Out Of The Pressure Cooker

Transcript

Hello radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright? Bless your heart, I hope everything is just going real well at your house, and if perchance you’ve struck a rough day, look up and trust your blessed Lord and he will see you through for He hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” so trust Him, trust Him today.

We just began in Romans chapter 14, “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations or arguments.” And the last couple of times we got together, we talked about what kind of a person are we mentioning here when we say him that is weak in the faith. And you’ll recall that we said some people are weak in the matter of assurance of their salvation. They’re not really sure where they stand with God and you can be of help to them of course by referring them to God’s Word, because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And so the simple application of God’s Word to their uncertainty often time springs a good blessed assurance because, “the Spirit himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God,” and when you place your solid faith and trust in God’s inerrant, infallible Word, the Bible, the Holy Spirit of God does his work in your heart, and all of a sudden you realize that you do belong to your blessed Lord.

Some people are weak in prayer. There again you can be of help to them simply by praying with them. Prayer is an activity that… Well praying is normal, praying is normal to the child of God because the Bible says God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba Father. The desire to look heavenward and call on God is there in the human heart and it is amplified and made more normative by the presence of the Spirit of God when you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Still, many people are uncomfortable in the time of prayer. They may have prayed short, earnest prayers like God help me or Lord bless me or whatever it may be, but really to learn how to pray is something that the Holy Spirit of God needs to teach us. Paul says in Romans 8, “Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and he that knoweth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he,” that is the Spirit of God, “Maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” when you pray as we say, in the Spirit, you’re actually praying in the will of God and you’re sure of an answer.

But this whole matter is something that can be learned simply by being with somebody else who knows how to pray. I got great benefit years ago when I was pastoring in Philadelphia by praying every Saturday morning with one of my deacons John Holt Camp, now with the Lord a good many years, a precious man of God he was. Some of you old-timers in the Philadelphia area may remember him. He was a journeyman, craftsman and expert printer worked for an outfit called Young and Dutton I remember, located then on Cherry Street in downtown Philadelphia. And he approached me one day and he said, “You know, I have Saturday mornings off. I wonder if I couldn’t come and pray with you.” Well, of course he could and he did. And over a period of four or five years, we spent most of our Saturday mornings, whenever I was in town, praying together and I learned so much about just talking with the Lord as I prayed together with this brother. The same thing has been true with others. I think of Peter Deyneka, we call him Peter Dynamite and his life and testimony, reflected in the distinguished and outstanding and God glorifying service of his son, Peter Jr. But Peter Deyneka Sr. And I have spent many all nights together in prayer.

And from him I learned that you should vary the procedure in prayer, lest you grow weary and drowsy. And so after we’d been praying for a few minutes, he’d stand everybody up and sing a song and then while people were standing he would pick a portion of scripture and comment upon it, and then he’d get some extra prayer requests and we’d go back to our knees again, praying, refreshed now because of that physical break and stimulated in our hearts and minds because of the word of God and focused in our praying because of the prayer requests. And he explained to me, “You have to change… You have to change the pace of your praying so as to keep people involved.” Well, I learned that early and it has stood me in good stead as well through the years. I learned also that earnestness in prayer means a great deal. Peter Deyneka Sr. My memory of him is very clear that when he started to pray, you just knew that the angels folded their wings and listened, and God himself was very attentive when his servant was praying.

Peter also believed in being very honest with God. I recall on one occasion, Bill Stevens and Sylvia his wife, who headed up Youth for Christ in West Virginia had invited us for a series of meetings in Charleston. The meetings were well advertised and we had expected to have a tremendous time of blessing. What happened however, was that there was an unseasonable blizzard that dumped a good many inches of snow down upon that city. They weren’t at all prepared for it. And nobody came to the meetings and there were several of us visiting firemen who were simply isolated in the local hotel. There wasn’t a thing we could do and there we were, and the meetings of course, not a great deal happened because nobody could come to them. Well, Peter Deyneka was one of those who had been invited along with me. And so, the inevitable happened I said, “Fellows, we heard of a prayer meeting.” and so we got down and we were praying and I remember that our brother Deyneka prayed something like this, he said, “Lord, why you do this to me? I took these days off and I’m here to preach and there’s nobody to preach to. You send this weather, why you do this? You know my needs.”

And he began to pray about the needs that he had in his mission, where scores and hundreds of people were depending upon him for support all across the world in the Slavic Gospel Mission. [chuckle] So he says, “Lord, why you do this?” [chuckle] he was honest. I learned from that good brother that you tell God the truth about how you feel and God meets you in a very special way. Well I share some of those things with you simply to tell you that we can learn from other people and you my dear friend, if you’ve been on the way with the Lord for a little while can be of great encouragement to other people if you just involve them in talking to the Lord. You don’t have to make a big federal case of it, you’re talking with someone and there’s a real problem to be faced, why don’t you just put your arm around the person’s shoulders and say, “Let’s pray about this, shall we?” and without waiting for an answer you bow and say, “Now Lord, here’s our need.” and you talk to the Lord about it in a natural and earnest and heartfelt manner, I can promise you that your friend standing beside you and listening to your prayer is going to be deeply moved, because the Spirit of God will be stirring in his or her heart as well.

You can help strengthen the person who is weak in his prayer life, simply by praying with him or her specifically, earnestly, honestly and in faith. Some people are weak in their approach to temptation. All of us have what the Bible calls besetting sins, every human being you will ever meet has one weak spot in his or her life where Satan particularly, could if allowed to, could gain an advantage. And so it is that many a person, especially young believers who are just starting out in the Christian life have difficulty confronting temptation successfully and down they go. The tendency, of course, then is to give up and say, “Oh I can’t do it.” You can be of great help to people like that, simply by showing them that you don’t have to give up to temptation that you can yield to the blessed Lord instead. I often tell our people here at the college, friends I tell them, surrender is built into your bones, you’re going to give up to something or somebody inevitably. What happens is that when you’re tempted, you try on your own, the little mental moral monitor back in your mind some place says, “Shall I, shall I not?” And finally you give up to that temptation and down you go.

Paul the Apostle says in Romans 6, “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as ye have yielded your members,” that’s the members of your body, “as ye have yielded the members of your body slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity and the result was more iniquity, even so now… ” same method, same circumstances, “yield… ” same activity, “your members servants or slaves to righteousness unto holiness.” You see the process of giving up is the same but the focus or the direction or the person involved is different. Surrender is built into your bones, you will I promise you give up to something, whether it be your own self-will or temptation from without your life, or whatever it may be, you’ll give up. The only question is, to whom will you give up? Now, in that moment when you are being tempted, and the little mental moral monitor somewhere inside your brain is saying, “Shall I, shall I not?” at that moment you’ll give up to Jesus, you say, “Lord Jesus, I give up to you, I surrender to you, I trust you now to see me through this moment of stress and temptation.”

And when you surrender to him, you see he fights the battle for you. The battle is won, Christ is the victor and you find that the situation is defused as we say, and all the pressure goes out of the pressure cooker, and you are relaxed because you’re trusting the victor, the lord Jesus Christ. He said, “You used to give up to temptation now give up to Jesus.” It is that simple. I have to tell you that anything I tell you I’ve been there myself and I have been in situations where I felt the pressure of temptation, simply just seeping out of my soul. It was as though somebody opened a drain valve somewhere in my soul and all of the pressure was going and I could feel that tremendous sense of peace and well-being, and knowing that Christ was in control. Hey, that’s great. Learn it, dear friend, will you? Learn it for yourself, instead of giving up to temptation give up to Jesus.

Dear Father we pray Thy blessing now upon each one, help us to give up dear Lord to thee. In Jesus name, Amen.

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