Don't Faint
(Props needed for illustration: 8x8x16 cement block, hammer)
Lu 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them [to this end], that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; (KJV)
Today I want to talk to you about fainting. I have an illustration that I am going to use in a few moments that will make, I believe, a profound impact on your life.
Today I want to define what fainting is, use an illustration from a different portion of scripture, then come back to our text and explain it, and give you a powerful illustration to help you always remember to pray and not faint.
The Greek word that is translated "faint," is egkakeo and it means to be utterly spiritless, to be wearied out, exhausted. Another term we might use is "blackout". A blackout is a loss of electrical power, and most if not all of us have experienced that at one time or another. It also is what happens to people because of an injury or a drop in blood pressure, they faint, because of a loss of power to continue normal functioning.
I will begin with perhaps the most famous fainting passage in all of scripture, and it is found in Isaiah chapter 40:
Isa 40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength.
Isa 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.
We have been in a series on Hebrews 12 and have talked about, "running the race." Truth is there are some days that you are not able to run, fact is you are doing good if you can keep one foot moving in front of another. I thank God for days that I am able to spiritually run, but reality has shown that their are days that running simply is not possible. Thank God, He addresses those days saying He gives power to those who are on the verge of fainting, and that they will be able to continue walking and not faint.
What are examples of days that we may not be able to run this race?
Days of mourning a loss. A miscarriage, a loved parent, child, sibling, or friend passing away. Some funerals are celebrations, but many are marked by feelings of profound sadness. We may not be able to run the race on those days, but at least we can take comfort that we can keep plodding on because God will give us strength to not faint.
In a season of a marriage breakup and divorce, you won't be described as running a race. Or a season of unemployment, or prolonged sickness with no resolution in sight. There are a few spiritual luminaries who in such times will exhibit joy in the Lord, but most of us will be pressing in to God the best we can, waiting on Him to renew our strength because our spiritual electrolytes have hit almost zero.
Thank God the bible recognizes that we are not always spiritual heroes, at times we can be better described as injured warriors convalescing and licking our wounds. Thank God He has promised never to let our gas tank get to complete empty if we will but wait on Him.
Here is Isaiah 40:29 repeated with different words, by Jesus, in Mt. 11:28
Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Let me tie this in with an illustration from my life, that I think all of you can relate to. I know you have been wondering about the cement block up on this table and what it could possible have to do with the passage in Luke 18 or the one in Isaiah 40, let me break it down for you.
A number of years ago I was struggling financially, it was especially difficult for me as a pastor, because I thought, God if you won't take care of me, how can I tell people you will take care of them? A scripture that tormented me in this season was, "physician, heal thyself." I mean if my medicine didn't work for me, how could I expect it to work for others?
I now know that a part of every Christians spiritual journey includes a season of leaning the secret of contentment when you are abased. I didn't know that then, then I was too focused on wanting to know the joy of the season of abounding.
Anyway things got so bad, I got to a place where I was really beginning to doubt that God would ever meet my needs. All the admonitions and promises of Mt. 6, and Jesus care for sparrows were stolen from my heart. It is one thing to read in the bible where the devil says to Adam, "yeah hath God said," and then proceed to steal the word of God from Adams heart, and quite another when circumstances coalesce in your life in such a way that it happens to you.
My prayers in that season were more examples of someone who was fainting rather than someone who was a Hebrews 11 champion of faith. God arranged a couple of things to happen that pulled me out of that funk. The first was, I got invited to a pastor's conference in another state. When I was invited, I told my friend, I couldn't go I didn't have the money. Which was true on one level, but what was wrong about my response was there was a place of unbelief in my heart that was growing that said, not only did I not have the money, but God would not provide to me either.
A week later he called and said, he already paid for the hotel, he would pay for all the gas all I had to do was pay for my own meals. That was all the encouragement I needed I went, had a wonderful time in the presence of the Lord, and on the day I came back, someone knocked on my door and said God told them to help with the expenses of the trip and handed me $400.00. Not only had I gone on the trip, but I turned a profit on it!!! Weeping may last a night...
That was enough to encourage my faith for my next adventure, we are almost to the cement block. A friend who was doing ministry in South Central LA kept inviting me to come and spend a couple of weeks with him on a missions outreach. I lived in NY at the time, so to go would be a fair expense for me. I stepped out in faith and used all the money I had and flew to LA, and spent two weeks in ministry there. About a week into the trip I was completely out of money, I mean completely out. I had no idea where my next meal would come from. I connected with an old buddy from college, met him at his house, he knew nothing of my need. During our conversation we came to a place where we stopped to pray together about effectiveness in ministry. As soon as he finished praying, he said, "God just spoke to me, and told me to give you One thousand dollars." Again, I want to repeat to you he didn't know of my financial situation. On the outside I was cool and calm, on the inside I was shouting, "hallelujah!" I went out an ate steak for dinner that night, praising God with each wonderful bite.
Now here comes the best. A few days later I went to a church service and the speaker told about a woman who needed a cement wall taken down inside her house. (For those of you who haven't been to California, you need to know that because of earthquake issues codes require many things to be built with reinforced concrete, and that is the type of wall this was.) So she hired a man, and he came with a small sledge hammer and hit the wall fairly hard. Nothing happened. He hit it again. Same result. After the fifth or sixth time she asked if he needed to get bigger equipment. He said he didn't, and that she should just be patient. On and on it went, until finally on the 39th blow a spider crack developed, and on the 40th a good portion of the wall came down. The speakers subject was prayer and fasting and how we need to keep these spiritual disciplines up until we have our breakthrough.
I have a background in construction so I perfectly understood the dynamics of all that was going on with the wall, and I will illustrate it for you with this block and hammer. Before I do, let me say that while that preacher was telling the story it was almost like the Holy Spirit was slapping some sense into me, and saying, "why did I let the devil steal from my heart faith in the promises in the word of God?" "Why was I accepting the devil's lie that the promises in the word of God weren't true?"
I understood the illustration that preacher gave with words, but I want to actually demonstrate it for you, because many of you are visual learners, and some of you have never worked with cement blocks or walls so you don't understand the principles involved.
(Hint to pastor's - if you are not versed in this, and you have a mason or bricklayer in your congregation I am sure they would love to do this for you.)
This cement block represents something you are wanting or in need of. The hammer represents prayer. So I strike the block with the hammer and nothing happens. No, that is not true at all. Nothing that the eye can see happens. But at the unseen (molecular?) level bonds have begun to break. On the outside the block seems as hard as it did before I hit it, but on the inside it has begun to disintegrate. That is a perfect illustration and example of prayer. When I hit the block, you notice the hammer bounced back, as if the block were to say, "you didn't do a thing to me." Did you know that an experienced mason can break this block exactly as he wants to, just by taping it in a line on one side and then the other? Let me show you how this works. (I then broke the block exactly where I wanted to, by soft taps in a line on one side of the block then on the other.)
So here is how prayer sometimes works. We pray about a very hard situation, and the prayer seems to bounce right back at us, almost mocking us and saying, "you didn't do a thing to me." Now either you know that all you have to do is keep at it and you will win, or you accept what the eyes see and the ears hear and give up praying. I think that while I have been giving this illustration, the Holy Spirit has been trying to slap some sense into some of you and say, "why did you let the devil steal from your heart faith in the promises in the word of God?" "Why were you accepting the devil's lie that the promises in the word of God weren't true?" Sometimes the reason prayer seems so hard is because the enemy of our soul is working overtime to try and get us to quit praying. Listen to me, the devil believes in prayer far better than many Christians do.
Which leads us back to our text:
Lu 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them [to this end], that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; (KJV)
Jesus knew that many of us would face times and situations where we would face strong pressure to quit praying. So he tells a story about a woman wanting justice and her refusal to quit until she got it, and He uses it as a lesson for us to keep on keeping on. Jesus knows full well that sometimes He will answer our prayer with a, "no." Apparently, though, He was more concerned about us quitting on prayer than He was that we might be praying for something He wouldn't want to do.
Conclusion: The lesson is keep on praying. When the wind is blowing, and the rain is falling, and in the natural it seems to be doing nothing, keep on praying. "...men ought always to pray, and not to faint." "Men OUGHT to pray..." As we close this service, have you become aware of some promises in the bible that you are aware the enemy has been trying to steal from your heart...
