July 25, 2021 Sunday AM | The Demand

i have been blessed i have been blessed are so good to me precious are his thoughts of you and me no way i can count them there's not enough time so i'll just thank him for being so kind god has been good so [Music] [Music] the greatest on earth where the flag stands for freedom [Music] but some gave it all so we [Music] [Music] when i'm overwhelmed the place where he hides me under his wings he's not just a song he's the reason i see i have been blessed i have been blessed god's so good to me precious are his thoughts of you and me i can count them there's not enough time oh i'll just thank him for being so kind god i have been blessed what has been good i have a bandwidth he was led to golgotha on the outskirts of town there nailed to a rugged cross as his mockers gathered round the sky spoke like thunder when he finally bowed his head he who had given life now hung their dead then his mom and some friends came to carry him away they were trying to speak through a broken heart that only tears could say the sun said cast no shadow on the world's darkest day and with one last look they laid him in the grave to him today and my cares all fell away he made me feel like life had [Music] of just trials can be turned into triumph through the victory that he's already won and i talked to him today and the comfort that he gave filled me with desire to tell the world that on calvary he died but right now he is alive i know because i talked to him today mary magdalene came breathless to the place where peter lay he was searching through his broken heart trying to find the faith to pray but as he heard her joyful story his sorrow could not stay and his home sprang up through the words he cares heard fell away he made me feel like life had just begun he said all of my trials can be turned into triumph through the victory that he's already [Music] oh [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] 177 page one seven seven let's sing together this morning great is thy [Music] faithfulness oh god my father there is [Music] prayed is thy faithfulness morning by morning [Music] and is and spring time and harvest summer and stars in their courses [Music] mercy and love great is thy faithfulness created by faithfulness morning by morning new mercies [Music] lord unto me [Music] blessings almighty ten thousand faithfulness morning morning [Music] is man please remain standing well isn't it a blessing we can start off sunday speaking about the lord's faithfulness to us and isn't it wonderful to think that no matter how this week went he is faithful to us so what a wonderful way to start sunday morning let's go to the lord in prayer father we thank you so much that you are a great and wonderful and faithful god to us thank you lord that your mercies are renewed every morning thank you lord that you're patient with us you're kind with us lord we thank you father for your goodness towards us this morning we've come to worship you we've come to understand you to know you more to draw closer to you we pray that today's services that you'd allow us to get to know you better father lord i pray that we'd leave closer you closer to you today than when we came in please or it's in jesus name we pray amen thanks brother let's go ahead and take our song books once more this morning turn to page number 542 page 542 tis so sweet to trust in jesus [Music] tastes so sweet to trust in jesus christ to rest upon his promise just to know the sin the lord jesus jesus jesus jesus christ oh how sweet to trust in jesus just to trust his cleansing blood just in simple faith jesus jesus [Music] trust in jesus just from sin itself to cease just from jesus simply taking life and rest and joy [Music] jesus jesus precious [Music] i'm so glad i learned to trust the precious jesus save your friend and i know that thou art with me will be with me to the end jesus [Music] jesus jesus precious jesus around the globe is paul jones to the uttermost come join him as he takes nation by nation back for god pbs 2021 will include gays great competition biblical preaching crafts and a strong effort on the gospel ages 7-12 register today august 2nd to the 6th at 5 30 p.m hey man this saturday is our lake murray prayer at 5 30 a.m we're gonna get all the men together at lake murray we have a special spot if you'd like to join us we'd love for you to join us my phone number is right there on the screen shoot me a text and i can send you the exact location in which we go this is a wonderful opportunity for those who may not be able to get up the mountain when we do our mountain prayer it's just a few feet that we walk and we have a wonderful little spot that's just very quiet and it's just a wonderful time to call out to the lord in prayer and so again 5 30 a.m lake murray this saturday thanks man hey teenagers uh we hope you guys are excited team camp is just around the corner uh just a little bit of information for you guys team camp is july 29 to 31st on the 29th thursday morning we need all of you here at 6 30 a.m so we can load up the bus we're going to be leaving at 7 00 am sharp and on saturday parents you can expect the teenagers to be here on property at about 4 p.m again please continue to pray for us we still have some spots available so if you have some questions if you would like to know more about camp or sign up your teenager you can go ahead we'll be in the welcome center after church and please please continue to pray for us and pray that god does something special this year thank you hi brother mike knox here with lighthouse baptist church and reformers unanimous that meets every friday night at seven o'clock the bible says in john 8 32 and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free there are some myths about the ru ministry some think that it's a 12-step program or an addictions program some think that it's not for church folks and some people think that it's not for all ages those things just simply are not true what reformers unanimous is is a one step to freedom discipleship program that helps people get victory on strongholds now some people in the church might be thinking well i've never had substance abuse problems well what about those that maybe struggle with maybe anger or anxiety or a food disorder it could be anything well what we do is we go through the word of god and we see what the scripture has for us with use of the holy spirit to help us to get victory on those kind of strongholds we also deal with all ages there's kids curriculum there's teenage curriculum and it's for adults you can be somebody that's newly saved or somebody that's working on your life as being a sanctified member of the church here coming up on july 30th at six o'clock we're gonna have an open house to discuss the ru ministry we're gonna get together at six o'clock and we're gonna have some food and then at 6 30 we're going to go ahead and start our service now some of you might be thinking well you know what i've been in those kind of programs before i've seen those kind of discipleships before and it really worked well with me and that might be true well maybe you're the kind of person that god wants to use to help others coming behind also god didn't just give some of us victory over strongholds because he wanted to just see our lives get better he gave us victory over strongholds so that maybe we can help others also so i encourage you to again come out and see us any friday night at seven o'clock and again our open house will be july 30th at six o'clock thank you all right i was just making sure in another video right it had to be a really long one praise the lord i'm i'm glad that uh we're excited about what's going to happen in ru then the open house you can have july 30th but good morning church um i'm fernando this is my wife laura we've been working in the teen ministry for like 20 years i had no gray hair when i started and now you can see what the team ministry does to you amen but what a blessing uh we're thankful what a privilege we've had to be able to work with our teens for all of these years and and with that said i also want to thank uh you know a week ago uh not this saturday the saturday before that we had our teen activity and praise the lord thank you for your parents who brought those teens and the teens that came it was a blessing we had a blast thank you so much for doing that and we we're here to as they already announced uh we're having a team camp amen and we're combining both churches uh uh both ministries to be able to i just bond and have a great time and and everything and it's gonna be july 29th to july 31st the cost is 160 and today is the day you must pay hey man there's only two things that it's going to stop you from getting on that bus if you're planning on going you didn't pay or you didn't turn in turn in your permission slip saying uh you gave us all your you know liability and all of that stuff and we'll have those in the back as soon as we're done with service we'll be in the welcome center back there and please as brother brian already mentioned pray for us amen we're excited uh we're looking forward to what god's gonna do uh we have right now about a total of about 44 45 people going so that's a blessing we're excited about that and i hope our teams are excited to go to camp so we leave on july 29 at 6 55 a.m and i know we're hispanics running this but my goal is to leave at 6 55 a.m amen that's my goal we shouldn't have a problem with you guys but with with us uh it's gonna be a challenge with some of our parents so i ask you to please pray for us for that uh we wanna we gotta leave on time because we gotta be there by 11 in camp so to have lunch ready for us and all of this stuff so thank you church please pray for us um and and and for and on august 13 our our teen class returns on friday nights so we return to that so we we ask you to join us hey man so there's things to do hey man we had an activity a week ago we have camp this week and then we back to classes on august 13. so the things going on in the teen activity team ministry so we ask you to pray for us and let's continue to do this together and we'll be my wife and i will be in the back at the welcome center thank you honey uh at the welcome center after service so any parents who already signed up you need to pay today pick up your packets for all the stuff you need okay thank you bye well good morning everybody just a quick follow-up on the ru announcement uh july 30th at six o'clock and we are so excited about what god's gonna do so church please pray for us please please pray that god will get glory out of it just pray that we'll have a good time now if you have been to ru in the past we sure would like to see you come just to be an encouragement to those that may be coming for the first time so if you've been to ru please come and join us we're going to have a great time and we're also going to start our kids club so if you have children that may stop the few people we had a few mothers come up to us and say they couldn't come in the past because they had no place to put their children so we're going to have a kids club so feel free to come by and visit us so church pray for us six o'clock july 30th and one more thing we never gave you an ending time we always said six o'clock midnight all right thanks for the al good morning church just want to let you know that dr mike zachary brother mike if you put your hand up so everybody knows who you are on the piano uh he'll be starting a soul winning class that will be starting on august 3rd it'll be going for four weeks consecutively they'll be meeting on tuesday evenings at 7 pm in room 222 for one hour so again if you want to learn how to lead someone to the lord this is a great opportunity again a soul winning class starts this august 3rd goes for four weeks tuesday evening 7 p.m in room 222. let's go ahead and stand we'll sing one more song this morning we'll sing the first verse and we'll greet each other page 337 in your hymnals page 337 when we walk with the lord in the light of his word what a glory he sheds on our way while we do his good will he abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey trust and obey for there's no other way not a shadow can not a rise in the skies but a small quickly drives it away not a doubter of fear not a [Applause] [Music] for there's no other way [Music] all right let's quit each other [Applause] [Music] all right let's make way back to our seats we'll sing it on the third verse this morning 337 not a burden we bear not a sorrow [Music] not a friend or [Music] for there's no other way to be [Music] we will what he says we will do where he says we will go never fair only trust and obey trust and obey for there's no other [Music] amen that's great singing you may be seated all right again let's continue to pray for our pastor he as he recovers um takes a little bit longer you know when you when you've had a couple of strokes so again just if you would just continue to pray for him he's doing very very well had the opportunity to go out to breakfast with him a couple of fridays ago and he's doing very well he misses all of you so much again so just continue to pray for our pastor as he recovers all right let's pray lord god we uh come to you and thank you this morning for the opportunity first of all to even be in church and to worship you lord freely and we do pray now that you would be with our offering i pray that you would bless the gift and the giver in jesus name i pray amen [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] the of jesus speaks for me be still my soul redeeming love out of the dust of calvary is rising to the throne above there is the [Music] [Applause] he pardons all my guilty sins surrender all my shame in him he breaks the curse of every chain my sin is a greater still the boundless grace says blood of jesus speaks for me [Music] when my accuser makes a claim that i should die for my offense i point him to that rugged ring where i found life [Music] [Music] the blood of jesus speaks for me worthy is the lamb left for slang jesus lord of all glory to his name heaven crying out let the earth proclaim power in the blood glory to his name worthy is the lamb land for sinners saying jesus lord of all glory to his name heaven crying out let the earth proclaim power in the blood glory to his name [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] of is being for me [Applause] amazing love how can it be the blood of jesus [Music] i know i say this every time it has been a blessing to have them back it's been a blessing to hear them sing and and uh it's a blessing to have the choir and orchestra open your bibles if you would to two places luke chapter 11 luke chapter 11 and first kings chapter 3 luke chapter 11 and first kings chapter number three and uh kevin richard if i can have you guys just jump up here on the platform just take a seat over here in the corner i'll use you guys in a minute but luke chapter 11 and first kings chapter number three luke chapter 11. and you'll pray for some of our staff are out course brother kirk he's out him and his family and they're taking a little bit of a vacation slash i guess you call it work trip going up to a summit up in new jersey and uh my dad's actually out today as well so you'll pray for those men as they're out and last week i had the privilege to be up at uh uh grace baptist church in corona it was a blessing to be up there to preach and to minister and so as brother art mentioned if you'll continue to be in prayer for our preacher as he recovers there's a lot of sundays i wish he was here but no no no sunday but the sundays i have to preach behind this pulpit do i wish he was here and uh but just keep praying for him for him and and we'll see what the lord does for us this morning luke chapter 11 luke chapter 11 and we'll start reading in verse number one luke chapter 11 and verse number one the bible says and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples said and some lord teach us to pray as john also taught his disciples and he said unto them when ye pray say our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done as in heaven so on earth give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil there are two places in the bible where you'll see this request from the disciples the first request is not the same account it's a different account it's earlier in the life of the disciples and they asked the lord lord would you teach us to pray and he gives them very similar to what you see here this is in matthew he gives him a very similar response but the portion of scripture the portion of the lesson the prayer lesson if you will that he does not include but he does include in luke chapter 11 here is the next few verses that we'll read and i would say that it's probably the most critical part of prayer and learning the lesson of prayer and how to deal with it and how to use it in our daily lives he tells them in verse number five he said unto them which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto a friend lend me three loaves for a friend of mine in is in his journey has come to me and i have nothing to set before him i want to talk to you this morning on the demand the demand let's pray father in heaven i thank you so much for your word thank you lord that we have a resource we have a number of resources as christians first lord we have your word that we can run to for comfort for help for guidance for wisdom or direction for clarity lord your book is filled with truth and it helps us so richly in our lives it helps us to fight temptation it helps us to resist the devil father we're so thankful for your word lord we're thankful for prayer we're thankful lord that we can come to you and we can pour our hearts before you lord that you hear us thank you lord that uh your ear is not open based on our good works or our good deeds but our our prayer is answered based on the blood of jesus christ thank you lord that we have entrance into your throne room because of your sacrifice on the cross lord we thank you for prayer lord we pray that you'd help us this morning i pray god that has folks sit in these pews they've come to hear your word they've come to be helped they have a need lord you might even say they are a friend in some ways that is opening up their their sack of lunch or their desire to eat and desiring to hear from you and so this morning i pray lord that you feed them from your word i pray that your holy spirit would flow through and that you'd use your word please for us in jesus name we pray amen in luke chapter 11 we come to this occasion where jesus is describing a parable and you know how i like using visual illustration so i'm going to use one this morning if i can get kevin and richard to come on over the bible gives us this illustration and really gives us three men richard if you'll stand right here and kevin if you'll stand on the other end over there both of these men are single and available in case you're curious any single ladies out there that's actually the only reason they're up here is to the bible gives us this wonderful illustration and this gives us the story of three men here's a man here there's another man over here and he has bread and for the purpose of this illustration i'll be the center man here the man here that has the friend that comes to him if you look at verse number five he said unto them which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say unto him friend lend me three loaves so you have the visualization i'll be this man here he says which of you shall have a friend i'm the friend and i go into my friend in midnight and i say lend me three loaves verse number six for a friend of mine that's kevin is in his journey has come to me and i have nothing to set before him kevin represents a demand in my life there's somebody who he's at midnight it's a very inconvenient time but there's a man who is demanding something in my life and it's it's not an unreasonable demand it's not a not an ungodly demand it's actually just a friend and he's found himself coming through my city and he's journeying through it and he knocks on my door and as he knocks on my door and says abe can you lend me a few loaves i'm i'm on a journey i'm hungry i need something from you and as i go through my house i look through my cabinets i i search throughout different pantries i realize i don't have anything to give to this man here it is he's a friend of mine and and i want to be a good friend to him and i have something i want to give him but i come to the realization that i don't have anything to give to my friend i wonder this morning if there's a situation where you find yourself with a demand a demand that requires that what you have to offer you don't have to offer as i look at my life i find myself in different circumstances where there's a demand and sometimes as i look through the pantries of my life and through the cabinets of my life i find myself unable to fulfill the demand that's being asked of me i wonder if there's a dad in here who you go throughout your whole day you work all day and you give of yourself to your your boss your employer and you give to yourself to your spouse but you come home and there's your child and your child is opening up the bag and the your child is saying dad i i need love i need time i i need long suffering i need gentleness i need goodness and a dad would look into his back and say son i i've wasted my long suffering today with my people that i work with i've wasted my energy today with with those who demanded in my life and i wonder if there would be a dad who would look through his own cabinets and look through his own pantry and say man what i'm being asked of is much more than i have to give i wonder if there's a mother in here that there that that needs that a child from her lacks love or needs tenderness or needs physical touch or needs support or needs an understanding maybe a listening ear and the mother can look at this great demand and say i'm not enough for my kids and they require much more than i have to offer and that demand can be daunting from a businessman he could look at the great demand especially in california he could look at the permits and the laws and the employee requirements the hours and the health benefits and he could say that the demand is much more greater than i have to give i wonder if it's a health situation in your life or unexpectedly you never expected to find yourself on being the receiving end of of maybe to care for your health situation maybe it's even a loved one where where this person is has become a demand in your life and it seems like god i i i feel like i i all through my life i was able to have enough but all of a sudden as i reach my older age lord it feels like i can't meet the demand and lord i just don't know what to do the demand of what is being asked can be incredibly daunting especially when you look at what you're capable of and realize this is far greater than what i could ever do and you could come to the terrible conclusion the conclusion that we all don't like to come to i am not enough to come to the conclusion that i am not enough for my spouse is a difficult conclusion to swallow to come to the conclusion that i'm not enough for my children or with my boss or with my business is an incredibly crushing realization and if you're not careful it can crush your spirit and it can send you into turmoil now listen when you start to realize that the man who has come to you at midnight is asking for something you don't have and crush your spirit as you see the man at the doors is a friend he's a loved one he's a child he's a spouse he's an employee he's a boss he's someone that says i have something that i hope that you have there's an expectation in him to receive something from me and yet so often we can look at our bag and say i don't have nothing to give can i be transparent with you this morning i have five children a couple of ministries the lord's allowed me to be a part of there's counseling sessions where couples will come before me and i'll say lord i have nothing to give sometimes i'll come home from work and i'll see the kids and i'll say man i know i should be a good dad today but i just don't have anything to give sometimes we come to the crushing realization i have nothing more to give when you and i come to the conclusion that you have nothing more to give you can only turn to two options carnal or spiritual when you come to the end of yourself you can only turn to the carnal mind or to the spiritual mind and the carnal mind can begin to deal with the demand here's what we hate most about the demand the demand speaks to my ineptness the demand speaks to my worth and my value how could i not be enough for my spouse how could i not be enough for my children how could i not be enough for my loved one and if we're not careful that could lead to self-worth and sell value and i would even say there are some in this room maybe this morning or have been in this situation before where the demand has been so pressure upon you and your inability to fulfill the demand has led you to discouragement and may i even say a depression into a place where you're thinking i don't know how to deal with the demand because i realize i am not enough there are three things and ways in which we deal with the demand the first this morning is we try to attack the demand the first carnal way i'm going to try to put on these gloves here we'll see for those of you who don't know kevin's a boxer so this is very risky i'm gonna go one hand because it'll take too long to get on that the first thing we try to do when we find the demand is we try to attack it what do you mean brother here's what this is what the carnal mind says the carna mine says here's how i attack it my boss is just so demanding my spouse is just so naggy my husband is just so needy no my children are just they just want too much of me now listen it's easier to deal it's easier to take that the guilt it's easier to take the feelings of the value and worthlessness it's easier to take those emotions and to say no no i shouldn't be feeling this way i'm not the problem the demand is the problem and can i just say that it's not a big demand for a wife to want to be loved it's not a big demand for a husband to have some needs and some desires it's not much to ask for a child that wants to be taken cared for are nurtured for our love dawn it's not a bad demand for me as a pastor and i have a couple before me that says preacher can you help us can you give us wisdom or can you give us a thought that's not much of too much of a demand but if i'm not careful when i find myself in ineptness or worthlessness or an inability to fulfill what they need i can start to self-condemn and i don't like self-condemnation so what i do is i turn to attack mode and i start to say you're the problem you're the reason you're just too demandy and you're just too needy and you just want too much please don't hit me back he's thinking about it i could see it we can get very pushy to the point where we say the demand is the problem i'm not the problem because it's a lot more comfortable to say that's the problem not me and we can attack it we can rise up against it the demand can become the enemy we could say things like shouldn't you have called before you came now listen here's the friend that came at midnight can we not honestly say hey friend wouldn't you have liked to just give me a heads up that you were coming can can't a case be made that this man who's demanding this from the other friend can a case be made that man you should have at least called or you should at least told me can't we make a case that the demand is unreasonable it's at midnight he didn't tell me anything no there could be a case be made but notice the lord doesn't put an emphasis on that matter of fact it's not even really mentioned just briefly at midnight he came why because this is not where the problem lies but we can attack it that's the first carnal response some of us like to attack the demand some of us oh this is a great way to preach i know why pastor closes his eyes up here this is good some of us try to attack it some of us try to ignore it this is why a husband sometimes will spend so much time at work instead of going home because at home is the demand at work he's really good at what he does at home he he feels inept unqualified and so what some of us will do is we'll pour ourselves into the things that we're good at so we can ignore the things we're bad at and because of that we feel a sense of value and worth i'm just going to ignore the problem it's not a problem to begin with but that's how we view it i'm going to ignore the demand i'm going to hide from it no listen this this is why a spouse maybe see hey i need to get out can i just go spend some time with the boys alright let's go spend some time with the gals i have to get away from this because this speaks to my value this speak the demand speaks to my worthlessness and i don't like it and it feels better to just ignore the reality of life than to deal with it i wonder this morning if you've put on the boxing gloves and you're attacking the demand in your life but i wonder this morning if you've put on the sheet he said i'm just going to ignore it i'm going to hope that it just goes away i hope that i just wake up one morning and it's all done i hope that listen somebody with a health problem i hope just one day i wake up and the health problem's gone you're trying to ignore it trying to attack it there's a third thing that we do when we're dealing with the demand we attack it we ignore it and i didn't have a liquor bottle so this will have to do we numb it this represents a substance you know why we binge watch sometimes because we want to ignore the demands in our life i just want to sit and i just want to watch netflix all day because i don't want to deal with the demand i just want to turn to alcohol because i i can't i can't deal with the the the situation i can't deal with this this demand in my life and it's not an unreasonable demand and i'm going to numb it through alcohol substance abuse anything that fulfills the flesh because i don't want to deal with it many dads have felt the pains of ineptness or devalue because of that they've run out on their families because they can't deal with the demand many husbands or wives have exited their relationship because they couldn't deal with the demand but jesus says let me teach you the greatest tool you have not attacking it's not ignoring not numbing praying it's going before an almighty god church and saying i can't but god can you see the not enough in our life is true you will run empty you will come to the end of yourself but the scripture says blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who come to the end of themselves because at the end of yourself is where you have a choice you have nothing left to give and your choice can be carnal or your choice could be spiritual the bible tells us the story of two kings one king who's given the kingdom he's about to establish his kingdom his name is king saul and right at the beginning he's melt what he's meant with the demand of i can't do this i'm not enough he tries to go to war with another kingdom and it seems like things are going very poorly and the demand is increasing we won't turn to the scripture but you know this man his name is king saul the demand is increasing in his life matter of fact as he goes to war he's not ready to go to war yet the the bible tells us that he was supposed to wait for the prophet to come and to perform the sacrifice and as the demand increased in his life he could not take it any longer and instead of waiting on god he decided to go outside the will of god and to handle his demand carnally matter of fact as you look at saul's life all you see is a man who deals with demand carnally he comes to the end of his life and since he's done it his whole life he has another demand on his life he goes to the witch of endor or which had endor and tries to seek wisdom from a witch because this is exactly how saul has lived his life whenever the demand comes upon his life he handles in a way that is carnal but i want you to see in contrast there's another king and it's a beautiful contrast hopefully you're in first kings let's turn to there now if you're not first kings chapter number three we will come back to luke 11 but first kings chapter number three the bible says in verse number five here it is solomon has just taken the kingdom he's establishing his kingdom verse number five and gibeon the lord appeared to solomon in a dream by night and god asked and god said ask what i shall give thee solomon said thou has shown unto thy servant david my father great mercy according as he has walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee now has kept for him this great kindness that was given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day and now o lord my god i was made thy servant king instead of david my father look at it and i am with a little child i know not how to go out or come in do you hear his spirit i can't do this he's not attacking the demand he's not ignoring the demand he's not numbing the demand he's calling the demand out to his savior he's saying friend i can't do this friend i'm a child who am i to lead this kingdom i can't do it it's too much to bear i can't be the husband i need to be i can't be the spouse i need to be i can't be the dad i need to be i can't be the mom i need to be i can't be the individual the christian that god wants me to be god the demand is too great this is the heart of solomon he cries out to god i'm a child i'm but a little child i don't even know how to go out or come in i can't do this god he's calling the demand out to his savior look what he says in verse number 8 thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou has chosen a great people it cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that i may be discerned between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people what is he saying he's saying the demand god is great can you hear it these people are great they they need me to judge their their situations god they come into the king expecting to hear wisdom expecting to hear direction and i can't give them direction do they deserve direction yes he doesn't lay the blame and say i i this is their fault there's too many people no he's saying it god it's so great amount of people and i need so much wisdom and i don't have it lord i don't have it to give i've been on the receiving end of phone calls this past year the lord has allowed me it'll be a year in august here and i can't believe how quickly it's flown by i've been on the receiving ends of phone calls where i thought lord i have no idea what to give i've had couples sit before me broken thinking lord how did they end up in this office but the demand should only lead us to two conclusions not one the conclusion should not be i'm not able and shut it down that is true we are not able there are things in life that are above us beyond us but the conclusion is i can't but he can solomon knew he could sorry solomon knew he couldn't and it led solomon to ask the lord god please i'm a child i wonder this morning husband wife father mother maybe a health situation maybe a child situation i don't know your life maybe a business situation maybe an employee situation where you're saying god i i don't know i just don't have enough but don't miss this god did not place the demand in your life for you to remain hopeless he left it in your life so you would find him in your weakness and god is more present in our weakness than he ever could be in our strength i was listening to a message this morning and uh you're a preacher it's not a very good thing to listen to a message in the morning because you're thinking wow i need that message i should have preached that message but i was listening to a message this morning and it was talking about seasons and it was talking about how sometimes in life we go to the top and sometimes in life we go to the bottom and the the top is not the the goal although we sometimes we think that's the goal he talked about how we live on mountaintops and we live in valleys and and god is present in the mountaintops and god is present in the valleys and i was just thinking about that it was a thought i needed to hear from the lord this morning but as i began to meditate that i said thank you god for being on the mountaintops and lord thank you for being the same in the valleys and the thought just came to my mind and i believe it's scriptural the thought came to my mind yes abe i'm both in the mountain tops and i'm both in the valleys but i'm probably more present in the valleys than i am the mountaintops you see on the mountaintops it's easy to look at abe and to say wow look at my basket full of bread who wants a piece of bread come counsel with me let me give you some food let me where's my wife let me just pour it on some love where's my children we can get pretty full of ourselves on the mountaintops but it's in the valleys where the boss says you messed up again when the wife says where are you and the kids say where's dad where's mom and you're feeling empty and broken god is more present there than he is when we're full in the will of god there will always be a demand that is far above what we are able the demand can put us into panic or it can put us into his presence i love what solomon asks and the lord responds to solomon and he tells them you've asked this thing and you have not asked something for yourself you haven't asked for riches you haven't asked for your enemy's life but you ask for understanding and to discern judgment the lord says because you've asked these things i will make you wise and of an understanding art here's what god said i will fill you with what you need i will give you exactly what you need and here's more not only am i gonna give you exactly what you need i'm gonna give you more than what you asked for prayer is the means by which we will fill the demand in our life prayer is the means by which we feel the demand in our life you don't understand i've prayed before i pray god don't let don't let me look dumb here i'm going to flop on this god help me to be a good husband and help me to be a good wife and help me to be a good child and lord help me to be a you fill in the blank of your demand i've asked god for that would draw your attention to just two things this morning in luke chapter 11 and we'll be done go back to luke chapter 11 if you will i want you to notice two things about this prayer luke chapter 11. we start again in verse number five and he said unto them which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say unto him friend lend me three loaves don't miss this can you read these next five words with me together ready begin for a friend of one more time ready begin for a can i ask you what's your prayer life like in your demand you know a lot of times here's our prayer lord you know my wife she's a little demanding lord reduce the demand in her life god please this is not my wife by the way this is just an example i want to sleep on my bed tonight please lord but sometimes our prayer could be lord remove the demand god i got a boss who's just too demanding reduce the demanding boss lord please sometimes we could say lord please remove this person they're just demanding this child lord is just they just sometimes this health situation can be nagging god remove the health situation that's not what this man prayed this man did not go to the lord and say hey you think you can do me a favor you didn't get rid of that guy for me not what he prayed what did he pray for brother he said this for a friend of mine this bread not for me we're friend wonder sometimes our prayer and i've been guilty of this lord i want to look good god i want to come out looking like super husband or super wife or super pastor or super preacher god give me something so i can look good god fill me up so so everyone can look about me and i can write a book about it and tell them how i made it through this difficult time in my life that's not the prayer god wants to hear here's the prayer friend i have a friend that bread not for me that's for my friend i wonder when's the last time he said lord i don't have any strength but it's not about my strength lord it's about lord me being strong for my wife god my wife needs wisdom for me and i don't have it god give me wisdom so i can give it to her lord my wife is not naggy lord that's not the problem the problem is i don't have wisdom to help her i don't have love to help her i don't have joy to help her i don't have peace to help her god give me the peace i need to help her give me the love i need to help her give me the joy i need to help her god give me the bread so i can pass it out god god this is not for me this is for them this is for her this is for him he says here's the prayer request it's not for me it's for them you know what he did he changed the angle of the prayer this is not about me look this is for them i want us to be a blessing to them it's not all i am all i am is the carrier that's all i am i'm just the middle man that takes it from i'm just the middleman that takes it from the lord not yet he's hungry that's all i am i'm the middle man that takes it from this this i'm nothing lord i believe that's why solomon got his prayer answered it's not about me being a great king lord about these people they need they need wise judgment in their lives i wonder if there's a granddad or that would say hey my grandkids i'm older in my older years now and i just don't have the energy i once had lord would you give me just a little energy not so you could say what are you drinking are you on v8 what are you doing the lord and they may look at my life and say wow i got bread from grandpa grandma i got peace i got joy i got love change the angle selfless prayer not selfish prayer you know why i believe hannah got an answer from god every year hannah goes down to the temple every year she goes down every year every year lord give me a child lord give me a child or give me a child but one year she went down she said lord if you give me a child i'll give that child back to you but stop and listen i believe it's okay for you to ask the lord you're bearing in here this morning lord give me a child i think that's a beautiful prayer i don't condemn it at all but there was something very tender about hannah saying lord if you give it to me it's not for me lord so i could give it back to you lord it's not about me having bread it's about me giving it back to you or to the people or the demands in my life that you've placed in my life it's a selfless prayer and lastly look at verse number seven he from within shall answer and say trouble trouble me not the door is now shut my children are with me in bed i cannot rise and give thee i say unto you though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needed for the ames i i've prayed have you prayed selflessly not for me lord to endure not for me lord to just make it not for me lord to come out looking like a rock star not for me to to be this or that lord that's not for me that's not why i'm asking lord i'm asking so i can just meet their needs god please this demand in my life please it's not for me god but i wonder how often we've prayed that once a prayer and it hasn't happened right away i love that this is in here because as the man goes to his friend his friend says trouble me now trouble me not the door is now shut my children are with me in bed i love that because there's a delay here and how often in times in your christian life have you gotten the lord in prayer and there's been a delay and here's what he says don't let the delay stop you from coming just keep coming friend please i got a demand in my life friend i got a need here again friend i'm here again you've prayed but have you come again and again and again again to the lord what if there's an area of life where you've just you've prayed and you've decided to put the sheet on if god's not answered i'm just going to ignore it no no come again and again again see the lord is teaching them a very important lesson he's saying here here's a model prayer here's what you kind of want to say what he's saying but you know in prayer it's incredibly useful is when you find a demand in your life you cannot meet you go to the lord selflessly and you come again in again there's a beautiful promise and we'll end this morning with this verse number nine and i say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open unto you for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened if a sunshine's bread any of that father is a father will he give him a stone or if we ask a fish will he give for a fish give him a serpent or free shall ask an egg will he offer him a scorpion i love this verse if ye then being evil you know i love my kids my son jackie oh man he knows he knows he knows to go to mom or to dad mom is tough and daddy is a marshmallow they always come to me and they say hey can we do this and i said go ask mom and they go oh little jackie looks at me and he goes well please daddy please please please please please i'm just like yesterday had a cookie and he already had a cookie daddy can i have a cookie did you already have one yeah please please please please the bible says i'm an evil father my heart melts when i see my kids ask he says how much more are your heavenly father give the holy spirit you see that's the demand they need love who's the holy spirit love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness meekness they need love need peace they need somebody in their life that's long suffering gentle good they need a taste of god in their life they've come to me to get a taste of god i'm looking saying god i don't have any of you in me feel me so i can help them and he says if you'll come selflessly if you'll come consistently i'm a good father i'll give it to you so you can take that bread now you can reach out get it you can take that bread you know what he's gonna look at me and he's gonna say you're gonna try to eat that aren't you he's going to look at me and he's going to say thank you brother aide i'ma say no thank you i tell you how many times i've been in my office people have come to me and they said thank you brother abe thank you brothers thanks for that message thank you because this is what brother a pass this is what you have and this is what we have we have a good good father that if we would just come consistently if we would just come selflessly he would give it to us and that demand instead of it being a thorn in our side that demand would say give us an opportunity to say thank you thank you for the demand because the demand keeps me on my knees crying out to you may god help us to be a people but when the friend comes the demand comes we not get angry we not attack it are we not numb it away that we get on our knees selflessly consistently or give me the bread that i may meet the demand we had about every eye closed thank you guys [Music] would you take some time and prayer before god thank you lord for helping us this morning thank you for reminding us that you're always the answer seek the lord have you attacked it have you numbed it [Music] heads are bad eyes are closed nobody's looking around i wonder this morning if there's somebody at sabre the apes i don't know jesus as my savior you talked about going to the father i don't even know if god is my father if i were to die today i don't know if i'd go to heaven or i'd go if i'd go to hell but i'd like to know there would you pray for me i don't know if i'd go to heaven or to hell but would you pray for me if you raise your hand i'll pray for you and he hands in here this morning i don't know jesus as my savior but i'd like to know i don't see any hands i guess that means we're children of god but you take some time would you ask him to help you with whatever it is that's a demand in your life left you feelings of worthlessness and ineptness god wants to do something through you and in you [Music] hey man what a great message this morning i won't say brother abe you did a great job this morning but the lord used you in a great way amen let's go ahead and stand we'll be dismissed this morning just a quick reminder of dr zachary's upcoming soul winning class that starts on august 3rd and then also if you haven't registered yet parents make sure you register your children for vbs and then a reminder of our evening service tonight at 5 30. thank you very much you're dismissed [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Lighthouse Baptist Church Lemon Grove

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Id: p_mGjikYWfI

Length: 94min 41sec (5681 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021