God hears us. We can come to Him and ask anything. Be bold. Be pushy. Go knock on the door and get the three loaves you need. Believe in the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Luke 11:5-7)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller, Pastor Rajan Neupane
Sermon # 11744
7:00 PM on 9/4/2019

P. Schaller

For our opening thought, turn to Luke 11.

We have a guest from Nepal from the Himalayan mountains, P. Rajan. He is the Greater Grace pastor of the ministry there in Nepal with 42 affiliated churches and the towns and mountains and villages and different districts in Nepal.

Today is a day of prayer for Greater Grace. Around the world we pray and sometimes hours in prayer and sometimes fasting. We bring things before God.

Luke 11:5, I want you to see in this story as Jesus is teaching us about prayer. There are three parties. The prayer person who goes to my friend in the house and wakes him up at midnight and say a friend came to me. So there is three. A friend came to me and he’s hungry. I don’t have anything, so I come to you. You could say it’s the need and I’m in the middle and we go to God. We say to God it’s midnight. I know but I’m awake and I have faith and I know you’ll do this. There is a friend who has a need. Vs. 6. A friend of mine in his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him. Does that sound like you? It sounds like me. I don’t have. What he needs in Nepal, I don’t have. But because of love, because of his need and I love him even if it’s midnight, I am involved. I was thinking about sleepy Christians. How easy it is to go asleep. We are not of the night but of the day. Awake thou that sleepeth and Christ shall give you light. I’m going to ask you to help me with the message. I feel good about this. What makes a Christian sleep? Give me three things. When I sleep – anyone feel sleepy? You ate before you came or didn’t sleep last night. How about in a spiritual way. Indifferent, sleepy, tired. A friend comes but I can’t do anything for you. I don’t have the time. I don’t care about it. I’m going to bed. See you later.

Think of three things that characterizes sleepy Christians. We get worn out by the devil. We get tired and worn out. That’s a verse in Daniel. The same old problem and bad habit. Nothing changes. Brian said familiarity. P. Rajan said discouragement. In this parable, the man is not tired. The man comes with a need. He says I have a need. He’s saying, what do you need? I need three loaves. Remember P. Stevens used to teach us Rom 8:11. The same Spirit that quickened Jesus’ body from the dead would also quicken our mortal body. We didn’t have any excuse…. awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give you light. I enjoyed being with P. Rajan. He was telling stories about mountain life and dedicated disciples. Many young people don’t have jobs, so they go to the Middle East and get a job. They do it by the thousands and ten thousands. They work in the Middle East to get a good wage and send home to their family. The problem is we don’t have the ministers, the pastors. I said let’s share that with the church. It’s a day of prayer. One way to stay alive is to stay caring. One way to be moving in your faith is to show up. One way to find God in the situation.

This guy needs three loaves and I have to go at midnight and ask this guy unless I know who he is. We know who God is and we know he cares. He cares about Body life and world evangelism and casting demons out. He cares about revival. Pastor said today there is a non-conversion law in Nepal. You can go to jail for five to ten years for converting someone to another religion. Why haven’t you gotten in trouble yet? I don’t convert people. I preach the gospel. We’re on nationwide radio with 3,000 Bible college students listening on radio. You know how long it takes for a letter to travel from Katmandu to the Bible school is two months. He does his homework, takes it down, walks back home, and two months later gets the answer and takes it back home. This man who goes to Bible college for one year may be invited by p. Rajan to go to Bible school and then go back to the village to minister where he came from. I’m touched by this principle of you and I showing up and caring. I don’t care but I decide to care. What are you saying? Three loaves. Wait here. I got a friend. As we go, we find the reality of the Spirit. The anointing of God. The answered prayer. The compassion of God. The selfishness of God. The ministry of God. vs. 7. You know how I am by temperament. I don’t dare knock on the door. It’s midnight. You’re in bed already? Sorry. Forgive me. Never do it again. But there is something in the story speaks of something a lot bigger than that.

What does the Holy Spirit say about mission and ministry and Bible school. What does he say to us about showing up and living in faith. He says go for it. Come on. That’s like me. I’m a living God, moving God, talking God, forgiving God. I’m seeking those lost. I’m in the Himalayan mountains. I’m casting out demons. I’m showing those people Jesus Christ. The Tibetans are saying the religion of Nepal is Christianity. The Tibetans refugees have said the Nepalese are Christian. That’s unbelievable. 20 years ago that was an impossible statement. One time in Nepal, I went outside and the good people to talk to are the taxi drivers. What’s going on in the country? What are you here for? I’m a missionary, a pastor. Oh, the Bible? Up there in the mountains many are reading the Bible.

Vs. 7. I think we need to push more. Pray, ask. Be a little pushy. I think of James and John, their mother. She came to Jesus and what did she say? Pushing and elbowing through the crowd coming to Jesus and saying, Jesus, I got something to ask you. My sons, when you sit on the throne, can they sit on the right and left? Good Jewish woman. Pushy. Doing it. Having her sons in a good place. I’m saying this not to offend anyone but to illustrate the point of the story is go away from me. It’s late. We are in prayer and we say no this isn’t your heart. What you have started you will finish. You want the gospel to be preached on the highways and byways. You are saving people and delivering them from darkness. You are putting a new heart into them. And teaching and training them and forgiving them. They want three loaves, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If I can have the three and he gives us the three, we will have a whole new life. We’ll have a better way of thinking, talking, relating, and suffering and dying. A better way of communicating, of having fun, a blue sky, a green field and a better job. My boss is a grumpy old man, but I have the Father, Son and Spirit on my side. Somebody prayed for me and I met my friend and he went and got it done. I got what I needed.

Thanks, P. Shibley, great work in Silver Spring. Thanks, P. Steve for Dundalk. P. Wright for Havre de Grace. Thank you, Lord. For Chris Arman in Malawi. P. Scibelli at the airport on the way to Latin America. I know you folks are paying bills and working hard and the fall has started. You could come here for an hour and meet the family and the Spirit of God will meet someone to minister to you. You get a slice of heavenly bread. You can stay two more hours if you want and get built up and loved. We are not a sleep. We live in the night, but we are not of the night. We are of the day. The day star has risen in our hearts.

Let’s play the video from P. Rajan’s ministry in the Himalayas and then he will lead us in prayer.

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P. Rajan

How this happened in Nepal. God is working among the Nepali people. One good thing is the Bible college. I shared with P. Schaller, I’m now following P. Carl in Mumbai and he
is praying for the Bible college and he started the Bible school in Katmandu. Why is he following P. Schaller? Because he followed P. Stevens and he followed God. I request for you to pray for our ministry. 50 percent are unreached there. They don’t know about Jesus. God put me there and let’s pray. Another thing I forget, greeting from Nepal and all our churches. They are watching Baltimore message and…prayer is very important tool for the Christian life. I believe in prayer.

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P. Schaller

I want to say a few more things. God put it on P. Carl’s heart, Nepal. He and his wife went by faith. He met you in a park. He was a new believer and very discouraged. He left him some of Dr. Stevens cassette tapes. He didn’t speak English. He started listening and knew from the Spirit this is God, this is edifying. He kept for years listening and then connected with P. Carl. From being homeless at that point, he was persecuted and thrown out of his family’s home. It’s an amazing story and to use him and you can see how God has used him. This wasn’t there but your faith and love and ministry. His son was here last year. He had an opportunity to stay in America, but he said no. I have a calling to go back home and help my dad. He is a teacher in the Bible college. Thank you, Lord. That’s it for our service.

When I say that, it’s not really true! It’s close to it. Ciara was going to make a women’s announcement. I’ll make it and say there is a women’s seminar the weekend of the 20th. Beth Pierson is the guest speaker. God speaks to the ladies to edify them and build them up. The Pastor’s Retreat is in New York. It’s a similar thing. I was thinking when Zane was leading the song, the last song was so precious. These people who are ministering and have a portion and sometimes that portion is so important, like P. Rajan tonight and the story behind his life. It just speaks. We can go around the world. I say to P. Mati and others sometimes, where did P. Rajan come from? Where did Pastor Gromov come from? Where did P. Carl come from? Annette here. P. Drew Wilchek? Where did Dr. Stevens come from?

Where did you and I come from? We were called alone, and the Spirit did it. Nobody was watching. It happened. We all have a story about how I could walk away. There was a time I could walk away and probably I did. Why did I come back and keep at it and keep listening. Why did God keep speaking. He’s the Shepherd and leads us in and out and we find pasture and prayer. We find quietness and worship and silence and peace and stability and simplicity. It happened. If prayer is so important in the words of Jesus, men ought always to pray and not to faint. The fainting is a real thing. I don’t care. I’m not doing it. Doesn’t matter or faith. I go like this by faith and I get quiet and by faith I raise my hands and I wait and I’m still and know he is God. That pleases God. That’s faith and that’s prayer. We are told in that same portion in Luke 11 that he will give the H.S. to whoever asks him. We have the Spirit living in us but at the same time I may not be living in the Spirit. I ask you to fill me with the Spirit and lead me in a quietness and faith and prayer.

This is a day of prayer, a night of prayer. Our families need it, our country needs it, our missionaries need it. We go to God on their behalf. They don’t know where to get three loaves of bread. They are in trouble, but you and I have found grace and live in it. Let’s go home and say prayers and let’s get up in the morning and say our prayers quietly. In the car, say our prayers and see God do things. I have a request Lord. I would like more people to be saved. You don’t have to do it here. I want it here, but I want more people saved and more of the gospel preached and more of the ministry happening. More faith exercised and more of these people in the mountains to be blessed. I want the devil to be troubled. I want to resist the devil so he will flee in seven directions. Somewhere between these two saying I don’t like it. I need to intercede on his behalf, and I know where to get it done. My Father in heaven is rich toward us. Our Father in heaven wants to teach us and never leave us or forsake us and feed us and encourage us and answer us. Many times we refer to the old days or the times past. It’s my orientation or heritage. We are the people. Now is the day. This is the place and now is the time. Our countries need it and our cities and young people and families. I’m saying tonight when Abraham heard about Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot was down there, he interceded before God. Lord if 50, will you save the city? He’s between Sodom and Gomorrah and God. You know the story. All the way down to 10. We must have intercession. Maybe hours of it. There is a great story about Germany in the war. Hitler’s… are moving on Dunkirk. There is a movie made about it. For some reason, Hitler didn’t want his lines of supply too far extended but miraculously he called a halt. England got every …there are many stories about the prayers answered in World War II. Hitler was an evil man but also subject to the Almighty God. If the Almighty God wanted to do something he could do it and he did it.

We are people of prayer. Don’t forget it. Quiet yourself and shut things down and walk in faith and enjoy it. Let’s have a couple halleluiahs. Back in the 18th century, there was a Finnish, Swedish Lutheran pastor way up north in the snow. There was a path around his church, and he’d walk around praying in the winter. Soon horse drawn sleighs starting pulling into the church and there was revival. Snow laden, freezing cold, a pastor whose heart is on fire. Frozen countryside, quiet, sleepy but when God is moving, nothing can stop it. They hear God is moving and the Spirit is moving and there is a hunger in the human heart for what we have.

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