God Invites Us to Pray
Date: June 7, 2024
Half the time we don’t even recognize it. How many car wrecks I would be in, but God took care of it. How many times I’m in a tough spot, and I’m complaining, but in honest truth, God has given me the strength to make it through there.
That’s what he’s saying about Israel right here. “I have girded thee, though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.”
I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Now, let’s just pause for a second. Some of our critics like to take that little phrase, “I create evil,” and say, “Oh, look at that.” I think Schofield here has a very good footnote on that also.
We’ll just read it if you have that. If not, I’ll read out loud. This is what Schofield says about that. Very informative. The Hebrew word that’s translated evil is ra’ah (R.A.). There are two letters. It’s translated sometimes sorrow, sometimes wretchedness, adversity, afflictions, calamities, but never translated sin.
Never translated sin. God created evil only in the sense that he made sorrow, wretchedness, etc., to be the sure fruits of sin. When he says he created evil, he’s not talking about creating sin or temptation to do evil—no, God never does that. James tells us he didn’t do that. But it’s talking about consequences for sin, if you will.
So, but God makes all this—this is what he’s saying. God said, “I do all this.” We’re in verse number eight. He’s talking about rain and harvest here in verse number eight. “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation. Let righteousness spring up together; I, the Lord, have created it.” God’s the one that brings the rain.
He brings a harvest from it. By the way, that’s physically, and that’s also the blessings and spiritual blessings in your life. All of those come from the Lord. “Every good and every perfect gift is from above.” Every one of them, every good thing you’ve ever experienced or you ever will experience, that’s from God.
That’s what God’s kind of reminding them of, all these things here. They’ve been complaining a little bit. Judgment is coming because of their sinfulness and their striving against the Lord. Verse number nine: “Woe unto him that striveth with his maker! Let the potsherd…” Now, what’s a potsherd? Remember Job over there? He was in the city where ashes were dumped and burning, and he took a potsherd and would scrape himself with it.
Kind of like a makeshift pocket knife they would use. A potsherd is basically just a broken piece of pottery. It’s like a piece of porcelain or something that’s broken. You grab a little piece and you use it for a pocket knife or whatever, but it’s a broken piece. So let’s go back to the beginning of verse number nine. “Woe unto him that striveth with his maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth.”
He said, look, you’re all broken. We’re all broken. None of us are exactly what God wanted this to be. We’ve all gone out of the way. We’ve all gone astray. We’ve all failed. We’ve all sinned. And God said, if you want to strive, don’t strive with me. I’m your maker. I’m so far above you. He doesn’t want us fighting with God, but he’s saying, go ahead and just fight one another.
That makes a little bit more sense than fighting with God. That’s what he’s saying there. “Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, ‘What makest thou?’ or ‘Thy work, he hath no hands?’” He’s being critical of the maker.
“Woe unto him that saith unto his father, ‘What begettest thou?’ or to the woman, ‘Why hast thou brought forth?’” He says there’s a curse on one who is super critical of mom and dad: “Why’d you make me like this? Why’d you have me?” And so on and so on. Verse number 11, our text verse: “Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One”—he is holy, well, I mentioned that earlier, he is holy—“the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker.” Israel’s Maker asks, “Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.” It’s an amazing statement. He’s telling you and I to ask—ask of me. I’m the only God there is. Ask of me.
Verse number 12, we’ll just kind of close it out there: “I made the earth and created man upon it; I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded.” Would you read with me that little phrase in verse number 11 there, starting with “Ask, ask me of things to come”? Would you read that with me? Here we go: “Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.”
Notice just a simple command to ask. “Ask me of things to come concerning sin.” God’s saying, I’m the powerful one. I’m the one that brings all the blessings. I’m the one that brings the rain and the harvest. I’m the one that formed you. Would you just come and ask, for God’s sake? Would you ask?
He’s saying, would you quit complaining about what’s going on in your life, and would you just humble down and start asking? Sometimes we complain so much about what’s going on in our world, and if we would pray as much or more than we complain, we might change something, or God might. That’s what God’s saying. He said, look, you’re fussing and striving with me. Would you just come ask and get involved in prayer? We have an unlimited power source: God Almighty. That’s what God’s emphasizing all through here. He’s emphasizing his power; he’s the only God. He’s saying, would you just come ask?
I hope you get that. I mentioned already, but every good thing originates from God. Now, there might be a middleman. God might give you a good job, and praise the Lord for that. You say, “Man, I got a good job.” But the one that gave you that good job is God. Every single good thing you ever will experience, it’s all from God. Every drop of it, every laughter you have, every good moment you have, every financial blessing, everything you have, every health moment you have, every good moment you have—every good one of them is from God.
“Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” I’m so thankful for that because, man, we’re up and down. If God was like that, when you’re down, he’d kind of snap his finger and you’d be gone. But all the good things are from God. God says, I want you to realize that because I want you to come ask. Just asking God—I wonder where we would be if we prayed maybe as hard as some people work. Some people are hard workers. Man, they’ll work 70, 80, 90, 100. I heard of people working over 100 hours a week, and just… man, 100 and all of them.
Can you imagine if we were to pray like that? Just imagine that. And you’re talking to God that can do anything. Imagine if we were to pray as hard as we work. So imagine: God, in His Word, invites you and I to pray. Jeremiah 33, many of you know it: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou yet knowest not.”
Psalm 50:15: “Call unto me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” It brings him glory. In the day of trouble, God invites you to call. He said, “I’ll deliver you.” You know the verse, James 4:2: “Ye lust, and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”
God is just telling us to ask. It’s all through the Bible. Brother Howes, my former preacher years ago—Brother Howes—he had a widow lady. Her husband had been a preacher for years and years, just a sweet, godly saint, and her husband had died, and most all of her family had died. I think all of her family had died. She called him and said, “Would you allow me to come, and you take care of some of my needs, and I will be the prayer warrior at the church?”
They took a room—of course, it was a large church. They took a room and really just changed and made it into an apartment. She came and she lived there, and she would just pray. Brother Howes would preach out all over all the time. There never would be a time he was preaching that she would not be praying. By the way, the church got the better end of that deal. They took care of her a little bit, but man, she was just a prayer warrior. Can you imagine if you just had a church full of people that got a hold of an almighty God? God says, “Just ask of me.”
It’s amazing that God would tell us to ask. Let’s look at something else real quickly here. Would you look back at verse number 11 there? He says, “Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands.” What’s the next word? That’s amazing to me: “Command ye of me.” That’s amazing. I think it speaks of our fervency. You know, Pastor, you’ll know it over there in James 5: “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
You know, Jesus in the garden, he was praying so intensely. He was so much into it that the Bible says he sweat as if it were great drops of blood. They say you can get so intense that the capillaries—I think it is. My wife’s a nurse, so I know everything about the medical field, folks, everything in the world. (No, you didn’t even laugh on that. I hate it when I have to tell you that was a joke, all right? Now you know.) But they do say that the capillaries, you can get so intense they can burst, and you actually sweat blood. It’s speaking of the intensity of Jesus, three hours. We don’t pray much like that.
And prayer like that—it’s physical work. It’s emotional work. It’s spiritual work. It’s just rolling up your sleeves and working in your prayer goals. And God’s saying, “Lord, would you get so fervent that you’re coming in, not in a disrespectful way, but in a proper way? You’re demanding, ‘God, I need an answer to prayer here.’” That’s what it’s speaking of. When God’s people, you know, they used to talk about praying through. Those old dear saints, they would just pray and pray until heaven seemed to come down and say, “I’m going to give you an answer to prayer.”
You don’t hear much about that in the moment. Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord (capital letters there). I believe he’s speaking of Jesus Christ, or a Theophany, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Because at the end of that, he said, “Hey, this place is called Peniel, because it is the place of God, for I have seen God face to face.” And Jacob was wrestling all that long, I believe, with the Lord Jesus Christ, God in flesh, and he came down.
Now, here’s the thing about it while they were wrestling—and by the way, Jacob wasn’t an outdoor, strong, hairy man, you know. He was probably, you know, an inside cook, you know, or those kind of guys, you know. But God said, “I want you to get involved in prayer.” Hosea talks about how he had power with God and men. He prevailed through prayer, but he learned to agonize that night. And here’s an interesting thing: God was wrestling with him. God said, “I’ll tell you what, Jacob, I’ll just touch the hollow of your thigh.” They say that’s probably the strongest part of a man’s body, and you kind of have to hook up almost like a tractor on both sides to be able to pull that out of joint.
And yet, God just barely touched. In other words, God said, “I’m letting you wrestle with me, but if I just touch the strongest part of you, you can’t stand up to it.” But God said, “I’m letting you wrestle with me.” By the way, it happened while they were wrestling, not at the end, but he continued wrestling even with the pain. Now, have we wrestled with God? Even in the midst of tears and pains, we keep praying and seeking and begging, “God, I want you to do something. You’ve got to do something with my grandchild or my wayward neighbor or someone who’s lost and going to hell.” Have you agonized with God? When’s the last time you sweated a little bit in your prayer closet? When’s the last time you shed tears a little bit? I mean, just when we get back to intensity: “Lord, I’m not playing games. I’m not going through ritual. I need you to hear me in my prayer time.”
God wants us to be like that. He can do anything, friend. He can provide it all. And he’s inviting you. “Command ye of me”—it’s incredible that God would say that. Years ago, when I was fresh out of Bible college and went to Alabama, I was a youth pastor for a while, and we had some crazy activities—some I look back on and think, “Well, that was dumb.” We had the bike—I don’t think it was a bike-a-thon. I think we just went out in the middle of the country with I don’t know how many teens, and you know, you’re encouraging them to get bikes. We’d load them on the bus and go out there or whatnot.
We let them all out and parked the bus. My wife was driving our car—I think it was a Taurus, I think. And I was trying to ride a bike and all that. Well, this one girl brought this ragged-out piece of junk bike. You know what I’m talking about? I mean, it looked like it had been through World War II or something, probably made before World War II and then been through World War II and Vietnam and all the rest of them. It probably had been bombed a couple times, too. Whoever was on the bike couldn’t keep up with the rest of the group because this bike just wouldn’t do it. There was a guy, a young guy, an older boy—I don’t know, junior or senior. He was a pretty healthy boy, a good guy. Joey Watson was his name. Joey said, “Man, I’ll ride that bike, and I’ll keep up.” Joey Watson got on the bike. He was working hard, but he couldn’t keep up on the bike. It was one of those bikes where the tires are wobbling all over, the sprockets wobbling all over, everything on it is wobbling, it’s squeaky. It was just a piece of junk.
We had to get, you know, six miles, seven miles, whatever it was, down to the park where we were going to grill out. But Joey was falling farther and farther behind from the group; we were trying to keep up together. So I was such a brilliant, brilliant young man at the time—I mean, you’ll be shocked at the brilliance I have. My wife pulled up in the car, and I said, “Maybe I’ve got to get Joey.” So I put my bike in the trunk of the Taurus. I went back there and said, “Joe, I tell you what, we can’t fit your bike in the trunk with my bike. But I’ll sit in the trunk. I can scoot the bike up, and I’ll sit on the trunk lid—the lid’s open. I’m sitting in the trunk, and I’ll just grab a hold of the handlebars of your bike.” Told you how brilliant I am! Intelligence is just coming out of my ears!
And Tammy’s up there driving, and I’m in the trunk holding on this bike. Remember, it’s a piece of junk bike. If a bike gets going 20 miles an hour, that’s moving. For a car, it feels like you’re barely moving, but for a bike, that’s moving. And when you’re on a piece of junk bike… And we’re young, so I imagine Tammy was going over 20—I don’t know, probably 80, I’m not sure. But I’ll never forget, I’m sitting at the trunk of this car. The bike is over here, the lid is trying to come down on me. Joey is looking at me; he was a junior or senior. All of a sudden, you just see this look of terror. He’s just scared to death. And then he starts literally, “Pastor Paul! Brother Paul! Brother Paul, tell her to slow down! Slow down, you have to!” He just looked terrified. Pretty soon, I don’t know if he cried, but he came real close to crying. He was like, “Slow down, please slow down!” And we’re yelling, “Tammy, slow down!” The trunk lid is up; she can’t hear anything going down the road. I’m telling you, man, Joe was just about this close to crying. He was just freaking out, and his bike was wobbling all over.
"If we can pray, ‘Slow down,’ you know, if we can pray like that, Joe—I’ll never forget—as far as intensity, that was maybe the most intense praying I’ve ever seen.
Now that’s what God’s talking about. Now I want you to get so intense. He’s inviting us: “Command.” It’s amazing. One last thought, and we’re done: I want you to notice the subject he’s talking about praying for. Would you go back to that phrase in verse number 11 there, starting with “Ask”? Starting with “Ask.” He said, “Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands.” God formed us with his hands. Concerning the work of my hands, he’s talking about praying for people.
Sometimes I pray so much about things; I’m not praying for people. Sometimes things for people. Sometimes we don’t like—and I’m talking about myself here—we don’t like to pray for people because often, especially when it comes to salvation, it takes years. Now, praise the Lord when sometimes you see results very quickly, but so often with people, it takes years and years. And it takes a lot of faith and a lot of work. Often, when it comes to people, God has to reveal how dirty and wronged their heart is before they change. Or sometimes we let the prosperity of the fool destroy them, the Bible talks about. It takes time. And sometimes we just say, “Well, I’m finished with this thing about praying for people.” God wants us to pray for people.
I’m amazed. Psalm 2: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” He’s inviting us to pray for people. How many of you have ever led someone to the Lord, and they’ll say something along this line: “Well, my grandma or my grandpa or somebody has been praying for this for a long time”? How many of you? Yeah. Praise the Lord for that person who has been praying for them. Friend, praying for people. Praying for a wayward child. I was thinking about the Kents—Brother Tom Kent—I think about every Wednesday night he puts in a prayer request for some of his children to get right with the Lord. I appreciate it. Just praying for people.
It’s somebody’s mission in church. He’ll pray for them to get back in church. It’s so important that we’re praying for people. Praying for salvation. Praying for people to turn back to the Lord. Praying for God to get a hold of their hearts. Praying for God to tenderize their hearts. For someone that’s lost, sometimes I’ll pray, “Lord, remind them of hell. Convict them. Let them seek the truth, or remind them of truth they’ve heard.” But just pray for people. It’s critical for it. What about that alcoholic? You say, “Well, they’ll never win.” No, they probably won’t if you don’t pray for them.
Pray. Pray for people. I wonder how many great Christians there are who have grown because somewhere, usually behind the scenes, nobody knows they were being prayed for. Prayer. I think Linda—she used to be Kregor; her husband passed; she’s Linda Black now—she prayed for her former husband before he passed, over 30 years, to get saved. And praise the Lord, in the middle of the night, God woke her up just in time to get up, and her husband was on his knees, praying, getting saved. All those years. But it takes time, and it takes faith, it takes effort. But praying—he’s speaking of praying for things concerning the sons, people, and concerning the work of my hands, that’s God’s people—“Command ye of me.”
John Rice—his mom died when he was a very young man, a teenager, basically, if I remember right. I’m not sure, but I believe it was. His mom died when he was very young. Years later, he was teaching at Wayland Baptist College, still a young man, but he was teaching there. His aunt, his mom’s sister, wasn’t too far away, so one weekend he went to visit her. He visited his aunt, and she had babysat him as a little boy. When he went there, he saw an old book. He grabbed that old book, and when he did, a letter fell out of the book. His aunt easily said, “You’re welcome to read that letter if you like to.”
So John Rice said, “I got the letter out, and I began to read it.” His aunt said, “Do you know who it’s from?” He said, “Well, the handwriting, it looked like it’s from my mama.” She said, “Yeah, it is.” When he was just a little boy, five years old, his mom had written a letter to her sister. He said, “My mom had been dead for 20 years.” But he began to read, and this is what his mom was writing to her sister: “It’s very hot down here now. We have had no rain in months. The crops are not good. Willie…” That’s John Rice’s dad, by the way. How many of you know John Rice? A great Christian years gone by. God used him so greatly in America. Some would say at a certain point, maybe more than any preacher at that point. Some would say that. But she said, “Willie is not well,” John Rice’s dad.
Then she began to speak of her children: “You should see Baby Porter now. He has his first little teeth and is so sweet. And Gertrude—boy, you can tell this is a long time ago by these names—Gertrude is a great help. She minds the baby and dries the dishes. Ruth is the quietest little thing; she never ruffled, but is always in a good humor. But George is into devilment from morning to night.” George was his younger brother. He said he ended up being a high school principal, a fine Christian, though as a child he was mischievous. And Ruth is a gifted teacher. “And let me tell you what my little preacher boy did.” John Rice stopped. He was startled. Baby Porter, George, Ruth, Gertrude—I was the only child left. Did she call me her preacher boy? Yes, she did. She never called you anything else.
John Rice saw his dad a little bit later on after that. He said, “Dad, I found that letter, and Mom was calling me the preacher boy. What’s the deal there?” His dad said, “Well, you know, we had a daughter. We didn’t have a boy at that point. We prayed for a boy because we wanted that boy to be a preacher. And the day you were born, your mom prayed and prayed for God to call you to preach, for God to use you.” John Rice said, “Well, Dad, why didn’t you tell me every time?” And he said, “Well, we didn’t want to call you. We didn’t want to tell you. We wanted God to tell you.” John Rice greatly influenced America and the world, probably much because that mom had been praying. Prayer for you.
Original File: God Invites us to Pray - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday 101321