When We Call, God Responds

Well, we are... well, I'm going to tell you something you already know. We are living in difficult and very troubling times, aren't we? Each day brings more and more unsettling news, it seems. More news about people sick and troubles with COVID. The state of our nation is discouraging at times. I heard earlier this week, maybe I read it, our national debt will be somewhere around $45 trillion. That number actually means nothing to me because I cannot grasp that.

Of course, war and unrest has always been with us, and if you've been watching the news, as I have, what little I've caught, what's going on with the debacle in Afghanistan, it's very sad. It's a very terrible thing. Of course, closer to home, we've noticed that we've got other problems. You know, prices are increasing on goods and services, and I guess there's still a big firestorm out in California. I think it's bigger than ever. Eventually, we're going to have things to burn. I don't know. We were able to visit my family this past week for a few days up in southern Nebraska, and they'd had the drought up there. It's not just only in the west, but some parts of the central plain states as well. They hadn't had a good rain. They'd only had two rains since Memorial Day, and I told mom, we'll be praying. She goes, we'll be praying too. Well, then we came home on Wednesday night, and then I think my mother called. We found out on Wednesday night after we left. I'm trying to remember. I forget. They had two inches of rain, so everybody's happy. Farmers are either really happy or really worried, and I like it when they're happy.

And of course, other troubles we see, and it's that steady moral decline of society. It just keeps sliding, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but it just keeps sliding down. Now, I'm not saying all this to get us bummed out and depressed. This is part of the reality we live with, and we know that. This has always been the case, and God has called us, though, and opened our minds to understand something that we can do about it. Something in someone, actually, we can turn to to help us in our times of sorrows. In some ways, if you turn to me to Matthew 24, verse 4 through 8, it seems that we may well be living in that time Christ talked about as the beginning of sorrows. Of course, people have always wondered if they're in the time of sorrows.

I'm sure folks in World War I and living through World War II and other times thought the same, but times have changed so much, it's maybe we truly are. So let's read what Jesus said here in the Olivet Prophecy, Matthew 24, verse 4 through 8. I'm going to start here, but Matthew 24, verse 4.

He was asked by the disciples privately, when will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you. So it'll be a time of deception, people deceiving them about him and other things, apparently. Verse 5, For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, there will be pestilences, such as we're experiencing, and earthquakes in various places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows, the beginning of sorrows. Now, it's interesting here the Greek word translated as sorrows in verse 8 is odein. It's spelled O-D-I-N, odein, and it refers to a type of sorrow or pain or travail that's related to childbirth.

And those birth pangs. And so, its meaning here suggests that all these troubles, at the beginning of sorrows, things will change a little bit, and that it seems that they will increase in number and intensity as we draw near to the end of the age. And again, that's why many of us are beginning to think this may well be the time of sorrows. Things seem to be picking up pace. The bottom line is we know that there will be much travail. There will be birth pangs of sorts before the birth of the new age that will be brought in by Jesus Christ. This is the time where we're beginning to look through the fall festival season. The Holy Days will be here very quickly. And as we do, it is appropriate for us to think of the times to come, the wonderful world tomorrow, and the kingdom of God, and all these wonderful things. And though this is a time of sorrow, we have much we need to be doing. We have much we need to be doing. And what exactly should that be? Both today and tomorrow and long after this current fall festival season is over. What must we be doing now and in the future as we live with sorrow? We live with these birth pangs of the world we live in, this world that's dying and a new world that is coming.

I encourage us to bestow ourselves to that reality and to take action. We have action to take.

Perhaps one of the most vital things we must be doing is strengthening our relationship with God.

I can't think of anything much better we could be doing. Strengthening our relationship with God in particular, we need to be calling upon God. We need to be calling upon God. We need to be trusting Him for His help. And why? Well, because it's only if we stay near to God that we will be able to endure these times of sorrow that we'll be able to be found worthy of salvation.

In my message today, we will consider what it means to call upon God.

To call upon God. What does that mean? And then I'd like to address how it is that God might choose to respond to our call. So my purpose is to encourage us. I want to encourage us with God's assurances that He does hear. He does answer when we call upon Him in faith and truth. We may not always recognize it, but when we trust in Him and pray to Him in faith and truth, we know that He will answer us. And so I've entitled the sermon, When We Call, God Responds. When we call, God responds. And I appreciate the special music today. It seems to be fitting to the message.

I'd like to start with this. If you turn with us, turn with us. Turn with me, too. Let's turn to the book of Psalms and I'd like to share with us some examples of David when he called upon God and how David called upon God. It's very interesting. Of course, David was very much human like us. He was not a perfect person, but he was devoted and committed to God, and he was striving his whole life to be closer to God, to be more like God. And if we turn to Psalm 18 to begin, I'd like for us to notice from this example. We're going to look at a few examples of him from Psalms. I'd like for us to notice the conviction, the conviction that David expresses that God does hear and answer him, that God does hear and answer his faithful ones. And so let's look at Psalm 18, verse 3 through 6. Very encouraging, very uplifting when we meditate on these. David said Psalm 18, verse 3, I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and so I shall be saved for my enemies. He's not wishy-washy about it. He's not worried about it. He knows he will be. The pangs of death surrounded me, he says, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

The sorrows of Sheol, the grave, surrounded me. The snares of death confronted me.

You see, I told you he is a man like us. He's experienced life as we do. In verse 6, in my distress, he says, I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God, and he heard my voice from his temple, and my cry came before him, even to his ears. David spoke from personal experience with God. That's where his conviction came from. He called, and God saved him from his enemies. His enemies being varied, but in this case, it seems to be talking about death and evil, evil people.

He knew that God had heard him. His conviction is strong and very clear in this song, and it's this sort of example that we can look to, the sort of conviction we need when we pray to God and call upon him without doubt, without fretting whether he really hears us or not. Let's turn next to Psalm 86, verse 4 through 7. Psalm 86, verse 4 through 7, David praises God for his mercy and for giving his sin. Sins are always a challenge. We always must be struggling with sin, overcoming it.

And David praises God here, Psalm 86, verse 4 through 7, for his mercy and for giving his sin, another troubling source in his life. Verse 4, Rejoice the soul of your servant, speaking to God, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my voice. For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive, an abundant mercy to all those who call upon you. Give here, O Lord, to my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble, I will call upon you, for you will answer me. And again, David calls upon God with his conviction that he will hear. He's troubled by sin, and yet he knows he can go to God with great confidence, that God would hear him. In this case, because he's repentant and humble, he knows that God will forgive him. Also, Psalm 145, Psalm 145, verse 18 through 20. Here, David emphasizes that those who call upon God must call upon him in truth. Psalm 145, verse 18 through 20.

Psalm 145, verse 18, David wrote, The Lord is near to all who call upon him. He's near. He's right with us. To all who call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked, he will destroy. Notice then that he says God is near to those who call upon him in truth. That word in Hebrew is emeth, E-M-E-T, E-M-E-T, and it has the meaning of sincere conviction.

Going to God in truth means you're with that sincere conviction, that conviction from the heart, with contrite-ness, that humility. And it especially stresses that it is a sort of sincerity and humility that is without hypocrisy. There's no faking it. There's no double-mindedness about it, but pure from the heart. That similar concept, of course, you can jot down John 4.24, John 4.24, where Jesus says God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth. And so David helps us to understand that when you, when I, when we call upon God, it's vital that we do so with sincere conviction of faith that says we know that God hears us. We know that he will respond to us. Now how and when, and well, we'll talk a little bit more about that. That is all up to God, and we trust him. Let's also read Psalm 50, 14 through 15. This is an interesting psalm. These lines here, Psalm 50, verse 14 through 15.

These lines are interesting, Psalm 14 through 15, because what we find here is that God, in essence, is expressing his conviction. God also has convictions. Here God is expressing his conviction with regards to those who call upon him. It's reciprocal, it seems. Now the writer of this psalm is Asaph. Asaph was a seer of God, a prophet, and he wrote these inspired words as coming from God. Offered of God thanksgiving, it says in verse 14, offered to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high. And here we see, call upon me, is God speaking, call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. You shall glorify me. So God is speaking his convictions. He will hear us. He will answer. Call upon him in our day of trouble. So we should be encouraged. We should be encouraged knowing that God himself affirms that he will answer those who call upon him. And notice something else here. Notice what God also expects his faithful ones to do. There's three things. We see it here in verse 14 through 15. First, he expects us to offer sincere praise and thanks to God. We can't, I guess that means we shouldn't just be going to God whining all the time.

We need to start our prayer to God with praise and thanks to him, recognizing that he is our God. And there's no better place to go in our troubles than to him. And secondly, God speaks here. We're expected to fulfill our vows and commitments to him. Pay your vows to the most high. Our vows and commitments to God are those we made at baptism, that we committed ourselves to him. We pretty much committed ourselves to saying that no matter what, I will be loyal to you. I will obey you. I will believe you in what you say, and I will do what you say. And when I sin, I will repent. I will get right with you, and I will stay with you. That's that commitment. And the third thing, of course, then, is that we call upon him in times of trouble. God expects us to do that. He wants us to do that.

And that's when that last one, call upon him in times of trouble, that expectation, we need to underline that. That's what he expects. He might even look at it as a command to call upon him for help, and he will deliver us. Again, I've been needing encouragement, like all of us, and I'm finding it. It's hearing God's Word. Do we believe it? I hope so.

Now, these words are very similar to what Paul writes. Let's look now in Romans 10, 11 through 13. These words that we've been reading here are very similar to what Paul writes in Romans 10, verse 11 through 13. In some ways, I guess you could say that Paul recaps what we've been learning so far. Romans 10, verse 11 through 13, Paul writes, for the Scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. You will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him.

For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that's important to understand. Shall be saved. We may not get every prayer we asked for answered the way we expected, but God does say he will save us. He will grant to us salvation. Our part is to stay loyal and true to him. So in times of trouble, God orders us to call upon him in truth. It means faithfully, with sincerity, and he will respond. And we must be doing this to stay near to God and so that we would endure to the end and indeed be saved. When we call God, he will respond. Now, how might God respond to our call? Have you thought about that? Just how might God respond to our call? I'd like to turn to that question for a while. Now, of course, how might God respond to that call? We quickly understand. Well, that's up to God, isn't it? I'm sure you've heard that song, thank God, for unanswered prayers. Well, even not answering that prayer, that is an answer. You understand that, right? That, too, is an answer. God gets to decide how to answer our prayers because only God really knows what's best for us. He understands the big pictures we used to say, and he knows what is really for our benefit. But it is encouraging to study how God has responded to other faithful men and women in Scripture and how he still can choose to do so today.

Now, I think one of the first ways we might think of how God might respond to our prayers is with a miracle. Don't we like hearing about miracles? I do. I love hearing about miracles. And the Bible, of course, reveals how God often responded to his people's call with miracles. We are very familiar—I don't need to read it, I don't believe today—but we're familiar with the story of Abraham and Sarah. They decided, well, they decided—they desired, actually—they desired a son of their own.

And after many years of their praying and going to God about it, God blessed them with Isaac. With Isaac. And do you remember how old Abraham was?

One hundred years old. And Sarah was a Bonnie Young 90 when she had that son of promise, beautiful blessing. That was a miracle. They rejoiced in it. When the children of Israel cried out to God for deliverance from bondage in Egypt, God heard. He had his own timing, his own way about it, but he delivered them through astounding miracles, ten plagues. And when they got trapped by Pharaoh's army along the Red Sea—remember what happened there? I'm looking at the children.

Yeah, they're going like this. Okay. Right. The wind blew and the waters divided, and Israel crossed on dry land. And what happened when the Egyptian army tried to do the same thing?

The sea folded back upon itself, and all the army, their enemies, were gone. They never saw them again.

Now, of course, God does not always respond. I think it's safe to say with such great miracles, such stupendous miracles. But sometimes his miracles are small, but even the small miracles, if we dare call them that, they are no less wonderful. And sometimes God responds in the needs of his faithful servants before they can even think to call upon him. Perhaps you've noticed that, too. God intervenes, for you have a chance to know what's happened. And suddenly we've just realized something miraculous just happened. Our God is that kind of God. He is the God, the only God. He is compassionate and merciful. He loves us. I like to spend a little time—if you turn with me back in 2 Kings 4-6, we read about how the Bible is about the God doing miracles. Perhaps some may call them small miracles. I don't know if that's a miracle to me. But he does miracles through Elisha the prophet. And they're very interesting. They're very interesting and encouraging at the same time. So let's look at 2 Kings 4. I'd like to—now obviously it's a long chapter. These are all long chapters, very good chapters, of course. And I encourage you, if you haven't gone through these lately, maybe you'd like to read those in some of your Bible reading time. I'll refer to some and just kind of summarize others, point to them as we go through. But we'll begin 2 Kings 4, verse 1-7. Here we are told of how God through Elisha saved a widow of one of the sons of the prophets from a creditor. Of course, I don't know if any of you have creditors. Those are the people that control or own your credit cards.

We don't need to go into that. In verse 1 we read about this woman. A certain woman of the wives of the sons of prophets cried out to Elisha. Elisha was a man of God. She cried out to Elisha saying, Your servant, my husband, is dead. And you know that your servant feared the Lord. He revered God. He worshiped God. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves. Imagine the fear of that woman, worried her children would be taken into slavery. The only thing she could possibly sell, we learn, she has a jar of olive oil. That's the only resource she really has.

Now the widow and the sons were in deep trouble. In verse 3, Elisha said, he said to them, Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors, empty vessels, and do not gather just a few. And I'd like to imagine her probably going to all their neighbors around gathering every size pot and vessel. I don't know if pots and pans were initially the same thing as they are today, but you can imagine she did what she was told. She did what she was told.

And then she, after she gathered them together, she poured out the oils he had told her to do, she poured out the oil and filled them all. And then when the vessels were all filled up, the oil ceased. In verse 7, And then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest. Now, isn't it interesting? She just wanted, in a sense, to pay the creditor off so her sons wouldn't be taken to slavery.

And God in his miracle gave her that amount and more than enough for her and her sons to continue to live on. That's just how generous God is. In the widow, a good lesson for us, the widow was faithful to do exactly what Elisha, the man of God, told her to do.

God was merciful to her. God did hear her prayer and gave her a means of keeping her sons from slavery in a rather unusual way. Now, could God respond to our Christ for help from creditors in the same way today? Do we need to go gather pots and start pouring out vegetable oil? I don't know.

He could. If he wanted to, why not? Maybe God doesn't do every miracle exactly the same way, but he will help us if some of us are struggling with that right now. And it's chances are some of us are. Times are getting harder. Go to God. And through Elisha, God did an amazing variety of miracles for those who called upon him in their times of trouble and need. Let's look down. I'm just going to skim through these. I don't have time with you. I'd like to, but I just don't have the time. Verses 8 through 37, for example, describe how God bless the Shumanite woman with a son. When she was barren, he gave her a son, a huge blessing.

And then later, the son was stricken, and he died. And she called out to God. She went back to Elisha, and we read how Elisha spread himself out on the child's, the boy's body, and he came back to life. God intervened for her in her time of need. During the famine, same chapter, verses 38 through 41.

38 through 41. During the famine, these men of God were sitting down to eat this porridge, not knowing that somebody had picked a bunch of poisonous gourds and threw them in the stew. And they thought they were all going to die.

But God made a pot of poisonous stew edible. A little strange miracle, but I'm sure those people appreciated it at that time, didn't they? Verse 42 through 44. Did you remember how through Elisha, God fed 100 hungry men with 20 loaves of barley bread, and they had leftovers? That sounds strangely familiar to another story about bread and fish, maybe? Yeah. It's also foreshadowing in some ways of what Jesus Christ would later do in a much larger way. Over in chapter 5, 1 through 14, we can read about how God through Elisha healed Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army. He made his skin clean of leprosy. He healed him of this terrible skin condition, a condition that ostracized him, exiled him from society. And the one I find very interesting is in chapter 6, verse 1 through 7. God even had compassion on a man who had borrowed an axe. He borrowed an axe from somebody, but he lost the iron axe head in the water. He went plunk in the water. It wasn't even his axe. And with Elisha's help, he throws in a stick, and the iron axe head floated up on top of the water. And the man was able to retrieve it and return the axe. I find that one very interesting. Of course, that's a miracle that a lot of scholars—I've read what they've had to say, and they scoff at that. Where's Mr. Stewart? They scoff at that miracle because they think, well, that must—that sounds like a folk tale. That sounds like a fable. God would never do something like that. I scoff at the scoffers. Why not? I think that young man was very much in trouble, and he called upon God in his own way, and God in his love and compassion, even for lost things, like an axe head, iron axe head. He helped. That is very encouraging to me. These miracles of healings, raising the dead, abundant food, should remind us, of course, of the greater miracles Jesus Christ would later do. And even that strange miracle, the floating iron, seems akin to another interesting story, Matthew 1727. You can jot that down. It's only one little verse. But that's an instant when Jesus told Peter to go catch a fish. And he opened the mouth.

Why did Peter find there? A coin. Just enough to pay the temple tax for him and Jesus. Now, I suppose someone would think that's a fable too. I scoff at them. It's in Scripture. God can do anything he wants to do. We just need to call upon him. And maybe you have. You see, I've never needed God to help me fire an iron axe head floating in water or a coin in a fish's mouth.

But I know he's helped me and many times when I've lost things. I can't tell you how many contact lenses I just happen to find when I've given up and I walk away and what was that? There it is. How many times he's helped me find my keys when I thought they were lost. Any of young people lose an iPhone? Do you understand the terror of losing an iPhone? God will help you find an iPhone.

Especially nowadays, and everything about us is on that so-called smartphone. God will help us.

God will help us. And to us, when we find it, it is a miracle. And we thank God for that.

Nothing is too big or too small for God to help us with when we call upon Him in faith and truth. God will answer as He knows His best, and we should be greatly encouraged knowing this.

Now, when God doesn't respond to our call with an obvious miracle, He often responds through the instruction of His Scripture. That's another way God can respond to our prayers. He can respond to our prayers through the instruction of His Scripture in the help of His Holy Spirit. Because God has opened our minds for the power of His Spirit, and because we have heard the preaching of His Word, we can come to believe God and to trust and to submit to His loving will.

Let's go back to Romans 10, verse 14 through 17. Romans 10, 14 through 17. Here Paul makes clear that our faith in God comes from hearing, and heating. Heating means paying attention and doing what he says, heating the Word of God. Excuse me. You know, we wouldn't know to call upon God.

We wouldn't know to call upon God if it weren't for God's Scriptures, if it weren't for His instruction there. Romans 10, 14. How then shall they call on Me? There's that phrase again, when we call. How shall they call on Me in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? It's all connected, and it starts with God and His Word and His Spirit. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So just think of that. We would not know to call on God in the times of trouble had God's Holy Scripture not been preserved.

If you've studied how the Bible has been preserved and collected and maintained through the years, we recognize that itself as a miracle. Let's also look at Hebrews 4, verse 12. Hebrews 4, 12. Through His Word, God provides us with answers, with guidance, with encouragement.

That encouragement, guidance, and answers we cry out for in our need. And as we often know in our need in those inner battles to fight temptation, repent of sin, get right with God. Hebrews 4, verse 12. God's Word is very powerful and mighty. For the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, of joints and morrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. When we read Scripture, we can discover something about our hearts and minds we didn't recognize before. Something we need to change, perhaps. Along with this verse, we can jot down some, I believe, familiar scriptures to go along with this. Psalm 119, verse 105. Psalm 119, 105. Good memory, Scripture. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. His Word is very important. Let's also jot down James 1, verse 21 through 22. James 1, 21, 22. There we are told, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. What a powerful principle to live by. Our young people need to know that one and live by it. Be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

So we should think deeply and thankfully about how God answers our call by His Word of Truth. Without His Holy Scripture, the help of His Spirit, what would we truly know of God? We'd know nothing. What would we do for true light in this dark world? We'd be lost. Absolutely lost.

Absolutely lost. Let's also look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13. Paul wrote these words to commend, to thank, and appreciation the brethren for how they, the Thessalonians at that time, so wonderfully embraced the Word of God. They did what God said. They trusted God. They called upon Him. They did all that we're talking about today. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13.

Paul writes, For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

And so Paul is saying that when we heed God's Word, when we listen to it and apply it, do what it says to do, our lives will be energized. Working with God's Spirit as well will begin to change. We will begin to reflect by our behavior, by our speech, by our manner. We'll begin to reflect what we find in God's Word. We'll begin to reflect that we do, we become examples of what He says. We begin to have more of His mind, more of His Spirit, as it works in our hearts and minds.

So yes, we must expect an answer when we call upon God. We can find it in the instruction of His Scripture and with the help of His Spirit. How else? The third way. How else might God answer us when we call upon Him? I think we know. God often responds to our call through the help of other people. He responds to our call through the help of other people. We might all have heard stories about receiving the kindness of strangers. Growing up, we called them Good Samaritans. I didn't know what a Good Samaritan was from Scripture. It's just what we called people that would help you.

Out of the blue, sort of thing. Years ago, I was still commuting back and forth to graduate school. It was about a three-hour drive one way to Waco, Texas from here. Coming back one evening, this is before I had a cell phone. This was way back in ancient times.

My car died. I pulled into the gas station, and it died. It just died. I was 80 miles from home. It was about sunset, and I'm not making this up. A thunderstorm was rolling in. It was in October when the cold front finally comes through and the dry goes away and the cold wet comes in. Right at that time, it was coming in. My battery needed a boost. I didn't even own a pair of jumper cables. When I stopped moaning about it and groaning, oh, what am I going to do? I remember making a quick prayer saying, God help me, please.

Almost like that, this very kind lady walks up. You got car trouble? I said, yeah, I can't get my car started. She's nodding. She walks away, comes back, and this great big pickup. I think what was mine a little, it was a little Ford, was an Escort, I think. I forget what it was. I never bought one again. No offense to any Ford owners out there.

But she saw my plight. She noticed her pickup up to the car and snapped on the jumper cables, which is good because I'm always worried I'll put it in the wrong place and blow up something. And voila, I was up and running. I was so elated. I was so glad. And the rain was just starting. I was really, really grateful. And of course, I offered to pay her. Let me give you something.

No, no, no. I never learned her name, never knew anything about her. But she was a good Samaritan to me. And I was very grateful. And I thanked God for her. You believe me. I really did. Now, we can all appreciate the help, can't we? We all appreciate the help of friends and family that pitch in and help us in times of need. We all appreciate the help of our neighbors. We all appreciate the help of doctors and medical professionals. They help us with things we came and help ourselves with. Police officers, mechanics, yes, thank you for mechanics, and many, many others. It's a blessing to have the help of people with the talents and tools we need in our times of trouble.

And it's also a blessing to give that help to others, isn't it? Have you ever been a good Samaritan to other people? Don't, don't, I won't look. Don't want to take away your blessing. Don't let the right hand know what the left hand does or one or the other. Yeah, it's good to be a good Samaritan. It's good to help others.

It's a good Samaritan attitude coupled with God's love and Holy Spirit, which God uses to help us help one another in His church. Paul prays his similar attitude again with the Thessalonians brethren. I think I left you in chapter 4 of 1st Thessalonians.

Let's go to chapter 5 of 1st Thessalonians 8 through 11. And Paul, you know, he acknowledged that the brethren there, like brethren everywhere, have had their troubles, and he recognized that. And yet he encouraged them. He encouraged them, despite their troubles, to keep doing good works of faith and hope and love. And so he wrote verse 8, 1st Thessalonians 5, but let us, who are of the day, reference to the light, we who walk in the light of God, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation, keep our minds set on God.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, sleep referring to the sleep of death, whether we are living or dead, that we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify each other just as you also are doing. And so yes, they shared their own batch of troubles and they rightly called upon God, yet they also needed to allow God to use them to be tools in God's hands to comfort and edify one another.

God still expects us to be doing the same today. Loving God's way keeps us near to God.

Loving God's way keeps us near to God. It shouldn't be an astounding principle, but it sounds like it, doesn't it? Verses 12-22, as we continue, Paul gives more detailed instructions about how they and we could encourage, should encourage, and support each other. And so Paul wrote, verse 12, continuing, and we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and just steam them highly in love for their work's sake. So we're to recognize those who serve in God's church. Be at peace among yourselves, he says, and now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly. Unruly here means idle, disruptive. There always seems to be, at times, somebody that wants to go out the indoor and in the outdoor. I'm not saying that, I'm just using it as an example. There's always somebody that kind of goes the opposite direction. We need to help those people. Comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. This is how we help one another. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always, see that, always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

That good Samaritan attitude. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything, everything, give thanks. I guess that would mean even in our troubles, give thanks. For this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you. And do not quench the Spirit. Don't hold back if something within you tells you to do something for someone, to step out of your comfort zone and help them. Don't quench it. Don't hold back. Just do it. Don't say no. Just do it. Do not despise prophecy. Seems to be suggesting about then that scholars suggest there may have been a lot of people with their own pet ideas about prophecy, what's to happen. He was trying to warn them, don't just immediately cut people off. Hear them out, and if it's not right, don't listen to it. And that's why he says, verse 21, it fits there. Test all things. Hear what people say, but do not hold fast to it unless it is good. Abstain from every form of evil. And so Paul's words here and else, who of course reminds us, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to be loving and helping one another. And as we read in verse 18, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you and for all of us. We must lay aside our self-centeredness and any worldliness and allow God to work through us to comfort and identify one another. Now, what do we do, though, if it ever should seem, and we begin to think that God is not answering our prayer? What do we do if we should ever begin to think that God is not answering our prayers? What if God did not answer our prayer on time as we wanted it, or as we ordered it, we ordered the prayer? Am I trying to make God like a delivery boy? That's not the way God works, is it? That's not the way God works. Now, would that mean that God's ignoring us? No, because we've already read, if we call upon God, He is near us. We read that. Has God then abandoned us?

Well, no. We know that elsewhere Christ tells us, why I'll never forsake you, I never leave you.

No, God does answer, but we must humbly and patiently trust God to respond how and when He knows His best. Think about Paul, the Apostle Paul. Paul himself called upon God many, many times.

Paul was very faithful to God. We easily see that. He's an amazing man. You know, even in Acts 19, 11 through 12, we were told that Paul was so faithful, he was so close to God, and such an effective tool in God's hands, Acts 19, 11 through 12. You can turn there if you want. I'll read it to you. We were told how God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs, even handkerchiefs and aprons were brought from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out from them. Paul was so often used by God for miracles of healing and other things. Yet, when Paul called upon God, we read about this. You can turn here to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 through 10. 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10 here.

Despite all the miracles Paul was doing for others, Paul once called upon God, not just once, more than once. Paul called upon God to remove what he called a thorn in his flesh. You're probably familiar with that. But God chose not to remove it. He didn't answer it, answer the prayer, the request. Verse 7, unless Paul says, unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Many people have tried to figure out what was this thorn in flesh. It seems most agree that it was probably some kind of physical ailment. Some suspect maybe it was eye trouble quite possibly, but we don't know. Whatever it was, Paul wanted it gone. Verse 8, concerning this thing, this thorn in the flesh, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he, God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, most gladly, Paul says, I will rather boast in my infirmities, my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities and reproaches in needs and persecution and distresses. These are troubles and sorrows, aren't they? He takes pleasure in them for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. And so God didn't respond as Paul wanted, yet God's response was for the best. Paul believed and accepted God's will, and why God allowed him to continue in his suffering and is explained by Paul's words there, the last words, for when I am weak, then I am strong. You see, our weaknesses and our sufferings help us to be contrite, and they make us turn to God. Have you ever noticed when you're feeling absolutely great and everything's kind of a butterfly and bluebird day, you may not as easily or readily go to God?

You may forget on those good days, but when you have bad days, oh, yes, we tend to come to God in those days. When we're weak, you see, when we need help, that's when we turn to God who is the ultimate source of our strength, our hope, our comfort, because on our own we're absolutely weak.

So when we turn to God and trust in God, that's when we're strong spiritually. And our challenge, then, is to trust God and accept his response, no matter what it might be, as we heard in that beautiful special music today, and that we remain faithful no matter what happens in our lives.

And we all have troubles, and it can sound like a platitude to say, oh, just be faithful no matter what happens.

When you're in grievous pain and suffering, and that dark hopelessness creeps in sometimes, it's very hard to stay close to God. You begin to doubt, but that's exactly in your weakness when you need to cry out to God. And if you cry out to God and someone hears you, don't be embarrassed by that. May the other people need to hear you cry out so they can cry out with you. That's what family does. Now, God's purpose, then, is not to remove our every suffering, but to help us develop his righteous character. And that's part of what Paul was getting to. His suffering, his weaknesses, as you trusted God, would help him to be shaped to be in this fiery furnace of troubles, to become more pure, to become more like God.

Matthew 5, verse 44 through 45, we're told that God is perfect love. Matthew 5, 44, 45.

Matthew 5, 44, 45, God is perfect love, and we're to become like him. That's the purpose of our staying close to God, of our wanting to put on his mind. We want to become more like him. God wants to walk with us, as it were, for all eternity. He wants us to be in his family.

Matthew 5, 44, Jesus says, wrote, or he didn't write this, he spoke, and somebody else recorded it, but I say to you, Jesus said, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He makes his Son rise in the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. And here's the line, verse 48, therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. So whatever we go through, whatever afflictions we have to put up with from other people, just and unjust, whatever it may be, troubles of our own making, troubles of someone else's making, we need to stay close to God. We need to let the fiery heat and pressure of our trials and our tests draw us closer to God, entrusting Him. We must hold on to Him through it all. No matter what, we need to cling to God's assurances, especially when those doubts creep in about whether or not God really hears our prayers. Let's look at Psalm 37, verse 28.

Psalm 37, verse 28, another very, very encouraging word. And sometimes in our sadness, we may look at these Psalms of words of hope and encouragement and find no encouragement there because we are hurting. I would say, please look at those scriptures again and ask God to help you find the encouragement that is there to lift up your heart as you read His words of life. Psalm 37, verse 28, David wrote, For the Lord loves justice, and He does not forsake His saints.

We are God's saints. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.

Also knows verse 39 through 40, But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble. No, it doesn't say us. Your name's not there. My name's not there.

He, the Lord, is their strength in the time of trouble, and the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust Him. They trust Him.

And so again, no matter our trials or hardships, no matter what temptations or weak human flesh, the world throws at us, we must hold fast to God and His promises for when we do, we will. There's that conviction. We will receive the reward, that reward of eternal life in the kingdom of God. And so we are told Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10, verse 35 to 39, as we enter the festival season, the fall, Holy Day season, it is very, very good to remember God's plan of salvation in the coming kingdom of God.

Hebrews 10, 35, 39, yes, we endure trials, that God allows us, allows to us, we do it by being convicted, convicted of salvation, of His promise and of His love. Hebrews 10, 35, therefore do not cast away your confidence. That's the only thing we got.

What do we say? We don't have money, we don't have our health. We got God. He is our confidence. Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, it's just a little while in the great scheme of eternity that is set before us, yet for a little while, and He is coming will come and will not tarry. You'll come and we are to meet Him in the clouds at Christ's return, in the clouds. Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in Him. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but we are of those who believe to saving of the soul.

God is our confidence, and He's given us each other to help us be strong when we are weak.

He has given us each other, and He will answer our prayers. He gives us His miracles. He gives us His scriptures and strength of His Spirit. He does it all so that we can be building His perfect, righteous character, and so be blessed to receive His gift of salvation at Christ's return.

So no matter our troubles or problems, no matter big or small, we can and we must call upon God in faith and in truth, knowing, being convicted of the fact that He does hear us and He will respond. We must not doubt it. And if you have doubts, where are you going to go? Ask God to help us with our doubts, and He will help us with that.

So the times we are living in are difficult, and we know ultimately in the long scheme of things, we know scripture, they will ultimately become worse. But God is for us. God is for us. God urges us to call upon Him in faith and in truth for helping all of our troubles. He will help us. He will, and especially becoming more like Him. He is holy, He is righteous, He is perfect in love, and He is helping us to become like that too. And so let's call upon God, stay near to Him in these dark times, and remember, when we call, God responds.