Christian Hope and Help in Times of Need | Pastor J Sermon

You can have hope and help in times of need if you trust in God.

Asa, the king of Judah, was a good example of trusting in God.

When things get bad, you should pray and call on the Lord.

God will help you if you rely on Him and have faith in Him.

Music You know, in this world right now that we've seen this past week, it's been really, really crazy. It's been a lot of bad stuff. A lot of stuff that has just made our world feel like almost unsafe in a lot of ways. And I want to give you this word of encouragement that if we believe, if we trust in God, we can believe that help is on the way. And I want to share with you why I believe this Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever He doesn't change So if God was on the way, the help was on the way back in the day The help was on the way when we pray today, it just is Now I want to share with you about a man named Asa Asa was the king of Judah And he was the fifth king of the house of David Okay? Now Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and you can see that in the verse 2 of this chapter. It says that King Asa did right according to what was right in the eyes of the Lord, his God. Okay? Basically meaning he took down idol worship, he broke down all the idols and all the worshiping altars of false gods and all this type of stuff. He built up fences around the city to try to protect his people. He did all this to make things right for his people. Okay? But when doing this, the enemy is never happy. Never happy when you do what's right in the eyes of the Lord. So the enemy is not going to turn back and run. The enemy's not going to leave. They're not going to quit. They're going to keep going. And Satan rose up a man named Zerah the Ethiopian. and Zerah and his soldiers and chariots came to Marishah looking for a fight. So what did Asa do? What does a Christian do when things get bad and they don't know what to do? What can you do? You pray. And Asa, in verse 11, it says these words, And Asa cried to the Lord his God, When things seem so hopeless and we don't know what we're going to do, we need to learn to not fret and not worry, not be dismayed, but to call on the Lord. That's what we need to do. When things are bad, when things are so tumultuous and things are just all unclear, but what we're going to do, we need to learn to fall in the arms of Jesus, fall into the arms of God and just call on His name. I love that. That's what he said. He cried unto the Lord his God. And these are the words that he said. O Lord, there is none like you to help. I like that. See, Asa realized in his source, his source of victory, his source of deliverance, it was coming through Jehovah God. It was coming through Yahweh. It was not going to come through His forces. It was not going to come through anybody else. It was going to come through God. I like that. It's not coming through politicians. It's not coming through laws. It's not coming through warriors or soldiers. It was God. I love what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 121 and verses 1 and 2. He wrote these words. I will lift up my eyes into the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. Note the idea there. I lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. We ought to lift our eyes to the hills where our help comes from. the hills of Golgotha where Jesus died for our sins and for our deliverance we need to look to the hills for whence cometh our help I like that he says the Lord there is none like you to help between the mighty and the weak see sometimes many people are mighty in their faith and then sometimes the church has people that are kind of weak in their faith. Their faith is not so strong. That's why the church world has to hold each other up. You know, the strong ones help the long, the weak ones. We can't, we're all going to go through things. We're all going to go through problems. We're all going to have times when our faith is going to kind of dip a little bit, and we're going to be like, well, I don't know if I can make it. But this is the point. God will help us if we trust in Him. We can't put our trust in this world. This world is going to fail us every single time. We can't put our trust in politicians. Politicians are going to fail us every single time. We can't put our trust in bank accounts because the banks can fail at any time. Everything. We can't put our trust in our own health. Our health can fail us at any time. it's not about the things like that it is about our help coming from the Lord that's where our faith comes in we gotta have our faith grounded in Him I love that between the mighty and the weak He says help us oh Lord our God for we rely on you I love that rely. What does it mean to rely on Him? It means to lean on Him. I love that old song, lean on me when you are not strong. I love that song. And it's so true, because we need to lean on the Lord. You ever felt weak You ever felt like you didn think you could make it Ah here you go Here you go That how I feeling today I feeling weak man I feeling not quite where I need to be Thankfully, I ain't got COVID-19. I'm telling you, I have sinuses and high blood pressure, but that's not the same thing. But the idea is true. When you're weak, what can you do but put your trust in God? That's all you can do. When your faith is not quite what it needs to be, you need to be like the man in the Bible that says, Lord, I believe, but help thou my unbelief. We need to be like that. Lord, I believe that you can bring me through. I believe you can bring America through. But God, there is these times when my faith gets a little bit weak. And Lord, help my unbelief. Oh Lord help me that when Satan attacks When things are going bad That I don't sit there and let Satan Take that little bit of weakness And increase it To where my unbelief becomes too strong That it smothers out my belief I love that Oh Lord our God We rely on you I love what the psalmist said in Psalm 34, 17 He said this When the righteous cry for help The Lord hears and delivers them From out of their troubles Doesn't say he might Doesn't say he could Doesn't say, you know There's a possibility Doesn't say that It says when the righteous cry for help The Lord hears them And delivers them from out of their troubles so we have our trust in God God will deliver us if the word is true then there it is right you can't deny it I love what he says here continuing his prayer to the Lord he says and in your name we have come against this multitude I like that You ever feel like you're outnumbered? You know? The church can feel outnumbered in this day and age. We really can't. We can feel like we're outnumbered because so much evil is coming against the church. We can feel like we're outnumbered. Asin knew what it was to feel outnumbered. Asin knew what it was to feel like he was facing a hopeless end. He knew what it was. We know what it is to feel like there's a hopeless end to this whole thing. And we don't know what we're going to do. But I'm here to tell you today, with God, it is not a hopeless end. It's an endless hope. That's what it comes down to. It's an endless hope with God. It's not a hopeless end. Hallelujah. See, Asa says, in your name, we've come against this multitude. Again, another word from the psalmist The psalmist wrote in Psalm 94 and verse 16 Psalm 94, 16 He wrote Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Who's going to stand up? Jehovah He will stand up for you if you stand up for him That's the point. We've got to stand up for Jesus. We've got to stand up for what's right. Now, when we look at what we've seen this past week in Washington, it was very tumultuous. It was very bad. What happened was very, very bad. Very, very bad. And I look and I say, was that what we needed to do? We need to stand up for God. But there comes a point where, I don't know, do you go beyond what God wants and do what we want to do? You know? And I think sometimes that's what we do. Instead of putting our trust in God, we try to put our trust in our own self, and we try to do what we want to do. And maybe that's the wrong way to go about it. See, Asa did not put his trust in his army In his soldiers In his weaponry And all that What did Asa do? Asa the king of Judah prayed to God That's what he did He prayed to God I love this He says, oh Lord, you are our God Let no man prevail against you And that's the point Note the words that Asa said here He said let no man prevail against you Why? Because if man prevails against the church What has man prevailed against? He has prevailed against God So that's why Asa is saying God let no man prevail against you And that should be our prayer in the church right now. God, let no man prevail against you, your church. Because the church of the living God is not ours. It is His. And that's the point. The church is just not a building. The church is not the people in it. The church is the worship of God that's in it. And it is God Almighty. That's why the church world right now should be praying, Lord, let no man prevail against you. Because that's what he said. That's what Asa said. We must trust in God to deliver us from the hand of the enemy. Because the point is, if we don't stand up and pray, what's going to happen? The church is going to be destroyed by the world. That's what's going to happen. Oh, I'll tell you. So here's Asa's prayer. Not a whole lot of long prayer. I've said it so many times. You don't have to have a long prayer. You just got to have an earnest prayer, right? You don't have to pray for three, four hours to get through to God. You don't have to. You just have to have an earnest prayer. And Asa had an earnest prayer. And so what happens? It says so the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa right in his eyesight Asa was watching as God just swept through and just took him out Kind of reminds you of another time God went and took out the army right With Gideon, you remember that? Gideon only had 300 soldiers against a multitude of soldiers. And Gideon was no doubt a little bit nervous. Because, I mean, let's face it, when you've got hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming at you You only got 300. You know you outnumbered. You know you outnumbered and you're in trouble. But Gideon put his trust in God, not in his soldiers. Gideon put his trust in God, not in his weapons. Gideon put his trust in God, not in what he saw. Oh, hallelujah. And Gideon saw the miracle. And Gideon's soldiers didn't even have to raise up a sword. And that's what happened here. Asa saw God come through and smoke the Ethiopians. And before Judah and the Ethiopians, what? Fled. They ran away and they went home. I love it. And note this, that the Lord did the work, not the people. As we said, look at what it says in Hebrews chapter 10, 35, Hebrews 10 and 35. It says this, cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. We have to have confidence in God, not in ourselves, not in our government, not in our politicians, not in anything like that. We need to have our confidence in God. And what it comes down to is this. As long as the church stands against evil, evil cannot come. Now what am I saying here? Because I want you to understand what I'm saying. So many people are so fearful in this day and age in which we live. the church world is so scared that the Antichrist is about to rise up. That the mark of the beast is about to take place. That all this is about to take place. But I'm going to share something with you today that I found and it excited me so much. Now by no means am I saying the spirit of Antichrist is not working in this world. That's not what I'm saying. It is. The spirit of the Antichrist is working in this world. But I'm going to share something with you today that I found that just excited my soul so much. That made me just up on high here. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. Well there you go. And this was in Paul's time. But look what it says. But the one who now holds it back will continue to do until he is taken out of the way. This is what is talked about. The Antichrist cannot rise until he is taken away. Well, who is he that they are talking about here? Well, they're not talking about God. They're not talking about Jesus. Who are they talking about? Who is Paul talking about? Paul was talking about the church. Note this. This is so cool. The spirit, the power of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who holds back will continue to hold back till he is taken out of the way. The church will then be taken out when Jesus calls it home. Then read what it says. And then the lawless one. Who's the lawless one? The Antichrist. The Antichrist. will be revealed again. That's another point of it. The Antichrist is going to be revealed, right? Whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroyed by the splendor of His coming, His second coming. Okay? We've talked about it so many times. Jesus came the first time as a baby in a manger. The second time he shows up will be in the clouds to just say, come home. The church will rise up and leave. Then in the second coming, he will come down upon the earth and destroy sanctity once and for all. I love this. So I want to bring this to you today. that as long as the church is here, the Antichrist is not coming. Because we're, for lack of a better term, are restrained against Him. The church can restrain Him. And when the time comes that Jesus calls us home, then He'll rise up. But we're not going to see the evil one in this world. The church of the living God, the true believers of God, will see the evil one. He's going to hold up. He's going to be held away until we leave. Then, everything's going to break loose. So what does it come down to? This is not the end. This is just the beginning. And I believe it with all my heart. The church, the church's help is on the way. now what do we do my feeling is not that we just sit back and wait no, we pray we pray for God to show up and show off we pray for God to do something miraculous in this world because as long as the church is here God is listening and if God is listening then God can answer prayers. So what do we do? We pray. We pray. We pray. We pray. We don stop believing We don stop praying We keep praying until something changes I love it I love it. So our help is on the way. Our help is on the way. When will it show up? When will it come? I don't know. I'm not on God's list to tell me when He's going to show up. I don't get emails from God that say hey, this is what's going to happen I don't get those but all I do is trust in Him I just trust Him and I say God, I don't know when it's going to happen but I know I believe in You and I know You're going to show up God's going to do something special God's going to do something special in 2021 I'm not saying that churches are going to blow up to like huge amounts again because COVID has destroyed that and I understand that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that we're going to bust the doors out. I ain't saying all that, but I believe that God is going to bless His church in 2021. And we as the church world are going to leave this world when the time comes blessed and not pushed down. We are going to be blessed and we're going to enter heaven when Jesus calls us home with victory shout on our lips. Waving the banner of victory even in a world that has completely been destroyed and that's trying to go so far away from God. We're going to rise up and we're going to be blessed. and we're going to go out of this world when the time comes praising God Almighty. But it's up to us to do our part. It's up to us to praise God for the blessing and believe it is coming like Asa did. Asa prayed, believed, accepted it, and saw the miracle. And now it's up to us to pray, believe, and accept the miracle is on the way and then no help is on the way. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let's bow right before the Lord this morning. Father God, as we bow this afternoon, Father God, we just want to thank you for this time together. Father God, as we look to you, We're not looking for anything other than the help that you promised. And Father God, as we look to you and as we examine our lives, Father God, I want us to look into our hearts today, and as we look inside, are our hearts completely, totally sold out to you? Father God, are we completely, completely turned over to you? Father, do we have no doubt that help is on the way? Or do we have that little bit of a doubt that we just don't know? Is there someone that would be honest to God? I've heard in their hearts and in their minds that, Father God, right now, that they will be like King Asa. that they, Father God, will look down into the valley of the shadow of death and they will say, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is going to show up soon. Father God, Asa truly showed us what we need to do. When it seemed hopeless, he prayed. And Father God, our world seems hopeless and I ask you to help us to pray and believe. Father God give us the belief in our heart of hearts That we will not doubt anything No matter how bad it seems to get No matter how bad it seems to be No matter how dark it gets in this world That we will not quit believing But we will continue to believe We will continue to believe Until the answer Until the help shows up Father God that we will have that faith That we will have that strength we won't give up and we won't quit Father God I pray for your people today I pray for those ones that raised their hand right now today that you will strengthen their faith and you will help them to hold on in 2021 as we wait on you I thank you Father now Father as we dismiss our service Father God we ask that you will not dismiss But Father God, we pray that your blessing, your hope, that endless hope will go with us all week long. That we will be with you all week long. That we will take you with us all week long. And that when we come again together to preach and pray and praise, that we will come with blessing in our hearts. And we will be blessed beyond measure. I pray that right now in Jesus' name. Now, Father, as we said, don't dismiss us, but go with us. Keep us safe. Bring us back safe. And, Father, may we be safe from COVID-19 and all the evils of this world. Father, for all that you are, for all that you do, we praise you and thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. you

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