Series: “Summer Stories” Sermon: “Undying Faith”

Series: “Summer Stories” Sermon: “Undying Faith”

A  lady came out on her porch every morning in a very poor part of town, and would say, “Praise the Lord for You provided for me today.” She just believed God would provide. Her neighbor who was getting sick and tired of hearing her praising the Lord every morning shouted, “Hey, be quiet, you fanatic!”
She looked over at him and exclaimed, “Praise the Lord! You are just going to provide for me today.”
“Well, He ain’t providing for you is He?”
“Praise the Lord for You provided for me today.”
This neighbor got angrier and angrier. Remember, not everyone likes people with faith.
The neighbor got an idea. This lady came out one morning, “Praise the Lord for providing for me!” She looked down and there was a bag of groceries. “Praise the Lord. You provided my groceries today.”
Just then, the neighbor jumped out from the bushes, “Ha, I bought those groceries. God didn’t provide them for you! Ha, ha, I did!”
She looked at her neighbor and praised, “Lord, thank You for providing me these groceries and You even had the devil pay for and deliver them!”

George Mueller was known for his powerful prayer. In the course of his ministry to the orphans of England, he never asked for financial assistance from men – only God… and he constantly received what was needed to the penny.
Once while on his way to speak in Quebec for an engagement. On the deck of the ship that was to carry him to his destination, he informed the captain that he needed to be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon. As the captain related the story, he said “’It is impossible,’ I said. ’Do you know how dense this fog is?’” “’No,’ he replied, ’my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of life. I have never broken an engagement in 57 years; let us go down into the chart room and pray.’ He knelt down and he prayed one of the most simple prayers. When he had finished I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. ’As you do not believe He will answer, and as I believe He has, there is no need for you whatever for you to pray about it.’ “I looked at him and George Mueller said, ’Captain, I have known my Lord for 57 yrs. and there has never been a single day when I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door and you will find that the fog has gone.’

QUOTES:

If we don’t pray, we serve no purpose in God’s framework of eternity. Charles Stanley

God has no greater controversy with His people today than this, that with boundless promises to believing prayer, there are so few who actually give themselves unto intercession   A.T. Pierson

Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His name and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is. 

       Charles Spurgeon

What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more.        R M McCheyne

The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.    Andrew Murray

Luke 18:1-8 TPT

“One day Jesus taught the apostles to keep praying and never stop or lose hope. He shared with them this illustration: “In a certain town there was a judge, a thick-skinned and godless man who had no fearof others’ opinions.

And in the same town there was a poor widow who kept pleading with the judge, ‘Grant me justice and protect me from my oppressor!’ “He ignored her pleas for quite some time, but she kept asking. Eventually he said to himself, 

‘This widow keeps annoying me, demanding her rights, and I’m tired of listening to her. Even though I’m not a religious man, and I don’t care about the opinions of others, I’ll get her off my back by answering her claims for justice and I’ll rule in her favor. Then she’ll leave me alone.

Jesus continued, “Did you hear what the godless judge said—that he would answer her persistent request? Don’t you know that God, the true judge, will grant justice to all his chosen ones who cry out to him night and day? 

He will pour out his Spirit upon them. He will not delay to answer you and give you what you ask for. God will give swift justice to those who don’t give up. So be ever praying, ever expecting, in the same way as the widow. 

Even so, when the Son of Man comes back, will he find this kind of undying faith on earth?””

ara:— an interrogative particle [“implying anxiety or impatience on the part of the questioner.”]

The lesson is not: We have to wear God out to get results.

The lesson is: When you need justice don’t lose hope. Engage God! He will without delay give you swift justice!

Pray:— 4336 proseúxomai (from 4314 /prós, “towards, exchange” and 2172/euxomai, “to wish, pray”) – properly, to exchange wishes. literally, to interact with the Lord by switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes as He imparts faith (“divine persuasion”).

Luke 2:37-38   “…and this woman (Anna) was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.  And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption…”

Daniel 9:2-3 (NIV)  “… in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition …”

Isaiah 48:6-7 (AMP) “…I show you specified new things from this time forth, even hidden things [kept in reserve] which you have not known. They are created now [called into being by the prophetic word],…”

Acts 2:18-19  “Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show …”

Isaiah 56:7 “For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

Matthew 21:13 “And He said to them, It is written, ‘My house shall be called a 

house of prayer,’”

“Prayer is essentially a partnership of the redeemed child with God. Working hand in hand with God towards the realization of His redemptive purposes in the earth.”         Jack Hayford

Undying Faith is Constant Prayer

Constant Prayer is Undying Faith

Will this Faith be found in me?