everybody. Turn over to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and we
are going to take our text this morning from the first verse,
verse 1. This is obviously Paul speaking
to the Corinthians. He says this in verse 1, he says, Seeing we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we faint not. Now in the context
here, Paul is talking about the preaching of the gospel. He says,
we have this ministry, we have this gospel, we have this good
news, we have this Christ, and he must be preached. And he says,
and in this thing, we think not. We don't back down, we don't
squirm, we don't lie down, and we don't quit. Everywhere I go,
preach the gospel over and over and over again. And that was
true of Paul. And it was interesting because everywhere Paul went
something bad happened. You think of the tribulations
he faced in preaching the Gospel. Everywhere he went he knew that
he was probably going to get beat up at the end of it, or
shipwrecked somewhere, or thrown into prison. And every single
time he picked himself up, he kicked the dust off his shoes,
and he moved on to the next city and did the whole thing all over
again. He didn't quit. He didn't faint. He didn't back down. What
I appreciate about Paul is that he is an honest preacher. He
tells us why he didn't faint. He says, therefore seeing we
have this ministry as we have received mercy. He says, I'm an object of great
mercy. That's why I didn't quit. And
that mercy came in the form and the power of the Lord empowering
him to pick himself up and go preach the gospel all over again
and get beat up all over again and complete the same cycle all
over again. But I would invite you to look at this through a
slightly different lens this morning. If you want to look
at this for what this is, Paul is speaking as a representative
of every believer concerning this thing of persevering in
faith. And he says, concerning this
thing of persevering in faith, we faint not. We don't quit,
we don't back down, and we don't lie down. We keep on believing
all the way to the end. And the reason for that is the
same reason that Paul kept on preaching the gospel, as we received
mercy. Now the good work that was begun
in you, who did the father look to to begin that good work? Did
he look for a reason in you to begin that good work in you?
No, because if he would have looked there, he wouldn't have
found one. He looked to his son for the reason he needed to begin
that good work in you. And he looked to him yesterday,
and he looked to him today, and he's going to look to him tomorrow.
And the reason you're going to have mercy yesterday, today,
and tomorrow, and every day past this, if you're a believer, is
for one reason. It's because of the grace and
the mercy of God, backed by the works of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we receive mercy, we faint not. And this is the scripture
that supports this. Philippians 1, 6 says, being confident of
this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it, will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ. What's every believer going to
do? He's going to persevere in faith all the way to the end
because he's kept by the power of God. Now, that being said,
that does not mean that we will not be without discouragement.
as we walk through this world. I scribbled down some things
that discourage me, and maybe you will identify with some of
these things. Here's the first thing that discourages me. It
is the habitual nature of my sin. From the time I was young till
right now, it's just the same sins over and over and over. It's the same wicked impulses
over and over. All those wicked imaginations
of my heart. You know what's changed? Nothing concerning me. It's the same stuff, that habitual
nature. Paul says this in Romans 7 24,
he says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? And I used to think that was
just poetic language, but I looked into that statement. What Paul
is likely talking about there is he's using an illustration,
talking about how prisoners were treated in his day. A lot of
times the way they would deal with these prisoners, if they
were bad off for whatever reason, they'd take that prisoner and
they would chackle a dead body to them. So they'd take it, that
man, that live prisoner, put that dead body over top of him,
they'd chackle him hand to hand, face to face, waist to waist,
foot to foot. And that was a particular punishment.
So every time you raised your hand, this dead man raised his
hand too. Every time you moved your face, dead man moved his
face too. You were shackled to this dead body. That's what it's
like living in this world with this old man, this old dead nature. Every time I do something, He's
right there with me, and it's sin because He doesn't. Every
time I speak, it's Him. It's that old dead man, that
old nature just coming out. The habitual nature of my sin
is not going away until we lay down this body and we die. I
recognize that, but He's discouraging. He discourages me quite a bit.
It's the second thing that discourages me, the constant fluctuations
of my heart. Revelations 3, verse 15 says,
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would
thou wert cold or hot, so then because thou art lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. There's the revolving door that
is my heart. Sometimes hot, I love those times.
Burning with adoration for the Lord Jesus Christ, wanting to
know him more, wanting to serve him more, clinging to him in
faith, burning white hot, we love those times, don't we? And
then there's cold. Cold hearted. Can't detect the
Lord's presence. Can't see him. And at least this
thing, these two extremes, hot and cold, at least with cold,
you're conscious of your need. You're conscious of the Lord
to come to you and do something for you. To come to me where
I'm at. I can't even get to you. I can't even detect your presence.
I'm just cold and stony hearted. I just need you to come to me.
Cold and hot, they're okay, right? But then there's old Luke Warm.
He creeps in. This is how Luke Warm is described
in verse 17. Because thou sayest I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. Mr. Luke Warm, what's one word
we could use to describe him? Apathy, complete and utter apathy. I detect no need, I see no beauty,
just spiritually numb. And those fluctuating portions
of my heart, that revolving door, that discourages me. Here's another thing that discourages
me, being a discouragement to others. Now, we do a pretty decent
job of cleaning up the outside of the cup around other people,
don't we? Put our best foot forward, try to mind our manners. And
we should. We absolutely should. But then we say something. And
then we do something. And all of a sudden, you look
around and you've acted out. And instead of encouraging your
brethren and being an encouragement to them, you've discouraged them.
Me being a discouragement to others, that discourages me.
Being discouraged by others. Let me ask you this. Have you
ever had so much respect for one of your brethren, you admired
them so much that you put them on a pedestal? When we put people
on a pedestal, here's what we do. We hold that person to an
expectation that we don't hold ourself to, a much higher expectation. You find someone, you think very
highly of them, you respect them, so you put them on a pedestal.
You hold them to this high standard that you don't even hold yourself
to, and then you get close to them. And then what happens?
You see the chinks in the armor. And you see the cracks in the
facade, and you find out they're just a sinner like you are. And
they fall off the pedestal, and you get discouraged. sickness,
family problems, financial issues, having your character misrepresented,
loss of loved ones, all of the above, the trials and tribulations
of this life, it's discouraging. We believe, Romans 8, 28, and
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
We know that, we know it in our bones, and it becomes very hard
to see when we are down in these deep, dark, discouraging places,
although it's still altogether true. Now, all these discouragements
I've just talked about, that's not fun, and I didn't enjoy that.
But what I want to point out to you is this, all those discouragements
we have in this life, they are absolutely necessary. Look down
at verse seven of your text. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Why do we deal with these things?
Why do we have to deal with these discouragements while we're in
this life? What purpose could they possibly serve? So that
we see that the excellency of the power, it's not of us. It
leads us to a place where I can't look inside me for any comfort
or any hope or any encouragement. And I'm not going to be able
to look to you for comfort or hope and encouragement. I'm not
going to be able to look to my circumstances for those things.
It's going to leave me in a place where all I can do, the only
place I can look to Christ. And he's the only place where
I'm going to find comfort and hope and encouragement. These
discouragements, they're very painful. I recognize that, but
also very, very necessary. They have a purpose. But I don't
want to talk about them anymore. I don't want to talk about discouraging
things anymore during this message. I want to talk about encouraging
things. In fact, I want to give you five reasons, five reasons
for every believer to be encouraged, to faint not, to not lie down,
to not back down, and to continue on in this thing of faith. And
if you want to know where I got my outline from, I just looked
at every place in the epistles where Paul used this phrase,
we faint not. Let's see what he says. First
one is there is verse 1 of 2 Corinthians 4 again. Read it again. He said,
therefore, seeing we have this ministry as we've received mercy,
we faint not. Here's the very first reason
that every believer has reason to faint not, not to quit. It
is because we have this ministry. We have this gospel and we have
this Christ. Now, what type of ministry do
we have? turn over our chapter to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Look at verse 18, Paul says, And all things are
of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry, that's what we're talking about,
we have this ministry of reconciliation. that God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Here's this
ministry we have. We have a ministry of reconciliation. Now when you think of two parties
being reconciled, what do you think of? Well, here's what I
think of. I think of two parties, and they're
probably both a little wrong, right? Anytime you get two people
together, they're both a little wrong, right? And they come together,
and they compromise, and they work out their differences, and
they reconcile. They come back together. And
that has absolutely nothing to do with what's being talked about
here. In the Lord's reconciliation with his people, it is completely
and utterly one-sided. He is the offended party, and
we're the offending party. That's it. And there's absolutely
no compromise with God. It couldn't be that issues were
just work out. Justice had to be served. This is exactly what
happened on the cross. Lord Jesus Christ took the sins
of His people in His body and He suffered under the wrath of
God and He died so successfully that God was actually satisfied. His perfect sense of justice
was satisfied concerning all His people and it actually opened
the door to reconciliation. To where God says concerning
my people now I'm at peace. Complete and utter reconciliation
is made. Everything that I require has
been done. It's been done in the person
of Jesus Christ. And here's the end state of all
this. Look at verse 20. Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's
stead be reconciled to God. For every sinner whose hope in
nothing more and nothing less than the shed blood of Jesus
Christ, this is the call of God himself, the creator, to you,
be ye reconciled to God. I'm not mad at you. I have no
warfare left for you. My weapons, I put them up in
the armory, they're done. Now you, you be reconciled to God.
I'm at peace with you, now you be at peace with me." And here's
the reason he can be at peace with you and me. He says, not
imputing their trespasses unto them. Understand this, God only
imputes what is there and he only refuses or fails to impute
is not actually there. The only reason to all the elect
that God does not impute their sins to them is because they
truly are gone. They were paid for on that cross
and truly peace is there because there is no sin there to cause
enmity. Now turn over to 2 Corinthians
3. Remember we're talking about what type of ministry we have. Look at verse 4, Paul says, "...and
such trust have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."
What's the New Testament he's talking about? Is he talking
about the second half of the Bible? He's talking about the
New Covenant and He poses it against the Old. The Old Covenant,
the Covenant of the Law. We talked about this in Sunday
School. That Old Covenant, that's the one that God made with Adam
in the garden. He said, Adam, you want to continue
in the state of blessedness with me? I've made you upright and
innocent. You want to stay this way? Real easy, one rule. Don't
eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day
you eat thereof, you shall surely die." One upright and one innocent
man. He wasn't like you and me. He
did not have this sinful, evil nature that we contend with.
He was upright and he was innocent and he had one command and he
couldn't keep it. covenant that was made between
God and man where it rests on the shoulders of man, rests on
the merit of man, for that man to be saved it is doomed to utter
failure. That's what it says right here.
He says, the letter killeth. You put a man under the Law all
the Law does is say he's guilty. That's it. That's the purpose
of the Law. It is to proclaim our guilt. But He says you're
not ministers, you're not servants of that Old Covenant. If you're
looking at Christ you're servants of the New Testament, the New
Covenant. And And in this covenant, you know how many responsibilities
you have? It's the easiest servitude there ever was. There are zero
responsibilities. In this covenant, the God the
Father made with God the Son, He placed the sole responsibility
of salvation for all God's elect on the shoulders of Christ Himself.
And those commodities in that covenant, God's people, He doesn't
look to them for a thing. He looks to Christ for every
single bit of it. And here's the last part about
this ministry we have that's very encouraging. 1 Corinthians
16, 15 says this, I'll read it to you. Paul says, I beseech
you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanas, that is the first
fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the
ministry of the saints. This ministry that you have,
if you're a believer, you're addicted to it. This Christ that
you have, you're addicted to him. Now what is the hallmark
of addiction? You have a craving. You have a need. And the only
thing that will satisfy that craving is what you're addicted
to. And this is what happens when God the Holy Spirit does
a work of grace in a man's heart. He addicts him to Christ. He
gives him a great need. He makes him a sinner before
God. And he sees that the only thing that can satisfy that need
is the shed blood of Christ. That's it. And for this addiction,
folks, there is no rehab. There is no going back. Once
you've tasted this, you're hooked. That's the end of it. And you
will never go back. This Christ, this ministry, we're
addicted to it. And we're going to die addicted to it. Thank
the Lord. turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
4 again and look at verse 16. David you read this a couple
of nights ago. Here is the second reason that every believer has
reason to faint not. Verse 16, For which cause we
faint not? But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Now, every believer, you have
a reason to faint not, to not quit and not back down. It's
for this reason, because you look to things that are unseen,
not things that are seen. Now, Hebrews 4.3 says this, it
says, for we which have believed do enter into rest. said, as
I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."
Now, I don't know if there's another scripture that describes
the eternality of salvation better than that one. All the works,
everything that was necessary for the elect to be saved, they
were finished before the foundations of the world were ever built.
God loved the people before any of this was ever made. Before
one brick of this earth, this matter was ever put down He loved
the people. He chose those people unto salvation. Christ agreed
to be the surety for those people. And according to the book of
Revelations Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. That means before any of us were
here and any of us committed one sin there was a sacrifice
for that sin. There has always been an atonement
for every single one of those sins. And as far as you let go
Right now, presently, this is how they stand, perfect, holy,
and unblameable, and unapprovable before God. And that is right
now, perfectly righteous before God. Here's the only problem. I haven't seen and can't see
any of that. I don't have access to the Lamb's
Book of Life. And I wasn't there when the Lord
wrote down those names in it of who all those people are.
And I don't have a certificate that says God loves me. And I
can't look inside myself and see a righteous man. All I see
is a sinner. That's it. I don't see that I'm
holy and unblameable and unapprovable before God. All those things
that have been done and currently are, I haven't seen any of them
and I can't see any of them. But that's the point of faith.
In faith, we are trusting someone we have never seen. Now, we know
him. When the Lord does a work of
grace in a man's heart, you know Christ. You know him in his word,
you know him through the preaching of the gospel, but you know him.
You can detect his presence. You know things about him, but
more so you know him, who he actually is. But we've never
seen him. We're trusting one we've never actually seen to
have taken actions that we didn't witness that produce results
that we have not seen. And that is the purpose of faith.
But this is what it says about faith. Hebrews 11, 1. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. There is
one thing we can see, one thing we can detect, and that is faith
itself. Right now, if you're looking to Christ alone, if you
have absolutely nowhere to look but Christ and His shed blood
alone for every aspect of your salvation, that is the evidence
of all these things. You can't see that they were
done for you. You can't see that you were elected.
You can't see into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ when
He was dying on that cross to know that you were on His mind
and His heart when He was dying. You can't see any of those things.
You can't see that you stand before God perfect and unblameable
and holy right now. All you see is a sinner. But
if you're looking to Christ for all those things, concerning
you all the works have been done from the foundations of the world.
The faith is the very evidence of that. The opposite is absolutely true. If you can see, if you have another
place to look, your sin remains. Now, let me give you another
scripture that drives this point home. Turn over to John chapter
9. Look at verse 39. It's the same concept but in
a different illustration. And Jesus said, for judgment
I am coming to this world that they which see not might see,
and they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees
which were with him heard these words and said unto him, are
we blind also? Jesus said unto them, if you
are blind, you should have no sin. But now you say we see,
therefore, your sin remaineth. What is this good blindness that
the Lord's talking about here? He says, if you can see your
sin remaineth, but if you're blind, you have no sin. What is this good blindness that
talks about? When you look inside yourself, what do you see? Every
believer, when he looks inside himself, he's blind. He can't
find a reason that God would be merciful to him. If he has
to look for a reason in me to show me mercy, he's not going
to find one. That's the good blindness, he
says right here. And if you have that blindness,
you can't see a reason inside yourself the Lord would be merciful
to you, that means you have no sin. And the opposite is absolutely
true. If you can look inside yourself
and you see a man that has merit before God, you can find a reason
in yourself that God would be merciful to you, your sin remains. But if you're blind, blind to
yourself in every way, you're a sinner before God and nothing
else, you have no sin. Christ put away your sin. It's
all taken care of. Turn over Galatians chapter 6. This is the third reason that
every believer has the faint knot. Galatians 6 and look at
verse 7. Paul says, Be not deceived. God
is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not." Now, faint not because in due season you are going to
reap. Two men are posed here, one who
sows to the flesh and reaps corruption, the other man who sows the spirit
and he reaps life eternal. What do these two men represent?
They represent everything that every other two men in scripture
represent, the Pharisee and the publican. The two malefactors
who were crucified next to our Lord, the thief on the cross
whom the Lord saved, the other one he passed by, Cain and Abel. It's always two men because there's
only two religions. That's it. Works and grace. This
man who sows to the flesh, what does that mean? He believes in
the flesh. He has confidence in his flesh.
You know what he reaps? Corruption. He sows corruption
toward God. He tries to pay for his sins
with more sins. He sows corruption. You know what he reaps? He reaps
corruption. That's it. Man who sows to the Spirit, you know
what that means? He sows because of the Spirit. Because he has
the Spirit of God in him, because the Lord has done a work of grace
in that man's heart, he believes Christ. He looks to Christ for
everything God requires of him, and he reaps life everlasting. Two men are described here. Now,
the point is this, in due season, we are going to reap. 1 John
3 verse 2 says this, Beloved, Now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be. And when he says that,
I'm pretty sure the reason he's saying that is because we have
absolutely no idea what it's going to be like to not be a
sinner anymore. You know, this thing of sin, we live with it,
we always have it, and we come used to it. But there's gonna
come a day when we truly will reap. We're gonna lay down this
body of flesh, and we're not gonna have sin to deal with anymore.
And he says, and we don't really know what that's gonna be like.
this great white lifted off of us. It doth not appear yet what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In due season,
if you're looking to Christ alone, you're going to reap. You're
going to come meet your Savior face to face, and you're going
to put off this body of death, as Paul calls it, that old man,
and you're going to be just like Him. And in this place, and in
this moment, this moment that is never going to end, there
will be no more tears, and there will be no more problems, and
there will be no more sin, and there will be no more insecurities.
But you know what I'm going to be most thankful for out of all
of them? There's going to be no more faith. faith is going
to be done away with and this thing of faith believing on this
one we've never seen trusting this one we've never seen that's
all going to be over and faith is going to turn to experience
and we're actually going to experience our savior face to face we are
really going to know him and know him inwardly and outwardly
in every aspect he truly is going to be our husband our father
our friend in every way in every aspect we are going to experience
him and you can imagine No sin, the euphoria of being with Christ.
Anybody ready to leave? In due season, folks, everybody
who's looking to Christ, sowing to the Spirit, looking to Christ
alone, you're going to reap. Hold on. Just hold on just a
few more days. It's all going to be over very,
very soon, and we're all going to reap. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
3. Ephesians 3 and look at verse
13. Paul says, "'Wherefore I desire
that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.'"
Now evidently at some point these Ephesians had either witnessed
Paul being persecuted for preaching the Gospel or at least heard
of it. And what he tells them here is, he goes, don't worry
about me, don't worry about me. Those tribulations, that's your
glory. What does he mean by that? read
you this. I mentioned this a couple of
messages ago, but I want to go through it again. This is Romans
5 verse 3, Paul speaking to the Romans he says, and not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also. Knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.
And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. And here's
the point we faint not because our tribulations are They're
purposeful and they're for our good. Paul says, it's your glory. Not that we enjoy the tribulation.
The tribulation is very hard, it's very dark. It produces good
things. Tribulation does two major things.
It causes us to cling tighter to the Lord Jesus Christ and
it galvanizes our faith. That's what it does. And here's
how it works. Paul talks about patience, and experience, and
hope. We have a baseline. That baseline is relative peace.
I say relative peace because we are sinful men and women living
in a sinful world, which means there's never real peace. But
we have relative peace. Then the Lord sends the tribulation.
He sends the trial. And if you're in a real trial,
you know what happens? You're left in a place you can't find
your way out. And you're looking for the means the Lord would
deliver you from that trial, but you know what you're made
to do? Just simply wait on the Lord, exercise patience. And
you know what happens? Every single time, he delivers
and comforts in some way. In some way, shape, or form,
he always does it. And then you go back to relative
peace. And you complete that cycle over and over and over,
that cycle of exercising patience, waiting on the Lord to deliver
you. And you know what that builds? An experience. and experience
of the Lord delivering you in your tribulation. And after a
while, you know what that builds? Hope. What's the hope? The hope is this, that in these
lesser matters, the tribulations and the trials of this life,
and I say lesser simply because they're temporal. They have an
end date. These lesser matters of this
life, if he thinks on me, And if he is faithful every single
time to know my troubles, to know my tribulations, and he
is faithful to come and deliver me and comfort me in my tribulation,
he does that over and over and over again, this little speck
in this broad thing of this universe and this eternity. If he does
that faithfully every single time, how much more faithful
has he been in taking care of my greatest need? And that is
my salvation. He says, don't worry about these
tribulations. That's your glory. It's good for you because it
causes you to cling to Christ that much harder. Turn over to Luke chapter 18.
It's the last one. Look at verse 1. And he spake a parable unto them
to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. That's what we're looking at.
Saying, there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither
regarded man. And there was a widow in that
city, and she came unto him saying, avenge me of mine adversary.
And he would not for a while. But afterward, he said within
himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this
widow troubleth me, I will avenge her. lest by her continual coming
she weary me. And the Lord said, hear what
the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his own elect,
which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with
him. We faint not because the Lord
actually hears the prayers of his people. Now this is a very
simple point, but I want you to consider this for a moment.
When we pray to God Himself, He actually hears our prayers.
He actually bends down and He lends that attentive ears to
what we have to say. And we have this promise. John
14 verse 13, And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall
ask anything in my name, I'll do it. Now that is a promise
to the Lord's people. He says anything you ask in my
name, I'll do it. What does that mean? What does
it mean to ask in Christ's name? Well, number one, this, you're
asking the father, do these things for me and look to your son for
the reason to do it. Because if you look to me for
the reason to do it, you're not going to find it. Look to him,
do it for his sake. But in asking in his name, we're
asking according to the father's will. Lord, if it be your will,
this, if it be your will, that, and you think about that, folks,
you can't go wrong. It is impossible to go wrong. The Lord says, bring your petitions.
You can't ask too much, and you can't bring up anything too small,
too minuscule. Whatever you want, bring it before
the Lord, and you can't lose. If it's good for you, He's gonna
give it to you, and if it's not good for you, If it would be
to your detriment, He's going to withhold it, and it won't
harm you. You can't lose in this thing
of prayer. And this is a comforting scripture
I've always enjoyed. This is Ezekiel 36, 37. It says, thus
saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them with
men like a flock. You know what he's saying there?
He says, everything I'm gonna do for my people, I'm gonna cause
them to ask for it. You think about that in terms
of when we go to the Lord asking for mercy, asking for grace,
asking for salvation, ask to be found only in Christ. Why
do we ask for all those things? Because they've already been
done for us. All those things have already been done for us,
and now, just in time, the Lord's causing us to ask for it. I'll
share this with you personally, but in my personal prayers I
ask the Lord this, Whatever it is you're going to do for me,
lay on my heart to ask you for those things. Whatever your will
is, just have my will fall in line with yours, whatever it
is. Whatever you want, cause me to want that thing. Whatever
you hate, cause me to hate that thing. But whatever it is you're
going to do for me, lay it on my heart that I might ask you
for those things, because everything he's going to give us, he's going
to cause us to ask too. But what a beautiful thought
that when a man is asking for mercy, it's not that he's asking
in hopes that he's going to get it. The only reason that man
is begging for mercy, because he's already been shown it. And I think the most encouraging
thing out of all this is this encouragement to pray with importunity. And the story there, it's very
clear. Why did the unjust judge give the widow what she wanted?
Because she wore him out. That was it. And the Lord gives
us that story for that reason. We are to come with importunity,
which means come and make a request and come the next day. and make
your request. Even the smallest thing, even
the largest thing. You can't ask too much. You can never ask
anything that's too small. Come with absolutely everything.
And the Lord does this because He loves hearing the prayers
of His people. You think about that. The Lord
actually wants to hear the prayers of His people. He wants to be
inquired of by His people. You want something? Ask for it,
and ask, and ask. And we're given this hope to
keep on asking, to ask with importunity with no fear of angering the
Lord or drawing His ire. And I thought about this In the
midst of everything, in this thing of praying for others.
And we have many people who we love who don't know the Lord.
And you know what? The Lord says, come with importunity.
Ask for them constantly. Ask for them daily. You'll never
draw a zyre. He'll never get tired of you. And wherever there's
life, there's hope. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Absolutely nothing. So just keep on asking. You got
kids? Ask for them. Bring them before
the Lord daily, hourly. With importunity, ask, wear him
out. There's life, there's hope. Now
here's the conclusion of the matter. For every believer, everyone
who is looking to Christ, don't think. Don't quit. Don't back
down. Don't lie down. It's for these
reasons. We have this ministry. We have this ministry of reconciliation.
You have complete peace with God and the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You're looking to things that are unseen, not
the things you can see. In due time, you're going to
reap. Your tribulations are purposeful. In everything, the Lord hears
your prayers. I'm going to leave you there.