Introduction and Context

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello everybody, welcome to Into the Pray, preaching the chaos of the church with Nick and Mary Franks. It's wet and slightly dull, dark Sunday morning here. Sorry this video is slightly later than we envisaged. We're going into Starbucks to have a coffee and a conversation about the high risks of new Christians becoming conceited. Well, hello, here we are, and we've decided to come to Starbucks today. We know that all these places uh support things that aren't aren't uh godly or biblical, so please don't write to us and make comments about where we come for coffee. There's a verse somewhere in Corinthians, I think, where Paul said if you had to um um you'd have to leave the planet basically if you weren't gonna have any contact with the immorality and godlessness of the world. So anyway, here we are, welcome. And uh that was a a rambling start. We want to

The High Risk of Conceit in New Christians

SPEAKER_00 1:11

talk about the high risk, as we've mentioned in the post earlier yesterday on the community channel, about the risk of new Christians particularly becoming conceited. Now that word is an odd word in and of itself, isn't it? It's not a word, it's not a word we typically use, um, or even I think think about, and we only are because the Bible it uses specific words for specific things, and in 1 Timothy 3, I think it is, Paul writes to Timothy, and in the context is of the requirements for being an elder in the church, a leader, an overseer, a shepherd in the church, a teacher, and that apart from that being a male-only restricted reality, that one of the requirements is that the elder isn't a new Christian because of the risk of that Christian becoming conceited. Paul then says that that is of Satan and it's a demonic reality. But the word conceited is not there by accident, is it? It's um it's a specific word for a specific moment in the scripture, and off the top of my head, I don't know about you guys, what that word means to you, but for me it means somebody who has a kind of an inflated an inflated sense of their own importance. Um a kind of inflated sense of pride and arrogance of their own importance, which of course means this isn't something that is restricted just to potentially new Christians, this is something that is the human condition. We're all there's a risk that we're all we can all become conceited. Um so it's important to say that, but I think

Observed Patterns Among New Believers

SPEAKER_00 2:52

perhaps just to start, sweet, do you want to explain the pattern that we've seen, the repeated pattern that we've seen? I don't know, we've been married 13 years, and over those 13 years we've before the Lord, and from the bottom of our heart, we have tried on more occasions than we can remember to help new Christians who have contacted us. Um and maybe you want to say something just about that pattern that we've we've kind of observed.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

So over the years, as Nick says, we've met with lots of different Christians who've become brand new believers and often people who have no church background. So there's obviously a slight distinction to make there. Maybe people who've grown up in the church and have a wider understanding of the church, but we've met with several people who have no contact, who've had no contact with the church, maybe for years and years and years, or none at all. And we've watched with great concern as we've listened to lots of people in this particular situation who kind of go through this same pattern again and again, where there's this, and this is perfectly normal. I remember when I became a Christian, I just had a voracious appetite for reading the Bible, and I think that's a really normal thing where you do that and you read a lot and you need to read a lot. It's just part of I think what happens. But what we've seen in recent years, and I suppose this is the change that's happening in culture just now, and the modern age that we live in, is this voracious consumption of reading and watching and listening to everything. Excuse me, that you know, that um says it's Christian. So there's this, I think probably what's what was normal with new Christians and just reading the Bible has now kind of opened up into listening and watching and reading everything. And I suppose in one sense you have your eyes opened as well, so you suddenly feel aware of everything that you see around you, has like a spiritual reality now attached to it. So it's not even just biblical stuff, it's often like social, cultural stuff, political stuff. Everything becomes wrapped up in this desire and for knowledge and understanding. But excuse me, essentially the deep concern is that there's a huge biblical illiteracy there, and just a massive need for understanding the fundamentals and the core elements of what the Christian faith actually is. So, yeah, as we say, this is just some an area that's been a big concern for us over recent years, and we do like genuinely worry about people when we speak to them.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah, and it's uh oh, this is our coffee's coming here. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. Cheers. Perfect, thanks. Coffee of choice if you ever want to buy us a coffee. Um filter coffee. Starbucks still do free top-ups, so that's good. Um the the reality though of um of this pattern is is that you can't actually do anything with people. You can't you can't teach anything because there's a can the conceit that we're talking about essentially renders somebody unteachable. It's a horrible, horrible condition to be in. You know, think about it just for a minute. What it what would it mean to be unteachable? You can't be taught, you can't receive wisdom, you can't receive instruction. You're so what we want to try and do in this is I suppose just give a in a way it's a warning. It's a warning, that sounds ominous, doesn't it? But it's a warning to you if you are a new Christian and you're in that position of it's a unique position, isn't it? I don't think it's I don't think there has been a moment in world and church history like this since 2020 and the COVID lockdown closures and so on and so forth. And aside from the significance of all of that to the church more generally, that we've spoken into, in fact, wrote written a book about, if you're interested, God closed church, apart from that wider context, it it has meant that this unique moment has been that people I think have just been considering spiritual things more. You know, the obviousness the the obviousness of evil, I think, even of the period of 2020 and those years, immediate years following, I think probably has driven people to think about things of an eternal nature much more. And you know, you we hear stories about that, don't we? I don't know if you guys hear that, but the reports of there being revivals in young people, young demographics, and in certain parts of the church, whether it's Catholicism or the false church, I should say. But when the world are talking about these things, of course, they have no way of understanding or or differentiating. But so since COVID, I would say there's been this kind of like a kind of rise in interest or acknowledgement of evil, and therefore I think there probably has been a kind of similar spike in the number of people who have genuinely become been been saved, genuinely become Christians. We know several people personally who we're thinking of now, and yet because of the state of the church, the apostasy that we're surrounded by, and that is the word, 2 Thessalonians 2, you know. Um because of that, there is this horrible combination of new birth, it's like a child learning to take his first few steps or learning to speak its, articulate its first few words, combined with the attitude of you don't need to teach me. I don't need to be taught how to to step, to walk, or I don't know, I don't have to be taught how to speak or articulate or to think. So that's what we're that's what we're talking about. We're we're seeing, and you see, the thing that gets even more complicated with this, I think, is that the the conceited response, so and it's not always that, of course. Let's just be really clear about that. This we're not necessarily talking about the majority of people here, but the combination of that, those two things, makes it the individual very vulnerable, I think, and it means that they're not teachable. Um have you got anything to say about that?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Well, I think I think um just as we've been speaking about this, I think it is difficult for people who became Christians during the COVID period when the churches were closed, because they they came, they were then able to see something immediately, especially if you've never been in church. If you become a Christian, you read the Bible, then you go to church, you will immediately see that there's a a disjoint in between those two things, you which we're saying is the apostasy that exists within the church. So you're probably more likely to be able to see that as a as a brand new Christian. And therefore, this is where part of the problem happens, I think, is that these people I guess see a worry or frustration themselves when going to church. I'm finding that Christians then don't respond to that sense of why is nobody speaking about hell? Why are we not talking about this or that? These are like I have these real concerns about stuff in the Bible that and questions that nobody seems to want to talk about. And then I think the problem happens then is that there's a breakdown between somebody being able to recognize that the church is in an awful state, but then assuming that because somebody is within the system or has been for years and years and years, that therefore they haven't got anything to learn from them. And of course, that's that's not what we've said or ever said. We know that there are lots of people within churches who have frustrations with the system and are questioning lots of things, but have been Christians for a long time and have a lot of wisdom and um just years of walking with the Lord that would be really important for new Christians to you know to share in.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

And it's it's not important, it's vital. This is the thing, the church is supposed to have the church is supposed to be it's supposed to function with with that wonderful flow of learning and teaching, and mutually so, you know. Now that's not to that's not to level everything and say, well, everybody should just teach everybody. That's that's silly, and that's that's clearly not what the Bible teaches, though it's a value of society. Your truth is your truth, don't worry about what everybody else says. Who are you to teach me? So the kingdom of God is cat is profoundly and aggressively counter the culture of this world, but but there should be this environment of what of the joy as part of glorying in his praise, the Psalm 106.47 verse that we talk about all the time, you know, the longing for him to gather us, and the headiness of that, the glory of that, the Psalm 133 intoxication, the sense of the fragrance, and that is you know, teaching and learning and growing in an understanding of who Jesus is, hence Ephesians 1. The spirit of wisdom and revelation being given to all of us in and amongst what would be legitimately called Christian community.

Relationship with Jesus vs. Accumulation of Knowledge

SPEAKER_00 13:07

We want to talk about this from the point of view very clearly of relationship with the Lord Jesus. If you think about this in in human terms, um say you think of somebody that you've known for decades. So you say you're thinking of maybe your maybe your parents, maybe your spouse, friend, somebody you've known for years and years and years, decades rather than months and years. And another person also coming to know that person, but who has only known that person for months or years. See, hopefully I don't even need to say anything else about that, but the the point is we're not talking about we're not talking about um accumulation of knowledge here, we're not talking about I don't know, religious observance. We're not talking about we're talking about knowing a person. So when we're sat with people, when we're sat with people, and invariably in a context much like this, online, in a meeting, on Zoom or whatever it is, and we're encountering the behaviour and the conceit that we're talking about. I'll be honest, I don't know if it's like this for you, sweet, but maybe it's a male, female, I don't know. I I I I feel on the level of not suffering fools gladly, I I kind of just find myself thinking. Now, hear me right before I say this. I'm not trying to say that that if you've walked with if you've been a Christian for decades rather than months or years, that there's any superiority. You're either in Christ or you're not. There isn't like a you know, a gold, there's no hierarchy, there's no like gold standard Christian versus a bronze or a silver. Um I'm not saying that, of course not. That's but what I am saying is that however there is a there is an inescapable reality that we're talking about relationship with a person. And so when we're encountering this with people, and there is this kind of like just don't want to listen, they don't want to ask any questions, they don't seem to be remotely interested or even acknowledge in any shape or form that they're talking to Christians who've been, you know, I've been a Christian since I was 10 or 11. No, under that, I was under 10, so I'm now 46, so you do the maths, you know, it's it's 40 years. And it's it's like, guys, do you not understand that through all of my profound imperfection and sin and folly and mistakes and falling over and scraping my knee and making mistakes, that doesn't mean you've not walked with somebody or known somebody for decades rather than months or years. And I think that's I think that's what we're trying to say is that what fundamentally what we're talking about here, and again, if you think about Paul's context in 1 Timothy 3 about eldership and not putting a new Christian into that position because of the risk of conceit, it's Paul, what's Paul's, I think what Paul's thinking about there is his New Testament prayer that the church would know the spirit of wisp and revelation because it's the knowledge of Jesus. So what I'm saying is that what we're saying is that okay, there is only in Christ or not in Christ, but in Christ there is still a relational reality, just like there is in the world. Mary and I know each other today better than we did in 2012. I think that's if we stop this podcast now, that's the key. That's the that is the key, and that is really the the kind of the appeal to you if you two categories. One, if you're in that place of being a new Christian because of the apostasy of the church, you can't go to a local church, you're absolutely right about that. And let us encourage you in that that you are, I think, in a unique position in world and church history, and God, of course, knows that. God knows those who are going to come to faith at this period of history, Acts 17, verse 25, 26. He knows the exact seasons, he knows the exact boundaries of our lives, and that of course it includes when we were born in history. So you are, let us encourage you, please, you are in a unique position of and and in an advantageous and disadvantageous way. You're you're in this position because in an advantageous way, because you can see, I think, more clearly than people in previous decades, that the church is not even close to being New Testament faithful. The disadvantage is you don't know where to go, and you've not done what we've just talked about, which is walk with the Lord for decades. And so please don't assume that everybody who has been, quote unquote, in the system for a long period of time is therefore not quite as switched on as you because you've not been that's what we were talking about the other day with the person, isn't it? Jesus is so good to us. The weight of these things, as we're just sat here in this relatively quiet Starbucks drinking a slightly average coffee, um the weight of it, as I look out and I see the rain and I see the trees blowing and reminded of the once again of John 3 and the wind. Where does the wind come from? Where does it go? What's the wind for? Just reminded again of this reality of the Holy Spirit, the new birth, basically, and that we're surrounded constantly, whether at work or in a coffee shop here, by people who aren't they don't know Jesus. They're not citizens of a kingdom that cannot be shaken, they're citizens of a kingdom that can be shaken and is being shaken, and I think this is part of what we're discussing is how do we help new Christians, particularly all of us, in and amongst this period of shaking where the the kingdom of man, the kingdom of the world that is being shaken, means that all of these apostate steeples and are also tottering, and we want to try and help with that as much as possible, which is why we're doing these these kind of conversations.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah, and that is the problem that does exist that we've spoken about a lot, is

Recommendations: Reading and Listening Material

SPEAKER_01 19:34

that the church is currently unfaithful and it's next to impossible to find really good teaching.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Um what's the answer?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

So the answer, and we've learned this over the years, as we've as we've kind of been whittled down to really core things that you can read in uh the confession that Nick wrote. You can read what the Lord has been working in us over years and years now. Um, and we have very simple recommendations that we would make to new Christians now if you can't find somewhere that you know is faithful and true to script to scripture. And we I mean we we hardly listen to anybody anymore. We really don't. We read the Bible, we would listen to Martin Lloyd Jones, who, if you haven't heard of him, he died in 1981, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Um and we listen to him, you can listen to his recordings on a free app. We find him very faithful to scripture. Um, and we also recommend reading JC Ryle, um, who died uh early last century, 1900, I think. And we would recommend particularly his book called Holiness, which um we just think is brilliant reading for new Christians because it really goes through just fundamental doctrine that's core to the Christian belief. But he is a really he was a very well-educated man, so he's very easy to read, he's very succinct and clear, and I think just a brilliant starting point for somebody who's completely new to the faith, and yeah, just really sound sound teaching that would help immensely. Um I you know, I believe firmly just um the deceptive nature of technology, the way that it will continue to be used as the day draws nearer. And when Jesus warned about deception, this is I think what he was talking about. He was talking about endless consumption of information online that is a bottomless pit that you will never get to the end of. And it's it's there to distract, it's there to get you caught up in in things that actually are not essential. So we o this is another thing we find is that new Christians get really caught up in things that are not it's not to say they're not important, but they're not essential things. And that's the always the work of the enemy, to get busy with stuff that doesn't fundamentally really matter that much, and that's always the concern. So I mean, maybe as a I don't know, um I used to say to students in school, you know, don't spend any more time online than you would spend reading, you know, just as a kind of rule of thumb, just whatever you can, you know, if you can read for half an hour or 45 minutes, then probably don't listen to more than one sermon. Just because you know, just try to find sensible boundaries, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Yeah, let me try and give you an insight just quickly, so as we bring this to a close, of of what we do, and and therefore I think what our recommendation is for not just new Christians who I think have greater risk of being conceited because of the observations that we've talked about. And I think just naturally, anyway, I think Paul's not Paul's not discussing the potential for the conceit of new Christians just because um because they they can see the apostasy more easily. It's not that, it's just that it's like young people generally, don't they? Like you're saying, like young people tend to be more conceited. The older that we get, hopefully we would just grow in that sense. But I would say that I I for example, I don't think you do either, but I don't really watch videos on on YouTube. I used YouTube like this to do this, to produce films and videos and communicate in that way and then interact with people as and when needed, and to the best of my ability, which by the way, is not always easy, in fact, is rarely easy. Um we don't I don't watch videos. Uh I the priority is to read the scripture. Now I'm conscious that as I say that, as as I alluded to earlier, you know, walking with the Lord for four decades means that I'm in a totally different stage of spiritual development and biblical knowledge than somebody who's just become a Christian in the last few years. So there's an understandable sense in which you want you need and you want help in trying to understand the Bible, it's not it's not an answer, is it? Only just to say, well, just read the Bible. But this is this is why we thought about this and talked about the I didn't bring it this morning because I forgot. But the book by JC Ryle that Mary just mentioned and that we've mentioned several times before, we've posted copies to several people. Um if one of these people behind us became a Christian now, we shared the gospel, and they were came under the conviction of sin, and it was obvious that they had gloriously just become a new Christian, we wouldn't be able to just say, go on to Google and find a church local to where you live. I think it's important. Can you remember this? I might forget before we finish this conversation to talk about what actually constitu what would constitute a church that we would think that's a safe place to go. What kind of things would they need to be saying? Try to keep my mind on track here. So if somebody just became a Christian and we couldn't send them to a local church, I would give them JC Ryle's book, Holiness. Now, I don't need to go into who JC Ryle was, you can do that bit of legwork for yourselves. But the point of that book, in fact, it's one of two. He's got another book that's very closely related to it called Practical Religion. It's like a part two of Holiness. Now, these are just, again, as Mary alluded to, Ryle was an Oxford-educated man. Reading him is an absolute joy. Unlike Lloyd Jones, who we can listen to from his preaching in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and whatever. We can't, we can only read Ryle, right? But reading him is an absolute, it's like it's like a hot knife through butter. It makes me look like a terrible writer. So good and so, you know. His book is wonderful from that point of view, but he's dealing with what what I think is lacking in these instances in this pattern that we're talking about of Christians who aren't established in the faith. That's a that's a phrase, a biblical phrase, being established in the in the faith through foundational biblical doctrine. And Ryle's book, Holiness, helps to do that, and as does the second part, practical religion. So we would say don't go to a local church because the chances of finding a faithful to local church that are sober, sober at this drunk moment in world and church history is almost almost zero. And the second thing is to listen to Martin Lloyd Jones. Now, Martin Lloyd Jones, just in very quickly, he's significant for a couple of reasons. One is he helped us to understand the ecumenical mass, he took a stand in the 1960s against the prominent household names like Billy Graham and John Stott. John Stott was one of the key leaders in the Church of England. Billy Graham, we all know who he was. But Martin Lloyd Jones took a stand against that great tide of ecumenical thinking that essentially says we don't need to worry about doctrine as long as we're being, as long as we're friends, as long as we're united. It's a false counterfeit Christian unity. It's not it's not the unity that Jesus was praying about in John 17, even though the ecumenical camps use John 17 and Jesus' words to try and justify this false counterfeit thing. So Martin Lloyd Jones has massively helped us, and we've written what we've recorded the excerpts from his book in the audiobook form. You can find that on the podcast, you can find it on the website. Um and so I don't again I don't have it here, but you just go just download the app for free. It's an app, a Martin Lloyd Jones Trust app that you can get on your phone, and there are hundreds of sermons. He wasn't a cessationist, he took doctrine extremely seriously, and it we should take note of these things to the point where he was willing to be lonely, he was willing to be ostracized and alienated and uh cancelled in effect. But he he believed with all of his heart and saw so many evidences of the ongoing gift-giving Holy Spirit, the ongoing gifts of the spirit, baptism of the spirit, and that being a crucial central part to revival. So we have no I have no hesitation in recommending Martin Lloyd Jones, that app, listen to him, and don't feel like you need to listen to anyone else. Just listen to Lloyd Jones. You could spend the rest of your life listening to the the ministry of Martin Lloyd Jones and it will do you only good. Secondly, JC Rile um read him for and and as you listen to these two um either read or listen to them, you'll you'll have a sense of where we are today and how we've got here. That's what's been so important, especially with Lloyd Jones' ministry. Um I think Martin Lloyd Jones I think he'll put I think there's a very good chance that he'll be more his ministry will be more used of God after his death, before the Lord comes than during his life. And I would say the same with JC Ryle. I think JC Ryle is becoming more important. Um so I think that's all we want to say, but to finish, maybe we could just say, is there anything we've missed? Yeah,

What a Healthy, Faithful Church Looks Like

SPEAKER_00 29:53

what would a good church look like? I hadn't forgotten that actually. I was just I was I I had remembered my over the thought. Well, somebody had commented the other day, I I think it was Bridget. Hello, Bridget, thank you for your messages and comments. We we are praying for you, and thank you for your prayers for us. Bridget had mentioned that she'd come across a church, a house church local to her, and there was a degree of nervousness. Now, Bridget is an example of a Christian a new Christian and who is the opposite of this conceited pattern that we're talking about. And the way that the way that you comment, Bridget, has been very obvious in that regard. But in terms of the church, what would a church look like that could be somewhere that you could be involved with? Now, it was a house church, excuse me, Bridget, I can't remember exactly how you put it, but you you painted a picture of something that I thought that sounds quite similar to what we would do if we had a house. And there being male eldership, two, three men who have responsibility and who meet the requirements laid out by Paul for being an elder in a context where there is worship, prayer, fasting, eating together, the rhythms of life, but where there is this, and this is where we finish today, right? Where there is doctrinal clarity. I can't say that strongly enough. I'm leaning in because it's that important. Doctrinal clarity. The cultural liquor of today in the church is what we've talked about a minute ago about the ecumenical soup, that is as non-distinct and nondescript as it can get. Lloyd Jones was unpopular and considered to be a prof a prophet or prophetic because he was spit, he was precise in his doctrine. Now, Bridget, if the church that you're talking about looking into, and you're doing that in a mature, cautious way, but with a sense of brimming hope as well, if that church isn't functioning with a clarity of doctrine, it's not a it's not a good, it's not what I would uh say, what would a good church look like? That's not that's what all the churches look like vagueness, ambiguity, ambivalence. This is again why we've the the confession we've written is a testimony of the way that the Lord has led us in recent years. And again, through honing in on ministry that we can actually trust, Lloyd Jones and Ryle, is that we've we've recognized that that some of the things that people just agree to disagree about is a nonsense, is an utter nonsense. Um and so without going into that now, the confession speaks for itself and it's unapologetic, and that is what we believe with all of our heart constitutes a faithful, healthy church. A church that recognizes the hour of the hour that we're in, and that is observing the church across all of the denominational peaks and troughs, most of which are false, and this is the critical point calling the church to repentance en masse. And that because we ourselves are repentant, in that sense of personally repentant, and as part of the corporate whole repentant, that doesn't mean we're the answer. It doesn't mean to say that because you're repentant, that somehow you don't need to repent. Do you know what I mean? That's what people say. Churches think that they're the exception to the rule because they've been quote unquote repenting for years as a church, even though their attitude today stinks. If the Lord has been leading you as a church, and I'm thinking of individual men now, back to elders in this conflict combative Jeremiah 119 reality, if you've been leading, if you've been following the Holy Spirit's leading through repentance for years, why does your attitude stink? Why aren't there any tears here? Why is there belligerence when it comes to your preferred doctrines or your preferred um modes of worship? See, this is like how I I can't tell you a number of times we've talked about this over the years, and here we are again. This we've got no guarantee of tomorrow, so let's just lay it out. What does the church look like that's healthy? Well, let me tell you, a church that's on its knees, a church that's on its face. A church that is doctrinally clear, but at the same time is is on their knees and on their face because we recognise that but by the grace of God go I. Now, God doesn't expect us in that posture of heart-torn repentance to somehow just be like loose and free with doctrine. He doesn't expect that. He expects us to read the scripture and to make changes where we have been led astray and to not do some kind of gymnastic when it comes to men and women in leadership, for example, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those three issues that we've highlighted in the confession are the fault lines, they are the multiple fronts that I think will either determine a church's health and faithfulness if the Lord was to come today or not. And that's not to say that we're in a posture of being upright and we've we've gone through repentance. We are trying to model what it means to be repentant today, which means we can't just go along to the local churches who aren't repentant. Do you see? You you can't you can't respond faithfully to the leading of the Holy Spirit to be in a posture of repentance with other people who are not. So, short answer to your question, Bridget. If the people at the church that you're talking about are like that, then happy days, praise God. If they're not, there's a deep concern because what I've just tried to express faithfully there, I believe with all my heart, is of the Holy Spirit of God. And now the Holy Spirit of God isn't doing that in me and Mary and in a few others, but not in He's doing that, he's wanting to do that in his covenant people because we're a bride getting ready to be married. Revelation 19:7. So I think we've probably said enough. You know, I'm not going to apologize for being animated and speaking directly and with intensity because we're talking about the culmination of the ages. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.

Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 36:53

So, Lord, I want to just pray now and ask that as we've talked imperfectly and with undoubtedly some degree of carnality as you are delivering us from the effects of the flesh and the effects of sin in all of our lives, such as the glory of the transforming gospel. Lord, that you would lead us each into a place of being in some ways slow to speak and quick to listen, slow to anger and abounding in love. And I pray especially this morning for new Christians who understandably are indignant with the church, but that within that grace, which it is, that you would give to them a teachable heart, a mind that is able to discern that which is false from that which is true, and including within themselves to be able to discern the effects of the flesh and carnality, carnal things versus the nature of you, Lord Jesus, by your spirit. And I pray for those who are conceited that you'd bring softening, that you'd bring practical answers and solutions to their lives so that they're able to receive without concerns about apostasy. And we pray, I pray this this morning that each of us would be alert and prepared to be part of the answer to whatever degree of influence we've been given wherever we are in the world. And Lord, ultimately, we want to pray that as your people do set their face towards Jerusalem, towards your coming, that there would be a readying of preparation, whether that's in our own homes, on our own, or with the grace and mercy that comes with some form of connection in these scattered, disconnected days. Lord, pray for your grace and your mercy and your great wisdom because Holy Spirit is your wisdom, spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you would bring both revelation and wisdom to all of us at this time. And even as we've spoken and even as we're praying now in this place, this heathen, unregenerate, pagan, and Babylonian place, that there would be some witness and testimony of your kingdom wherever it is that we set our feet. I pray in the precious name of Jesus.