The Calvary Will Save You!

When I was a kid, I enjoyed watching westerns on TV. It seemed that no matter how much trouble the hero got into, he would always be saved by the Cavalry.

Today, as an adult, life sure seems to be full of trouble, too. It seems that no matter what we do, we have trouble of some kind. If it’s not one thing; it’s another. And it applies to everybody. No one is immune.

A wife told her husband that there was trouble with the car. She said it had water in the carburetor. He said that was ridiculous. Nevertheless, she insisted that there was water in the carburetor.

He said she didn’t even know where the carburetor was, but he would check it out. He asked her where the car was, and she said it was in the swimming pool.

Someone once said that we had better get used to trouble, because it will be a mainstay in our life here on this earth.

JOB 5:7 says,

“Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.”

JOB 14:1 says,

“Man, born of woman, is of few days and full of trouble.”

Troubles remind us that we are in a spiritual battle on this earth, and we shall be all the days of our lives. But, as Christians, we sometimes are like golf balls.

When they first invented the golf ball, it was smooth on the outside like a big ping pong ball. But they soon discovered that the more the ball got roughed up on the golf course, the further it would travel.

So they started putting the ball under a great deal of pressure when they were making it. This pressure causes all the dimples you see on them, and those dimples cause the ball to travel much further than a ball that has not been under pressure.

See, as Christians, sometimes we find that we do our best work when put under pressure. It serves to bring us to a higher level of intimacy with the Lord.

Our days seem full of trouble, don’t they? But we aren’t the only ones who seem to be embroiled in problems. The Psalmist, David, knew about how tough life could get.

PSALM 86:1-4 tells us,

‘Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in You. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to You all day long. Bring joy to Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.’

David says; Hear my prayer - Guard my life - Have mercy on me - Increase my joy. Let’s talk about these things.

1. HEAR MY PRAYER

Verse 1 says,

“Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.”

A woman was at work when she received a phone call that her daughter was very sick with a fever. She left work and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication for her daughter. She returned to her car to find that she had locked the keys inside the car when she went into the pharmacy.

She didn’t know what to do, so she called her home and told the baby sitter what had happened and that she did not know what to do. The baby sitter told her to find a coat hanger and see if that would open the door.

The woman looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been thrown down on the ground, possibly by someone else who also had locked their keys in their car. Then she looked at the hanger and said, "I don’t know how to use this." So she bowed her head and asked God to send her some help.

Within five minutes an old rusty car pulled up in the parking space next to her car. An older, rougher, dirtier man got out and asked if he could help her. The woman thought, "This is what you sent to help me, God?"

She told him yes, as she needed to hurry and get home to her sick daughter. He walked over to the car, and in less than one minute the car was opened. She hugged the man and through her tears she said, "Thank you so much! You are such a nice man."

The man replied; "No, I’m not, Lady. I just got out of prison for car theft." The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out to God, "You even sent me a professional."

You just never know how God is going to answer your prayer. I always heard it said that God answers prayer in four ways:

- Yes