Paul’s Prayer for a Saint in a Struggling World

Message Transcription

Good morning. One more time. Good morning. I am so thankful to be here and given this opportunity by Brother Carl and to the Broadway family, which God has missed us together as one and has made us the Body of Christ. And I am so thankful for this opportunity. How thankful I am. I want to recognize and respect to the leadership of this congregation and then also to our congregation. Thank you all so much. My love for God goes deep as yours does. There's no difference between us. Because of God's love and his kindness. One of the things that I'm most excited about, about delivering this message is, is that there's an opportunity for all of us to expound on God's love and his kindness toward us. There are some things that Paul talked about that I will reiterate as I speak. One of the things that I am most gracious for is God's power to keep me and you in the time of our struggle. This world is full of anxiety, stresses and strains. Life is pulling us here and pulling us there. And Paul recognizes the struggle because of the defense of the gospel. And that is the way it is all over this world.

In defense of the gospel, some has been restrained. The Bible says in the Book of Hebrews. Some had been sewn asunder. Some had been placed in death care. Some has been pushed away. Been criticized for standing. But Paul reiterates how important it is in many scriptures to not let anything or any person stop you from knowing the love of Christ. So much so in the book of Romans, he said these words Who shall separate you from the love of Christ shall nakedness, apparel things and unseen. world things that are seen. Things that are.

Very accumulative when it comes to a person's life. And then he comes to the conclusion, he said, I'll let nothing separate me from the love of Christ. Now, my question is, is there anything worth losing your love?

That you have for Christ? It is not brother cause responsibility. It's not Brother Gary's responsibility as song leader, worship leader and administrator and calls ministry of leading this congregation. It is not their responsibility.

Jude puts it firmly on the believer. He says. Keeping yourself in love with God. It is your responsibility.

Paul In Ephesians three. He talks about God in three ways. He talks about him as being omniscient, knowing all things. From the beginning to the end, before and beyond time. God is externally. Alive in everything. Everything was created by him. Everything was created for him. And not anything that exists, exists without the knowledge of God.

So we see him the way Paul sees him.

Paul also sees him as opposition, all powerful, the power of God to do and to accomplish anything that pleases him. One of the things that I wanted to use this morning and and I don't think the enemy wanted me to say this. So I talked to Gary. I had all my stuff on my laptop ready to send over to him, and I lost every bit of the things that I had put on paper. But it's one thing I didn't forget I put on there is that snow needs no permission from us to fall on the things we have on us who exist nor the ground that it covers. That's how God operates. Life is such to wear that you have so many things that you have to face. But the involuntary response of breathing causes no effort on your part to do other than just exist. And that's the way God's love is. And the Book of Luke. It talks about God raining on the just as well as the unjust. All of it is a part of God's plan. There is nothing that happens to you in life, Paul says that God is not aware of, and then he talks about him as being omnipresent, which means that he has the ability to do things everywhere all at once.

It means that there is no place we can go in this life and God not be there. There are some things that that we we we go through that we feel so alone in, but we are not alone. Paul says, Because you see me in chains, this is how he opens up his statement in his letter. And I'm thankful that Brother Carl gave me this assignment. He talks about the epistles, and this was my assignment to let you know that Paul describes his arrest, and he describes this arrest as being one who was called to an outsider and his efforts in trying to bring a Gentile to God that he was arrested for doing a good deed. Now, if you were to be judged in the world, what to judge you according to the things that you say you love God on? Would you be found guilty doing the things that you talk about and that you say you live about? Or would they just have no evidence that you're speaking the truth at all?

Paul says, I'm glad that they arrested me. Now I can write letters to everybody. He didn't have the he didn't have the ability to get on Snapchat and and develop a, you know, a way to communicate with the world. But the best way to communicate with the world at that time was to sit down and put pen to paper. And boy, was he good at it, writing over two thirds of the New Testament that describe a love of God, that he was not a common person, that God would even consider. And for you people that think that that when I say you people, I'm talking about for the people that are outside the body that think that you can't be used by God. I want to tell you, God is looking for you because you have something unique to offer. A couple of things that I want to talk about and then I'll come to to the to the prayer. You need to understand that every person that comes to this planet comes with a gift. Every person that that that comes to this Earth, God gives Earth a gift and is called you. And then when he gives you this gift, he then gives you experiences. To develop you. The experiences that we go through, what scripture says that man that is born of a woman is full of trouble.

I mean, they are full of trouble. And Paul said it like this in military term, he says, I reckon, which means it's an accounting term that says that. I reckon that at this present time, the suffering that I go through cannot be compared. There is a no equating of the things that I've suffered that could compare to the glory that shall be revealed in us. He didn't say me. He said us. So he invites you into the suffering of Christ in order that you might know that your experiences develop you. It breaks you of your. Your. Your dependency upon this world. Trouble presses you in a way that only God can get you out of. And when He does this, he wants you to know that he firmly puts you in front of everything else. Your agenda changes. Everything happens. When you learn from your experiences. Then he gives you passion. Passion to live this life to the best of your ability. And when you have passion, you got everything. But if you have no passion to do a certain thing, you won't give it your all. And you'll say, Well, I'm just doing the best I can, but God is not an average God. God is a God above average. He does extraordinary things and he expects that out of us as well.

So he gives us passion. And after he gives us our our gift, a gift is only activated by our personality. That's what's so unique about it is you can't be me and I can't be you. Each one of us in have a different eye. Retina scan. There's no two fingerprints. You might have an identical twin, but I guarantee you that twin's fingerprint is not the same as yours. That I read is not the same because God has fearfully and wonderfully made you together. It doesn't mean that he's afraid of what he made. It means that he respectfully loved you. And he wants you to love yourself. And he wants you to love others in order for you to express the gift that he's gave you. And it's called light. I tell my children all the time, and I raised them with this start in mind. And I spoke to them from birth all the way up until the age that they are now. And I tell them that there's no person on this earth greater than you, but God, there's no person on this earth greater than you but God. Come on, say it with me. There's no person on this earth. Come on, say it like you mean it. There is no person on this earth greater than me. But God. So you don't have to fear any man. You don't have to fear anything because God is able to sustain you.

The next thing is, is that when God's giving you this gift and it's directed by your personality, it opens up a world for you and it makes you unique. And you get paid according to your uniqueness. You solve the problems that God planted you here on this earth to do a doctor get paid by the knowledge He knows how to direct the body to be healed. Isn't that a good thing? But not everybody can be a doctor. But those who have been gifted and talented to be, it will be. So find out what your passion is. Know that God can help you. And then lastly, when God places you, he places you uniquely in geographical locations. And little old Lubbock, Texas. God brought you from big cities. God brought you from small cities and towns, and he put us all here together for one purpose today, and that is to bring glory to his name. So Paul reads and he says these words. He says that that it is very sure that I was arrested because I was an outsider and I was outside of even the the boys who were common to God are used to Christ or even walk with him. I was considered to be less than they were, but God's knowledge that came to me by revelation caused me to understand the mystery, the mystery of the gospel that was hitting even from the ancient forefathers of old, as in verse four and five and six.

And then he talks about how that they were kept from the knowledge that he now has in order that for in this generation, we will understand that our suffering cannot be compared to the glory that God is about to reveal to us. And He talks about it in verse seven and eight. He talks about the life of work that helps people to understand the response of the message that he's writing about. And he tells them that they are sure gifted from God. He tells them that they have a surprise waiting on them, that when God touches their life, he gets involved with them and everything that they're concerned about, God is concerned about. And He says that even though you're qualified now, he said, depend on God because it is He who equips you that you might know how inexhaustible He is in resources. If I was going to give you something and it was according to my bank account, you wouldn't get very much because I can only write a check for is what I have available to me. But I promise you, if you write a spiritual check to God, it will not bounce. If you ask God to help you, you will get an answer because he said that if you ask, seek and not he said I'll answer all three areas.

If you ask me in prayer, I'll answer you. Sometimes we might not like what he says, because some things are time conditioned. And then it's also turn. Sometimes God gives us terms on how to. How to live this life, how to do this life, how to be about this life. Sometimes he has conditions with it and he says, Sometimes if I give you this, then you must obey me and this. And sometimes he says, I'm going to trust you. And he says, what you do with this little is going to determine how much more I give you. So Paul, he writes and he talks to them very poignantly about how important it was for them to know their natural ability and then to trust God for the supernatural ability to live this life. There is nothing on this earth that God cannot get involved with. And so the last things that I want to talk about is just the prayer itself. How being in secret, how God rewards openly, how God takes the things that are scientific, and he brings them into the spirit realm. And then he scolds us with the fact that you don't need a degree. Now it's good to have one, but it's not necessary when God is involved because He knows all things. There is nothing that you can ask him, Paul says in response.

First 14 through 19, he says, in response to me Getting on my knees for you. He said, I have prayed to the father that his magnification of his love be expanded throughout all the Earth. And I ask him to strengthen you by his spirit, not by what he gives you, he said, but by his spirit, because it's not the outer man that he's concerned about. When you're in trouble, when you're struggling, that means that there is pressure on you that you cannot handle in the natural. So you need an internal God that has to do everything with your spirit being so that He can lift you up out of it through your spirit. And then as he lifts you up out of it through his spirit, it says that that he might not brutally lead. You and I had a little thing in my head I was going to talk about Brutus and Papa. When Pop comes on the scene and Brutus beats him down. That's the way life is. Life is just beating you down. I mean, just beating you're down, beating you down, beating you down. And he finally beats you so low that you reach on the inside and you pull out something that you're now going to put on the inside rather than it be externally. It's called spinach. Your spiritual appetite is wet because now you need help.

And so what happens when he opens the can of spinach? He does not pour it on the ground. He pours it on the inside. And when it gets hot from the inside, the arm, that was little, now becomes big. The pipe is still in his mouth. I still cock. But it's something different about him. Same size, same look. But power within. And Brutus comes over and he knocks him up in the sky so high. And he walks away with his damsel. Olive oil. That's what you're going to do. Sometimes you have to be a David. And though you may not be qualified, but you may have to rely on your experience with the lion and the bear. You may not be able to fight in my armor. You may not be a great intercessor like I might be. But it's one thing you got to do is you got to face your giants and you got to say what God says through you. Goliath said, Little boy, I'm gonna feed you to the birds this day. And he laughs at Israel. He said, You send me a boy, but I need a man, a champion. But what he didn't know was David was more than a conqueror. And the Bible says that he picked up five smooth stones. And he runs at Goliath. He said, You come to me with swords and spears, but I come to you in the name of the Lord.

Now, my question is, where did the rocks come from? And was they there all the time? I believe that so happened that when David made up his mind to charge Goliath and make him eat the words that he said, God gave him what he needed in order to defeat his giant. And I'm saying to you, like Paul says, whatever you can think, whatever you can imagine, whatever you can do, God is going to do more. He does exceedingly and abundantly above is my prayer for your life. And David picks up one stone, and as he picks up one, the other four goes in the bag just in case he missed. And he throws a rock. And it hits him right in the head and he falls to the ground. And David does not leave it at that point. David goes and gets his sword and he cuts off his head. And he says this in closing, if you want to get ahead in life. You got to pick up your sword people and you got to live what God said you could do. I pray that Paul's prayer will motivate you. It will motivate you to get up and to follow your dreams. Get up and do what God has called you to do. You can do everything that God has called you to do. Paul's prayer for a Christian in a Troubled World.