(organ music) - On the sheet is right. On the May praise and prayer sheet is right. (audience chatter) - It's at the very bottom, it says closing song. So it's four and then one, closing song. Alex, Alex, Alex, turn that mic off. Turn that mic off. (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) - Good evening, good evening.

For those of you coming in, if you want to kneel while we pray tonight, please do head towards the front in the white chairs. That way, when the time comes, we can quickly stack away the white chairs and pray together on the floor. So again, if you want to pray on the floor by kneeling this evening, please come to the front.

Thank you. (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) - Church family, let's go ahead and pray together as we come before God.

Gracious God, we thank you for tonight. We desire, Lord God, to humble ourselves as we approach a holy, holy, holy God, that we come with reverence, we come with awe, and we come, Lord God, with joy because we have been reconciled by the blood of Christ. As we spend time today singing, as we spend time praying for ourselves, for others around us, Lord, we ask for softened hearts.

We ask for a perspective, Lord, that we have very limited control of things around us. So I pray, Lord God, that you give us the right perspective, that you are God and we are not. I pray, Lord God, that our hearts may be filled with a continuing knowledge of who we serve, who we give adoration to.

So I pray that this night may be a night filled with joy as well as remembrance of the grace that we get. So I pray for everyone here that we may be eager, focused, and motivated to honor you with our lips, with our hearts, with everything. So we thank you, Lord God, for the time that you give for us to gather as a corporate body of Christ.

May it be a blessing, may it be sweet, may it ultimately bring you joy. It's in Christ and we pray, amen. Church family, why don't we stand together? So we're gonna change up a little bit of the format of our praise and prayer tonight. We're gonna sing more time, spend more time praising, and then we'll transition into prayer time.

♪ The love of God is greater far ♪ ♪ Than tongue or pen can ever tell ♪ ♪ It goes beyond the highest star ♪ ♪ And reaches to the lowest hell ♪ ♪ The guilty pair bow down with care ♪ ♪ God gave his son to win his erring child ♪ ♪ Here reconcile and pardon from his sin ♪ Sing it all together, one year.

♪ When years of time shall pass away ♪ ♪ And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall ♪ ♪ When men who hear refuse to pray ♪ ♪ On rocks and hills and mountain tops ♪ ♪ God's love so sure shall still endure ♪ ♪ How measureless and strong ♪ ♪ Renaming grace to Adam's race ♪ ♪ The saints and angels ♪ ♪ Oh love of God ♪ ♪ How rich and pure ♪ ♪ How measureless and strong ♪ ♪ And shall forevermore endure ♪ ♪ The saints and angels ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Coming within the ocean filled ♪ ♪ And were the skies of parchment made ♪ ♪ For every star on earth a quill ♪ ♪ And every man a sky by which to write ♪ ♪ To write the love of God above ♪ ♪ Withdrawing the ocean dry ♪ ♪ Your goodness God contain the whole ♪ ♪ The stretch from sky to the love of God ♪ ♪ Oh love of God ♪ ♪ How rich and pure ♪ ♪ How measureless and strong ♪ ♪ And shall forevermore endure ♪ ♪ The saints and angels ♪ ♪ Oh love of God ♪ ♪ How rich and pure ♪ ♪ How measureless and strong ♪ ♪ And shall forevermore endure ♪ ♪ The saints and angels ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Your grace that leads the sinner home ♪ ♪ From death to life forever ♪ ♪ And sings the song of righteousness ♪ ♪ By blood and not by man ♪ (upbeat music) (soft music) ♪ Your grace that reaches far and wide ♪ ♪ To every tribe and nation ♪ ♪ Has called my heart to enter in ♪ ♪ The joy of your salvation ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ (soft music) ♪ Your grace that I cannot explain ♪ ♪ Dawned by my earthly wisdom ♪ ♪ The prince of life without a stake ♪ ♪ Was traded for this sin ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ (soft music) ♪ When I rise up and overflow ♪ ♪ My song will sound forever ♪ ♪ For grace will see me welcomed home ♪ ♪ To walk beside my Savior ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ ♪ By grace I am redeemed ♪ ♪ By grace I am restored ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ ♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ (soft music) ♪ In Christ alone my hope is found ♪ ♪ He is my light and I stray ♪ ♪ My song this cornerstone ♪ ♪ This solid ground ♪ ♪ Firm through the fiercest drought and storm ♪ ♪ What heights of love ♪ ♪ What depths of peace ♪ ♪ When fears are stilled ♪ ♪ When striving seeks ♪ ♪ My comforter ♪ ♪ When all here in the love of Christ I am ♪ (soft music) ♪ In Christ alone who took on flesh ♪ ♪ Fullness of God in helpless faith ♪ ♪ This gift of love and righteousness ♪ ♪ Scorned by the ones he came to save ♪ ♪ 'Til on that cross as Jesus died ♪ ♪ The wrath of God was satisfied ♪ ♪ For every sin one who was laid ♪ ♪ Here in the blood of Christ I am ♪ (soft music) ♪ And in the ground his body lay ♪ ♪ Light of the world by darkness slain ♪ ♪ Then bursting forth in glorious day ♪ ♪ Up from the grave he rose ♪ ♪ And as he stands ♪ ♪ In victory ♪ ♪ His curse has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ For I am his and he is mine ♪ ♪ Bought with the precious blood of God ♪ (soft music) (soft music) ♪ No guilt ♪ ♪ No guilt in life ♪ ♪ No fear in death ♪ ♪ This is the power of Christ in me ♪ ♪ From life's first cry to final breath ♪ ♪ Jesus commands my destiny ♪ ♪ No power of hell ♪ ♪ No scheme of man ♪ ♪ Could ever pluck me from his hand ♪ ♪ To rejuice or cause me wrong ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ and I know my own ♪ ♪ No power of hell ♪ ♪ No scheme of man ♪ ♪ Could ever pluck me from his hand ♪ ♪ To rejoice or cause me wrong ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ I stand ♪ (soft music) - We're gonna sing this last song together.

Behold our God as we prepare ourselves to come before him in praise and worship, that we honor him because he is our king. (soft music) ♪ He who has held the oceans in his hands ♪ ♪ Who has numbered every grain of sand ♪ ♪ Kings and nations tremble at his voice ♪ ♪ All creation rises to rejoice ♪ ♪ Behold our God seated on his throne ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Behold our king ♪ ♪ Nothing can compare ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ (soft music) (soft music) - Let's give him counsel.

♪ Who has given counsel to the Lord ♪ ♪ Who can question any of his words ♪ ♪ Who can teach the one who knows all things ♪ ♪ Who can fathom all his wondrous deeds ♪ ♪ Behold our God seated on his throne ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Behold our king ♪ ♪ Nothing can compare ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ (soft music) ♪ Who has felt the nails upon his hands ♪ ♪ Bearing all the guilt of sinful man ♪ ♪ God eternal humbled to the grave ♪ ♪ Jesus savior risen now to bless the grave ♪ ♪ Behold our God seated on his throne ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Behold our king ♪ ♪ Nothing can compare ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ (soft music) - Let us work you a reign.

♪ You will reign forever ♪ ♪ Let your glory fill the earth ♪ ♪ You will reign forever ♪ ♪ Let your glory fill the earth ♪ ♪ You will reign forever ♪ ♪ Let your glory fill the earth ♪ ♪ You will reign forever ♪ ♪ Let your glory fill the earth ♪ ♪ Behold our God seated on his throne ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Behold our king ♪ ♪ Nothing can compare ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Behold our God seated on his throne ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Behold our king ♪ ♪ Nothing can compare ♪ ♪ Come let us adore him ♪ - Amen, you may be seated.

(soft music) - Okay, just to kind of give you a heads up, what we're planning to do today is, after I give a brief encouragement, we're gonna ask those of you up in the front, we're gonna move out the chairs, the white chairs completely, and then we're gonna have you guys kind of sit on there.

That's why we have carpet on there. And I don't know how many of you guys kind of brought mats. Again, we're just leaving it up to you. And then at some point in our prayer time, we're gonna ask those of you who want to pray and ask for prayer to come up and sit up in the front area somewhere.

And one of the pastors and the elders will come and we'll pray with you during that time. Okay, so I'll give you the more specific instructions as we go, but let me begin with a word of prayer before we give the encouragement, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you as unworthy vessels in needing of your grace, again, needing of your presence in our lives.

And even in our prayers, Lord God, we are weak without your help. We pray, Father, that you would give us alertness, soberness, a sense of urgency that we may pray and to seek you out with all our heart. Open our eyes, Father, and soften our hearts. And as we have gathered together to worship, to pray that you would help us, Lord God, to build this church as a house of prayer.

So we pray for your guidance and your Holy Spirit's empowerment, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. I don't have a specific text that we're gonna be going to, I'm gonna be jumping from different things, but whenever we talk about prayer, I would say one of the biggest things that affects our ability to pray is our soberness.

If you've come this evening with some sort of urgency, and you haven't prayed before, you haven't been in the habit of praying, but if you came tonight with some sense of urgency, like something's happening in your life, something that you desperately need God to answer, I can almost guarantee you're gonna have effective prayer, because you know what to pray for.

And oftentimes, prayer is a groaning of your heart for something that is absolutely needed. But if that's not the case, and you come into this room distracted, maybe you just watched a movie right before you came, or maybe you were doing something that kind of distracted, and your mind is full of whatever else that has preoccupied your mind, even if you've been in prayer before, and you've been to school of prayer, you're gonna have a difficult time praying, because your mind and your heart is gonna lead you to other places other than to pray.

So our soberness, our sense of urgency, is directly linked to the effectiveness of how we pray. Prayer is not something that you can turn on and off, because prayer is an extension of where you are before you entered prayer. Everybody knows how to pray when it is urgent. When there's something desperate in your heart, when there's something that you really want to cry out to God, everybody knows how to pray.

You don't need to have the words, you don't need to be theologically minded, you don't need to have many verses, you don't even have to have practiced it for years. Because prayer ultimately is an outpouring of something that you desperately need answered before God. But the greatest hindrance to prayer is callousness.

So if you come into this room with a callous heart, distracted heart, where you came because it's Friday, this is what Christians do, you're supposed to do this, then obviously you will have some time struggling. There are some jobs that we have that requires you to be to some degree callous.

If you're a soldier in time of war, and you get overly sensitive, and you get overly sensitive about everything that happens, then you can't fight. I've talked to doctors who are oncologists, and they're in a habit of giving bad news to people, saying that your mother or father, your son, daughter, may only have a few days or a few months to live.

And I remember asking them, "How do you handle that, going home each night, "having to have given these horrific news to families?" He said, "You know, we have to learn to turn it off." In fact, sometimes they become so callous that they would tell somebody that they're going to die in the next few weeks, and then they'll go out and just joke around with their doctor friends.

And he says, "I know that sounds horrible." But he said, "If they don't learn how to do that, "they can't continue to work." And I know police officers, that if you don't learn to turn that off, and you bring home everything that's going on, it's very difficult to do that for a long period of time.

Some jobs require to be able to turn that off. But this is exactly the opposite of our Christian faith. If you turn off your heart, it affects everything that you do. If you become callous, it affects everything that you do. First, it affects your prayer. You can't pray, because your heart is not leading you to the words that you're saying.

It doesn't actually mean. What your heart desires and what you are saying doesn't necessarily matter. So, the first place where you see, if you have a callous heart, where you can't, and you have a very difficult time praying, is when we have a callous heart. You cannot worship, because worship is a response of how you are being affected.

So, if you're not being affected, and your mind and your heart and your life is engaged and entangled in civilian affairs, and all of a sudden you want to go into battle, you'll find that it is almost impossible. Our whole Christian life is driven by what God is doing in our hearts.

So, if we allow our hearts to become callous, and there's obviously various different terms that they use for that. Lukewarmness, right? Where we become inoculated by the truth that we hear so often, that it's just information. It no longer moves you. It doesn't stir up a sense of worship or urgency.

Psychologists call this a hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation basically is a mental habit of overstimulation of the same thing, which eventually becomes mundane. Let me say that again. Mental habit of overstimulation of the same thing, which eventually becomes mundane. Where, as Christians, because we come to praise this magnificent God and the glory of Christ and the gospel and heaven and hell, but after a year, two years, four years, five years, it's just you've heard...

How many times have you heard this? How many times do you memorize this? And you've allowed your heart to become callous, and now it's just, well, let's see who can give the better variation of the same thing that I already know. Maybe whose illustration is better? Who put the sermon together better?

But the content of the message no longer stirs us. And wanting to find something new, that only works for a few years, but after a while, there's nothing new under the sun. Our Christian faith is often driven into lukewarmness. And according to the book of Revelation, lukewarmness is not something that just happens.

The Bible says in Revelation chapter 2, it says you have forsaken your first love. It's something that we choose to do. Now, you don't choose to be lukewarm. You don't say, "I want my heart to be callous," but we deliberately choose things that causes us to become callous. We don't run from things that causes us to be lukewarm.

We don't actively pursue with all our heart the things that cause us heart to melt and to be softened. So as a result of that, one, two, three steps down the line, we have chosen. We have chosen the steps that will lead us to a callous heart. And once we become callous, nothing gets through.

We go through the habit. We do what's right, but we're no longer actively engaged. And where that is demonstrated more than anything else is prayer. You can open up your lips, and you can be touched by the music, and you can, depending on the style, depending on the musician, you may be manipulated for a period, but prayer is something you cannot do if your heart is callous.

Some of the words that are synonyms to the word callous, cauterized, thick-skinned, hardened, insensitive, deadened to feelings, indifference to suffering, cold-blooded, emotionally unavailable. We're no longer moved by the things that move us. Scripture tells us sin, first and foremost, is at the heart of callousness. 2 Corinthians 3.14, Paul says, "But their minds were hardened for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ." He says their minds were hardened.

Their minds are hardened. So when they hear the truth, when the glory of God is revealed, nothing happens. It's like hardened clay. It's no longer moldable. And he said that's how a non-Christian is described. But even a Christian, Hebrews 3.13, is warned, "But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." When we have sin, that is whether it's external or whether it's internal, whether it is just bitterness, anger, slander, judgment, prejudice, whatever that may be, when we allow sin and you allow callousness, and once callousness steps in, there's nothing.

There's no amount of preaching, no amount of accountability, no amount of having a good community around you. Eventually we become inoculated by the truth. Callousness affects the way we see Scripture. Not only does it prevent us from praying, prevent us from worshiping, but even the way you understand Scripture, it's not, our ability to understand the heart of God is not purely a mental exercise.

It is a spiritual exercise. This is what Jesus says to the disciples, and Jesus, aware of this, said to them, to the disciples, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?" After everything that God made clear, Jesus made clear to them, they still couldn't understand.

And the way Jesus described that, he says, "It's because of your hardened heart, that even though I made it very plain to you, it's not getting through. Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear, and do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They said to him, "Twelve." "When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they said to him, "Seven." And he was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?" After having made it so crystal clear, he said, "Even the obvious things," he said, "Why do you not understand?" So sometimes the non-Christians, who do not believe God, see the way the Christians respond to the things that we sing, and things that we profess, and say, "I don't know if you really believe that.

I can't believe people who believe that would be that callous toward the things that they say." We are told repeatedly, over and over again, the danger for Christians, if you've been a Christian for a while, or even for a short period of time, is to not to drift. And that's what the whole book of Hebrews was about.

Do not drift. Pay attention. Do not drift. Pay attention. How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? Simply out of neglect. Simply because you're raising your children, you're paying your bills, going to school. That in the context of living, you've just drifted, and you've allowed your heart to become callous.

I know how easy it is to become callous, because even as I prepare sermons, I can become callous. I mean, if you don't preach for a living, you might not understand what I'm saying. But even as I'm preparing scripture, even as I am preparing to encourage you, to challenge you, this can become habitual.

And my heart becomes callous, and I focus on what I need to put together, how this is going to sound. Is this right? Is this wrong? And all this can be done with a callous heart, and none of it affecting me, hoping all of it would affect you. Easily.

And if I don't carefully watch my own heart, even this can be done in callousness. We are told to be careful not to neglect, not to be hardened. Ephesus says, "Do not forsake your first love." 1 Corinthians, "Do not be lukewarm." Over and over again. Why is this such a big problem?

Because the next step of callousness is unbelief. The next step of, if you continue to accept callousness and lukewarmness and neglect of your salvation, and that becomes a normal pattern of your life, you're one crisis away from walking away from your faith. You're one crisis away. Because you're not grounded.

So what's keeping you is not the love of Christ. What's keeping you is not truth. What's keeping you is habit. That's why when the pandemic hit, so many people who are hanging on out of habit, when the habit of going to church was broken, they no longer felt the need to go to church.

Because what was keeping them going was not passion and love for Christ, was not truth, was not conviction, was not love, but simply habit. And all that needed to happen for that to be broken was for that habit to be broken. We have to watch our callousness. If we're lukewarm, you are in danger.

We are all in danger that we do not accept that as a normal pattern of life. And callousness is not obvious. No one's going to point you out and say, "Hey, you didn't sing loud enough," or, "You didn't pray with passion." No one's going to point that out. Only you know that.

Some people's passions are quiet. Some people's passions are loud. You can't just determine that passion from external things. But you know that. I know that if my heart is lukewarm. Over and over again, the Bible tells us that God is anything but callous. If God was callous toward us, lukewarm toward us, you and I would not be here.

We would have been a long time ago. He would have just handed us over, let you just do, because out of callousness. He would have just kind of allowed us. In fact, that's what the Bible says, that final stage of judgment is that He just releases us. He just kind of lets it go, lets you drift, lets you go on your path.

Instead of fighting for us. 47 times in the Bible, the Scripture tells us that because He is compassionate, we are not consumed. Number 3, 22, 23. The Lord's love and kindness indeed never cease, for His compassion never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. In the NIV, it says because of His great love, we are not consumed.

We're not simply here because we chose the right path and we're walking toward the right things and we're doing the right things. He said it's because of His loving kindness, because of His compassion toward us, that He's not allowing us to just simply drift. He is fighting for us.

In Psalm 103, 10-13, He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. It's because of His compassion. You know, for God to judge us and deal with us according to our sins, you know what He has to do? Do nothing. Do nothing. It's like a drug addict that has nobody around him cares and just let him do what he wants to do.

And the judgment of the choices that he's making is going to be obvious. All God has to do is to be indifferent toward us, and we would be consumed. The reason why you and I are here is because He's not indifferent toward us. The Bible says repeatedly that He has compassion.

In fact, everything Jesus did, the Bible says, He did it because of compassion. Matthew 14, 14, "When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them, and He healed their sick." And over and over again, the Bible says, the reason why He did that-- I mean, Jesus was so tired.

I mean, if anybody deserved a rest, to just break away and stop ministry, I mean, He decided that He was going to go to the cross. If He did nothing, if He didn't heal anybody, just enough so that they can say, "Oh, He has power," and then went to the cross, that would have been enough.

But it says, everything He did, He was moved by compassion. When He saw their suffering, He was moved. Because He was moved, He tirelessly did ministry. Matthew 15, 32, "Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, 'I feel compassion for these people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.'" Even their hunger, He had compassion on them.

At Lazarus' grave, even though He was about to raise them, He weeps in front of them because He sees the suffering of mankind. Even as they reject Him, as He's going into Jerusalem, even as He knows that He's going to be crucified at the end of that week, He weeps for Israel because of their sin and the judgment that's coming upon them because of what's about to happen.

Everything that you and I have is because He was compassionate toward us. So when He says, "Pick up your cross and follow Me," the path that He wants us to follow, yes, there is suffering, there's sacrifice, but the path that He wants us to walk along with Him is why He picked up the cross.

Not just the fact that He picked up the cross, but why He picked up the cross. He picked up the cross because He had compassion for sinners. So why do we need to pray? Yes, we pray when we're sick. We pray when there's need. We pray when we're lonely.

We pray because we need financial help. Our family's not the way that we want. Yes, all these things we want to pray, but the primary reason why God calls us to pray is the same reason why Jesus prays. He prays because He was compassionate toward us. When He says, "Abide in My word," if you abide in My word, ask whatever you wish.

What is it that He wants us to abide in? Just be pure? Be the poor? Yes, all that is true. But what's the primary thing that Jesus wanted His disciples to abide in? He said, "Son of man, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." So when He told His disciples to abide in Me, He's telling them to do what I do when I leave.

Do what I do when I leave. So what is the primary thing that He wants us to abide in so that He can answer our prayers? It's to pursue sinners. That's the primary way that we are to abide in Christ. So when you pray for the lost, He says, "I will answer you, because that's exactly what I want you to do.

I want you to follow Me, to pick up the cross, so that the lost may come to Christ." But when our hearts are hardened and calloused, the lost becomes a burden, almost an annoyance. People keep coming to church. There's more people we've got to take care of. More people to be concerned about.

Isn't that enough? When our hearts become calloused, it just becomes added number to the larger crowd, and we're just adding more and more. Because we do not understand the heart of Christ. We do not understand the heart of Christ. Just like the Pharisees. They were so concerned about being pure, but they completely misunderstood, or did not understand, or rejected God's purpose for them.

Why aren't you seeking the lost? Why aren't you where the sinners are? Why do you not care about people who are lost? Let me conclude with this. In Matthew 24, 12, we are warned "Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." So the question that I want to wrestle together with you is, what is it about the increase in lawlessness that causes most people's love to grow cold?

What is it about the increase of wickedness, which I think every single one of us would agree? I mean, I know that every generation says, "Man, this is getting bad. The immorality, the debauchery, the sexual stuff that's being accepted, sometimes even inside the church. I mean, it has gotten so bad.

The mutilation of young children, not even being able to identify if you're a man or a female, and just abortion at will." I mean, I don't think I need to describe to you because we're all part of the same generation. And I say, the years that I've been a Christian, and I know that every generation says this, but this is unimaginable how far we have come.

But what is it about the increase of darkness and wickedness that causes us to grow cold? Love grows cold because people will succumb to greater temptation. Right now, your temptation is on your phone. I mean, sexual immorality is on your phone, which is private, it's personal, and you can access it 24/7.

So because of increase of wickedness, there's more temptation. As a result of more temptation, more people will fall. And as a result of the compromise of that, your love will grow cold. There is no way that you can be compromised in sin and be passionate toward the things of God.

Love grows cold because persecution of the light will increase because the line is much more clear today than it was even five years ago. Are you with Christ or against Christ? And so because the line has been drawn, and that line has become clearer and clearer, and it's becoming more and more difficult to take the middle ground, anyone who is striving to live a comfortable life is going to find it very, very difficult to have a passionate heart for Christ because you will be compromised by avoiding persecution at every level.

Love will grow cold because the narrow way will seem even narrower than before. He said a few will be found in it, and you'll find that there's less and less people that you will be able to relate to. So the temptation when wickedness increases is to stay with the crowd, even in the church.

Stay with the crowd. Don't go too far. Don't fall behind. But to stay with the crowd. But sometimes the crowd is lukewarm. Oftentimes the crowd is lukewarm and callous. So if you stay with the crowd, you will also be callous and lukewarm. Because of increase in wickedness, there's a greater temptation than not to break away.

We're only committed to righteousness if we all do it together. If we're not doing it together, we end up not doing it. Love will grow cold because of the increase of callousness, because lukewarmness becomes the norm. It becomes the norm. Almost everybody around you is that way, so you think that this is normal.

As a result of increase of wickedness, the temptation is for us to grow cold. This is where you and I are. Even if you are in a crowd of people pursuing what you think is right, the temptation to really go beyond that because we want to stay with the group that we're at.

You just happen to be at a church where we have a different level, and your church would have another level. So because of increase of wickedness, love will grow cold. Very, very few people are passionately pursuing God with all their might. But you know what's interesting here? It says, "After he warns that many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved." So who's the one who endures to the end?

Conquers all his sins? No. The one whose love does not grow cold. That's what he means here. So who's the one who endures? Not endures, like you were lukewarm all your life and callous all your life, but you know, I never did drugs. I never did crazy. I never murdered anybody.

So I just kind of stayed with the pact, and I made the right decision, and I served the church a little bit here, a little bit there, but your heart has been cold and callous and lukewarm the whole time. He says, "But the one who endures is the one who does not succumb to lukewarmness." And then he says, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Do you notice here he said world evangelism is going to happen while most people's love is going to grow cold?

Did you notice that? He didn't say there's going to be a huge revival of all these people just waking up, and there's going to be a huge number of people going to commit to seeking the lost. He says no. He says the increase of wickedness will cause most people to grow cold, but the few who endures to the end will take the gospel to the remotest part of the world, and then the end will come.

So God is raising up the few. God is calling the few. And oftentimes when God calls us, he calls us away from the crowd. So if we want to be prayer warriors, we have to first fight against our callousness. We have to fight against our lukewarmness, against our neglect.

You cannot turn Jesus on and off, turn it on on Sunday, and then whenever you're not at church, you live life like anybody else, and then come to prayer meeting and then turn it back on, and then when the prayer meeting is over, turn it off, and then come to church on Sunday and eat the servant and turn it back on.

Just like you can't turn your heart on and off toward people. I can't just tell you, you two get together and fall in love. Life will be so much easier. Bad ministry will be over tomorrow. Just like I can't tell you to go, you two people fall in love.

Just like you can't turn off your heart and turn it on with people, you cannot do that with God. Either you are fighting, fighting to make sure that when you see callousness and lukewarmness come on, what am I doing that's causing me to be in that state? Am I headed toward a passionate love for Christ, or am I headed toward lukewarmness?

Where am I? Where am I headed? So tonight, when we pray, I want you guys to pray along those lines. First and foremost, the four things. Ask for forgiveness for any sins, internal and external, that we may have excused in the past. Are there compromises? Are you just like, "You know, everybody struggles with this.

Everybody does this." That's a compromise. Even if the whole world abandons God, that will never be your justification for abandoning God. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. If there is bitterness, rebellious heart, sin, impurity, that you have somehow justified in your life, first and foremost, that is the root of your callousness.

So let's take some time to identify that. Not just external things, but internal things of our heart, to pray against that. Pride. Let's pray against that. Ask God to soften your heart and open your eyes to see the spiritual reality of heaven and hell we profess to believe. Think about that.

How does the doctrine of hell not cause you to be stirred? Hedonic adaptation. Do you remember the first time you heard that doctrine? And you believed it? I mean, think about that. People are going to go to hell for eternity, where there's gnashing of teeth. And we live next to these people.

Some of them are family members. How come it doesn't stir us? How come we're not urgent? How come we are more compassionate for a dog that gets run down in the street than a human being who does not know God? What has caused us to be this heartened? Why are we so callous?

Ask the Lord to soften our hearts, that we may see the world through His eyes. That as He wept for Israel, that God would teach us. If you've never wept for sinners before, you know, it's just so strange in our generation that being a man means that you don't cry.

Jesus cried. It doesn't make sense that you wouldn't cry. You wouldn't weep, knowing that all this is going to end one day. All this is going to end one day. All the stuff about the market, about the housing, about the politics, all this is going to end one day.

And God is going to divide between those who are His and those who are not, whose names are written in the book of life and those who are not. Knowing that, why does it no longer bother me? So let's pray. Let's pray that God would break our hearts and that He would open our eyes to see through His lens.

That He had so much compassion that He was willing to come off of His throne and empty Himself and become a servant so that you and I would be saved. That we would have that heart. I ask that God would give us a spirit of urgency and compassion for the lost, that we may see the world and people through His eyes and have mercy and compassion.

And that we would continue to pray for that. Pray for what is urgent and dire in your life or the life of others around you. Start there. Start your prayers with whatever it is urgent in your life. Take time to pray for that. Pray for those who you do know.

If you become callous toward them, maybe you've been trying to share the gospel with them and you haven't seen progress. And somehow in your heart you've kind of given up. Take time to pray for that. Starting there, that God would give you a broken heart for the lost. The people that you love.

And then as you pray for the things that are urgent in your life, God will give you a heart beyond that. You're not going to pray for the strangers and then come to your family. You're going to start to pray for your family and then once you are broken for them, God will lead you to those people that even you do not know.

So this evening, why don't we commit ourselves to pray. And I'm sure you have your own prayers that you've brought into this room. And so if now if I can ask you, the white chairs, if you can grab that. And then just, there's little things here. And those of you sitting in the back, you don't have to commit to that.

So if as you pray, and again, your posture of prayer is important. I'm not saying that you have to kneel. But if you pray nonchalantly, right, it will affect your prayer. So even if you're going to sit, pray intentionally, right. Get to a place where you're not going to be distracted.

Be in a posture, whether sitting or kneeling, be in a posture where you're ready to commit to pray. But don't be casual about it because already by being casual, I can already tell you that you're going to struggle through prayer. So as this go away, if you brought your own stuff, you can sit on that.

Otherwise, we have carpets that are laid out. And then about 15 to 20 minutes into our individual prayer, I'm going to ask if you guys, if there's people who want to be prayed for specifically, I'm going to ask you guys to come to the front near the stairs. And then the elders and the pastors will be up in the front and take some time to pray for you.

And then somewhere around 9 o'clock to 9.10, we'll wrap it up. Okay. Okay, if we can have the music, we're just going to have an open time of prayer. And I want to encourage you as you're praying, you don't have to pray by yourself. We're not going to have a time and say, hey, get two or three get together.

If you have friends around you that you want to pray with, whether you're up in the front or you're sitting, just move around and pray together. Pray for them. Right. And and just engage in prayer, whatever you do. But don't sit there because you're having a hard time concentrating or or your mind is wandering somewhere else and you just give into that.

Persevere in prayer. Pray with other people if you need to. And then at the end, if you want to be prayed for, come up to the front. So let me pray for us. And then we're just going to open up the time for prayer and give you give you the opportunity to pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing the church here to pray together. Father, we see in the scriptures and example after example, exhortation after exhortation, that you have called us first and foremost to humble ourselves to pray. Help us to see the desperateness of where we're at. Lord, sometimes we're not even aware that there is an enemy.

Or prowling around seeking to devour us, that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Lord, we confess that we feel safe because we have homes. We feel safe because our bills are paid. And we are healthy. And we know what tomorrow will look like. Help us, Lord, God, to open our eyes to see how vulnerable we are, how weak we are when we are not abiding in you.

I pray this evening, Lord God, that you would cause us by the power of your spirit to groan within. That our prayers, Lord God, would be recognition of where we're at and our desperate need for you. Help us not to simply present our prayers, but to cry out to you in desperate need.

Help us, Lord God. Help us, Father God, to be a church that prays, to be individuals that pray. So help us, Lord God. We lift these things to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You're more than welcome to continue to stay and pray if you wanted to, but for the rest of us, if you can stand up with us for our closing praise.

Let's pray. Father, it's because of your compassion for us that you reconcile to us through the gospel. Oh God, that we have certainty because of your resurrection. We celebrate you, Lord, for you are faithful to us when we're unfaithful. You're gracious to us when we're undeserving. God, I thank you that you continue, Lord, to use your spirit to empower your church.

Lord God, as we've been encouraged to move away from callousness to soberness, for we ask for brokenness day to day, an evaluation of where our heart is, must be done, Lord God, constantly, for we are prone to wander with so many distractions around us. Give us the strength that we need, that only you can provide.

Lord God, help us to be sober-minded and not engage in things, Lord God, that will take us away from you. Lord, help us to be disciplined as well as empowered to dwell on whatever is good, whatever is perfect, whatever is ultimately your will. So I pray for our congregation, every person in this room, Lord God, that we walk out of this place filled with joy because we know, Lord God, that we are your children and that you are a faithful God who takes care of us and has been compassionate and loving towards us.

Help us in return worship you and love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We thank you, Lord God, for this time it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. You are dismissed. Oh. Can you, those of you, maybe help us put back some of the chairs that would be here.