Transcript: Hearing God's Voice in Prayer: Wednesday Night Reflections

opportunity to welcome you to brighterdaybaptistchurch.com. This is Reverend Fred Proctor, Sr., a pastor, and this is Wednesday night prayer meeting, and we always, it just started this two or three weeks ago, but we do have names that we call out and ask that you pray for them. and if you have a name or someone that you think would like to have their name called out, you can send us a message and we'll be sure and get it on. So for tonight, we're praying for Melvin Johnson. We're praying for Travis Proctor. We're praying for Randy Kent. We're praying for Shane Kent. We're praying for Stanley Proctor. That's Fred Jr. He's our engineer. He just tested positive for COVID. So remember these. And I think I've got this right. Preacher Chuck. Preacher Chuck. Seems like it's Poley. He and his wife both are requesting prayer. And he's from Ohio. and I've never met him but Eric has talked with him some so and also far Agnes Kent she was 98 I think she's 98 years old and she's a godly woman I've known these folks almost all my life and also for Sammy Kent please pray for for all of these folks, all of them. I know there are many, many more people that have need of prayer. So pray for all of these and know that God always answers prayer. He answers it sometimes immediately, sometimes in this lifetime, sometimes in the next lifetime. But he always answers prayer. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty God, my heavenly Father, I bow before you this evening and do come with a most thankful heart. I thank you for every blessing of life. Lord, every way that you have watched over us and kept us and caused your face to shine upon us and given us health and healing. And I pray for these that are sick, that we've called out their names. Lord I know that you made us and you can fix us but it's up to your perfect will and we always pray this according to your perfect will and I pray heavenly father for brighterdaybaptistchurch.com and .org and telling the word of Jesus and telling the story of Jesus and so many many more I think all together is about a hundred channels and we just thank you so much. Thank you so very, very much, oh God, for opening up these doors that I never even knew existed, let alone had any idea that we could be on them preaching the gospel. And, of course, Father, I pray for our son Eric, who is the webmaster and builds the sites and maintains them and preaches and sings. I pray for the two radio stations we have, WFSP-AM, WFSP-FM. I pray, oh God, that everything, every way that we send out the gospel of Jesus Christ, I pray that it will bring honor and glory unto your name. For you and you alone are worthy and will thank you and praise you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen and amen. Now, I do want to share this with you. That Sunday, I had received a message from a man, and I was able to find out something about this man. He's in a part of Africa. Could be Kenya or one of those places. I know where it's at. I mean, I've seen it. And I saw his Facebook page and he had sent me a message simply just this. What must I do to be saved? And I sent him a message back as soon as I had gotten through preaching the sermon. Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to save your soul. and I also put John 3 16 and I said do it now and on Monday morning the following morning at 8 35 he sent back this message Jesus forgive me of my sins and I sent him a message and congratulated him for accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior and told him to stay in touch. I thought we could help him with some literature and some things to help him in his new life as a Christian, but he had been heavily involved in religion, volunteering and in different religious groups and had all also formed a ministry but you know there's a huge number of people in the world that are religious but lost and when we present the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit and God will take that and through the power of God the Holy Spirit touch the hearts of people convict them and they will either accept or reject so I want you to pray for this this it's a man in Africa South Africa I think I know he works for a large telecommunications company and like I say he'd been heavily involved in religious activities but Nicodemus was very religious but he wasn't right until he was born again so we we praise God for this we know that we're getting out because now we're up on not on this particular this is a brighter day Baptist Church calm and we have brighter day Baptist Church dot o-r-g and we've only had the new one brighter day Baptist Church dot o-r-g about six or seven weeks and we're already up at about five million visitors and we thank God for that thank God that you're praying for us because all that we want to do is to spread the gospel that's what Jesus the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And that's what we're doing. I pastored eight Southern Baptist churches in my ministry. And I truly consider myself a conservative Southern Baptist. and I know there's things wrong in the Southern Baptist, but there's things wrong everywhere. So that's what I've been. That's what I am. And I know what I am. I know what I believe. And I know why I believe it. So I'm not saying that's sarcastic, but that's the way that it is. now I won't if you have a Bible and would like to follow along because I'm going to be giving quite a bit of verses of scripture tonight in the book of Psalm chapter 29 or Psalm 29 someone said you're not supposed to call it Psalm in a chapter which is probably right I'll call it but it's The 29th Psalm. I'll just be reading along, and this is what we call expository preaching, taking verses and expounding and exposing what's in them. So you give a listen. Psalm 29, beginning with verse 1. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness. So, actually the title of this message is The Voice of the Lord. And you're going to see why in a minute. But he is saying, how great that God is. How great. You know, a little later on in this sermon, I will be giving you some scripture and showing you God is so great. God is so great that there is no way that any man, any human being will ever understand how great that God is. But yet I'm glad that as great as he is, he speaks to us. The voice of the Lord. Now listen, verse 3. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. You know, we had a horrific thunderstorm here. I guess it was about 2 o'clock. I mean, it was just thundering and shaking everything. And I could not help but think because I had been studying on this. The thundering, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters So verse 3 we see this the voice of the Lord Verse 4 the voice of the Lord is upon many waters So verse 3 we see this the voice of the Lord Verse 4 the voice of the Lord is powerful And people say, well, how would you know? Have you ever heard from God? Sure, I've heard from God thousands of times. Not an audible voice, but right in here, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I hear the thunder and I know who's in charge of the thunder. I know who's in charge of everything. Satan has never been in charge of nature. And we used to see something on TV, some kind of a commercial. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature. Well, it was never Mother Nature. nature if that's what we're going to call it that's what we know it as god created it god is in control of it and satan excuse me satan has never had control of nature never uh satan is is a powerful uh reprobate uh a demon a devil but he's not all powerful and let me just say this he's not ever worried at all times he don't know everything he don't know what's going to happen tomorrow so if you if you're going through something and don't want him to know about it Don't tell anybody to where he could hear it. It's God that's almighty, the voice of the Lord. Well, you say, how does God speak? He speaks through his word, through his word. That's how we, that's what we have. Let's think about this. there was no word way back in the beginning and even back after the well Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible but there was they didn't have anything like this they knew nothing about the New Testament they knew nothing about the rapture which I was privileged to preach on Sunday. They didn't know anything about anything like that. What they knew was that a Messiah was coming. And it was written in the word of God. And God used the prophets. God used all the prophets to prophesy and say, Hey, one is coming. One is coming. He's coming. He's coming. And he also used the prophets and they prophesied and said he'd be born of a virgin even told where he'd be born Bethlehem and when he was born the angels appeared to the shepherds and of course I've said it many times because we preach on that ever it's for Christmas but preach on it anytime it was a It scared me if one angel, but a number of angels, appeared and gave them the greatest news. For a new is born this day in the city of David, a Savior. And it says, and his name shall be called Wonderful. Well, wonderful. He is so great that we don't have a word. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and people say well we we know now we've done this we've created that yep have you ever created anything out of nothing no no And you never will because man does not have that power. Man does not have that authority. Absolutely. It does not exist. So God speaks to us through his word. Let me move along quickly. Verse 5. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. Verse 6. He maketh them also to skip like a calf. Lebanon and Syrian like a young unicorn. Verse 7. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. Verse 8. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. Verse 9. The voice of the Lord maketh the hines to cave and discovereth the forest. and in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory oh the glory of god the glory of god hallelujah for the glory of god verse 10 the lord sitteth upon the flood yea the lord sitteth king forever and this final verse in psalm 29 the lord will give strength unto his people the lord will bless his people with peace if we ask him and if we serve him and believe it god will bless us with peace uh now i'm going to turn very quickly and i'm going to give you some more uh verses of scripture uh from the book of job we know about job and what he went through and uh how he was tested but the book of job chapter 37 i'm going to be reading quite a few verses but listen as i said god speaks through his word so i've asked you to give heed at this verse 30 chapter 37 beginning with verse 1 at this also my heart trembleth and is moved out of his place verse 2 hear attentively the noise of his voice see he's talking about the voice of god that's what we're preaching about the voice of the lord job said hear attentively the noise of his voice and the sound that goeth out of his mouth so god speaks uh verse 3 he directed it under the whole heaven and his lightning unto the ends of the earth i was not outside uh when all this thundering and storm thunderstorms was taking place but i'm sure there's lightning as far as i know if you have thunder you got to have lightning and in one place it says it it says something like this I'll paraphrase it, that the lightning bows down to God and says, yes, Lord. When God says you go here and do that, yes, Lord. He is in charge of everything. He created it all. Verse four, after he had a voice roar us. We're talking about the voice, not the voice. I think there's something called the voice where people go on and audition and sing and do things. I'm talking about the voice of the Lord. The voice of the Lord. That's the voice of God. That's the title that I put on this sermon. After it, a voice roars. He thundereth with the voice of his excellence. and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. So he's saying, yep, you hear about it. You hear about it. You hear about it. You hear him. Verse 5, God thundereth marvelously with his voice. Great things doeth he which we cannot comprehend. And that word comprehend simply means we cannot understand it. As brilliant as some people are and as advanced as we think that man has become, God, his ways are so much higher than our ways that if we couldn't even, there's no way that we can compare man to God. I would say not even one drop of water compared to all the water in all the world. He is so much greater. He's so much greater than we are in his ways. He said that we cannot comprehend, which means we cannot understand it. Now listen. verse 6 for he says to the snow I said a while ago God in charge of nature and we say well oh we can pretty well predict when it going to snow Well that fine I glad I glad that we were able to do that It's not always 100%, but most of the time they get it. But God is speaking. And he said, for he saith to the snow, be thou on the earth. Who do you know that can go out or go anywhere or be wherever they're at and say to the snow, start falling? Anybody that could speak could say that. But it's wasted breath. It has absolutely nothing. No man can make it snow. you can't stop it from snowing and you can't start it for he saith he's speaking God the voice of God he saith to the snow be thou on earth likewise to the small rain oh yeah well we can make it rain I've seen some of this and I did study meteorology a long time ago and people would that go up in a plane and drop some kind of salt or something and try to get it. But listen, that doesn't mean that it's going to happen. And if it happens, it's because God allows it. But likewise, he says to the small reign and to the great reign of his strength. And as I was studying, I could not help but my mind went and I saw those horrific scenes. I saw it on television, but I've seen it in person up in Kentucky where they had these devastating floods. And my wife and I lived in West Virginia for several years. I pastored Baptist, Southern Baptist churches up there and worked through the Home Mission Board getting churches started back. And we saw floods. We saw a lot of floods real easy. I remember several times there in the town of Marlington, West Virginia, it's in Pocahontas County, where the entire town was flooded. And people were in the canoe going to open the bank for some reason. They had to get in the bank. But we don't have any control over that. We can't make it stop. We can't make it start. And we don't have control over it. God sent ten plagues upon Egypt because Pharaoh hardened his heart and he would not let God's children, that's the Jewish people, he would not let them leave. And God is proven. he sent all kinds of things he didn't have to create anything new and say well let me see what i'm gonna do about this he sent frogs one time everywhere you look there were frogs everything every place that you looked there were frogs when you got ready to get in the bed there was frogs in the bed there was frogs on the breakfast table supper table whatever the table you've been to get a drink of water and there was frogs in it and another time he turned the water into blood and you're so thirsty and oh I just need a drink of water and you go to get it and it's blood all of this God spoke and it came into existence the voice of God so God speaks to us through his word God speaks to us through nature and don't ever let and there'll be people say well I don't believe I don't think God's got anything to do with God's got everything to do with it as a matter of fact who sent the flood who sent the great flood during the time of Noah that wiped everything out and I will just say this I have nothing well I do have something the Bible says there's nothing new on the on the earth place of the earth everything that is has been so I believe although it's not a point that I would argue I think that when the flood came I think that it's very possible that man was much more advanced than we are now I believe that because it was so bad the Bible said that every thought of every man that's every human being was continually evil they never thought a good thought and God he is sorry that he he repented God that he had made man and he wiped them all off there was only eight people that survived and that was because they believed and accepted what God had said so through nature God speaks through nature and events we see it especially out I know I was out I believe it was 1984 I was on a preaching mission in South Dakota of course it was it was not in the winter time but you talk about getting cold and and getting huge blizzards i was in uh i landed at rapid city south dakota and an elderly man and his wife they picked me up and i spent a week with them and preached and you see it on tv blizzards i mean it's it's so bad it's it's so cold uh sometimes 60 to 70 uh degrees below zero and the snow and then the floods and all of the situations. Now listen to this. Verse 7, I just want to expound a little on this. Verse 7, he, that's God, he sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his work. Now, I think, and I'm sure I never preached on this particular verse, but it says, He sealeth up the hand of every man. I believe one thing that it means is that man will never ever devise a way to get into heaven except when you come through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. and uh let me read this again uh he he speaking to god seal us up the hand of every man and all there it's going around it's been going around it's it's been around for about ever since uh time began at least pretty close to it but hey you do this well cain's a good example He wouldn't listen to God, and he didn't bring a blood offering. And as far as I know, Cain is burning in hell right now because we have the account of God talking to Cain. And he said, why are you so cast down? Well, you didn't accept my offering. And God said, well, if you do what's right, I will. But he didn't. He did not do what's right. And man has always tried to say, hey, you can get in this way. You can be good enough. You can do enough good works. Listen, we are all sinners. The Bible said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us have sinned. we have a sinful nature and that came about when Adam and Eve rebelled against God committed sin and tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves and it wouldn't work and the Bible said that God killed animals or I think it was lambs I don't know but I think that it probably was and he made them a covering But sin entered into them. It became a part of their DNA. That's the best way I know of to put it. And we inherited every person that's ever been born, aborted, or ever will be born, except Jesus Christ was born with a sinful nature. And we have all sinned. and if you're a sinner to begin with, what are you going to do? You're like in the pit. You can't do anything until you get out of the pit, and the only way to get out of the pit is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He lifts us up. He helps us. So he said, he sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his work. And he's put the bridle in the, like he'd put a bridle on a horse and controls man. Man can only go so far, do so much, and that's it. He ain't going to do anymore. Oh yeah, well, we're going to do this, we're gonna do that you know I saw I saw this on my computer I forget the name they sent up a new telescope telescopic camera a few months ago I think and it just sent the first pictures back And I think it showed pictures and I think it said there was millions of universes There were millions of universes. And the farthest one that they picked up was, I believe it said, 13 billion light years away. A light year. light travels at what is it 286,000 miles per second and it would take 13 billion light years to get out there and then when you get out there who knows it just keeps going and going and all the multiplied trillions of stars and yet the bible said that God knows every one of them He's named every one of them. Every one of them has a name. And we can't even get, we can't go 20 miles. Most people can't without a GPS in the car. So how are you going to get to heaven? Well, I'm going to tell you how. If you get to heaven, it'll be the way that all people have gotten to heaven. and it's through accepting the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shed his blood. He is a sacrificial lamb that laid down his life and shed his blood that you and I might have life and have it eternally. And without you accepting him, you're never going to get to heaven. There is no other way except him. Let me finish here. Verse 8. then the beasts go into dens and remain in their places listen verse 9 out of the south cometh the whirlwind and cold out of the north that's amazing isn't it that that uh job wrote this and god of course everything that's written in this king james version of the bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he is saying, out of the south comes hurricanes. Yeah, it's hurricane season. I think I saw something today here where there's one a brewing. But he said, out of the south cometh the whirlwind and cold out of the north. Cold wind, cold comes out of the north. It's amazing. How did they know that? God knowledge God told them and then verse 10 by the breath of God frost is given isn't that amazing man can't make it frost and they're saying well now summer's about over and then fall and then the next thing you'll be looking for is is frost and groundhog's day But listen, by the breath of God, frost is given and the breath of the water is straightened. Verse 11, also by watering, he wearieth the thick cloud, he scattereth his bright cloud. verse 12 and it is turned round about by his councils that they may do whatsoever he commandes them upon the face of the world in the earth whatever he commands it will happen now verse 13 he causes it to come whether for correction these uh situations you see this flood uh that happened in kentucky and in other places and we have floods but terrible floods uh and we have tornadoes terrible tornadoes and we have hurricanes which i said looks like ones are brewing and and just different blizzards and all this. He said, he causes it to come for correction. Sometimes God does it to correct us, to get our attention and say, hey, wake up. Wake up. All right. So for our correction and sometimes he does it and for his land, this earth belongs to him and he'll do with it whatever he wants he protects it and and and then the third part of the last part of that verse says are for mercy he does it for mercy just think about three and a half years without a drop of rain and and there's famine and there's no water and no bread and and then god opens up the heaven for mercy, for mercy, for mercy. Now, verse 14, Hearken unto this, O Job, stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. You know, I'll close with this. There is a, it's a geological term. I guess I know that it deals with geology and it's called the Ring of Fire no not Johnny Cash he recorded that song others might have but I know he did the Ring of Fire it is it goes it is 24,900 miles long and It goes all the way around the world. It goes around mainly in the United States. It goes on the West Coast. I'm talking about earthquakes. There you have in California. I've seen pictures of it and I used to teach this. Taught it in three different colleges. and that was I was a bivocational pastor there's the San Andreas fault line you can see it from the air it's actually opened up like a gully and it gets every day it gets just a little bit wider just a little little little and it goes around and it goes goes over through Asia goes to China and I'm going to send a message to China. I'm very concerned about China. We do everything we can to get the gospel out to China because the Chinese Communist Party, they persecute Christians terrible. Their president, Xi Xi, whatever his name is, I read where he had told the soldiers, I guess, commanded them to go into the church, churches. And if if there was a picture of Jesus, take it down and put his picture up and say, this is a picture of God. Well, China has been hit with some terrible earthquakes. And I'm very afraid that China is going to go through the same situation that Egypt went through, persecuting the Christian people. Let my people go. Let my people go. and when the people did come out of Egypt Egypt was destroyed Egypt was totally destroyed and I'm gonna I'll ask you when you pray to pray for people all over the world that's persecuted They're in China and North Korea and in Iran and quite a few countries that persecute people who are just because they're Christians and they cannot abide it. They can't stand it. And, of course, Russia is a communist country. China is a communist country. And they say, we don't believe in God. I don't believe that. I believe everyone knows if they've got any common sense, they know there's a God. And there is a God and he's speaking. He speaks. And we better listen to him. Heavenly Father, I pray that you will take these words on the voice of God. Help us, O God, to hear you, to listen and put everything out of our mind and heart and turn it over and listen that we might hear you speak to us and we might study and read your word and see it. You speak to us through your word, through your Holy Spirit. Oh God, I pray. I'm praying. If you are watching this sermon this Wednesday night, August the 10th, 2022. If you are watching or listening, regardless of how you're listening to it, and you're not a Christian, I pray that you will accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can pray a prayer, something like this. You don't have to pray exact words, but you can pray a prayer like this. Oh, Lord. Oh, God. I'm a sinner. I'm lost, and I don't want to die and go to hell. Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins and save my soul. For Jesus' name's sake, I pray that you will do it. And if you have, contact us. Let us know about it. and we share and other people as we share it, they rejoice in knowing that someone else has accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Thank you, O God. Get honor and glory out of everything that we do and we'll thank and praise you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen. Thank you.