(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming to the stronghold Baptist church. You can take your seat please and grab your pin book. We're going to begin our service with our very first song. Song 147. That was song 147 leaning on the everlasting arms. Song 147. Leaning on the everlasting arms. God of blessedness, God of peace is one. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet the love in this beautiful way. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessed these with my Lord so dear. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Amen. Brother Kevin, can you open us up, please? Your Heavenly Father, we thank you for this church. Well, we thank you for the opportunity to be here. We pray that you bless the service and bless the singing of the Lord. We'll be with the pastor every week of the day. I pray that you amen. Alright, if you could take your song notes again and turn a few pages back to 145. 145 is well with my soul. And on this song, when we get to the chorus, ladies, you're going to sing the first hit as well. Men sing with me the second hit as well. And then again, the ladies hit as well. And then the men with me the second with my soul. So I'll give you a reminder when we get to that chorus. Let's go ahead and start that song at 145 as well with my soul. Men sing with me the second hit as well. Men sing with me the second with my soul. Men sing with me the second with my soul. Men sing with me the second with my soul. Men sing with me the second with my soul. Men sing with me the second with my soul. Men sing with me the second with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. The second with my soul. The same tension The faith, the trial should come. And this bless the shore and control. And Christ has rebarred in my helplessness made and has shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul, my sin of the bliss of his glorious God. My sin not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it, O Lord. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul, and Lord, praise the day when my faith shall be signed. The clouds we roll back as a scroll, the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. He came strong, it is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. Amen. All right. Great singing. Welcome to Strong Old Baptist Church. At this time, we're going to go through our announcement. So if you don't have a bulletin, just slip your hand up real high. We'll make sure that we get one to you. If you open up to the first page, you'll see our service times listed. There is always Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. Wednesday night seven, as our Bible says. We're going to be closing out this portion of the Book of Psalms this Wednesday. So we're going to do Psalm one and then next week we'll be on a new book of the Bible. So be sure to come here this Wednesday. We'll close out with Psalm 100 and then we'll move on to a new book next week. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there. And we added the the Saturday morning group that many of you are already familiar with in Stone Mountain. There's been a lot of activity there and a lot of great success. And the time is listed there. We got the salvation's and the baptisms through the month of April, as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up. I saw the total for yesterday. I think it was seven in the WhatsApp group. So that's awesome. I already included that in our numbers here. We got three for yesterday or OK. If you have any any other salvation's to report for the week, just slip your hand up real quick. Yes, sir. Friday. Awesome. And one Friday as well. Great. And one on yesterday. Amen. All right. Am I missing anybody? Very good. We'll keep up the good work, preaching the gospel there. We've got the offering totals listed down there on the page received through the month of April. Prayer requests. So we added Margaret Williams back on the list, but we got the update on Wednesday that she was out of ICU, which is really good news and is was back in. Saba, she'd been released from the hospital yet or she's still in. OK, because they were just waiting on scheduling her for dialysis, right, to continue that, because she had to get on dialysis in ICU and now she's going to continue to receive that. Hopefully she'll recover enough to then not have to require it anymore. But pray for her and with that situation as well, the dialysis. And we added brother, brother Lance's brother, Philip, to the list who is waiting on some some results for his blood work. And everyone else. Oh, and then Manuel, Mr. Jaldine's father or grandfather, excuse me, is released. He's well, right. So praise God, appreciate your prayers there. And so that's very good news to hear that. Is there any other updates to yes, sir? OK, so Bubba's at home, he's stable, did the infection go away from the amputation? You know, I mean, he's not hospitalized, so. Dialysis treatment, OK. OK, well, we're glad to hear that he's stable. Well, we'll remove him for now, he's getting the dialysis and he had the surgery and still needs to hear the gospel. So if you want to pray for him on your own, we'll remove him from the list for the church group. But, you know, of course, he still still needs to get saved and he's going to continue receiving that treatment. So if you remember him and your prayers there and then any any other updates for people who are on the list? Yes, ma'am. For the hernia. OK. Yeah, OK, so that's definitely going to last for for a little while, a couple of months. No. Yeah, there's a lot of people have that problem. Jaylene, did you? Yes. Wow, wow. OK. Oh, wow, OK, OK. So they know about that in advance because it's just a it's a known side effect. Right. OK, so the treatment schedule for Toby, who has an aggressive M.S., for those of you who couldn't hear, he's scheduled to be receiving blood transfusions as well as other treatment for the next two years. So it's a long term and very serious, right, because it's a it's a very serious disease. They're trying to fight to fight the M.S. And then also because of all of the blood transfusions you'll be receiving, there's higher risk for for PML. OK, she doesn't know what stands for and neither do I, but obviously, obviously it's serious. So, right, I mean, if you have to keep receiving blood transfusions and stuff like that, that's a big deal, a very serious thing. So so we'll pray, even though we might not know all the ins and outs of of the treatments, we still just pray that God will heal them. And I'm sorry. OK, sounds good. Thanks for the update. Any other updates? Did did Estelle get the anything situated yet? She's still waiting to get the imaging done, the MRI. OK. All right. Anyone else? Any updates? All right, very good. Please continue to pray for everyone on our list here. Of course, if you have anyone that you want to add, we have prayer cards over at the bookshelf by the main entrance and you can fill that out, drop it in the offering plate or hand it to me personally. Now, at the bottom of that page there, we've got First Works Baptist Church, the church and the pastor, Bruce Mejia and his family. We're praying for them this week on the next page. Big news. So I just found out on Wednesday. Thanks a lot, Andrew. For those of those of us who all know Andrew, he's not necessarily the most outgoing guy, right? He's a little shy. I think that's fair enough to say, yep, we're calling you out now. But Brother Andrew and Brittany have been obviously coming here together for a little while and have decided that they want to get married. So that's very, very good news. They're happy to hear that. And Andrew just kind of, oh, yeah, by the way, we're planning on getting married. Like, wait, what? Well, where are you going to get married? Like, what are you going to get? Oh, we were kind of thinking about going to the courthouse. Like, look, well, I mean, you could do that, but how about you get married here? Well, you know, we'll do that here for you. So they're excited to get married. We're excited for them. That's great. It's good news. So they don't have a lot of family here. So it's going to be, you know, a small wedding for them. But they said, you know, the church is welcome to attend. So it's going to be right here on Saturday at one o'clock. So everyone's welcome to come. If you want to come and attend the wedding and especially you want to come and help and do a little bit of decorations and stuff. We're going to talk to my wife about that. We're going to be ordering some some things that we could have here. This will be our first wedding held in this church. So that's that's exciting. And, you know, we'd love to have you here to support them and, you know, be a part of helping with all that with the decorations. And what we'll do is church will provide a wedding cake for everyone in attendance, obviously for you guys and for everyone in attendance. So we'll we'll provide the cake for you. And yeah, we're really excited about this. So it should be a lot of fun. And I know I just put this in the announcements right now. But if you if you just to get a rough idea, not asking for commitment. OK, but if you if you think you might show up on Saturday, just to help me, because, you know, I didn't have a lot of time to plan this. Do you mind just raising your hand so I could get a rough idea approximately how many people will be here for the cake? So we order enough for that. Leslie, you got a rough idea on this? You can't see you're low. All right, let's say probably about 50. That's what it looks like to me. OK. Good enough. You work with that. All right. Amen. All right. Sounds good. So, of course, everyone's welcome to attend, even if you didn't raise your hand this morning. I guess I understand we didn't get all the time in the world to prepare for this, but it's going to be great. Really exciting about this love here and people, you know, seeing people get married and especially Andrew and Brittany. So we're very, very happy for you. So that will be the Saturday. So one o'clock. And if you show up late, I'm going to be locking this door, right, while the ceremony is going on. We're starting at one promptly on the dot. OK, one o'clock. We're starting. So if you are a little bit late, just go in through the main entrance so you can just come in through the back and that'll be fine. And we'll have everything situated this way for being the front up here. So, yeah, super excited about that and hope you can make it out to that on Saturday. April challenge, we are our challenge for this month is to focus on baptism and try to encourage someone who has who is saved and has not been baptized yet, or at least not baptized scripturally, you know, after after their salvation, not when they're an infant, full submersion to encourage someone like that to get baptized. So whether that's out at the door, preaching the gospel, lead someone to Christ, you know, encourage them to get baptized. Of course, we want to be mindful of this and thinking about this. A lot of times we could forget about the extra steps kind of after you lead someone to Christ just because it's exciting to lead someone to Christ and you tend to maybe leave before you could impart unto them a little bit more knowledge of like, hey, now that you're saved, you know, you should come to church, get baptized and get plugged in, man, come to church, you know, and kind of invite them there. And remember to be thinking about those things as well as getting them on a Bible and stuff and, you know, tell people, too, you know, hey, you come to church, especially if you don't have a Bible to give to them maybe, just say, hey, we've got materials for you here, everything's free, we give you a free Bible, there's other DVDs and things that we have at church, so come on over and we'll hook you up with what you need. So just be mindful of that this month and if you do come across someone, you encourage them to get baptized, you have a part in them getting baptized, whether that's at this church or not doesn't matter, if you encourage someone else to get baptized every month of April, you'll get a prize for that as well as part of our challenge. New church plant in Greenville, so please continue to pray for this. I am just waiting. Now, the ball is not in our court, but I'm going to be pushing again this week to get some more things done. I really don't like relying on anyone else in general to get things done, but there's not a whole lot more for me to do other than maybe be a squeaky wheel here and see what we can get to happen with the church plant because a lot of people are excited. I still am getting emails from people that are wanting to know what's going on and if this building works out for us, we can get started and rolling as early as June. So be in prayer for that and I'll keep you up to date where things are going. Of course, we're still continuing to look. It's just, you know, we're limited in the options it seems for affordable places that will work for a church plant. But in any case, just keep praying about that. I'll keep you up to date. Bible memory passage, Hebrews 11 verses one through 20. So the deadline is tonight. So you got till eleven fifty nine and fifty nine seconds. Now, if you start quoting right before midnight and you kick over to midnight, we'll give that to you. I'll accept that if it takes you, you know, the couple of minutes to quote that and you're doing it right at the end. But try to get done before then. Obviously, you want to have a good night's sleep for tomorrow. But if you have completed this or will complete this, do you mind just slip up your hand real quick and get a good count? One, two, three. Amen. All right. Very good. Of course, for those of you didn't raise your hand, you still got a little bit of time left to over twelve hours to get this done. And of course, we're going to continue Hebrews 11. If you want to get a head start versus the second 20 verses, I think it's 20, 40 verses total in this chapter, you can do that. Get started on that already. But we'll officially start that next week. We've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries through the rest of April listed there. Upcoming events. April 27th is a men's preaching class and song leading. And oh, I forgot to put the time on there. That was nine thirty, I believe. Is that correct, Brother Carter? Yes, nine thirty a.m. Preaching. And I will I forgot to put I will put if you're if you're coming to this men's preaching class and you want to preach, I will I'm going to put the instructions out here for you this afternoon. So after church, I will I will make that list because I forgot to do that and make that available for you. So you know what the plan is for preaching if you if you intend on preaching on that Saturday. And then May 13th through 18th is a church camp, and that missions trip to Fiji is is being held sponsored by Faithful Word Baptist Church. So if you want any more information about that, you can contact them. And that is about it for our announcements. So with that, I will turn the service back over to Brother Devon, who will lead us in our next song. All right. I want to turn in your song one hundred and fifty six. One hundred and fifty six. Jesus is the sweetest thing. One hundred and fifty six. One hundred and fifty six. One hundred and fifty six. One hundred and fifty six. One hundred and fifty six. And as the offering place around this morning, you can turn in your Bibles to James Chapter five. James Chapter five. As always, we're going to give attention to reading the entire chapter. Amen, church. Once again, that is the book of James James Chapter five, James Chapter five. The Bible reads, Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasures together for the last days. Behold, the hire of your labors of the labors who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cry and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanted. You have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just and he does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, onto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband and waited for the precious fruit of the earth and have long patience for it until you receive the early and latter rain. Be also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge stands before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for allowing us to be able to water and plant and you ultimately get the increase. Thank you for the souls that have been saved in the past and also the future souls that we saved. Thank you for this church and for the blessings that we have from this church. Thank you for Pastor Burzins. Allow for him to be strong in your word and to be able to preach your boldness and allow for our ears to be attended to the words you have for us to be able to hear and to also take notes and to meditate on the words that we will hear for today. We praise you and we thank you. We say this in Jesus name, Amen. All right, so in James Chapter five, I want to call your attention just kind of to the latter portion here of the chapter. We just read the whole thing. We read this part about the prayer in verse number 14, where Bible says, Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise them up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. So clearly a very powerful passage on prayer and on the power of prayer and how, hey, we could pray to the Lord and God's able to do all things, even brings up the example of Elijah saying, hey, you know, praying to the Lord that it wouldn't rain. And God literally made it not rain for three and a half years because of that prayer is attributed to that prayer. And then he prayed again and God heard that prayer as well and was able to do these great supernatural things, of course, clearly the power of God. And it brings up, you know, them that are sick and calling fellows of church and praying. And what I want to preach on this morning is on unanswered prayers. OK, because sometimes people might get their faith a little shaken because we read these passages and we have confidence and we know, hey, God is able to do this and we pray for a reason. And, you know, we have our prayer list and we're praying for people continually and it's very important. But sometimes then people might have the question and go, well, wait a minute, I know God's capable of doing this and God has done this in the past. Why is my prayer not answered? And of course, when I say unanswered prayers, it really should be more like the answer I didn't want to prayer. OK, because here's the thing, an unanswered prayer would be the wicked that God doesn't hear their prayer, right? And I'm not going to get into that this morning. So I'm preaching to the saved. And this is the focus I want to have is for you to benefit you and to have the understanding with your own prayer life to God, right? Because we know that God's going to hear our prayers and a simple version. And again, I preached recently on having your prayers heard before God, just not that long ago, maybe a month ago. We're doing the prayer challenge. So all of those things, of course, still apply. So you want your prayer to be heard and you want your prayer to be answered. All the various things that I went through. Of course, we need to be taking heed to. But I want to just really get kind of narrow and focused specifically on just this concept of like, well, hey, I know that God's all powerful. We have this awesome scripture. It illustrates the power of prayer. And yet sometimes we pray for things that just, they don't seem to happen the way that we ask, right? Or, you know, you could kind of feel like I know I'm doing right. I feel like there's nothing, there's no major sins in my life. There's no reason why God shouldn't hear me. You know, I'm coming to church, I'm reading my Bible, I'm praying, I'm going sowing, I'm doing all this stuff, right? And I have these people that I love and I'm praying for them, but I just don't, it doesn't seem like I'm seeing anything, any result in, you know, what's going on. And I'm hoping that this sermon, we could look a little bit deeper and see, get at least some comfort and understanding and not forsake prayer and not walk away thinking like, oh, well, it just doesn't work or whatever. But have the full understanding because really the knowledge and understanding is going to help us through the times where we don't feel like we get the prayer answered the way that we would want it to be answered. Of course, the Bible says in James 4, since we're in James 5, just flip back. And this is a slight recap over some of the things where I preached on previously. Getting your prayers answered, the Bible says in James 4, verse 3, ask and receive not because you ask a miss that you may consume it upon your lusts. And I covered that a month ago. But, you know, so of course asking for the wrong things, God's not going to hear that and God's not going to answer your prayer. If you're not praying for the right things, because God knows what's best for you. God knows what's best overall too. So when we're seeking something from the Lord, if you're asking for something that's just simply not good for you, you know, don't expect God to answer that prayer because it's better for you not to have that answer the way that you were asking for. And oftentimes there's information that God knows as well that's going to be helpful for us in the end. Now one of the things I want to spend a little bit of time on is just the subject of death. Okay, as people die and people pass on, even, you know, we have people that have a lot of grave diseases and things that we pray for regularly, right? And this is kind of the thrust of the sermon here is, well, what about these people that we're praying for, the whole church is praying for, yet they still die. Or they still, you know, we don't see what we want and we've got everybody praying for them. Why does that happen? And that's a common question to ask. But first of all, I think the most important thing to understand and turn if you would to 2 Samuel chapter 12, because there's a lot of different reasons for this. It's not any, just one reason. But first and foremost, the Bible says in Hebrews 927, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, we all have an appointment with death. I mean, everybody does. And it is reality that everyone will be facing this physical death and that we don't know the day or the hour. We don't know when this is going to happen. And some people die young and some people die in the middle of their life, and some people die, you know, as older people. And it's unknown to us. And all of the reasons why this happens to different people is also unclear to us as to all the ins and outs and as to why. But I think... Sorry, my mind's going a little bit too fast for my mouth. As much as we may love people and pray for them to live, sometimes it's a consequence for sin, because we live in a fallen world. And again, don't take any one thing I say and just apply that. It's not the one answer for everything. But the fact that we live in a fallen world is the reason why there's even death to begin with, right? So death came as a result of sin. So there's no getting around that. And oftentimes, people die as a result of other people's sins, right? So murderers, for example, that's someone else sinning and taking the life of another. Now, if God were to step in every single time that someone was ever going to be murdered and stopped that from happening, what would end up kind of resulting from that is say, okay, well, if he's going to stop every murder, is he going to stop every sin? Is he going to stop everything else from happening? You end up losing free will. You end up losing that even the choice of doing anything, which is contrary to the way that God made things and the way he designed us and the way that he wanted it to be for his own purposes. And again, there's a greater purpose for us having free will. And I'm not going to get into all that this morning, but if every single time that something bad is going to happen, God stepped in, then you couldn't say that we had a free will. Because if it's impossible to end up doing evil, then how could you say that we do have free will, right? And this is what we see. This is evident in the world. So sometimes people die as a result of other people's sins, other people's, the consequences of their actions and sinful nature. And sometimes it's also a consequence of their own sin, right? Our own sins, we can come back and reap those sins. Of course, the Bible says the wages of sin is death and the end result of our sin is death. And we know that that's, I think, primarily referring to the second death. It's referring to the spiritual death that we receive for our sins. But of course, there is the physical tied into that as well. And in 2 Samuel 12, we're going to read this story about David and the son that was conceived in adultery. And that son died even though David was praying for that son and praying earnestly for that son, yet he still passed away. And it was clearly, as we're going to see in the story, it was clearly a result of his own sins, right? And it's David's sins that had an impact on the son. Now, the child didn't do anything wrong. It's just a baby, right? Baby can't control how it was conceived. Baby can't control any of those things, yet it still died. But it was clearly a result and a punishment because of David's sins. 2 Samuel 12, verse 13, the Bible reads, And David said unto Nathan, this was right after Nathan confronted him with his sin, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. So David's life was spared, but the child that was born as a result of his adultery is not going to be spared. And that is not a punishment against a child. That's a punishment against David. And every father understands that, why that would be a punishment against them, right? To lose their child, to lose their son, to lose their daughter is a huge burden to bear. And I mean, I would think about it this way too. If you lost your life, David had to live with, he lost that son for the rest of his life. So, I mean, think about that punishment versus just losing your own life right then and there. It's kind of a worst punishment to know forever that you've been responsible for that and you were the cause of your own child dying, right? Not surviving. So this was definitely a point for anyone trying to say, oh, he got off easy. No, no, he didn't. And it wasn't God punishing the child, it was God punishing David through the loss of his child. And again, just to highlight, when we sin, you give yourself over to the flesh, really bad things happen. And not just to you, but to others as well. Your sin has an impact on other people, as it clearly did here. Our sinful actions hurt other people. And this is not, this is clearly not what David was thinking of when he was in the heat of the moment and he decided to commit adultery with Bathsheba. But it was the consequence of it. It was the result. And I mean, not even just this, of course he had another great man, one of his mighty men, one of his top 30 guys put to death to try to cover up and hide his own sin. And then also face this consequence as well. A lot, a high price to pay for that moment of giving into the flesh in a very serious sin of committing adultery, which by itself carries a death penalty sentence according to the word of God. But let's continue here. So the pronouncement came that the child was surely going to die. Verse 15, And Nathan departed unto his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not. Neither did he bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? So for a week, he's fasting, he's praying, he's on his face. He's not listening to anyone. He's just humbled himself completely and just praying to God as home as he can on his face and entreating the Lord to just spare the life of this child. But the answer was no, right? The answer is no. Now, just because, you know, these things happen, of course, does that make God unjust? No, of course it doesn't. David was unjust. But it also was still, even though he knew that, he still had a good reason to pray, and he still knew that God could potentially change his mind. God might show mercy. God might extend mercy unto that child. The Bible, he explains that here in verse number 19. But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore, David said to his servants, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he came to his own house and when he required, they set bread before him and he did eat. Now, notice too, he didn't get angry with God. When he found out he was dead, he worshiped God. Okay, just like Job, right? When bad things were happening and Job lost his children, his family. And think about this. I mean, Job is a good example. I just came across my mind right now. Job prayed for his children, like all the time. He was continually offering up offerings for them and making sacrifices just in case, like just in case my children have done something. You know, like I want to make things right. I'm going to be offering this stuff up. I'm going to be doing what I can for my children's sake. Yet he lost them all. So it's another good example of someone whose prayers can feel like, hey, that's unanswered, right? Why? Why did this happen? And Job's a great example. Why did it happen? Job wasn't like David here. Job didn't go off and commit adultery. Job didn't get into some major sin that's going to reap this horrible punishment of losing everything and losing his family and losing his health and, you know, losing everything he lost. But what was the result of? It was still the result of sin. And it was the result of Satan's attack on Job. Satan's the one that was responsible for his children being killed and for him losing all of his possessions and all these things, right? Satan is the reason behind it. God didn't cause those things to happen. He allowed it to happen. But Satan is the one responding. You're going to get mad at Satan for that. And it wasn't anything that Job had done himself. And of course, we know he wasn't perfect. And he had expressed, he had, you know, the sins of his youth and was seeking, trying to understand and comprehend why he was on the receiving end of all this because he didn't understand. And we don't always understand. You know, we pray for people and pray earnestly, and we get the whole church praying, yet still we have family and friends, loved ones that pass on. And we could go, well, why? You know, we don't get it. But there is a bigger picture at play. There is a bigger picture that we don't always get to see and we don't always know. And there's other purposes behind the passing of people. And again, as I mentioned before, it's going to happen to everybody, at least until Christ comes back, right? That's the only thing that's going to prevent people from literally physically dying on this earth is the return of Jesus Christ, so those that are alive and remain will be caught up together with him in the air. But back to David here, the Bible says that he, you know, he cleaned up himself, he got changed, and just, you know, commanded food to be brought, and he's going to break his peace, and he's going to break his fast now and kind of resume his life once he found out that the child was dead. Verse 21, then said his servants unto him, what thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while I was alive, but when the child was dead thou didst rise and eat bread. They're confused. They're just thinking like, well, wait, why are you fasting and weeping and mourning and doing all this when the child was still here, they're still alive. We would expect you to be like that after the child's gone. Why would you, it's just backwards in their minds, they're just kind of thinking like, why would you do this? And he said, verse 22, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live? So he still believed, I mean, his prayer wasn't in vain in the sense that he knew that God is merciful and long suffering and could potentially just show mercy. So it was a good investment of his time to say, you know, I'm going to pray and I'm going to fast and I'm going to earnestly pray to the Lord that he would spare this child. Now, of course, God didn't, but it still wasn't a vain thing. And then, but once he's dead, he says, look, now he's dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? Like, I can't change it once it's happened now. It makes sense to weep and mourn and fast and be desirous and entreating God for him to help. But once it's done, once it's over, it's done. It's done, we can't change it. And look, this is also good for healing when things happen, especially with deaths and people pass on. We mourn, we weep, we fast, we pray earnestly while they're still here because we're seeking God's help. But once it's over and once they've passed, it's helpful and you have to remind yourself, well, okay, it doesn't mean you can't mourn. Of course, you're still going to mourn the passing of a loved one, but the fasting and all of the other entreaty, there's no more entreaty left to the Lord. You can't ask him to do anything more. He's not going to bring them back again from the dead. And he says, look, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Okay, he's not coming back. So I know I'm going to be headed that way, but he's not coming back this way. So hey, we just remember that, right? And the good news is for those that are saved, of course, I shall go to him in the passing. And when people pass on, especially those that we're praying for and care a lot about, well, at least you could say, hey, I'm going to go to them. They may not come back, but I'm going to go to them and be with them and get the comfort from that. But turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. So 2 Samuel was a result of David's sin, clearly. And that's why. And God didn't hear his prayer because he was receiving a punishment for his own sin. Job was receiving the actions and the sins of someone else. And this happens with many people. And you could even, when we have full knowledge of all the evil things that are happening under the sun, there could be people liable and responsible for more deaths than we're even aware of. There could be some real evil people in high places that only care about money, that are doing things that they know are wrong and bad, that are intentionally maybe causing cancers and getting into our food supply and into our water supply, that are poisoning people and afflicting us that we might not even be aware of. And that's very reasonable, and I think probably happening very likely, but we don't know that. For sure, like for certain, I can't just say 100%, like this is exactly what happened. We may not be able to trail it back, all the reasons why someone's afflicted with, say, a cancer. But it doesn't mean it's not there. So you say, well, why is my son or my daughter or my brother or my sister or my mom or my dad going through this, it's real painful and there's all these horrible things. Well, it could be the result of someone else's sin that we just aren't even aware of, and they're just afflicted by it. Kind of like Job had no idea, and he was being afflicted by Satan, right? So these things, it's an answer. I think it's a very reasonable answer to be able to explain a lot of what's going on in our world because it's a fallen world, and there's things that happen that go beyond our knowledge, to be able to say, okay, well, I don't know all the facts, I don't understand this. But the foolish thing is to blame God for it happening, or even to blame him for not stepping in and performing a miracle when you ask him to. Now, God can and does perform miracles, which is why we go to him. But miracles are special. They don't happen all of the time. It's not something that's just, God is not the genie in the bottle of make your wish and I'm going to do whatever it is that you say. Now, the Bible says, asking you shall receive, but as I've preached previously, there's a lot of more involved in that as far as getting God to hear your prayers. And ultimately, the most important thing is making sure you're asking for the right things. And here's the thing, God sees the big picture. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, we see an example here with the apostle Paul, who had a problem that he was facing, and he's praying to God about this problem, and he wants it to go away. He needs help. Verse number seven in 2 Corinthians 12, the Bible says, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Now, he's already kind of understanding some of the reasoning behind he has been afflicted. And he's attributing this, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as the apostle Paul is someone who has profoundly impacted the Word of God being brought to us, especially in the New Testament, New Testament believers, how many of the books of the New Testament were delivered through the apostle Paul? I mean, most of them, right? So he's saying, lest I should be exalted above measure, right, so he doesn't get too lifted up and too propped up because of his position, because of his being used by the Lord and delivering these epistles. He says these abundance of revelations, which he's had an abundance of revelations, right? The Holy Spirit working through him and delivering us all this great Word of God through all these epistles, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, so something to just kind of keep him humble, keep him mindful that while, yes, hey, Paul, you've got a lot of revelations, you have a lot of understanding, you understand a lot of mysteries here. God's still going to keep him humble for his own benefit, right? Because when you get lifted up with pride, you get blinded. And he needed to have this thorn in the flesh, he says the messenger of Satan. Now look, God wasn't hurting him, Satan was, but God allowed this to happen and allowed it to not be fully resolved, this thorn in his flesh, lest I should be exalted above measure. So just to keep him humble, the Bible says this in verse eight, for this thing, what? The thorn in the flesh that he received, the buffeting of the messenger of Satan, right? Whatever the impact here was, he says, I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. Like three times I went to God in prayer, asking him, God, please heal me, God, please help me of this affliction, help me with this thorn in the flesh. Now, while we don't know exactly what it is, I've taught this, I don't remember how long ago in the past, I think it probably has something to do with his vision, with his sight, because he was afflicted here, you see how long a letter I've written with my own hand, and there's other evidences to kind of support that theory that he probably had something wrong with his vision. I'm not going to prove that this morning, but you could check that out and in your own reading, if you haven't heard that before, you kind of test it out and see if you agree with that. But in any case, whatever it was, he's seeking the Lord for this, but then he gets this answer. And look, that's why I said this isn't an unanswered prayer, but his request was, God, heal me, you'll help me with this particular problem. And this was the answer he got, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So he's weak, he's seeking God, God, strengthen me, God, help me, heal me of this problem, this plague that I have. And God says, you know what, my grace is sufficient for you. Now this is Paul's response, most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Oh, okay, if that's the case, then I'm good. Then I'll just keep going through whatever this is, this plague, this affliction that I'm dealing with, for the glory of God. And here's another point that I want you to keep in mind and remember when you feel like your prayers aren't being answered and you might be struggling with something that's really difficult or really hard or really painful or some thorn in your flesh that you have to deal with, there may be something else going on that you're not aware of that God is allowing you to go through in order to show God's greatness and God's power later on down the road. And there are many people who suffered various types of afflictions that you might be praying for and asking about, and in the end, you might be able to reach other people that might be going through similar problems as a result of your trials and your tribulations, and then you could relate to people and help them and strengthen them through what you've gone through. And that might be the reason or you might be going through something that you're only going to be put in a particular situation, potentially even to give the gospel to somebody because of you being afflicted and being put in a position. And this came up recently personally with my wife and we've talked about these things before and I was expressing to her the same sentiment because she's going, why again? Why again with my knee? Why again with the pain? Why again with all this? Well, you might be putting through this. Now you're going to be in a hospital. Now you're going to have other people you're coming into contact with. Now you're coming into contact with people that you never would have normally come into contact with. Give them the gospel. Talk about Jesus. Maybe that's why you're there. And look, if you have to suffer the loss of a limb but somebody ends up not going to hell and gets saved and is going to be now eternally, has eternal life, it's worth it. It is. And remember the value, the importance of these things that in the big picture in the grand scheme of things, we just don't know. We don't know all the ins and outs. We don't know how everything's going to match up and line up. And we just have to trust and know that God is good and God is faithful. And yes, God hears us. And yes, God wants us to, you know, be blessed and to have the best life that we can. It's also not everything is all about you either. God cares and loves for, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, right? So there's, I mean, there's many, many other people out in this world that could be impacted by you. And just like the Apostle Paul here, he says, hey, look, God's name being exalted that much more through someone else's weakness. Because if it's all just done under someone's power, oh man, this guy's like really good with his words. He's really suave. He's really like, he's just got all these great attributes. It's easier to attribute maybe some of the work they do to themself instead of to God, who deserves all the credit and glory and honor, right? So then if people just kind of look at that, it's gonna be less impactful if you just think, oh, this is all the power of this person and what they do. Well, so what, right? There's motivational speakers. There's all these other guys out there that could get big followings and everything else, but that's not the power of God. But what do we care about? We care about the power of God. We care about people coming to Christ. We care about the Word of God going forth powerfully, and if that means that God's gonna get more honor and more glory with me suffering a little bit to show how strong God is, then amen. That's good. Well, let's do it, right? If God says, hey, I can make you really comfortable and you can serve me that way, but if you struggle a little bit and you go through some other problems, you go through these other hardships, you'll end up reaching X times more people and get the Word put out there published that much farther and broader through you suffering a little bit. Great. Well, let's do that then, right? And it's a mindset that we ought to have, like the Apostle Paul saying, hey, okay, well, if you're telling me that your grace is sufficient for me and that your strength is made perfect in my weakness, okay, then I'll be weak because that's what I care about is doing no service to the Lord. And we might not fully understand that. Like I said, we may not get it, like, well, why? Why can't I just serve you with all my limbs and joints working good? You know, like, why not? Well, yeah, it's easy for us to think that way, but there could be very good reasons for that. So now look, are we going to pray when we have problems? Of course we will. We're going to cast all of our care upon Him. All of our problems, all of our tribulations, all of our hardships, we're going to seek the Lord for them. But with this one very important understanding, God knows all. And if there's a good reason behind it that we may never know or not know until we pass on in the glory, then I'm just going to still remain faithful and know that, hey, well, God is good and God is just. So if there's a reason why my specific prayer isn't being answered the way I want it to be answered, then I'm just going to trust that God is still good and He knows why. And not let it discourage me. And now here's a good part about this, too, in the flip side, it's not like prayers are never being answered and heard and you're just kind of always going through life without ever seeing a result to your prayer. At least you shouldn't ever have that. I don't have that. And I know as a church, if we actually tally up and look through all the people who have been on our prayer list and the things that we're entreating the Lord for, you can say, oh, yeah, but that was going to happen anyways. No, not always. Definitely, definitely not. There are testimonies of people in this church that can say, no, clearly, I know that the prayer helped because it was too miraculous to not have been the Lord helping. And when you keep track and count your blessings, like that great songs talk about, hey, keep track of what God has answered in all those things, it is a blessing. Now, it's not going to be a hundred percent on every single thing you ask for, but that's also going to be for good reason. But how many times you see God working and your prayers being heard and answered gives us the faith, it helps our faith and strengthens our faith to know like, look, this is profitable, this is good. I mean, how many times in scripture do we see people seeking? How many times did David seek the Lord? Just David alone. I mean, over and over and over and over again, and God delivered him from his enemies, and God was there for him, and all these things. Oh, but this time he didn't. Well, yeah, because there was a reason for that. And in this case, he knew what the reason was. We don't always know, but we have to understand that those reasons exist. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10, Apostle Paul continues here saying, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. I say, wait, what? How can you be strong and weak at the same time? Because when you're weak physically, when you're weak through the persecutions, you're strong for the Lord. You're strong as a servant of God in God being magnified through your weakness. That even in maybe some of your hardest conditions, you're still preaching the goodness of God. You're still preaching faith in Christ. That is powerful. That's a powerful testimony. I mean, think about the martyrs in the face of death, their own self-destruction in a sense, right? Like, hey, you preach this, you're going to be killed. That brings so much glory and honor unto the Lord when people are willing to sacrifice their own lives for his name to be exalted. I mean, think about Stephen, right? The martyr Stephen, Acts chapter seven. Don't know exactly how old he was, but hey, he was, I mean, he was in his prime as far as I'm concerned, preaching the gospel, preaching boldly about Jesus. Well, his life was ended and God saw fit not to step in and stop or prevent the stoning of Stephen but how much more was God's name magnified then as a result of his actions and staying faithful until the end. When we go through hard times and turn if you would to Genesis 37, we got enough time for this. When we go through the hard times, of course, we should pray for the immediate relief that we seek, of course. There's nothing wrong with that, right? But let's maintain that understanding that, well, hey, if God's gonna let me go through this, there's gonna be a greater purpose probably here. However, we should also pray that God will guide us through the difficult times even if he doesn't remove the difficulty that he'll be there with us through the difficulty because that's most important, right? If he doesn't necessarily take it away but he's still there with you, to strengthen you and to help you through the difficult time, that's probably more needful than even the removal of the problem itself that God is with you, right? So the boss of all could say, okay, well, I've got this problem in my flesh but God, I still need you here with me, right? To give you the strength and to keep going forward and I think the best example of this is Joseph. Joseph in the Bible, right? We don't have a record of all of Joseph's prayers but I'd be willing to say that he probably had quite a few prayers over the course of his life when he was dealing with a lot of problems and persecutions and asking God why and asking God help me and God free me and God, you know, all these things, God help me in this situation that I'm in, right? It stands to reason that someone as faithful as Joseph who clearly had a faith in the Lord clearly would have also been asking for deliverance in all the problems that he was facing but how long did it take for those prayers to get answered? It was not right away. Genesis 37, we're just going to do a brief summary. I'm just going to read through some of this. I'm not going to expound on it but we're just going to kind of read through the story real quickly here and we'll jump around a little bit. Verse number three, the Bible says, Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors and when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. So Joseph already through no fault of his own, I mean, he's just his dad's favorite. What do you do about that? You can't choose who's going to be the favorite, right? Everyone else hated him though for it. So his brethren's already hating him and they're seeking evil against them because they hate him so much. Jump down to verse number 17, the Bible says, And the man said, There departed hence. This is when he's looking for his brethren now. I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one another, behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore and let us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we will say some evil beast hath devoured him and we shall see what will become of his dreams. They didn't like his dreams because he had his prophetic dreams of him being in charge and ruling over everybody and ruling over his family. And they definitely didn't like that. And they're like, hell yeah, we'll see what happens to your dreams when we kill you and throw you into this pit and make it look like some animal got you. And Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. Reuben wasn't for the killing part. He didn't like Joseph, but he was like, man, it's going a little bit too far. We're not gonna kill him. And it came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took him and cast him into a pit and the pit was empty and there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread and they lifted up their eyes and looked and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him. For he is our brother in our flesh and his brethren were content. Then they're passed by Midianites, merchant men, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver and they brought Joseph into Egypt. So his life is spared, but he's sold into slavery by his own family, by his own brothers. I mean, talk about being rejected and there's so much types of Christ in this story. It's hard to not go off on a rabbit trail and preach through that because it's all over the place. He, you know, he came onto his own and his own received him not. His brothers rejected him and are selling him into slavery and sending him off into Egypt and they don't care what happens to him at all. There's total rejection. Jump down to verse number 36 and the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of pharaohs and captain of the guard. So this first portion of his life now, and go to chapter 39, after his brethren were about to kill him but decide to sell him instead, he ends up in Egypt. Verse number one, chapter 39, and Joseph was brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian brought him, bought him, excuse me, of the hands of the Ishmaelites which had brought him down thither. And look at this, and the Lord was with Joseph. So he's being afflicted. At this point, he's probably praying, God, get me out of this. God, I mean, I'm being sold. It's like, imagine just being carried off somewhere as a slave. You have no control over it. These guys just take you, they steal you and say, hey, you're being sold to this guy over here. And then they take you and you're like, I didn't sign up for this. Right, it's wicked. It's wrong and he's just, he's an innocent victim here. He didn't do anything wrong. So, I mean, just put yourself in a scenario. I'm sure he's calling out to the Lord for help. Did God free him from his bondage here? No, but you know what? God was with him. So he's praying for one thing. He's praying, I'm sure. And again, the scripture doesn't say this, but it would be pretty hard to see it any other way than him praying for deliverance. Right, God, get me out of this. God free me, get me out of this. And he didn't get him out of that, and definitely not right there at least, but God was with him. Lord was with him. And he was, it says, and Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand and Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him and he made him overseer over his house and all that he had he put into his hand and it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field. So he didn't deliver him out of being in bondage, but he sure did make it a lot easier for him, right? He sure did find grace. He sure was able to make it through that time easier and even being blessed in that situation, right? And whatever situation we're in, hey, if God's with you, he can bless your path. Even with outside forces acting upon you that you can't control beyond your control, hey, if God's for you, you can succeed in any situation you're in. And even if you're not receiving the full deliverance that you're seeking through prayer, hey, at least you want God with you. In our health problems, for all the people that we're praying for here, you might not get the full healing that you're seeking, but pray for God to be with you and to bless your path and that maybe you could get some relief from pain, maybe other things, maybe you can be used and just say, God, be with me and help me to prosper for your kingdom. Help me to reach people. Even if my prayer, my ultimate prayer being delivered isn't answered, if I don't receive the miraculous healing that I need, God, please just be with me, because if you're with me, I'm going to prosper. Even through physical deterioration, if you're with me, God, I could still prosper. Jump down to verse number 17. This is the false accusation that comes upon him. Everything seems to be going okay. Yes, he's in bondage, but he's been lifted up. He's been exalted. He's kind of like running everything in this guy's house, right? So it's not going to feel as hard bondage, as far as slavery that he was sold into because he's got all this responsibility. But then of course, there's this false accusation against him by this man's wife. And she spake on him according to these words saying, the Hebrew servant, which thou has brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass as I lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled out. She kind of stages this scene and brings this false accusation. It came to pass when his master heard the words of his wife, which he spake unto him saying, after this manner did thy servant to me, that his wrath was kindled. So of course, he's upset. He believes his wife and is just like, super angry that Joseph would do this thing, even though he didn't. Verse 20, and Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound. And he was there in the prison, but the Lord was with Joseph. So again, even in prison, he didn't do anything wrong. He didn't deserve it. It was someone else's sin that put him in that position. It was someone else that made him get put into prison. It wasn't his fault. But God's still with him. And God could still use him now, even in this bad situation. And God can be there with him, even if he doesn't get that deliverance right away. He's stuck in, and he stays stuck in prison for years. But God's with him. Verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. So now he's just lifted up again, even though he's in prison. Before he was just a slave, well, he's lifted up in that house. Now he's in prison, and God's lifting him up in prison to be, I guess, the best conditions you could have. Now, look, he's still in prison. Don't forget that. He's still in prison. Like, he still is not free. So it's not like it's just so great for Joseph. But God is with him, and he's making the persecution more manageable for him because he's with him. And he's allowing him to prosper and lifting him up and exalting him, even in this bad situation that was not Joseph's fault. Verse 23, and the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand because the Lord was with him. In that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Flip over to chapter 40 real quick. Verse number 14, the Bible says, but think on me when it shall be well with thee. So this is after he expounds the meaning of the dreams to the two employees, the butler and the baker, and the one was lifted up, and the other guy was put to death, and he's telling the one that was going to be put back in his place. Like, hey, think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness I pray thee unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. Like, I don't want to be a prisoner anymore. Can you help me out here? And again, I think, he says, for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. Like, I'm innocent. And I'm sure as he's talking to this guy, he's probably praying to God, saying, God, like, hey, this is a great opportunity. Use this guy to speak to Pharaoh and get me out of here. Oh, but that doesn't happen then either. It doesn't happen. So should he just quit and be like, you know what? Forget this. I'm done praying to God. Well, no, of course not, right? We see the long suffering. The long suffering pans out. Why? Because there's a bigger purpose. There's a much bigger plan that Joseph has been unaware of this entire time. No idea. He's walking blindly, but he's walking by faith and just trusting and saying, hey, I'm going to stay faithful to the Lord. He stayed faithful to the Lord when he was thrown into the pit. He stayed faithful to the Lord when he was sold into slavery. He stayed faithful to the Lord when he was falsely accused and imprisoned. And he stayed faithful to the Lord when he still wasn't delivered out of prison, even though he's helping people and speaking the word of the Lord to them and expounding unto them the word of God and revealing these prophecies. Chapter 40, verse 23, the Bible says, Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forget him. Two full years later, Joseph is finally released. And then he's exalted, and then he's put in the position, and then he becomes second only to Pharaoh in the land and exalted above everybody, right? And realizes that he's there for the purpose of saving so many people alive, right? God had allowed him to go through all of these situations. He didn't know it. He didn't know it. He didn't know it. He didn't know it. He didn't know it. He didn't know it. He didn't know it. And then finally, after years and years and years and years of his life, being persecuted, tried, tribulation, trouble, wow, now he could have this huge impact that he never would have been able to have if he'd quit on God or said this prayer stuff doesn't work or whatever. Stayed faithful, the big picture becomes revealed. Oh, and that's why he was able to forgive his brethren too and not be mad at him because, hey, you guys intended evil against me. That wasn't right, but hey, look, don't worry about it because God intended it for good. That evil that you did, God was actually placing me now into these positions so that we could save so many people alive and it could save you guys. And again, the types and the symbology there of Christ and his forgiveness and what he offers and the fact that he did everything and he did all the work to bring about the salvation, it's amazing. But last place I want to look at, jump back to Genesis chapter 25. I just want to point this out. As a help for what you might think are unanswered prayers. Joseph probably thought they're unanswered prayers, but they weren't. They weren't unanswered. They were delayed. They weren't brought about in the manner that he might've been thinking of. You can understand how someone in his position might think that those prayers are unanswered, but once you see the whole picture, you realize, oh, they're not unanswered prayers. They're not. Now, of course, sometimes we see answered prayers in a short term. Amen. And that should help build our faith when we do see that. When we see God work and we see the prayer being answered immediately. But understand also that there's a greater big picture to this. And when we're looking at our prayers being answered, it can not be, we can't get too constrained in our own timeline. But in God's, here's an example of a timeline that probably wasn't what Isaac was thinking about. But in Genesis 25 verse 20, the Bible says, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, a pet, and Aram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren. So he's praying to God for a child. She's barren. She can't have children. Listen to this. And the Lord was entreated of him and Rebecca's wife conceived. So when we read that verse, it sounds like, oh, he prayed and then she conceived. And that's awesome, right? Like, cool. Well, if you kind of pay attention when you're reading and you read a little bit further in the passage, like about five verses later, look at verse number 26, the Bible says about the birth of Jacob and Esau. And after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was called Jacob. Look at this. And Isaac was three score years old when she bare them. And for those of you who know, a score is 20, three score is 60. He prayed when he was 40 for his wife to conceive and have a child. That prayer was answered clearly because the Bible says that the Lord heard him. So the Lord answered his prayer 20 years later. Is that an unanswered prayer? No. God answered his prayer. Was it in the timeline that he was thinking? Probably not. I doubt he was saying, hey, God, in 20 years, can you give us a child? No. But look, but God heard him and God answered. Joseph wanted to be delivered from that prison. He wanted to be delivered out of the bondage he was in. He probably didn't want it to happen like decades later or years later or whatever, however long he was literally involved in being in these places. But God still answered his prayer ultimately because he was delivered. And then he was exalted and he was put in his position. So it does happen. Sometimes we have to remember our prayers. It may take a while. So don't give up and don't lose hope and don't lose the faith. And pray to God for these things. Whatever your issue is, whatever you're struggling with, whatever your deal is, maybe what you're praying for isn't God's will. It's not what God would have for a reason that could be beyond our own understanding. Of course, that's possible. But if we don't know, just keep faithful because God might have already said, yeah, I'm answering your prayer. Just like Daniel was praying and God immediately sent someone to give him the answer to his prayer and to open up his understanding about his lack of understanding of the scripture. But that was delayed. Why? Because Michael got in a fight with some of the devils, with Satan, right? It kind of impeded his answer to that prayer because there's a spiritual world going on, a spiritual battle that we don't get to see either with our eyes. But that delayed the answer to his prayer as well. So we may have delays to our prayers, but we stay faithful. So don't think that every prayer is unanswered. And maybe answer a little bit differently than what you think. And stay faithful and stay praying because it absolutely works. I already prayed on the effectiveness and we see in the scripture, it's clear, the effectiveness, the efficacy of prayer, 100%. So don't be discouraged when you think that a prayer is not answered because God is good and God loves you and God's just and God hears you. It's just not always the way that we think about them. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you so much for hearing us. We thank you for showing us how we can be heard with our prayers. I pray that you please help us to be more and more aligned with your will and in your word. And Lord, help us to be understanding that there are other, maybe other solutions to our problems and what we might think at a given moment. And Lord, we just pray that you'd be with us through our trials, through our tribulations, through our troubles, for all the people that we pray for, dear Lord, and we ask for healing and we ask for your blessing, Lord, that you would please be with them and strengthen them and guide them and help them to know the way that even if they may have to continue down this road and this path and suffer affliction, that you can be with them to bless them and make them prosper in the life that they have here, that they could still bring honor and glory unto your name, Lord. And we take comfort knowing that you love us and you are perfectly just. And Lord, please be with us today. Be with everyone this afternoon. Keep us safe from evil, Lord, and help us to reach many people with the gospel of Christ today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Devin, will you please lead us? All right, everyone, could you please put your hand up once again? Turn to Psalm 205. He keeps me singing, 205. If we don't have our prayers answered, we've still got a lot of lessons that we need to keep us singing. Let's sing that 205. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I have ever known. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. All my life was wrecked by sin and strife. This fulfilled my heart with pain. Jesus swept across the broken streets, stirred the slumber boards again. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Feasting on the riches of His grace, resting beneath the sheltering wing. Always looking on His smiling face, that is why I shout and sing. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Oh, sometimes in these blue waters, the trials fall across the way. Oh, sometimes the past seems rough and sweet. See, His blood burns all the way. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Soon He's coming back to welcome me, far beyond the starry sky. I shall bring my fire to worlds unknown. I shall reign with Him on high. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know.