Surrendering Circumstances & Outcome to God in Payer Luke 22 Vs 39 49

Service Announcements, Hymn Context, and Scripture Reading

Welcome to Faith Bible Church. I'm just going to go through some quick announcements to start service. As you can see, we have some decorations here. The Church of Praise is having their harvest today.

It's like a Thanksgiving for them. Second thing is October 9th. We have our Leadership Meeting at 6 p .m. Third thing, October 31st, we have our Praise and Worship. That's like our Halloween alternative, the God-honoring version of it.

So we're going to have worship in the back in the Fellowship Hall at 6 p .m. Also, our Missionaries of the Month, Jim and Joan Hansen. They serve with BMW Biblical Ministries Worldwide in Los Angeles.

They're actually retiring, so just pray for them. Just pray for their health, for the people they serve, and the people they minister to. And then we'll just start by a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for getting us all here safely, Lord.

We just pray for those who aren't here, Lord. We pray for those that need to hear your word, Lord. We just pray that they would find their way to you somehow, Lord. And we just pray that today's service, Lord, that you would have your word penetrate our hearts, Lord, and that we can keep focused today on you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

This morning, our first song is Before the Throne of God Above, and it was a poem written to a mom that was struggling physically. And it's just, I've found that as we go through a lot of these hymns, a lot of them were written when they were in the valley going through a very difficult trial, difficult time in life.

And the clarity of who God is and what he stands for and what he does in our lives becomes really clear when you're in a trial. So let's stand together. And you'll notice that there are over 20 scripture references.

I won't make you repeat them when we're done, but they're kind of embedded throughout this hymn. So it's a very God-honoring song. Before the throne of God. The next song is What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

The last song we sang had 20 paraphrased scripture references. This one has 34. So I would have never have known that unless you do a little research on it. But it's why, it's who God is, it becomes into focus.

So let's sing this, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Scripture this morning is from the book of Revelation chapter 14 verses 9 through 13.

Revelation chapter 14 verses 9 through 13. And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the angels and in the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.

Yea, saith the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. The next song is I Need Thee Every Hour and it's written by a woman in her mid -30s.

She'd married children and her in Brooklyn, New York, her husband had just passed away and in that sorrow, in that grief, in that hardship, she wrote this song, I Need Thee Every Hour. So let's stand together.

I appreciate Harold looking.

Up the history and stories behind each song. It's surprising how fitting it is to the passage and I also thank my wife who actually chooses these songs because she's more musically gifted than I am to know what songs would fit the passage and really help us to focus on God.

Jesus in Gethsemane: Prayer Before Betrayal

With that, let us all turn to Luke chapter 22 verses 39 through 46. Chapter 22, 39 through 46. Coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed and his disciples also followed him. When he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation.

And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw and he knelt down and prayed, saying, father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.

Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When he rose up from prayer and had come to his disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow. Then he said to them, why do you sleep?

Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we come before you grateful that we have Jesus who is our only mediator and who intercedes on our behalf.

And our mediator, our God, our Savior, knows what it means to suffer. He is not some distant God who has never experienced suffering, but he is the only God who has experienced suffering to the uttermost.

And with that, he empathizes and sympathizes with us. And father, knowing this, we come before you with all sorts of problems and troubles and suffering in our lives. And we also come before you on behalf of our nation, those who are suffering because of the aftermath of the hurricane.

Father, help them to find comfort and relief and trust in Jesus Christ alone. And thank you that the churches are helping out those who are suffering. May they all experience the presence of Jesus Christ during this time.

In Jesus name. Now, this passage, although short, is very deep and rich. And precisely because this is the prayer right before he is betrayed and arrested and crucified. Now, some translations might bracket verses 43 and 44 saying that it might not have been part of the original manuscript.

And oftentimes I take note of that. But here I think structurally 43 and 44 fit the text very well. What do I mean? This passage shows a chiastic structure. And if you are, if you have been part of the Psalm Bible study at 9 30 a .m., we go through Psalms, which is written in Hebrew poetry.

And a lot of the structures show what the poem, poem or the poet wants to emphasize. And one of the main structures or more frequent ones that we see is the chiastic structure. Chi comes from the Greek letter chi, right?

Looks like an X. And what it does is the structure itself has parallel parts in the passage where it echoes. So the beginning and the end, there might be a repeated theme. And then the second to the second to the last repeated theme, third and third to last, and then so on until the center is highlighted.

Right? And through that structure, they highlight what needs to be emphasized, right? They didn't have exclamation marks back then. I have heard many illustrations as to how chiastic structures emphasize.

I like the idea of a sandwich. There's bread and bread. And then the most important part is the meat in the middle. But if you're into Oreos, then it's a cookie, cookie cream. Or if you're into jewelry, it's the diamond with the contrasting background.

Right? Either way, the middle is the part that is highlighted. So let's take a look here. In verse 40, part B, Jesus commands the disciples to pray. And then in verse 46, Jesus ends with the command for the disciples to pray.

41A, Jesus withdraws to pray. And while 45B, he returns from prayer. Right? There's that closure. 41B, he kneels to pray. And 45A, he rises from prayer. 41C to 42, Jesus prays. And then 44, he prays even more earnestly.

Right? And then 43, which is the center of it all, is that God responds. God responds to strengthen his son who is about to suffer. Now, we live in a nation that has been brainwashed to think that suffering is not normal.

Trials are foreign to us. And this is why many find out the hard way that when suffering does occur, we're not living in paradise. In fact, men in their own strength cannot make paradise happen. We cannot return to the Garden of Eden on our own strength.

That is a lie from Satan. Suffering is not only natural in this fallen world, but needs to be something we anticipate. And this idea, unfortunately, has crept into the church. And Christians do not know what to do when there are trials and suffering.

And it does not help when all these worship songs are hip and fast and happy all the time. And this is why I do appreciate Lauren picking the songs that actually have suffering at the context. And Harold sharing the context really helps.

All these authors were suffering, and they all went to God and his word to find comfort. And unfortunately, that is missing oftentimes in the church in this country, because we follow the path of the world, right?

Drown out the sorrows with something else, whether substances, hobbies, whatever. Just don't face it, ignore it, and cover it up. Avoid the path of suffering, even if it means disobeying God, right? That's all too common.

And at the core of this problem is our departure from the ancient tradition, which is surrendering our circumstances and outcomes to God in prayer. We have to take it to God in prayer. And that has become so foreign to us.

The main point of our text this morning is, despite the trials and suffering, God's people must prioritize prayer just as Jesus did. Despite the trials and suffering, God's people must prioritize prayer just as Jesus did.

God's Presence Through Suffering and the Cup of Judgment

First, God's answer to prayer is his presence through the suffering of the faithful. God's answer to prayer is his presence through the suffering of the faithful. This is the last passage before Jesus is betrayed and killed.

This is important because Jesus is the transcendent God. We talked about this in Psalm. God is transcendent. He's not like us. He can do so many things that we can't even dream of. He's utterly other, yet he's imminent, he's personal.

He enters into the world that he's created. He enters in time and history. He interacts with the world. He talks with his people. He eats with his people, right? And Jesus will be betrayed by his people.

Jesus is a God who experiences suffering himself. Suffering is not foreign to God. There's someone in heaven who rules over all things, who knows what you're going through, and has experienced suffering just like you have.

One would argue so much worse. The last thing Jesus does before dying on the cross for our sin is that he prays. Verse 39 sets the background. He takes his disciples to the Mount of Olives, which is on the east side of Jerusalem.

And rather than resting before his death, the night of his betrayal, he will meet with his heavenly father in prayer. That's what he will spend all night doing. He's going to pray. Now Jesus also commands his disciples to pray.

Pray that you may not enter into temptation. This reference to temptation refers back to the last passage, verses 28 through 38, where Jesus warned Peter that Satan desired to destroy you, right? Destroy your faith.

The temptation for the disciples is to abandon Christ. It's abandon the faith when trial actually comes. After all, it's easy to be loyal to Christ when there is no opposition. It's easy to be loyal to Christ when you're surrounded by all the benefits, right?

All the attention, all the miracles. It's easy to proclaim your faith when you're praised. But when you face challenges for your faith, you need to pray. The antidote to temptation is leaning on God's strength in prayer.

The prevention to falling into temptation is prayer. A couple of yards away, Jesus prays by himself, and he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and prayed. A stone's throw would have been a couple of yards.

He wanted to be alone with his heavenly father before his impending death. He kneels to pray, and this is different from what the ancient people did to pray. They stood up to pray. In fact, if you stay for the Slavic church service, you'll notice that they will stand up to pray.

That's why Harold often realigns the chairs here. They push the chairs back, right? Because they keep standing up to pray, and they pray more than once throughout the whole service, right? That was the norm.

But here, Jesus kneels to pray. He humbly kneels before his father. This is his outward expression of his inward dependence. Jesus, the God-man, God incarnate, the creator of the world, the redeemer, needed to depend on his father because he trusts the father.

He chose to lean on his father rather than on himself, and the shocking thing is, us humans who are mere dust often think that we can lean on ourselves. Now, while verse 41 showed his humble posture, verse 42 shows us the content of his prayer.

Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus' prayer is rather raw compared to our often formally prepared, well-rehearsed prayers. The cup here is the cup of judgment, and David read that in Revelation today, the cup that at its full strength, not mixed.

Not mixed means it's not diluted. It's the wrath of God, right? Back then, they would dilute a one to ten dilution, so wine was often not as alcoholic, right? After all, that was their main drink, but in Revelation 14, it's the full strength.

The wrath of God will not be held back, and in our case, this is the cup of judgment that would be poured upon the Son of God. In fact, in the Old Testament, we get the idea of the wrath of God in the form of a cup, metaphorical, of course.

Psalm 75, 8, for in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup with foaming wine, well-mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. There's a day of wrath that's coming to all the wicked, and they will not escape from it.

In fact, all the wicked of the earth will have to taste the last drop of God's wrath and judgment, and for Christ, the cup is the cross. The cup is the full wrath of God that will pour, that will be poured down on His only Son in order that He may save His people from their sin.

The cup is the judgment that we all deserve, but Jesus will suffer for it on our behalf, and you can imagine how devastating and painful that must be to have the full mixture of hell that we deserve pour down upon Jesus all at once in the matter of a couple of hours.

This is, I can't even describe with words what that would have felt for Christ to suffer for our sin on the cross. I once got into an argument with an unbeliever in college, and he said, well, if Jesus knew His omniscient, and it's like, yes, He's omniscient, well, if He knew the suffering that's to come, isn't that kind of unfair, right?

Oftentimes, in our limited knowledge, we think, well, if we know what's coming, then it's more bearable. However, in this case, I think His omniscience actually makes it harder to know the full wrath of God and what's deserving of this, what this world deserves, to know every ounce of sin that's been committed and will be committed, and to know how holy God is and how just He is, and to know that in order for His justice to be fulfilled, that His mercy is poured out upon the undeserving, what He must have to go through, I think the omniscience actually makes it worse.

And this prayer may make some of us feel uncomfortable. What do you mean Jesus asked for this cup to pass from Him? Didn't He come to die on the cross to save sinners? How could Jesus and His Father differ on this plan of redemption?

The answer, of course, is they don't. Notice the content of the prayer. Ultimately, Jesus prays, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus' prayer is actually honest and open to God to share His anxiety that He is experiencing before facing the full wrath of God.

After all, imagine a single human facing the full intensity of hell in a span of just a few hours. Hell is scary enough to experience for all eternity, but all of that is condensed into just a matter of few hours, and that's what Christ experienced.

How can anyone just nonchalantly face that kind of trauma? Despite His hesitancy, He submits to His Father's will, not my will, but yours be done. Theologically, this is important. First, because Jesus is fully human, He has His human will.

It's kind of weird to think about, but to be a human means you have your own will. That's why you have your desires, and you have your intentions, and you have this purpose, right? No human is born without a will, and I'm not getting into this free will predestination debate.

That's not what the text is saying. Every human is a will. To be a human, you have a will. You're not a robot where you're just doing something just because you're programmed, right? We all exercise our will when we wake up in the morning, and because Jesus is fully human, He has His own will.

After all, right? He's a human. He has to be fully human. Second, because Jesus is fully human, He shows the proper way to live according to God's will. When you are a perfect human, when you're a sinless human, you submit to God's will rather than oppose it.

Jesus is the only human being on earth that has perfectly obeyed God's will by aligning His human will with His God's will. Oftentimes, we have no problem following God, as long as it makes sense to us.

Oftentimes, we have no problem following God as long as His will aligns with ours. Yet, when life gets hard, when the cost to following is too high to follow, we often abandon God and His will to pursue ours.

I'm not sure how many times I've heard non-believers say, you know, I've tried Christianity, but I just couldn't believe in a God who condemns anyone. Oh, so God's will of judgment, God's standard of judgment just didn't fit yours.

Oh, okay, right? God's standard was too lowly for your standard. That's what it's saying. Or, or I couldn't possibly follow a God who says LGBTQ is sin, right? Oh, you mean God's standard for purity was too corrupt for yours?

Right? That's, that's what it's saying. The will, the human will, rather than submitting to God's will as it needed to, rather, they reject God's will because it goes against the human will. And that's the problem with autonomy.

When people become laws unto themselves, that's what autonomous means, right? Not a, not a Tesla vehicle, right? Autonomous means self-law. You get to decide what's right and wrong. And in fact, this goes all the way back to Genesis three, Adam and Eve, I want to do what I want rather than what God said, right?

I have to be God. And, and we are living in the very consequence of it where we want freedom for the freedom's sake without the restraint of God's will. And now we can't even decide what is true gender and what is right or wrong because we want autonomy rather than God.

That's, that's, uh, that's what Francis Schaeffer says in 1980. Uh, imagine how, how much worse it is now. And in fact, human history looks more like Frank Sinatra as I did it my way. And that's the natural course of corrupt humanity.

God says this, but I like my way better. And here, Jesus prayer shows the opposite. He submits to God, despite his desires. He submits to God, knowing what he will suffer. And he submits to God to his own death.

Now, how does God respond? Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. Uh, angels are God's servants. Uh, it's fitting because we just read Psalm 104, right? Uh, angels, God makes angels into spirits and God makes angels into flames of fire, right?

Psalm 104 and quoted in Hebrews 1, 7. In the old Testament, God sent angels to his people whenever they were suffering. For example, an angel delivers the prophet Elijah food when he was depressed and fleeing for his life in first Kings 19.

Here, an angel comes down to strengthen Christ at the center of the passage on prayer of Christ is God's answer to his prayer. What this shows is God is not absent during the suffering, but he is precisely present through it.

Oftentimes when we pray during our suffering or before we face the trials, we often pray that we may be delivered from it as if we're taken out of it. But in the Bible, many times, the answer to such a prayer is answered that he would be present, that God would be present through the suffering, that he would be there alongside the sufferer.

Suffering according to God's plan guarantees his presence and providence. Those who suffer in faith are never suffering alone. Those who suffer for the sake of Christ are never without Christ. And in response, Jesus prays even more fervently and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.

Then he sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. The word for earnest connotes extreme desperation. This is a similar desperation that the city of Nineveh showed in Jonah 3a when Jonah's very concise sermon reached the ears of the king and the king didn't even know how to respond.

And he says, perhaps, maybe, maybe God will have mercy on us if we stripped down into sackcloth and weep and fast, not just the king, but from the king to the cattle. And the king says, maybe, perhaps, perhaps God will have mercy.

And for Christ's inner desperation, so it shows up physically. His sweat became like great drops of blood. There are two common ways to interpret this. One is that Jesus started sweating out blood due to high intensity of stress.

It all has to do with what is this comparison? Because it says like great drops of blood. So in that case is his sweat, like red, like blood. And in such medical condition does exist. Although rare, it is physiologically possible for your blood vessels to pop due to a lot of stress.

And that you, you start bleeding out of your sweat glands, sweat pores, right? Skin pores. So it is possible. That's one way. Totally depends on what you're likening to. Is it the color of the sweat? Or the second idea is sweat like blood would mean like drops of blood falling, right?

Thick, ooey, oozy, gooey blood falling. And for those of you who have, you know, bled before, you understand it just keeps on dropping until you stop. So he is so in distress that, and his prayer is so fervent that he is sweating, right?

In the middle of the night, he's sweating. Not because it's hot, because he cannot control his body, this anxiety, this level of fear of facing God's wrath. Undiluted wrath of God. Either way, his prayer physically affected him.

Now, what we see here is Jesus's resolute determination to follow God despite what he will face. There's no question that Jesus would not follow God. That was not even a possibility. He willingly chose to die for us on the cross.

And oftentimes we want to follow God as long as it makes sense to us. As long as it is convenient to us. As long as it benefits us. As long as it doesn't hurt us. As long as it doesn't cost us. And oftentimes our prayers can sound like sharing with God what needs to happen rather than surrendering to God's will.

Don't our prayers sometimes sound like this? Father, please bless this decision that I've already made. Father, please make this work. Now, not that these prayers are inherently wrong, right? But they can often end up with God cosigning, right?

God cosigning our plan after the fact rather than surrendering first to God, right? Sometimes we often like to give God a multiple choice question. Do I take this job or this job? Do I take this house or this house?

Do I buy this car or this model? Without considering the fact, maybe God's answer is not A, B, C, or D. Or something totally off the chart. Something totally unexpected. And it can easily become, thy will be done as long as it fits into mine.

In Christ we see the opposite. Jesus chose to suffer betrayal and death in order to obey God's will. Although there's suffering ahead, Jesus chose the path with God's presence. Although there's pain ahead, Jesus chose the path with God in it instead of the path of comfort without God.

Ultimately, Jesus chose God over his own life because he desired God over his own life. That's how much he loved God. He loved God more than himself. For Christ, the presence of God trumped his own comfort in life.

And for Christ, God's way was better than any other way, even through pain and death. Through death and pain, God was present with Christ. And although God did not deliver Christ from the cross, he delivered Christ through the cross.

And that's why he rose from the dead on the third day. And Jesus precisely knew that would happen. And he knew life without dying for our sin was worse than life when he suffered the wrath of God and rising from the dead.

He knew that God's will would accomplish full redemption, that the life and path of comfort wouldn't. Now, what must Christ's disciples do before they face suffering? During the time of Christ's, Christians must completely depend on God in prayer.

During the time of Christ's, Christians must completely depend on God in prayer. After this intense personal prayer time, Jesus checks on his disciples. When he rose up from prayer and had come to his disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow.

Disappointingly, while their master was travailing in prayer all night, his disciples were sleeping. Their sleep is not due to tiredness, as Luke says, it's from grief. After the supper, Christ's death has become even more concrete than ever to these apostles.

Instead of going to God, they have fallen asleep. And grief and depression can really cause people to be lethargic and tired. They don't want to do anything. Their body just can't function. And sleep can often be a way to escape from the reality and pain of this world.

While Jesus gave that to God, the disciples fell asleep with it. Nevertheless, Jesus still has one recommendation to his disciples. The same recommendation he gave before they fell asleep. Why do you sleep?

Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. This is the same command as verse 40. The disciples will not be ready to face the upcoming suffering unless they too go to God, just as Jesus did. There is no other solution to the temptations and trials.

You have to surrender to God. You must depend on God. You have to lean on God. And during and before time of trial and suffering, prayer must be our primary priority. Prayer is how we admit that we need God rather than ourselves.

It is to admit that we are too weak, too incapable, too powerless. Yet God is fully capable, completely caring, perfectly powerful to get us through the time of suffering and trials. In fact, one great advice you can give someone who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts, you tell them, before you complete that, I want you to call me so we can pray together.

You'd be surprised what wonders that could do and how many lives that can save. When his disciples fell asleep, when they were supposed to pray to avoid temptation, Jesus does not give a different method.

Here, try a new program. It may help you better against temptation. Maybe prayer didn't work for you. Here's a newer, more advanced model. Here's a better practice. Try option B instead. It's shown to work.

No, he commends in the same way. Pray that you may not enter into temptation. Go to God. Depend on God. Try again. When you read biographies of renowned Christians, there may not be much in common in their background.

Some are German, some are Asian, some are British, some are American, some are African, wherever. God uses all sorts of people everywhere. Some come from non-Christian family. Some come from Christian family.

Some are poor. Some are rich. Some come from a democratic nation. Some come from a communist regime, right? But what do they all have in common? Those who faithfully obey God until the very end where their biographies are written about them.

When they faced suffering and trials, they prioritized prayer. These men and women were not built differently. They were born into sin. They've tasted the sweetness of sin. They were surrounded by the wicked world.

They have suffered greatly. God has one son who's never sinned. God has all the children who have suffered. Suffering is inevitable if you live long enough. Now, what makes them different? When they were struck down, they kneeled to pray instead of standing back up on their own strength.

When they met suffering, they did not push through but ran to God instead. It doesn't matter whether it's George Mueller who took care of 10 ,000 orphans in his life without asking for a single penny from a person or George Whitefield who spoke to tens of thousands preaching and proclaiming the gospel.

Even the atheist Ben Franklin was persuaded to give to his ministry by how effective it was. They both had tremendously rich lives in prayer. In fact, their ministries were not possible without them praying on their knees.

Ultimately, the disciples will learn their pastor's way. When you read Acts, you will see a complete transformation in the apostles' prayer life. After Jesus ascends, Acts 1 through 2, they're praying.

When Peter is in prison, the church is praying. When Paul is in prison, they're singing and praying in the prison. And unless this continues in the American church, we are indeed doomed. We cannot possibly face the persecution and suffering that are coming unless we go to God in prayer, and that is the regular pattern of our spiritual lives.

Prayer for the Church, Families, and Perseverance

My wife and I had lunch with a sweet Central Asian family. I won't disclose where they're from so that their ministry back home will not be impacted in a negative sense. Who knows what government's listening to this sermon?

They come from actually a heavily Muslim populated country which used to be under Soviet Russia. So I mean that's just like a one-two punch, right? Communism and then Islam. Like if the government has been ruled by that Christianity, doesn't really, I mean they're heavily persecuted, right?

Whether in the past or now, persecution has been their history. Now, do you know what they pray for? These people pray for the American churches. Many of us may not even know where this country is, even if I mention it.

I sometimes wonder if our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world pray for us more than we pray for ourselves. Don't even get to us praying for them, it's just even praying for ourselves. And brothers and sisters, we need to start praying.

Parents, when there's hardship or familial struggles, invite your kids to pray. Sure, you might not be able to disclose all the reasons because some can be extremely dark and, right, not suitable for their age.

I get that. And you don't want all the details that they worry too much. But share some, generally, share it and have them pray. They will be amazed when God starts answering concretely. Not only that, more importantly, you've just taught them to prioritize prayer.

You've just taught them, mommy and daddy, although they're grown-ups, when life gets hard, they go first to God. That's an inheritance far greater than gold or silver. Instilling in them a pattern of prayer in their lives where they depend on God first and foremost.

And it's not too late. If you have adult kids, call them up, pray together. For all of us, pray that you will not enter into temptation tonight. I don't know, whichever sin, just pray that we do not fall into that.

Pray that you would have a clearer and truer view of your sin, that it would look more grotesque and disgusting than it did before. Pray that God will strengthen you to face persecution for your faith one day.

Pray that God would speak through you when they try to silence you. Pray for this church, that God will keep us from falling into heretical teaching or abusive practices. The clean past history does not reflect the trajectory of the future.

It's oftentimes just one false teacher that drives the church away, divides the church. Pray that the church would not chase after ear-tickling new doctrines. There's always a new threat. Pray that honesty and transparency would continue here.

We don't have NDAs here. Let's keep it that way. Pray that God would protect all marriages from adulteries in this church. Just because they're Christian couples doesn't mean that it's problem free. The enemy wants to destroy marriage in every way possible.

Pray that God would keep our children safe from the perversions of this world. Pray that the new believers will not be stunted in their growth. Pray for the women who got baptized last year. Pray for them.

Pray that their growth, their faith would continue to grow. That they wouldn't get tired of Christianity. That the knowledge of the Lord would continue to grow. Fill their minds. Pray that the old believers will not grow lukewarm in their faith.

If you're a Christian and if you've been a Christian for decades, it does get tiring, right? There's a reason why pastors, old pastors, often they get quieter and quieter. They don't speak up when there's a problem in theology, right?

Only a few of them speak up if that, right? Like John MacArthur. But many of them, when they're old enough, they're battle-worn. They're tired. Pray that they don't get tired. Pray that they would be still vigilant in their faith.

Pray that the leaders will have the boldness and wisdom to confront false teachers and wolves in sheep's clothing. That's always a threat in this church. When there's someone new, my guards are always up.

I just don't know. I don't know what kind of false teaching they could bring or influence, manipulation. I don't know. But pray that we would be discerning to know the sheep from the wolves, although they may look similar.

Pray that this church would never condone nor compromise sin. It's easy to be nice. It's easy to be light. It's hard to speak truth in love. Pray, pray, pray. Perpetual prayer is the primary responsibility of the faithful who depend on God, especially through suffering and trials.

Let us pray. Father, we're grateful for the work that you're doing in this church. We're grateful for every person that you have touched and transformed. We pray that you would strengthen us, that you would be with us, that you would help us to know that we are with you so that we may continue on faithfully, even when it is costly.

Help us to focus on the gain that we have in Christ over the loss that we may temporarily experience. Help us to love you. Help us to submit to you, surrender to you in Jesus name. Amen. Now we will enter into the time of communion.