How God Answers Prayer

This missionary was spending some time serving over in some of the villages of Africa, and the man had one phobia in life, and that was a tremendous fear of lions.

And he feared during that period of time he was there that he would come face to face with a lion that he would sure be a man-eating lion. And toward the end of the time he had committed to serve there. He was moving, he was traveling by himself from one village to the next, and sure enough as he went down the path he came face to face with that lion. And he did what any red-blooded young man would do. He turned and ran. He glanced back, and the lion was bound along right behind him. He went around the curve.

There was a fallen tree he had climbed over on the way back. He decided to hurdle it this time, and he almost did. But he caught a foot, and he tumbled over in a heap the other side of the tree, and he immediately rolled over on his knees, and he prayed, Dear Father, please help me convert this lion into being a Christian.

Now, you may see where this is going. At which point the lion, he looked up, the lion slowed down. The lion came to his side, knelt down, and said, Dear Lord, please bless this meal I am about to receive. The moral of the story being that God does not always answer our prayers in the manner we expect. God does not always give us the answer we expect. But, you know, it's obvious that God answers prayers. In Christians, they're told when you pray, and so there's a great deal we could cover and that we need to cover from time to time. But in coming back to the topic of prayer, I like to broach this subject of how God answers prayers.

Sometimes there can be an answer come our way. It hits us right between the eyes, and we don't even see it. We don't even recognize it because it doesn't come from the direction that we might think that it should. And so I want to talk about some of the manners in which God answers prayer. I don't think any of us has ever had the experience of Gideon, where Gideon was wanting to hedge his bet. Well, show me a sign. And one day the fleece was dry, and one day it was wet, and the ground around it, the opposite.

I don't remember the order, but I'd have to go back and look. And we're not even sure what the urim and thumb and was that ancient Israel could go and request. And we don't have a prophet or a seer where we can go and ask, what does the Lord say about this? But we do have methods by which God answers prayer. So we'll just jump right into your handout there. And the first one is people, other people. God may give you an answer to your prayer through other people.

It might be something they say. It might be something they do. And we probably all had experiences with that. Now, many of us will remember having read Herbert Armstrong's autobiography. I know that goes back a long time ago when he was writing that book, but I was always fascinated by some of the stories of how God called him and his wife and some of the means by which God intervened in their life and led them.

Kind of like these, I think, of the book of Ruth, where in the King's Aims it says that God would provide these handfuls of purpose for Ruth. He's kind of bringing her along. And the same is true for Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong. There were times when he was doing the radio broadcast, and before he left his house, he didn't have the money to pay for that broadcast that Sunday. And somebody would just show up and say, oh, I've got these ties I needed to give to you.

And one time, the story was he was even walking toward the radio station to give that radio broadcast, not having the money for it. And someone came running up and gave him an offering on the way.

So we remember stories like that. Let's turn over to Acts 10. We are familiar with this biblical account of Peter and how Peter is approaching God in prayer. And here, God gives him an answer that was very important for the church, and He does it through other people. The early church, you see, you look at the first chapters of Acts, and it was largely just this Jewish church.

They had been told, you start here, and you go to Galilee, and you go to the end of the earth. But years later, they're still kind of hovering around Jerusalem and Judea. But in chapter 10, He's down at Joppa on the seacoast, and we have things that happen where God threw Peter, who was certainly one of the dominant leaders, but God threw Peter, made it clear to the church, you don't call any human being common or unclean. This is not just the Jewish church. You really take it to the world.

So in Acts 10, let's pick it up in verse 9. The next day, as they went on their journey, and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. So in their reckoning, somewhere around noontime, we would say. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance.

You know, things here, we don't understand all the details, but some kind of vision came to Peter, some kind of a dream, perhaps. And saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheep, bound at the four corners, descending to him and led it down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things and birds of the air.

And a voice said, rise Peter, kill and eat. Now, as we realize, we'll skip part of the story. We know that this happens three different times, that vision, that sheep coming down. Every time, Peter said, not so, Lord, I've never eaten anything common or unclean, because in that sheet was all kinds of animals.

And harkening back to Leviticus 11, there were animals that would not have been in the realm of being clean or created for human consumption. So Peter did not eat, and as the story goes on, we realize it's not talking about the meat that we eat anyhow. He's talking here about human beings. But as it goes on down, he comes out of that vision. He wonders within himself. It says in verse 17, what does this vision mean?

Verse 19, while Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, behold, three men are seeking you. So here we have the three times the sheep came down, and then we have these three men that, as it turns out, Cornelius sent to this household to find Peter.

Skipping on down to verse 25, the following day they entered Caesarea, and Cornelius was waiting for them, and it called together his relatives and close friends. He falls down to worship Peter. Peter says, stand up, I'm just a man. And they went into the house. Verse 28, then he said to them, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.

So again, this is not God's law, but this was according to the teachings, all of the laws and regulations of the Jews. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. And in verse 34, Peter opened his mouth and said, in truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him.

And so here, we just back up and look at this story. Peter is praying to God. Peter falls into this deep dream or vision. Three times this sheet comes down. Three men show up to take him to the household of Cornelius, who was a Roman centurion. He was not Jewish. And through the process, Peter was shown, you don't exclude anyone from the calling or from being a potential recipient of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the grace of God.

But there at the end of verse 28, he said, God has shown me. But you know, in part God showed him by sending a three-part dream and then three men, and he's connecting the dots. God in part showed him through other human beings. Now, when we realize that God does work in our life through other people, then it helps us recognize that he may give us an answer we don't expect, but it may come through other people. It may be some help that they give.

It may be some encouragement. It may be, frankly, maybe some correction. I think that's the importance of coming here week after week. We don't forsake assembling together. We get to know each other. And as you develop a relationship, you may have a brother or sister who's saying something, doing something, or you're aware of them. And you might just say, hey, you know, you need to wake up. You need to take a look at this. You need to consider whether you need to put that out of your life. I was thinking – I've got a little point here in my notes – when I was first out of college, I was back in Oklahoma.

It was the year before Denise and I married. But I had a car. Back then, in the 70s, if you got 20,000 to 30,000 miles on a set of tires, you've done pretty good. And the old bias poly tires. I had the car I had that the tires – I was home. I was frantically looking for work and doing little jobs here and there. But I realized the tires were getting down toward bald. And my dad said something about it one day. And I said, I just have to keep going. I don't have the money. He must have said something to my grandmother. It was a crop year.

It wasn't like dad would say, hey, I'm going to spot you X amount of money. Go get some tires on that car and go look for a job. But we didn't have that grade of a crop that year. But I think he said something to my grandmother. My grandmother, who lived across the road, she called and she wanted me to come over and see her. And so I went over and see her and sat down and she said, I was married to a hard-headed stubborn Dobson.

I brought five Dobson men into this world. I have about 13 Dobson grandsons I've been part of bringing in this world. I know how hard-headed you can be and I'm going to give you something and I don't want to hear a complaint from you. She said, your car, your tires are bold. I'm going to give you X amount of money. You go get some tires and put on that and don't complain. And I said, yes, ma'am. I learned that a long time earlier. Yes, ma'am. In my prayers, I had been telling God, I need a job, but to keep going that job, I need a car that is reliable.

And for that to be that car to be reliable, it needs tires. God gave me an answer, but in that case, He did it through grandmother. I deeply appreciated that. Number two here, we have the Bible. And we're probably most familiar with this. There are times when you are studying God's Word and just bam! Something hits you, strikes you, and you never applied it in that way. These little lights come on sometimes.

2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3. Let's read verse 16, because it speaks about the Holy Scriptures here.

He had just told Timothy, Paul had just told him, from a child you've known the Holy Scriptures.

But in verse 16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now, there is a Greek word that is translated there, inspiration by God, in our English Bibles. The Greek word is theonustos. And it has kind of the word picture of God breathing life spiritually into us. And in the word picture, it hearkens back to the creation of Adam. He formed Adam from the elements of the ground, and then it said, he breathed into him the breath of life.

But the Scriptures, through the Scriptures, God breathes into us life as well.

When we read, when we study the Bibles, it goes on. It says it is profitable for doctrine.

There are fundamental doctrinal beliefs that are important to us. For reproof, for correction, there are times when we realize, and it's one of the most difficult things for any of us to do, is just to honestly admit, I've been wrong. I did not understand that. I need to change.

I need God's help to change. For instruction in righteousness, so there can always be an improving in more fully walking the way that would be within the realm of the mind of Jesus Christ.

Now, it's been quite a while ago here. It may have been those months after Mr. Winter died. I think I gave a sermon here on Cyrus and the fall of Babylon, some of the prophecies back in Isaiah 44, 45, and then following through the detail of how that it actually happened, and all of the fulfilled prophecies there that history relates, but we also find the book of Daniel.

But I mentioned there, and you may remember this from your own studies, that the Jewish historian Josephus, in his history, the antiquities of the Jews, he has a section there where he says that King Cyrus was having the scriptures of Isaiah read to him. And if you look at the end of Isaiah 44 and then into early verses of Isaiah 45, late into Isaiah 44, Cyrus is named by name.

And that's 150 years before he was around. And Josephus points out that when those scriptures were read of Isaiah to Cyrus, as far as what Cyrus was going to do, that is when he issued the decree to send the Jews back home. Because, you know, they had been destroyed and they'd been carted off to Babylon, and then the Medes and the Persians and Cyrus overran Babylon. He took the Jews and he sent them back home. He sent that decree. And so it's interesting, even that, here there are a ruler, a Gentile leader of the Medes and the Persians, and yet the scriptures were read to him and it impressed upon him. You know, that's a good idea. I need to send those Jews back home.

And God was orchestrating it all from behind the scenes. Isaiah 8 verse 20. Isaiah 8 verse 20. Regardless of what we face in life, we must always think, I need to search the scriptures to find an answer. Isaiah 8 verse 20 is just as applicable today as it ever was. To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And so we go to the Word of God, and so many, many times we're reading an area of scripture we may have read dozens of times, but somehow God impresses upon us. And there's an answer. And God answers that prayer through the Holy Scriptures.

Number three is by meditation. You know, the Spirit of God works within us in a remarkable way. We have in the Bible stories that are told of familiar spirits.

When Christ walked the earth, a number of times there were those who were possessed by demons, and they seek to take control. But with the Holy Spirit, God doesn't work in us that way. You see, after all, He's wanting to develop His own mind and character within us, and so that involves the fact that He gives us the power to choose. We make choices. But in, come to this a little later, but Romans 8 verse 14, we'll come back to that later, but that's where it talks about as many as are led by the Holy Spirit. They are the sons of God. God seeks to lead us through His Spirit.

A lot of times that comes from when they're through meditation. We may be considering scriptures. We may be considering life situations. We may be pondering just whatever of life, news items. And God, through His Spirit, impresses this impulse that leads us to realize, you know, I need to do this or I need to change that. Many years ago, of course, we lived down here in Birmingham until May of 81. The church hired us, and we were moved to Memphis. And from Memphis, we had over in Jackson, Tennessee, the circuit church. So one of my first assignments was to go over to Jackson and visit everybody there. And we were there for three years, and a lot of our visiting was over in the Jackson church area of about 100 and I think 150 people or so, scattered all over West Tennessee. And I distinctly remember one day, and as usual, you know, we didn't have email. We didn't have lots of things back then. No Facebook. And telephone. And you set it up, maybe that Sabbath. You set up certain days of the upcoming week. Where you're going to be and line it up with different members. Okay, can I come by at 11? Can I come by over here at 2? Can I be there at 6? And so it was one of those days. And you know how men are. We can, you know, we get a schedule. We've got to do this, this, this, and this. And we block everything out. But as I was driving, I was by myself that day, and I was driving to go and see this one family. The way I was going right out Tennessee, 57 through Middleton, Tennessee. And there was a widow that lived right there off the highway. And we as a family, and as a couple had been there many times.

And I looked over at her house, and I thought of Mrs. Anthony. And I kept going because I have a schedule to keep. But I'd go a little further, and I kept thinking, you know, I wonder if Mrs. Anthony's okay. Well, I had a schedule to keep. So I keep going. But my mind would come back to Dolly Anthony.

And I made one visit, and I'm going to the second one. I thought, well, I wonder if Mrs.

you see a pattern here. I think God was trying to tell me something, and I wasn't listening.

But I learned. Well, about the time I'm leaving the third visit, there's another widow. They're actually around Bethel Springs, Tennessee. There were three sisters. One was a widow.

I think the other two lived together. Her name kept coming to my mind. But, you know, it'd been a long day, and I was tired. And so I go home, and when I go home, what I find out?

Widows one and two had both called. They were sick, and they wanted me to come and anoint them to pray for them. And I had driven right by their homes. Now, when that happened, and that's happened a number of times, over the years I've learned, you know, I'd better listen to that. When there are things I believe God tries to impress on our minds. And there are times we just sit there, and we read the Scripture, and we reflect on it, we meditate, and God tries to tell us things. And we need to act on it. Psalm 1. A couple places here we read of meditation in the book of Psalms. Psalm 1, verse 1, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. The marginal note says he ponders by talking to himself. I am so glad that's in there. He ponders by talking to himself. Am I the only one that doesn't know? Of course I'm not the only one. I have these little discussions with myself all the time. He meditates day and night. Many times as we meditate, an answer may come, or God may to impress upon us something we should look into or do or change. Psalm 63.

Psalm 63. Here's the beginning of verse 1. Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah, No, God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. But I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Better your loving kindness, because your loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise you. Let's go to verse 6. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches. We all probably have time if we lie down and the mind is still working and it's still moving. There are times we may awake. Maybe we have to get up and go back. We lay back in bed. There are times we may wake in the middle of the night like it seems like I tend to do. I'm awake for a while and then go back to sleep. David here said that he meditates on God in the night watches. He remembers God when he's on his bed. Prayer combined with Bible study, as Psalm 1 spoke of, meditating on his law, and meditating here can be a powerful combination.

And God may reveal his will to us as we're just pondering, just talking to ourselves, thinking within ourselves. Number four, God speaks through his servants.

Now, let's not limit God's servants to ministers who may speak to us. And we have those who write, but we have a lot of people. You don't have to have an office to give sermonettes and good, solid messages. You don't have to have an office tagged on you to write an article that appears in the United News. And here's just this little box that you read in the United News. And it just hits you. It's just what you needed. And all of those will be the category of God's servants.

But take church here. How many times do we hear a sermonette, a split sermon, a Bible study, a sermon?

And it was something we had talked about just last Sabbath. You were blessed to have Mr. and Mrs. Ashley, Scott Ashley, visiting with you. He spoke to you last week in Huntsville. We had Rick Bean. He spoke to us. I spoke in Murfreesboro, so I didn't quite get the loaf completely, but it was great. I was down there in church in Huntsville, and one of the men gave well, Darren, who spoke here recently, he gave I think it's about his fourth sermonette. There was a lady who's attending with us now. She's from Church of God International, and she was telling me, you know, that sermonette, it was just what I needed. I was just thinking along those lines, and it really meant something to her. And I can't tell you how many times, you know, you've been in that position. I've walked in the church, sat down, you know, here's a topic that's addressed, and I'm thinking, man, God or somebody had a bug on the wall in my house and knew what was going on and what I needed. But I think that God does that through His Spirit.

Usually, the speaker doesn't have one clue as to what might be going on. And, you know, I've had four to six people sometimes come up and say, man, that one hit me right between the eyes.

And the speaker was just separately inspired of God to follow along a certain subject line.

Philippians 2. Philippians 2, Paul writes from prison. Philippians is one of his prison epistles. He's in Rome. But he speaks of some of those who work with him and who have been serving the Philippian brethren and serving Paul. And, you know, we come together on Sabbath.

We all receive booklets and articles, magazines. We have the website for many.

And we have those times when God has those servants who, in that sense, speak to us, and God may speak to us through them. Philippians 2, verse 19, But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly.

That I may be encouraged when I know your state. So he wants to send Timothy.

From there at Rome, go to Philippi, and then you can report back, and I'll know that the brethren in Philippi are okay, because Paul at that time didn't know how it was going to go with him, waiting for his day in court before Caesar. For I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.

But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father, he served me in the gospel.

Well, let's go down just a little more here, verse 25. Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epiphrathitis, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need, since he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. So what has happened here is apparently Epiphrathitis, which is very much a Greek name. Philippi is in Greece, and he had gone. He had taken support from those of Philippi to Paul in Rome. And while he was there, Epiphrathitis got sick, and people back home heard about it. And so he was broken up, wanting to go back, wanting to go back to his home brethren and serve them and share with them and let them know that he's fine.

28. Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him, again, you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem, because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me. So as in the opening prayer, I always appreciate it when the man prays that God will bless those who will be speaking to us today. Because if we don't have God's blessing, if we don't have God working through us, we're going to be shortchanged very, very quickly if all we have is some human being. All right, so God speaks through his servants.

Number five is miracles. God speaks to us probably through miracles more than we have any way of knowing. Now, there are different types of miracles. We could list several, but, you know, there are times when God heals. There are lots of times we wish God would heal, but he knows fully what he's doing. He has eternity in mind. You know, Paul wanted to be healed of whatever that thorn in the flesh was that afflicted him, but God finally told him after the three times that he earnestly besought God, Paul said, I mean, God said to Paul, essentially the answer is no.

My grace, my unmerited forgiveness is enough for you. And then he talked about how Paul learned that out of weakness, he was made strong. And, you know, Hebrews does say that of Jesus Christ, that though he were a son, he learned through the things that he said, he learned in obedience through the things that he suffered. And there are times when God lets us suffer, but I can look back in life, it seems like earlier in life, there were times when I was healed.

There were times when I was healed. I remember when I was just, oh, was that the feast at Big Sandy? I think I was about 18, 19 years of age, had had horrible earaches through the years from time to time. And one came upon me at the feast at Big Sandy. I went to my parents tent. I mean, they realized, I mean, they, their parents, they know. And when they saw me walk up, they realized what the problem was. And I asked Dad, I down at the end of the line was an elder from Oklahoma City Church where, you know, they camped by rows, you may know, back then, church congregations. So Dad went down and got Mr. Jack Williams, who just died two or three years ago. He was a long, long time elder in the church. But Mr. Williams came and anointed me, and I fell asleep. I mean, I was in that bed, writhing in pain there in my parents tent. And he anointed me, I fell asleep.

And to this day, you know, I've had times when I want to scratch something up in my ear, one ear or the other. But I haven't had an earache like that. And that's been 40 years ago, more than 40 years, long time. And it, I mean, that was the time when I was beginning, you know, really seriously struggling with this. You know, I have to do this, working toward the point of baptism. And it made an impression. But then there have been times I haven't been healed. But then I can look back and say, you know, like Psalm 119, it's good for me that I was afflicted, that I can learn your law.

Some miracles are in the realm of protection.

You know, I think of biblical examples like Hezekiah. He had that threatening letter from Sennacherib and the Assyrian armies coming. And it had to have been a time a lot of Israel, a lot of Judah would have been having a case of the Woe. Woe is it, woe is us, woe is me.

It's about over. Hezekiah took the letter, went before the house of God, laid it out before God in his prayer. And that night, one angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. One angel. Jesus walked the earth, he said, and he called twelve legions of angels. And so there are times of protection.

Again, thinking back many years ago, maybe when we lived in Oklahoma City, you know, out in Texas, Oklahoma, you get up close and personal with tornadoes. But I remember over in Tulsa, Bill Cagle, his family, he's an elder that's united out in Tulsa, a long-time elder. But I remember a horrible tornado working its way across Tulsa and how it just lifts up and then sets down a little later. And right in that little block area, it's just lifted up over the Cagle's houses right there in the middle. You know, it wasn't that long ago we had some F4s, F5s move through this area.

And a half mile south of our house, houses were taken down literally to the slab. And Mike and Debbie Kelly lived one way, and we lived just the other way, and our houses were untouched. Now, I mean, you can reason that away, and human beings do. But that's why I said earlier, we probably receive more miracles than we have any earthly idea of God intervening for us.

Other miracles might be just miraculous provisions. I think of some of these slides, some of these people. How would they have felt when the group of men from down at Davao may have come walking up their place? First of all, see, are you okay? But also bringing food when they hadn't had any for four, five, six days. So, provisions. And maybe they'd been praying, and God answered that prayer through brethren in the church. We think about miracles.

Probably the greatest miracle that God performs here on the earth today is the miracle of conversion, of opening the thick-sculled, stiff-necked human mind and bringing it to a point of being moldable, pliable in the hands of the Master Potter. Denise and I remember in our years in Memphis there was a couple who moved in from Knoxville. His work, he was just there for, I think it was less than a year. It was a short assignment, but we were over at their condo that they rented once, and they told us their story. And the man had been a long-time member of the church by that time. And again, this was 1980, 81, 82, I mean 81, 23, somewhere in there.

He'd been a long-time member, and they together are telling us how hostile she had been.

And she said, I was awful. He would go off to the feast. She would take his socks, and she would sew them shut. And she was not happy he was going off that feast. She would pour things through his clothing. She was not happy. He said it worsened to the point where she would just pound on his chest and say, I hate you, I hate you. And he said, I would just put my arms around her, and I'd tell her, no, you love me, you've just forgotten.

But he said, after so long, I was about to reach the breaking point. And I told God, I can't do this any longer. And what happened? She was different. And she was sitting there. She had been called. She had been baptized. He was a deacon. She was a deaconess in the Church of God.

They had served and given their lives, and they told that story laughing at themselves. So conversion, perhaps that's the greatest miracle that we underestimate. God speaks to us, and we all have loved ones, and we have people we work with, and people in our family. And our heart cries out for their minds to be opened. And God does say in that one story there at the beginning of Luke 18, He gave this parable. I won't turn there now, but this parable that men should learn to pray and pray always. And then the unjust judge, the widow going over and over and over. Even the judge, the unjust judge, was moved. And so how quickly, more quickly than that, God will intervene for His people who come to Him day after day. So conversion, we should never stop praying for those people. Most of us will have family members, I would say, and grandchildren and other people. We'd like to give God a list of people He needs to call and have in the church today. But you know, it just doesn't work that way, does it? But we don't give up on them. God's not through with anyone. He's not through with us, thankfully, either. All right, number six is the Holy Spirit. And we kind of talked about this earlier. This is where I have written down Romans 8.14 that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they're the children of God, Romans 8.14.

And the Spirit of God doesn't seek to take over. It seeks to lead us down the path. It is not going to force us to do what God would have us do, but it will impress upon our minds. And God will lead us, will have this initiative that I should do this or I should go over there.

We're here in Philippians. Let's look at Philippians 4, verse 13. Philippians 4, verse 13, Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And of course, Christ works in us. The Father works in us, through us with that Spirit that they provide that is the power to go against the stream.

The power to buck the society around us. The power to deal with peer pressure.

The power to deal with job or school or family challenges, dilemmas, frustrations.

The Spirit of God works with us to lead us. God gives us an answer because, again, you know, Christ said that night before He was betrayed that the Comforter would come.

And He said He would teach you all things and lead you into all things. And it works by impulses, not in taking over, enforcing. God wants us to choose to walk that path.

All right, number seven. Number seven is by trials. A lot of scriptural examples we can think of here. We have a story of Job, the whole book of Job, you know, through the most horrific losses.

Through terrible physical suffering. Job, at the end of that book, as he said, you know, I used to think I knew you, but now my eye sees you. God led him through a lot of suffering, a lot of pain, a lot of trials, a lot of tribulation for the express purpose of opening his eyes and making an even greater tool for God's work. I think of Hezekiah. Hezekiah there, it would be Isaiah 38 tells that story. Hezekiah was told, you're going to die. Get your house in order.

I mean, God told him that through Isaiah the prophet.

You read those early verses how Hezekiah turned his heart and he wept bitterly.

And God gets Isaiah before he's even left the whole area and he says, go back.

I've heard your prayer and I've seen your tears. And I'm going to give you 15 years, 15 years. And that's where he went on and said, you know, Isaiah, I mean, we human beings are a curious bunch. We say we believe God, but will you give me a sign? Hezekiah believed him, but you guys, yeah, okay, I'll cause that sun to go back 10 degrees.

So trials, I had to have been a horrible trial for Hezekiah to just suddenly be told, you know, get your house in order. You got a little bit of time, you're going to die.

Well, he was one of the more righteous kings of Judah, and thankfully he got more time.

But there are times when God allows us to be tried, to be sick for a period of time.

And in some cases, it's the sickness that leads to death.

He wants us to learn. He wants us to learn through what we experience, through what others experience. He wants to test the metal to see what we're made of. Trials have an expressed purpose. They open our eyes. They promote growth. They bind us more firmly together. They strengthen our faith. They build our faith. And trials sometimes are there for the reason to benefit others. I mean, look at the trials of Joseph. You can say, oh, yeah, we brought a lot of that animosity from his brothers on himself. Well, sure he did. But he was a kid. He sure didn't deserve being sold off into slavery and all that happened to him. And then once he's down there, the false charge of his master's wife, and he ends up in prison. And it's not until Genesis 45, when his brothers are there and he reveals himself, and he says, God did this to save much people. The old King James says it. God allowed Joseph to go through years and years of horrible trials. You know, he was, I forget what age, 17. And then when he's 30, he's elevated to power. You have seven years of plenty. You're into the years, the lean years, when the brothers are sent down for food. A lot of time has passed by, but he recognized all that he went through. God did because he wanted to save that little remnant of the seed of Abraham. And the story goes on how about 75 souls came down, and Egypt became that area of Goshen up in the Nile Delta became their place of safety. 1 Peter 5. We do have a statement here about suffering. 1 Peter 5. Verse 8 reminds us we need to stay awake and alert because we have this adversary.

The devil is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Verse 9 resists him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. He's writing to the scattered church here, but he reminds them, your brethren all over go through these many sufferings. Verse 10, he explains a bit, but may the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, established, strengthened, and settled you.

2 Peter 5. God's looking at eternity. God's looking at the desired end result.

You and I are creatures of a limited number of years. We tend to look at the here and now.

God looks at eternity, but he said, after you have suffered a while. So why do we think it's so strange when we find that here's this trial that we're suffering through? It is of God's design. There's something there he wants to teach us.

Number 8, and we'll wrap it up with this one. Number 8, an angel. God may answer by sending an angel. And here we have many examples we could turn to in the Bible, but probably it has happened in our lives more than we have any way of knowing.

At least now. We'll get the rest of the story somewhere down the line.

But there are times when God sends angels to help his people in times of emergency and crisis.

And you think about it. God's invested an awful lot in every one of our lives.

We were, as it says in Genesis 1.26, let us make man in our image after our likeness.

We're of the same kind. We're after the God kind, as opposed to all the animals created in the days previous to that. Each animal after its own kind. But we're after the likeness of God.

And then, as Jesus said, when he walked the earth, many are called, but few are chosen.

God is obviously not dealing with everyone who walks this earth today.

But, as you can see, there are probably a vast majority who don't even know a thing about the word of God, the Father, Son, the way, path toward eternal life. We have unreached millions, billions, probably. But of all these people, seven billion plus the world population clock says, I forget, somewhere 7.2 billion. Of all those people, God looked down, and He's invested a lot of years and probably most of our lives. And maybe He worked in our lives a lot longer than we ever realized to bring us to this particular point. And the time came when He extended an invitation. The Bible calls it a calling, and we responded. A lot of people get that invitation, but they don't open it. They throw it in the junk mail, the trash. But we opened it, and we began taking steps toward the family of God. And we moved down the steps of repentance and faith, and we were baptized, and we were given a spirit, just a little earnest, a little beginning. And we looked to a time of the receipt of the of the whole. And so God has an awful lot invested in us. And there are times, let's look at back to the Psalm again, Psalm 34.

Psalm 34, there are times when it is not our time, and God sends an angel to spare our life, or to provide for us, or you fill in the blank. There are many times that God has sent an angel, and we can't even know about it. Psalm 34 verse 7, the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them. Again, I think back to Hezekiah, the letter from the Assyrians, and the angel that intervened and killed all of those soldiers one night. Daniel 10.

Daniel 10 verses 2 and 3, In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, nor meat, or wine, came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

Down to verse 12, then He said to me, this is the angel that has appeared, and is speaking to Daniel, and then He said to me, Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. And He goes talking about the spiritual warfare that is taking place behind the scenes, and how he was hindered. And so God sent an angel to give understanding to Daniel. And then we have chapter 11 as a phenomenal prophecy that began at that day and goes all the way to the time of the very end. And it came in something God sent. When we lived in Memphis, there was, of course, it's right there on the river, so you've got people across the line over in Arkansas. There was a family, a large family, very, very athletic and strong, muscle-bound boys, very, very physically fit daughters, large family. And call came one day, go to the hospital, the anointing one of the sons. And there'd been a farm accident, large, I think it was a 45-30 John Deere, which is a big tractor.

Farm accident, it was turned over, and one of the boys' head, the head, was pinned into the soil by the big cab over the tractor. What do you do? You get a child whose head's stuck under the tractor.

There's no way you're going to lift it up. But one got on either side. As they lifted, the tractor came up, and another pulled the boy out from under the tractor, and they headed to the hospital. There can be no conclusion to come to, but that they had help lifting a tractor.

I mean, if it was just a farm all, you know, old farm all-in or age or whatever, you're not going to pick it up off somebody if it's over on its side and their heads between whatever in the ground. By the time they get to the hospital, the young man, he has not a scratch on him. They sent him home, and he was a big, strong, healthy young man when we moved away.

Prayer. Yes, the missionary in Africa, once upon a time in the story, got his answer.

Wasn't the answer he expected, but it was an answer. It didn't come from the direction he thought. But I hope this is of help and of value to you. Maybe we'll get to the bottom half of that sheet one of these days, but I'll bring new handouts whenever. But it helps us to realize that when we pray, keep your eyes open. God may give you an answer. It might come through people, and it might come through the ministry, and it might come through a miracle, and it might be an angel working, and you're not aware of it. So have a wonderful day, brethren. Wonderful Sabbath to you.