Encouragements And Discouragements

Q: What does the Bible say about prayer?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of persistent prayer and assures believers that God hears and answers their prayers. The Scriptures affirm repeatedly that prayer is a vital means of communion with God. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus encourages us to ask, seek, and knock, promising that everyone who asks receives. God’s willingness to hear and respond to our prayers is emphasized in 1 Peter 3:12, stating that His ears are open to the prayers of the righteous. This means that believers can approach God boldly with their petitions, trusting in His ability to listen and act in accordance with His will.

Q: How do we know God answers our prayers?

God’s Word assures us that He hears our prayers and that many examples in Scripture demonstrate answered prayers. The assurance that God answers prayer is grounded in His character and His love for His people. In terms of Scriptural evidence, the Lord tells us in Matthew 15:21-28 that despite initial silence, He ultimately answered the Canaanite woman's plea for help. This illustrates both the necessity of faith and the assurance that God listens. The testimonies found throughout the Bible, alongside personal experiences of believers today, highlight countless times where God has intervened in response to prayer. As Micah 7:7 proclaims, 'My God will hear me,' we are encouraged that God is attentive to our cries.

Q: Why is perseverance in prayer important for Christians?

Perseverance in prayer is essential because it demonstrates our faith in God’s timing and His promises. Perseverance in prayer is crucial as it reflects a deep trust in God's sovereignty and perfect timing. Luke 18:1 teaches us that we should always pray and not lose heart, encouraging believers to maintain their prayer life even in the face of discouragement. The story of the persistent widow illustrates that persistent prayer can lead to justice, affirming that God is eager to avenge His elect who cry out to Him day and night. This persistence builds our relationship with God and often leads us to a deeper understanding of His will in our lives.

Q: How can we encourage others to pray more?

Encouraging others can be achieved through sharing testimonies of answered prayers and teaching about God’s promises in Scripture. To effectively encourage others in their prayer life, sharing personal testimonies of God's faithfulness and answered prayers can be powerful. Engaging others with Scripture that speaks to the faithfulness of God, such as 1 Peter 3:12 and Matthew 7:7-8, can remind them of God's ongoing commitment to hear their cries. Additionally, teaching about the necessity of prayer and highlighting the blessings that come through consistent communication with God can motivate others to deepen their prayer practice. Helping individuals see prayer not just as a duty but as a vital lifeline to God can stir their hearts towards regular prayer.

Q: What is the significance of faith in prayer?

Faith is crucial in prayer as it aligns our hearts with God's will and assures us of His capability to answer. Faith plays a foundational role in prayer as it is through faith that we approach God, believing that He is both willing and able to help us. In the story of the Canaanite woman, her faith was highlighted by Jesus when He declared, 'O woman, great is thy faith' (Matthew 15:28). This incident illustrates that great faith persists despite obstacles and discouragements. Moreover, without faith, our prayers may reflect doubt and uncertainty. As we grow in faith, our prayers can become more aligned with God's purpose, ultimately leading us to receive what aligns with His will for our lives.

I want us to read beginning with
verse 21 and I'll read down through verse 28. Verse 21 through verse
28 of Matthew chapter 15. Then Jesus went thence, and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It
is not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, Yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. I wanted this morning to bring
a message on this portion of the Word of God. I wanted to
talk, really, this morning about the encouragements and the discouragements
that we face in our lives for prayer. It has been said, I suppose,
many, many times that All of the failures, or at least most
of the failures of God's people in this world is to be credited
to the lack of prayer or to the understanding of what it means
to lay hold of God, for one to stir up himself to lay hold of
the Lord. I believe that eternal life began
in my soul at a time when I was crying out to the Lord. A time
when I was going, as I mentioned last week, from one side of the
bedroom to the other, crying out to God, seeking the face
of the Lord, crying out to the Lord that He might have mercy
upon my poor soul. It was there as The old preacher
down in West Virginia would say that God flung a chunk of salvation,
reached out over the banner of heaven, flung a chunk of salvation
down that hit me on the left side, turned a tub of honey over
in my soul, and has been oozing out through my ribs ever since.
Now that's an odd way of saying that God just saved me and put
his love in my heart, but nevertheless it's It's a way that I think
that most of you can understand, and I believe this happened when
I was calling upon the Lord. God was pleased to come and appear
to my soul and to do something in me that has never left me
to this day. God saved me. And I want, if
I can, to be a help to young people to those that are beginning
in the Christian life. I want to be able to say those
things that are plainly taught in the Word of God, that they
might be edified, they might be encouraged, and they might
be especially, that they might be moved upon by the Spirit of
God, having a desire in their heart to pray and to seek the
Lord. You must always pray. And God's
people, regardless of what happens, you can always pray. You can
always pray. Even if all you can do is groan,
you can pray. And the Spirit of God often makes
groanings in our soul that are understood by God. God reads
them. He understands them. And there
are many, many times where we don't have the ability to put
into words what's in our hearts, what's in our souls concerning
our need and the needs of others around us. But God knows our
hearts, and we need to learn that God is a hearing God. Now,
the first thing that I want to talk about this morning is, and
I want to mention this to you, this verse of scripture here
in verse 23. We remember that this Canaanite woman came out
of the coast of Tarn Sidon. She came to our Lord. She had
a desperate need. Her daughter was grievously vexed
with the devil. And she came and said, have mercy
on me, O Lord. She came praying unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, but in verse 23, he said, but the Bible says here,
but he answered her, not a word. He answered her, not a word. Now this, and we will discover
as we get into this, that this woman had many, many discouragements
to deal with. Many discouragements here that
came from what our Lord had to say to her, but it did not deter
her, it did not turn her away from her pleading and gaining
the victory even more than what she anticipated that she would
gain when she began to call upon the Lord. But I want to talk
a little bit, before I get into the discouragements of prayer
that we have facing us in our life, I want to talk a little
bit about the encouragements that we have. in our lives, because
as you remember, the end of this story bears out that our Lord
did. He had mercy upon this woman,
and this woman, that which she desired, that which she believed
God for, it was given unto her, and her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. So there is encouragement even
at the end this morning of this story. But I want us to be impressed
with the fact that God certainly does hear prayer and God certainly
does answer prayer. He certainly does. Now I believe
that it's more certain than any mathematical equation that you
could present to us today that God hears and that God answers
prayer. And I want you young people especially
to hear what I have to say here this morning. Because I know
that there's so many, so many, many discouragements in the world
concerning our prayer life. How that Satan attacks us and
how he visits us on this particular front. And we need some encouragement. And I want to try to give it
to you if I can. Well, the Lord Jesus on this
occasion, He answered her not a word. Now listen to me, the
Bible says in Proverbs 20 and verse 12, and I believe that
the greatest encouragements, while I could stand here this
morning and tell you over and over about the times when God
heard when I prayed through the name of Jesus Christ, and how
that God answered those prayers, and I'm sure there are many here
that could stand up and testify to direct answers that God has
given them to their prayers, and we'd all be thrilled together
at the personal testimonies of God's children as they related
to us what the Lord had done for them, how He heard them,
how He delivered them, how God appeared at the very right time
in their lives, and how God delivered their hearts and their souls,
and how He made known to them His will, how He enlightened
their hearts, how He led them in the way, how He guided them
to do His will, and so on. But beloved, this morning, I
believe the greatest encouragement that we can receive is from the
Word of God itself. And in the book of Proverbs,
chapter 20 and verse 12, it says, both the hearing ear and the
seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Now, beloved,
if God made the hearing ear, you can be sure that He has one
of His own. that God has a hearing ear. And we read also in the book
of Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 1 that the Lord's ear is not
heavy that he cannot hear. God is not hard of hearing. There's
no problem. He doesn't howl. He's not afflicted
like maybe some of us are. God is not hard of hearing. His
ear is not heavy that He cannot hear. And so always be encouraged
to come to God and pour out your heart's desire. Pour out the
very desire of your soul unto Him. And then in Micah, the book
of Micah, chapter 7, and if you can turn rapidly in your Bible,
I'd like for you to do that. I'd like for you to see this
verse of Scripture. This was a very, very difficult
day. when this scripture was penned.
And Micah said in verse 5 of chapter 7, he said, Trust ye
not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of
thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoreth
the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of
his own house. But look at verse 7, in this
calamitous time, in this difficult day, in this treacherous day,
in this day of disloyalty, the prophet Micah says, therefore,
in verse 7, I will look unto the Lord. I'll look unto the
Lord. All around are traitors. All around will turn against
you in a time of distress, in a time of need. But therefore,
he says, I will look unto the Lord. He says, I will wait for
the God of my salvation. And listen to this. He says,
My God will hear me. No doubt about it. He said, My
God will hear me in this calamitous time, in this difficult day.
I'll wait for the God of my salvation. I'll wait on Him. I'll look to
Him. And I'll wait for Him. And my
God will hear me. He will hear me. So always, my
friend, whatever your situation be, whatever the conditions that
exist right around you, whatever you have to deal with, remember
your God will hear you. Your God will hear you. Look
up unto your God and look unto Him in faith. In 1 Peter chapter
3 and verse 12 it says, For the eyes of the Lord are over the
righteous. The eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous. That means that God sees His
righteous people. Now these righteous ones are
those, and I don't get tired of saying this, I must say it
because I would have every one of you to have it fixed in your
soul. When the Bible talks about a
righteous man, it's talking about somebody who has a standing in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's talking about somebody who
has been accepted in the Beloved One. Somebody who has the robe,
the garment of salvation placed upon them as they have been enabled
by the Spirit of God to come savingly to Christ. They're righteous
because they have His holy garments on and they appear before God
without spot and blemish or any such thing because they stand
in the perfect white righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so the Bible says, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous,
and his ears, listen to it, are open unto their prayer. But the
face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Well, I like this
part, his ear is open unto their prayer. His ear is open. And
so you come to God and you cry out to God because His ear is
open and He will hear you when you pray. Now in Luke chapter
18, you remember the story there that our Lord Jesus told a parable. He told a parable to the end
that men ought always to pray and not to faint. You remember
He talked about this unfortunate widow who went to this unjust
judge how she cried out, and the scripture says, shall not
God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him? The
Lord is an avenger of all of his people. The Bible says that
we're never to avenge ourselves, but we're to leave it to God's
wrath. We're to wait upon the Lord, we're to leave things in
God's hands, and that God will avenge his own elect that cry
unto him day and night. And so you cry unto God and it
implies their persistence, it implies that we just keep on
with it, that we just keep on praying and seeking the face
of the Lord, because God will. He will avenge His own elect
though he might bear long with them. God will most surely come
to you. Oh, if I could just some way
or another move the hearts of some of you that know the Lord
Jesus Christ to begin to cry and stir up yourself, to begin
to seek out the living God, and begin to pray, and that you would
not be deterred from it, but that you would remember these
precious verses, and that the Lord would move you toward faithfulness
in crying out unto Him, and bearing up those burdens that you have,
and taking them unto the Lord, and leaving them there with the
Lord. Now a brother read to us out
of Luke chapter 11, And I would invite you to turn back to this
passage here this morning, Luke chapter 11. I'm showing you how
that the Word of God is our chief encouragement. Certainly it's
stimulating to hear brethren talk about God, answering their
prayers. But I think what we need to do
is to be grounded in the Word of Truth. We need to hear what
the Word of God says, so that when we forget, and our brethren
are gone, and we forget what they had to say, we can always
turn to this blessed book and we can read what the Word of
God says about this subject. Okay, so here in this chapter,
our Lord has taught the disciples to pray a prayer. And this is
the disciples' prayer. It's often called the Lord's
Prayer, but it really is the disciples' prayer. And then he
said, he told them this story. He said to them, which of you
shall have a friend shall go unto him at midnight, and say
to him, Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine
in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before
him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not.
The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed.
I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will
not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because
of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed. Now these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And my soul, we need to hang
our hearts on these verses when we desperately need the Lord
to intervene for us. When we desperately, just like
this man, he needed some loaves. He had those that had come, company
had come to his house, and he needed these loaves to be able
to feed them. And so the Lord Jesus says, The
man will not rise and give them to him because he's his friend,
yet because he's persistent, yet because he keeps asking,
yet because he will not go away from the door. He will have what
he needs. He must have it, and he's come
to that one that has it, and he will not leave until he gets
it. He will have it from his friend. Okay, and so the scripture says
that he will give him as many as he needeth. Let us lay hold
of that. The Lord will supply our need
in answer to persistent prayer. And so let us remember that.
And then in verse 9, and these are the verses here I want you
to really see, and I say unto you, ask. The Lord Jesus says,
I say unto you, and He would say that to each and every one
of you this morning as you're seated here in this building,
and I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth. Every one that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened unto you. What is it that you desire? What
is it that you're seeking? What is it, my friend, that you
would have from the hand of the Almighty of heaven and earth?
What would you have from his hand? The God that owns all,
the God who opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every
living thing on the face of the earth, animals, And humankind,
every living thing is provided for by the living God. All of
the vegetation in the world is blessed by God and sustained
by the hand of the Lord. This God is a God who is able,
my friend. He's a rich God. And all that
you must do is ask. Ask, and he says, everyone that
asketh receiveth. Somebody said, well, you mean
to tell me that God really will give me what I ask? Well, let's
look at verse 11 and 12. He says, if a son shall ask bread
of any of you that is a father, if one of your sons comes to
you and says, Daddy, would you give me a loaf of bread? Will
he give him a stone? Well, of course not. Or if he
ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Will he give
him a rattlesnake? He ask for a fish, will he give
him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will
he offer him a scorpion? Now this is very important that
we see this. God does answer our prayers and
give us what we ask for. Now I want you to see it. I want
you to see it. If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children. Evil here, it means
if you're depraved, you being depraved, and we all are. If
you're being sinful, and we all are, there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's not one that has not
offended God, so we're evil in and of ourselves, because our
natures are bent towards sinning and biased towards sin, and we're
evil in and of ourselves. Whenever you find us, and wherever
you find us, we're evil. But listen to me. If you know
how to give good gifts to your children, You say, well, I certainly
do. I know how to give good things
to my children. They ask me for something, I
do it. I honor their request. Well, I don't give them something
entirely different. I give them what they ask for. And then he goes on to say here,
how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask him? In the Holy Spirit, my friend,
we find every blessing Every blessing in the Holy Spirit now
you listen to me you say well, there's the Holy Spirit I'm not
sure that that's what I want my friend. Let me tell you something
you cannot pray Except you pray in the Spirit there may be something
larger that you want in in your life, something, a request that
you would make of God Almighty. You would desire the Lord to
intervene and do something that He would come down and leave
His footprints in your house and that He would touch your
children and your life. My friend, if you ever experience
it, it'll be as you prayed in the Holy Spirit. As you prayed
in the Spirit. So the Lord says, I know how
to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask me and I will give them
the Holy Spirit and in the gift of the Holy Spirit they'll have
all blessing, they'll have all blessing and be able to ask,
and to ask, and to ask, and that Holy Spirit in them will be like
a well that's springing up and flowing out. We need the Holy
Spirit. Every one of us must have the
Spirit of God to be able to walk as a Christian, to be able to
live New Testament theology and New Testament experience. We
must be endowed with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that if
a man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And the Lord knows how to give
the Holy Spirit. So whenever you get something from God, do
not, my friends, say, well, I asked the Lord for bread, but He gave
me a stone. I asked Him for a fish, He gave me a serpent. Look what
he sent into my life. Look what the Lord has done.
No, the Lord has really given you, when you ask for an egg,
he didn't give you a scorpion, he gave you an egg. He did. Now
one old theologian said that God, if he doesn't pay you off
in silver, it's because he intends to pay you off with gold. And
when you pray, my friend, God might be pleased, you see, to,
in some way or another, He'll give you something and you won't
even recognize that He gives. It may come in a black envelope.
It may come in a black envelope. And you may say, well, this is
not what the Lord, this is not what I asked for. But my friend,
it's exactly what you asked for, because the Lord is wise. He's
an all-wise God, and He gives you what it is that He would
have you to have. And if you was as smart as God,
if you was as wise as God, you'd let it stop right there, and
you'd say, the Lord gave me bread. The Lord gave me fish, and the
Lord gave me an egg. He did it. He did it. If you're
as wise as God is, you'd see that whatever you asked for was
exactly what God gave you. Now, I'm not saying we're as
wise as God is. We're not. Therefore, we go off
murmuring, we go off complaining, we go off just carrying on, just
like the Lord had forsaken us, He had forgotten to be gracious,
and He had not heard our prayer. But we need to be encouraged
to believe that God is going to give us what we ask. Now these
things are very important that we understand this, that God
is going to hear our prayer. Well, we talked a little bit
about importunity and about being persistent and about praying
and keeping on with our praying. There's some illustrations that
I would like to try. to give you this morning in connection
with this. Now I know there are seasons,
even with God's true children, even with those who believe the
Word of God and read the Bible on their knees and pray, I know
there are seasons when at His feet they groan, as the poet
said, yet bring their wants away as they come away from the throne
of grace. We present our petitions before
the Lord, yet our request does not seem to be complied with
there and then. But this is no strange thing
to the Lord's people. This is not a strange thing that's
happened unto us, if we prayed over and over and for years and
nothing seemingly happened. If the Lord seemingly answers
us not a word, this is no strange thing. The poet said, John Erskine,
I believe, said this, they are heard when answered sooner or
later. Yea, heard when they no answer
get, are kindly answered when refused, and treated well when
harshly used. God's people are heard when they
pray, even though the Lord bears long with them. There's some
illustrations, about four illustrations, and the last one we'll give is
this one here in our text. But this story is about a boy
that grew up. His father was a Christian man,
and he went to work for a Christian. But this young man was a wicked
young man, lived in sin, and said he was an infidel. and so
he got all the literature he could on uh... from the infidels
and read it and passed it out circulated it and he had a companion
and one time he told this companion what he was this this young man
was about seventeen eighteen years old he told this companion
of his he says now i'm gonna really do something i'm gonna
show up these people down there at the chapel that are down there
having a prayer meeting he said i'm gonna go down there and i'm
gonna go in and i'm gonna present myself to the preacher and i'm
gonna say preacher uh... my soul is heavily burdened and
i need for you people pray for me here at this prayer meeting
i need you to pray he said i'm gonna make a mockery out of this
and he says i am going to show you these people can't they don't
have anything and this is all just a bunch of rubbish this
business of prayer this business of of calling on god there is
no god And so this young man, he went in to the prayer meeting,
and there was a group of people gathered together and just about
ready to pray. And so he'd come up to the preacher,
he'd come up to the front, and just as straight-faced as he
could be, he said to the preacher, he said, now I'm heavily burdened
in my soul, and I would like for you folks to pray for me,
and to cry to God for me, because I just, I need to be saved. And
so he was there on the front row, and the old brethren began
to pray. They began to pray. Old white-haired
man, he got on his knees, he began to pray, began to cry out
to God for this young man, began to pray for him. And he finished,
tears running down his face, another man got on his knees
and began to pray for this boy. Well, the first thing you know,
this young man was seen to slip over on his knees and got down
on his knees, and he began to pray for his own soul. And as
the story goes, that young man, before he left that building,
even though he'd come in to mock God, God heard the prayers of
his people, and that young man was saved, went out of there
and had to deny everything that he believed to his friends and
everything, and testified to them that, But God undertook for me, and
God saved my soul in that place, in answer to the prayers of the
Lord's people." Alright, that's one illustration that God does
hear prayer. Even though somebody may be,
what we might say, an actor or a hypocrite in the situation,
God still hears the prayers of His people. Now the second illustration
is, there was a lady, and she had a very mean and wicked husband.
And this wicked husband, one night when this lady came from
church, he would not let her come in the house. She'd been
to the meeting house. And so he ran her out into the
field and she stayed all night in the field. And she would not
go to the neighbor's house. She wanted it spread around the
community that her husband had drove her out because she'd went
to the meeting house. And so she made up her mind that
she was going to pray for this mean husband. That she would
pray and my the things that she suffered in his hands, only God
knows. It's a wonder to me, according
to the story, that she didn't die prematurely before she was
ever able to see the victory of God. But she made up her mind,
I'm going to pray an hour every day for that man. I'm going to
pray for him. And so for a year, she said,
I will pray for a year, an hour every day. So she prayed, and
she prayed, and she prayed, and the man didn't get any better.
He only got worse. And the year came, and when the
year was over, she said to herself, well, I'm mighty weak, and I
don't know whether I can go on and do this or not, but I'll
do it for another six months. I'll do it for another six months,
and then I'm going to give it up. I'll give it up." So she
began to pray again, and after some time, one day at about the
noon hour, this man came home from work. He came home from
work, and he came in the house, and she saw that he was heavily
burdened. He was distressed. And so she
said, what is it? What is it? And he wouldn't answer
a word. He went upstairs. And after a
while, he came back down. He wouldn't even go back to work
that afternoon. He came down and he said, He said, I cannot
pray. I cannot pray. I cannot pray. And she said, do you want to
pray? He said, I must pray. He said,
I was at work and something very strange come over me and conviction
came over me. I cannot pray. I cannot pray. I must, I must pray. I must get
some relief. And so she said, he said, will
you pray with me? And she said, I will. and she
prayed with him and he prayed and he was saved, God saved his
soul and in a few days he was coming to the meeting house with
her and her life was blessed of God and she saw the answer
and ere long they were at the Lord's table together what a
victory that God gave but that woman an hour a day for a year
and then had to start on the next six months barely able to
have the strength to endure Now there's another illustration.
There was a fellow, and his last name was Mitchell. And he was
a captain on a ship, and he went to sea, and he had a wife, a
young woman, and she was about ready to have their first child.
And while he was out at sea, one day he felt heavily burdened
to pray, to pray for his wife and for the child that was yet
to be born. And so he prayed earnestly and
he wrote down the prayer, wrote it down on a piece of paper. And as he wrote that, in the
spirit of God, He thought, well, if something happens to me, then
they will have this. And so he placed it in his oak
chest where all of his papers were on board the ship. And the
man did not make it home. The man died on board the ship. And his wife received the oak
chest that had all of his papers in it. And she would not look
into the oak chest. She had no desire to, she said.
And so she kept it. And she said, maybe someday our
son will want this chest. And so she kept it. And then
finally, the boy was born. The baby was born. It was a little
boy. And the baby grew up into manhood. and went, come to America
from England, came to America and was in the army for a while
in America and after a while he, when he was 54 years old,
living in sin, been rebellious toward God all of his days and
was living with a woman in the street and one day he came across
that old oak chest up in the attic And he began to look through
his father's papers. Down in the bottom of that chest,
rolled up with a red ribbon around it, was this prayer that his
dad had prayed and written down for his mother and for himself. His father was greatly burdened.
for his soul, that the mother and the child might stand in
Christ, that they might come to have hope of the gospel, that
they might come to have forgiveness of sin, and to have the peace
of God shed abroad in their hearts for the Holy Spirit. And that
spelled out the desire of his father for him. At 54 years old,
the man said, well, I'll just put it back. And so he put it
back, but the prayer had lodged in his heart. and he could not
get over it. The woman he was living with
said, what's the matter with you? And she said, are you going
to become a hypocrite? Are you going to become a hypocrite?
What's coming over you anyway? He said, I cannot get away from
it. I cannot get away from this prayer. My dad's prayer. Prayed
54 years before, lying there in that oak chest, all of those
years. And I'll tell you what, the Lord
broke his heart. and brought him to the feet of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was saved. God saved him, he
married this woman, they lived together honorably, God blessed
them together, and I'll tell you what, 54 years that prayer
laid there. But God never lost sight of it,
and God knew what He was going to do. In 54 years from the time
that man wrote that until this young man read it, God meant
for it to be an instrument to the salvation of this young man.
So those three illustrations, I think, help us to see that
surely the Lord, surely the Lord is able. He is able to answer
prayer. He is able to hear prayer. He
is able to deliver. Now let us quickly look at a
few things here in this text, and then we'll close. In Matthew
chapter 15, let's go back there. There's some things here that
I want us to look at that I believe will be a blessing to you, that'll
stick with you even if you forget these stories. that I've told
you. Now in the first place here,
in this text, we see that true faith, and this woman had true
faith, she had God-given faith, and true faith sometimes is found
where it might least be expected. Now this woman here was a Canaanite
woman, and she was a Gentile, and she came from the coast of
Tar and Sidon, and you know this was that place which had her
race of people had long ago been given up to destruction and they
were they were Gentile dogs is what they were and but this woman
now here now she was from Bethany or Jerusalem maybe you could
expect that she would have had this faith but she wasn't Don't
you see? She was from that out-of-the-way
place where the Lord Jesus had said when he was talking about
Charazin and Bethsaida, said, If the mighty works that have
been done in you had been done in Tar and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago. Well, this woman came out of
that place and she had heard of the fame of the Lord Jesus
Christ and so she comes out and then she comes here to the Lord
Jesus and so she begins to cry out have mercy on me now there's
a lesson here beloved you know sometimes we think well we should
spend our time on the people that show the most promise that
we should uh... those that are right in the center
of activity with us those that we know and and our own children
we should spend all day but listen as one old prophet said we ought
to plow clear to the end of the field and whenever we get out
there you know sometimes we we may find somebody way out there
on the perimeter uh... that the lord's dealing with
the Lord may be dealing with and I want you to know this is
sooner or later there's going to come a meeting between the
Lord Jesus Christ and every sinner that he's seeking there's going
to come a meeting between those two people wherever that sinner
comes from there's going to be a meeting and those two people
are going to get together Christ and the sinner and that's what
happened here in this story but she cries out Lord have mercy
on her and it ought to teach us that as we go about the grace
of God, that it's the grace of God to bring salvation, and it's
not the place which we come from. It's the grace of God. Now, let
us not despair of anyone's soul merely because his lot is cast
in an unfavorable position. It is possible to dwell in the
coast of Tarr and Sidon, and yet sit down in the kingdom of
God. It's possible and so don't be
afraid to bear witness of the gospel. Now the second thing
I want to point out is that affliction sometimes proves a blessing to
a person's soul. Now this lady had an affliction
and it was her daughter. that was grievously vexed with
the devil. And so this, her love for her
daughter, drove her to prayer. Now beloved, our need must press
us to pray. And our need will press us to
pray. And sometimes it is good that
we be afflicted. This trouble brought her to Christ,
taught her to pray, and surely it was good for her, as the psalmist
said, for her to be afflicted. So mark it well. There's nothing
that shows our ignorance more in this world than impatience
under trouble. You know, many, many times we
would avoid trouble every way we possibly could. We don't want
a bit of trouble. But beloved, let me tell you
something, it's trouble that will drive you to the Lord. It's
trouble that will bring you to Christ. And we ought not be impatient
under it because we must not forget that every cross is a
message from God and intended to do us good in the end. Trials
are intended to make us think. They're intended to wean us from
the world, to send us to the scriptures, and to drive us to
our knees. Now, health is a good thing,
but sickness is far better if it moves a man to seek his God,
if it moves him to cry out to God. Now, adversity is a... I believe that prosperity is
a great mercy, but adversity is better if it will bring a
man to Christ. Would you agree with me? If it'll bring a man
praying and seeking, then it's better. Anything, anything is
better than living in carelessness and dying in your sin. Anything. And one old preacher down south,
he said, if God don't quit blessing this generation, why, they'll
all go to hell. If God don't start burning down
some of these people's houses and getting some of these people
in trouble, they never will seek the Lord. They'll never cry to
God. Well, I'll tell you there's a
measure of truth to that. There ain't very many people
ever look up till they get down, do they? It's when you get down
that you look up. It's whenever you come to the
end of yourself. That's when you begin to look
to God for something, when you get to the end of yourself. All right, better a thousand
times to be afflicted like this mother was afflicted, and for
her to flee to Christ and live at ease like the rich fool, and
die at last without Christ and without hope, better to be afflicted,
wouldn't you say? Better to be afflicted. All right,
now in the third place, and we got just four things here we're
gonna mention, we see in the third place that Christ's people
are often less gracious and compassionate than Christ himself. Now I want
you to see that here. Now, this is very important. I think we need to be aware of
it, and we need to assure people that our Master is much more
gracious than the best of His servants are. Now, it is true
here that the Lord Jesus, He put some stumbling blocks, as
it were, to test this woman's faith. And He said to her, He answered her not a word, and
then his disciples came, and they besought him, saying, Send
her away. How cold that is. Send her away. They would say, She's not worthy
to have what you've got to give. That belongs to us. I mean, we're
the Jews, and that belongs to us. And not only that, they said,
She's crying after us. She was doing no such thing.
She was crying after the master. She wasn't crying after them.
They didn't have anything they could give her. Not a thing.
But he had something he could do for her. Well, he answered
her and said, I'm not sent unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. They said, send her away. Jesus said, well, I'm not sent
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Well, you know,
this woman, she would say, she would say, well, you know, I
can't do anything about, I can't do anything about your mission.
I can't change that. I can't change the fact that
the race of people I come from or who they are and what they
are, because you know the Lord Jesus said, it's not me to take
the children's bread and cast it to dogs. She said, I can't
change my people. I can't change who I came from,
that race of people. I can't do anything about that,
but I can pray. I can pray. I can't change your mission or
my people, and I can't change myself, but I can pray. And see what happened? She said
truth, Lord. Remember in verse 25 that she
worshiped, saying, Lord, help me. Lord, help me. What a prayer
that is. Lord, help me. Help me. Lord, help me. Lord, help me.
You know, they don't take long to pray that prayer. Lord, help
me. Lord, have you ever prayed that?
Just standing on your feet, and you're in trouble, hot water
clear up your knees, Lord, help me! Help me, be merciful, Lord,
to me. And so she is worshiping, the
Lord said, well, I can't take the children's bread and cast
it to, and the word Jesus used here, dogs, means little dogs. Little dogs, I can't cast the
children's bread to little dogs. But that woman caught ahold of
that. She knew they had house dogs, little house dogs, and
she knew that them little house dogs was allowed the privilege
of getting under the table. going under the table, and eating
the crumbs that fell off the master's table. And so she said,
truth, Lord, I don't deny it. I know, Lord, that I'm a Gentile
dog. And I know I don't deserve anything
from you. And I know I'm not worth anything.
But yet the dogs, those little dogs, eat of the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. They do that. They're down under
that table and if something falls off, they got it. They get it.
And that's what she wanted. She just wanted a crumb that
would fall off of the Master's table. Off of the Lord Jesus
Christ's table. Just something from the Lord.
Something from Him. Just something from the Lord. There's not many people that
wants anything from the Lord Jesus, but I do. I do. I want something. I want something. I need something. I desire something. My soul pleads for something
from the master's table. I must get something from his
table. I must have it from the Lord. And the Lord is able to give
it. He will give it. Those crumbs will fall, my friend.
They will fall. They'll fall off the table. And
you just, even though you're a little dog, you'll get something.
There's something coming. Something coming from the hand
of the Lord. Okay, so this ought to encourage
us to pray and to persevere in prayer, both for ourselves and
for others. And I believe that as we see
that there's encouragement here, I think that it will bless us
and that it will tend In the hour when we're pressed, it will
move us to pray. In verse 28, then Jesus answered,
said to her, O woman, great is thy faith. Great is thy faith.
Sure, you're a Gentile dog. Sure, you're untutored and unlettered.
Sure, you're no theologian. Sure, you don't have any Abraham
or Isaac's blood in you. Sure, you're nothing but a condemned
race. But great is thy faith. Great
is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. Oh, my friend, this morning, wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody
here, and I don't know how many seeking souls we got here, I
don't know whether we got anybody here seeking the Lord or not,
crying out to God as this old preacher's preaching, Lord, I
just need this, I must have this. The Lord Jesus, oh, that he would
say, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt. Be it unto thee. Sister, be it unto thee, even
as thou wilt. Brother, be it unto thee, even
as thou wilt. Do you believe? Do you believe
God? Do you trust Him who cannot lie? Do you believe Him? He's the
God of mercy and a God of grace. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. She got exactly what she was
asking from the Lord. Now let me close by saying that
prayer is the rope which hangs down on earth, and there's a
bell in heaven, which it rings, and it rings, and it rings, when
people are pulling that rope. You're pulling that rope, and
you're pulling that rope, and you're pulling that rope, morning,
noon, and night, pulling that rope, and the bell rings in heaven,
and God hears it. Let its notes be, save my children. Save my husband. Save my wife. Save my brother. Save my sister. Let the notes be, Lord, bless
the church. Lord, meet the needs. of those
who are cast down, those who are discouraged. Let the note
ring out in glory. Speak the names of your children
before the throne of grace. Say their names to the Lord.
Oh, my friend, how important this is. Make the bell ring and
ring and ring and pull that rope. Pull that rope tonight. Pull
that rope in the morning. Pull that rope day after day,
day after day. Pull that rope. Pull that rope.
Remember what we had to say today. I trust that this has been to
some degree an encouragement and that you see the obstacles.
There's many of them in the way, many things in the way. But I
trust that the word of God alone will be sufficient to move our
hearts toward real earnest real earnest prayer, and that it will
not be the kind that will be able just to say, well, if I
don't get it today, I'll just forget about it. If it don't
happen, I'll just forget it. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. Just
keep on pulling the rope. Keep on ringing the bell. Keep on, keep on, keep on. Father,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, be pleased to use this
message stammering and stuttering as it was presented. Lord, remember
this people. Stir up our hearts. Oh, may we
find a place where we can get along and pull the rope. Father,
be merciful to us and strengthen us and give us that which we
need, that the Holy Spirit, in order that our hearts would be
aflame with desire and with holy ambition, to see you intervene
and see your work. In Jesus' name, save every lost
sinner here, bring them to Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.

Encouragements And Discouragements

What does the Bible say about prayer?

How do we know God answers our prayers?

Why is perseverance in prayer important for Christians?

How can we encourage others to pray more?

What is the significance of faith in prayer?

Sermon Transcript

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Articles

Featured Authors

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Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Encouragements And Discouragements

What does the Bible say about prayer?

How do we know God answers our prayers?

Why is perseverance in prayer important for Christians?

How can we encourage others to pray more?

What is the significance of faith in prayer?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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