Hopewell Baptist Church Napa, CA Sermon Podcast

If you have your Bibles, would you open them, please, toward the end of the book of First Peter? First Peter chapter number three. We’re going to just look at one verse, 1 Peter 3:12: “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers…” I want to focus on that little phrase, “His ears are open unto their prayers.” I want to speak this morning on this subject: “Getting on Praying Ground.”

We believe that God hears prayer, but sometimes we wonder, “Is He hearing my prayers?” And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Let’s pray. Father, bless now this time. Open our hearts and ears to this great, great truth. We don’t know how much we really need it. Help us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The first thing emergency workers focus on when there’s a major emergency is communication lines. They want to make sure somehow they’ve contacted the hurting person and they know we’re here, we’re trying to rescue you. When they did the famous Osama bin Laden raid, the Navy seal told in his book how that when the two helicopters flew off, communications were going between each seal — between the operator, between the base commander. Everyone was talking. There was communication. “Tell me what you see, tell me what’s going on there.” They had the video cam, all that communication.

Decades ago when I was a young adult, I remember a little girl named Jessica fell down into a well. They looked and looked for her. Finally, they said she’s at the bottom of this well. It made worldwide news. “Here’s another update. Right now, Jessica, she’s still alive. She’s alive. She may have broken some bones, but she’s still alive.” The first thing they did was lower down a communication line. They said, “Hey little girl, we’re trying to get you out. You’re not alone. You’re going to make it.” They established that communication line. Then they talked about how they tunneled all the way somehow to pull her out alive.

So, you say, “Pastor, what’s that got to do with me?” God wants to talk to you, and God wants you to talk to Him. It’s one of the greatest privileges a Christian has. We’re not talking about a famous person, some political person, some actress, some actor, some nationally known person who wants to call. You know, we’re talking about the God Who spoke and made the universe — He wants to know you, and He has time to listen to you know. You never get a busy signal. He never unfriends you. He never hangs up on you or changes His number on you. He really wants to know you.

We are created with the ability to communicate. You that have children — with a little baby, one of the first things you can’t wait to hear is that baby to get old enough to say, “I wuv you.” And you want to hear that. You just do. God makes us with vocal cards. He makes us be able to make sounds. Not only sounds, but He gives us a language. When He made Adam and Eve, the first two people, they knew how to speak. They had a language with vocal cards that allowed them to communicate. They had words that they could understand. They could understand words because God wants communication to be a two-way street. He speaks, we listen. We speak, He listens. What a great privilege! What a great privilege is this thing of prayer!

Sometimes, God spoke out loud. Sometimes, God spoke to the heart, Sometimes, He wrote things in the Bible. One thing the disciples asked Jesus when they got around Him for several years — they didn’t ask Him, “Teach us how to do miracles,” “Teach us how to multiply a lunch,” “Teach us how to walk on the water,” “Teach us, Jesus, how to raise the dead.” Here’s the one thing they asked: “Teach us to pray. We’ve heard You pray, Master, and that’s one thing we admire more than anything else. Would You teach us how to do that?”

It’s the key to all relationships. Communication. If you have marriage problems right now in this room, there is a communication problem. By the way, if you’re married, you got problems. Okay, I’m just going to try to notify you there. Let me say this: If you’re getting married, you’re about to have problems. Why? Because it’s two different people, two different worlds, two different ideas viewing things differently. Communication’s the key when you stop talking. Your problems don’t get better.

When you stop talking to Him, when you stopped listening to Him, your problems don’t get any better. He wants us to communicate.

Okay, let’s vote. How many of you know someone who, the only time you get a text from them or a phone call or they dropped by is when their hand is like this (open, waiting to receive something)? How many of you know someone like that? Come on. All right. Good. For how many of you, they’re in this room? I don’t know if you’re like me, but I hate to see them coming. It’s like, “Okay, what do they want now? How much is this going to cost me now? How come they couldn’t balance your checkbook? What’s going on? What trouble are they in?” And I think if we’re not careful, sometimes that’s that way we treat God. The only time He ever hears from us is in emergencies. Whenever talk to Him — maybe once a year — I need something. We cry out, “Where are you?” “Well, I’ve been here a whole year, and you didn’t talk to Me.” So, sometimes it is that way.

The word “pray” actually means “to ask.” The definition is to ask, but prayer shouldn’t always be asking. Sometimes, God just wants us to hang out. Tomorrow night we got that men’s fellowship. We’re probably not going to be talking about the Bible the whole time. Most guys won’t talk at all. It’ll be, “All right, you all just pray. Let’s eat.” It might just be eating, get back in the car, burp on the way home, and that’s it. But sometimes prayer ought to be us bragging on Him. “Hey, good job with the weather. I saw the clouds. Oh, they were awesome, God.” He likes us bragging on Him. He doesn’t mind if we’re thankful and we thank Him for things. He doesn’t mind if we just tell Him how great He is.

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

If you have your Bibles, we will look at one verse in Hebrews and then the rest of the story in 1 Samuel tonight. Let’s look over to the book of Hebrews Chapter 12. We’ve been in the book of Judges, talking about defeat through feelings. This story tonight actually takes place during the time of the judges. But notice the theme verse or the doctrinal verse that surrounds the whole study tonight.

Look at this in Hebrews 12. If you have it, let’s look at it verse 15. What a warning for us. He says, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God…” So, it could happen to any of us, right? Lest any man. It’s not saying this is a sin just for men. It means mankind if you will. “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” (Hebrews 12:15). That means God is trying to give us grace, and He always gives the grace to be saved. And then, the Bible says, “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Titus 2:11), but ofttimes. He gives grace when we’re hurting. So, if we succeed at grace, succeed in the grace of God, that means what He’s giving us we’re receiving. So, to “fail the grace of God” would be not to accept the grace that He’s trying to give us.

So, notice what he’s saying here, “looking diligently” — like you dropped a contact lens, like you lost your car keys. I mean, you’re looking lest any of us or “any man fail of the grace of God” Now, notice what happens when we reject his grace: “…lest any root of bitterness springing up…” Overnight it just springs up. It just breaks the ground. Just a little seedling. Notice what bitterness does. It “…trouble[s] you, and thereby many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:15b). So, bitterness brings trouble to us and many others. It’s not like it’s just my life and doesn’t affect anybody else. No, bitterness affects us, and it brings trouble to others as well.

With that in mind, let’s look back at the book of 1 Samuel, if you will, in chapter number 9. 1 Samuel chapter 9. We’re going to look at a lot of Scriptures and then give you some conclusions. So, some of this will be highlights in the story. I want to speak on this subject tonight. Here’s are the possible titles. “Living with a Javelin in Your Hand,” or we could call it “A Little Saul in Us All,” or we could call it “Victory Over Anger.” If I keep giving it titles, we will have to dismiss. We won’t have time to get to the message. But it’s one of the titles right there. So, I want to give you four thoughts tonight on the subject of overcoming anger. And it’s a study in the life of King Saul, the first king of Israel.

Notice in 1 Samuel 9:2 “And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly…” Last phrase, verse 2: “…he was higher than any of the people.” Natural man, natural leader. He was a tall, good-looking guy. Strong. Head and shoulders above everyone in his nation. So, natural leadership. He’s going to see the man of God, Samuel.

1 Samuel 9:7, the last phrase: “…what shall we bring the man?” (talking about Samuel). So, he respected the man of God. He wants to bring a gift when he meets with Samuel. So, this guy is a leader. He’s a giver.

And then in 1 Samuel 9:21, it’s time to anoint him king, and he’s hiding. So, he’s humble. “And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel?…” He’s humble. He’s got all the makings for a great leader.

And then we see in 1 Samuel 10:1 “Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head…” He’s now anointed to be the king. 1 Samuel 10:6: God turned him into another man. 1 Samuel 10:6, the middle phrase: “God gave him another heart.” 1 Samuel 10:22: It’s time to reveal the king, and it says, “…he hath hid himself among the stuff.” So, he pulled back from wanting to be the leader. He was not proud. He was not trying to uh throw himself into leadership. These are all things a great leader should be.

Then, the middle phrase of 1 Samuel 11:7: “Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel…” So, he identified himself with the man of God, Samuel — the prophet, Samuel.

The Subliminal

Now, keep going a little bit further. Skip over to 1 Samuel 13. Years are starting to pass. He has been sworn in. He is now the king, and it’s time to have a battle. He’s got two troops. His son, Jonathan, is leading one, and he’s leading one. Jonathan has a victory. His son, Jonathan, defeats the Philistines. But notice 1 Samuel 13:4: “And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines…” His son had the victory, but Saul took the credit. So, there are some subtle things now starting to come into the life of Saul. He doesn’t start throwing javelins the first month of his reign. But you’re going to see what I call — number one — the subliminal. It’s below the surface. There’s something’s starting to come into King Saul’s life that’s going to breed anger.

Then it’s time for the Sacrifice. 1 Samuel 13:8: “And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal…” Samuel was supposed to show up to do the sacrifice. Seven days passed. People get nervous. 1 Samuel 13:9 “And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.” That was only supposed to be done by the priest. The priest did that, not the king, not a politician. Samuel was a little bit late, so Saul said, “Give it here. I’ll do the burnt offering.” He was never to do that. He was impatient.

Not only that, but look in 1 Samuel 13:11: “And Samuel said, What hast thou done?…” Saul says, “Because you were late.” That’s basically what he said — “You were late.” So, now we see him blame-shifting. He has disobeyed the command of the Lord, but “it wasn’t his fault.” It’s somebody else’s fault. You follow me here? This king, he’s going to have anger issues. Where do these things come from?

Below is a excerpt from the sermon...

John 6:1–11 “After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. 2. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. 3. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. 4. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. 5. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6. And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. 7. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, 9. There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 10. And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.”

Father, would You bless now, this time we have? Just a little bit of time, a lot of preparation. Some people have traveled an hour just to get to church. Some single parents got some kids ready all by themselves just to get here. Bus drivers drove buses, people cleaned buildings, choir and special music rehearsed. Thank You for all the labor., and here we are — we’ve got a few minutes to talk about Your Word. It’s miracle-working. Do a miracle in our hearts today. Lord, I pray that you would feed us just like You fed these hungry people years ago. In Jesus’ name, we ask, Amen.

I have been on this mountain where this miracle took place… not during the time of the miracle(!), but it’s that place many of you saw on the Israel trips we’ve taken. They call that the Hill or the Mount of the Loaves and Fishes. The Catholic church has actually built a building over the place where the lad handed the lunch to Jesus, or so they say. Like they know that was the exact place. Who knows? But what a wonderful miracle took place on this hillside.

You say, Pastor, what’s the background to the story here? It said, “after these things.” So, what had happened? Jesus, of course, Who had been born in Bethlehem — it’s 30 years later, and He turns water into wine. And word starts getting out. This Guy is a miracle worker. In John 4, He heals someone. Remember, the woman at the well? He heals her soul, and she tells the whole city. In John chapter 5, a man is laying at a pool, and Jesus reaches down and tells him to pick up his bed and heals him. Now all these things are starting to get out. Good news back then traveled fast. And so, they had heard about Jesus raising the dead, healing, the blinded eyes, healing the cripple, and word had come out. So now everywhere Jesus went there were multitudes. He was like a rock star. It was like when a famous politician — when news got out, they wanted to be there and maybe see a miracle.

Not only that, they wanted to hear him speak. One of the guards said, “No man ever spoke like this before.” And sometimes Jesus would hold people spellbound for three days. They wouldn’t leave. They wouldn’t eat. They just sat there and listened to His words. By the way, that’s part of what’s going to happen up in Heaven. We’ll get to sit at His feet and hear Him speak, and He’ll know your name. He’ll know all about you, and we will never have to leave His presence.

So, now the crowds are starting to come. Jesus and his disciples get off the boat. Now they’re heading up the hill. Thousands of people — men are stopping their jobs: They’re stopping their pottery. They’re not watching the sheep. They’re stopping their construction. They’re heading up, taking the days off work. They’re just mobbing Jesus.

And there’s a little lad the story. The Bible doesn’t give his name. “Lad” probably means he wasn’t quite a young man. He could have been in 5th or 6th grade, maybe young junior high. He was simply called “a lad.” No name, but he was in the crowd. I can imagine him coming to his mother that day saying, “Hey mom, can I have off school today? I hear Jesus is in town. I want to hear Him, and I want to see Him do a miracle.” His mom, being like most moms, probably would have said, “No, you have school today.” “Well, I heard the disciples can sign off for us, and we can get an excuse. The disciples will sign, and it’ll be like a field trip. You know, this is like history, mom.” “Okay, I’ll let you go. How long you’re going to be gone?” “I don’t know. Jesus talks for a long time. Maybe I can stand in line and get His autograph or get a little selfie. Maybe someone would draw a picture of us together or something. Mom, I just want to stay all day.”

And I imagine the mom probably at that time said, “Well you’re going to need a lunch.” And I imagine the boy said, “Mom, I don’t want to bring a lunch. No one else is bringing a lunch.” Son, I don’t want you to be hungry. No son of mine is going to starve while he’s watching Jesus preach.” And so, he had a little lunch, and he goes.

The Lord

I want to just give you several thoughts about the story quickly. Number one, we see the Lord. The Bible said, “He saw that the people were hungry.” I want to say this: He sees your need. Maybe no one knows what you need this morning, but Jesus sees it. Jesus sees past the eyes. He sees past the outside. He sees past the hurts. He sees past all that, and He sees this is something they need. The word love simply means seeing a need and meeting it. And that’s what Jesus does.

The following is an excerpt from the sermon...

Go ahead and take your Bibles. Turn with me in your Bibles and find Psalm Chapter 73. And we’re going to look down in a couple of verses here. We won’t read the whole chapter. We’re going to highlight a couple of things.

So, in preparing, this sermon, I want you to take a little bit of a journey with me and know my thought process in this. There are some sermons that are like meat and potatoes meals — they are good for you, and you need a constant diet of them. You can’t be eating cotton candy and coca-cola every meal. You need a regular diet of nutritious meals in order to live a healthy life. But you see, one meal is not life or death. You can skip one and not die — even if it feels like you are! Today’s topic is not one you can skip. It’s like the meal thing at all. This is like you’ve been bitten by a rattlesnake. If you don’t get to the hospital and soon, you will die. This is a spiritual life or death thing. I enjoy preaching meat and potato messages — I think to myself, Man this is such a good truth. I can’t wait to bake it and serve it to the people. It’s important but not spiritual life and death. Listen, please. This one is. This is the rattlesnake thing. We can’t skip this one. There might not be a single subject that is more dear to my heart than this. Tonight, I want you to lend me your ear and your heart for a moment as we deal with the subject of doubts. And that is the title and subject tonight — “Dissolving Doubts.”

I’m picking up that that phrase “dissolver of doubts” or “dissolving doubts” from Daniel 5:12. If you remember his life, his life was described as one who was a “dissolver of doubts.” When you hear that word “dissolved,” maybe you think of it like an Alka-Seltzer tablet. You drop it in water and you see it fizzle… or one of those Airborne things, and you watch it dissolve. That word “dissolve” there in the Hebrew, if you were to translate it very literally, it means “to untie knots.” It can also be translated “to unshackle someone from chains.” And if you’ve ever been caught in this whirlpool of doubt, you know exactly that feeling of being tied in knots or being shackled by chains. That’s a fitting description.

And in the Christian life, you cannot proceed farther when you’re in this whirlpool of doubt. Doubt cripples. It paralyzes like poison. It paralyzes you, and we have to make the trip to the hospital. We have to do that not only for us in learning how to dissolve our own doubts but also learning how to do that for other people like Daniel did.

And so, in Psalm 73 this is a psalm of Asaph. We don’t know much about him other than the psalms that he wrote, but we get a glimpse into his personality here and what was going through his mind. We will start reading in Psalm 73:1. It says this, and it’s through his voice — him speaking: 1. “Truly God is good to Israel…” Right, That’s starting off on a great note. Okay. 1. “Truly God is good to Israel Even to such as are of a clean heart.” And here we go. 2. “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; My steps had well nigh slipped.” Why? 3. “For I was envious at the foolish, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

Verse 12, skip down there. Psalm 73:12 “Behold, these are the ungodly, Who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocency. 14. For all the day long have I been plagued…” Plagued. He’s talking about illness. 14. ”…And chastened every morning.” So if he’s talking about illness and it happens every morning, he’s talking about chronic illness. 15. “If I say, I will speak thus; Behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.” Here’s his conclusion about what he sees in the world. 16. “When I thought to know this, It was too painful for me;”

Asaph, the man who wrote this psalm was inspired by God. This is an inspired author of Scripture, who is here filled with doubts. What he knows to be true about God and His nature is not matching up with what he sees in reality. And when that happens, your mind is filled with doubts. What I’m seeing doesn’t match with what I actually believe. Should I abandon that based on what I’m seeing in front of me? What should I do? And this is where he lives. So, for Asaph, he doubted the goodness of God. He looks and he sees bad people, and good things are happening to the bad people. He looks at himself and bad things are happening to good people. It’s the reverse of what life should be, what he thinks life should be.

For Asaph, he doubted the goodness of God. But for others, that may not be the doubt in your mind. I tried to list some of them — some of the more common ones, but there are doubts that I probably have not even thought of that someone could be struggling with. And for everyone, your personality is different. You struggle with different doubts. Your life experiences are different.

For some people, it might be:

“Does God really love me?”

“Is Christianity really true?”

“Am I truly saved?” When you go through life with that constant question mark in your head, you cannot progress farther in the Christian life. When you’re knocking on doors going out soul winning and you don’t know if you are saved or don’t know that the Bible is actually true, you can’t witness to someone with any kind of boldness at all because you have doubts. Are you following me?

Maybe the question is, “Does God really answer prayer? Am I just wasting my time praying?”

“If God is good, why did he let such and such happen?”

“If God is good, why can’t I have any children?”

“If God is good, why am I still single?”

“If God is good…?” You see?

“Does God really have my best interest in mind?” Yeah, I believe in God, but maybe He just flung the worlds out into existence, and He doesn’t care about what goes on every day of my life. “Does he really care about me?”

“Is trying to live a godly life really worth it?

With this list and many, many others, if a question plagues you, you’re stuck. You’re stuck in quicksand spiritually. We’re going to talk about this here. Moments of doubt are life and death moments because during this time of doubt, your doubt either mutates into unbelief or it transforms into stronger faith. One or two things happen. So, it’s like this turning point, this pivot moment in life. Either you totally fall, like in Psalm 73. He said, his steps, his footing well-nigh slipped. Either you fall into unbelief, or you come out with a stronger faith than you had previously.