R1621 Praying The Impossible, Pt. 2

Perhaps someone else said it was impossible, but what does God say about it? Let's open God's encouraging word together with Dr. Don Wilton. This is The Encouraging Word featuring Dr. Don Wilton's teaching, and today we complete a message he began yesterday called Praying the Impossible.

We'll head to the book of Ezra chapter 9 in just a moment. If you missed yesterday, don't worry about it. Dr. Don will catch you up in just a moment, but if you'd like to hear it, it's on our website at www.tewonline.org. It's also a great place to sign up for many resources from Dr. Wilton, including the book that's coming out in a few weeks you can pre-order now, Saturdays with Billy. Yes, wonderful memories of Dr. Don Wilton spending Saturdays over the course of 25 years almost every Saturday every week with Dr. Billy Graham. Again, details at www.tewonline.org.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Have 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 just mentioned 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? Do 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, OK, 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. He gave them the mission. 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 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've got beyond sitting down 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 wanted 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 us. I just want you to know how much we love you today.

Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the completion of today's message, Praying the Impossible with Dr. Wilton in just a moment. But I need to let you know, after knowing Don Wilton for 30 years, when he is sharing the love of God, and being what you might think is, he doesn't know me, how could he love me, because of God in him, and because of what he's taught us to do, you are loved. God loves you, and we love you. And if you need to be encouraged in that light, I pray that you'll visit our website, tewonline.org.

There are many resources that will help you know God's love for you in a much more intimate and personal way. I pray that while you're at our website, tewonline.org, you will sign up for the daily encouraging word devotion that comes from Dr. Don. Email-a-phonically every morning about 6 o'clock in the morning. It starts my day in such a powerful way, as it does in thousands and thousands of people around the globe. You can sign up.

It's free, of course, online at tewonline.org. I hope you'll do that today. Now, let's get back to our teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. 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, whoop-de-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. I'm just one person, but God gave this to me, but he gave it to us.

He's been giving this to a lot of people. He did four things. Number one, he humbled himself. Verse five. You know, he, in the Jewish custom, you know, tearing one's tunic cloak, getting on their knees, and then there's a beautiful expression holding up your hands. I don't think God's telling us that we need to tear our clothes and that's not the point here. The point here is this is an act of humility before God. You and I cannot go to God holding on to our own attitude.

That's tough to do. Well, Lord, okay. Okay. Tell me something I don't know.

Doesn't work. Well, Lord, I'll come and talk to you as long as everybody knows that this is the most important thing we deal with right now. Well, Lord, I want to, I, sure, okay, I heard what the preacher said. Let's get on and deal with this thing with marriage. But just as long, God, as you know that she is just, you know, I can't stand the way she does A, B, C, D, and E. And as long as, God, you keep that in mind. Don't let her get away with that. I'm willing to listen to you.

That's what I'm talking about. That's how, that's very natural to do. Yeah, I'll pray, but no, no, no. Humble yourself, get on your face, hold your hands up to the Lord and say, Lord Jesus, it's all you. Number two, he prayed, verse six, you know, verse six is so powerful, and prayed, and prayed, verse six, and prayed. He humbled himself, verse six, and prayed. Prayer rises above politics.

Did you hear that? Prayer is not Republican or Democrat. Prayer is not for rich people or for poor people.

Prayer and pray, prayer is not selective. Well, I'll only pray for that person because they play on the same team. We take our struggles, like me, I've got some favorite football teams, and when my team loses, who cares about football?

We take that into prayer. Well, this is my team, I watch my team. Do you know that there are people who only watch one team?

That's it. And if that team's not in the next game, they go duck hunting. Put a duck and a football together, they don't mix.

Ducks don't do football. But we take that into prayer. He prayed. In an attitude of humility, he said, Lord, I need you. The third thing he did was he confessed, verse six and seven.

Came right out of the chute. Oh God, I'm too ashamed. He confessed his own sin, he confessed the sin of his people, he just confessed, he just said guilty. I'm not asking you to do this. God's asking us. If we want to pray the impossible, do it humbly, do it prayerfully, and do it confessionally. It's a requirement. God requires that.

So go back now to your marriage or whatever it is, your impossible. You've got to do business with the Lord, right? But there's one more, and I want you to write this word down if you can. He evoked. Isn't that a great word? Evoked.

That's what Ezra did. He evoked. E-V-O-K-E-D. If you've never heard of that word, it's a powerful word. He evoked.

What does it mean? It means to bring or recall to one's conscious mind. If you evoke a memory, it means that you're out there doing something and you evoke a memory. You recall, you bring back to mind that precious time that you had with your mother before she died. And it will remain in your heart and life as a precious memory. I have a very dear friend who traveled a long way to see her mother and got there just before she died. And my wife and I were saying, how incredibly precious, how thankful just to be able, when he evoked, he brought back to memory right in the middle of his impossibility.

This is strong. If I was privileged to be partnering with you and counseling you in your marriage right now, I would ask you to evoke, to bring back to your conscious mind all the wonderful things about when you met. Your dating, the years, the joy, the love, the fun, the evoke, you bring it back. You know, Steve and I have been serving the Lord together for over 35 years, going on 40 years together. And there are many times that I'll think of my brother and partner in the ministry and I find myself evoking a memory, way back then, and there'll be a smile on my face. God wants to bring a smile to your face because when he does that, this is what Ezra did, he evoked, he evoked, he recalled. So what did he do? By the way, you do this because I've written down this, he wrote down, he brought to memory, to his conscious memory, God the Spirit does this.

What did he do? It's all here. Number one, God's grace.

Just you can run this through. God has been gracious, God's grace. God, when you evoke God's grace, you'll remember that God is merciful and he loves you just because he does.

Not because you deserve it. He evoked God's gift. God gives to us. It's what he says, he's being gracious and he gave us a firm place in his sanctuary. God is a giving God. He evoked the fact of God's gift. He evoked, he brought to his conscious memory that God is light.

Look what he says here. He says he gives light to our eyes. Okay, so what happens when you get to impossible? Shadows, it's dark, it's dismal, it's fog. You can sit in the most beautiful home with the most beautiful wife, husband, with incredible family, so blessed and yet be in the dark.

Impossible will make you really blind, unhappy, fogged up. He evoked God's relief. He gives a little relief in our body. God is a relief giving God. And by the way, that word relief means he eases the hard. He makes the way. He shows hope.

That word relief, provide relief means, man, I'm in this and all of a sudden when you evoke that into your consciousness, God is going to bless you. He evoked God's dependability. He said, even though we are saved, God has not deserted us. I like that, don't you?

You know what happens when you get to the impossible level? You think God's deserted us. God hasn't gone anywhere.

He hasn't deserted us. God has not, I promise you that God has not left for New Mexico. God has not left for Minnesota. God has not gone overseas. God is not somewhere else. God's everywhere. God is doing the same thing for the people in New Mexico and in Minnesota and everywhere. He's eternal God. He's magnificent God. By the way, there's enough of God to go around.

You don't have to worry about having a corner on the market. He evoked God's kindness. Look at that word there. He's shown us kindness.

America, America, so unkind. Evoke God's kindness. God is kind and loving. Evoke God's ability.

Look there. He granted us new life to rebuild. It's evoking God's ability to begin again, fresh, brand new. I know I've referred to marriage a lot. I'm not just picking on marriage. But you know it is possible to be married for 40 years and suddenly feel like you're on honeymoon again. God can do that.

The same man's impossible. God can bring your son home again. Back into your home.

Like you're going to look back and say, what happened? Wow. God can rescue you. God can make you whole. And finally, but not, he evoked God's protection. That's a big one, isn't it?

Look at that last statement there. Given us a wall of protection. So there are really four things that Ezra did, praying the impossible. He humbled, he prayed, he confessed, and he evoked. He brought back. He said, Lord, just fill me with you. And God did. And when God did that, hey, guess what happened? They went back.

They rebuilt the temple. Can I tell you the end of the story? They're still there.

It's a few years later. What a powerful message. Our time is running out for today, but you need to know the story continues. And for me, for Dr. Wilton, for all of us on the Encouraging Word team, our story was radically transformed when we said yes to Jesus Christ. Would you open your heart?

You've been listening to Dr. Don's teaching, but now as he comes into the studio, would you open yourself to what he's going 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. Welcome to the family of God. I believe many of you have prayed with the pastor moments ago, maybe to rededicate your life and come back to Jesus Christ. Perhaps for some of you, it's the first step to give your life to Jesus Christ. From my own testimony, I spent time growing up in the church and I learned all the right things to say, the right things to do and not do.

But I didn't have a relationship with Jesus until the moment I said yes to Him. If you are wanting to talk about that with someone, we'd love to pray with you and talk with you at the other end of this phone number, 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to walk with you through the next steps, give you some free resources. Dr. Dunn wants you to have the numbers 866-899-9673 or meet us online at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org.

You'll find great resources like this. God's intended purpose for us never changed. We are not defeated. We are overcomers through Jesus Christ. The Word of God is alive and is relevant to all times in which we live. There are countless testimonies of people who walked with God in the Bible. They are our cloud of witnesses to encourage us on the Christian journey.

Learn from them. You can walk with God's giants. With your gift of $20 or more in support of the encouraging Word, you will receive Dr. Wilton's new dynamic two-part series, Walking with God's Giants. Series 2, Walking with God's Giants is available on CD or DVD and includes four messages on the lives of Nehemiah, Naaman, Solomon, and David. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request Series 2, Walking with God's Giants.

If you missed the first series, you can request it too. Thank you for your continued partnership to help us share the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. It's a wonderful resource and I think you'll discover even more great resources if you visit our website www.tewonline.org. So many folks are asking, texting, wanting to know about the book called Saturdays with Billy. Yes, it's on the way. Yes, it is Dr. Wilton's latest book about the moments he spent, literally the hours he spent every week with Dr. Billy Graham for 25 years of being his pastor.

It is such a rich treasure. I've only read a chapter but I cannot wait to get the whole thing. You can pre-order it right now on our website www.tewonline.org. That's the place to connect, www.tewonline.org.