The Power of Travail: Understanding Prayer and Perseverance

All right. You still glad you came? Okay. Take it one step at a

time. You bring your Bible tonight, okay. That pick. You lonely,

brother? Stone just fell inside the guitar. Just let you know.

Isaiah, chapter number 66. Isaiah, chapter number 66. Begin

reading. In verse number one. Thus saith the Lord. The heavens

is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house

that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For

all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have

been, saith the Lord, but to this man will I look even to him

that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word.

You might want to underline that. I don't know if you've noticed

it or not. That trembleth at my word. When you realize the beauty

and the glory and the power and the wisdom that's in the Bible

and that God gave us a book, gave us the Bible. And sometimes

when I think about how amazing it is, because I wouldn't know. We

couldn't know God without the Bible. We couldn't know anything

about God. We couldn't know how to be saved. And even the laws

in the Old Testament, if we didn't have the law, we wouldn't

even know we needed to be saved. Is that right? Yeah. If there

was no law, we figured, well, we haven't broken the law. We haven't

done anything. And of course, they've taken the ten Commandments

out of most public schools because they don't want the kids

to feel guilty and they don't want them to see the laws. So if

they don't see them, they don't memorize them, they don't know

them. Well, then what have they got to worry about? Just do

the best you can. Be a good person. Okay. Look at verse number

five. Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word.

Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name sakes,

said, let the Lord be glorified. But he shall appear to

your joy, and they shall be ashamed. A voice of noise from the

city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord that rendereth

recompense to his enemies. Now, here's what I want you to start

focusing on. Before she travailed, she brought forth. Before

her pain came, she was delivered of a man child who hath

heard such a thing, who hath seen such things. Shall the earth

be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at

once? For as soon as Zion travailed She brought forth her children.

Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth, saith the

Lord. Shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb, saith thy

God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her. All ye that

love her. Rejoice for joy with her all ye that mourn for her. Now,

it will not be very deep tonight, but I think it's interesting

that it's mentioned. Trembling is mentioned, but it also speaks

very clearly of travail. Travail. Now, this was before modern

times and modern medicines. But generally speaking, most women

who give birth have some kind of pain. Okay, travail. Am I right?

Most of the time, that's what we associate that with. I remember

when I was first becoming a father and my wife went into the

hospital. They didn't have a labor room. It was an old house that

they had converted into a hospital. And they just had a long

haul. And the women in labor had a curtain around them. And back

in those days, they didn't allow any husbands around. I had

to sit in the corner and twiddle my thumbs and pray and read

and just kind of wait. But I could hear travailing. How'd you

ladies like to be just shoved over into a hallway with a curtain?

I don't think too many of you go. Sound like fun to me. I don't

think so, but. And the same thing happened a little bit better

when our daughter was born. She was born in a regular hospital

in Columbus, but they still wouldn't let daddies go in. You just

had to sit there. And they did have a little waiting room. And I

remember. All I remember about my daughter's birth is I was watching

I Love Lucy on television. My wife was. Well, she was travailing,

okay. And I used to tease her, boy, honey, it must have been rough.

I know how you feel. No man knows how a woman feels. But we understand

travail. And it says here, we just read in verse seven, before

she travailed, she brought forth. Before her pain came. Verse

8. Who hath heard such things? That's just not. That doesn't happen.

And so I want you to take that word and think about it for a moment.

Because I think we can apply that to a lot of things in our Christian

walk with God. Let me give you the first one. And you think about

it for a moment. Do you ever travail in prayer? Do you feel the

pain sometimes when you're praying, you women that have had

children and you experience the deep pain and all that that we

can't really understand or explain as men, but for men and women,

think about that and think about that word travail. Travail.

I sometimes wonder if the passion and fervency of our prayer

could be measured like a thermometer. Wouldn't that be kind

of something to have a thermometer that says, how fervent

is our prayer life? I don't know about you, but sometimes my

prayer life needs a little revival. Sometimes it needs a little

tune up. Sometimes I can find myself repeating things a lot. And

I don't know that God frowns at that necessarily. But you know,

the Pharisees were famous for reciting their prayers and praying

real loud so everybody could hear them and go, wow, what a spiritual

person they are. Well, they weren't even saved, but they were

saying prayers. I never cared for that, that phrase, saying prayer.

Maybe some people meant just praying. They don't mean necessarily

reciting a prayer. But a lot of people do recite prayers. I'm

not, you know, saying that's necessarily wrong, but praying from

the heart and not rehearsing your prayers I think is a good thing.

And sometimes I preached just a few weeks ago, some of you may

remember about groaning and sometimes I can't find the words

when I'm praying about something. I've had some of those

things just recently in prayer for the church here and for the future

and all that and praying and say, lord, I don't really know how

to put it in words, but in my heart. There's kind of a wrenching

in my heart, it's uncomfortable. But, Lord, you know

what I want to say. I may not say it right and then I'll pray about

it and sometimes I'll start praying again with words that I didn't

think about and then I'll stop and groan a little more. But I'm

talking about travailing, praying, praying until you get through,

praying until you find the answer. Praying until your peace

floods over your soul and your heart and you say, God's gonna take

care of this. I won't ask you to raise your hand, but have you

ever had that in prayer? To be praying and enjoyed prayer and enjoyed

the time with God so much that you got up and says, God's going

to take care of it. That's foreign to a lot of people because

many times we, again, like I said, we kind of time our prayers

and we got things to do, places to go, people to see and call

and check our emails and all that kind of stuff. And again, it's

not always about the good and the bad, but the good and the best.

And the best time you'll ever have is your time with God. And it's

a challenge today to find a place and a time to where maybe the

phone won't ring or the dog won't bark or somebody knock on the

door. But you know when you get a burden for prayer. Here it

was talking about travailing. Travailing. A woman has pain and

travail before the beauty of a birth and the excitement of a birth

and the crying and hurting turns into a laughter and a joy.

Travailing in prayer is not common. It's soul wrenching. It's

agonizing. Not all the time. I'm not saying that all the time.

Sometimes prayers work. Sometimes prayer is like fighting

a battle. Sometimes prayer is just wonderful. You smile while you

pray and you just thank God for who he is and all that he's done.

But sometimes it's agonizing. Agonizing, desperate. Like in an

emergency room. I've been in many emergency rooms where people's

life was ebbing away quickly and we would hold hands and I guarantee

you we weren't praying. Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord

my soul to keep. We eat and I never even and nothing wrong. So

don't get upset. But I never said, our Father which art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name. No, I was crying out to God, lord, help

us and help this family and help this person, Lord, if it be

your will to save them and raise them up and heal them. Sometimes

God says there's. There's something better. The ultimate healing

is in heaven. You ever heard that before? The ultimate healing?

I mean, if God heals you down here, something else is going to

come very probably pretty soon, right? Not being negative,

it's just the fact of life. This body that we have and all the

things we deal with on a daily basis. Sometimes God heals. God doesn't

always heal. Even Paul asked God to heal him three times. God

said no, but I'll give you all the grace that you'll need. My grace

will be sufficient. If God doesn't heal everybody doesn't mean

they're not worth it or they're not worthy. It means that

God has a better plan and purpose and all things work together

for good. To them that love God and all means all. It's kind

of a misnomer to say, well, almost all. What is that supposed

to mean? Almost all things work together for good. We gotta

decide the sooner the better. Does all mean all the worst things

that can happen, even sin in our life or failures or problems?

Is that included in that word? All things work together? Yes. Yes,

it is. It means all things. Sometimes God can turn bad into good.

Sometimes God can turn a tragedy into triumph. Sometimes God

can turn a battle. God can do anything but fail. He can't lie either.

You need to anchor your soul with, we sang a moment ago, promises

about the promises of God. The apostle Paul said, my heart's desire

and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And

then he went on to say, I would wish myself accursed if they

could be saved. I've never prayed a prayer like that. Maybe

you have. I've never prayed, lord, just take my salvation away,

but save this nation or these people. Men who have moved God have

been men of travailing prayer. And when I say men, certainly talking

about mankind, Christian men, not just men, women have just as

much power in prayer as the men do. They really do. They're not

the backup prayer, okay? They're not. And you men out there,

you husbands and fathers and grandfathers, you need to get on

your knees and fight like a man. Amen. David Brainerd died at

age 29, missionary to Indians. And the history tells us that literally

when he would pray outside a camp of Indians, that actually the

snow would melt where he was kneeling, praying. The effectual

fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The only righteous

we have is Christ's righteousness. Amen. There is none

righteous. No, not one. But we claim the righteousness of Christ.

But it says the effectual fervent prayer, boiling hot prayer.

We're trying to get. Still trying to get the push ministry off

the ground. Brother Cox reminds me each week, we're still

putting it out there and trying to get people to say, yeah,

I could do that for a couple of minutes a week, meet with two

or three people or however many and pray just for one thing.

That's it, you know, way ahead of time. It's the same thing. Every

week. You pray one thing. And so if you're still interested in

that or at least find out more about it, some people say, well,

I don't know if I can lead it or not. Get somebody else to come

with you, and you're in charge. But they pray, okay? So,

you know, people do what they want to do. And everybody here is

busy. Some of you are very, very busy. But we should always have

a little time to pray. And then the travail, not only of Prayer.

But the travail of concern I mentioned a moment ago in Romans

Romans 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9. I have great heaviness, Paul said, continual sorrow,

continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish myself a curse from

Christ. For my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh,

we seldom lose sleep or appetite or travail over the lost.

Billy Sunday was walking back to the hotel one night after preaching.

He heard someone following behind him, and he turned and met

a young teenager. The boy asked if he could walk with Mr. Sunday,

and of course he said yes. He said to Mr. Sunday, Billy Sunday,

he said, my dad is a Christian. He's a leader in the church.

My mom is, too. She teaches Sunday school. My sister is a Christian

and president of the youth class. And brother Sunday, I've never

been saved. Mr. Sunday asked, well, has any of your family ever

spoken to you about where you're going to spend eternity? About

being saved? The boy said, no, sir, they never have. Nobody has.

Do you think, Mr. Sunday, that they care about my soul? The preacher

put his hand on the young man's shoulder and said, son, I must

be honest. I don't think they do, or else they would have spoken

to you by now. And Billy Sunday sat on the park bench with

that boy and led him to Christ. Just think about that for

a minute. Everybody in the family, and no one ever talked to

the boy in the family about the need to be saved. The question

is, have you ever travailed over a lost soul? What about travail

of tears? God puts a premium on tears. I've mentioned that in

several messages, but I want you to just see it again. I don't

know if you've actually read it with me, but in the book of Psalms,

if you can turn there, right in the middle of your Bible, to chapter

number 56, Psalm 56, And I want you to look in verse number

eight of Psalm 56. Thou tellest my wanderings. Put thou my

tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? When he said,

are they not in thy book, that was not asking for an answer. He

was declaring, they're in your book. You're a God of detail. I mean,

if God even gave instruction on the size and color of the curtain

rings in the tabernacle, you think he might be interested in the

prayers of his children, who in the days of his flesh, when he

had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying

and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was

heard in that he feared. I've seen a lot of people. And, you know,

I'm thinking right now, I've seen some of you men, and again,

we don't measure somebody's spirituality by how many tears they

shed. But I've noticed people here in the church weep, cry during

prayer or during discussion or during a sermon. And men, let me

just tell you, I don't cry easily either, but never be ashamed

of tears. So many men turn around and want to hide and kind

of suck it up. Pardon the expression, but just men have been

taught for years that it's a sign of weakness for a man to cry.

I think it's a sign of strength. Again, I'm not comparing

you and saying men that never cry are not very strong Christians.

They may be much stronger than me or you, but I just want to make

the point. Travailing in tears. Remember that illustration

I gave you a few weeks ago? The man, the preacher that was afraid

to share the gospel, he knocked on the door, mean old man,

blacksmith, you remember that? And he just broke down and cried.

He couldn't even speak to the man. As soon as the man opened the

door, he just broke down and cried. And it embarrassed him so

bad that he ran home and he told his wife that he had failed.

And she said, well, just try again. And the very next night did

the same thing. And the same thing happened. Knocked on the door

already, took a deep breath, going to ask the man about his soul.

The man opened the door and the preacher started crying. He went

back home, told his wife, sat in the chair. I guess it's no use.

I'm just not a soul winner. But it wasn't long after that that

old man, that silversmith, knocked on the door of that man,

said, could I come in? And preacher said, well, of course. He

said, I need to be saved. He said, well, I've been coming to talk

to you about your salvation. He said, yeah, but I never. I've

never in my life seen a man cry over my soul. I want to be saved.

Tears are a language. And again, it's not the only language.

But it is a language. Paul said in Acts 20, or Peter, maybe

I'll have to go back and check. I don't remember. I think

it was Paul. Yes, it was. He said, therefore watch and remember

that in the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone.

Night and day with tears. It's just hard to ignore somebody who

has a broken heart. And by the way, I don't know that it's necessarily

wrong for you to pray for God to give you tears. And give you a

broken heart. For people you may have a broken heart, you just

don't cry much. Maybe you would say, God, if you could use

my tears, then give me tears. It's hard for people to slam the

door and forget about it and say, don't bother me ever again.

When you're sitting there crying for them and saying, please,

could I just share a minute with you of what God's done in my

life and what he can do in your life. And then there's the travail

of planting. You know, the Bible says some men sow and plant

some water, but God gives the increase. Sometimes you witness to

people and nothing really happens. And you think you failed,

but what you did was plant a seed. Somebody else may come along

maybe a year later, two years, and they'll remember and they'll

understand and they'll say, yes, someone shared that with me

one time. And somebody else may water and then someone else come

along and reap the harvest. But planting seed is not necessarily

an easy job. Most of us know little about that at all. Travailing

and planting. We have a grocery store right down the street,

so why would you? I mean, my wife has a little garden about this

long. She loves to do that, but she don't want to depend on that

to feed her husband. She goes to the grocery store. But for those

that may were raised in a farm or know people that have, Planting's

a pretty hard work. Breaking up the soil, pulling out roots and

rocks, working from dawn till dusk, and then praying that it might

rain or not rain too much. I'm talking about planting the word of

God in the hearts of family and friends and strangers and maybe

even our enemies. I remember walking behind the plow of my granddad.

I called him Granddaddy, actually. He had a plow. And when

I was very little, I'd follow behind him every day. I remember

him, except on Sunday, he always wore a suit. But to church,

but every other day that I can remember. I never remember ever seeing

my granddad without a pair of khaki pants and a khaki shirt to

match. And it was my job back then to iron them. I was the oldest

of four kids, and mom taught me how to iron. So I had to iron

granddaddy's shirt and pants. But I remember seeing him in the

sweat as he would fight that plow. And I would go behind him barefooted,

filling that nice, cool black soil, dropping seeds in, you know,

to clear and cultivate the soil in the human heart is not an

easy thing to do, winning people to yourself and tearing down

the blockades that they put up and the excuses and just reaching

out to them and gradually through time winning them over to

you. It takes travail, kindness and caring and serving and

giving and going out of your way and postponing maybe your personal

plans so that you can maybe win them to Christ. There are many

reasons we don't win more people to Christ than we do. But

one is that we're usually too tired from doing other things that

may not be as important as we think they are. And then there's

the travail of remorse. And when I think of this, I think about

revival, travailing for revival, spending a long time with

God saying, lord, I need revival. Or our church needs a good

old revival to shake people and to break their hearts and to

help them to not just stroll up to the altar, but almost run to

the altar and fall on their face before God and say, oh, God,

oh, we need you so desperately. Help us, Lord, help

us. I need revival in my life and in my family. Repentance. We

hardly even hear the word much anymore. Repentance. Yet the Bible

clearly says without repentance there's no remission of

sins. Modern Christianity want to take that word completely out.

They don't want to talk about repentance because they think that

means being sorry for your sin. Number one, most people don't

think they've sinned that bad. But repentance, that just goes straight.

Do you want to go to heaven one day? Well, all you gotta do is

pray and ask Jesus in your heart. We don't need to mention repentance.

Well, Jesus did. Jesus did. And I think a lot of people today

maybe are religiously lost. They left one ingredient. There's

only three, but you leave out a third of the ingredient. Amen.

Repent, believe and receive a remorse, a repentance, a travailing.

Peter, after the wordless sermon of Christ, he had denied Jesus

three times. And then one of the greatest sermons Jesus ever preached

to Peter. He didn't even open his mouth. He didn't say a word.

He just turned around and looked at Peter. And the Bible says,

their eyes met each other and immediately Peter went out and wept

bitterly and repented. Got things straightened out with God.

He was wonderfully used for God. Soul winning is one of the great

results and evidences of true revival. We don't think we have revival

unless somebody gets saved. Well, we always want people to get

saved. But if we had a revival and people quit just saying what

they believe and live what they believe. It might make a very

big difference when people hear the gospel preached. Hyman Appleman,

I don't know if you've ever heard of him or not. He was a great

preacher years ago, I think. He was Jewish, wasn't he? Hyman Appelman,

I think, was a Jewish preacher, preached a revival in Oklahoma.

He. Years ago, a family was in that church, and there were four

sons and four sisters, and they all attended church except for

one. He was a barber by trade. But he wasn't saved. And during that

week of the revival, he died in a lake. Drowned. He drowned. And

they couldn't find his body. And they wanted to recover his body.

So they hired divers, paid like $400. This was way back in the

30s. That would have been quite a bit of money in those days.

Paid the divers $400 and they found the body. They had a funeral.

The preacher looked down in that casket and called his name.

He said, bob, if we had loved your soul like we loved your body,

you probably wouldn't be in hell today. We spent $400 to find

him, but we didn't spend a penny on your soul. Think that might

have got people's attention? I know that's not a happy ending, but

I'm talking about travail. Being bothered enough to wrestle

with God and pray through. Pray until God gives you confidence

and God gives you a peace. I'll take care of it. May not be

in the exact day you want it or the exact way you want it, but

God answers prayer, the travail. Think of that, and we'll

have a closing. But think about the travail of Christ on the

cross. Wow. Think about that. The songwriter said he could have

called 10,000 angels, but he died alone. For you and me, the mockers

all around them, they laughed. He saved everybody else, but he can't

save himself. Well, that was true, even though it was the mockers

that said it. He could have saved himself. But if he had saved

himself, you and I would have never been saved. It was either them

or him. And he who knew no sin became sin for us, Took the punishment,

the full judgment. The wrath of God poured out on one single man

named Jesus, the son of God. He knew something about travail.

Amen. We had more time and we're out. But we'd read Isaiah 53.

You ever heard people say, well, why do bad things happen to

good people? You ever heard that saying? You thought it? Probably.

Well, let me tell you something. It only happened one time

because There was only one good. Bad things happened to Jesus

because he was good. He was perfect. He was righteous, flawless.

I find no fault in him. And yet he suffered. But what about you?

I'm talking about your life. And how would that word fit into

your mind right now and into your heart? Travail, say, well, maybe

I've been there a few times, but it might been a while since you

travailed, since you prayed. Almost like a woman in labor trying

to give birth to a child. You women can understand that a lot better

than us men. But I think you men know what I'm trying to say.

We get ahold of prayer and prayer gets ahold of us. Remember

Jacob wrestling? He said, I'll not let you go. I'll not let you

go until you bless me. Amen. I don't know if you read the text I

sent you this week, very short, very brief, but I ask you

to maybe consider maybe a time of fasting. If you can't fast a whole

day, maybe one meal or half a day, just get along with God instead

of eating and pray for the church and for the vote. That's coming

up here pretty quick. You think you might consider that? I

already have and I'm going to do some more. And I'm not patting

myself on the back, I'm just asking. You might want to consider

that some of you have to take a lot of medication and so you can't

go without a meal. You have to take your medicine with meals. And

God knows that God never asked you to do something you couldn't

do. But maybe at least you could find a little space of time

and get along with God. Would you bow your head and stand to your

feet, please, for just a moment? We're almost through. We

give you an opportunity to just come and maybe you'd like to

kneel before God and say, lord, I just need more revival in

my prayer. They're getting kind of flat. They're getting kind

of like some leftover food that been in the refrigerator too

long. Maybe God's touched your heart about praying for revival or

praying for the lost or travailing for your church or for

a loved one in your family that's not saved. I don't know. I'm

just ask you to think about it and you can pray where you're standing.

But I'm gonna ask you if you felt led to come pray a minute or

two and go back to your seat. Heavenly Father, I pray you would

touch our hearts. We need your touch desperately. Lord, deliver

us from just being mediocre Christians, just doing what most

Christians do. Lord, I pray you might get ahold of the hearts

of some men and women in my own heart about this matter. And

Lord, I pray that we can see some victories won and some great

things begin to happen because somebody prayed. And Lord, most of

the time we don't even know who they are. We will. At the judgment

day. We will. When we receive rewards, people will be called up

and rewarded for their ministry of prayer. But Lord, all

of us can pray more. And I pray that you would bless this invitation.

In Jesus name I ask it. Amen.