing is God and fellowship with God. God created us not to be worshiped, but to be worshipers. And when we feel alive is when we are worshiping the most.

What's going to bring non-Christians to the church is not well-behaved people. That's not what draws people to church. "Oh, you know, these people are so moral." "Oh, they're so moral over here." You know who's really moral? The Pharisees. Not everything they did was wrong. People are not attracted just because you behave better.

In fact, some of the most miserable people to be around are people who are proper about everything. You know what I mean? Is it just me? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. People who, like, it just, you just feed off of their energy. You just love being around them.

It's not simply because they're proper. It's because they love Christ. They love Christ with all our brokenness, with all our failures, with all our weakness. They fell in love with Christ, and they want you to fall in love with Christ, too. And it's just enjoyable to be around people like that.

Because you come out of that fellowship wanting to know Christ, too. Not, "I better do better." Doing better is good. Don't get me wrong. But doing better comes as a result of praising God, first and foremost. So this year, as we devote ourselves to pray, I want to give you some practical things to be devoted.

So I don't want you to be like, "Yes, we need to be devoted to pray." Let's see what the leaders do. As corporately, what we're going to do is we're going to re-implement prayer and fasting in our church. And this is something that we used to do a year ago, and it kind of fizzled out, and we want to reintroduce that.

And so we're going to talk more about that at our members meeting, how that's going to be implemented. And so as corporately, we're going to pray. And we're looking into more ways to get you to pray. We're thinking about turning a room. I've identified a room that we can turn into a prayer room that you can access whenever you want.

And these are for the members. We'll give you a code to get in, and if you want to come, even if we're not here. We're trying to build a room, at least, whether it's used or not, we want to at least dedicate a room for that. So if you come to church and just you want to go to that room and pray, we're going to have that.

So there are some things that we're working on corporately. But more importantly, like you individually. So I want to give you some practical things to take as we wrap up this morning. Determine when and where you will pray. If you make an application and said, "I want to be a better Christian," well, what does that mean?

Anybody here who doesn't want to be a better Christian? Raise your hand if you don't want to be a better Christian. Anybody? You came into this room determined not to be a better Christian. Nobody. Anybody here is determined not to pray? Anybody determined not to pray? No. Everybody wants to be more spiritual.

Everybody wants to grow in their faith. But if that's where we end, you're not going to apply it. So the question is, you've got to go to the next step. If that's the case, what do I have to do? So determine when and where you're going to pray. If you just say, "I'm going to pray," you're not going to pray.

You have to first determine right on paper when is this going to happen. Pray when you're the most alert. Don't say, "You know, after I take care of all this and kids are down and we wash them and then, you know, when you're dead tired, you have like 15, 30 minutes before you pass out, I have some time there." It's like, that's exactly what you're going to do.

You're going to pass out. That's not the best time to pray. When is the best time to pray? When you're the most alert. You say, "Oh, when we're most alert, I've got to take care of this job. I've got to cook. I've got to take care of the kids." Well, devoting yourself to pray means that that time belongs to God.

Do it when that's – and then you can take care of other stuff. So when are you going to pray? When are you the most alert? So if you're a morning person, wake up a little bit earlier. If you're always with people, how can you break away from that?

Pray when you are not distracted. I know some people say, "I pray when I'm driving." It's like, I'm not saying that that's not prayer, but you're not devoted to prayer when you do that because your mind is maybe like me. I pray when I'm driving because I've got to figure out the fastest path to go home.

You're not effectively praying when you're just praying casually. So when are you not distracted? When is the best time? Pray when you have time to pray. So if you have to go to work at 5 and then you get up and, you know, I'm going to pray from 425 to 430.

When you don't have time or you're busy or in between. You know, I have lunch and I have an appointment at 1, I have an appointment at 12, and I'm going to pray, you know, 20 minutes in between. It's like, I'm not saying that you can't do that, but you're going to be rushed.

So commit yourself to a time when you have time to pray. Maybe you're more alert at night. Who knows? But devote yourself and determine that time. Prepare yourself to pray. You're not going to watch series on Netflix like three in a row and say, OK, let's pray. Your heart's not ready for prayer.

Your mind is on something else. So prepare yourself to pray. Read a book. E.M. Bounds. There's plenty of books that you can read on prayer. We'll give you some suggestions so you can pray. Read articles, hear sermons on the subject of prayer where your heart is being ready for prayer.

So prepare yourselves. Write it down. If your mind tends to wander and you have a hard time, so sit down and say, these are the things I need to pray for, so that if your mind begins to wander, you can look at that list and that will kind of take you through.

And make sure that your mind and your heart is engaged in prayer and you have enough time to pray when you're not distracted and you have a devoted time of praying, and then find other people to pray with. Especially if you're not used to the discipline of prayer, it helps tremendously to pray with people.

Pray with especially somebody you think is very good at that. So if you're not used to praying, even five minutes, you'll probably check in your watch every 30 seconds. But if you pray with a prayer warrior, 10, 20, an hour could go by and you feed off the energy of the other person.

So even if that's not the case, find somebody to pray with. And so to be devoted to prayer isn't simply wanting to pray. You have to calculate. You have to commit. You have to get yourself so that you can pray. So we're hoping that at the end of this year, not just what we're doing in leadership, but as a church, that we would recognize how important this is.

And if we don't make progress, we're going to keep pushing this direction. And as I said, we've emphasized the Word of God to the extent that this is our weakness. We've been busy. It wasn't because we haven't been busy in the Lord's work, but we've been busy and we've kind of got lopsided.

And this is not just one of many important things. It is crucial. If our church continues to grow and seemingly bear fruit without being devoted to prayer, we are just waiting for disaster to happen. Because if God loves us, he will discipline us to make sure that we know that this is not our work.

This is his work. So let's be devoted to prayer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you know our weakness. You know our blind spots, Lord God, better than we do. Help us as a church to be devoted to prayer. Not just to pray, not just to begin in prayer and end in prayer, but be devoted to prayer as we are devoted to your Word.

Individually, corporately, whether we are brand new Christians or we've been walking with you for many years, whether we are disciplined in prayer or whether we are just beginning, help us, Lord God, to continue to deepen our time with you, that we would not simply understand your mind, but your very heart.

Help us to understand how you plead with us to plead on the behalf of the lost. As Christ reminded his disciples as he saw the multitudes, there are sheep without shepherds, how the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. But as you called us to plead, plead to you to send out more workers, that before we raise workers, before we develop workers, that we would be devoted to pray, urging, Father God, that you to send more workers.

So for that end, we pray that 2023, that you would push us, guide us, rebuke us, and establish us so that we would be a household of prayer. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Your glorious cause. Your glorious cause, O God, engages our hearts.

May Jesus Christ be known wherever we are. We ask not for ourselves, but for your renown. The cross has saved us, so we pray, your kingdom come. Let your kingdom, let your kingdom come. Let your will be done, so that everyone might know your name. Let your song be heard everywhere on earth, till your sovereign work on earth is done.

Let your kingdom come. Give us your strength. Give us your strength, O God, encourage to speak. Perform your wondrous deeds through those who are weak. Lord, use us as you would, whatever the test. By grace we'll preach your gospel to our dying breath. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done, so that everyone might know your name.

Let your song be heard everywhere on earth, till your sovereign work on earth is done. Let your kingdom. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done, so that everyone might know your name. Let your song be heard everywhere on earth, till your sovereign work on earth is done.

Let your kingdom come. That's great. Psalm 100. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generation. I pray, Father God, that you would fill our hearts with thankfulness and joyfulness and praise. That our praise in your name would not stop with these walls.

Help us, Lord God, wherever you send us. That we would be the aroma of Christ. That we would adore you, love you, proclaim you wherever we go. May Christ and his name and his glory be magnified this week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus, he came to love, heal and forgive.

He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives. Amen.