Why no faith
Category: Faith & Trusting God
Key Passage: Luke 18:8
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: July 10, 2022
Luke chapter number 18 of God’s word. We have just felt like the Lord take us on a little quick journey on this thing of faith, especially this summer. We don’t want to lose our faith that God can do great things in and through our lives. That’s what the devil would love to happen. And if that were to happen, he could there do no mighty work.
So we don’t lose our faith. It’s always amazing to me: he could there do no mighty work. I never think that it wasn’t in the Bible. Well, that’s what the Bible says. It kind of goes in line with Psalms: it limited the Holy One of Israel by lack of faith. So we don’t want to lose our faith.
I don’t know how long it’s been—maybe a couple Wednesday nights—on this thing of faith. I think we’ll go tonight, next Wednesday night, and we’ll be finished with this topic. But a little different angle tonight: Why no faith? Why no faith?
We are really just taking Luke 18, using that as a springing board to get to, really, our text in many, many ways. I’m going to start here in Luke 18. By the way, I look out and see Ms. Melissa. Be praying for her Friday; she goes to the doctor to find out her issues. Now, I’m not talking about it’s not a neurologist, not for the brain. It’s not that. We don’t know if it’s rheumatoly arthritis or what. So pray for her, if you would, for that appointment. That’d be great.
Brother John, I got a text with Brother John a little bit. He said the babies are doing great, gaining weight, and Ms. Maria had a checkup today doing very good. So praise the Lord for that. Thank you to all of you who have taken food over there for them. That’s just awesome. Thank you for that. What a blessing that is. Amen, a good, good church family of them.
Luke chapter number 18. We will not read this whole parable that the Lord gives. It’s about an unjust judge and a widow lady, and the widow lady kept going and kept going and kept going and kept going. Finally, the judge says, “I’m going to give this lady whatever she wants.” And God says, “Hey, I’ll do the same for you in this matter of prayer.”
And then verse number eight, Luke 18, verse number eight. Would you please stand as we read the word of God together? Luke 18, verse number eight.
God’s word. And he says there, “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” Here’s the statement, just one that kind of uses this springing board: “Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” What a statement from Jesus.
I wonder what Jesus had in mind when he made that statement, asked the question. Have you want to take it? Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? That’s interesting. It’s kind of almost a sad statement for Jesus to make.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith? If we are living when Jesus comes back, will he find faith in us? Shall he find faith on earth? We’re just going to use that as a springing board a little bit tonight. Give this saying: Why no faith? Why no faith?
Now faith and prayer, you really cannot separate the two. I hope we’re praying out of faith and not just as a ritual. I read one time, Brother Rice—John Rice years ago—he went to someone’s house, and they had a very sophisticated, he said, electric horse.
It wasn’t just one of those you put the quarter in. John Rice, back in the day when he was a young man, he rode horses all the time, he said. So I thought, well, let me see how really realistic it is. He said, “I was shocked. I got on it. You turn it to just trot or gallop or whatever. It just seemed very realistic, like a horse.” The only problem was, when it was all said and done, you got off in the same place you started, you know.
Sometimes we can go through our prayer lives very ritualistically, and it kind of resembles a good prayer life, but we’re not expecting to go anywhere because we’re not praying out of faith. Such a sad thing. Prayer and faith just go hand in hand.
And he says, “Shall I find faith on earth?” In fact, the context about this story is this widow lady that just kept going and kept going. I think one of the last songs we sang was talking about praying through, and how long has it been? It takes faith to pray through. It takes you spending the time, the agony, and the hours, getting right, wrestling with the Lord, just like Jacob did. And that takes a lot of faith to do that.
But can I say this? Let me go back and get one more thought in here with this. What have we studied a couple of Wednesday nights ago? Faith is the grain of a mustard seed. It doesn’t have to be big faith, just a little bit. The thing is, put your seed in the ground. Remember we talked about that? There is something significant about that little bitty seed. It talks about how it grows up and becomes one of the great bushes or trees or herbs, and even the birds can come and rest in it. It’s talking about faith that grows.
You pray about something, and God answers your prayer. Well, that gives you more faith next time. But it can also work in the opposite. If I pray, pray, pray, pray, and nothing happens, and I never have an answered prayer—I was meeting with someone a week or two ago, and I said, “Well, I really feel like you need to spend a long season of prayer about this thing, this situation,” and all that. And he said, “Well, I did that years ago, and nothing happened.” I don’t know all of it, and that’s between him and the Lord. But I am saying this: if I’m not careful, if I never have an answer to prayer, instead of my faith growing, it can dwindle.
If I’m never experiencing any answers to prayer, something’s not right. If I live over the long haul never having answered a prayer, then pretty soon I just go through the ritual; I really never expect to get a prayer answered. And that’s called lack of faith.
They say they had a fish aquarium, and they had slid a little bitty thin glass down right to the middle of it, where the fish really could not tell it was there. The fish would try to swim to the other side. Every time he would, he would bump his nose on that little bitty thin glass. After a while, he just never tried to go to the other side. They slid that little piece of glass out, and he never went over there. If I never have any answers to prayer after a while, I just really don’t expect. I do it because I’m supposed to do it; I’m going through the rituals, but I don’t expect. I really do not have faith.
Jesus is saying, “Hey, look, are you going to have enough faith to pray through every once in a while?” And that grows your faith. Shall I find faith on earth, or do you just never get to the point where you are believing you get things in answer to prayer? Shall I find faith on the earth? If I’m never having any answers to prayer, something’s not right.
If you go out to your car, and this is always a sad thing, you put the key in, you turn it—or nowadays you put your foot on the brake and you push the button—and it doesn’t crank. Hopefully, you realize something’s not right. So you go out there, pop the hood, and you look at it. Yep, there’s an engine; there’s a battery. Okay, let’s close it back down. Let’s call somebody now for help. Something’s not right. Or you turn to the false adult in the water is coming out. You said, “Something’s not right here.”
If you never have any answers to prayer, you ought to say, “Hey, something’s going on in my prayer life.” I’m not saying you get everything answered that you want, but you ought to say, “Hey, thank you, Lord, you answered that one. Thank you, Lord.” And there ought to be—by the way, can I encourage you to have an updated prayer list? I was a little convicted. I’ve got an old prayer list I’ve been using for a good while, and so I’ve slipped an extra page in there that’s more up-to-date with some answers to prayer and some things that are still current. You ought to have some answers to prayer from time to time.
If you never have any answers to prayer, friend, I want you just for a little bit tonight to consider this. Would you look over in Isaiah chapter number 59? Isaiah chapter number 59.
I’m preaching to the best folks in the world here. This is Wednesday night. You’re great people. People on Wednesday night, you love the Lord. Sweet people, great people. Praise the Lord, you’re here. But we all need this from time to time. We’re just going to take the first two verses. Just a quick little Bible study or preaching over these first two verses, and we’re going to be done for the night. Why no faith sometimes? Because we never have any answers to prayer.
Here’s sometimes the reason why we never have answers to prayer: Isaiah chapter number 59. Isaiah 59. And just those first two verses, Isaiah 59. If you’re there, would you say amen? We’re just going to focus on these two verses tonight. Let’s read the two verses, then we’ll go back and just point out some things.
Here it is. The Bible says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
If I live long term like that, I’m not going to have much faith because I won’t have any answers to prayer. It just becomes a ritual. It becomes maybe just something I do, but it’s not something that I believe in. Someone asked the preacher, “Well, what about this? Let’s pray about it for two weeks.” Two weeks I prayed about it, and they came back and said, “Well, nothing happened.” “I didn’t think anything would happen.” The preacher said, “Well, that’s why nothing happened, because you didn’t think anything was going to happen.” We get stuck in this ritual.
Let’s look at what he says here in verse number one. He says, “Behold”—that’s kind of like, “Hey, whoa, stop, look up.” Behold, this is big what he’s trying to say. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save.” He’s saying, “Hey, friends, my arm, my hand, has not gotten short where it can’t reach down from heaven into your life. It’s still long enough to reach down into your life and what’s going on and your needs. My hand is still very capable of saving you out of the troubles you’re in.”
He’s saying my hand is not so shortened that it cannot bring you out of that depression, or that defeat of sin in your life, or that problem. God’s saying, “Hey, my hand’s not so short that it can’t reach down to do something in your life.”
It used to be long, but I don’t love my Lord anymore. No, no, it’s not shortened. Nothing’s wrong with my power. It can still save a soul. It may be saving you out of the issue that you’re in right now. It may be the financial trouble. It may be the mental or emotional. It may be the relationship, but he said my hand’s not shortened that it cannot save.
It’s amazing to me how many times God has to tell his people, “I can still answer prayers.” He says it several times in the Bible. He sometimes says, “Why are you going to the heathen gods? You’ve got Jehovah. I’m here. I can answer your prayers.” He’s saying that here. He said, “Look, my hand’s not shortened that it cannot save.” I think about the new building and all that. “Lord, can you do that?” God laughs at me, “You foolish preacher, that’s no problem for me.” His hand is not shortened that it cannot save. There’s no problem.
We hear every excuse in the world why God cannot work today. Well, there’s too much sin. Well, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It’s ready available for everybody. Friend, God is much more mighty than that. He can still work. Don’t put God in a box. Well, it’s just 2022, and with all these problems in our government and the Internet, you know, I have two words for all that: Hogwash. God can still work.
God here is saying, “Hey, behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save.” God still works. He can still reach down and take a drunk and make him sober again. I forget years ago when I was mentioning something along that line, a lady came to me after service. She said, “Pastor, I used to be that, and I’m clean now.” God still does that today. He can still bring victory in people’s lives. The U.S. government can’t stop the hand of God from moving. Don’t get that mindset. He can still reach down and shape up an old backslid Christian, get us right with God. They still do that.
His hand is not so short that it can’t work in my life and your life. He says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save.” Don’t get that mindset. A lot of Christians have that mindset in our day and time. He could there do no mighty work? Not a matter of God not being able to work in a mighty, mighty way.
Look at this next statement he makes here. He says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save.” And look at this next thing: “Neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.” The best I could tell, the Bible never mentions elsewhere about an ear being heavy. Some thought that it’s like what medicine sometimes calls a full ear, almost like when you get water in your ear or you get an infection in the ear, and you feel like you sound like you’re underwater.
My ears are not the best in the world for sure. I can resemble this. The doctor said my hearing is going in certain ranges, probably because you used to work in practice so many years. My wife says it’s going in the wrong range, that’s what she says.
Here’s my problem, honestly: I can hear that they’re saying something. I know they’re talking to me. If you see me up here sometimes, especially during specials, I’m sitting behind the speaker, so that’s bad, and I’m not good at hearing. But if you see me doing like this, I’m trying to open my ears up. I’m trying to understand those things, or somebody’s leading prayer because I’m trying to understand what they’re saying. I can hear it. The volume is up a little bit, but I just can’t make out what they’re saying. It’s like mumbling. Sarah has recently agreed with Miss Tammy that my hearing is going. They’re ganging up on me, folks. It’s not fair, two against one. But I know they’re saying something, but I just can’t understand or articulate the words.
It seemed like this, maybe a little bit what God has in mind when he says his ear is not heavy. He doesn’t have a full ear where he knows you’re mumbling something down there but can’t quite make out what you’re saying. I’m saying, I don’t have a heavy ear.
I know everything you say, even if you don’t speak it; you say it in your heart, God knows it all. The Lord is saying, “Hey, my hearing’s not going bad. I don’t have a bad ear.” We want to give every excuse in the world for, “Well, I don’t know about praying like that nowadays.” God’s not growing old. His hand is not short, his ear cannot hear. He can still hear every prayer of any infant in the world. He hears the sparrow in the morning time. He hears just a sigh sometimes. He hears the praise when you whisper in the middle of the night. He hears every time you thank him for any good thing he’s done for you. He hears every time that you have just a minor request. He hears them all. His ear is not heavy, and he cannot hear.
God’s not like that. He’s still capable. He’s still the same God that helped David kill Goliath. He’s still able. He’s the one that split the Red Sea and then closed it back up on Pharaoh’s army. He’s the one that stopped the Jordan River when it was flowing and let the children of Israel cross through the river when it was on high tide, if you will, and flowing greatly. He’s still the same God. There’s no problem for God. God is still as capable as he ever was.
God hears in the first verse just to clarify: “Don’t think that I can’t reach into your life anymore. I’m just as capable as always was. Don’t think I can’t hear your request and your need and your burden of your heart.” He can hear everything you ever think.
God specializes in things that seem impossible. He knows a thousand ways to make a way for you. He’s the God of the impossible. But notice what he says in verse number two. Notice what he says in verse number two right there, if you would, please. Verse number two—y’all still with me out there tonight? Look at verse number two. He says, “But…”
Your iniquities. What a sad statement. Your iniquities have separated between you and your… Iniquities. I don’t know that I fully understand everything about the word iniquities, just to be honest with you, but it seems it has to do with sins of the heart. Psalm 66:18: “If I regard iniquity in my heart,” it has to do with things more inner, sins of the heart, if you will. It’s emotion sometimes; it’s feeling sometimes.
It’s amazing how often iniquities are brought up first. What about David? “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” It started in his heart. Iniquities—I must get my heart right. If I get my heart right, the outside will get right. Somebody said, “Well, I’m right on the inside, but I know my outside’s not really right.” Well, friend, if your inside’s right, your outside’s going to be right.
Your heart is the center of you; it’s the core of you. It’s so very important. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Our heart—“Keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Our heart—maybe that’s why God often brings up our iniquities, our heart, first. He wants us to work at our heart.
Here’s the thing about heart problems: Nobody really knows what’s going on in your heart. We can put a pretty good show on the outside, but our heart… Sometimes you and I don’t even know our own heart. God’s the only one who will know it. It’s crucial we work on our heart.
He said, “Hey, your iniquities, the sins of your heart.” Sometimes that’s jealousy. Me and Sarah had the privilege of going down to Liberty Station last week with Brother Antimus Couta. They had like a practice run, and I really enjoyed getting to meet some of those with mental challenges. I enjoyed that. One thing I noticed and really appreciated about them: they were so unselfish.
One of the girls got accepted into the program and got her uniform, and you could tell all the others were just so happy for her. There was no thought of, “But I worked. I’ve been here for…” Nothing of that. They were just so glad. One of them got up and played his guitar and did a great job. He sang a song he wrote, and he got every word of them. It was a long song. Then at the end, we all clapped for him. I watched the others that had issues of being part of the program, and there was another guy who could have been jealous because he was getting to play the guitar and sing in front of everybody. I didn’t get to do that. But none of that. They were just so happy for each other. I appreciate that so very much.
I was telling my wife about it, and she said it’s amazing. She said you watch videos in the Special Olympics where they’ll be running a race, and one of them will fall. Instead of them just keeping going and winning the race, they all, every one of them, stops and goes back and helps that way. It’s not about me winning; it’s about helping somebody.
Sometimes in our heart, though, we’re just jealous; we’re envious. Sins of the heart—in our heart, maybe we criticize everybody in our heart and are always looking down on them. If I regard iniquity in my heart, it may be lust, or maybe rebellion against authority. It may be pride in my heart. Here’s a big way I think there’s such a big thing in America in our hearts: the love of money. It is ruining, ruining America, I believe it is.
By the way, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. It’s amazing. If I can just get a couple more hours, a little bit more bucks, a little bit better car, a little bit bigger house—more, more, more, more, more, more, more. It used to be, you know, you work 40 hours a week, and then we’re going to budget it out. Nowadays, let’s work more shifts, more hours, and get better money and bigger money, and everybody’s just more, more, more, more.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have in your pockets. Somebody, so many people don’t have hardly yet died into the name, but they have a whole lot of love for money. That’s the problem.
Sometimes people that have a love for money, God can’t give them much money because they have so much love for money. It’s not a matter how much money you have; it’s a matter about love. Man, it’s just after money, money, money, money, money. And their kids are going to the devil, and their marriages are falling apart, and they just want more, more, more money.
It’s a sad thing. I prefer, if there’s any way possible, for that mom to stay home and raise those kids. But, you know, my honest truth, it seems like more than any more, it’s not the mom or the dad—the husband. That responsibility falls on your shoulders. If you have a good wife that wants to help you, and you’ve got things worked out where she can, praise the Lord for it. But it falls on our shoulders. This is a love of money.
The old devil loves to promote it anywhere and everywhere: “Get this, and you’ll be happy.” That’s not going to bring you happiness. It’s going to last about 30 seconds. It’s going to last long enough for the next cell phone to come out, amen. For many of us, that will last long enough until we drop that cell phone we just paid $1,200 for.
But our iniquities—iniquities have separated. It’s an amazing statement. Separated between you and your God. Separated.
I’m going to try to give us a little visual here. Brother Tim, can I use you as an illustration here? Come on, Brother Tim. He’s going to represent the Lord for us, okay? That’s a pretty scary thing. Have you ever did anything wrong all your life? Yes. Okay, go sit down. No, no, no, no, I’m teasing.
If you can walk with the Lord through life—thank you, Lord, you made a beautiful day today. It got a little hot later on; could you kind of bring that down, please? This morning, there was a cold breeze. It’s beautiful all day long, but this morning is beautiful. Just, “Hey, Lord, would you help that person over there? Would you?” And you just walk in with the Lord. The Bible says, “In thy presence is fullness of joy.” Amen. You just walk through life, hand in hand with the Lord. That’s what you want in life.
Did you notice that statement? He says, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” You’re not going to be hand in hand with the Lord like that. You’re over here. Your iniquities, the sins of our heart… Brother Josh, you’re going to like this part here. Brother Josh, would you come here, please, sir? Would you come in between us and be the wall of separation here, please, sir?
Brother Josh had taken his job serious. I appreciate it too. Hey man, there’s separation. I can’t get over there to you. See here, Brother Josh is pushing me. He’s doing his job. The Lord doesn’t change, brother, but your iniquities—that’s a sad thing. Your iniquity, brother. Oh, Josh, you’re a bad guy. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God.
Oh, what a sad thing. And so we never get our prayers answered, and then we have no faith. We get ritualistic, cold, sometimes showy prayer lives. They just kind of go, “Ho-hum. I don’t believe God’s going to hear an answer.” So many times it’s because I have iniquity that separates me from God. Christians go like that for years and years, and it’s a sad thing to see. Coworkers see them having a ritualistic Christian life and are like, “Well, I don’t know if there’s that much to it or not.” Sad thing.
What a sad thing. Let’s look at the next thing here. We’re going to be done. Brother Josh did a good job; he was on that separation. Look at the last part of verse number two: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
Sins—iniquity is sins of the heart. Our sins are more just open transgression, missing the mark, if you will. Our little dog, Bell, she’s a Yorkie. She’s the best beggar in all the world. Ms. Tammy had a good meal fixed for us this afternoon, and Bell was right there. She’s right there, and dogs can talk with their eyes. They’ll get their eyes right on you. She’ll just stare, and here’s the thing: she is good at making sure there’s nothing between my eyes and her eyes. Sometimes I put my foot up in between our eyes, and she’ll move. She always makes sure that she can get eye contact. She will just stare right through your eyeball into your soul. She wants food.
And here’s the problem here: It says your sins have hid His face. You can’t look to the Lord and say, “Lord, I’ve got to have an answer to prayer.” God says, “There’s something; it’s hid my face from you.” Not like he’s hid from the rest of the world; it’s hidden from you. Your sins have hid His face from you. You can’t see God because of the sin.
Friend, it is well worth it to take the time and let the Holy Spirit go through your life with a fine-tooth comb, getting all the sin out of it. Because if I don’t, our faces are hid; we cannot get our eyes locked to Him. We can’t see each other because of my sins.
I don’t know what sins you may be battling; we all battle some. But maybe it’s our tongue. Oh, it’s a world of iniquity. It’s a fire. Maybe it’s critical of someone or talking about someone, or maybe it’s cursing, or maybe it’s just open rebellion at work against the boss. I don’t know, but our tongue is sin.
It may be music. Oh, there’s so much power in music. So much power. I often say this: I can ride by a concert hall and see the people standing outside who are about to go in. There’s not a dress requirement there, but I can tell you what kind of music is going to be played inside by what they are wearing, because there’s the atmosphere that goes along with music. There’s power in music.
I think of a young man that was doing pretty good in our church, and I finally came to him to say, “Hey, why have you been doing so good here lately?” He said, “Honestly, preacher, I gave up my country music.” You could see it on his countenance; he was more like a godly young man. This power of music, movies—oh my goodness. We’ve battled over the years, and we have gotten all these other things, and they’re helpful. But sometimes because we have that, we’re watching all the stuff we shouldn’t be watching because we can take out certain parts. Don’t look at me like that; you’ve got these issues too. Or watching it all the time because we got mid-anger. Sometimes it’s just so refreshing to say, “You know, I’m just going to turn the thing off.”
I’m not saying it’s wrong to ever watch anything on the bloop to, but oh, my friend, you’ve got to be so careful with that thing. It’s hard to find anything wholesome and decent on there besides Andy Griffith or, you know, the Lone Ranger. The modern ones are not good either. There are a few wholesome things out there, but that’s a whole lot. What about if we could scroll through all the videos you’ve seen on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube? All these things are sin.
Your sins have hid His face, that He will not hear. It’s so crucial. If He’s going to find faith in my prayer life, I’ve got to have at least sometimes some answers to prayer. But if I have iniquities that separate me and God, if I have sins I just won’t get rid of—I don’t know if it be—but if I get rid of my sin, then me and God, His face is hid from me, and I don’t have answers to prayer. Pretty soon, it’s just become a ritualistic cold, just kind of riding the horse for a while and getting all over the same spot, not going anywhere. Oh, what a sad thing. Wonder will he find faith on the earth?
There used to be a song out years ago, “Getting Used to the Dark.” If we’re not careful, we just kind of get used to the dark, and we just fit in and gel with it all, and we’re not giving off light anymore. The dress of our day and time—can I just say something? Ladies, don’t get used to the dress of our day and time. It’s filthy. It’s awful. I’m just talking about the dress nowadays. Wow.
I’m just kind of rambling a little bit. Have you ever seen that old movie, I think it’s called Time Changes or something like that, about an old preacher from the 1800s or something? He went to a time travel, and he just popped up in our day and time. My goodness, he could not believe what all he saw and heard. If we’re not careful, we just kind of get used to it.
My mom and dad were strict parents, and I praise the Lord; I’m so thankful for it. But when you get a little bit older, they can’t monitor everything you do. I went off to Bible college, and for nine months, I didn’t see any TV at all. I think they brought the TVs out on Thanksgiving to watch a bowl game or something. Most of us are so tired from working all the time. I had gone to my sister’s house to watch. So for nine months, I didn’t see any TV, and I came back and watched some of the shows I watched before. I thought, “Wow, I can’t believe I used to watch that and didn’t think anything about it.”
If we’re not careful, we get so used to that, but God is righteous; He’s holy. He’s not going to change for me or anybody else. “I, the Lord God, change not.” He said, “In him is no darkness at all.” He will not have fellowship with darkness. First John 1, he says it. He’s just not going to do it. You can be a saved, born-again Christian, but you’re not going to have fellowship. There’s going to be separation between you and your God because of sin.
Sometimes all of us—I know myself—I just need an old-fashioned washing, cleaning up, God going through my life and saying, “Man, you need to get some things straightened down, or else I’m not going to have my prayers answered.” We’re all prone to go down. All of us do. Oh, Lesteroloff, someone came to me and said, “Well, if a revival doesn’t last for long, what good is it?” He said, “Well, the bath doesn’t last for long, but I sure am glad you took one.”
We all need cleaning up sometimes. Everybody does. That’s just part of it. I’m going to have my prayers then. I’ve got to just kind of let God go through my life. You need any sin out of there. Nothing like it when you get back close to the Lord.
That separation—you draw nigh to Him, and He’ll draw nigh to you. Part of that is, “as you cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” You get that close, and you can get your eyes—eyes on the Lord. The righteous, the Bible says in First Peter, we were talking about them in Sunday school. When you get close to God, you start to see God in it. Nothing like God answering the prayer.
I don’t mean to brag. You probably have more answers to prayer than I do, and I hope you do. I’m not just trying to give you something, but sometimes a little bitty old thing is encouraging. I have on my one temporary prayer list a good pair of shoes. We’re about to go on vacation. I’m wanting to get a good pair of shoes, and I’m cheap. I don’t like to spend a lot of money on shoes. Anybody else out there like that? Man, we went to J.C. Penney’s, and we found, you know, it was down to like $40, and then my wife had this 30% off coupon, and they wouldn’t take it because of the sale. But the lady said, “Well, we can do this thing,” so we did this thing. She stayed and she helped us, and I got a $60 pair of shoes for $28 with tax everything. Praise the Lord. That’s a little bit of a crazy thing, but it was on my prayer list, and God did that. I have no doubt God did.
When God answers the prayer, man, it kind of puts a pep in your step. It gives you faith. If you are never having answers to prayer—yes, you go through seasons, everybody does—but friend, you ought to have something sometimes. If I’m never having anything, “Hey Lord, there’s some iniquity there.” He’s so capable of talking to me.
Brother Patterson got me the clock, the Moses clock, “Let my people go.” It’s speaking to me right now. I’d say, “Let my people go.” D.L. Moody was in a prayer meeting with me. It was a group of men. He said, “We need to get clean first,” and he said, “We need to confess our sins.” One guy said, “Well, I don’t know what to confess.” D.L. Moody said, “Well, just guess.” D.L. Moody said, “Wouldn’t you believe it? He guessed right every time.”
Just let him get the iniquity out, the sin out. Then there’s no separation, and His face is not hid from you. It’s a wonderful thing.
By the way, I failed to mention it, but that first part, he said, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save.” It’s been a while since we had somebody saved on a Sunday morning around here. It would just be good for all of us. “Hey, Lord, we want you to work. We want to get clean. You’re the Wednesday night crowd; you’re the best folks in the world, and I mean that.” All of us from time to time need to say, “Lord, I want to get my iniquity out. I want to get my sins right. I want to see you move and work. I don’t want what we can do; we want what you can do.”
Lord, we want to see you. We don’t want to be separated from you. Lord, if we have iniquity, if we have sins, Lord, show them to us tonight. In Your mercy and Your grace, help us get thoroughly right with you tonight so we can see you, our eyes can connect, you hear our prayers, and we have faith. Bless the invitation, Father, please. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Not a Christian alive that doesn’t have to get things right with God. Every one of us daily, yes, sometimes just in moment by moment, keeping things right, getting the iniquity out, getting the sin out. We all have it. Not a matter of us staying right—none of us stays right—but we let Him keep us right. Just let Him. Ask Him to search: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Original File: Why no Faith - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 07102022