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Voddie Baucham -The Privilege of Prayer Exodus 2:23-25 · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: I would ask you the question, but I already know
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  Speaker 1: the answer. I would ask you if there's ever been
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  Speaker 1: anything that you've prayed for for a long time without
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  Speaker 1: having an answer, But I'm not going to ask you
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  Speaker 1: that because I know the answer to that question. I
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  Speaker 1: know that you've done that, and I also know what
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  Speaker 1: it was like when you did that. Because see, here's
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  Speaker 1: what happens with us. We come before God with this issue,
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  Speaker 1: and it is the most pressing issue in our life,
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  Speaker 1: the most pressing issue in our world, and we bombard
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  Speaker 1: Heaven with this issue again and again and again, and
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  Speaker 1: then we grow weary. We get tired of praying about
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  Speaker 1: the same thing, we get tired of asking for the
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  Speaker 1: same thing. And then after a while we realize that
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  Speaker 1: we haven't been praying for it as much as we
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  Speaker 1: were praying for it before. And now we feel guilty
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  Speaker 1: because it is an important thing, and we should be
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  Speaker 1: praying about this important thing, and we've stopped praying about
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  Speaker 1: this important thing, and so now we pray about the
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  Speaker 1: fact that we're not praying about this important thing that
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  Speaker 1: we ought to be praying about more than we pray
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  Speaker 1: about it, And so we go back to praying about it. Again,
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  Speaker 1: And yet as we go back to praying about it again,
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  Speaker 1: we begin to ask ourselves, what's going to be different
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  Speaker 1: this time? And we continue to pray, and we continue
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  Speaker 1: to pray, and everything in our culture moves us to
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  Speaker 1: believe and expect that things ought to happen quickly. We
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  Speaker 1: are victims of the twenty two minute sitcom microwave popcorn,
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  Speaker 1: and we just believe that things ought to happen quickly.
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  Speaker 1: And when they don't happen quickly, we don't know how
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  Speaker 1: to endure. We don't read big books anymore. Schools don't
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  Speaker 1: even require people to read big books anymore. Moby dick,
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  Speaker 1: What is that? It's too big, it's too long. Nobody's
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  Speaker 1: gonna endure through that. We don't endure through that. Preachers
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  Speaker 1: don't preach long sermons anymore. Well, in other places, we're
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  Speaker 1: told in preaching class, keep your sermons twenty minutes or
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  Speaker 1: less because people will not endure. They can't endure. We
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  Speaker 1: can't concentrate, we can't bear up, we can't press through.
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  Speaker 1: It's just not in us. And yet there are things
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  Speaker 1: that we wait for and we hope for and we
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  Speaker 1: pray for that require us to continue to press to
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  Speaker 1: continue to hope, to continue to pray. And there is
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  Speaker 1: this tension, this tension between the belief that it should
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  Speaker 1: have already happened and the knowledge have we got to
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  Speaker 1: continue to pray? And there's where sin enters in. That's
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  Speaker 1: when we begin to have sinful, unbiblical, unhealthy attitudes about ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: about God, about our circumstances, about prayer. We begin to
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  Speaker 1: interpret things based on our experience, based on what we feel.
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  Speaker 1: We begin to interpret who God is and how God
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  Speaker 1: actually considers us based on how long it's taking for
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  Speaker 1: God to answer the prayer. We begin to interpret who
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  Speaker 1: we are in God's sight based on whether or not
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  Speaker 1: He comes through in this prayer. Am I really a child?
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  Speaker 1: Am I really a Christian? Does he really love me?
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  Speaker 1: Is he really there? All? Because it's taking a while.
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  Speaker 1: And there are several things that come together here, several
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  Speaker 1: theological realities that come together here. One is the tension
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  Speaker 1: between the sovereignty of God and prayer, because this is
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  Speaker 1: another thing that happens when we continue to persist in prayer,
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  Speaker 1: especially for us Calvinists. Right, well, God is sovereign, right,
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  Speaker 1: He's decreed whatsoever will come to pass anyway, So Why
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  Speaker 1: am I praying and crying out to God like this
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  Speaker 1: if I believe that God is sovereign, and yet the
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  Speaker 1: scriptures tell me that I should bring these things to
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  Speaker 1: Him in prayer. So, on the one hand, the Bible
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  Speaker 1: tells me that God is sovereign, and I believe that
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  Speaker 1: God is sovereign. On the other hand, the Bible seems
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  Speaker 1: to be teaching me that I need to persist in prayer.
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  Speaker 1: We've even got this parable of this persistent widow asking,
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  Speaker 1: seeking knocking. We continue to ask, continue to see, continue
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  Speaker 1: to knock, pray without ceasing, and so there is this
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  Speaker 1: tension there. Beyond that tension, there is the tension of
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  Speaker 1: the problem of evil and suffering. Because usually when we're
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  Speaker 1: praying like this, when we're praying long and we're praying hard,
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  Speaker 1: it's because we're enduring something that's not good. Amen. Last
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  Speaker 1: time I checked, it's never been my experience. I haven't
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  Speaker 1: been a pastor all that long. Okay, we've only been
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  Speaker 1: preaching about twenty five years, so maybe it can happen.
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  Speaker 1: But I have not yet had a person come up
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  Speaker 1: to me and say, Pastor, I've just been praying and
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  Speaker 1: praying and praying. I pray till I get tired of praying,
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  Speaker 1: and I get guilty because I'm not praying anymore, and
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  Speaker 1: so I start praying again about being guilty about not praying.
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  Speaker 1: And then I get back to praying again and again
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  Speaker 1: and again, and God's just not answering what are you
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  Speaker 1: praying about? Things are just so good. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what I'm going to do, and I'm asking God to
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  Speaker 1: do something about how good things are because I just
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  Speaker 1: can't take it. That's not when we are persisting in prayer. Generally,
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  Speaker 1: when we're persisting in prayer, there's something ailing us. There's
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  Speaker 1: something troubling us. There's something hounding us, there's something eating
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  Speaker 1: away at us. There's something frightening us. There's something oppressing us.
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  Speaker 1: There's something hurting us, there's something discouraging us, there's something
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  Speaker 1: confusing us. That's when we persist, and then if we're
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  Speaker 1: not careful, we fall prey to that age old question
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  Speaker 1: why would an all good and all powerful God dot
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  Speaker 1: dot dot Well in the last paragraph of Exodus chapter two,
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  Speaker 1: I believe we have something that answers these deep theological
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  Speaker 1: questions that encourages us in the midst of sustaining prayer,
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  Speaker 1: ongoing unanswered prayer that rebukes us as we think wrongly
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  Speaker 1: about ourselves and about God and about our circumstances, and
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  Speaker 1: that informs us as to what is actually going on
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  Speaker 1: and puts us in a right posture as it relates
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  Speaker 1: to these kinds of circumstances. In other words, it teaches
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  Speaker 1: us how to think about prayer when prayers aren't being answered.
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  Speaker 1: Genesis Exodus, chapter two, beginning at verse twenty three. This
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  Speaker 1: paragraph is divided rather evenly into two halves. The first
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  Speaker 1: half looks at things from the perspective of Earth, and
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  Speaker 1: the second half looks at things from the perspective of Heaven.
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  Speaker 1: And the unfortunate thing for us and the reason that
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  Speaker 1: we get off track is because we only think about
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  Speaker 1: our prayer from the perspective of earth, from the perspective
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  Speaker 1: of the circumstances that we can see. But God gives
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  Speaker 1: us a glimpse in this paragraph into things that we
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  Speaker 1: cannot see, that are going on in the midst of
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  Speaker 1: our circumstances. That helps us to think about prayer rightly
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  Speaker 1: in this regard verse twenty three. During those many days
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  Speaker 1: the king of Egypt died. Interesting during those many days
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  Speaker 1: Moses is forty years old when he comes here to
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness. In Midian, he's eighty years old when he
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  Speaker 1: goes back to Deliver, so he's close to eighty now,
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  Speaker 1: been forty years. But the author just says during those
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  Speaker 1: many days, this is how Moses reflected on his time
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  Speaker 1: as he wrote, the king of Egypt died, and the
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  Speaker 1: people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried
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  Speaker 1: out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came
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  Speaker 1: up to God. There's the perspective from heaven, this is
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  Speaker 1: the transition, or from earth. Rather, now there's a transition.
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  Speaker 1: The transition is that phrase. Their cry for rescue from
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  Speaker 1: slavery came up to God. And then from Heaven's perspective,
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  Speaker 1: listen to this. And God heard their groaning, and God
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  Speaker 1: remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
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  Speaker 1: God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. God heard,
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  Speaker 1: God remembered, God saw, God knew. Those four words are
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  Speaker 1: absolutely critical for sustaining prayer when we don't see answers,
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  Speaker 1: and that's what I want us to concentrate on here.
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  Speaker 1: The backdrop of this is that again Moses is in
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness because the king, the Pharaoh, has discovered what
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  Speaker 1: he has done and killing an Egyptian. He's there for
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  Speaker 1: forty years. The question is when and how is the
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  Speaker 1: transition going to come. We know that he's here in
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  Speaker 1: order to be transitioned. We know that he's here. We
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  Speaker 1: looked on last week at the things that God is
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  Speaker 1: doing with him in order to make him fit for
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  Speaker 1: his calling. But he can't just stay here forever. If
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  Speaker 1: he's going to be this great deliverer, He's got to
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  Speaker 1: eventually go back. So what's the trigger here? Well, the
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  Speaker 1: trigger here is the death of the king. So during
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  Speaker 1: these many days, the king of Egypt died. And when
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  Speaker 1: the king of Egypt dies, the people of Israel sort of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, they reignite their groaning because there is a reigniting,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, of their oppression. And it's in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of this that we hear those four words. And
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  Speaker 1: that's what I want us to examine. Those four words
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  Speaker 1: in light of this experience that we all have of
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  Speaker 1: trying to persist in prayer without falling into sin. And
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  Speaker 1: the first one is this God heard, God heard saints.
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  Speaker 1: You need to know God hears your groanings. God hears
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  Speaker 1: the groanings of his people. God is not deaf to
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  Speaker 1: the groanings of his people. The natural tendency of the
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  Speaker 1: suffering saint is to assume that God does not hear.
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  Speaker 1: That's just natural. We're praying, and we're praying, and we're
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  Speaker 1: praying and nothing's happening. And it's not as though when
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  Speaker 1: we pray that there are audible voices that come back
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  Speaker 1: to us and say, yeah, I heard that. It's not
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  Speaker 1: like other conversations. You know, other conversations. You have a
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  Speaker 1: conversation with another person and you look at the person
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  Speaker 1: and you're saying something, and generally people don't just sort
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  Speaker 1: of stand there and look at you like this while
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  Speaker 1: are you talking. If they do, you sort of get
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  Speaker 1: discouraged and distracted. Right. Generally, what we do when we're
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  Speaker 1: listening to one another is we give clues or cues
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  Speaker 1: so that people know we're listening and so we're not
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  Speaker 1: in the head and you go, okay, now they're listening
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  Speaker 1: to me because they're not in the head, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Or they shake their head if they're supposed to take
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  Speaker 1: the head. Okay, they're listening because they shook the head,
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  Speaker 1: or they smile, you know, or yeah, they're listening because
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  Speaker 1: they smile, you know, or they go mm hmm yeah,
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  Speaker 1: to let you know when you get that response, and
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  Speaker 1: that's what communication is happening. But when we're in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of our despair and we're praying, we can't see
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  Speaker 1: God nod in his head, we can't hear him going
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  Speaker 1: mm hmm, and our natural tendency is to look at
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  Speaker 1: our circumstances that aren't changing and to assume that God
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  Speaker 1: has not heard. This text says different Israel was assuming
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  Speaker 1: that God hadn't heard. They're groaning and crying out to
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  Speaker 1: God for a deliverer, and it hasn't happened. It's been
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  Speaker 1: for centuries and it hasn't happened. We believe He hasn't heard.
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  Speaker 1: But that's just a tip of the iceberg. Saying that
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  Speaker 1: we believe that God doesn't hear us really means that
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  Speaker 1: we doubt that God cares for us, and that's where
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  Speaker 1: we begin to sin. God didn't really care for me,
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  Speaker 1: Why because he hasn't heard me. If he really cared
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  Speaker 1: for me, he would hear me. I'm praying, I'm groaning,
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  Speaker 1: I'm crying out, and there's nothing that indicates that God's hearing,
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  Speaker 1: so he must not care. If he cared, he would hear.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't hear, therefore he doesn't care. We also fear
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  Speaker 1: the worst. I'm praying and I'm crying out. God doesn't
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  Speaker 1: hear me. That means this thing's probably gonna get worse
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  Speaker 1: because God's the only one who can help me, and
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  Speaker 1: if he's not hearing me, it can't get better. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: we turn from following God. We got an email recently
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  Speaker 1: his elders from someone who basically said, I don't believe
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  Speaker 1: God's there. I'm not gonna follow him anymore, basically because
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  Speaker 1: I've been praying, I've been crying out, I've been groaning,
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  Speaker 1: and he hasn't heard. He hasn't heard, So if he's
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  Speaker 1: not gonna hear me, why am I gonna persist? We
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  Speaker 1: shake our fists at God and we get angry with God.
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  Speaker 1: How dare he not hear when we pray? The Bible, however,
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  Speaker 1: makes it clear that God does hear us when we
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  Speaker 1: pray Psalm fifty five, seventeen evening and morning and at noon,
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  Speaker 1: I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Proverb is fifteen twenty nine. The Lord is far from
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  Speaker 1: the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous
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  Speaker 1: one John five, fourteen to fifteen. And this is the
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  Speaker 1: confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask
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  Speaker 1: anything according to his will, he hears us. And if
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  Speaker 1: we know that he hears us, and whatever we ask,
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  Speaker 1: we know that we have the requests that we have
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  Speaker 1: asked from him. God hears us. So it is wrong.
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  Speaker 1: It is erroneous for us to assume that he's not hearing.
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  Speaker 1: And it's also erroneous for us to assume that because
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  Speaker 1: he's not hearing that these other things are true, he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't care for us. The worst is ahead of us.
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  Speaker 1: We shouldn't follow him. But there's several things that we
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  Speaker 1: need to remember. First is this, It is a privilege
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  Speaker 1: to be heard by God. And I mean just to
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  Speaker 1: be heard by God is a privilege that in and
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  Speaker 1: of itself is a prival. I'm not saying it's a
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  Speaker 1: privilege to be heard by God when God does what
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  Speaker 1: you've asked God to do. That's not what I said.
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  Speaker 1: What I said was it's a privilege just to be
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  Speaker 1: heard by God. If you never get another affirmative answer
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  Speaker 1: to prayer. God's been better to you than you deserve,
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  Speaker 1: just by hearing you. When you pray. God is upholding
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  Speaker 1: the universe by the power of his might, and yet
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  Speaker 1: God hears us. Think about that, He flung the stars
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  Speaker 1: into space, and he upholds him and sustains them. The
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  Speaker 1: entire universe is being upheld and sustained by our God.
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  Speaker 1: He's busy, people, and yet he hears us. It's a privilege.
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  Speaker 1: We are sinful, insignificant creatures in the grand scheme of things,
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  Speaker 1: and yet God hears us. How dare I think that
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  Speaker 1: God owes me a hearing? God owes me death and judgment,
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  Speaker 1: that's all God owes me, and yet he hears me
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  Speaker 1: when I pray. It's a privilege to be heard by God.
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  Speaker 1: We are mistaken when we believe that God owes us
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  Speaker 1: a hearing, because he doesn't. God doesn't owe us anything.
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  Speaker 1: Actually a form of arrogance to accuse God of wrongdoing
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  Speaker 1: because we believe that He has not given us the
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  Speaker 1: hearing that we deserve. It's arrogance and pride. How dare
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  Speaker 1: you not listen to me? How dare you not hear
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  Speaker 1: my voice? As though God owes you are hearing he doesn't. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: you are hearing. And besides that, as his children, he
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  Speaker 1: does hear us when we pray Amen. So it's doubly sinful.
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  Speaker 1: Number one, you're accusing him of something that's false. And secondly,
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  Speaker 1: you're accusing him of something that, even if it was true,
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  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be wrong on his part. God doesn't have
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  Speaker 1: to hear you, and yet he does. And that in
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  Speaker 1: and of itself is a privilege. We must remember that
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  Speaker 1: it is a comfort to be heard by God, not
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  Speaker 1: just a privilege. It's a great comfort to be heard
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  Speaker 1: by God. Through prayer, we have communion with the most
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  Speaker 1: High God. This is communion with God. Yay Dough, I
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  Speaker 1: walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I
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  Speaker 1: will fear no evil. Why because You're with me. God
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  Speaker 1: hears you. God's with you. Your prayers are being heard.
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  Speaker 1: Don't forget that. As I've been going through this text
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  Speaker 1: and as I've been preparing this, my prayer has been God,
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  Speaker 1: would you please change my heart, because generally speaking, I
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  Speaker 1: don't believe this. I don't believe that it's a privilege
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  Speaker 1: just to be heard by God. And I don't believe
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  Speaker 1: that it's enough just to be heard by God. I
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  Speaker 1: think the only reason for me to rejoice is if
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  Speaker 1: I have something that is concerning me and I bring
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  Speaker 1: it to God and God does what I tell him
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  Speaker 1: to do. That's how arrogant and prideful I am. That
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  Speaker 1: if God doesn't just hop to it and do what
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  Speaker 1: I told him to do, he's not worthy of my
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  Speaker 1: praise because he hasn't done anything worthy of my praise.
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  Speaker 1: My prayer has been God, would you crush that? And
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  Speaker 1: was you? Caused me to realize that just the fact
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  Speaker 1: that I can lay prostrate before the Holy and righteous
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  Speaker 1: God of the universe who ought to judge me, and
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  Speaker 1: that I can write out to him and know that
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  Speaker 1: he hears me, that that's enough to be able to
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  Speaker 1: walk out of the prayer closet and have someone say,
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  Speaker 1: did you get what you asked for? No? Then why
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  Speaker 1: are you smil him? Because the God of the universe
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  Speaker 1: heard me when I prayed, and I had communion and
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  Speaker 1: fellowship with Him in the midst of my suffering, He
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  Speaker 1: hears me. I'm not alone. God hears me. Whatever we're suffering,
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  Speaker 1: it is number one, temporary. Amen. Whatever it is, it's temporary.
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  Speaker 1: Even if it kills you. It's temporary, because you're not
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  Speaker 1: going to carry it into eternity. Right, it's temporary, whatever
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  Speaker 1: it is. And secondly, it's not worthy of compare with
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  Speaker 1: what awaits us. Listen to Paul's words in Romans eighteen nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: For I consider the sufferings of this present time are
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  Speaker 1: not worth comparing with the glory that is to be
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  Speaker 1: revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing
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  Speaker 1: for the revealing of the sons of God. Paul says,
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  Speaker 1: whatever I'm suffering, it's not even worthy to be compared
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  Speaker 1: to what awaits me. Only when we realize these truths
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  Speaker 1: do we realize the great comfort that it is to
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  Speaker 1: know that God hears us. Just that alone is a
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  Speaker 1: great comfort. The other thing that you need to realize
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  Speaker 1: is this that the world is not a black and
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  Speaker 1: white Western. And oftentimes we accuse God in these instances
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  Speaker 1: because we believe the world is a black and white Western,
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  Speaker 1: and we believe that there are good guys and that
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  Speaker 1: there are bad guys, and that we're always the good guys.
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  Speaker 1: And even when we read this text, you know the tendency.
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  Speaker 1: The tendency here is to look at this and say,
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  Speaker 1: Israel good guys? Egypt bad guys. The fact of the
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  Speaker 1: matter is Israel's not good. They rejected their own deliverer too.
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  Speaker 1: Or do you not remember that Israel's not innocent in this?
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  Speaker 1: Israel's not good in this? We need to remember that
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  Speaker 1: Israel is in need of a deliverer, not just from Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: but from sin as well. They are sinners and you
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: are a sinner. And one of the reasons we shake
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: our fists that God is because we actually believe that
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: God owes us something. The second truth we need to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: know is this, not only does God hear, but God remembers.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: But what does he remember? He remembers his covenant. The
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: text says he remembers his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: and with Jacob. This is crucial. This is crucial when
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: we talk about our prayers. First, God didn't remember Israel
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: because they were the good guys. They were not innocent,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and they were not sinless. God didn't owe them anything.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: There is none good but God. We've got to keep
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: that in mind. And I'm not a good die either,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: which means that I'm wrong when I accuse God. Because
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of these reasons, Consider the good things that we recall
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: when pining over God's failure to rescue us. I pray
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to you God, and you didn't rescue me. I'm a
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: good person and you didn't rescue me. I pray to
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: you God, and you didn't rescue me. I go to
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: church and you didn't rescue me. I prayed to God,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: you didn't rescue me. I don't do all the bad
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: things that other people do, and you didn't rescue me. See,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: these are the things we actually believe that God owes
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: us something. We actually believe that we have a standing
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: before God in and of ourselves that makes God owe
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: us something. Or this one. I'm a Christian God, I
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: have trusted Christ as Lord and savior of my life.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: And you didn't do what I asked you to do. Folks,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: God remembers his covenant. God answers prayer in accordance with
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: his will. Even Jesus prayed your will be done, not mine.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: You See. Part of the problem is that we assume
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: that we know the best thing in a given circumstance.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: We assume that what God ought to do is take
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: our advice and do what we say, because the universe
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: will run better if he just does that. After all,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I'm a good person. I'm a Christian, I go to church.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not as bad as other people. How dare you
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: not do what I asked you to do? You owe
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: me God? We ought to be frightened that that thought
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: even enters into our head. Anyone who knows what God
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: owes him ought never say God, you owe me? Hey man.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: God remembered his covenant, and God remembered his redemptive purpose.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: We have to keep this in mind as we pray.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: God does not exist to give us what we want.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: God orders all things according to his will and according
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to his redemptive purpose. And this is why me not
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: receiving what I ask is never an end indictment against
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: God's goodness or God's character. Again, how can I know
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that I serve a God who crushed and killed his
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: own son, who was spotless and sinless, in order to
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: bring glory to his name, and somehow think that me
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: enduring whatever I endure makes him unjust. I've said it before,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I'll say it again. Who do you think you are?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: That Christ suffered for the glory of the Father, the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: sinless lamb of God. Not only did Christ never do
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: anything wrong, he did everything right. Not only did he
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: do everything right. He is God in the flesh, immortal, invisible,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: God only wise. The Son is that he is the
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: pure radiance of God wrapped in flesh. And he suffered,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and he groaned, he cried out in the garden of Gasseimone,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: probably for hours, sweat drops of blood, and yet he
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: was not delivered. And I have the audacity to pray
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: for a few weeks because of something that's bothering me,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and think that God owes me something that he didn't
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: even give to Jesus when it came to his glory.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: How dare I? How dare you? It is a privilege
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: just to be heard. It is a privilege not to
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: be crushed under the weight of my own sinfulness, let
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: alone the weight of His majesty. It is a privilege
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: not to have to come trembling and fearing before a
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: holy and righteous God. It is a privilege not to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: be afraid of the fire and the smoke. It is
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a privilege. And it's enough. God remembers his covenant. And
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: when we pray, we need to know that God is
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: working all things according to his will. And many of
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the things that I ask are not according to his will.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: And I don't even know that. I don't know what
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: God is doing. The only way I figure that out
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: is when I look at it from the backside. And
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: how many times have we come to God, cried out
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to God, begged God, prayed to God, and it didn't
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: come out the way we wanted it to come out.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: And then years later you turn around and you look
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: and you say to yourself, looking backwards, at God's providence,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have asked for a better outcome. Or you
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: look at what God has turned you into, this trophy
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: of grace that you've become, because of the suffering that
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: you endured, because of the obedience that you learn through
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: enduring suffering, because of the glory that God gained through
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: your life, because of the way you endured the suffering.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: And you look back and say, I never would have
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: asked for this, but God used it. You don't even
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: know how to pray, and yet you assume that God
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: ought to do what you say. You don't see the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: whole picture. You don't understand the whole picture. You don't know.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: But we do know that God hears, and we do
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: know that God remembers his covenant. God is not going
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: to deny his covenant. Thirdly, we know that God sees.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Here's the burning question, how could God see this and
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: not act? Don't you know that? Israel asked that how
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: could God see this and not act? How can he
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: not see the Egyptians and who they are and what
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: they're doing and not act? How could he? How could he?
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: How could he? This is where we get to this
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: whole thing of the problem with evil and suffering. The
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: answer is God sees, God sees Verses one to eight.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: does my help come. My help comes from the Lord
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: who made heaven and earth. He will not let your
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: will keep your going out and your coming in from
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: this time forth and forevermore. This is not just temporal folks.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: The Lord keeps it people. The Lord keeps his people.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Does that mean as people don't suffer. You know that's
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: not true. We're reading Exodus. Amen. But the Lord keeps
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: his people, and the Lord keeps his promise. God is watching.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: God sees. Oftentimes we think the only way that I
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: could be dealing with this is if God wasn't watching.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: God's not seeing. God sees. He always sees. When you
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: got that bad diagnosis, God was watching when your heart
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: was broken. God was watching when your loved one died.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: God was watching when you suffered that miscarriage. God was
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: watching when the storm destroyed all you had. God was
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: watching when that child went astray. God was watching when
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: your parents divorced. God was watching when you lost your job.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: God was watching, and on and on and on and
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: on and on. Don't you dare say God wasn't watching
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: when that horrible thing happened to you. God was watching.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Don't you dare say that? But why is this comfort
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: to us? Because it seems like it's not comfort. Why
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: would it be a comfort for you to say to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: me that when that horrible thing happened, God was watching.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: That doesn't comfort me because if God really loved me,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: he would have stopped that thing from happening. Watch yourself,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: you're judging God again. The reason that that's a comfort
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: is because the alternative is absolutely unthinkable. If God wasn't
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: watching when that horrible thing happened to you, then that
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: means he's not sovereign, he's not in control, and you
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: have no reason to hope that He is going to
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: work all things together for your good because there's things
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: he doesn't see, there's things he doesn't know, there's things
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: he doesn't control. You better be careful. We try to
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: protect God from the implications of his sovereignty because we
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: think that if we hold on to a sovereign God,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: then somehow we have to blame God for evil. That's
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: only because you believe that God owes you protection from evil,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and he doesn't. Because the minute God starts wiping out
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: all evil, you're on the list too. You see, here's
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: the problem when we start thinking about evil. The problem
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: is we only think about God dealing with the evil
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: out there, and never think about God dealing with the
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: evil in here. Other people do things because they're evil.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I do things because people don't understand me. You were
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: wrong and you meant what you did. I just made
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: a mistake and you didn't understand. You're evil. I just
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: sometimes misstep. And it's because we view the world this
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: way that we have the audacity to shake our fist
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: at God. It's because we think about things this way
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: that we have the audacity to blame God. It's because
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: we think that, here's how a hurricane ought to come ashore.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: A hurricane ought to come ashore like this. It blows
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: in and its winds come hundred and ten one hundred
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and twenty miles an hour. The storm surge comes and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: it washes ashore, and the good people who go to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: church should have the water and the wind go around
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: their houses while everybody else is wiped out. God help
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: you if that's the way you think the universe ought
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: to operate. Causes it the rain on the just and
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: the unjust. We don't serve God because serving God exempts
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: us from suffering. We serve God because God is God.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: And in spite of my suffering, He's worthy. And whatever
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: it is that I'm suffering, it's better than I deserve.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: It's better than I deserve. You stand there before a
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: house that's been washed out by the storm. The Christian's response,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: ought not to be God. You weren't watching the Christians
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: response ought to be God. I deserve to have been
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: washed away with that house. Finally, God knows. God knows.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Oh this is so important because so far we have
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: this picture of a sob and it's wonderful to have
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: this picture of a sovereign God. But this last word
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: gives us a picture of an intimate, loving God. God knows.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: This means that he loves us and he pities us.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: God knows. God knows first and foremost which circumstances will
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: maximize his glory. And if that is the goal and
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: the desire of my life, I embrace my suffering to
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the degree that it maximizes God's glory. God knows what
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you really need. He does. God knows what you really need,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: and evidently deliverance from this particular thing that this particular
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: time is not what I need. If it was, that
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: would be what God gave. And I know this because
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I know God. God knows what you can bear. Oh.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: How many times have I heard people say I just
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: can't take this anymore? And then I see him again tomorrow? Amen,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: somebody right, how many times have you done I just
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: can't take this anymore? And then you wake up the
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: next day. Guess what you took it some more. Amen.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: God knows what you can bear. God also knows your
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: deliverer is coming, and you know the good news. God
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: is your deliverer. God is your deliverer. Do you know
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: the worst thing that you are oppressed with in this life?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: It's the thing that you are at least likely to
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: bombard Heaven about. The thing that you're oppressed within this
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: life is not your failing health. That's not the worst
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: thing that you're oppressed with in this life. The worst
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: thing that you're oppressed within this life is not the
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: disappointment of your circumstances. The worst thing that you're impressed
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: with in this life is not lost. It's not people
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: sinning against you. The worst thing that you are oppressed
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: with in this life is your sin. That's the worst
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: thing that you're oppressed within this life. Because there is
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: a holy and righteous God who demands righteousness, and yet
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: you sin against him. That's the worst thing on your plate.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: I don't care what else you've ever dealt with. That's
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: the worst thing on your plate. You sin every day,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: all day against a holy and righteous God. That's worse
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: that a bad diagnosis from the doctor. Bad diagnosis from
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: the doctor. Does that mean again, last time I checked,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: death rate was one per person. Nobody gets out of
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: here alive. Amen, what's a bad diagnosis from your doctor
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: in light of that? But here's what I know. Sin
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: separates us from God. A bad diagnosis from a doctor
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: can't separate you from God. Sin can. Sin is the
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: worst thing on your plate. It's the worst thing that
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: you deal with. Israel's sin is worse than Israel's captivity.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Yet they cried out for deliverance from their sin, but
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: not from their captivity. But not for deliverance from their sin.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: And that's you and me too. Everything else in my life.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I shake my fist at God, but I make little
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of my sin. How many tears have you cried begging
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: God to deliver you from your sin? How many sleepless
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: nights have you spent crying out to a holy God
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: to make you righteous? How many? How many? We don't
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: do it. We pray that other people will be good
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: to us. We pray that other people will stop disappointing us.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: We pray that other people will stop sitting against us.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: We pray that circumstances will stop being bad. We pray
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: that storms will stop coming. We pray that financial ruin
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: will stop coming, but we don't pray that we'll stop sinning.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: And that's the worst thing on your plate by far,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: it's the worst thing on your plate. In fact, everything
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: else that you deal with is a result of sin,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: yours or another's. And if you can't figure out which,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: just go back to Adam. Amen, why do storms come? Well? Ultimately,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: even the ground was cursed because of him? Right? Because
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: what because of sin? Why do our bodies decay? Why
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: do we get diseases because of sin? Why do we
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: alienate and hurt one another? Because of sin? You see,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: when all you look at is your circumstances and the
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: things that you don't like, the things that you don't want,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: what you're doing is you're missing the bigger picture. You
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: don't need a deliverer from hurricanes and from diseases and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: from a heartache and pain. You need a deliverer from sin.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: And that's precisely what God brought about. The Book of
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Exodus does not end with Israel coming out of Egypt.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: It ends with the Tabernacle. Because Israel didn't just need
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: to get out of Egypt, They needed to get into
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: a relationship with God. He needed sacrifice for sin. They
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: needed spiritual deliverance, and that's what you and I need
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: more than anything else. Does that mean these other things
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: don't hurt? Absolutely not, but it puts them in perspective.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Where was God? That's a question we get a lot
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: pastor this happened to me and it hurt. Where was God?
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: He answers to that question, and it's not original to me.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Is that when that thing happened to you, God was
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: in the exact same place he was in when his
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: own son was crushed and killed for sin, not his own.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: That's where God was, and that's where God remains, and
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: that's where God will be. I don't know what that
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: thing is that keeps you up late praying. I don't
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: know what that thing is that gives you that tendency
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: to shake your fist at God. I don't know what
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: that thing is that causes you to believe that God
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: has done you wrong. But whatever it is, know this God,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: here's you. God remembers his covenant and will always be
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: faithful to it. God sees everything that you're going through.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: And God knows, and very specifically God in Jesus Christ knows.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: We do not have a savior who cannot identify with us.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: What are you dealing with? You're dealing with loss, You're
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: dealing with pain, You're dealing with disappointment, You're dealing with rejection,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: You're dealing with The list goes on and on and
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: on and on and on and on and on. God
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: knows why, because Christ was tempted at every point that
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: we are, and yet without sin, Christ endured rejection, Christ
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: endured the Cross, Christ endured death, Christ endured shame, Christ
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: endured everything. So whatever it is, not only does Christ
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: know your circumstances and know you, but he knows your
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: pain and he knew it without deserving it, and he
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: overcame it at the Cross. So here's the prayer. God,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I've been praying about this thing for so long and
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: it's not changing, and my tendency is to be discouraged.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: But thank you that you hear me. Grant by your
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: grace that I would just be satisfied in that that
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: I would be satisfied and knowing that while I walk
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: through this, I can call on the God of the
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: universe and that you hear me. And God, make that
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: enough for me, Make it enough, make it enough, make
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: it enough. I'm heard. I'm heard. You remember your covenant,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: and I'm your child. And you call all cause all
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: things that work together for good to those who love
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: you or who are called according to your purpose. This
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that everything is good, This doesn't mean that
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: everything is easy, but it means that you will work
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: those things together for good. And ultimately, my greatest good
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: is your greatest glory. You see, you see everything that's
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: happened to me, and there's nothing that's happened to me
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: that's caught you by surprise. You see, this didn't happen
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: because you're sleeping him, because you're slumbering. You're in control.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: And that's good news because it means that I can
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: trust you. And you know you know me because I'm
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: your child. You know my circumstances because you're God, and
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: you know my pain because you made him who knew
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: no sin, to become sin for us in order that
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: we might become the righteousness of God in him you know,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: intimately behind the shadow of any doubt. And so would
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: you give me what I need to walk another day?
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: Would you give me what I need to trust you
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: in spite of my circumstances? Would you give me what
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: I need in order to wait for the full measure
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: of my deliverance to come. Because it will, because it
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: has you see, Ultimately, the greatest need that you have
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: is your need for Christ. So ultimately there is a
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: sense in which the greatest prayer for us to pray
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: in the midst of our suffering is Lord, Use this
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: number one to drive me to the cross. Use this
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: to drive me to Jesus Christ. And secondly, use this
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: to conform me to His image and make me more
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: like him. Don't waste my suffering. Don't waste my suffering. God,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Please use my suffering to make me more like Jesus.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Use my suffering to make me more humble. Use my
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: suffering to make me more dependent. Use my suffering to
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: make me weaker. Use my suffering to make me trust more.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Use my suffering in order to prime my hands open
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: to let go of the things of this world. Use
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: my suffering to make me long for eternity. Use my
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: suffering to crush my pride. Use my suffering to make
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: me more like Christ. There's a prayer. There's a prayer
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: that we can look forward to being answered always in
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the affirmative. But are you willing to pray it? Are
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: you willing to ask God for that? Because it's a
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: whole lot easier to say, God, I don't like this,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Would you take it away? I don't like that? But
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: you make it not so cling to the cross, flee
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: to Christ. He is your hope, He is your deliverer,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: He is your answer. Let's pray, Lord God, we bow
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: before you, the God who hears and remembers and sees
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: and knows. We bow before you in the midst of
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: our suffering and our grief, and our pain and our sorrow.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: We bow before you, in the midst of our arrogance,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: and our pride and our selfishness. And we ask that
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: you might meet us there, that you might be our
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: deliverer there, that you might cause our hearts to cry
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: out for holiness and righteousness more than we cry out
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: for deliverance from circumstances. That you might guard us against
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: that knee jerk tendency to accuse you of doing wrong
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: simply because you haven't done what we demand. Grant that
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: we might trust you, that we might trust your heart.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: We can't see your hand when we can't figure out
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: what you're doing or why you're doing it. May we
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: trust in the character that you have revealed through the
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: person and work of Christ and God. Would you make
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: us as keenly aware of our own sin as we
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: are of the sins of others, and as desirous to
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: see it eradicated as we are to see our circumstances changed,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: conform us to the image of Christ. We pray this,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: we ask this, We beg you for this and Christ's
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: name and for his sake. Amen.