Ron Dunn Podcast - If I were Your Pastor - Bellevue

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Ron teaches from 2 Corinthians on various things that affect us and how to have grace when comforting others.

I want you to open your Bibles tonight to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Somebody asked me why I had this knife with me. And the way I preach, you need to be armed all the time. This is a Swiss Army knife. My wife gave me several years ago for Christmas. That is an amazing tool. I've got a list here of what it does. It's fascinating. This Swiss Army knife has one large blade, a small blade, a corkscrew,

a can opener, a small screwdriver, a cap lifter, another screwdriver, wire stripper, a reamer, scissors, Phillips screwdriver, magnifying glass, wood saw, fish scaler, hook disgorger, ruler, nail file, metal file, nail cleaner, metal saw, fine screwdriver, key ring, tweezers, and a toothpick. Now, I take this thing with me everywhere I go because I just don't think there's any situation I could find myself in. This thing couldn't get me out of it. I feel secure with this. No matter what happens on the road or what happens anywhere, I feel like that this Swiss Army knife will do me good. And so I take it with me everywhere I go.

I like to think of the Christian faith like that. I like to think of the fact that my faith, like this Swiss Army knife, works well in all situations. I used to think, and sometimes we get the idea, that the Christian faith only really works when all the conditions are just right. A lot of the teaching and preaching we hear and do today a lot of the books that we read and testimonies that we hear give us the idea that the christian life really works better when everything is under control when the situation is favorable probably like you i'd never heard of O-rings

or U-rings or whatever they were until the Challenger blew up. Like you, I didn't realize what a fragile instrument that was. Here is a multi-billion dollar piece of machinery and two degrees

and shift in the temperature can keep it on the ground. I used to have an old Ford work better than that. It is amazing how many things today work good, but only when the conditions are favorable. I find that a great many folks who claim to be saved don't get too much out of their salvation.

It distresses me to realize that a great many Christians don't seem to be doing any better with their life than lost people are. That for all practical purposes, their faith does them very little good. And they have the idea that as soon as they can get all the conditions just right,

then it'll work. But I have discovered just the opposite to be true. I have discovered that the Christian life works in all circumstances, even unfavorable ones. And a matter of fact, I have discovered that it usually works better when the conditions are unfavorable. That the real display of the power of God in my life does not necessarily come when we're in a situation like this. Now, I believe, Adrian, if I could spend seven days a week right here preaching, I don't think I'd ever sin again. If I could just live behind this pulpit

and could just stay in this atmosphere, I have a sneaking suspicion I could do real good. But the real problem I have is what happens when I walk out these doors, and when I go home, and when I start opening the mail, and seeing the bills, and the doctor, and all those other things. It would be wonderful if the Christian faith always made everything just perfect, but the fact of the matter is, its greatest display in a person's life is oftentimes seen at the worst of moments.

I want us to read one of those passages tonight in which I think the grace of God and the effectiveness of the Christian life is displayed. We talk a lot today about the decade of the 90s coming upon us and what are the issues already. There are predictions as to what are the issues. To me, personally, I think that one of the great issues in the Christian church today is the issue of our relationship,

of you getting along with me and me getting along with you. I think one of the greatest crises today in the Christian church is the crisis of confidence between pastor and people. I go into about 35, 36 churches, different churches every year. I see it happen over and over again that there is a great crisis of credibility and confidence between the pastor many times and the congregation and between members of the congregation that the Christian faith

that ought to be making us one is not making us one, but is making us many and battling the way to the end. And I, as some of you have done this year, have been studying 2 Corinthians, and this particular passage has spoken to me, and I want to share it with you tonight. I'll begin in verse 3, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 3, where Paul says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the

God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our comfort also abounds by Christ. And if we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or whether we be comforted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers of the suffering, so you shall also be of the comfort. Ten times in verses 3 through 7, Paul uses the word comfort. I think he's trying to say something to us. But that theological

formulation that Paul has just given us in verses 3 through 7 was discovered and is based upon the practical experience that he mentions beginning in verse 8. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver and we still are trusting that he will yet deliver us you also helping together by prayer for us we'll stop there but when Paul comes down to the latter part of verse 14 he gives

us what I believe is one of the primary intentions of this epistle Paul Paul is saying, this is what I'm looking for. This is what I am praying for, that in the day of Christ, you will be able to brag about having me as your pastor, and I'll be able to brag about having you as my people. I want to pretend tonight that you are the Corinthian congregation. Please don't take offense to that. And that I am your pastor, the Apostle Paul. And I am trying to reestablish my own credibility with you and your credibility with me. We have a relationship crisis, you and me. There are some folks out there who've been saying some critical things about me.

You've been saying that I don't keep my word, that I'm fickle and I change. And some of you said that I'm real brave when I'm far off writing letters, but when I get to you, I'm a piece of weak toast. And some of you have been judging me harshly. And there's a break in our fellowship. I'd like to bear my heart to you tonight. I'd like to say some things to you that I think are essential. If you and I are going to be the kind of people that causes many people to thank God,

that's what he says in verse 11. He said, I want us to come to the place so that everybody in looking at us will have a reason to give God the glory. And one of the great themes of the second epistle to the Corinthians is the glory of God. But it's interesting, at the same time, it is a letter of self-recommendation. Paul is writing this letter to recommend himself. He's worried about his reputation. And to me, it is significant that the same Greek word for glory also is the same word for reputation. The glory of God is bound up in the reputation of His people, and especially in the reputation of His ministers.

So could we just kind of pretend tonight that I'm your pastor and you're my people? There are some things that I want to say to you, remembering that Apostle Paul is kind of a microcosm of what we all are. He's every believer enlarged. And so what I say to you, really, there is a sense in which you will want to say to one another. First of all, I think for you and me to have a proper relationship and to make everything right, it's important that you understand that I have been hurt.

And I've been hurt a lot deeper than you realize. Now that's how Paul opens this passage in verse 8. He said, For I would not have you, brethren, to be ignorant of what happened to us in Asia. Now he doesn't tell us what it was. Scholars have speculated, but no one really can know what it was. We know this much, though. The Corinthians knew about it. They had heard about it. They knew what he was talking about. Paul is saying, you know the trouble, the pressure, the crisis that I came through

and that we had in Asia, but what you don't know is how deep it went and how painful it was. He said, I was pressed out of measure. I was put beyond my own circumstances. I was put out to the extremities of my own forbearance insomuch that when I said to myself, what's going to happen to me, the only answer that came back was death. It was as though somebody had sentenced me to death. And the only answer that came to me as I thought and prayed, what am I going to do? What's going to happen to me? What's going to be the outcome? The only answer that came was death. He said, you don't have any idea how deep that hurt was. I remember when I was pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, Texas on a Wednesday night. We had about 300 there in prayer meeting. And I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I did something. I stopped in the middle of my message and I asked the people there a question. I said, how many of you right now, how many of you

right now at this very moment are going through the greatest trial of your life. Not a trial, not just a big trial, not just a great trial, but you would say up to now what you're going through, this is the greatest trial of your life. 75% of that congregation raised their hands, and we were all stunned. It was one of those rare moments when people were willing to be honest, and the hands went up, and we were all amazed. My dear friend, I want to tell you something. You would be shocked tonight to discover what's going on in the life of that person sitting in front of you, behind you, beside you. And we'd probably be shocked to find out what's going on in your life. If we ever got honest enough to go out and uncover our griefs, we would discover that we're all grieving about the same things.

What's Paul getting at here? Paul is getting at two things. First of all, he is saying, number one, if you folks knew how much I've been hurt, you wouldn't be so quick to criticize. You've been judging me on the basis of what you see. Now, I discovered something. Baptists are great observers and lousy interpreters. We observe somebody going through some trial in their life, going through some difficulty in their life,

but we cannot really interpret what's going on. We find ourselves condemning and criticizing, but I say to you, if you and I knew the truth about that person, we might not be so quick to criticize. If we knew the depths, the pain of that person, we might not be so quick to judge. That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying there's a reason that I've acted as I have, and it's because I was at the point of death. I was filled with despair. I really wasn't myself.

And you've been judging me without having all the facts. But the other thing I think Paul is saying here is this. Paul is saying that it has been necessary for me to have this pain, trial, whatever it was, in order to minister to you. Now, I tell you something, those verses 3 through 7 are, they're tough verses. I'll just be honest with you, they're tough verses. Listen to what he says. Paul says in the fourth verse that God comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God. Look at what he says in verse 6.

And whether we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. Paul said, if I am afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. That's an amazing thing. When a man signs up to become a minister, he signs up in a real sense to be afflicted so that he may comfort others. I love the idea of the wounded healer. That you and I can only do for others what God has done for us. You see, we have two contrary pictures of a pastor today, of a minister today. One is that he's a mouth, and that's all. I mean, all he does is preach.

The other is that he's a CEO, a corporate executive, and that's deadly. But we like to be that, either a manager or a mouth. But what God has called us to be is a minister. A minister. Paul says, these things that have come to me, these things that have happened to me, these trials that have happened.

You see, a preacher is not a sermon. A preacher is a life. A preacher is a man who is married and have kids and has a house and has bills to pay and has fears and has sickness and his preaching relates to all of that. He is one of those people that God is using as an object lesson to point us to the comfort that God has for himself. and one of the first things that I ought to say to you tonight is that I have been hurt it's a lot deeper than you'd ever know and you have been hurt and it's a lot deeper than any of us can ever know second thing I'd say is, but that's all right. That's all right because God is using these things to teach me two things. One, not to rely upon myself, but to rely upon the Lord. Notice what he says in verse nine. Paul says, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves. Why? Why has God brought Paul to

that particular place? And by the way, I want to emphasize the fact that God has brought Paul to that place. Paul has not gotten there because he rebelled against the will of God. God brought him to that place. Why? Why? So that, he said, we might learn not to trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. I have been hurt. You've been hurt, but it's all right because that's how God teaches us not to rely upon ourselves, but to trust in Him. Now, you know, there's something about this that really excites me. Here's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, hey, I want to tell you something. I got in a situation, and it was so desperate,

I despaired of my life. I mean, I got in the pits. I mean, I was dragging bottom, and the only way I knew out of it was, I'm going to die, I'm going to die. Well, now, Paul, I don't know, but it seems to me like you ought to be far and away beyond that by now. What do you mean that God is carrying you through this so that you may learn

not to trust in yourself? Haven't you learned that yet? Now I want to tell you something. This is a man who's already written first Corinthians. This is no rookie. This is no new Christian just starting out. This is a man who's already been caught up into the third heaven and sees things that it's not lawful to talk about. This is a man who's already seen the Lord Jesus and met Him on the road to Damascus. This is a man who's already written part of the New Testament. You'd think by this time Paul would have all his problems settled, wouldn't you?

Sort of makes me lose confidence in a man. What do you mean? What right do you have to write Scripture if you yourself are still having to learn not to trust in yourself, but to trust in God? Do you mean you haven't learned that yet? Not yet. You know, it's easy for us to romanticize people. The American pastime is idolizing people. We idolize ballplayers and movie stars. We want to know what kind of cereal they eat for breakfast and where they go for lunch and what kind of cars they drive.

And we make silly fools out of ourselves by idolizing these people. It's the American pastime. I found that we even do it in the Christian church. They say the star system killed Hollywood, and the star system may kill the church someday if we keep on going like we're going. But we have the star system, and there are people that we idolize.

Even somebody like myself who travels gets that once in a while. You know, if you're from out of town, people think you're an expert. And I remember my wife and I were finishing a meeting last summer, and a woman came up to me after the service, and she was trying to say how much the meeting had meant to her. And she said, Oh, Brother Dunn, said, Oh, Brother Dunn, said, Your wife is so beautiful. Said, Y'all make such a beautiful couple. And she stepped back and clasped her hands and got that wistful look in her eyes.

She said, oh, Brother Dunn, your whole life is so beautiful. I should have told her about the fight Kay and I had had that morning. I'm serious. It would have helped her more probably than all my preaching did. We have an idea that there's something wrong with us because we don't match up to what we hear and what we read. It's hard not to romanticize and idolize anything. You go in the bookstore and pick up, man, that book, and it's all colored in different colors and blasting all those promises out there,

and you turn it on the back, and's a full color photograph of the author standing against a split rail fence in front of a rambling ranch house with his or her hand around his or her spouse who is also a noted speaker and popular author. They have two sons. One is a doctor, the other is a lawyer. They have two daughters. One, a former Miss Peach Festival, but both of those daughters are married to young, dynamic ministers. And we say, boy, boy, as though these are people who have arrived and are sitting around waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity. Let me tell you something. I know a whole lot of those people who write the books.

Now, folks, I've got news for you. They're not doing any better than you are. They're not. These aren't experts who have arrived and telling us how to do it. They are fellow pilgrims along the way. God teaching us to trust Him. Now, I think it's something Paul had trouble with all of his life. You know, Paul boasts, he goes on in this second letter, and he brags, and he says, I know I'm acting like a fool, but I've just got to do it. When he wrote the Philippians, he said, man, touching the Pharisees, I was one. Hebrew of the Hebrews, I mean, I was the first family of Virginia. I was in the blue book. I think all of Paul's life and ministry, he had a struggle with his pride and arrogance. And I want to tell you something.

Most of the time, ordinary trials aren't enough to teach us not to trust in ourselves. One of the questions today was this matter of faith, how you grow in faith. And I'd just like to share

what I mentioned today. I think God's toughest task is to teach us to trust Him. I think if I had to take one word and sum up in that one word all that God is wanting and trying to do in my life, it would be summed up in that word, trusting Him. God trying to teach me to trust Him. And I want to mention three things to you. Number one, you only learn to trust God by trusting God. You don't learn to trust God by reading books on it. You don't learn to trust God by listening to sermons on it.

You only learn to trust God by trusting God. You don't learn to fly an airplane by reading a book about it. You don't learn to swim by reading a book about water. You learn to swim by swimming. You learn to fly an airplane by reading a book about it. You don't learn to swim by reading a book about water. You learn to swim by swimming. You learn to fly by flying. You learn to trust by trusting. Second statement. We won't trust God until we have to.

There is something about fallen human nature that finds it difficult just to let go and trust God. As long as I have one more dollar in the bank, as long as I've got one more trick up my sleeve, as long as there's one more conference I've not yet attended, or one more tape series I've not seen, I'm not going to trust God. Generally speaking, you and I will not trust God until we have to. Number three, God sees to it that we have to.

God sees to it that we have to. God puts us in a situation. The old saints used to refer to being shut up to faith. By that they meant God backed them into a corner and shut down every avenue of escape until there was no way out but up. I mean, it was either trust God or die. I think the greatest illustration of that is at Israel at the Red Sea God delivered them under the mighty power

and there they are they camp one day by the Red Sea remember they're going right where God is telling them to go they've not strayed from the path and they camp there by the Red Sea the mountains on either side the Red Sea in front of them and Egypt behind them

and they go to sleep and they wake up one morning and look over their shoulder and here come all the Egyptians in the world swo in front of them, and Egypt behind them. And they go to sleep. And they wake up one morning and look over their shoulder, and here come all the Egyptians in the world swooping down on them. And that's when you discover that that was a bunch of Baptists out there. Because they immediately begin to blame their pastor for what happened. They said, well, Moses, there's another fine mess you've gotten us into. Not enough room in Egypt to bury us. Had to bring us out here on the edge of Germantown to do that.

Moses goes over and begins to pray. And he said, Lord, what are we going to do? And God says two things. I wish we had time to talk about all of them. But he said two things. He said, number, what are we going to do? And God says two things. I wish we had time to talk about all of them. But he said two things. He said, number one, stand still. Now, he didn't mean that. I mean, God's always telling people to stand still, but they don't.

They move. He's not saying don't do anything, but he's saying stand still a minute. Just hang on. Settle down. Just think about it for a minute, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I will fight these Egyptians and these Egyptians that you see today, you will see no more forever. Then he said, go forward. I think what God was saying is, Moses, I didn't save you people out of Egypt to fight Egyptians. I saved you people out of Egypt to go possess the land.

Now listen, one of the devil's craftiest strategies is to get a church spending all of its time and energy fighting the Egyptians that are snipping at them when you ought to be going forward. Let God handle the Egyptians. Let God fight the Egyptians. You go and do what God has called you to do. So he said, stand still first of all and see the salvation of the Lord. Then he said, go forward. Yes. You do know, of course, Lord, there is a Red Sea forward there. And if you'll be so kind as to hold off the Egyptians

until we have time to build a bridge or some boats. What? What? You mean just step right on out there? Yeah. It's either that or Egypt. Which is about where I spend a great deal of my time. I'm very serious. Between the Red Sea and Egypt. Hovering, hesitating. But they did it. They stepped out and the waters parted. The book of Psalms says the waters fled from before them

as though they were scared to death of them. And they walked across. What a mighty demonstration of faith, right? Great demonstration of faith. But I want to tell you something. If there hadn't been an Egyptian army behind them encouraging them to do so, they'd be there yet. I believe if God had come out one day and said, we're going to have a pop quiz. Let's see how much faith you all got. You take off there across the Red Sea. They'd never moved an inch. But you

put an Egyptian army behind them, breathing down their necks, threatening them with bondage. And brother, they'll say, I think we'll trust God. It may be that the reason that Egyptian army is on your trail tonight is because God is trying to get you to trust Him. But you have to lose confidence in yourself before you can have confidence in Him. Do you see the sequence of that? That we should learn not to trust or rely in ourselves, but to trust in God. You can never trust in God until first of all you jettison your trust in your own self.

As long as I am relying upon my cleverness and my ability and my expertise and my training or my good luck, as long as I am relying upon myself, as long as I believe I am sufficient for the task, I will never, never, never trust God. God, first of all, has to do something in my life where I lose confidence in that good sense of faith and trust in myself. And then, when I'm cast adrift, then I trust Him. Then I trust Him. So, number one, Paul says, I want you folks to know I've been hurt. My hurt goes a lot deeper. But secondly, I want you to know it's okay because God is using it to teach me not to trust in myself but to trust in him. So therefore, number three, I just want you to know I will survive.

I will survive. Listen to what he says in that ninth verse, that we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. And then in verse 10, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver, in whom we trust that he will even yet deliver us. What's Paul saying? Paul is saying, I despaired even of life and I had the sentence of death in myself. But I want to tell you something. I'm here today to tell you that I survived. I tell you the greatest demonstration of God's power in the life of a person is not the removal of the problems but the fact that you live through them. I will survive.

I was in another state preaching in an evangelism conference. Pastor picked me up. I'd been there several years before. He was also my chauffeur then. I got in the car. He said, I asked if I could be. I got in the car. He said, I asked if I could be your chauffeur again this time. I said, well, great. He said, I want to talk to you. He said, when you were here before, I didn't feel like I knew you well enough to talk to you. But he said, I want to talk to you. He said, I want to ask

you a question. We drove down the street. He said, I've been preaching for 30 years. My wife has never once heard me preach. She has never been inside the church where I pastored. When God called me to preach, she said, I didn't marry a preacher, and I'm not going to be married to a preacher. If you preach, I'll divorce you. He said, she did not divorce me, and she stayed with me, but I can't move. I get a call to this church. I can't go because she won't leave. For 30 years, he said, now, Brother Dunn, here's my question. Why hasn't God answered my prayer? And then he said, I know you can't answer it,

but I had to ask it. And he said, I want you to know something. He said, when you get up there to preach tomorrow there's going to be a lot of other fellas out there just like me and they only want to know one thing and that's this will we make it will we make it? Will we make it?

I told them they would because I believe we will. I want you to know, friend, I will survive. I will survive. Whatever the world, the flesh, and the devil throws at me, I want you to know I will survive. God will world, the flesh, and the devil throws at me, I want you to know I will

survive. God will bring me through. No matter how dark and dreary, no matter how long I seem to walk without him, God will bring me through. I will survive. I remember one night after I finished preaching, a couple came up to me. They were not members of the church. They were visiting, and they had come over tonight for the service. And the wife said to me, gave me a very unusual compliment. She said, it was really good to see you smile tonight. And I said, well, thank you. She said, no, I mean it. It was really good to see you smile tonight. I said, great. She said, no, I mean it. It was really good to see you smile tonight. I said, great. She said, you don't know what I'm talking about, do you? I said, no, ma'am, I don't.

She said, six months ago, six months ago, my daughter was killed in a car wreck. And she said, I told myself I would never be happy again. I would never smile again. And we heard that you were in town. I knew you'd had a similar experience. I wanted to come over tonight and see you. And she said, as I sit there in the pew tonight, I saw you smile. And I said to myself, well, I guess I'll smile again too. Basically, all I want to know, friend, is Lord, am I going to make it? Am I going to survive?

Paul says, I will. But the fourth and last thing. I've been hurt a lot deeper than you know. I carry hurts in me that you know nothing of. Therefore, you're going to have to give me a little time and space. But I'm not looking for pity. Because you see, God is using it all to teach me not to trust in myself but in him. And I'll survive. God raises the dead and he can raise me out of my death. But he said

I'm going to need your help to do it. I'm going to need your help to do it. Listen to what he says in verse 11. You also helping together by prayer for us. Isn't that something? Look at that again. Paul says, but we're trusting in God who has delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us. And by the way, the tenses of those verbs indicate possibly that Paul is still going through that trial or that Paul still has the pain. I mean, the hurt has not gone away. It's still a day-by-day struggle. But Paul says, I know that God has delivered me. He will deliver me. And in the future, my hope is, my hope is that God will deliver me. You also, by helping together in your prayers for me. Paul said, I will make it, but I can't do it without your help. I need your help.

I don't need your judgment or your criticism. What I need is your compassion. I need your help. I'll make it, but I won't make it without your help. You also helping together in prayer by us. There's a similar idea that Paul mentions in Philippians in chapter 1. Let me just read that. Philippians chapter 1 in verse 19. Paul explaining to the church at Philippi all that has happened to him, and he says not to worry. Everything's going to work out fine. He says in

verse 19, for I know that this whole business will turn to my spiritual welfare through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Paul says this whole situation, he said, it looked terrible to me at first. I tell you what, it looked terrible. I wanted to come to Rome, but not this way. Paul said, I must see Rome, and see Rome he did, but not the way he intended. He thought he would ride into Rome as an ambassador for Christ and preach the gospel. But when he got to Rome, it was in the chains of a prisoner and he was cast into the prison and the people were worried about him. And Paul writes from that dungeon and he says, not to worry. As a matter of fact, instead of hindering the gospel, all of this has furthered the gospel.

My dear people, if I could ever get it through my thick heart that God does not waste time and does not waste time and does not waste experience and that everything He is doing in my life, good, bad, or indifferent, is for the sake of His glory and for the sake of the furtherance of the gospel. What a difference it would make

in the way I viewed things in my life. Paul said, you're worrying about me. You know, he said, I thought the same thing too. I thought, how in the world can I get out there and evangelize if I'm chained by these guards here in this Roman prison? But you know what's happened? He said, the amazing thing that's happened is I've got to preach the gospel right there in Caesar's household. Well, if God had let me come in the way I wanted to, I'd be confined to the street corners and the marketplaces. But I, while I tell you there are even people saved in Caesar's

household now. And I want to tell you something, don't worry. All of this is going to turn out to my spiritual welfare. Well, Paul, how's God going to do that? Well, he's going to use two things. Number one, he's going to use two things. Number one, he's going to use the power, the supply of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the saints. Isn't that what he says? Through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Now, folks, here's the point I'm trying to make. It seems to me as though Paul is placing as much importance on the prayers of the saints as he is the provision of the Spirit. Am I reading that wrong?

Matter of fact, he even mentions the prayers of the saints first. I'm going to tell you something your prayers for me friend are just as essential as is the power of the Holy Ghost in my life God in His wisdom God in His sovereignty, God in His sovereignty has ordained that He should work

for the prayers of His people. Paul said, God will deliver me. You also, you also helping together. I can't do it without your help. I always figured myself to be a private person and a private individual. Matter of fact, one of the first complaints my wife had about me years ago when we first married is she said, you could live without people.

I liked everything in the world except people, I guess. And people still accuse me of being hard to get to know, and I guess so. But you know, I figured I didn't need people. People were a bother. People were an intrusion. Until one day when God showed me how desperately I needed people. I think I learned a little bit more what Paul was saying when he said that it is with all the saints that we comprehend the height and the depth and the width of the love of Christ. You will never be able to comprehend the love of Christ all by yourself. It's like trying to circle one of those big redwood trees in California by yourself. You can't do it. But if we get six or seven of us,

we can all join hands around that tree. I'll tell you what I see from my vantage point. You tell me what you see, and we'll pass it around. And with all of us, we'll be able to comprehend the height and the depth and the width of this tree. We'll never be able to do it by myself. And it is only when suddenly I discovered that it was with all the saints

how desperately I needed people, how desperately I needed them. I hope I'm not talking out of school, but something blessed me last night. We were riding over with Jerry Vines and his wife. They were talking about their family, talking about their kids. The driver was a Scotty who was driving us.

His son is in college where Jerry's son is in college. And they were talking about all of this. And you know, folks, I was sitting there listening. I said, you know, old Jerry's got it made. Co-pastor of that first Baptist church in Jacksonville, Florida.

President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Oh, man. Do you ever find yourself a little envious? Maybe. I don't know. You know. I tell you what's going through my mind I bet he makes more money than I do

I know he does he's bound to I bet he's got a better car cars than I have I bet his's got a better car or cars than I have. I bet his home is gorgeous. And then you know what came up in the conversation? They began to talk about their handicapped child.

Their special child. Their special child. 26 years old. That blessed me. You say, how could that bless you? I really don't know. But it did. Just knowing. It did.

Just knowing. God again reminding me that happiness is not found in salaries or big churches or big homes or automobiles. I just bless me. Let me close with this little thing. Back in 1974, 74 was a bad year for us. And all of us have bad years, I know that. All of us had bad years.

But I thought, I thought I'm going to take my family down to Galveston. We're going to spend a week or two down there on the beaches and let the waves wash a little peace into our souls. My mother just died after being in the hospital for 50 days. Our oldest son was suffering a mood disorder from a chemical imbalance in his blood, and only God knew where he was, and God wasn't telling me. Right before we left, our second son broke his leg and was now wearing a cast from his hip down to his toes. The x-ray showed not only the break in the bone, but also some little tumor-like growths on the bone too soon to know what they were so I used my imagination I was burned out I was experiencing a weariness of the spirit that I'd never experienced before I didn't think I cannot preach another

sermon I cannot preach another sermon so I went. So there we were, soaking up sun and surf at in-season rates. And there he was, waiting for me. Every morning when I got up, there he was, waiting for me. Stayed with me all day. Stuck closer to me than my shadow. Who? Old depression. The first of a number of encounters that we had. No matter what I did, I couldn't shake it. I was depressed. I couldn't pray my way out of it. I couldn't praise my way out of it. I pled the blood and dispatched angels and rebuked the devil and bound Satan and did everything I know to do. I couldn't get away from it.

Every day there he was waiting for me. And all day long I lived just in a pool of blackness, oppression like I've never known. Until Thursday morning. I woke up and he wasn't there waiting for me. I looked for him all day. I was suspicious. I said, he's going to leap out on me from that alley when I walk past it. But he didn't. I couldn't explain it, folks. He's gone.

Not anything had changed, but everything was different. He's gone. And it was wonderful. We got home. I went by the church office to pick up my mail. And there was a letter there from a friend of mine that knew everything about our situation.

It was written at a Holiday Inn motel. It had the Holiday Inn insignia stamp on the envelope, but I recognized the handwriting. And like I say, he knew everything about us. He had the time written on that letter, 3 a.m. He was staying over to catch a plane out the next day. Let me read you just part of the letter.

He said, Dear Ron, I have prayed for you today and am about to pray again that God will make this time through which you are passing a new door open to the mystery of truth. God must love you so much to watch you pass through this trying time. So, no sermons at this point. I'm going to say the thing that means the most to me at this moment with reference to you. I have no friend on the face of the earth whose friendship I treasure more than yours. I have asked God to put on my heart as much burden as he can to lighten yours.

I want to bear it with you. And that does not require conversation or correspondence, but in the spiritual realm where those transactions are made, I have asked God for your burden. I was not surprised to find that the date was that Thursday morning that I woke up and my gloomy companion was gone. Now, folks, you can believe that's a coincidence and be miserable if you want to but I know it was something else I'm going to make it

don't have any doubt about it but I'm going to need your help to do it let's pray together But I'm going to need your help to do it. Let's pray together. Now, Father, we come tonight with thanksgiving in our hearts that you have made us a part of a great family. Brothers and sisters all over the world we thank you for that Lord for all those here tonight

who would not dare reveal the things perhaps that they're going through to those of us who sense something in their life, dear Lord, give us the grace to help them, to pray for them, to love them, to comfort them with the same comfort we have received from you. And we ask it all in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen.