Unshakeable Prayers

Well, good morning, everyone. It's an honor to be with you this morning as we open up God's word. This morning, we're concluding our series, "Prayers for the Church," and welcome to all those who are watching online, watching at our other campuses. I wanna tell you a story. In 1906, in Northern California, there was a massive earthquake that hit that area, 7.9 magnitude on the scale. And in San Francisco, one of the cities in that area, it was chaos. Buildings were falling and fires were spreading. It was really, really pandemonium. Because of the earthquake, there was all kinds of damage happening to infrastructure as well. Gas mains were breaking and stoves were toppling over in these homes and businesses, and so fire just started to spread everywhere. And of course, panic set in, right? Grocery stores started to burn or crumble, looting started to spread all throughout the area. It was chaos in the city. The New York Times actually posted this as their headline or their line for their coverage of it. It said this, "San Francisco is in ruins. The whole city is burning. The business portion is wiped out. Half of the residence section is gone. The flames cannot be checked." So you can imagine the residents in the city of San Francisco were just watching this unfold helplessly. The firefighters weren't able to put out the flames because the water mains were broken, and they helplessly watched as building after building collapsed, succumbing to the damage from the earthquake and the fires. But beyond the immediate concerns that were taking place in San Francisco, not only in the local area, the national leaders of our country were also really concerned as well because at the center of San Francisco stood the US Mint building. At the time, the United States was on the gold standard, and so about 1/3 of the US Gold Reserve was in this building, about $200 million worth of gold. And we can see this building here, as the buildings around it collapsed, fear grew that the Mint building would fall as well. And not only would that be trouble locally in terms of the financial relief needed for this area, but it would trigger a financial collapse in our country. And while local leaders were worried and national leaders were worried, one man was not concerned about this building at all. His name was Alfred Mullett. Of course, Alfred Mullett, known for his business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back hairstyle. No, just kidding. Not that. Alfred Mullett was the building's architect, and he was supervising the construction of this Mint building. And because he knew that San Francisco was known for having earthquakes and things like that, he designed this building to be both fireproof and earthquake-proof. He saw to it that the building had a firm foundation, five-foot thick, four-foot deep concrete foundation that this building was set on. He knew that the buildings around it were falling, but he was not concerned about the Mint building. And because of this foundation, with all the treasure placed inside it, it stood firm. Now, I don't know what may be shaking you today. Maybe it's the news headlines in the world around us. Maybe it's the difficulty in your own life personally. Maybe it's something even deeper than that. Maybe it's in your own heart where you're having struggles in that regard. But today, I want you to leave understanding the sure foundation that's beneath you. I want you to understand that sometimes, it may feel like the world is shaking around us. Sometimes, it may feel like the fires are burning in the world around us, and that the tremors of our culture, all the things that surround us might even be permeating into our church, into the church of Jesus. But in that, I want us to see today that confidence in our foundation strengthens our prayers. Confidence in our foundation strengthens our prayers. You can open in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, the Book of 1 Corinthians, and we're gonna see how the Apostle Paul addresses some things that are happening in Corinth to this church. Now, it'd be fair to say, as we look at the beginning of that book and you find your place there, it'd be fair to say that the city of Corinth was in spiritual chaos. It was a wealthy port city, famous for luxury, and famous for trade and things of that nature, but it was also notorious for immorality. In fact, so much so that the verb, to Corinthianize, was synonymous or slang in that time for immorality. But when someone said you were going to be Corinthianized, it was to behave like a Corinthian. And what they meant by that was drunkenness and sexual immorality without any restraint. And so wealth and power fueled the fire of corruptness in the city, and the tremors of the culture were even shaking the church as well. The Apostle Paul was receiving word from this. And as you read through the Book of 1 Corinthians, you'll see him address all kinds of issues that were happening in the Corinthian church, all kinds of things that would be deeply concerning as Paul's receiving word of all the things that are shaking in the church in Corinth. Things like division and jealousy, sexual immorality, arrogance, drunkenness, unequal treatment, so much trouble in one place. It might have seemed like the church was beginning to collapse. And how concerning this must have been to Paul, that Paul was the one who went to Corinth and saw this church, found it. He endured so much, he walked through so much difficulty to see these Corinthians come to a place of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now, this is their condition? This is the spiritual condition of this church? He's hearing about division, and jealousy, and sexual immorality, and arrogance, and drunkenness, and all kinds of things that are happening. So you can imagine when you open to the beginning of this book, the prayer we might hear Paul pray for the Corinthians, and maybe you would imagine it's a prayer of despair. "Lord, this church is such a mess. I don't know how they're gonna survive. Please don't let them crumble." Or maybe it's a prayer of frustration. "Lord, after all that I have poured into this church, after all of the things that I've done to help them stand, how is this their current condition?" Or maybe it's just a prayer for help. "Lord, there's so much missing, please help them." But instead, and I think amazingly and instructively, we see Paul open his letter describing his prayer for the Corinthians as one of Thanksgiving. Look with me at Chapter 1, Verse 4 of the Book of 1 Corinthians, where Paul says this. "I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus." I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. To the church that has division, to the church that's dealing with arrogance, to the church that's rampant with sin, Paul is addressing them by saying he always thanks God for them? Why? Isn't Paul, the Apostle Paul, concerned with all the brokenness, and all the rampant sin, and all the difficulty happening within the church of Corinth? Well, he is, and he's certainly going to address and correct those things throughout the entirety of this letter. That's the main point of what he's doing is he's addressing some of these things. But he starts with this. He starts by thanking God for who they are and for the grace that's given them in Christ Jesus. Where it might make sense for us to be discouraged, or to be despondent, or to be frustrated, Paul's prayer is strengthened by his confidence in the church's foundation, which is Christ. And Paul knew that that was their foundation because Paul was the architect on the Corinthian project. Paul knew and saw the foundation that was laid in the church in Corinth. Look at what he writes a little bit later in 1 Corinthians 3, he describes it this way. He says, "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that was already laid, which is Christ Jesus." See, Paul knows the solid foundation that this church was built on, and he knows because he was part of building it, he was part of seeing it. If we look at the Book of Acts in Chapter 18, we see Paul's journey from Athens to Corinth where he's involved in the gospel ministry that saw this church birth. We saw that he went and stayed with a couple named Priscilla and Aquila, and every Sabbath was going to the synagogue, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching the good news of the gospel, the truth that Jesus, the son of God, came into the world to save us from our sins. The good news that Jesus willingly died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin that we deserved and the good news that Jesus didn't stay dead, but three days later, God raised Him in power from the dead and His resurrection freed us, gave us opportunity to embrace Him, to accept Him, and by faith we could find salvation in Jesus Christ. And so Paul was preaching this gospel of Jesus every Sabbath at the synagogue, and he saw people respond to the gospel. He saw a man named Crispus who was a synagogue leader, and his whole family come to faith in Christ. He saw many other Corinthians in the area come to faith in Christ. He saw, like we just saw this morning, them get baptized publicly, declaring their allegiance, and their faith, and their dedication to Jesus. He saw the fruit, the evidence of the gospel bearing out in these people's lives. And so he found himself in a place where he knew that God was establishing a foundation, and he knew that God was continuing to work in the church at Corinth. Look at Chapter 18 of the Book of Acts, Verses 9 through 11, where Paul hears this from the Lord and says this. One night the Lord was speaking to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you." Don't you love that? "Because I have many people in this city." So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half teaching them the word of God. See, Paul was confident that God had established His church in Corinth. Paul was confident that God had defended it, and that God had grown it, and that God was continuing to work in the lives of these people. So when the spiritual chaos started to shake the church in Corinth, when tremors of the spiritual corruption were even shaking believers in Jesus, Paul's prayer for the Corinthians was not shaken. His prayer was strengthened by the confidence he had in their foundation in Christ. And I'm gonna give you a couple specific reasons. We can look closely at why is it? How was it that Paul's prayer was strengthened? Let's look closely because the first one is this, because Christ is their foundation, Paul is confident in who they are. Because Christ is their foundation, Paul is confident in who they are. Look with me at the at 1 Corinthians 1:2, and we're gonna look a little bit specifically, do a little bit of a deep dive here, right here, on this. Let's read it together first. To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. This is how he's opening and addressing the Corinthians. Even before he gets into the whole of the letter, he starts with this address, and you can see some things specifically about what he knows about who they are. I wanna point this out first. To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. Did you notice that he says, "To the church of God in Corinth." To the church of God in Corinth. Remember, Corinth, the city, was synonymous with immorality. It was synonymous with corruption. And so Paul is not addressing the Corinthians as being equated to their culture, as being equated to their city. Even though he's hearing stories of their issues and the things that are difficult, all those cracks that we're seeing, he says, "To the church of God in Corinth," the people of God in a specific place where they're located. He goes on to call them sanctified. Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be his holy people. Do you know what the word sanctified means? The word sanctified means consecrated. It means set apart for special use. Paul knew that the Corinthians were a people called out of their culture that were not defined by the city they were living in, but that Jesus had called them out of their culture, had set them apart for a specific and holy purpose. He called them to be His holy people, and Paul was addressing them because he knew who they were. And then last, not only does he talk about this, but he also calls them, together with all of those. Together with all of those. I want you to first remember. Paul, the apostle of Jesus, is speaking to the church of God in Corinth. Those sanctified in Christ, called to be his holy people. He's addressing them as people with a new identity. And do you know Paul's background? If anyone can speak to a new identity, it's the Apostle Paul. Paul, in his former life, his name was Saul, and he was the greatest threat to the early church. Saul made it his mission to kill or imprison believers in Jesus simply because of the faith that they had. But the evil in his heart was not as great as the grace of Christ that met him on the road. The grace of Christ was greater than the evil in Saul's heart. The grace of Christ was greater than his ability to carry it out, and Paul was transformed by the gospel, and made new, and given a purpose to share the gospel with people around him. So Paul knew who he was and he knew that he was new because of the grace in Christ. And so he now can, in the same way, address with confidence these Corinthians and call them the church of God in Corinth, as opposed to, "You Corinthians and all your sinful ways." He knows that Jesus has made them new and is making them new. He calls them sanctified, set apart for special purpose. And then he says that they are together with all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus, our Lord and theirs. I think that's beautiful because Paul's not specifically speaking to one particular group and measuring them. It'd be easy for him to speak specifically to the Corinthians to talk about the things that they're doing and the things that they're dealing with, as if he's measuring them for their effectiveness or their holiness. But no, instead, he just includes them in the body of Christ. He says that we are together, just like he said to the Ephesians in Ephesians 4:4-5, where he says, "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, and one baptism." Paul includes them together with believers because he knows their identity is not based on them, but on Jesus. So because Christ is their foundation, Paul is confident in who they are. But second, he's confident in what they have. He's confident in what they have. Instead of fixating on the things that are happening within the church, instead of fixating on all that they lack, Look at 1 Corinthians 1:4, where we see how he speaks of the things that this church has. He says, "I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way, with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge, God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gifts as you eagerly await for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." Now, I'd encourage you, if you have a Bible, look at that passage with me, 1 Corinthians 1:4. I'm gonna pick out a couple things, I want you to look at if you've got a copy of God's word, in front of you here. But I want you to first notice that Paul's prayer of thanksgiving was for His grace, God's grace given in Christ. Do you know what the word grace means? Grace means unearned favor from God. It's a gift, it's a blessing, it's a kindness. Paul is repeatedly thanking God for the Corinthians, but not because of who they are or what they're doing. He's thanking God for them because he's seen the grace of Christ given to them. And now, what the Corinthians have is Christ, what they have is Jesus Christ, the grace that God has bestowed on them because of their faith in Jesus. They have this grace, and the greatest of all, the reason for that being a praise is because the grace of Christ has changed them, has redeemed them, has made them new. They're no longer slaves to sin, but now they are free in Christ. This is literally them as a new creation transformed by the gospel. It's the treasure that's been deposited in them by God. It's the treasure, the gold, that's been deposited in them. As Paul describes in his Second Epistle, 2 Corinthians 4:7, he describes it this way. He says, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that beautiful? Paul's talking about this treasure that's been deposited, and so he's thanking God for what they have. What do they have? They have grace, they have unmerited favor, they have the gift of God, the grace of Jesus Christ deposited in this church, and that's worthy of worship, worthy of praise. Paul is saying, "Lord, thank you that you have grace, me, and them, and all of us together, with this wonderful good news of the gospel that they are no longer who they were, but now they are who they are in Christ." But then Paul goes on to celebrate as he continues to see not just the treasure given in the sense of their new identity, but also that he has poured and enriched them in every way. We saw before that Paul celebrates, that it says that, "In him, you have been enriched in every way." I think for the Corinthians, that word enriched might have caught their ear a little bit because, again, if you're living in a city, where wealth and luxury are kind of the the benchmark for your status, they might have heard that way, but Paul wasn't referencing material possessions. He wasn't ref referencing earthly status. Paul was celebrating and saying, "God, you have enriched them in every way. You have given them all that they need." And here, Paul celebrates their true wealth, their true spiritual treasure deposited in them. Paul says, "You don't lack any spiritual gifts." He's not speaking about every individual person here. He's talking about the corporate nature of the church, that in this fellowship, no spiritual gift is lacking. And in a moment, Paul's going to go on in his letter to correct the use of those gifts. He's going to give them some appropriate teaching related to how to shore up those things so that they know how to steward and use those gifts appropriately. But here, Paul's just celebrating. He's just thanking God because they have been enriched in every way. They've been given spiritual gifts that allow them to do more than what they naturally are able to do so, but they can live in this world in a way that pleases God and in a way that allows them to live as witnesses in the world around them. They've been given graces, abilities, and capacities, and he's reminding them of their source, which is Jesus. Paul's confidence is not in the Corinthians' performance, but in Christ's provision, because Christ is their foundation, they have all that they need. And third, because Christ is their foundation, Paul is confident in where they're headed. Paul's confident in where they are headed. Let's look again at 1 Corinthians 1:7-8 where it says this. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you'll be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, with the context that I gave you about Corinth, doesn't that seem a little bit hard to accept? When you go back and you put your mind around this, the Apostle Paul's been hearing these reports of immorality, and quarrels, and division, people suing one another in view of the public, all kinds of things that were just really, really broken within this church. And so to hear something like he's thanking God that they will stay firm to the end, I mean, with all those divisions and quarrels, really? They'd be blameless on the day of the Lord. With all the sin and scandal that's going on in this church, yikes. But again, Paul is not talking about this from a human perspective. Paul doesn't pray with confidence in the Corinthians. Paul prays with confidence in Christ, and he looks forward to what Christ is going to complete in them because he's sure of their foundation, he's sure of what it's built upon, he's sure of what Christ has done in them. And so just as he says to the Philippians, he is confident that what God has begun, he will complete. This is what Philippians 1:6 says, "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." And so Paul is praying with confidence not because of what the Corinthians are doing. In fact, that would give us nothing but despair if we think about that as the only reason to be thinking. But instead, he's praying, knowing that God has done something and He will continue to work in that. Paul says He will keep you firm to the end so that you'll be blameless because God has secured them by His abundant grace. He's begun something in them that He's continuing to work. And because of that good news that they stand positionally looking to the day, eagerly awaiting the day. Because despite today, there is a day coming, where Jesus is going to make them new, and whole, and complete. So where they're headed is to completeness. Where they're headed is to the continuing and complete work of sanctification in their life. And then Paul anchors this confidence in this in Verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 1 where he says this, "God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord." God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God is faithful, God has called them. That's the element that makes this makes sense. That's the element that allows Paul to pray with such confidence, that the God who saved them by His grace will sustain them by His power, that the God who began a good work in them will finish it. This is why Paul can pray with confidence, even for a church is messed up, and is broken, and is struggling as the Corinthian church is. It's why we can pray with the same confidence that God is faithful, that Christ is sufficient, and that Jesus is our firm foundation that will never be shaken. So yes, this is the perspective the Apostle Paul had. This is the perspective that he entered into this letter beginning with prayer of Thanksgiving to God, saying, "Thank you," because he's confident in what Christ has done. His prayer was strengthened because of the church's foundation that Christ had given them a new identity, that Christ had enriched them in every way, and that Christ was moving them firm to the end to completion in Jesus. Because that is what the grace of the gospel of Jesus does in a person's life. So, what about us? Do we pray with the same confidence? I know for many you're feeling the earthquakes right now. You feel like the world around you has gotten darker. You feel like the times are evil. You feel like there's just fires burning everywhere, that the earthquakes are shaking, and they're even shaking the people of Jesus. You realize not only is the culture continuing to celebrate immorality of all kinds, but it also feels like it's permeating into the church of Jesus, and it feels discouraging. Maybe it's even closer to home to you. Maybe it's something specific that you're dealing with, a quarrel among friends that's caused permanent damage or division. Maybe someone close to you who's walked away from the faith, and it's shaking you. And maybe it's a marriage that's in trouble or a person that's close to you that's really struggled with something that you just can't quite wrap your head around. Maybe you've seen areas of the church that look more like Corinth than like Christ, and it's messing with you. It's causing you to shake. And the cumulative experience of all of it, at times, might make you feel like the walls are gonna cave in, like it's all gonna come crumbling down. Maybe that shaking feeling is even closer than that. Maybe instead of looking at just the circumstances around you, it's right here. There's something inside of you that you're wrestling with, that's shaking, and you're not sure what to do with that. Maybe you're struggling with doubt. Maybe you're wrestling with sin. Maybe you can't quite even understand what it is that's got you unsettled, but you feel despondent, you feel discouraged, you don't understand how to walk through some of these things, and you're wondering if all those cracks are gonna bring the building down. Well, maybe this will help. In 2015, my wife and I purchased our home, and, as many people do, you look around at a whole bunch of different things. And the housing market is funny, right? Because if you're not building a home, you're purchasing whatever home is available to you, right? And so we walked through this home and really loved it, and then we walked through another inspection and we saw a big crack in the wall. Not what you wanna see if you've already got all the things done. You got the offer in, you've begun to think about, "This is where we're gonna make our home." We saw a big giant crack in the wall that wasn't there before. We also went outside and saw some of the brick facade was coming away from the structure, and it caused us some panic. And we started to think, "Man, what's really going on here?" And here's what we didn't do. We didn't immediately start to measure the crack and say, "Well, gee, is this crack bigger than other cracks? Is it really that big of a deal?" We didn't immediately go and get plaster, and plaster over the crack to say, "I don't wanna see those cracks. We're just gonna get rid of that." That would be foolish, right? No, we hired a structural engineer. We hired a structural engineer to come and tell us if this was an issue of the foundation or something else, because we knew that if it was an issue of the foundation, the damage would continue, the house would continue to break down. But if the foundation was sure, then we knew that this could be repaired, that even though there were things going on that needed to be addressed, who wants to live in a house where you got a big giant crack in the wall, right? You don't want to have the brick fall off the front of the house either, right? Those need to be addressed, those need to be repaired. But if the foundation is sure, they can be repaired. If the foundation is crumbling, we got way, way bigger issues. So, church, instead of fretting over the cracks, focus on the foundation. Instead of fretting over the cracks, focus on the foundation. The cracks need to be addressed. As I've said, the Apostle Paul wrote a whole letter, the majority of which was addressing the cracks that he saw in the church and how they could be repaired, how they could be remedied. But if we're not confident in our foundation, we're gonna put our hope, we're gonna put our efforts in all the wrong things. We're gonna pray patchwork when God wants us to have structural integrity. We don't wanna pray for patchwork when God wants us to have structural integrity. So let's start there. Let me ask each of you: Are you confident in your foundation? But if we're not confident in our foundation, we're gonna put our hope, we're gonna put our efforts in all the wrong things. We're gonna pray for patchwork when God wants us to have structural integrity. We don't wanna pray for patchwork when God wants us to have structural integrity. So, let's start there. Let me ask each of you. Are you confident in your foundation? Have you embraced Jesus as Lord? And have you built your life on Him? I'm not talking about one moment sometime when you said, "Yes, I love Jesus," but nothing in your life would reflect a firm foundation. I'm not talking about that. I'm saying, have you fully and truly heard and surrendered to the gospel of Jesus? Have you received the grace of Christ that would make your foundation sure? Jesus, when he was speaking, says in Matthew 7, he says, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." If your life is in Christ, then you'll stand firm. If you're sure that your foundation is in Christ, He will keep you firm. But if it's not, no amount of patchwork is gonna hold back the ongoing damage that's happening in your life. You won't have structural integrity. So I implore you today to start there, to start and ask, "Do I have confidence in the foundation of my life? Is my life built on Christ? Have I heard, and embraced, and responded to the gospel of Jesus?" If so, you are firm in Him. If no, if your life is not built on Him, and later in this service, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to settle that. I'm gonna give an opportunity to embrace and respond to the gospel of Jesus so that you can have a firm foundation in your life. But friend, let me encourage you. If you're a believer in Jesus, if you've built your life on Him, and you're fretting over the things that are happening in the world around you, if you're fretting over some struggles and some issues even in your own life, you stand on a firm foundation and he will keep you firm. He will move you towards completion because that's the grace of Christ that works in our life. We have a firm foundation. So does the church. We know whose the church is, right? This is the church of Jesus. Just as Paul addressed, I mean, as the church of God in Corinth, we are the people of God in the world, not the people of the world. And so our foundation, our hope, does not rest in what's happening in the world around us. Our hope and our foundation rests in the grace of Jesus. We don't need to fixate on the cracks. We don't need to worry about the things happening. Sure, of course, there are things to be addressed in the church and there are things to be noted and to be mindful of in the world around us. But that's not where our hope comes from. Our hope comes from Jesus Christ and the grace that has been given to us in Him. We've been made new. We know who we are, we know what we have, we know where we're headed because of our sure foundation in Christ. And yes, the aftershocks will come, but Christ, as our foundation, makes us sure that we will not be shaken. So, when we know that Christ is our foundation, our prayers can be strengthened. When we know that Christ is our foundation, our prayers are strengthened. And I want to give you a few specific ways we can pray that allow us to strengthen our prayer with this in mind. The first is this, we pray with confidence in our true identity. We pray with confidence in our true identity. When we pray for the church, I wanna remind us, friends. When you pray for the church, you're not praying for an institution that is waving in the wind and we have to bite our nails and hope it's gonna survive the culture of today. We're praying for the people of God in this world. We're praying for His church that He's established, that He's empowered, that He gives an identity and a strength to, built on the foundation of Jesus, enriched in every way and destined for completion in Christ Jesus. When you pray for brothers and sisters, when you pray for the people of God around you, you're not praying for people who are noted by political division, or divided by race, or some other issue of the day. You're praying for the believers in Jesus, that together with all of God's people, have been identified in Christ, whose hope and foundation rests together on Jesus. And so we pray with strength because we know who our true identity is in. We know that we can stand firm in God's faithfulness. I would even tell you that when you pray for those who are believers in Jesus, who are not living a life that measures up. When you're praying for a believer in Jesus who's not living the life that would be reflective of the gospel, can I remind you, you're not praying for someone who's too far gone? You're not praying for someone that's without hope. You're praying for someone that God began a work in that He's not going to abandon. You're praying for someone who is going to finish that out to completion. God doesn't stop halfway, God doesn't abandon His work. All of this is by the grace of Jesus. And so when we pray, we pray with confidence, because we say, "Lord, if they're yours, Lord, if you've done this, Lord, if they truly know you, I know I can pray with confidence that you will not abandon them. You will continue the work into completion." So, don't lose hope. Second, we pray with gratitude for what we've been received. We pray with gratitude for what we've received. When our foundation is secure, we don't pray from a place of desperation. Friends, we're not looking to this world as our source of hope. The things that this world gives us do not help us to be secure. The things that we look around, whether it be luxury or possessions, those are not the things, status, none of that is ever going to help us feel sure. Instead, it's the grace of God that's been given to us in Christ. We have been rescued, we have been free. Do you know this? We have been rescued, and freed, and enriched in every way, made new by the grace of Jesus Christ. Remember who you are, remember what you've been given. We have been enriched in every way. We have access. We've been in an entire series talking about prayer. Do you realize what a grace it is to have access to the God of the universe? That at any moment, at any time, you can drop to your knees and say, "Lord, help me." You can drop to your knees and say, "Lord, I know that you're with me, I know that you see me, I know that you've enriched me in every way. Thank you for the spirit of God that lives within me. Help me, Lord, in this moment." We have access to God, the God, the creator, the sovereign one, in every mundane thing of our day, so why would we despair when we know what we have, when we know who we are? Together, we've been enriched in every way. We've been given spiritual gifts that allow us to encourage one another; that strengthen us beyond our ability; that we can do, and see things, and understand things, and operate, not as the world does, but enriched by God. Spiritual gifts that have been given to the body so that we have the opportunity to walk in the way that he's called us to. Church, we can't look with loathing on the clay pots that we are, seeing all the cracks, worried about how fragile we are, and forget that placed inside us is valuable treasure that God has given to us. We have to remember what we've been given. And so we have to pray with strength with that as our perspective. So when you're tempted to pray, Lord, we're lacking so much. When you're tempted to pray that way, instead pray, "Lord, thank you for enriching us to the fullest measure. Thank you for the grace that you've given us in Christ that I did not deserve. And help me, help us to steward it wisely." Every prayer of this series we've been learning over the last number of weeks rests on that, rests on God's faithfulness, rests on the reality that we know who we are and we know what we have in Jesus. And so we should pray with gratitude for what we've received. And then number three, we pray with hope in where we're headed. We pray with hope in where we're headed. I think we know this, but when our confidence is in circumstances, our prayers are gonna be filled with fear. When our confidence is in the circumstances around us, when we're always reacting to everything that's happening in the world around us, our prayer is gonna be filled with fear. And God will hear those prayers and He'll graciously respond to us in this. But instead, when our confidence is in Christ, well, then, our prayers become filled with hope. Imagine boarding a ship. And you know this ship is headed for paradise. You know and understand that getting on this ship, you know where you're headed. But then every day on this journey, you wake up and you're just worried, worried that you don't see land yet, worried about the water that surrounds you, worried about the weather that's affecting the water that's around you. "Oh, it's really deep, it's pretty wavy today," and you're forgetting where you're headed. You're forgetting the ship that you're on and the destination for where you're headed, and you forget the God who sustains us through it. This is the God who the wind and the waves obey. This is the God that said to Peter, "Come out of the boat and walk on the water because it's by His power that they are strengthened, it is by Him that we are sustained, and we are moving slower, and close, and every day to the day of the Lord will be made complete." We remember that Christ is our foundation, instead of looking with despair on where the world is headed. As his people, we fix our eyes on him and we eagerly await His return. Don't we not, church? We eagerly await the day at which the Lord will return. Because regardless of today, there will be a day where He will return or He will make all things right. He will make us complete, and we'll stand blameless before Him because of the grace that's been given us in Christ Jesus. Remember Alfred Mullett, not the hairdo. Remember the architect? He wasn't worried when the earthquake hit San Francisco. Why? Because although he saw the things that were happening, although he understood the circumstances around him, he also knew that the building he built was built on something firm. It wasn't about the circumstances around it, it was about what was underneath it. And for us, as the people of God, Jesus Christ is the immovable foundation of His church, built on Christ, cannot be moved. Holding spiritual treasure that will be kept safe in Him. The darkness may get darker, the circumstances may get scarier, of course, but we are not shaken because we know of the firm foundation that we have. If we have Christ as our foundation, we will not be moved. So church, as we pray, we can pray strengthened. We can pray with strength, with confidence, because we'll remember who we are. Who are we? We're sanctified, we're called to be set apart. We're His people secure in Jesus Christ. Who are we? What do we have? We have abundant grace. We have the grace of Christ who has saved us, and redeemed us, and set us apart, and freed us from the slavery of sin. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit, that we're indwelled by the living God to walk these days not alone, but with a helper, with an advocate. So that everything we have, we need in Christ. And we know where we're headed, to completeness, to the day when Christ makes all things new. And when you start to doubt, when you start to doubt, remember that God is faithful, that it is he who called us into fellowship with His Son, Jesus. Go back to that. And remember, it is God who is faithful. And when we do, our prayers can be strengthened because we understand a perspective that is different than that of the world. As we finish today and as we close, each and every week, we've prayed specifically and together as a church family. And I wanna do the same thing in just a moment. We're gonna do that a little bit differently. We're gonna pray together as His people. But first, I wanna tell you that when we're done with that, you're gonna have an opportunity. You're gonna hear an invitation to come forward and to pray. And there's two specific things that I wanna invite you toward in that, one, if, as I've talked today, you just sense that there is something that is shaking you, something that you've been wrestling with, something that you know is not founded on the foundation of Jesus Christ and you want a brother or sister to pray with you along those lines, at all of our campuses, we have prayer partners available who would love to pray with you along those lines. And you'll hear about that in just a moment. I also want you to know that everything we share today, the confidence that we have in the firm foundation of Jesus, the reason that Paul could pray with such confidence for the Corinthians is because he preached the gospel faithfully in Corinth. And he saw people hear and respond to that good news, that they understood that Jesus came into this world, that Jesus died willingly, and that Jesus rose three days later to conquer sin and to offer us new life. If you have not embraced that reality, if you have never surrendered your life to Jesus and put your faith in Him, do that today. Because I'm telling you, your life is not on a firm foundation. You are living in shaky times, on shaky ground. And so at the end of our service, you'll have an opportunity as well to respond to the gospel of Jesus. But church, together, I want us to be reminded and do this a little bit differently because together, we pray this. Together, we understand who we are. Together, we understand what we have. Together, we understand where we're going. And so on the screen, you're gonna see something that maybe not everyone is familiar with, but it's a call and response prayer, a prayer that we've written, that we're going to read aloud together. And what you're gonna see is a line that's bolded. And I want all of us together at all of our campuses to pray out loud the words that you see on the screen. And then I'm gonna pray the words that are not bolded below them. And we're gonna walk through all of this, and then we'll say, "Amen." And we'll give you some instructions, all right? So let's pray together, church. Father, we thank you for your grace given to us in Christ Jesus. We didn't earn it, we do not deserve it, but you gave it freely and we receive it with thanksgiving. We thank you that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thank you, Lord, for the cross. Thank you for the blood that was shed. Thank you for your willing sacrifice on our behalf that paid for our sin. We thank you for who you are in Christ, sanctified, set apart, called to be your holy people. We thank you for what we have in Christ, your abundant grace, your gifts, your spirit, inclusion in the family of God together with those everywhere who call in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Together, we lack nothing that we need for life and godliness. We thank you for where we are headed in Christ, to completion, to the day when you make all things new, to the moment when we stand before you blameless because of Jesus. Lord, we confess that we often pray from fear, instead of faith. We end up looking at the chaos around us and forget the foundation beneath us. Forgive us, and strengthen our confidence in you. We pray for those who are struggling. For those Lord who are wrestling with sin, those who feel like they're barely hanging on, would you remind them of who they are in you? Keep them firm, complete the work you began in them. We pray for ourselves and for one another that we would see ourselves and the others through the lens of the gospel, that we would pray with confidence in your foundation, not anxiety about our circumstances. We pray for those who do not yet believe, for those with us here, and for those in our community, that the power of the gospel be being known to them and that they too would experience the grace of Christ. God, you are faithful. You called us into fellowship with your son. You will keep us firm to the end. You'll present us blameless on the day of Christ Jesus. We trust you, we rely on you. We give you all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.