Sermon Transcript — February 25, 2006
When I was six years of age my mother was attending the Catholic Church and in attending the Catholic Church I had to learn how to pray in that particular school. Now when I was going to school they handed me a set of beads which they call a rosary. And what you would do, you would take one bead at a time and you would hold it and then you would begin that particular prayer, and basically it was called "Hail Mary". It goes something like this:
Hail Mary full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed are thou among woman and
Blessed the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Now then you will go to the next one, you say the same thing and then you go to the next one and you say the same thing and so you learn that you are supposed to go around the beads and I learned in school that the faster I went the more time I had out on the school ground during recess. So we used to go racing through that. Now there were times when by penance you had to go through the rosary so many times. So I learned at that particular time you use a beaded rosary to say those words.
My mother decided she didn't want to continue in the Catholic Church so she moved over to a Protestant Church and so I learned a whole new prayer and a whole new set of prayers. First of all I learned the one which was called "Our Father" and I think you probably remember the outline that's been given to us in Matthew 6 and the book of Luke, chapter 11. And it simply says:
"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name."
It was repeated in Church. Everybody repeated it at the end of the particular statements that were made in the service. Now what I found was they had another set of prayers and that was the one that you would give when you would go to bed at night and so when I would kneel down at my bed we learned this particular prayer.
"Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take"
We used to say then – I blubbered in to mattress as I was kneeling next to the bed every night, that was that part of the prayer but I began to realize as I came to the Church of God in 1965 that was not the way to pray. Jesus had said: "when you pray do not use vain repetitions". So I had to learn a whole new way of prayer that God began to reveal at that particular time.
Several weeks ago Mr. Welty talked about a very important, basic responsibility before God. He went through a wonderful explanation of the importuned man found in Luke 11. So what I would like to do today is I would like to take you a little bit further down that road in the sermon, on a very basic subject, that I hope will be helpful to you as you sit here this morning in Church.
I would like to ask some questions before I take you down that particular road and I want you to think about them. I want you to evaluate what I am about to say in the sermon today. Think seriously, think honestly about them with yourself as you hear the questions and see how you feel toward God. This is why I am asking these questions because I want to see how you feel toward God. Listen closely now to the questions.
How honest and how transparent are you with God? To put it another way: Have you ever thought of reasoning with God? Have you thought about, in prayer, to be able to take time to reason with him over certain things that you are wanting to do or needing help on? How about putting it another way. How about bargaining with Him? Do you feel comfortable in pushing God? If so, how far?
All these questions have to do with what I describe as a very important topic that we are going to cover. The answer to these questions has a great deal to do with the effectiveness of prayer life. The effectiveness of your relationship with God. The effectiveness of what happens in that particular relationship with God. So we ask the question: Can you be honest? Can you evaluate honestly and transparently, talking freely, opening, reasoning with God and being able to push a little bit in certain ways in that prayer life that God seemingly shows that you can do.
If you and I draw a parallel between the physical growth of an infant to mature adult hood there are various levels or stages of growth and therefore there must be stages or levels of growth that we see as well in our relationship with God, our Father. Just as we see between a parent and a child that is growing up. When that child moves from total infancy to adult hood, leaving home, moving away from parents, we realize how they can still relate back with those parents. As you and I grow into middle age and older age, spiritually, there has to be a parallel of our relationship with God. With God the Father, and with Jesus Christ, His Son. There is, and that is what I would like to talk about today in the sermon. I think we have come to realize that you move from what we describe as a black—white, yes—no situation to a concept that says: "Come now, let us reason together." Another way of putting is simply being up front with God. Being honest about it. Finding our true feelings that are sometimes hidden and examining them and putting them out before God in this prayer in a particular way that we are going to see some of the servants of God do.
I had a most interesting experience that occurred some years ago. I was counseling someone in my home and we'd been talking about this topic of being honest with God. We were talking about how we needed to bear our soul before Him. We need to go down deep into our being to see what makes us tick and what has been programmed to our thinking in our lives. As I was talking with that individual, the person said to me: "You know what? I think the real problem is that I have always been angry with God and that is the reason why I have reacted this way." It was exciting because I sat there and I said: "Aha! The light just went on!" They saw some things about themselves that they had never been able to admit, even to God, and yet they were willing to admit it to me that day as we began to counsel.
There are real deep feelings down below that human beings finally can tap when I take you to this aspect of prayer that we want to look at today. They began to realize, we begin to realize the real causes, some of the reactions that we might have in this, that or another situation. So, I think what we are going to do today is take a concept and say: Let's take a good look at what is inside God. Let's take a really good look at what is inside. Let's reason. Let's talk it out. Let's see what is there.
Now first of all. Please understand something. God is our God. He is the Supreme Ruler. He is in charge over all things. We are to learn to be in total fear, reverence and respect of that great Being. So nowhere in this sermon, please understand, nowhere in this sermon am I advocating any thing other than that deep respect for this Being that we serve as God our Father. He is our Father, and as a Father to His children, He is definitely in charge. He has established a relationship by which we can have a father—son, a father—daughter, a dad relationship with Him. That is what the Bible says we can have.
There is one other aspect that you need to understand and this is where we're going to talk about it today as well and that is your Father in heaven also wants to be your Friend. He wants to be your Friend. Now not from a wrong way, but from a very positive approach that we are going to see as well.
I don't think people understand the importance of this friendship. It's been described in an article that I read some years ago in which it said that: "True friendship is the ability for someone to hand another a hand full of grain, and for that individual who was handed that hand full of grain to be able to receive it, and with one breath blow away the chaff and hold on to the grain." That is the way God is with us, because let's be honest, there is a lot of things that we will say to Him as we continue to sort, as we continue to grow up, as we continue to learn that simply He takes and blows away the chaff and He keeps the grain. This is what we want to look at. God the Father and Jesus Christ, in this relationship that He has established with some of the men in the Bible, had been able to take the wheat and the chaff that was handed to Him and blow away the chaff and keep the wheat. These men finally sorted, as we are going to see today, they finally sorted their ability to work with God the Father, with Jesus Christ and the development of a friendship.
In fact what we recognize is that it says: Abraham was a friend of God. Abraham was a friend of God and that's how close Abraham was to this Great Spirit Being. In fact Moses was such a close friend of God that he saw the back side of that Great Spirit Being. Elijah was the one who dealt directly with God, if you remember, on several occasions, and that he talked to that particular Being in the many situations where he let it all be said and sometimes it was said in the right way and sometime it was not so right. Sometimes it simply was not so right. So after God sifted and sorted everything that Elijah had to say, He said O.K., get back on your feet and go do the job that I sent you to do. But the fact was, He sorted with Elijah when Elijah went through that terrible trauma with the priests of Baal and what he went through and the suffering that he had.
David — I think there is no individual that I have ever read about in the entire Bible that has all the various and sundry emotions that obviously, many times, were out on his coat sleeve. Many times you would see that. They allow us how he felt about God. They allowed us to understand how he conducted himself toward this great Being. So these men, we are going to look a little bit at them today and you see they prayed, they complained, they cried, they reasoned, they pushed God and they were very comfortable with Him in that relationship. That's what we want to talk about today. They recognize something unique about God. That he could be touched, that He could be moved, that God does respond in direct proportion to a man's ongoing working friendship and relationship with Him. God does respond in that particular way. How? The answer is coming in the sermon. How it will be accomplished.
Let's begin by turning to Philippians 4. We are going to take some scriptures now and look at them quickly and then begin to draw on some examples of what we are talking about. This is over in Philippians 4, beginning in verse 6.
Philippians 4:6 — The apostle Paul says the following. He said: "Be careful for nothing." Or another way, he just simply said: "don't be anxious". He said: "but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God".
It is a very simple statement that is made yet it is an important statement because it tells you that with your prayers there is something more. He did not say just to pray, but he said there was another aspect of prayer that you have as you mature, as you grow, as you move from a black—and—white approach in life, from a yes—and—no situation to a "come now, let us reason together." It is a thing that you learn. In the King James Version it is called "supplication". It is a religious sounding word the people use sometimes. We hear people use it; we don't understand what it means so I would like to expand on it today as a tool, a simple tool but a very profound tool in Christian growth. It is a building block upon which you can establish a deeper, broader, closer relationship with our Father and also with Jesus Christ, His Son. Let's go to a second scripture for a moment, over in Ephesians 6.
Ephesians 6:18 — "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,"
Now what he is doing is he is giving you a broader perspective of this. He is saying simply praying always with all prayer showing that the prayer is the key word and then with it you add this thing called supplication. So we recognize that the apostle Paul is putting it in two different categories. They blend together yet they are in two different categories.
I asked the question earlier about honesty, transparency, open and free, no holds barred communication, reasoning, bargaining, comfortable in pushing God in a respectful way. Not commanding, not demanding and not doing any thing in a demeaning way with this Great Spirit Being. I am talking about an attitude that you would have as you begin to pour into your prayer a little bit more energy, a little bit more feeling, a little bit more care and concern in that way.
Supplication by definition: To ask humbly.
So we recognize it is not a bad attitude. It is not a wrong attitude but it has to be one that simply is asking humbly and earnestly. It is beseeching. It is also called in another translation, agonizing. So we see humbly, earnestly, beseechingly and agonizingly. It is a word which is a stronger form of prayer. It is more animated and it is more energized and there is more energy expended in this particular case. There is a greater depth of feeling that we have that is extended from the human mind and the voice and in the projection of the personality toward God. It just simply shows that this is where you begin to, as you use the expression, you move upward in your thinking. You move upward in your animation, you move upward in the expending of that particular energy that you have toward God.
Now David was a man after God's own heart. Why? Because David was a man, when he prayed, he cried, he poured out his heart. David entreated God. You will see when we are going to read some examples of that, that he literally reached up into the heavens and he drew God down by his expressions of his feelings and the depths of the bowels of his being in the way that he prayed. I am not talking about crying. I am talking about the emotion and the feeling that was exerted toward the third heaven, and God saw that. This is what we are talking about. David was childlike in all of his emotions, feelings and attitudes. Yet, they were all open before God. David was probably one of the most expressive men in the Bible. These are wonderful examples that we need to look at. Let's go to Psalm 130 and take an evaluation of these particular statements that are made here.
Psalm 130: 1 Notice what David said: "Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord:"
What did he mean? "Out of the depths". In another place he talks about "out of my bowels". We realize that people like Jeremiah and other individuals talked about "my bowels, my bowels" from the point of view that the deep set of emotions are found sometimes where you literally hurt. Where your stomach is in agony over something that you have on your mind and you just feel it down deep inside. We hear people use a term today: they have a gut reaction. You have this depth of feeling that David said here: "Out of my depths", he said, "I cried unto You".
V.2 — " Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications."
You see, David just didn't get down saying:
" Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take".
What are you doing? That is rote. That is just saying the same thing over and over again and there is no feeling and there is no words of the individual. There is no problem that you are putting before God. It is just a set of words and it is wrong. Even Jesus said it was wrong. So what we recognize with David he literally was asking God: "Please, please, hear me. I feel this. It is going on inside of me. I am churning over this particular situation" and it is that deep sense of emotional feeling that comes out, deep down underneath. There is a lot of stuff that has been stuffed down in people's minds and in their psyche over the years and finally when you get things where you can begin to sort them out with God it becomes a wonderful thing where you bring up and you examine with Him these things that have been down there, and the only way it comes up is as you allow the ability for that to just simply come forward and come out.
It is an amazing thing. I said, and I know people don't understand what I am saying, but prayer has been for me, ever since I learned from the Church of God how to do those things, it has been for me a psychiatric couch. What! A psychiatric couch? What I mean by that is that, you know, when the psychiatrist would sit down with somebody sitting there and he would ask him questions and he would open up and all the things that were inside of him began to come out and over a period of time this is what occurred with the councilor and the counselee. Where I found what a wonderful thing was about prayer is that you could begin to allow yourself to tell God what you are feeling, what is going on, what hurts. This is where it hurts. This is what is happening to me. Now God already knows that, but it is the ability to supplicate like David here in Psalm 130. Now let's go over to Psalm 28:1—2 for just a moment. Let's take one more before we go to some, I think, prime examples of this sort of thing.
Psalm 28:1—2. The prophet David, which he was of course and king over all Israel, we see a strong sense of appeal to God and we see God did hear him. I think when we get beyond just praying by rote or praying a prayer, when you get into the prayer where it becomes a part of your being, when you want to draw it out from the bowels of your being, you are going to find all types of things begin to occur. Notice what it says here.
Psalm 28:1—2 "To You I will cry, O Lord my rock: Do not be silent to me, lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit."
So you see him again reaching out to God.
V.2 " Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward you holy sanctuary."
So we see also that sometimes when you become more animated and when things really begin to affect you in such a way you begin to see gestures. You begin to see the ability to raise your hands. David did that. Sometimes David fell flat on his face because he was so humbled by his problem. But there are other times when you see David reaching out with his hands. What is he doing? He is asking God to come down. He is asking: "Please", you know," I am beseeching You, it is more than just talking to You. I am putting my gestures and my whole being into it." That's what I am talking about. Sometimes that does happen. Now that doesn't happen every day but I am talking about the fact that this is a different form of prayer. It is not just asking in praying in a basic way, which is fine, there is nothing wrong, but I am talking about something that goes one step beyond that in a Christian's life. So he talks about how you go beyond just simply the fact of just praying. It has to do with this — a case where you are in dead earnest. You are striving to make your point to God. You are not going to have your hands behind your back. You're not going to have them lying down, you know, and your face into the bed while you are praying any more, you begin to see that you're going to be involved in it as David said: "I cried to You, I lifted up my hands".
There is a time in a person's life when he begins to realize that he is moved by something and he is going to reach out and it is as if he is reaching the throne of God and saying: "God, please come down and see me". That's what you will find by this type of supplication. That is what I am talking about and it starts to come out. Now it comes out in other ways. The voice goes higher and stronger because instead of praying silently sometimes there is only one way and that is to speak out. Now many times you can't speak out. If you're in a motel or if you're in a place where you can't do that obviously you know that. I love the silence of my basement. I love the silence when there is nobody around because my wife is not there to hear me. Now I don't mind if she hears me. I love the silence of my house sometimes. It is beautiful because you can open up and speak out and not worry if somebody is hearing you. It feels good to be able to express yourself and know like David "the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands." Now I said it doesn't happen all that often but when you're in a situation where you're in need, I think we see a couple of examples in the Bible, where you're supplication is going to come out to God in dead earnest and it is with more animation and it's with more energy expended.
Let's go over to Psalm 142 for a moment. We will see one more example here with David. The book is filled with things. You can take hours and hours to read what he says here in the Psalms about this particular frame of mind.
Psalm 142:1 "I cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord I make my supplication.
V.2 — I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my trouble.
V.3 — When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me.
V.4 – Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; Refuge has failed me; No one cares for my soul.
V.5 – I cried out to You, O Lord: I said, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."
There will come a time in your Christian life on a number of occasions perhaps, maybe only on a few occasions, but you will feel like you have come to simply standing at the edge of the Red Sea. You will see that you got the Egyptians behind you, mentally speaking, you got the mountains on both sides and you're funneled down to the Red Sea. You know the sermon I gave about three years ago on the last day of Unleavened Bread — The meaning of the last day. You sometimes come to the place that you simply recognize; nobody can help me except You. Sometimes that's where you are. Sometimes that's where you may be and you come to the place in your life where this supplication, when you're dead earnest with God, is what David is talking about here. This is what David is talking about here. There are a lot of things that were inside David here in Psalm 142.
V.6 – "Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low; Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I.
V.7 – Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name; The righteous shall surround me, for You shall deal bountifully with me."
There sometimes comes a period when you are all alone. You're all alone and I can tell you there are periods that you go through — you just simply feel alone and you need to have the help.
Now I want to take you to another principle in this sermon. I want to show you the other side of David because I think it is important for you to realize that David also had to learn by some of his frustrations, some of his attitudes, that they needed to be changed. I want to take you to 2 Samuel 6. I want to introduce a principle that I think, tends to upset some people at times, because they simply don't understand the relationship that we go through, or the situations we go through in dealing with God. I want to show you an example here in the story of David fetching the Ark. Remember the story? I think it is a very simple story. We recognize that sometimes there are things that go on deep inside and all of a sudden, when this happened to David, notice what he went through. Notice what he had to do to get his act together. How he had to change his attitude. So, sometimes our prayers start out where we are very upset and then we finally come back to the place where we learn some things about ourselves in this process. David, God's servant, recognizes his crying and his pouring out and his entreating with God and his reasoning with God, and he recognizes some times that he was angry with God and unhappy with Him. I want you to see this.
2 Samuel 6:3 "So they set the ark of God on a new cart," That was not the way it should have been done,"and they brought it out of the house of Abinadab" which was in Gilboa, "and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart."
Now this is what the Philistines did: They took this Ark, and they put it on cart and they took it to their particular area of the world. Now they were recovering the Ark and they want to turn it around and they did the same thing, they put the Ark on the cart and they then started to bring it back to where it should have been in the first place. And it says:
V.5 – "Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments" I mean it was a wonderful situation.
V.6 – And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled."
If we understand simply that what God intended, how the Ark was to be moved — there were two poles and Levites were to carry it. They put these poles through each side of the Ark and it was carried on the shoulders of these individuals and they walked in unison, together, to bring the Ark from one place to the other. It was a mistake. They did wrong. Now here is what it says:
V.7 – "Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his rashness," it says in the margin, "and he died there by the ark of God.
V.8 – And David became very angry" I think that is the understatement. I think he was more than angry. I think you will begin to see it was such a problem to David "because of the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah, and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day.
V.9 – David was afraid of the Lord that day" it means he backed off. He backed off. There was a certain fear, a certain attitude that he had begun to develop. "and he said, 'How can the ark of the Lord come to me?'
V.10 – So David would not move the ark" you know, you get to the place where you say: "I am not going to do that, no way".
You have to say first of all that David backed off. David was afraid of the Eternal that day and you know, I am going to put it in paraphrase language. He said: "Forget it! Leave the ark there. It is going to stay there. We are going to leave it on the threshing floor of Obed—Edom the Gittite and we're getting out of here. I am not going to get smitten to death by touching the Ark. " Now that's a paraphrase but I think you understand that this is what happened.
V.11 – "The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed—Edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed—Edom and all his household"
Now why did God do that? Because David had to change his attitude. So what did David do? The point was that David had to then come and take the Ark. Something happened between Uzzah's death and the bringing of the Ark. David had to change his attitude. David had to get it all together. He had to get those things straightened around. I think it is important that we understand. David, when you read him in Psalms, it sounds beautiful, but he went through some struggles. It was not all peaches and cream. It was not easy for this particular man as he faced this particular set of problems. So I think we must understand that we need to realize that David was simply being honest and he backed off and he had to learn some lessons.
I'd like to share something with you. I read an article. I thought it was very interesting. The article was entitled: "Being honest with God." I'd like to share it with you because I think it tells you something very unique in this particular article. It says:
"Beth was young, only 28. She was graduated from college with honors. She taught two years in a Christian school, had two small daughters, a husband — and cancer. Her doctor described it as terminal.
She became more and more disheartened. Behind polite smiles were guilt, resentment, fear and brooding apathy." Now what do you think was being said? What do you think was going on with this particular lady? I think we have to understand if we don't realize that that does happen to some of us, that we have to realize that we go through these periods of wonderments, doubts, fears and simply having to look at hard feelings and our attitudes as we sort things with God. Sometimes it has to happen.
"One day an elder came by and asked her 'Are you ever angry with God over your situation?' She replied with a small smile, 'No, I may not be angry with God, my Heavenly Father. He knows best.'"
Now that sounded really righteous, didn't it, the article said, but she didn't realize what was going on inside. "It sounded pious. The words were theologically sound. The elder felt good, and he was able to report glowingly about her submission, trust and surrender. But Beth's words were not honest. They did not come from her deep—down self. She played a successful role as a good church member but she continued to be an angry, resentful, guilt—laden daughter of God."
"The Father who counts," the article said, "the hairs on our head and the malignant cells in our body wants to hear..." This is important. "He wants to hear how His child really feels". You see, that's supplication. That's supplication. That is what you see. He really wants to know openly before Him how do you feel. I feel lousy. I feel rejected. Really? Yes! Would we dare say that? I think some people would be afraid to say that. They would be afraid to realize that they are going through a sorting and a sifting. The point is that David, as I showed you in 2 Samuel, was displeased, it was open before God, not before men. He had to get it out before God and get it sorted with his supplications with God. And he got it all back together and he took the Ark back to Jerusalem. You noticed that? He went and did what he was supposed to do.
Let me read the rest of the article: he said: "The Father who counts the hairs on our head and the malignant cells in our body wants to hear how His child really feels. He's big enough and experienced enough to take it."
Now listen what was said: "'Job cursed his day.' The most righteous man in the Old Testament we read about, Job, cursed his day and he said:
'Let the day perish wherein I was born' and everybody else that was born on that day —because that is what will happen." Now think about it! That was not a good attitude but he was suffering, he was going through a very, very difficult time. "Let the day perish wherein I was born".
"Jeremiah told God in no uncertain terms what was in his heart.' He said: "O Eternal, You have deceived me and I was deceived. You were stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day".
He even was angry with the man who didn't abort him in the womb" when he said: "Cursed be the man that brought news to my father." So the article goes on to say. "What's the point? We all have deep down feelings. Is it right to talk that way? Is it really right to endure, or let God know as you pour out your complaints? Job did. Jeremiah did. David did. In a right way, with respect and honor toward God they let their feelings be known". As the article goes on to say. "Is it right to talk this way? Is it a sin? Try," he said, "to hear these words of complaint as honest conversation of children with the heavenly Father, whom children trust. Beth needed encouragement to be honest with God. She needed to tell God how she felt. She needed open faith, genuine trust with God as a Friend, and releasing feelings to the Savior who can be touched with the feelings of our weaknesses." End of article.
But I thought it was interesting. While it was written in a Christian Journal I thought that most of what I read to you is really applicable to what this sermon is all about today. This is what I am talking about. I am not talking about pent—up hostilities; I am just simply putting it out to you as the fact that there are many different ways in which we sort these things as we draw close to God. Letting Him know how you feel, telling Him how you feel and getting to God's heart, as we will come to see in a little bit. Sometimes, I think people don't realize that God can be moved. I don't think they realize that there is a certain soft spot in God's heart for human beings. They don't recognize that God's sorrowed, in the book of Genesis 6, because of man and how far he had gone, God became, if you read the scripture in Genesis 6, you see that He became pretty emotional about it.
God does get emotional about His children. He really does. Either that or we are not made in the image of God because we have emotions and God, pardon the expression, is very much like us and we are very much like Him when it comes to showing the emotions of love, faith, joy, all of those things. We recognize that these are part of His character. These are a part of His mind, of His being, when we begin to look at it. I think sometimes when we look at scriptures that say simply:
"My purpose stands"
"I will do all my pleasure"
"God is not a man that He should not lie".
"I am the Lord, I change not"
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever",
We don't realize that some of those things have to do with some of the deep down situations that we have to deal with. I think we recognize God has promised to do what He's planed to do. He is going to do it. God has His hand on the big events of the world. The book of Daniel tells us that the most High God rules in the Kingdoms of men. You know the scriptures, but there is something else to be looked at, and Mr. Welty touched on, and I want to go back to it now.
Jeremiah 18:6 Notice what is stated here. We just read a couple of verses but it has to do with the relationship that we have with God and this aspect of supplication. We see an elasticity. We see deep bowels of feeling that God has for human beings – whether they are converted or not. Notice what it says:
V.6 — "'O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?' says the Lord. 'Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
V.7 – The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
V.8 – if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it",
What does it mean? It means the very same thing we're talking about in supplication. He is talking about the big nations; I am talking about the little person, like you and me. We are little people. We are just that – we are just little people, by comparison.
Let's go over to Luke 11 where Mr. Welty was. Notice something here in this particular area. We will talk a little bit about some things that he talked about and then I'll give you a little bit some thing from the aspect of supplication as well. We look at Luke 11: 5 – 8. We talk about this importuned man. Importunity is another word for supplication. It's another way of getting the attention of God. It is by simple, continual, knocking at the door, requesting and showing God that you really mean what you are asking for. It is not just haphazardly passing by an idea, praying about it, and letting it drop there. It is like the example of Jacob. It is like the prime example in the Bible of what we are talking about supplication is.
Luke 11: 5 "And He said to them, 'Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves;
V.6 – for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him';
V.7 – and he will answer from within and say ,'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?
V.8 – I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence" because of his supplication, because of putting his heart, his being into that prayer. This is what He is talking about here. This is what He is talking about.
Now, if you stop for just a moment and take a look at something that I think is most interesting, while we're here in Luke 11. It is about Jacob. I think Jacob was a most interesting person. I am going to paraphrase him. I am going to talk about it from the point of view of just being a human being in the twenty—first century and perhaps some of the words I use you may not be able to find in the context. So, if you want to follow me, it is over in Genesis 32: 24—30, but keep your finger here in Luke 11, because we are going to come back.
It says that Jacob met a Man in the evening time, and Jacob wrestled with that Man until the break of day. Jacob began to realize through this period of wrestling with this Man — You ask the question: "Why was he doing that?" I don't have the slightest idea, but this Man met him and for some reason, I don't know whether it is a masculine thing or a couple of men get together and they try to find out who is stronger than the other. We used to do that in High School. Remember the arm—wrestling we used to have and all that sort of thing? He did that, and it says here that Jacob began, as he was moving through this experience, to realize that he was wrestling with someone who wasn't human in the sense of the word. Now this individual appeared human. He appeared in human form, just like the angels did, just like Christ did with Abraham, but in this particular case He appeared as a man.
And he wrestled with the God of the Old Testament. That's what Hosea 12:4 says. He wrestled with the God of the Old Testament. He wrestled with Jesus Christ, the Lord, and when he realized what he was wrestling with, he grabbed hold of Him like an English bulldog grabs a leg and won't let go. He knew he had something good. Now remember, Jacob is the supplanter. Remember that. That is what his name meant, so he grabbed hold of the God of the Old Testament. The Man said to him: "Let me go!" And Jacob said: "No way am I going to let you go. I've got a hold of you and I am not going to let you go because I know who you are." Now, what? You mean that he would think that? I think so. Now you don't see the words in Genesis 32 but the concept it there.
Here is this spirit—being who appears in human flesh touching then the hollow of Jacob's thigh and all the power on one side of his body is lost. Have you ever wrestled with anybody? You need both legs. You need both hips to get into the wrestling match. He lost all the power on one side. Jacob would not let go. So here's Jacob being dragged around by one leg. A one—legged man wrestling with the God of the Old Testament. Now think about it. It is a riot, but the reality of what he did is important to us as we look at this. So Jacob said simply as he was being dragged around and Jesus said to him: "Let me go!" And Jacob said: "I am not about to let you go. I don't have the strength to stand on both of my legs. I've got one gone because you put me out of commission, but I am not about to let you go." But the point was, we saw what he did. And I am paraphrasing it because I think you understand that we are looking at the situation that only gave you a little bit of information. Now that may sound a little bit disrespectful but he knew he had hold of the God of the Old Testament, and he should have let Him go but you see the point. Jacob apparently knew how far he could go and if he had not held on he wouldn't then be changed to Israel, as prevailer with God. That's what the word means. Prevail with the God of the Old Testament in that particular wrestling match.
Now, is it wrong to grab hold of God? I don't think so. I think when you go back here to Luke 11 and you begin to look at this statement over here in v.8 about the importunity and the persistence, you begin to realize that supplication has a lot to do with v 9 —13.
Luke 11: 9 "I say unto you, ask and keep on asking." That's what the paraphrase tells you, that's what the Williams Translation tells you. "Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given to you; seek, and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and it shall be opened unto you."
Now why the repetition in this particular section of the Greek? Because he is trying to teach us something very important. As Jacob grabbed hold of Jesus Christ we have to grab hold of God and you have to be persistent in doing that very thing and so therefore he said: "I am going to continue to do this until you give me the bread", and the man knew that he meant business and Jesus Christ wants to know if we mean business. Jesus Christ found out that Jacob meant business and He tested him. I know sometimes things go wrong. We don't get answers we want and we say, "Well, I tried, I asked God once and that was the end of it". I don't think so. I really don't think so. I don't think that is what God is intending.
One time, some years ago, I was in my second year of Ambassador College, and you know, you are just learning how to pray, you know, you are learning how to do these things. It is all brand—new, but Mr. Armstrong laid out many things in classes. We learnt many things about prayer and I remember something very interesting. We had these wonderful, beautiful, sound—proof, prayer rooms down in the basement of the place where, I think it was called Manor Delmar, where we were at that time. I don't know why, I didn't know at that particular time why I was having trouble feeling that I was not getting close to God. I would go down to the prayer room and I would pray and there was no change at all. There just didn't seem to be any change with what was happening.
I didn't know at that particular time I was working with a man on one of the crews that had problems with the spirit—world. We found out later he had a whole lot of them around him. So here I was working with him on a regular basis and I didn't realize what I was dealing with and of course you don't. You don't realize what you are dealing with but I was affected and I didn't know it, so I went down to pray and it didn't feel right. It finally got to the place where I stopped and I said to God, "I am not leaving here until I know you are listening to me". Now I know, this is just a kid, nineteen; but the point is that you realize you've got to do something here. Something is wrong. So, I simply said: "I am going to stay here until I get close to You or I am going to starve to death doing it". Now everybody say: "Boy, that was really dumb, Richard, wasn't it?" I say, Yea, that was dumb because I probably would have gotten up in a couple of days and then gone and eaten because, being Italian, we love to eat. You know that. But the point was that you go through this particular thing.
Now I stayed there and I continued to do that and I found out that, when I left there that evening — because I became very serious about it — you know what happened? I felt a change occur. You can't explain it. I felt a change occur and within two weeks the man was gone. He was fired, removed from the Church, removed from the College and I didn't know it, but you know, I think back now how that could have affected me, back in those days, and I had an interesting miracle, only because in my foolishness and in my humanness and in my inability to know what to do, I went and did what I did. I saw that in the Bible and I said: "I've got to do something about it".
Somebody asked the question: How do you know when you are close to God? I can't completely explain that to you. It's going to be unique to each one of us, but I know that when I walked out of that prayer room something did occur, and the end—result was that two weeks later that person was gone.
It is a great feeling, brethren, not to feel depressed, because I was feeling depressed. I felt there was a barrier, that then was gone between God and myself. So, I don't know whether God was trying to find out whether I was willing to go in the way that I did, but the point simply, is like Jacob, he said: "I won't let go until You bless me" and this is a part of recognizing the human aspect of God working with us as individuals. Let's go back to Luke 11, here where we were, just for one moment, and we see that it's talking about
V.10 – "For everyone that asks and continues to asks, receives and he that seeks and continues to seek, finds, and to him that knocks and continues to knock it shall be given to him."
Now he goes down and tells you what it's all about when you get to v.13
V.13 – "But if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them asking "present progressive tense of the Greek. This is the greatest of the good gifts, those individuals who are asking Him.
Now let's go back to the book of Numbers, chapter 14. Let's take a look at a man by the name of Moses, for just a moment. This is Numbers 14, and we see a story here that begins to unfold for us. The congregation was a mess. They allowed themselves to get caught up in party—spirit, they allowed themselves to murmur, they allowed themselves to have a problem, as vv.1—2 says. And they decided in v.4, that they were going to make a captain and return to Egypt and Moses and Aaron in v.5, it says,
Numbers 14:5 "Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation" Joshua and Caleb, you know, said: "No, we shouldn't do that, this is wrong."
V.9 — ":.... Do not rebel against the Lord ......the Lord is with us." In that particular verse and we see now that the people got so angry, that in
V.10 – "and all the congregation said to stone them with stones." And got God really angry, "Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
V.11 – then the Lord said to Moses: 'How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?
V. 12 – I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."
Now think about this for a moment. Think about this. When you look at the situation. It had grated God to the point that you know He was right, He had the right to deal with the children of Israel, He is in charge, He is righteous, and He has the right to do whatever He says. And I think we must understand that, but Moses began to, in v.13, reason with God and give his arguments. Have you ever noticed this? Look:
V.13 – "And Moses said to the Lord: 'Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them,
V.14 – and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people; that You, Lord," have done these things and then he said, "You know, the point is, they are going to see that You are not strong enough to do, what You are going to do."
V.16 – "Because the Lord was not able to bring this people" look at the reasoning by Moses.
Look at what he did and I think you begin to realize that he reasoned and he had the ability to deal in this way because in Exodus 3 and Exodus 4, when he was there at the burning bush and God met him, and God began to talk with him and work with him, and he was called to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, five times, when you read it in Exodus 3 and 4, look at my fingers, five times, Moses reasoned with God.
He would say things when God would say that He wanted to do such—and—such and he'd say, "Well, wait a second, can I ask You a question here?"
And God said, "Well, what".
He said: "Do you think possibly you might be able to do it this way?"
And God says, "Well, yes, I can do that," and then Moses would say: "Excuse me the second time here, pardon me this one more time, can I ask You another question? You've got to understand, you know, is it possible that maybe it should be done this way or you can do it that way?"
God would say: "O.K. What do you want?"
And he would say, "Well, do you think we can possibly do this, this way?"
Through five different situations Moses reasoned with God and God went on to speak a little bit more, and he began to talk about, you know, can You, will You, is it possible to do this, and finally he said to God, "I just don't have the voice, I don't have the mouth, I don't know how to speak. How about using my brother, Aaron, because I am not a good speaker?"
And God said finally, "Yes, I can do that", and finally when he pushed God just a little bit more, God said: "Enough." Enough!
Five times! Look at it for yourself. Here in Numbers 14 he's doing the same thing. He is reasoning with God. Is there a right way to do it? You bet there is, but on the fifth time, God said: "That's enough!" At that point Moses stopped pushing God and finally God told him, "That's it. No more". You don't see Moses doing that again until you come to Numbers 14 when he reasoned with God in this particular way. I think we recognize how important it is to realize that here in Numbers 14 that God did deal with that, and so the end—result was of course the children of Israel, who were 20 years of age and above, did not get to go into the Promised Land, but the end—result was that God did pardon them for that time, and He did listen to Moses, and the end—result of course was that He still carried out His will to not let those over 20 years of age and above, go into the Promised Land.
There is another one. You don't need to turn there. I will just paraphrase it for you this morning. It's Abraham. Remember the story? It is a priceless example of a man, who had respect and honor and the kind of attitude that he should have had. He started out there in Genesis 18:20—25 and he said to God, remember the story? "If there be 50 people in Sodom , would you destroy it?" The Lord said, "No, I won't destroy it for their sake." Abraham then began to think about it and he says, "Well, wait a second, you have to pardon to me, I am just a human being but if there only 40 would you destroy it?" And God said: "No, for 40 I won't destroy it". Then the Bible says Abraham really humbled himself and said: "God, I am just a piece of dust. I am just a part of this earth but if you will hear my question. How about 30?"
Now listen to what you see happening here. God was able to talk with him. You can just see him operating till they got down to 10. You know what happen? God stopped talking. God just simply ended talking with him and He walked away. Abraham saw His hind—parts as He walked away. You know what he got? He got the message. There weren't 10 righteous people in Sodom . But the point was that He recognized that He had Lot there, He recognized his family, He recognized all of those things and Abraham got it all the way down to 10 and then the Lord left off talking with him and Abraham learnt. He learnt he could move God. He knew he could supplicate God and God would reason, listen and talk with him. And when it was all over, it was time to stop pushing. And it was like Moses, He told him by His reaction. With Abraham, He simply walked away.
These are all of the examples I think that you can see where men reasoned and they worked with God and we see Moses doing it, we see Abraham doing it and we see probably some priceless examples of this, especially in one case over in the 32 chapter of Exodus, we see Moses reasoning with God and finally saying to God at the end of it, he said:
Exodus 32:32 ".... if You will forgive their sin — ...", and there is a big dash in the King James Version. Have you ever noticed that? There is a big dash there. Have you ever wondered why that King James Version dash is there? Because he stopped. He said: "If You will forgive their sins", then he stopped and the King James translators were trying to tell you that he was stopping to think about what he was about to say. And he simply said, "Well now, if You will not blot out their sins," he said, "then blot me out." And of course God said to him, He said: "No way!" He said: "You are a righteous man," because He was willing to make of him a whole nation.
Can you imagine that God could have made a whole nation of a man that his vanity was not such that he said, "Well, you know, I am happy to that for you because I know I am such a great person." Moses didn't say that. Moses was of a humble frame of mind. And you read about that.
One last example this morning in this sermon. Isaiah 38. You know, you and I hear about people who say: "Now, Lord, if you let me win the lottery I will give you half." Remember that? Have you heard people do that? I have. If you let me win the lottery I'll give You half. Now, you know, you have to understand that, that is a lot of baloney, because you know, human beings, they are going to get what they want. They want money and they were willing to settle for half if God would give them at least half. I don't think they'll really give Him the other half. Somehow I have a hard time – they kind of get lost somewhere in the mix there when it comes to that. Here is a man, here in chapter 38, his name is Hezekiah, and I think we find a most beautiful example here. It says:
Isaiah 38:1 "In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, 'Thus says the Lord:" Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live."
Now, this was going to happen. Now whether it was a test, I don't know. Nothing is ever been said anywhere in the Bible about this being a test, so therefore we recognize that this is apparently what was going to happen.
V.2 – "Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord,"
Now he didn't tell Him if you give me 50% I'll give you the other 50% in the lottery. What he did was he showed God his righteousness. He showed God simply of what he had already done and he was bargaining with God from the point of view of what he had already done. Now I use that word bargaining, because I am using it from the point of view of seeing the concept in a little broader way. He held up before Him what he had done to prove that he was sincere. Notice what it says:
V.3 – "...'Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight'. And Hezekiah wept bitterly".
Now if you stop and you look at it, I think we recognize something very interesting. We see that a lot of kings of Israel did not live in truth. They had high places; they had gone from God's way of life; they had committed abominations; they had nothing to hold up before God to say: "Look, here is what I've done. Here's my sincerity, and to proof that I am honest." But Hezekiah was not self—righteous over what he had done, it was a proven fact. So you go back to see what he held up before God.
V.3 – "....And Hezekiah wept bitterly."
There are emotions some times that do occur. It is not all the time a crying situation but it is a greater sense of spirit about the individual coming before God. Notice what happened:
V.4 – " And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,
V.5 – 'Go and tell Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father:" Why did he say that? Because God knew David. He knew David's attitude. He knew that Hezekiah was showing the same spirit, the same attitude that David showed. And He said:
V.5 – "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, surely I will add to your days fifteen years.
V.6 – I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city."
So, we see God changing His mind. We see in this particular case the supplication that did occur.
V.7 – "And this is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken:
V.8 – Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.' So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down."
If you ever have a chance some time to do a little bit of reading, there had been a number of people that had said that in Joshua's long day there was a certain amount of time that was elongated because the sun did not set. It was one day, from sunset to sunset. It was a longer day. They had said that the moving of the dial of Ahaz by 10 degrees was 40 minutes. Forty minutes! Now think about it for a moment. God showed that He could be moved and God showed by Hezekiah's attitude what He was able to do. What He did was that He moved everything in the working of the sun, the moon and the stars in some particular way and He changed the whole thing for forty minutes. How did He do it? The dial of Ahaz went back 10 degrees. Forty minutes! Now some people say that 23 hours and 20 minutes was the day of Joshua's long day, and 40 minutes for Hezekiah's sundial, equaled 24 hours. I don't know if that is true. I don't go there because I don't bargain with that particular area, or read that type of history, but I do know it has been proven that 40 minutes is what it's talked about here.
So we recognize the reality of what God is capable of doing. How did it all happen? It happened because Hezekiah supplicated.
One last thought. If you remember David committed a sin with Bathsheba. David went seven days through fasting and prayer. Remember that? He fell down on the earth, he didn't bath, he didn't do any thing. Remember that God had struck the child sick. David recognized, when you read the example of David, that God can and will change His mind; this is what we have been talking about today. God can and will change His mind, but after he fasted and prayed for seven days, the child still died. David came to the realization that the answer was no. The answer was no. David did his part. David supplicated, David fasted, he sought God, he touched God's throne, and God said: "David, no". Now that is what we have to learn as well in this thing of supplication.
There are many lessons to be learnt here. You've got to have the ability to discern after you've done all that the Eternal requires of you, you have supplicated and you have done all those things. There comes a time when God sometimes says: "No", because He has a greater plan, He has a greater purpose to be fulfilled. I think you have to understand the capacity and the breadth of God's mind. God will always do what is best, but you will know that at least you have stirred Him like David did for 7 days in fasting and prayer. You stimulated His mind to know that as a son He is you Dad and that He is establishing a working relationship with you, as a Friend.
Now, there is this one way that we have to look at it and that is this way of supplication.
We can have that faith, that way of faith is one by which we move God. By which we are honest, we are transparent, talking openly and freely, being able to reason with God, bargain with God, push Him in the right sense of the word, respectfully. Brethren, respectfully. The ability to grow from a yes—no, or a black—and—white to a "come now let us reason together" is all a part of what I've been discussing with you today on the word "supplication".
God becomes our God, He becomes our Father, He becomes our Dad, and He wants to become our Friend. All of those things. Supplication is the way by which we can pray, complain, cry, bargain, reason and be comfortable with God. All of those things in the right way and He simply wants to be moved, He wants to respond directly in the proportion to the way that we respond to Him. That's supplication. It goes hand—in—hand with prayer.
I hope you will find it an effective tool in the ongoing years as you use it.