Constant Prayer

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright? I trust so, bless your heart. You know, days are different. Sometimes, you strike a good one, and sometimes, you strike one that isn’t so good. And I just have to tell you, if you have run upon a day that is not so good, things aren’t going the way you wish they would, maybe you’ve got a heavy heart, maybe your tears are falling, maybe there’s that dull ache in your heart, that means you’re going through some rough experiences, I can tell you that, if you’ll look up, and trust the Lord Jesus, He makes a difference. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee,” the Bible says. God picks up you and the burden, and carries you. You do that, just now. ‘Cause I’m talking to somebody that’s really down. You just turn to the Lord Jesus, look up, and turn to Him, and roll the whole business over on Him, and let Him run it. He will. And if there’s somebody that’s real happy, and glad, and just bubbling over with joy, share that with your Lord too. What would you think, if your children and grandchildren only spoke to you when they were crying, and had something wrong? You wouldn’t like that, would you?

You like to share their moments of merriment and joy. So, if you’re happy today, and many of you are, I know, share that with your Lord, thank Him for the joy you feel, rejoice in His presence. God actually enjoys you and sings about you, did you know that? One of the ancient prophets, I think it’s Zephaniah, says, “The Lord will… God, in the midst of thee, is mighty. He will save. He will joy over thee with singing.” [chuckle] Can you imagine God singing about you? Well, it’s what it says. God enjoys you, just like you enjoy your children and grandchildren. So, if you’re happy, share that with Him too. Learn to enjoy the presence of God. Learn to enjoy the presence of God. Many people are scared stiff of God. You start talking about the Lord and they clam up immediately. Learn to enjoy the things of God. Let Him set you free, in your inner spirit, to enjoy Him. Well, I’ll throw that in free. That wasn’t part of the plan, but it just came. You and I are looking at the Gospel of John, in kind of a summary fashion, because John said, when he wrote this Gospel, “These are written that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing, ye might have life through His name.”

He had a two-fold aim, one, to convince people that the Lord Jesus is who He says He is, the Son of God. And two, to turn them then, to commitment to Him, as Lord and Savior, so they’d have eternal life. Well, we got as far as a portion of John Chapter Four, “Christ is the answer to sin and sinners.” Chapter Three was, “The answer to doubts and doubters.” Chapter Two is, “The answer to the emptiness, when the wine of life runs out.” And Chapter One, “He’s the answer to the sin problem.” Well, Chapter Four, our Lord Jesus, it said, “Must needs go through Samaria.” We dwelt on that concept a little bit the last time we got together. He didn’t have to do that. He could have taken the traditional route from north to south, which would have taken Him around Samaria. That’s what most people of the Jewish faith did in those days, ’cause they didn’t… Well, the Bible says, “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” They just wanted nothing to do with them. But it said, “He had to go through.” Why? Because there was one person, whom He had to meet, and that person was the key to a whole town. Small thought here, never forget the fact, that you may very well be the key to a large group of people. You and everyone who knows our Lord has what we call “a public.”

You have people who believe in you, people who pay attention to you, people who are related in some way to your life and your conduct. And you may very well be the key to a whole large group of people, by your commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what happened to this lady, when our Lord Jesus revealed Himself to her as Messiah. She said, “I know that Messiah cometh, who is called Christ, when He has come, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said, “I that speak unto thee am He.” Well, it says, “The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men,” interesting word there, “to the men.” “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?” You know, there’s a little humor in the Bible. What she was saying, in effect was, “There’s a man outside of town there, that just told on you.” Well, that got actioned. It says in Verse 30 of Chapter Four, “Then they went out of the city and came unto Him.” [chuckle] Here they came, tumbling out. Well, there was a little conversational by play, at that point, between the Lord Jesus and the disciples. In the meantime, the disciples urged Him, said, “Master, eat.” He said, “I have meat to eat that you know not of.” And so they got upset.

They said, “Ah, here we were walking our feet to the bone, trying to find a store that was open during siesta time. We finally got something, and now, He says He’s eaten already. Ah, why, isn’t that great.” “Well,” He said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me and finish His work.” Said, “Fellas, while you were in town, did you tell anybody about me?” No, they didn’t. “Did you tell anyone that the Messiah is here? The one who can forgive sins?” No, they didn’t. He said, “You talk about harvest. You say there are four months, and then cometh harvest.” He said, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields.” And what He meant was, that the people who came tumbling out of town, falling over each other, in their eagerness to reach this man, who had told on them. He said, “The fields are white, all ready to harvest.” He said, “I sent you to reap, you didn’t do any reaping.” That’s the issue. Well, it comes down then, to you and to me, that Christ’s plan for us, is to reap the harvest that’s ready. Now, not everybody is ready to receive Christ. Have you found that out? If you share Christ with someone, share your faith with someone, and they’d say “No, no. Not for me, not yet, not today.” Don’t consider that a personal rebuff.

You just put it down that they aren’t ready yet. You keep on praying, and keep on sharing, and keep on showing Christian love, and God will take care of the rest. In every situation, there are some people who are ready, like a harvest that’s ripe, they are ready for you to introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you need to be in a constant attitude of prayer, that God may put you in touch with the person that He wants you to speak with. And sometimes, the situation is one, where the door doesn’t open at all, and you accept that as well, as part of the provision of your Heavenly Father. I told you the last time we got together about my good friend Ben Weiss, who is now with the Lord, and how he prayed that God would guide him to eat in a place, where he could talk with somebody about Jesus, and God did. That same man, however, left one of our Youth for Christ conferences, in order to go on out to some other engagements he had, which involved considerable air travel, a long trip by air. And so he told me later on, he got on the airplane, and he was praying, “Now, Lord, you just put me wherever you want, whatever you want.”

And so he was seated beside a gentleman, and he tried to open up a conversation. The man didn’t have anything to say, didn’t respond. And after a while, it came to Ben, that this man was not going to want to talk to anybody. And then, all of a sudden, just as though the Lord spoke to him, He said, “Why don’t you lean back and take a nap? You’re exhausted.” And he told me with a chuckle, he said, “You know, God wanted me to have a nap, rather than to preach to somebody.” [laughter] And so he said, “I had a refreshing sleep and felt much better by the time I got off the plane.” See, God is interested in all the facets of your life, and He also knows who is ready, and who isn’t. “I sent you to reap.” Could you adopt, today, as a way of life, a constantly prayerful attitude, that asks God to lead you to people who are ready for Jesus? What a thrill that is, to know that God has guided you. And as Abraham’s servant said, “I, being in the way, the Lord led me.”

Paul says, concerning the Christians, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” The prophet says, “The Lord shall guide thee continually and thou shalt be like a watered garden, whose waters failed not.” Oh, to be led by God, in doing the thing that He has on His mind, namely, to introduce folk to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can use non-religious things, as a means of gaining attention, and establishing rapport. That concept, first was given to me by my father, when I was still, I think, a sophomore in high school. In those days, some of the companies offered premiums, if you collected a million bottle caps, or something like that, and sent in $2, you could get a premium. One of them was a little metal brownie box camera. It was called a “Hawkeye Film Pack Camera.” I remember that so clearly, and it involved $2, and I don’t know how many coupons, or bottle caps, or whatever it was. Well, I had collected the coupons, but I didn’t have the two bucks. And my father, of course, at that time, was making a salary of, I think, about $31 a week.

He was in charge of the blueprint room at the Toledo Machine and Tool Company, over on Dorr Street in Toledo. And now, his boy is working on him for $2. [chuckle] Well, I gave him an impassioned sales pitch about this camera, and how wonderful it would be, and so on, it would help me in my school work, and this, and that. When I finished, he looked at me and smiled. He said, “Well, that sounds like a good idea, boy.” He said, “Have you figured out how to win souls with it yet?” [chuckle] Win souls? That was a new concept for me. I was gonna take a picture of the blonde down the block. [chuckle] But that always stuck in my memory, “Have you figured out how to win souls with it?” You can use non-religious things to gain entrance into people’s attention and to establish rapport with them. When I go into a garage, a dealership, my limited familiarity with tools and automobiles, because I was a garage man back in the old days, the story of my life is from grease pit to pulpit, I guess.

When I go into a dealership or a garage, I use that limited familiarity with things mechanical to establish rapport with whoever I may be talking with. And sometimes, sometimes the Lord opens the door to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like that. I like motorcycles, and I like cameras, and I like shotguns, and whatnot. And I use things, oftentimes, to gain attention, you can do the same thing. But remember, that God’s overriding interest is to get people saved. Ask Jesus to lead you in that direction today, will you? He will, if you ask Him and trust Him.

Dear Father, today, may we be guided to people who are ready to receive Jesus. I ask in His name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!