(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - Good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. This morning, we'd like to introduce a new song. It's called "He Will Keep You" by Sovereign Grace. The song is based on Psalm 121, and I'll read a portion of it here from the ESV. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life.

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. When the Bible says the Lord will keep us from all evil, it is not to say that we will not experience any evil in our lives, but that the Lord will preserve us even as we are facing it.

I'd like to borrow from Spurgeon, and I quote, "Three times you have the phrase, 'Jehovah shall keep,' "as if the sacred trinity thus sealed the word "to make it sure. "Ought not all our fears to be slain "by such a threefold flight of arrows? "What anxiety can survive this triple promise?" Brothers and sisters, this morning let us reflect on our lives and how he has been faithful.

Consider our failings, our lowest moments, our hardest times, times of deep sorrow, and how his tender mercies and sustaining love has carried us through, and how he sustains us still today. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

And he who began a good work in you, will he not be faithful to bring it to completion until Christ's return? So let us praise the Lord this morning. (gentle piano music) ♪ I lift my eyes and see ♪ ♪ I need not be afraid ♪ ♪ All my help comes from the Lord ♪ ♪ Who the earth and the sky has made ♪ ♪ He will keep you from all evils ♪ ♪ Behind you and before ♪ ♪ He will sustain you through this journey ♪ ♪ From now until the end ♪ ♪ The Lord will never sleep ♪ ♪ My steps he has ordained ♪ ♪ For the one who holds the night ♪ ♪ Is the sovereign of my days ♪ ♪ He will keep you from all evils ♪ ♪ Behind you and before ♪ ♪ He will sustain you through this journey ♪ ♪ From now and evermore ♪ ♪ He will keep you from all evils ♪ ♪ Behind you and before ♪ ♪ He will sustain you through this journey ♪ ♪ From now and evermore ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ He will keep you from all evils ♪ ♪ Behind you and before ♪ ♪ He will sustain you through this journey ♪ ♪ From now and evermore ♪ ♪ He will keep you from all evils ♪ - All right, good morning.

Welcome to Brain Community Church. Let me get to a few announcements before we get started. First of all, as you guys know, we have a members meeting that's taking place at two o'clock today. And so after the third service, actually after this service and the third service, there is lunch fundraiser that's happening with our college students, and they have a retreat coming up, so they're doing that.

And so if you, after this service, if you're members of the church, please take your food, and hopefully we have enough parking. But if you're gonna go off, you can just buy it and then take it off and then eat it somewhere, okay? We'll see, we'll see how that goes.

But after the third service also, we're gonna have lunch, and then at two o'clock, we're gonna meet here. And again, so that's happening right after service. Members meeting again at two o'clock. Members class is starting today, actually, at 9.30. That's happening during second service. Family ministry workshop, January 20th, this coming Saturday.

Those of you who are a FAM245, who've been married three years or less, again, that workshop is happening this coming Saturday. Bible Lab, again, in January 21st, 28th, and February 4th, is taking place. Again, if you are, if you can benefit from going through how to do inductive Bible study, that class is for you.

That'll help you to jump into the Bible study that we're having. Intentional Sisters Fellowship. This is a new round of ISF with the sisters. If you are part of the BAM ministry or family ministry, there's three slots that they have. They have Monday nights, and then Thursday morning at 9.30 to 11.30, and Friday morning 9.30 to 11.30.

So two morning sessions, and then one Monday night. So you can choose of the three. They're gonna be reading the book together, Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges. So please sign up for that if you're planning to participate in the ISF. And then Galatians Bible Study, if you haven't signed up for that, please sign up for that as soon as possible.

That will help us greatly to be able to prepare for the small groups and the home groups. So if you're planning to do it and you haven't done it, please do it today if possible. And then there's announcements from the FIG ministry, a new ministry that we're starting for the, it's a segment of ministry in the family ministry that if you're not part of the FAM 245 newlyweds, or if you're not over 50, that ministry is for you.

And so we're gonna be presenting during the members meeting how that's organized, what the purpose of it is, and our brother Dean is going to be coming and presenting. But they are starting, the FIG ministry, the new ministry, and Jubilee ministry, 50 and over, they're gonna be having the yearly Bible reading together.

So they want to fellowship together meaningfully, and so they're taking sign-ups after the third service. So not this service, but right before, during lunchtime, there's gonna be a table out there where you can go sign up for that. So if you're part of that ministry and you want to participate in that, please go to that table and sign up for that, okay?

I think that's it for today. After, let me pray for us, and then afterwards, again, if you have a physical offering, please, we have a box in the back. Otherwise, we're gonna be giving online, okay? Let me pray for us, and then after our worship, our brother Marvin's gonna be coming up and giving his testimony to be baptized this morning.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the constant blessing that you give our lives. Thank you, Father, that you have given us eternal life, that we have hope in eternity, that through the ups and downs, Lord God, of living in this sinful world, that our feet are firmly planted, Lord, on the promises that you've given.

I pray that our worship will be an overflow of gratitude of everything that you give us, that it would be given to you in spirit and in truth. I pray, Father God, that even in this giving, help us to give it as an act of worship, and again, that may it be multiplied and handled wisely for the sake of your kingdom.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music continues) - Let us rise. And before we continue our service, if we could spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us.

(audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (gentle piano music) Sing the radiance. ♪ The radiance of the Father ♪ ♪ Before the dawn of time ♪ ♪ He spoke and all creation came to be ♪ ♪ Molecules and planets ♪ ♪ Reveal your great design ♪ ♪ Everyone was made so we could see ♪ ♪ So we could see you are ♪ ♪ You are the glorious Christ ♪ ♪ Greatest of all delights ♪ ♪ Your power is unequal ♪ ♪ Your love beyond all heights ♪ ♪ No greater sacrifice ♪ ♪ Than when you laid down your life ♪ ♪ We join the song of angels ♪ ♪ Through crazy day and night ♪ ♪ Glorious Christ ♪ ♪ He left ♪ ♪ He left the air of heaven ♪ ♪ To breathe the dust of earth ♪ ♪ And dwell among the outcast and the poor ♪ ♪ He came to be forsaken ♪ ♪ He died to take our curse ♪ ♪ So you could be our joy forevermore ♪ ♪ Forevermore you are ♪ ♪ You are the glorious Christ ♪ ♪ Greatest of all delights ♪ ♪ Your power is unequal ♪ ♪ Your love beyond all heights ♪ ♪ No greater sacrifice ♪ ♪ Than when you laid down your life ♪ ♪ We join the song of angels ♪ ♪ Through crazy day and night ♪ ♪ Glorious Christ ♪ ♪ You're seated now in heaven ♪ ♪ And thrown at God's right hand ♪ ♪ You shattered death and freed us from our fears ♪ ♪ And though we cannot see you ♪ ♪ You're coming back again ♪ ♪ And all would be made right if you appear ♪ ♪ And all would be made right if you appear ♪ ♪ You are the glorious Christ ♪ ♪ Greatest of all delights ♪ ♪ Your power is unequal ♪ ♪ Your love beyond all heights ♪ ♪ You are the glorious Christ ♪ ♪ Greatest of all delights ♪ ♪ Your power is unequal ♪ ♪ Your love beyond all heights ♪ ♪ No greater sacrifice ♪ ♪ Than when you laid down your life ♪ ♪ We join the song of angels ♪ ♪ Through crazy day and night ♪ ♪ Glorious Christ ♪ (upbeat music) , (upbeat music) , (upbeat music) ♪ Who else commands all the host of heaven ♪ ♪ Who else can make every king bow down ♪ ♪ Who else could whisper and darkness trembles ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ What other beauty demands such praises ♪ ♪ What other splendor outshines the sun ♪ ♪ What other majesty rules with justice ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold Him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing, hold Him ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ What other glory consumes like fire ♪ ♪ What other power can erase the death ♪ ♪ What other name remains undefeated ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold Him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing, hold Him ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold Him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing, hold Him ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Who else could rescue me from my failing ♪ ♪ Who else would offer His only Son ♪ ♪ And who else invites me to call Him Father ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ Only my holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold Him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing, hold Him ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold Him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing, hold Him ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ - Amen, you may be seated.

- Hello, my name's Marvin Del High. And first off, sorry. I'm like excited. And first off, I want to give all the glory to our Heavenly Father for saving a wretched sinner like me. In Matthew 5, 3, 6, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, "for they shall be satisfied." My walk with God began when the seed was planted when I was 17. Before then, I grew up learning about sorcery, witchcraft, and necromancy, disguised as Navajo traditions.

A friend of mine told me about Jesus, and I started to attend church from there. The love of the local church drew me in, and that's about it. I still had the belief that Jesus died on the other side of the world and had nothing to do with my people.

I acted like a Christian for a couple of years, attending church because of obligation and not for the love of Christ, until I decided to stop faking it and left altogether. A little over a decade worth of a hardened heart and decisiveness and being a victim, acting like I had everything together, just brought me back to many tears and just keep trying to keep on keeping on.

On September 3rd, 2022, I was at Irvine Spectrum, just by coincidence, and two brothers from Berean shared the good news with me, and I was skeptical at first. However, with love, I was challenged by the brethren of my past thinking and actually see God for real at this time.

All my hardships from my past soon turned to blessings when I take scripture to heart. I thank God he didn't answer my prayers for physical death and intervene on my suicide attempts. Instead, his blessing was that I was able to die to self so I could follow him. God loved me and called me even when I hated myself.

I am blessed to have been spiritually confused because I am able to see more clearly of his word and the realness it has. It is a blessing to lose my brother on my graduation night. The seed of just knowing Christ was planted to my family members, and now my siblings and my mom are attending service and went away from traditions.

It is a blessing to struggle with the feelings of being unwanted. God's shown his love and mercy and always there for me, and I am no longer praying why am I alive and why am I not good enough to be loved. It is a blessing to have struggled with alcohol addiction because I know now God was with me during rehab in what seemed like rock bottom at the time he used for his glory, and no longer have the need to numb myself into the next day.

It is a blessing to grow up in a fatherless home because I found comfort through our heavenly father, and I was given the strength to forgive my earthly father, and the father-son relationship started to bloom. God has changed my way of thinking and has done so much, and I'm glad to dedicate my life now knowing the full weight of baptism, and I'm so, so grateful just to be born again, and I'm just so, so grateful just to be born again, and now I wanna take the next step seriously.

Thank you. (audience applauds) - Marvin, do you understand when you go into the water you're being united with Christ in his death? You're coming out to Christ's resurrected life? I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (audience applauds) Marvin, thank you so much for that powerful testimony, and as he has shared, he was able to come to our church after a couple of our brothers were out on the streets and evangelizing, and so they met him, invited him to church, and then so we've been seeing him growing and maturing, and again, to see him baptized today, what a blessing it is.

We have an outreach team at church. Just give you a plug. Outreach team at church that goes out once a month to Brenna Park and then at Spectrum, and so we have quite a few brothers and sisters who are going out, and we encourage you to come and participate in that, and even if you've never done street evangelism, you can team up with somebody, and then you can learn to hear how they're doing that, and you'd be surprised.

Oftentimes, we're in Orange County. We think, oh, this is saturated. We have a mega church, like 10-minute driving distance in any direction. You'd be surprised how few people really know the gospel. 'Cause we typically think like we need to drive to India, and we need to go out to China or certain places, and we wanna spread the gospel where the gospel has not spread.

Interesting thing is this is not a Christian nation in the sense that it's filled with Christians, saturated with Christians. Maybe at one point, it was. This is a post-Christian nation where we have imprints of Christianity everywhere in our society, but the number of actual Christians who are living out their faith and actually even know what the gospel is is a minority.

Even in Orange County, you'd be surprised. At one point, we sent the whole church out just to take a survey so that the church can see how few people actually are able to articulate the gospel, even the people who go to church, and it's a minority, very small minority of people can even articulate what it is that they believe, and so you and I are living in the mission field in a post-Christian culture.

So again, that's a plug for every Saturday, or not every Saturday, once a month on Saturday, that they have an outreach team that gets together and prays for people, and so please pray for them, or we invite you to come and join them when they do go out. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Ephesians 6, and I'm just gonna be reading verse 18 for the sake of time.

Actually, you know what? I'm gonna read the whole thing, starting from verse 10. Changed my mind. This is the longer service, so. All right, first service. I have to watch out my time, but. Starting from verse 10. "Finally, be strong in the Lord, "and in the strength of his might, "put on the full armor of God, "so that you will be able to stand firm "against the schemes of the devil.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, "but against the rulers, against the powers, "against the world forces of this darkness, "against the spiritual forces of wickedness "in the heavenly places. "Therefore, take up the full armor of God, "so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, "and having done everything, to stand firm.

"Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, "and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, "and having shod your feet with preparation "of the gospel of peace. "In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, "with which you will be able to extinguish "all the flaming arrows of the evil one, "and take the helmet of salvation, "and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

"With all prayer and petition, "pray at all times in the spirit, "and with this in view, be on the alert "with all perseverance, and petition for all the saints, "and pray on behalf that utterance may be given to me "in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness "the mystery of the gospel." Let's pray.

Father, give us understanding, open our eyes, soften our hearts, Lord God, that your word would not be empty words, but it would be direction, it would be our refuge, it would be our guide. Lead us and guide us, Lord God, that we may hear from you and you alone.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I wanna read you two quotes this morning before I get started. One from Charles Spurgeon, if you can go. Charles Spurgeon says, "I know of no better thermometer "to your spiritual temperature than this, "the measure of the intensity of your prayers." Like, where are you spiritually?

How are you doing, right? And we may look at, am I studying the Bible, am I doing quiet time? Charles Spurgeon says, "A more accurate thermometer "to be able to measure the spiritual health of somebody "is the intensity of your prayer." Martin Lloyd-Jones, the next quote, says, "The first great characteristic of us as Christian people "as that is that we are no longer self-confident.

"We know the truth about ourselves." Now, these are related quotes, right? Not related because they knew each other, but related because they're pretty much saying the same thing. A spiritual mature person is not an individual who's growing in his ability. A spiritual mature person is not somebody who's read the Bible and is able to articulate his faith and has so many experiences and have done so many things for God and all those things, though it is important, the true measure of a spiritual mature person is a growing recognition of his inability.

And as a result of that, he is more and more dependent upon God than when he first began. That's a spiritually mature person. Spiritual mature person is not somebody who's gifted, so they're able to articulate, organize, disciple. Before we get to any of that, a true mature Christian is a growing recognition is of his inability because he knows who God is.

He knows the gap between us and God and what God has called us to do, we are unable. It is only a small child who doesn't know his limitation because he hasn't experienced life that thinks that I can handle whatever it may be coming. And as parents, we guide them and lead them.

They don't know what they're talking about. A spiritual immature person may take on the task, spiritual task, of their own spiritual growth, of this spiritual battle and say, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna apply myself, I'm gonna be disciplined, I'm gonna learn, I'm gonna read, I'm gonna get organized so that we can bear more fruit.

But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me. And there's nothing more important that you and I need to engage in than to fervent prayer because prayer ultimately is humbling ourselves before God because we recognize that this is beyond us, that only when God is engaged, only when God is called upon can we make any difference.

In fact, in 2 Chronicles 7, 14 to 15, after King Solomon builds the temple, and you can kind of say this was the first physical church, right? After he builds the temple, they have a dedication ceremony and God says this, as a dedication ceremony, he says this, my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray, right?

First and foremost, right? Is to humble themselves and pray. Not to get organized, not to work harder, but first and foremost, the reason why he needs to be humble is because he recognizes that he is desperate for God. When he humbles himself and pray and seeks my face and turn from his wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, will heal their land.

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. So as the first temple is dedicated, God calls this, this is a house of what? House of prayer. Before it is a house of gathering, before it is a house of learning and training and discipling, he said first and foremost, this is a house of prayer where we come to engage God, where we come to pray, humble ourselves and seek him.

He says when we do that, he says he will be attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I can't emphasize enough how important this prayer is, not only for our church, but individually, right? Every day that we function, every year that we function without fervent prayer is indirectly saying I can do this without you, right?

Everything that you're telling me to do in this book, I'm gonna do my best, I'm gonna apply, I'm gonna study, I'm gonna know and I'm gonna implement. What he has called us to do is a spiritual battle. It is not by flesh and blood. So either you will become proud if you think that you're having some success, right, because you're gifted, you're talented, or you read a lot or you know more, or you become defeated 'cause I'm not able because they're better than me.

Prayer is ultimately us recognizing that this is beyond us and we have to pray, right? We have to pray. This is not we should pray, we should do our best to pray. We have to pray and so we talked about last week that our theme for this year and maybe for as long as I'm a pastor here, maybe this is gonna be our theme, right, and I'm gonna keep saying this until we feel like, you know, that's enough, we're praying too much, you know what I mean?

We need to do something else, right? Until we get to that point, this is how important it is. If I came up here and told you that I had no time to prepare for a sermon but I'm gonna talk anyway, right? I'm just gonna see what the Holy Spirit has to say this morning and then just kind of like, let's see.

If I came up here and told you that that's how I came up here, who among you are gonna take me serious, right? Then you shouldn't be preaching. But yet, if I told you that there was no prayer involved, that I didn't depend on God, in the Western church, it doesn't skip a beat.

We don't recognize the importance of prayer in the Western church and so, and I believe that this is the condition of our church. Even though I'm the pastor and I'm guilty of it, we need to keep striving toward this direction because this is how important this really is. So last week, we talked about praying in the spirit, first and foremost, that we need to gear up, right?

That we're not just running without aim, we're not just shadow boxing, we're just kind of floating along and if you just do what comes naturally, I can predict to you, right? The 80% accuracy, I'm not 100%, I'm not a prophet, with 80% accuracy because I've been doing this a long time.

Seeing what happens in college students, what happens in freshmen, junior, senior, what happens when you graduate, after you graduate, what happens when you start dating. After you start dating, you start getting married, having children and there's nothing new under the sun. Seeing it over and over again for over 30 years, your life is very predictable.

What you're gonna wrestle with, the temptation that's gonna come into your life, the struggle that happens is very predictable. If all you're doing is just going and just following what comes natural, right? And you're living by your flesh and not by the spirit. It's very predictable. First and foremost, if we're gonna live our lives purposefully, we need to commit.

And that's why he says, first and foremost, to gird up your loins with the truth and your feet, put on the proper shoes to get ready. That we're not gonna just coast along and, you know, like, I'm gonna eat good food, I'm gonna keep our family healthy, I'm gonna make some good investments and no different than anybody else in the world.

What do you want at the end of 2024 and say, this is what I strove after, this is what I sought after. What are you committed to do? He says, gird up your loins with truth. Get ready, right, prepare yourself for action, right? If you're studying the Bible and you're not ready to apply it, all the Bible is is decoration.

It's just a fashion show, right? So you can have somebody puts on clothes, it depends, if you're getting ready to go to work and you're doing construction, you're gonna have to put on the proper clothing, right? And proper shoes, but if you're going on a fashion show, right, nice heels, shiny, you're not gonna have to run, you're not gonna do anything, you know, you're not gonna do any heavy lifting with that.

How many of us live our lives with spiritual clothing that actually hinders us from the battle that he called us to? So first and foremost, he said, put on the proper shoes, commit, get ready, make this your goal. And then, today, I wanna spend some time talking about the defensive armor.

First, get yourself ready, are you committed to this? And if you're not committed to this, then anything I say from this pulpit is just time. You've committed, you signed a covenant, a lot of you, and so because you've got a covenant, you're gonna have to, you've given me exactly 40 minutes, 45 minutes to speak, so anything that goes over that, you've robbed my time, my life, right?

Because what I'm saying to you doesn't have any kind of value because you're not committed, right? Things I say here is like reading instructions and putting IKEA furniture together, but you don't have the furniture to put together. You didn't buy anything. So the Word of God just becomes empty words, or just something to puff you up, the more knowledge that you have.

I know how to, if I want to, but it's not being applied. So if you have truth, but you're not girding your life with truth, you're just in a fashion show to show other people what you know. He says to gird up your loins, put up the proper shoes, and make sure that you're committed to this, and when you are committed for the battle, he says there's three things that he tells us for defensive armor, right?

If you're going into battle and you're only gonna do offense, you don't need any of this, right? All you need is a sword, what it's gonna cut, but because we have an enemy that is attacking us, you put on the defensive armor, and the three defensive armor that he says is the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and helmet of salvation.

And this is because putting these things on is a recognition that we have an enemy, like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And let me ask you this morning, were you aware that you were being attacked this week? Were you aware that Satan is using whatever circumcision, whatever pride, whatever compromises that you may have in your life, and he's constantly scheming to drive you away from God?

Do you know that that actually happened this week? That there was an attack on your conscience, there was an attack on your life, on your time, on the money, so that whatever decision you're making, however you're spending your time, is either bringing you to God, or causing you to drift away from God, that our enemy is constantly scheming to keep you away from him.

Were you even aware of that? See, this defensive armor you put on, knowing that the attacks are gonna come. First thing that he says is, put on the breastplate of righteousness. I mean, obviously, you put on the breastplate of righteousness because it protects your vital organs, your lungs, your heart, and the other parts of your body, where if a sword comes in punctured, you're gonna die.

So he says, first and foremost, put on the breastplate of righteousness. Now, when he says to put on the breastplate of righteousness, the obvious question that we have to ask is, is he talking about justification or sanctification, right? Is he saying, be reminded that you are righteous before God, don't let Satan attack you, and to question your righteousness, because he has covered you with his blood, and so that you have become righteous, so Satan can't attack you.

Is that what he is saying, or is he saying that you need to live a righteous life, live a holy life, and to protect yourself so that Satan can't attack you? Which one is it? Okay, don't answer it. I just want you to think about it, right? The right answer to that, in my opinion, is both.

You know, in our culture, the way that the Bible sometimes is taught, that we make such a clear distinction between justification, sanctification, and glorification, that oftentimes, a lot of Christians think those are separate things. I'm justified, but I'm not being sanctified, right? I will be glorified, but I'm not absolutely sure about the middle process.

The reason why I say it's both is because you cannot have justification when there is no sanctification. The whole purpose of why God made us righteous is so that we can live righteously. He delivered us from the penalty of sin so that we would become, what? Slaves to righteousness.

That's what the scripture says in Romans chapter six. So you cannot have one without the other. So when the question is that when you, we're supposed to wear the breastplate of righteousness. Is it just talking about, you know, I'm saved, always saved, there's nothing I can do to please God, so what I do, sanctification, doesn't matter?

Absolutely not. The Bible never separates these two things. It's the two side of the same coin. He declared us righteous so that we may live righteously. So when he says to put on the breastplate of righteousness, he's talking about both. Nothing nullifies the quality of our prayers than having an unclear conscience.

We need to have a clear conscience so that we can be protected by the enemy's attack. In First Timothy three two, it says, an overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. The first thing, the qualification of an elder or a deacon is he must be above reproach.

Now above reproach, we think, well, who's perfect? Who's gonna qualify for this, right? How many of you are perfect? Is he saying that you need to be perfect, right? Because that's what it seems like. If you're not perfect, you can't be an elder, and obviously we're perfect, and that's why we became elders, right?

We don't have any faults. We don't have anything. This word is much more nuanced than that. To be above reproach means that if somebody wanted to attack you, there's nothing obvious that they're going to accuse you of to nullify you of your witness. Because the job of an elder is to speak truth into darkness, the darkness is going to speak back.

They don't like it, right? And because they don't like me, the easiest thing to do is nullify the preacher. How can I take you seriously when your life is like this, when you do this, and this is what you do with your life? And so he says, in order to be able to handle the word of God, you must be above reproach because the enemy is going to attack.

And if you have obvious things that you are doing in life that you're going to speak into other people's lives and say, you should do this, you shouldn't do this, and the first thing that people who don't want to hear it are going to say is, what about you?

What about you? So what he's saying is, in order to be able to engage in spiritual battle, you must be above reproach. Now, is it just elders? No, 1 Peter 2.12 said, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

When you begin to speak truth into the life of unbelievers, and they don't like what you're saying, and they want to nullify you, and they have obvious things that they're going to point out, your message, the gospel, is going to be immediately nullified, at least in their eyes. So he says, when the devil wants to attack, because we're going into his territory, he says, to put on the breastplate of righteousness.

Remember, Satan's stronghold is in this world, and Satan is called the accuser of the brethren, and he's going to constantly accuse you. Any aspect of your life where your conscience is not clear, he's going to accuse you, and nothing weakens our prayer more than a conscience that is not clear.

It keeps us away from God. A perfect example is that you see the disciples. Jesus is headed toward the cross, and he keeps repeatedly telling them, making it clear. He's headed toward the cross. He's going to die. He's going to be crucified. And yet, remember what the disciples were constantly arguing?

Glory. Who's going to sit on the left? Who's going to sit on the right? Even though Jesus made it absolutely crystal clear. So right before he goes to the cross, Jesus says, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I pray that you would be able to withstand his attack.

You know where Satan attacked the disciples? Satan attacked the disciples because they were seeking their own glory, own honor. So when Jesus was going to the cross, it didn't make sense. I mean, we followed you. We sacrificed everything to follow you because we thought that if we followed you, that we're going to be glorified.

But then Jesus is talking nonsense. Going to the cross, dying? Even though he said it, they didn't hear it because their hearts were filled with seeking their own glory. And so when Jesus is going to the cross, they're like, what? What is going on? Even though he said it repeatedly over and over again.

And you know where this gets manifested besides the fact that they didn't understand when they were praying? Remember, after supper, Jesus takes them to the Gethsemane and he's agonizing in prayer because he knows what's going to happen in the morning. And he takes his disciples with him and asks them to pray.

And each time he comes back, they've fallen asleep. And Jesus is irritated. He's frustrated because these are his closest companions. And he's in the middle of such agony. And yet every time he comes, they're just conked out. Now, humanly speaking, humanly speaking, we said, well, they just had a fat meal.

They just had probably the biggest meal of the year, the Passover meal, right? And they all probably gorged themselves. And after that, this is in the middle of the night. You know, I don't know if you've ever tried praying at two or three in the morning. It's not easy, right?

I remember early on when I became a Christian, we used to go and pray and they used to pray till two, three in the morning. And almost every night I fell asleep, almost every night. We would hear people snoring, but the pastor would tell us, you know, go to the bathroom and put water in your face.

And so we endured, we endured through the praying. So I look at them and say, yeah, that looks like me, right? They just had a fat meal. It's in the middle of the night. Of course they're going to fall asleep. It would make sense if you didn't understand the context.

See, normally you can understand in time of peace, they just had a fat meal. Of course they're supposed to be sleeping. Of course they're going to be falling asleep. But remember, Jesus told them that he's going to die. That in a few hours, he's going to be tortured. He's going to be put on the cross.

He's going to, for their sins. How many of you would have a good night's sleep if you knew torture was coming next morning? Some of you can't even sleep because the wedding day's the next day, right? See, in the human context, we may look at them and say, of course they can't be up.

Of course they're not going to be praying fervently. It's because they didn't understand. It's because they didn't hear. And it's because they thought that what they were selflessly desiring may happen. And as a result of that, there was no urgency. There was no desperation. So Jesus' frustration isn't simply that they weren't praying.

It's that they just didn't understand how desperate of a situation that they were in, why they were able to relax. Nothing affects our prayer life more when we are spiritually not sober. When our mind is filled with things that have nothing to do with God, whether it is compromise, whether it's just pleasure, just comfort and peace, nothing affects fervent prayer more than a life that is continually lived in unrighteousness.

That's why he says to put on the breastplate of righteousness because Satan is going to attack. Secondly, he says to put on the shield of faith, the shield of faith. The shield is something that you wield when the attacks are coming, right? You don't use that for offense. You use that for defense because of the attacks coming.

He says in order to withstand the flaming arrows of the devil, 1 Peter 5, 8-9, "Be of sober spirit. "Be on the alert. "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, "seeking someone to devour, "but resist him firm in your," what, "faith." If you're going to resist the devil's attack, he says you must have a firm grasp of your faith.

1 Corinthians 16, 13, "Be on the alert. "Stand firm in the faith. "Act like men. "Be strong." So if the enemy's attacking you, these flaming fires are coming at you, what are these flaming fires? What are the attacks that come? I mean, you have to understand the whole purpose of satanic attack is to keep you away from God.

If you're not a Christian, he blinds you so that you do not understand the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if you're a Christian, that he will bring stumbling blocks to your life in order to prevent you from passionately pursuing God. I think in our generation where you and I live, ease and comfort is the primary attack.

We are so afraid that if we make certain decisions that we're not going to be able to live the standard of life that you and I have become comfortable and would desire. And out of fear of losing that, we will not make certain decisions. We will not go certain places.

We will not open our mouth to certain people because of course God wants us to be comfortable. Of course God wants us to be wealthy and strong, even though we say we're those false prophets, the health and wealth gospel people, these people with weird hair. We're not like them.

Yet if we're carefully examining how much of the decisions that we make is because we've come to the conclusion that when God blesses us, we get good things. And when God doesn't bless us, we get bad things. He says to stand firm because he will attack. His primary attack is to keep you away from God, whatever that may be.

The two primary things that I have noticed that causes people to come away from God is one, is your pride. That's why Jesus says rich people, it's hard for them to enter the kingdom of heaven because we are capable. Even the way we do evangelism, even the way we plant churches, we have 15 training sessions, books to read, how to do that, how to organize.

You need to have a critical core of 30. You need to have this much money, this kind of budget. You need to locate where the need is, market yourself, brand yourself, preach this way, organize your sermon this way. And so we have come to this system and training people.

If you follow these directives that we found to work and you apply it, the chances of your success is gonna be much greater than if you don't. And yet through all of that training, there's no prayer. There's no dependence. There's no crying out. There's no miracles happening. It's just us applying ourselves and being smart.

Even the way we do evangelism, even the way we plant churches, it's us. When the scripture clearly says you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me. The way that Satan throws his arrows is keep you confident in yourself. Every day that we live without prayer, even though you may not articulate it this way, I don't need him.

I want him, but I don't need him. If you need him, you will pray. If you need him, you will pray. When something desperate happens in your life, you will pray. When somebody gets sick and no amount of medicine can fix that person, you will pray. If you lose your job and you can't pay your bills, you will pray.

But when it comes to spiritual matters, somehow we think if we just apply ourselves, we can make this happen. One way that we are attacked is to keep you proud. Not humbled. The second way that you get attacked is that Satan will constantly accuse you of your wrongdoing. You're gonna fight with your wife.

Maybe you cheated on something that you shouldn't have cheated on. Maybe there's a sin in your life that you keep regurgitating over and over again. And somehow you think that you have exhausted his grace. And it keeps you away from God. I can come to church. I can study the Bible.

You know what's interesting is I've heard people say, "A prayer is so easy." You know, like, you know, the Bible, you gotta open it up. You gotta learn hermeneutics. You have to dissect. You have to understand the context. And you gotta do all this stuff. Prayer, just open your eyes and talk.

What's up, God? So easy. You're lying on your bed. You get up, putting your clothes on, brushing your teeth. What's up, God? It's so easy. I've heard people talk about prayer as so casual. I mean, one of the best sermons that I heard on this topic of prayer is from Martin Lloyd-Jones.

And he said, "Prayer is the most difficult discipline "of any Christian because once he recognizes "who he's talking to, "you cannot casually come before God." He's the creator of the universe. He's the one who could snap of a finger, destroy. Destroy the world. He's a holy, holy, holy God.

This is a God that people can't even look at and live. And it's that God that we are praying to. You don't go to him casually, your heart filled with sin and your conscience bothering you. He says, "No, prayer forces us to examine our hearts. "Prayer forces us to see if we're living a sinful life.

"There's nothing that will hinder your Christian life "more than a bothered conscience." Some of you, because of your sins, you think, "You know, I'm gonna get myself right before I go to God." No, God says to come to him so that you can be right. So it humbles the proud and it encourages the weak.

That's the gospel. That any of you who is proud, you think you can do it, God will humble you. And any of you who you think have maybe crossed the line, say God invites you to come to restore you. And it's the same path, whether you're rich or poor, male or female, Jew or Gentile, well-educated or uneducated, disciplined or undisciplined, it is the same door that we go through to meet Christ.

And as soon as there's unrighteousness in your life, Satan will put his foot, his knee on your neck and squeeze you. You cannot go to him, you cannot go to him. It is by faith, it is the shield of faith says, "I don't go to him because of my righteousness.

"I go to him because of his righteousness "and I'm gonna live my life to honor and glorify him." One of my favorite quotes from Corrie Ten Boom, and I'm sure you've heard me say this before, "There is no darkness that Satan can create "that the love of God cannot penetrate." There is no darkness that Satan can create that the love of God cannot penetrate.

So the gospel humbles us and it lifts us up at the same time and it invites us to him. You know, if you've ever raised children, especially teenagers, right? And some of you may be in the thick of things right now, right, if you have teenagers, you know how much God is using your teenagers to stretch, to see how far you will go to love your child, right?

Even though in your heart you're like, "This kid, this kid." But let me ask you a question. Is there a line in your head that you have drawn that if this kid crosses that line, that you've decided, "I'm gonna disown this kid." Is there a line that you have drawn in your heart, "If he does this one more time, "I'm gonna kick him out of the house, "I'm gonna change his name, right?

"I'm gonna take away everything he has "and he's no longer gonna be my son. "I'm gonna go to the recording office "and change his name." You're on your own, right? I've had it 13 years enough. Is there a line that you have drawn that your child, I'm talking about your child, that you're not gonna endure beyond that?

No. I don't know any parent who consciously makes that decision. And God will, some of us, stretch us to the limit beyond what you thought you were capable of. And it will force you to pray. It will test your patience. But yet, at the end of all that, you cannot give up.

You can't. As much as you want to give up, as much as everything inside of you says that this is not right, you will not give up. Because that's your child. He who did not spare his own son, how will he not, along with him, give us all things?

See, if we don't have the shield of faith, every mistake you make, Satan is going to throw his arrows. You're not deserving. You can't come. Get it right first before you come. Become righteous before you come. No, he says, come to me so that you may be righteous. Finally, he says, you have to wear the helmet of salvation.

Helmet of salvation. You cannot engage in spiritual battle if you're not certain about your salvation. You know what's really interesting? Is that if you study 1 John, the whole book of 1 John is addressing this issue of people who are living in sin. They said, you know what? Because we're saved in the spirit, you can do whatever with your body.

And that was the Christian Gnostic teaching, the false gospel that was being taught. And so John, Apostle John, is addressing this issue. And he says, this is what a Christian looks like. And this is what a non-Christian looks like. So it starts out in chapter one by saying, if you're living in sin, living in darkness, don't say you're living in light because God is light and there's no darkness in Him.

And you're fooling yourself. But he also says a Christian struggles with sin, right? Because we're in this flesh that we're going to need to constantly come to Him and ask for forgiveness. And he who says he doesn't have sin, you make him out to be a liar. So he spends four or five chapters describing, this is a Christian, this is a non-Christian.

So if you ever really want to know what a Christian looks like, what a non-Christian looks like, go through 1 John. But you know what's interesting? At the end of that letter in chapter five, he says, I am writing these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life.

In other words, I wrote all this to you so that you have assurance of your salvation. But why did he go through four or five chapters of telling them who's a Christian and non-Christian if at chapter five, he was going to say, I'm writing this all, I'm shaking you up so that the end conclusion is that you would have confidence where you stand before God.

You see, that letter is written to Christians in the church because non-Christians wouldn't read that letter. Non-Christians could care less because they don't believe. If I say this is a Christian who's a non-Christian and you genuinely don't believe, you wouldn't care. You wouldn't care what I'm saying because it's not relevant to you.

Only a Christian would be disturbed. Only a Christian would be shaken up. Is that true? Is that not true? But if you don't believe, I'm just talking. It's just noise coming out of my mouth. It's not relevant to you. He said the purpose of why he wrote this letter is to shake up the church so that those who have weak faith and those who are not certain that he would give him certainty.

Know exactly where you stand and exactly what you're supposed to do and exactly what God is doing in your life because until your assurance of salvation is sure, you can't do anything with certainty. You can't read the Bible with certainty. You can't evangelize with certainty and you definitely will not pray with certainty.

If you don't know where you stand with God, how will you talk to him? Am I talking to somebody who's angry with me? Am I talking to somebody who is compassionate and loving toward me? Am I talking to somebody who's trying to kill me? I mean, my conversation would look very different depending on who it is that I'm talking to.

The way I talk to my wife, the way I talk to my children maybe, the way I talk to a stranger, the way I talk to maybe somebody trying to harm me, that conversation is going to look very different until you have absolute certainty where you stand before God, the first place where you will be hindered is your prayer.

Because you don't know how to talk to him. And that's why 1 John is written, so that they may know that they have eternal life, that you have a father who desires you to come to him. Book of Hebrews, he says, "He took on human form so that he may become a sympathetic high priest, so that we may enter the throne of grace with confidence." The whole reason why he came and saved us is not simply so that you won't have penalty of sin, but the penalty of sin washed away so that we may come to him with confidence.

But there's two things that we need to know about this throne. One, it is a throne. It is a king's throne. It's not a casual place that we're walking into. We're not walking into a restaurant. We're walking into the throne of the king of kings and lord of lords.

So that's why prayer must be taken seriously with reverence and awe that we don't speak to God just out of the whim. That there must be a commitment to pray. But secondly, he said it is a throne, and though it is a throne, is a throne of grace. That this king desires us.

And he even deposited his Holy Spirit in us. That when we have times of hardship, that he said it would groan on our behalf to draw us closer to God. The whole purpose of why the Holy Spirit is with us is to bring us to him. So if we don't know exactly where we stand before God, the first thing that will be hindered is your prayer.

Your conscience is not clear. You're not exactly sure exactly where you stand before God. And that's why we put on the helmet of salvation knowing in Romans 8, 38, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life "nor angels nor principalities "nor things present nor things to come "nor powers nor height nor depth "nor any other created things "will be able to separate us from the love of God." God is not asking us to pray so that you can check off, right?

Check off and say, "That's what you're supposed to do. "A Christian's supposed to pray. "You're supposed to pray. "You have to pray." All this is true, but the underlying desire for God to bring us to him so that you may commune with him is a father telling his children to come, "Ask me." He's not playing hide and seek.

He's not telling his subjects, "Do what's right," even though there is an element of that. But his primary call to himself is because he loves us. The cross makes no sense without God's love. The cross makes no sense without God's love. If you take the love of God out, he is perfectly just to crush us.

Why would he go through all that drama? Why would he make all those promises? Why establish the nation of Israel and the prophets and the word of God and sending of the Holy Spirit, establishment of the church, giving us the gospel? None of that makes sense if it isn't the love of God.

So the more we understand the cross, the more we understand the depth of his love, and the more we understand the depth of his love, the more we understand why he came. He didn't just come simply so that you would not be guilty. He took away our debt so that we can be reconciled to him.

What kind of reconciliation would it be if you reconciled with your husband and wife and then you never talked to them? What kind of reconciliation would you be if you had a friend that you couldn't talk to because you wronged them and then you're forgiven and debt's forgiven and then you never talk to them?

You say, "Oh, I'm glad we're good." And then you just go off and live your own personal life. The point of reconciliation is to restore the relationship. And that's why he tells us to pray, to come to him, to commune with him. Because the safest place for any Christian to be is at the center of his will, to commune with him, to know him, to love him, to worship him.

Our salvation isn't simply going to heaven. Our salvation is God. I hope, let that sink in. Salvation is not simply not going to hell. Salvation is not a different destination when we die. Salvation is God himself. When we're reconciled to him, when we're living at his house, when we're communing with him, when we're communicating with him, when we're walking with him, when we're praying with him, that is salvation.

Heaven is wherever God is. It's not a one location here and one location there, and then it just happens to be that's where God resides. No, wherever God is, is heaven. So the reason why we pray ultimately is because of salvation. Because that's the purpose of our salvation. So he says, "Therefore, put on the helmet of salvation." Let me conclude with this.

If somebody asks you how you're doing spiritually and you say, "I'm doing okay." And then you say, "How about your prayer life?" "It's not good." You've contradicted yourself. You cannot be good if you're not praying. You cannot be good if you're not praying. So it's dangerous for a Christian to feel good, that everything's good except for prayer.

That's just like asking somebody, "How's your health?" It's like, "Everything's good, but I can't breathe." Everything is good. My bills are paid, my children are well. Everything is good, but I just can't breathe. Then you're not good. You're not good. We can't be a church that focuses so much attention on the Word of God.

It has so little priority in prayer. We have to pray. We have to pray. Word and prayer. It's not word or prayer. It's word and prayer. So I pray that as we focus, like I know there's probably a lot of things that you desire in 2024. I want to travel to this and I want to do that.

But in the midst of all of that, the greatest priority, I pray this year, is to see where we're weak. And I believe that most of us will confess that this is a weakness in our life. To be committed, to be devoted to prayer. That we are no longer just holding on to a form of godliness.

That we're not studying the Bible as a fashion show, but that we would really understand and know the power of God through prayer. Let's pray. (Praying) Gracious and loving Father, we pray that you would help us to see how desperate we are without you. So that we may be men and women of prayer.

As you've established this church, Lord God, that we are called out to be prayer warriors. Not just to simply pray, but to be devoted to praying. Lord, teach us what that looks like. Teach us how to do that. Teach us to prioritize, Lord God, above everything else. That whatever fruit that we bear with our families, our children, our church, that is because your spirit is in the midst of us.

So we ask you, we plead with you. Lead us, Lord God, to build a house of prayer. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. (Music) 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. (Music) Have we trials? Have we 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. (Music) Sing, are we weak? Are we weak and heavy laden? Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do your friends despise, forsake you?

Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll shake and shield you. You will find a solace there. (Music) Heavenly Father, we pray that wherever you send your saints, that we would be the aroma of Christ. Help us, Lord God, to live soberly. That we may be aware of the unbelievers in our lives.

That we may shed the light of Christ, His love that you've given to us. That we would be eager and sober and ready at all times, Lord God, in season and out of season. To make the gospel and the hope that we have in Christ clear. Help us, Lord God, to live in such a way where we are walking in the Spirit.

That we may speak in the Spirit. That we may ultimately pray in the Spirit. Help us, Lord God, to know the power of Christ as we continue to engage in prayer. That we may see the arrows of the evil one. And to be able to shield ourselves, Lord God, with faith.

To put on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. Knowing, Father God, that it is your love that covers us. So we pray that you would help us, Lord God, wherever you send us. That we may bear fruit for your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

God sent His Son. They called Him Jesus. He came to love, heal and forgive. He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to keep my Savior's lips. 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. Worthy of every song we could ever sing. Worthy of all the praise we could ever give. Worthy of every breath we could ever take.