The church is always full. The first service was full, and the choir ministered to me. And it ministered to you and I want to thank brother Gerald Peel for his leadership of the choir. And I really enjoyed pastor David Cook’s children’s story. I was David’s professor and I believe I did something good. I get a little credit. I knew him when he was a baby, in Michigan, and now I come here and he’s all grown up with two children. I checked my grade book this last week to find out how well he did academically. And I was hoping against hope I would discover it’s an A. Not an A minus, an A. And I want the whole congregation to know something about your pastor, that he got an A. Praise the Lord. Would somebody say amen to that? And then I was here because I wasn’t traveling to preach. I’m gone every weekend to preach somewhere. I came here to celebrate Christmas with you. From all the churches in the area, Philip Samaan chose your church. Isn’t that something? And I heard the best Christmas messages. Elder Gettys shares such a beautiful Christmas message. I was so blessed by it, I took my notebook and began to take notes. Professors usually give notes, don’t take notes. I began to take notes and because of inspiration to me I developed five sermons on that theme. So I’m glad to be here. And not only I’m glad to be here, I’m honored because you invited me. You invited me to help you launch a spiritual revival under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You want to start this new year with the spiritual emphasis on prayer. Not only to preach about it but to have a seminar after the potluck. For about an hour. And then to be reinforced by the prayer meeting on Wednesday. To talk about a Christ-centered approach to prayer. So you folks mean business, because the Lord is coming soon, and we need, with God’s help to be on a high spiritual level. We need to have the spiritual reservoir with Jesus. And we’re going to use as the pastor mentioned, a text book that everyone who comes this afternoon and also comes to prayer meeting will be getting the work-book Christ’s Way To Pray, How Jesus Prays For Us And With Us. And how the much fragrant incense of His prayers are to be mingled with our tainted prayers. How His powerful intercessions are to be joined with our puny prayers. So we can experience what I call the sacred venture with Jesus. Prayer is never intended to be a solo activity. It’s intended to be a sacred joint endeavor with Jesus. So I want to appeal to all of us here to re-examine our hearts at the beginning of this year. Especially after we study the Sabbath School lesson this morning about life, to examine our lives under the scope of the Holy Spirit. And decide to follow the conviction that I want to start the school year, this year of 2007, on a high spiritual note. To last me all year and years beyond. Because time is short. God has given us a precious window of opportunity to be ready and to prepare others to meet Jesus. Let’s bow our heads.
Loving Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray that you will take this earthen vessel, it’s only earthen, made out of clay, and this earthen vessel emptied of self and fill it with Your Spirit, so Your Name alone may be glorified. Use me today Lord, in spite of myself. To bring a special blessing to every heart. Now then, may the loving human arm of Jesus embrace everyone here close to Your heart and may with Your sovereign mighty, divine arm, connect us to Your throne. In Jesus name, Amen.
I think almost everyone here uses email, right? If you don’t, would you please raise your hand. Let us know who you are. Isn’t that wonderful. Somebody can survive without using the email. I’d like to talk to you afterwards. I wish I didn’t have to use it. And I get hundreds and thousands of emails supposed to make my life easy. I have to spend hours sorting them out. But once in a while you get a little goody coming through the junk stuff, and I got an interesting prayer from someone that I think would illustrate the lesson that pastor Cook shared with us. How, when we’re connected with the King it makes a difference. When our puny prayers are connected with the mighty prayers of our mighty Intercessor Jesus, it makes a big difference. And listen to what I read in my email, in the form of a prayer, to illustrate this point.
“Good morning Lord.” Apparently whoever wrote this prayer, it was in the morning, early. “Good morning Lord. I’m just waking up from sleep.” That’s a good thing to do once in a while. I’m so glad all of us are awake. “I’m just waking up from sleep and so far, so good. I have not yet been grouchy with anyone or mean to anyone. Not had the chance to gossip against anyone or committed any sin. So far, so good. But in a few minutes I’ll be getting out of bed to start my day and then I will need a lot of help.” Chuckle at that a little bit, but then I got the weight of this. Isn’t that true? And a lot of help we need indeed in every day life. Where the rubber meets the road. A lot of help we need. And that help comes only from our Helper Jesus. Our righteousness is like filthy rags of no avail unless we’re covered with the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Our prayers, no matter how wonderful we think they are, are of no avail unless they are covered with the mighty prayers of Jesus. So we need a lot of help.
I have good news for you. For this new year. Great help is on the way. God has great help on the way. What do you mean by that? It’s found in God’s word. Our help comes from the solid promise of the Bible. What would you and I do without the promise of the Bible? Let’s begin with the scripture reading Hebrews 7:25. And as you look at this verse, it begins with the word “therefore”. It’s a very important word when you begin a verse with it, meaning this is a summation of everything. This is the essence of everything. If you haven’t heard anything, hear this one. “Therefore,” and after the word therefore, it has the subject, He referring to God. “Therefore, God”, what’s God to do? “God wants to save everyone.” How much? “ To the uttermost.” You know what the word uttermost means? What does the word uttermost mean? It means perfectly, completely, and forever. God will not rest unless He saves us to the uttermost. And He’s able to do it. And nobody else is able to do it. How much we should celebrate this unique privilege and blessing. This awesome blessing that we have salvation to the uttermost in Jesus. “Therefore, He’s able to save to the uttermost, all”, I mean all kinds of people who have all kinds of specialties, but no one has a specialty except God. The specialty of salvation to the uttermost. Can you imagine for a moment living your life without this hope? Who does He save to the uttermost? “Those who come to God through Him.” Those who are open to come to God through Jesus. Jesus is the gateway. It’s wide open, and the invitation is, come through to receive this help. And in the end of the verse, the second part of the verse begins with the word “because”. It has to do with cause and effect. Because of what? Why is God able to save us to the uttermost through Jesus? Why? And the answer is there in that text. Because of what? Because of Jesus, because “Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us.” And I want to tell you, that our salvation is anchored in Jesus ever living to make intercession for us. The intercessions of Jesus are so important, our salvation is anchored in such mighty intercession. Now you notice in the last part of this verse. You have these two key words. Living and interceding. You notice? He ever lives to make intercession. He’s living to intercede for us. Where is the connection here? There is such an intimate linkage, intimate connection between His living and His intercession. Jesus lived righteously, so that He may intercede effectively. And that’s a Biblical concept, because James says “for the prayers of a righteous man avail much”. And we look at ourselves and say my prayers don’t avail very much, WHY? Because I’m not righteous. When I think about my righteousness, it’s like filthy rags. But there’s hope for us in Jesus because when we open our hearts to Jesus, He comes and He covers us with His robe of righteousness and therefore we become righteous in Jesus righteousness.
And then when we pray we join our puny, and like my brother who prayed, so to speak smelly, spiritually speaking, smelly prayers, we join them to the much fragrant incense of Jesus’ prayers, according to Revelation 8, verses 3 and 4.
I want to be a bit personal with you, as I share this experience. Every time I talk about prayer, I think of my praying mother who died about 10 years ago and is resting in Jesus. She gave me a glimpse, just a glimpse of the praying Jesus. She taught me how Jesus prays for me. As a child, very young, I remember seeing my mother go into her room, closing the door behind her, and she would start talking to somebody. I knew for sure she was talking to my dad, or one of my sisters, or my brother. I mean she was talking to a real person. And she was talking passionately, with feeling, with earnestness. And then she would leave the room, looking emotional, wiping tears off her face. And I thought, that was quite a meeting. Curious as a child I would walk into the room and look behind the cupboards, the door. Look behind the furniture to find the person my mother was talking to. But I couldn’t find anybody. Oh, it was the puzzlement of my life. Until I got about four and a half years old or five, gained a bit of courage, and then, during one of these passionate prayers, I cracked the door a little bit open and I looked at my mother, kneeling before God, raising her hands to heaven, tears streaming down her face. Crying out to God in prayer. And I said to myself, my mother must be praying about someone very important. I wonder who that person is. And that person was nobody else but her son Philip Samaan. My name was on her lips frequently. Reaching out to God. Praying with vehement cries and tears for her son. Then I realized I was so precious and important to my mother, therefore I was precious and important to God. It made an impact on my life, and my ministry, until Jesus comes. My mother showed me an example, showed me a glimpse how Jesus prays for us. Because, in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 7 the apostle Paul says, “When Jesus prays for us, He prays passionately.” He means business, He’s very earnest. He prays with vehement cries and tears.
I’m not inviting you to start crying. All I’m saying is, when we pray, we should mean business. Earnest, sincere, talk to God like talking to a real person. And I just want to say this in my mother’s honor. You know, because I grew up in a Muslim country, grew up south, biblical city of Antioch where the apostle Paul preached the gospel. In Syria. And because the Adventist church is outlawed, I left there when I was a teenager. Never allowed to go back. My parents were never allowed to get out. And never seeing them since I left. Be thankful to God you live in freedom. Never take this precious freedom for granted. Appreciate your loved ones. Love your loved ones. Never had the chance to see my father and mother and loved ones since I left as a teenager. Never met my wife, never met my daughter. My parents never heard me preach a sermon. I’ve preached tens of thousands of sermons. Never read a book I wrote. Didn’t understand a word of English. I hope you understand my English today, even though I don’t speak with a southern dialect, I’m sorry. And so the textbook you’ll be using, the pastor talked to you about, Christ’s Way To Pray, How Jesus Prays For Us and With Us, this will be our textbook. It has discussion questions, places to fill in the blanks, and it will be used as a textbook for the prayer meeting. And we’re going to start with a seminar using this book, after potluck at 2 o’clock. And you bring it, anybody who comes receives this book, and you bring it with you to prayer meeting. We’re going to start this year on a high spiritual note. We’re going to learn how Jesus prays for us and with us, and the impact this can have on our families and children, the people around us. So someday when Jesus comes and I see my mother in the clouds of heaven, I’m going to tell her I dedicated this book to her, because of the glimpse she showed me of the praying Jesus. So she cannot hear it, but I’ll read it to you. At least I’ll read it to somebody.
Dedicated to my beloved mother, Hanni, whose passionate prayers were my first glimpse of the embrace of the praying Jesus. Why do I use the word embrace? You know it’s like hugging somebody. Because, we read in the writing of my best author on prayer, Ellen White. She says, “As soon as we come to God in prayer from the heart, Jesus, our mighty prayer Warrior.” By the way, do you have a prayer partner? Jesus is the best one. “Jesus, our mighty prayer Warrior, draws close to us”. I tell you when we prayed as elders and deacons, we drew close together, you have a sense of camaraderie and unity and bonding together spiritually. Now, it’s not any more an elder or deacon, it’s the Lord Jesus Christ, our might prayer Warrior drawing close to us. And then she says, “With His loving human arm He embraces us close to His heart. And with His divine arm, mighty, sovereign, divine arm, He connects us with the throne.” That’s why I put this here, the glimpse of the embrace of the praying Jesus. When we pray, Jesus embraces us. And we’re told also by the same author, “Satan trembles and flees at the weakest soul.” If you think of yourself as the weakest soul, that’s for you and me. “Satan trembles and flees at the weakest soul who finds refuge in the mighty arms of Jesus.” He’s our refuge. And when we are embraced in that refuge of Jesus, satan takes notice, and he trembles and flees. Because he has to contend with Jesus and he doesn’t mess with Jesus. The only reason he messes with us is because we have worried ourselves away from the embrace of Jesus.
I left as a teenager never to see my mother and father. Now my father prayed for me, but my mother’s prayers were more passionate. And when she died, six months later he died. And I just want to say something again personal, because I really want the Holy Spirit to prick your heart and my heart. We live in very, very crucial times. We need to be close to Jesus. We cannot lean on Jesus unless we’re close to Jesus. I wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral. My mother, in that part of the world, you rest in Jesus at home surrounded by loved ones and friends. I wasn’t allowed to go there. People say well, you don’t have closure. I don’t think about closure, all I think about, my mother is resting in Jesus. No persecution, no imprisonment for your faith. Resting in Jesus. And my biggest closure is when I see her and my dad in their glorified bodies in the clouds of heaven with Jesus. That’s my closure. Isn’t that a wonderful hope? May it always burn bright in our hearts. Oh my friends. What would we do without the hope of the resurrection? I’m told by friends who were there, doing that vigil for a couple of nights, when my mother was breathing her last, that at the end she was talking about me, her son. Wished that I could be there for her to say goodbye to me, see you in the morning. And then, she was coming very close to breathing her last, and she was like in a delirium. I believe it was sent by God. And she imagined I was there. And she thanked me, my son Philip, I have not seen you in thirty-three years. Finally you have come to see me and say goodbye. I’ll see you in the morning when Jesus comes. And as I’ve done every day of my life, I passionately pray for you. Now I’m going to pray for you again. And she kept praying and praying and praying. Until she breathed her last. Thank God for praying parents. It makes a difference. She kept praying until she breathed her last. And this shows me a glimpse of the praying Jesus. Because Hebrews 7:25 says “He ever lives to intercede for us”. My mother cannot intercede anymore. She’s resting in Jesus. But Jesus ever lives to intercede for us.
Talking again about my background, when I was a teenager living in this country, I was homesick, taken to see Niagara Falls. I tell this experience in the book. You’ll have the chance to read it. I was taken to see Niagara Falls. What a sight for somebody coming from the Holy Land. There, water is not common. The rivers we have are like little steams in the United States. Our God has blessed America with abundance. Can you imagine how much water we have? Because in my part of the world, water is life. If you don’t have water, you don’t live. You treasure every drop of water. And here I was taken to see Niagara Falls. I couldn’t believe it. It was so amazing, I was stunned, taken up by the whole scene. And the American friends around me took it for granted. What’s the big deal? We see things like this. For me it was very special. And I don’t know what they’re doing. For me the biggest attraction was to lean ahead on that wall, look down, a few feet down. Millions of tons of water. Mighty torrent of water flowing every split second. Flowing from time immemorial. Flowing, when I was there, flowing. Now it will flow until Jesus comes. And I was gazing at that for twenty-five minutes. My friends knew I was homesick. I was from a different culture. They knew I wanted to be home with my loved ones. And so they saw me gazing at that water for twenty-five minutes, and they began to worry about me. You know, maybe this guy, I don’t know what kind of culture he comes from, but maybe he’s contemplating committing suicide. But I wasn’t. The Lord was speaking to me, as I was praying He was reminding me of His power and might. That he is going to be with me in this new world, never to forsake me. I said Lord, I miss my mother’s prayers, I don’t hear them anymore. He said, “I am your parent”. I want you to know that message came loud and clear. “I want you to know about the mighty flow of the Niagara Falls. You see it?” “Yeah I see it, it’s right there.” “The mighty flow of Niagara Falls flowing from time immemorial, flowing now, will flow until my Son Jesus comes. The mighty flow of the Niagara Falls represents my Son Jesus ever living to pray for you.” Wow, what a revelation. Never saw it like that before. You mean, even if I don’t hear my mothers’ prayers, my father’s prayers, “Jesus is praying for you. And His prayers are more mighty. Your mother showed you a glimpse. I want to show you the real thing.”
You know how I felt as a teenager beginning my sojourn in this country? I felt encouraged, energized. I felt all wet with the prayers of Jesus. I felt all covered with the prayers of Jesus. I felt the mighty flow of Niagara Falls covering me, refreshing me from head to toe. I felt good about it. I felt encouraged, and I thought for awhile, this is a wonderful thing. I never thought of it like that before. The prayers of Jesus are covering me. And the next thing I thought about, a few moments later, I began thinking about myself. The first thing I thought was about Jesus’ prayers, the next thing I thought about my prayers, and I wanted to compare myself. So I began to compare myself and said Lord, compared to the mighty flow of Niagara Falls of Jesus’ prayers, my prayers seem in comparison like a few droplets of water at best, a trickle of water. I mean, what can a trickle of water of prayer do in an arid spiritual desert of my life, in the arid spiritual desert of this world? What can a trickle of water of prayer do. And the Lord smiled at me and He said, “there’s hope for you”. What’s the hope? He said, “I love your trickle of water of prayer. It comes from your heart. It doesn’t matter how small. All you need to do is go with the flow. All you need to do is to submit, plunge your trickle of water of prayer with the mighty Niagara Falls of my Son’s prayer. Go with the flow.” I thought to myself, how can I ever complain about the little trickle of water of my prayer? How, when I think of the mighty Niagara Falls of abundant water joining my trickle of prayer. Oh my friends, prayer is never a solo activity. It’s a sacred venture with Jesus. How can you complain about being dry, not enough moisture, not enough water of prayer when we are floating down by the sheer force of the flowing Mississippi river of Jesus’ prayer, Amazon river of Jesus’ prayers. Oh, my friends, we need to lose ourselves in the abundance of Jesus.
I’ll tell you a little story about a little boy who came to church with his parents. Now his dad was the preacher. That’s a challenge, isn’t it, because kids have to behave. Sometimes it’s hard to make them behave. And so, his father was talking in his sermon about the need to pray earnestly when the time of trouble comes upon us. A good sermon. Of course, we need to pray all the time, not just during the time of trouble. The little boy was restless, acting up, making noise, distracting people from the sermon of his dad about praying during the time of trouble. And his mother didn’t know what to do because they were sitting on the front. Finally the mother was embarrassed. You know, strong mother, she grabbed her little boy like a football. As she was walking away, his feet were this way and his head was bobbing that way. As she was walking, taking him out. And the little boy was terrified because he knew he was going to get a good spanking. The time of trouble has come to him. It’s so funny. Nobody was listening to his father, because they’re feeling sorry for the boy because he was in trouble. And as he was exiting the entrance door, he looked at everybody and he said, “Please pray for me. I’m in trouble”. That was a wonderful application for his fathers message. Please, everybody, pray for me. I’m facing my time of trouble right now.
It’s good to have each other. To pray for each other when we are in trouble. But our real help comes from the praying Jesus. You see, people, no matter how good they are, and we have wonderful friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to be real to you. They care genuinely. But you see, Jesus cares and he can – c-a-n – He’s able. Jesus cares and He can do something about our situation. The best thing we can do for people is to listen to them. The best thing we can do for them is to lead them to the embrace of the praying Jesus. Why? Because Jesus not only cares, but He can.
You know something? I want to share with you a final promise from the Bible as we come to the conclusion. This verse from the Bible, Revelation 8:3 and 4. You see, this passage reminds me of my experience with Niagara Falls. In fact, the experience with Niagara Falls is an application in real life of this passage. In my experience there was much abundant water of Jesus’ prayers mingling with my trickle of water of prayer. Here in Revelation 8, it’s talking about much or sufficient, fragrant incense of Jesus’ prayers mingling with my tainted prayers. Precise comparison. Much water, much incense, much refreshing water, much fragrant incense. To take care of my aridness, to take care of my taintedness. And there it says that the angel standing by the altar in the heavenly sanctuary was commanded to take all sufficient incense, what Jesus gives us is all sufficient incense. In a moment I’ll read to you from inspiration the all sufficient incense represents Jesus’ righteous life and mighty prayers for us. Take the righteous life of Jesus, His mighty prayers for us, the much fragrant incense if you please, and mingle it, mix it, join it, with the prayers of all the saints. What an idea. If you ever feel tempted to be discouraged when you look at your prayer life, you say, oh, it smells bad, it’s weak. Away with that. Take your eyes off yourself and focus on what Jesus can do no matter how tainted your prayers are. No matter how spiritually smelly they are. The all-sufficient fragrant incense of Jesus’ mighty prayers can cover our prayers and make them smell good before the Lord.
Now, a couple of comments from the book. I’m reading a quotation from the best author I know about prayer, and I mean that. Giving this an Old Testament background. “While the people of God were praying earnestly outside the sanctuary, the incense”, we’re talking about the subject of Revelation 8, “the incense kindled by the holy fire was to rise before God”. Ah, that incense is Christ’s righteousness and intercession. That incense rising before God mingled, it’s interesting that she used the word mingled. It’s a more accurate translation from the Greek of Revelation 8:3 & 4. That incense kindled by the holy fire was to arise before God mingled with what, with their prayers. That’s wonderful. That’s certainly faithful to this passage from Revelation 8. But the question remains, what is that incense representing? And the answer is right here, next sentence. Listen carefully. This incense was the emblem, you know the meaning of the word emblem. The flag of the United States is the emblem of the United States. It represents the United States. Don’t ever support anyone wanting to burn the flag. I love this country. I’m grateful to God for this country. The flag represents the United States of America and the incense in this context represents what? She says “is the emblem of the intercessions of Jesus”. Following page, “the incense ascending with the prayers of Israel represents the merits and the intercessions of Jesus.” There’s hope for us when you believe that your puny, faint prayers are to be saturated with the much fragrant incense of Jesus’ prayers, what happens. You are not alone. You are with Jesus. Covered with Jesus prayers and it gives your prayer life confidence, it gives your faith buoyancy. That’s what we need today.
How does this work in real life? I want to share with you an experience. It took place right here in Collegedale with one of my students. You see, I pray for my students and the encouraging thing about praying for my students is I don’t pray alone. Whenever I pray every morning for them I have pictorial seating charts. I have 300 students every semester. I look at their faces and I pray, Lord, thank you for being my mighty prayer Warrior. How does it work in the real life. Thank you Lord for being my mighty prayer Warrior. You prayed that the harvest was plentiful but the laborers are few and You want laborers. I volunteered to be Your laborer and I want to answer the desire of Your heart. Lord today, thank you for already praying for my students. He ever lives to make intercession. You are already praying for my students. I want to join You. I want to join the flow of your prayers for my students. Make me a blessing to them today. Lead me to one, two, three, seven, I can bless in some way. And the Lord answers my prayers every day because the Lord is anxious to answer the desire of Jesus’ heart. The desire of Jesus’ heart in Matthew 9:38 is that we pray the Lord of the harvest make us laborers. But this day was a little extra special. I already met seven students, two of them accepted Jesus. One of them decided to be a student missionary. It was six o’clock, I worked hard all day. And now as I started the day with prayer, I knelt in my office, I said Lord, thank you for being my greatest prayer partner, my greatest witnessing partner, thank You for sending me seven students. By the way, if you’re praying with Jesus, He’s your partner, so He began to interrupt my prayer of thanksgiving and saying thank you, that’s wonderful, but there’s one more student I want you to meet. Could you imagine, my greatest prayer partner Who knows what He’s doing, can you imagine, Philip Samaan began to question him? Lord, look, let’s call it a day. Can I have a rain check on that. I’m hungry. I’ve got to go home, I’m tired. Can we meet that person tomorrow. He said no, this person needs you today. He needs you right away. Well Lord, where do I find that person? This is a big campus. He said, I know what I’m doing. Isn’t that wonderful, Jesus knows what He’s doing. He has your address, He has your phone number. Don’t worry about that. I’m able, are you available. That’s a very precise question. Yes, I’m available. I’m a bit hungry, but I’m available. You’re going to make it, you’re not going to starve to death. At Your word I’ll do it. I opened my eyes, got up, walked away from Hackman Hall, the school of religion. Oh, He made it easy for me. I didn’t have to search around campus. Right in front of the entrance to our building is the student center. There were about 20 students milling around, and one of the students, Cathy, 17 years old, was one of the students I was praying for especially. But I wasn’t able to reach out to her because she was so quiet and shy. Good student, quiet and shy. Her sentences were very short. How are you Cathy? Fine. How are you doing? Fine. Are you doing OK in my class? OK. Come on. There’s more to life than one word. Is there anything I can do for you? No, thank you. Three words. Doing better. That’s the kind of conversation I had with her half of the semester, for two months. Now she was there and it was amazing. I said to myself, wow, what do I say to her now? The Lord caused everyone to leave except her. I was stuck with Cathy. It was going to be boring for a while. But the Lord sent Cathy, she was the one He wanted me to meet before going home. You see, when you ally your mind with the mind of Jesus, when things click together with Jesus, then He causes people and circumstances to come together. It’s providential, it’s miraculous. That’s what happens when you pray with Jesus. Your puny prayers become powerful prayers through Him. And so I said, ok, here we are stuck with Cathy. Cathy, how are you? Fine. Doing OK in my class Teachings of Jesus? Yes. And then I said that’s enough of this. The Lord wants me to do more. So I pushed myself. I was aggressive now. I said, Cathy, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever thought of making a commitment to Jesus in baptism? What a question. I don’t normally ask this question to my students. I wait to the end of the Bible studies. After two or three months. But this time God impressed me with these precise words. Cathy, have you thought of making a total commitment to Jesus in baptism? She turned pale, she was surprised, she couldn’t believe it. And now the Lord gave her liberty in speaking more than one word, two or three word sentences, and she began to speak in complete sentences. And she said, I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I was in my room in Thatcher Hall a few minutes ago. We learned later on it was the same precise time I was praying and Jesus was talking to me about her. And I was praying in my room reading my Bible. As I was praying the Lord impressed me, Cathy, I brought you here to this school to know about Jesus, and to think about baptism. I want to know about Jesus, I want to baptized and she ignored that conviction two, three, four times and the conviction kept coming back to her, have you thought of commitment to Jesus? Have you thought of baptism? She said, if this is You Lord I can’t stand this anymore. Cause me to meet Dr. Samaan. Next time I see him cause him to ask me the same question. Have you thought of making a full commitment to Jesus in baptism? She said, ok, I don’t have to worry about this, the ball is in his field, and the class was going to meet in two days, and here she felt like taking a walk. She could have walked to the Village Market, she could have walked to the snack shop. She walked to the front of Hackman Hall, the religion department building. And here I see her, I say to myself, here we go again. But the Lord in His providence was leading us to talk to each other. Cathy received this as a message from the Lord, I began Bible studies with her, brought four other young people with her and all accepted Jesus and all were baptized.
Loving Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, draw close to each one of us right now. May our wonderful, mighty, prayer Warrior Jesus flex His loving human arm to embrace us close to His heart, and may He flex His sovereign mighty divine arm and connect us with the throne, now until He comes. In His name I pray, Amen
Hymn of Praise: #20, O Praise Ye The Lord Scripture: Hebrews 7:25
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Sermon at McDonald Road transcribed by Steve Foster 2/12/07