In just a few moments, Dr. Don Wilton is going to share with us four key concepts, the final four, that will help revolutionize our life. The Encouraging Word Our evolutionize our life sounds like I'm selling vitamins.
That's not the case at all. But I am telling you that we are here at The Encouraging Word to share with you the truth of God's Word, the Bible itself. And Dr. Don Wilton is a Bible-based preacher that's going to open God's Word in just a moment and give us some insight on how we pray.
How we approach God and how it really will change our life for the better. While we're doing so, we'd love to speak with you, love to pray with you. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or we'd love to meet you online as well at www.tewonline.org.
That's www.tewonline.org. Now let's connect with Dr. Don Wilton. The Encouraging Word Now my friends, I'm about to open God's Word to 2 Chronicles 7, beginning at verse 11. And I'm about to lay something down on us that God would say to us as a people, and He is speaking to us today. If we don't listen to what God is saying to us, we've got a serious problem on our hands. If we don't listen to what God is saying to us, I'm listening to reports, I'm listening to coronavirus task forces and teams, I'm respecting the government, I'm watching the signs, I'm washing my hands, I'm making sure that we stay a good distance from one another. Right now I'm preaching to an empty auditorium with thousands upon thousands of people worshipping, live streaming from all over the world and on television. But the one that I must listen to far more than anyone else is God. I want to read to you from 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 11.
You need to read this. The Bible says, thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house, he, he successfully accomplished.
Kind of sounds like the condition of America before this virus hit us. We had successfully accomplished a lot of things. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send viruses upon my people. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open, my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever.
My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. But as for you, as for you, America believers, Christian men and women, brothers and sisters in Christ. If you will walk before me as David your father walked doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules. Then I will establish your royal throne. As I covenanted with David your father saying you shall not lack a man to rule Israel. But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commands that I have set before you. And if you go and you serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I've given you. And this house that I've consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all people. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house? And they will say, here's the reason, because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them.
This is the reason God has brought this disaster upon them. I feel speechless. I don't know what to say when God says it. You know, we believers are a precious group of people. We are.
We're brothers and sisters. You know, with all of our oddities, ways of doing things, our ecclesiology, the way we hold church, some of the things that we hold precious, and the ways in which we worship the Lord, even some of our variations and some things that are very important. Those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ all agree that there are three things that all of us will agree on. Number one, that we want God to hear us from heaven. Right?
Yes or no? Number two, that we want God to forgive us for our sin. Number three, all of us agree we want God to heal our land.
Right? Three things we all agree with. I want to speak to you on God's final four. In order to accomplish those three things that we all agree with, that God would hear us from heaven.
When we talk to him that he would pay attention, listen, do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton. We'll be back with the rest of today's message. God's final four in just a moment, but Dr. Don wants me to remind you we're here for you connecting both online at www.tewonline.org and this phone number, jot it down, store it in your cell, 866-899. Word is the phone number. That's 866-899-9673. And as Dr. Don would say, we'd be happy to be one of your 2 a.m. friends.
You can call that number anytime, day or night or visit us online at www.tewonline.org. As a matter of fact, right now you need to check out the Book of Daniel, this wonderful series from Dr. Don available online right now. Our nation is in crisis. The devil is working overtime. How do we counteract the evil all around us? How do we overcome? We must learn to be quiet, to be still and listen for the voice of God. We must listen and obey. With your gift of support to the Encouraging Word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's timely messages on the teachings of Daniel. Messages include hearing God's voice in the crowd, the power of obedience and the story of conviction. These messages on CD or DVD will be sent to you for a gift of $20 or more in support of the Encouraging Word. Call us at 866-899-WORD to request Dr. Wilton's teachings on Daniel, a man of courage, conviction and immovable faith. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. I do hope you'll call about your copy of the Book of Daniel.
You can call at 866-899-WORD, but that number is also so much more than that. We'd be happy to talk and pray with you any time, day or night, 866-899-9673. Now back to today's message with Dr. Dyer. I'm just going to say to you, do you not suppose God could have told us to do anything God wanted to tell us to do? You know, you can go and study in the age of Charlemagne, for example.
You can go to history. Even to this current day, there are people who believe. You know, you can go to church and if you've sinned and if you're wanting God to do something, you get instructions. Well, walk four times around the church. How about, why does God not say, let's give our money to the poor? Why didn't God say, well, just do good or be good people? Why didn't God say, He could have said so many things, but He gave us four things. These are God's final four. I want to just share them with you today. This is what God says.
Number one, this is what we got to do. Humility. Have you ever tried to really get a hold of what humility really means?
Listen to what Tim Hiddleston had to say. It's what he said about humility. Stay hungry, stay young, stay foolish, stay curious, and above all, stay humble. Because just when you think you got all the answers is the moment when some bitter twist of fate in the universe will remind you that very much you don't. I want you to think about this. C. Joy Bell said this, be careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility.
Nothing. Humility has nothing to do with the insecure or the inadequate, just like arrogance has nothing to do with greatness. It's a good quote, isn't it?
Here's one of my favorite ones that I took note of. Abraham Lincoln, one of my favorite historical persons, great president. Abraham Lincoln said this, I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed totally insufficient for that day. That's Abraham Lincoln. What about C.S. Lewis? Love C.S.
Lewis. This is what he said. He said, as long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people.
And of course, as long as you're looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. Here's what I want to say to you today. God tells us that if we want him to hear us from heaven, if we want him to forgive us for our sin and if we want him to heal our land, very clearly, we need to humble ourselves before God. I'm going to submit to you, my beloved friends, that the way we approach God is critical to the way we hear from God. So the call to humility invokes three things. First of all, recognition. Recognition. Recognition of who God is.
I grapple with this every day in my life. Today, as I prepared to stand and to share this word with you, I grappled with this issue. I fell upon my knees before God. Crying out to him, saying to him, Lord, I recognize you, who you are, you are almighty, you're sovereign in every way, great is thy faithfulness, oh God. Call to humility involves recognizing God for who he is. It involves relinquishing who we are, the relinquishment of ourselves.
Remember that great old song that we all love to sing at some of our favorites? It's so hard to be humble when we're perfect in every way. We love that and get a good giggle out of it, but it's so true. It is hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way.
Most of us try to convince our wives of that truth for the better part of our lives, don't we? Lord, I come before you today, but I just want you to know that I'm so magnificent. You've made me so great, oh God. I, man, am the center of my own universe. I know everything and I've got the solution to everything.
I am a genius. God says, I'm not going to hear from heaven. I'm not going to forgive your sin and I'm not going to heal your land unless you humble yourself. And humbling ourselves involves recognizing who God is, relinquishing. It involves relinquishment, but it also involves a great release. We've got to release ourselves. We've got to step back from ourselves. We've got to fall away from ourselves in the presence of a holy and a righteous God.
Some of us as believers, we strut so much, we strut even while we're sitting down. One of the hardest things for the human soul spirit to accomplish is to be less than. And God demands it of us that we release ourselves.
So to humble ourselves means three things. It means total surrender. I give up, Lord. I come to you. I come to you with nothing in my hands, with nothing in my heart, with no ability. I completely surrender to you.
It means not only total surrender, but it means total submission. It's one thing to surrender, but it's another thing to bow down and to submit to what God wants us to do. We've got to stop arguing with God. We've got to stop telling God.
We've got to stop holding meetings at which you and I decide what it is that God is going to do for us. This is hard, isn't it, my friends? It's certainly hard for me in this human body of mine. What does it mean to humble yourself? It means total surrender and total submission, but it means total adoption.
I not only give up. I not only lay down to, but I adopt. Paul put it like this, he said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself. He humbled himself, had no reputation, took upon himself the sin of the world. Our Lord Jesus, Paul said, let that mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. I recognize you, Lord. I relinquish my own life. I release everything to you. And as I humble myself, I do it in an attitude of total surrender.
I just give up. I do it in an attitude of total submission, total adoption. I submit to you and I take on the mind of Christ. I ask you, Lord, to so infiltrate my heart and infiltrate my life that I would walk like you and look like you and behave like you and think like you because you alone are God. And God, I'm crying out to you, please, would you hear me from heaven? Would you forgive me for my sin? Would you come and heal our land?
God said, I'll do it if you'll humble yourself before me. So how are you doing? How are we doing, America? How are we doing, church?
How are we doing, believers? It's who he's talking to. Listen, I expect unbelievers to strut. They do. Just turn on your television set. Just listen to them. Listen to them mock. Listen to them take the name of Jesus in vain.
You can hardly watch a movie without them using the name of Jesus Christ as a cuss word. And I believe that every time you hear a blasphemy, you are now being reminded that it's at the name of Jesus that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Oh, God, would you please hear me from heaven?
Would you forgive me for my sin? Will you heal our land? I'll do it if you humble yourself. It's time for us to stop telling God, deciding what it is that God is and what he does. It's time for us to humble ourselves in his presence in total surrender and total submission and in total adoption of the mind of Christ. Well, if this is God's final fall, humility is the first one, the second is prayer. If you humble yourself and pray, Dr. Billy Graham, I miss him so much, and I think of him a lot.
I've just written a wonderful book that will be published in the fall based on my personal relationship with Dr. Billy Graham. What a man of prayer. I don't think I ever in over two decades ever was with Dr. Billy Graham, that he did not call us to a time of prayer. I quote Mr. Graham, prayer is for every moment of our lives. He said that. Prayer is where you meet God in genuine conversation.
He said that. Mr. Graham said, prayer is for every moment of our lives. His grandson whom I love so much, Will Graham, one time sharing, preaching on James chapter 5, he said, prayer brings restoration. It brings communion. It brings forgiveness.
It brings power. And here we are. We're in the midst of yet another crisis. Goes so far beyond COVID-19, doesn't it? Are we really serious in thinking that our crisis is a virus? That's certainly a big concerning part of it. People have lost their lives.
People are losing their lives. We are serious about this. But we're most serious about saying, Oh God, would you hear us from heaven? Would you forgive our sin?
Will you heal our land? And God says, I will do it if you humble yourself and if you pray. Three critical prayer factors. Number one, who we pray to.
That's the first critical prayer factors. Who do we pray to? You pray to God, our Heavenly Father, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what Jesus taught us. Jesus taught us that our Father who art in heaven. And we pray that prayer in and through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father. He is the only one through whom we gain access to our God and our Father who is sovereign in all His ways. So the first critical factor in prayer is who we pray to.
Yes, I'm going to say that. What we hear in America behind every bush are generic prayers. That are void many times even of God. And they're totally void of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can you and I pray without Jesus?
Is that an option? Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thus saith the Lord.
This is what God says. First critical factor of prayer is who we pray to. The second critical factor is how we pray from. That speaks to our attitude.
We're back to the first of God's final four. Our humility, prayer and supplication. Supplication is the earnestness with which we come before God in surrender, in submission, in adoption. We beg of Him because He alone is Lord. Oh God, we come before You, bowing down in the dirt our faces before You. We come in supplication, begging of You that You would hear from heaven, that You would forgive our sin, that You would heal our land. Critical factors in prayer.
Who? We pray to, how we pray from. And number three, what we pray for. I love that part because the Bible says we can ask God anything in His name. That's what Jesus said, ask anything. Here it is in my name. God don't do praying to trees and whales and nature and generics up there and big man in the sky.
God don't do that. America, He does not even accommodate it. You ask anything in my name. He said, well, here we are. Where are we?
Three things. Lord, would You hear us from heaven? Lord, would You forgive us for our sin?
Lord, would You heal our land? I'll do it. Here's my final four. I'll do this. Humble yourself. Pray.
Number three, seeking. Seek my face. Seek God's face. Remembering that God said you cannot look upon His face and live. That'll tell you how holy God is. God, as you come humbly before God, as we turn our eyes up, I pray you realize that He is a loving God, even in His holiness. And He's using this broadcast and the message from Dr. Wilton and these scriptures to say He loves you and He has a plan for your life.
Would you please take these next moments and open your heart to what Dr. Don is going to share with you about this loving God that wants to change your life forever. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.
This is exciting news. Did you just give your heart to Jesus? If you did, welcome to the family. Welcome home if you're coming back to Christ. As we move through these days together, unique days coming out of the virus and it's a slow movement, together we will rise. And I pray that you know that we would love to be part of your encouraging family.
You need to talk with someone, give us a call. 866-899. Word will connect you with one of us, not just now during the broadcast, but any time, day or night. 866-899-9673.
Especially if you've given your life to Christ. Dr. Don has wonderful resources he'd love to put in your hands. As a matter of fact, there's this favorite resource, the Daily Encouraging Word Bible Guide. You can sign up for it online right now at www.tewonline.org. And every day, about 6 o'clock in the morning, you'll receive a wonderful bit of scripture and insight and application from Dr. Don Wilton. Again, I hope you'll join us again next time. But till then, let's stay connected online at www.tewonline.org. Or call for prayer anytime at 866-899-9673.
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