SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/29/2023 9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1b “The
Principle”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
21:20-22
Message of the verses: “20 And seeing this,
the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at
once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you,
if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the
fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the
sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you
shall receive.’”
I want to continue to look at the sermon that John
MacArthur preached on this section of Scripture in today’s SD.
“But
as we ask consistent with God’s revelation of Himself, consistent with the name
of Jesus Christ and His purpose, consistent in an unselfish way to the glory of
God, we can know we’ll receive it.
“This
is similar to John – to Matthew 17:20. Turn back for a moment. The disciples came
back; they couldn’t do a miracle they wanted to do. He said, “You couldn’t do
it because of your unbelief. You couldn’t do it because of your unbelief. If
you just had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you’d say to the mountain,
‘Move from here to yonder place,’ and it would move, and nothing would be
impossible. You didn’t have enough faith. You should have had the faith of a
grain of mustard seed.”
“You
say, “Now wait a minute. Faith of a grain of mustard seed, that’s the smallest
seed there is.”
“Well,
yes, but that’s – that’s not talking about small faith. The faith of a grain of
mustard seed is this. A mustard seed’s a small seed that produces – what? – a
very large bush. And the
idea is if you have faith that starts small but gets larger and larger and
larger and larger, you’re going to see God work in power. That’s what He’s
saying.
“So,
you start out small, and if it doesn’t happen, you don’t say, “Well, I give up.
I asked the Lord to do it, and He didn’t do it.” But your faith grows and
strengthens and strengthens and strengthens. It’s like the same kind of faith
that is illustrated to us in the Gospel of Luke chapter 11, the Gospel of Luke
chapter 18, both of which give us the stories of persistent – persistent people
where the guy gets his answer because he knocks, and knocks, and knocks, and
knocks, and knocks; and where the lady gets her response because she begs, and
begs, and begs, and begs.
“In
other words, the Lord is saying if you believe in God enough to be persistent
in your prayers, and to start out small and keep praying, and keep praying, and
keep praying; let that faith strengthen, and strengthen, and strengthen, then
God’s going to respond to that.
“Now,
some people will always come along and say, “Oh, well, but God’s going to do
what He’s going to do anyway. And what about God’s sovereignty? And we can’t
ask for stuff that’s out of His will, and how does He know if He wants to do
it?” So forth and so on.
“And
you can get all tangled up in the sovereignty of God, and then you can make
your prayer life literally impotent. I don’t understand those relationships any
more than I understand the fact that I must come to Christ for salvation, and
yet it’s all of His sovereignty.
“There
are paradoxes in the Bible that I don’t understand. And I know God has a
sovereign will, and I know God answers prayer sovereignly. And I know God is in
charge of everything, and I know He does exactly what He wants to do, but I
also know the Bible says that I’m supposed to pray persistently; and I’m
supposed to pray faithfully; and I’m supposed to pray, believing that what God
says is what God wants, and what God says He’s able to do is, in fact, what He
is able to do. And if my faith will grow, and grow, and persist, and persist,
and persist, I’ll see the power of God.
“And
some of you are not seeing God work in your life simply because there’s no
persistence in your prayer; there’s no continuance in your prayer; there’s no
strengthening. You don’t get an answer, so you quit. And it’s not mustard seed;
it’s something else. Mustard seed starts small, gets big.
“Boy,
when I see a verse like 22 of Matthew 21, “All things whatever you shall ask in
prayer, believing you shall receive,” that’s a pretty dynamite promise, folks.
And if you understand that that means all things in the will of God, it doesn’t
hurt it, it just makes it all the better. Right? Because what do you want? You
only want what God wills. Right? I want whatever God wants for me. I want the
best that God wants for me. I want the best that God wants for you. I want the
best that God wants for this church. I want the best that God wants for this
ministry, whatever it is. I want that. With all my heart I want that. And here
the Lord says, “If you really believe God wants that and God can do that, then
let’s see the exercise of your faith in persistence. And some of us have not
received the blessing of God in our lives simply because we have not persisted
in prayer.
“Now,
my job is not to harmonize all of that with God’s sovereignty. God does that
part. I can’t do that, but my job is to respond in faith and simple trust to
the confident statement of verse 22, that if I ask in prayer, believing that
God will do what He will do and is able to do what He says He will do, that I’ll
see His power. I just – I get tired of impotence. I get – I’m weary of a church
without power. I’m weary of a life without power. I’m weary of people without
power. I’m weary of not seeing the hand of God in an almighty way. I want God
to be at work, and I know that the plan here is given very clearly if we ask in
prayer, not doubting. And, you know, a lot of folks start their prayer – oh,
great faith – and they don’t get an answer in the next 24 hours, and… phist.
That’s not mustard seed; that’s not getting stronger, and bigger, and larger.
You keep pursuing, keep persisting, keep knocking, keep crying out.
“Christ,
when He prayed in the garden, cried out to the point where He sweat, as it
were, great drops of blood because of the soul anguish that was poured out in
His prayer. We throw superficial, shallow, little prayers at God that are so
trite, lack so much intensity and so much passion that they dishonor God by
even being offered. We think that God builds His Church by better programs. We
think God builds His Church by better plans, by better ideas, and we fail to
realize that where God really wants to reveal His power is through persistent
prayers of His people.”
It
looks like I will need one more SD to finish the quotation of this sermon.
6/29/2023 9:55 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment