Dangerous Prayers

In spite of my bad report, my friend sent me a telegram telling me to buy the house. A day or so later I received a check for several thousand yen as a down payment. So I signed the papers and purchased the house. The down payment was made and the final payments were to be made in three days, at which time the old owner agreed to vacate the house. The final payments were made, but then the owner asked for a day or two more until he could find another house. I granted him this period of grace. But after a week he was still there. Two weeks, three weeks, a month, three months, six months have passed.

The man who sold the house has purchased new clothes for his family, and they are eating out at the best restaurants. He knows I am a Christian and that in Korea we Christians never go to court with other Christians and we try not to go to court with unbelievers. He laughs at me when I come.

“Now, Fathers and Brothers,” the layman continued, “my friend is greatly embarrassed because his capital is tied up in this house, and he is in a very difficult position. What am I to do?”

Several members of the General Assembly responded. One pointed out that the layman was not acting in his own behalf but as an agent. Another pointed out that he was obviously dealing with a man who was a thief at heart. All agreed that the speaker had a right to go to the authorities and ask for an eviction order. The speaker asked for a show of hands and all voted that he had a right to proceed legally.

Then the layman said, “Thank you, Elders and Brothers, for the way you have considered my problem. Before I sit down, I would like to draw one conclusion. Nineteen hundred years ago the Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven to purchase for Himself a dwelling place.” Then he put his hand on his heart. “He bought the old shack. It was in a rundown condition. It was in a bad neighborhood. He bought me because He wanted to take possession and dwell in my heart. But I cling to my tenement and leave Him outside. Now if you say that I have the right to seek the help of the authorities to evict the man who is occupying my friend’s house, what shall you and I say of ourselves when we deny the Lord Jesus the full possession of that for which He gave His own life?” – Haddon Robinson

III. Pray for Workers

A. Matthew 9:38 “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”

B. Jesus urges the twelve to pray because the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. He tells them to earnestly pray for workers. The word pray, deomai, means to beg, beseech, plead. This is the Greek word for passionate prayer. This is the kind of prayer that makes a difference.

C. Matthew Henry said that one of the greatest areas of discouragement in the church is a lack of workers.

D. Therefore, this certainly seems like an innocent and harmless request. Any believer can pray it! The problem with praying, however, is that sometimes God calls upon us to answer our own prayers. There is a danger associated with praying that the Lord “send” for laborers into his harvest. He may send us! He may create such discomfort for us in our present circumstances that we would be almost literally “cast out” into the work which He has for us to do. – copied