R1621 Praying the Impossible, Pt.1

God has an encouraging word for you and me today, through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about praying the impossible.

Perhaps right now that's the word that you think of the most when you're looking at a particular situation or circumstance. It's just impossible. But with God, we know.

We know it in our head. We've quoted the scripture that all things are possible through God. But I pray that today you'll gain some insight from the book of Ezra, of all places.

I was surprised as you are. Ezra chapter 9 is where we'll head today as Dr. Don talks about praying the impossible. We'll be sharing this over the next couple of days and I pray that you'll dive into every moment. You can meet us online at www.tewonline.org to see some extra notes and hear things that perhaps we're not even able to share on the radio.

But online at www.tewonline.org. Enough talking. Let's open God's Word together.

Here's Dr. Don Wilton. Father, I have such a burden on my heart today. It's not a burden of pain. It's not a burden of sickness. It's not a burden of all the things that do burden us. It's a burden for my people, Lord.

In my small world, it's relative to our world, it's a small group of people. It's my church. It's my community. It's my city.

Because I have so many friends, people who have meant so much to me and do, people who love together and laugh together, have cookouts together, celebrate family birthdays together, bury their loved ones together, suffer together, go to school together, grow up together, get together. We're just a group of people and we're listening right now. These are my people, Lord. I hold my hands up to you and I pray to you, Lord. And I ask you, even as we worship from our bedrooms and from our hospitals, from our television sets and our computers and our cell phones, as we listen, as we come together in the sanctuary and in Genesis, that we would actively seek you. For many of us, Lord, we worship you now, but we do not deliberately seek you. We're preoccupied with our pain, with our preferences. We're preoccupied.

We're preoccupied with the world. Lord, there's so little room to worship you, but we believe you, God, can do this. Please do this for my people. Only you can hide this speaker of yours behind the cross that we might only see Jesus now. In Jesus' name.

Amen. I do have a burden today. I have a burden. I have a real burden. I have a burden today. I've come to church today with a burden. I've had a burden while I've been preparing this week. I've had a burden while I've been loved and I've had a burden. I've just had a burden and God is just giving me a burden. And I think the reason, in fact, I know the reason is because we, God's people, have a burden. We're bothered.

You and I are bothered right now. We've got a lot of great joy going on. When I think of Marilyn and as we wish her a happy birthday, we think of a lot of joy and faithfulness. And I look out and I see people today and I see our children and I see faces and parents. I see schools and endless possibilities of fun and laughter, don't you? I really do. I see my beautiful home that I'm allowed to live in.

We think of our grandkids and our sons and our daughters. But I also see how impossible it has become for most. When you reach the level of impossibility, you've got a real problem on your hands.

And this is relative to everyone. Will we ever get back to normal? That's just impossible. Will America ever straighten itself out? Will we ever be what we know we ought to be? That's just impossible. Will we ever become racially reconciled where we truly treat one another equally? Where we do what Dr. King said, we look at each other and treat each other not because of the color of our skin but because of the content of our character. It's just impossible.

Would we really get to the point at which we could really love each other? Have you noticed how divided even believers are becoming? The church. Have you noticed how angry a Christian can get?

A Christian person. Have you noticed how hateful, how seething a Christian person can get? Have you noticed that? Have you noticed how much some people are really hurting? You know, I have a burden because I'd say, you know, 99% of my friends that have gotten COVID have gotten through it. So many. What's becoming impossible for you?

Is it wearing or not wearing a mask? At what level of your impossibility as a believer have you gotten to? Who do you need to write to and let them have it? Because they didn't say it the way you wanted it said.

Where is your impossibility? I know of people right now who have done everything possible to bring up their sons and daughters right. If you were to go and unpack all those years, they did it right. They brought them to church and they loved them and they went to ball games and they did everything. But right now their hearts are broken because that son is out in the left field.

He cusses, he drinks, smokes, lives a riotous life, doesn't want to come home, has an attitude. And it's like that mother, that father said, man, it's just impossible. Well, how about your marriage? I got a burden today. You know, you and I, we go out and we get married and we're in love. I've got a couple of weddings that I'm privileged to officiate coming up. And boy, that new love and honeymoon and freshness and you sitting listening today and worshipping you saying, I know what went wrong, buddy, but my marriage is impossible.

There's no way we'll ever get it back again. Oh, sure you live together. I've heard that line. But there's no love. There's TV and there's a plate of food and there's a couch and there's a do something and a go somewhere.

But there's no spark. I want you to turn in your Bibles with me to Ezra chapter 9. I just want to share this with you today. I want to speak to you about praying the impossible. I want to tell you today with all the love in my heart that I want you to know I believe you can pray the impossible. And God will make it possible.

Let's do this God's way. So I'm reading in Ezra chapter 9. I was in Ezra last week.

I was in chapter 1. But this has so burned in my heart as I have soaked with hundreds of people in our church. This passage just grabbed my heart.

Let's just, there's so much here. Please listen. Would you just deliberately worship God now? Say I'm going to just, I am going to worship the Lord Jesus. I'm going to ask God now.

Just do this please. I beg you in your marriage, in your life, in your convictions, in your attitude, in your impossibilities which we all deal with folks. Please, I beg of you just listen to what God says to you and to me.

This is what he showed me. And I'll just start in verse 5. Then at the evening sacrifice, Ezra rose. I rose from my self-abasement with my tunic and cloak torn. I fell on my knees with my hands spread out before the Lord. And I prayed.

Oh my God. I'm too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God. Because our sins are higher than our heads. And our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has been great because of our sins we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings.

As it is today. But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary. And so our God gives light to our eyes and relief in our bondage, though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness. In full view of the kings of Persia, he has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and to repair its ruins. And he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and in Jerusalem.

Wow. Is there any need for me to say anything? When God speaks, what a profound statement. And for many of us waiting on God, knowing that we need to hear him speak. And then when he does speak, we just need to respond.

My father reminded me often that delayed obedience is disobedience. I pray that if the Lord is speaking to you through God's word today, through God's messenger, Dr. Don Wilton, that you'd be ready to respond. If you need someone to pray with you and for you about that response, know that our team would be happy to do that. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. And we'd love to connect you with resources that will help you grow every single day in your faith. Right now, I also want to remind you about our website. If you haven't been lately, TEWOnline.org has a number of resources, including the new book you can pre-order from Dr. Wilton coming out in a few weeks. But it also has a place where you can sign up for the daily encouraging word email that comes out every day.

It's online at TEWOnline.org. Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don. Last week for those who were able to worship together with us, we considered Ezra. We came to the conclusion, we saw their predicament.

You ever wanted to find impossible? How about these people, God's people living in exile? They weren't even in their own land.

How about the fact that their land, Judah, had been overrun by foreign kings and invaders and the foreign gods? And they weren't even there to do anything about it. They were divided asunder. Their families were hurting. Everything of value to them had been taken away. God did four things. I'll just mention this to you.

This was the message last week. He did four things. Number one, God ignited them. He provided the spark. God said, all right, you ready?

Here's what I'm going to do for you. God, God can do this. It began with God and ended with God. God didn't turn to these people and say, why don't you just call a meeting and sit down and you try and work it out? Because God knows that it doesn't work. Have you ever tried to work out something in America today? You want to get a consensus on something?

Shall we have one man, one vote and decide who's wrong and who's right? God ignited them. He's always done that.

He's the one. It's just unbelievable. When we worship God, we're actually saying, okay, God, not only ignited them, but he excited them. That excitement. When you reach the level of impossibility, one of the big casualties is excitement. God gave them their mission. God said, this is what and how are you going to do this? You're going to go back and you're going to rebuild.

This is what it's going to look like. He gave them the excitement. The reason a marriage gets to a point that it does after years of marriage, when it gets to the impossible, I guarantee you the one thing that's gone out of that marriage is excitement. What's so exciting about being together?

It's like with her, with him, are you kidding me? What's there to look forward to when you get to impossible? Well, God not only ignited them, but he excited them. Gave them the mission. And then third, he united them.

You talk about impossible. Number one casualty in the church in America today is going to be the issue of Christians staying together around Jesus. Number one issue. It's not going to be what we do, it's going to be who we serve. He united them. And the story in Ezra is so beautiful. He did the impossible. He just brought them all together.

I've watched that all these years here at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg. I've got friends out there, trust me, who say it can't be done. Yes, it can. You're right. What are you talking about? Who said you can't bring hundreds upon hundreds of people together? Excuse me. Do you think any of us are different? Is there an opinion in the house?

Is there a better way of doing everything? Of course. So how do you explain a church so united?

I'm speaking to someone right now out there. I'm blessing you with the word of the Lord. I've got friends whose churches are falling apart.

It's not over Jesus. God united them. He does this. How do you think you're ever going to come together as one in your marriage?

Unless God does. Try it. Well, you've been doing that for the last 25 years. Try and just sit down and work it out. You got beyond sitting down and working it out. You're at the impossible level.

Because as soon as you sit down and try and work it out, it takes two minutes and one of you says, well, I'm just going to tell you one thing. And there it goes again. You know, I want to say, do I have a witness? I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to do that. What does the future look like? We've got to look at the future through God's eyes. He ignited them. He excited them. He united them. And then he invited them. He said, y'all come. He said, come on, all of you. I want all your families to get together.

Let's do this. You know why he said let's do this all together? Because God can do this. God can do this. God can heal the broken hearted. He can get people out of that hospital bed. He can heal your sickness. He can take your loneliness.

You lonely right now? Do you know how impossibly lonely some people feel today? Do you know how some of our senior adults in nursing homes feel? Do you know we've got grandparents and elderly parents of people in nursing homes everywhere that for very good reason for exactly on a year now have not touched a loved one?

They've got to the impossible level. But God can touch you. God can do something. God does this.

I just want you to know how much we love you today. So what lay ahead for Ezra and for these people was arduous. It was difficult.

It was impossible. I could not have blamed any one of those families in Babylon for saying please. We're going back to our homeland.

Give me a break. We don't even have enough camels to get there. Where are we going to live? They've taken over all our houses. What are we going to do about all the foreigners there? I mean do you not understand?

What do you mean? How do we get our kids across the mountains? They're not going to survive.

We don't have enough water for the trip. This was impossible. You and I read a passage like this and we say, oh, whoopty-doo, there they go. This was impossible. That's why God's telling us.

So what did Ezra do? I want to just give this to you out of my burden for you because I love you and you're my family, you're my friends, you're my neighbors. You mean the world to me. What a powerful teaching from Dr. Don Wilton today. It's our prayer that as we open God's Word together that we would gain insight that would stir our hearts to change, to make a difference, to understanding that with God the word impossible just doesn't exist. As we are praying the impossible, there's more to come with this message tomorrow on the broadcast. And I pray that as you'll join us again tomorrow for that, between now and then you might let us pray with you about what's the impossible in your life. In particular, we have been praying for some what we think or thought were impossible changes in family members who are far from God. Know that we stand ready to pray with you and for you at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673. But perhaps what you need to do is make a personal change.

It's not about a family member, it's about the woman in the mirror, the man in the mirror. And I pray you'd be open to what Dr. Don is about to ask you next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey.

If you've just given your life to Christ, welcome to the family of God. Dr. Dunn wants to put some things in your hands, free resources that will help you grow if you're a new Christian just saying yes to Jesus or rededicating your life. But you've got to call and let us send it to you at 866-899-WORD.

Again, jot the number down. Give us a call, 866-899-9673. We'd love to be an encourager to you. And many of you have been asking about how you could encourage us both prayerfully and financially. Well, it's what we call encouragers. Here's how you become an encourager to the encouraging Word. The most important thing we can do with our life is to give our life to Jesus, to accept His gift of salvation.

It is easy for us to receive this gift, but it cost Him everything. We want to share this gift of salvation with as many people as possible in the new year. Will you join us? Will you help us bring this gift of salvation to our world?

We need your support. Become an encourager today. Call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 to request information on how you can help support the work of the encouraging Word. The encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Our time's gone for today, but tomorrow Dr. Wilton completes this message on praying the impossible. Between now and then, let us pray with you and for you, connecting online at www.tewonline.org or this phone number 866-899-9673.