One of the things we struggle with when we minister is how we should open. Well, one thing I am going to do is put this away. That was a ministry I originally intended to give.
Something interesting happened. I have gone through the spiritual armor and talked about the sword of the Spirit and the Word of God. I have come to that place in Ephesians 6 where it talks about praying with all prayer and watching with all perseverance.
That was on my heart as we gathered together Friday night for a Bible study. We were in, I think, chapter 26, where the Lord has been taken to trial and Peter is there. Peter denies the Lord three times.
We remember that, at that event in history, the Lord looked at Peter. It just crushed Peter. He went out crying. We talked about that Friday night—about how much the Lord loved Peter.
In His love, He had to allow Peter to go through that failure in his life, that he might learn the grace of God; that he might learn not to trust in his own strength or have so much self-confidence in himself, but to totally rely on the Lord. He was being called to a great work, and he was not ready.
But how careful the Lord was in telling Peter:
Peter, I will pray for you. Satan has asked of Me that he might have permission to sift you. And I have given him that permission, Peter. But Peter, I am praying that your faith fail not.
I think that in this hour of trial for our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that He was going to the cross, it is very interesting how much the Lord’s heart was toward His own. It seems as if He cared more for Peter than for what He was about to go through.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord had settled in His heart with the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was settled. As He went on, He knew that those who would follow Him would have to carry on and be prepared for that work. So He was preparing Peter. He used Peter’s failure to actually strengthen Peter.
Brothers and sisters, I only say that because it really touched my heart that night. I just want to share with you: often in our failures, we lie in defeat and are unable to get up, as our brother encouraged us this morning.
But everything that happens in your life—and some things are very difficult to handle, almost unspeakable, that happen to us—and yet God, in His tremendous love and mercy, in the sovereignty of who He is as God, cares so much for you. He loves you and is using that to train you, to reveal more of Christ in you, to deliver you from yourself, that you might know Him more and more.
I was deeply touched by that song about the air we breathe this morning, because it says, “Lord, all I desire is You.” Is it not great in our lives when we come to those moments? They seem to be fleeting, when in our hearts we honestly say, “Lord, all I desire is You.”
It just takes everything and makes everything else in our life so small.
Interestingly enough, I had these things on my heart, and I went to bed Friday night. I said, “Now, Lord, I have this message, and I am sharing on praying with all prayer and watching with all perseverance.”
I went to bed, and I woke up at four in the morning. This verse kept coming to my mind and my heart:
O watchman, what of the night?
O watchman, what of the night?
I said, “Well, Lord, what does this mean?” I said, “Well, maybe I had better get out of bed and find out what the Lord is trying to say to me. O watchman, what of the night?” I said, “Okay, Lord.”
So I got up and went outside. It was rather chilly, and I was in my night garments. But I live kind of out in the country, so it does not matter too much. My neighbors are usually not up at four in the morning anyway.
I have a very large clearing, so I can see the sky. As I looked up into the sky, the first thing I noticed was the Big Dipper.
Now, being a Boy Scout and having that background, we were always taught that if you can find a clearing somewhere, look in the sky and find the Big Dipper. It is very easy to spot once you have been shown what the Big Dipper looks like.
The amazing thing about the Big Dipper is this: if you take the two top stars in the Big Dipper and run a line across them, they always point to the North Star.
The Big Dipper rotates through the night in a circle. In the evening, as the sun goes down, about an hour later I can just make out the two top stars of the Big Dipper over the trees. But at four in the morning, the Big Dipper is about ten o’clock.
You know what? All night, as it is traversing the sky, it is pointing to the North Star. In the Northern Hemisphere, all the stars rotate around the North Star.
That is why, if you are lost at night in the Northern Hemisphere, you can look up in the sky. If you can spot the Big Dipper—and it is pretty big—and get those two top stars, they will always point you to true north, the North Star. You can get a sense of direction and know where to head.
As I looked at that, I said, “Well, Lord, what are You trying to say?”
He said, “You know, Jerry, the Big Dipper is like the church. The church is My testimony. It is noticeable; it is visible on earth. And it should always be pointing at the North Star.”
Christ, obviously, is the analogy—the center of everything. The center around which all the universe rotates is Jesus Christ. That is the way God has made things.
His whole universe has been made, including you and me as human beings, with Christ at the center of everything. He is not only the center of your life and my life, but the whole universe really revolves around one issue, and that is Jesus Christ. Everything glorifies Jesus Christ.
As we were sitting here this morning, it just came to my heart:
Lord, I have known Your gentleness in the morning dew.
I have known the hope of Christ in the sunrise.
I have seen the glory of Your beauty in the sunset,
And the fullness of Your glory in the stars at night.
But there is nothing like Calvary
That has shown me Your love for me.
The Lord is everywhere, brothers and sisters. That is what our lives are about. That is what we are created for. We should be able to look and say, “Yes, I see Jesus.”
The whole reason for the church is that we might point to Jesus Christ, the center of all things.
O watchman, what of the night?
What of the night?
Let us begin with prayer, and I will read some scriptures.
Lord, as we come to Thee this morning, we worship Thee. We honor Thee. Lord, Thou art everything. Thou art our all.
We come back to Thee this morning. Lord, I pray that Thou wilt open the Scriptures to our hearts. Anoint us as we speak and as we hear.
Lord, whatever we share today, may it alter our lives because we have seen something more of Jesus—the center of God’s heart, the center of creation, the center of everything.
We worship Thee, Lord, in Thy precious name. Amen.
“O watchman, what of the night?” comes from Isaiah 21:11. You do not need to look that up, but it is a very short prophecy. The Lord says to the prophet:
O watchman, what of the night?
Let us turn to Mark 6. It is easier for me because I pre-mark these things.
Mark 6:45. Our brother Ann Miller shared on these Scriptures when he was here last.
And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the boat, and to go before Him unto the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself sendeth the multitude away.
And after He had taken leave of them, He departed into the mountain to pray.
And when evening was come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and He alone on the land.
And seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them, about the fourth watch of the night He cometh unto them, walking on the sea; and He would have passed by them:
But they, when they saw Him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out:
For they all saw Him, and were troubled. But He straightway spake with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.
And He went up unto them into the boat; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves.
Ephesians 6:18 is the Scripture we have been sharing on for a good while now. We shared about the armor, and actually the armor is Jesus Christ Himself in all of His various aspects in our lives. We come to verse 18.
With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Brothers and sisters, I have been encouraging us all that we are called to be warriors in Jesus Christ. As we take on the armor of God, that alone is not sufficient. The warrior’s attitude must be one of watching and praying.
Daniel 4. I will be reading verses 13 and 17.
I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven.
This is all speaking prophetically about Nebuchadnezzar. This is the important fact:
This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the lowest of men.
It is a decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones.
Matthew 26, beginning with verse 36. This is our Lord at Gethsemane.
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto His disciples, Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray.
And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and sore troubled.
Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: abide ye here, and watch with Me.
And He went forward a little, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.
And He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Again a second time He went away, and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, Thy will be done.
And He came again and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
And He left them again, and went away, and prayed a third time, saying again the same words.
Then cometh He to the disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
First Peter 4:7.
But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore of sound mind, and be sober unto prayer.
The end of all things is at hand. Be sober, and watch unto prayer.
Luke 21:34.
But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly as a snare:
For so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth.
But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things—speaking of the great tribulation—that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Obviously, I have a lot to say with all those Scriptures. May the Lord be merciful to us this morning as we share His Word.
O watchman, what of the night?
I was rather startled the other night to be awakened with that Scripture on my heart: “O watchman, what of the night?” What is a watchman?
We know from history that in Jerusalem they had watchtowers. They had different watches. The Jewish watches were three, and the Roman watches were four. They had people at night, all through the night, who were watchers.
First of all, they were aware of what time of night it was.
In observing what I observed the other night at four in the morning, I also woke up at four this morning. I did not do it on purpose, but I woke at four, went out at four, and looked in the sky. You know what? The Big Dipper was just about in the same place it was a few nights ago.
What I am saying is, I can now go out at night and look at the Big Dipper, at least for the next few weeks, and almost tell you when it is four o’clock in the morning, because I have observed the night. I am aware of what time it is—the hour in which we are living.
So a watchman is one who is very aware of the hour.
A watchman is also one who is awake when most everyone else is sleeping.
A watchman is one who is awake when almost everyone else is asleep, because his charge, his responsibility, his ministry, is to be aware of the hour and to be on watch and on guard for the safety of the city on which he is watching.
Many of the old watchmen used to go around to the doors and check the locks, to make sure they were locked and that families were safe in the city in which they lived.
The watchman was very aware of the night and the dangers of the night, and the fact that the enemy worked his greatest work in darkness.
So the watchman was always concerned about the interests of others. His primary concern was not for himself, but for those whom he was charged to protect.
We have been called to watch and pray. I have to say, brothers and sisters, I think we are all called to be watchmen. This is not just a ministry for a few.
God calls us to be awake spiritually when we find many asleep—sensitive to the darkness and sensitive to the hour in which we live.
I think what struck me so hard was the watchman being aware of the hour in which we live.
Now, in Mark 6:45, which I read and which our brother shared on when he was here last time, there is actually a picture of the hour in which we live.
You see, the Lord Jesus has ascended back to the throne, just as the Lord went apart to the mountain to pray that night. He sent His disciples on in the boat—His church.
As they are rowing toward Gennesaret, representing the kingdom age, they are met with much opposition. A storm arises. They are about three miles out, the wind has kicked up, and a storm is against them.
We live in the fourth watch. The fourth watch was about three in the morning to six in the morning, so they had been rowing a while. They were faced with this mighty storm on the Sea of Galilee.
The fourth watch in the night is the darkest part of the night. But, brothers and sisters, not only is it the darkest part of the night, it is the part of the night just before dawn—just before the dawn breaks.
So even though the fourth watch is the darkest hour of the night, it is also the last hour before the breaking of the dawn.
Obviously, the analogy is very clear. We are living in the fourth watch, the last hour before Jesus returns. Tribulations have increased, and the opposition is tremendous.
That is why I believe in this last hour the Lord is calling us to be warriors. Part of the responsibility of a warrior is to watch and pray.
Not only must he have on this armor and be aware of Christ, with Christ as the center of his life, but he must be in constant communion with the Lord through prayer and through watching.
Watch and pray.
O watchman, what of the night? If I were to ask you, if the Lord were to awaken you and say, “What of the night?” what would your response be to the Lord?
Would it be, “Well, Lord, You know I am having these problems, these difficulties”? That is okay. It is okay.
But the Lord says, “What of the night? I know you are having difficulties. I know you are under trials and tribulations, and I have been watching your life. I am there for you, and My grace is sufficient. But what of the night?”
“My heart is to bring many sons to glory. My heart is that the bride be perfected. My heart is that the house of God be built with living stones. What of the night? Where are we? Where are you in reference to the hour in which we live?”
Brothers and sisters, it is so critical that the watchman understand the hour in which he lives and what his responsibilities are.
In Ephesians 6, it says that we are to stand and withstand. Remember? Those Scriptures start out with, “Having done all, stand,” and then he goes into the armor. It ends with, “Watch and pray.”
The point is, brothers and sisters, how do we stand and withstand? Standing is the positive side. Standing is standing for the will of God, for His purposes. It applies to your life personally as well.
But to withstand is to stand against the wiles of the enemy in your life personally, corporately, and in the world. We are to withstand while we stand.
How are we going to do that? We have to have on the armor. But the Lord says, “No, that is not enough. You must be actively watching and praying.”
You cannot stand and withstand if you are not watching and praying. Obviously, if you are not watching, the enemy can just come in. The door is open.
If you are not praying, you are out of communication with the Lord and insensitive to what His desires are and what He is trying to do in your life. You are just kind of on what I call the roller coaster of life—or the Ferris wheel of life. Your life is just going around, and you are hoping that one day it will stop and you can get off.
No, the Lord says, “Watch and pray.”
Being aware, watching, praying—brothers and sisters, it is being aware, it is being active, and it is an active part of your Christian life.
You cannot watch and not pray. Let me put it that way. If you are watching and not praying, all you are doing is observing things: “Yeah, Lord, it is getting bad. The situation in the Far East is getting bad. The situation in Afghanistan is bad.”
Well, O watchman, what of the night? What does that mean? How does it relate to what God is doing on this earth?
Or we can be a people of prayer, but if we are not really watching, if we are just praying, “Lord, I want You to take care of me. I want You to get me through the day at work,” which I do pray, “I want You to…” whatever—it is more supplication than being involved with what God is doing in this hour.
We miss this matter of actively watching in prayer.
In Ephesians 6, it says, brothers and sisters, that we wrestle not against flesh and blood—not against people, not against your boss, not with your wife, not with your husband, not with your children, not with your brothers and sisters, not with people in the world.
What you are wrestling with is principalities, powers, and darkness. We know from the Word of God that there are princes of darkness, stationed all over this universe and particularly in reference to the world in which we live.
The Lord says we have a responsibility in this area. We are a spiritual people. Therefore, we have come in touch with the spiritual realm, and it is just as real as the one that you feel and touch every day.
He is saying that we wrestle against these things. Brothers and sisters, if we are not watching and praying, this whole spiritual realm is like a mystery to us. It is like a story, a fairy tale.
Have you encountered the principalities and powers in your life? If you have ever encountered them in your life, you will know how real it is. You really will.
It is real. The Lord says, “I need watchmen, those who will watch and pray.”
Let us turn to the book of Daniel. I read it earlier, but sometimes it is good just to have your eyes on it. Daniel 4.
What I am about to share is something we actually shared on Wednesday night not too long ago. I think it is important that we all hear and know it. It really came from something Stephen Kaung shared with us probably fifteen or twenty years ago.
But I think it is so critical at the hour in which we live that we all should hear it.
In Daniel 4:13:
I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and a holy one came down.
In verse 17 it says:
This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and by the demand of the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men.
The decree of the watchers, the demand of the holy ones. Who are these watchers and holy ones that can come and decree something, and it happens?
They came and watched Nebuchadnezzar. They watched his kingdom and the power that he gained. They watched his attitude. Then they came down and decreed that for seven years he would basically go insane.
During those seven years, others would rule. But at the end of seven years, the Lord would bring him back to his senses, and he would rule once again.
When he came back to his senses, he would acknowledge that God ruled the affairs of his kingdom and not Nebuchadnezzar—which he did.
God’s holiness was violated. God had set up Nebuchadnezzar, but Nebuchadnezzar thought he had done it in his own strength and power. It was God who was really in charge.
Who are these watchers? We know that a third of the angels are satanic in nature. They followed Lucifer in the fall, but there are two-thirds of the angels that remained. Some of these angels are called watchers, and they are watching.
What are they doing? They are watching things.
I remember when the children of Israel came out of Egypt. The watchers were there, and they were watching. They were looking and saying, “Okay, the iniquity of the Egyptian nation has come to a fullness now. Their power and strength has reached its zenith, and it is time for God to judge the nation of Egypt and deliver the people out of their captivity.”
I remember before the flood, the watchers were there. They were watching, and they were saying, “Look, everybody has turned away from God. They are evil.”
The watchers were there, and they were reporting back to God. Now, we know that God knows everything, right? But God, in His great eternal plan of things, has these angels everywhere watching.
They are watching everything. They are watching the government. They are watching who is in charge. They are watching every authority. They are watching you and me.
They are reporting back. They may report back and say, “You know, Jerry needs some help.” They would probably say, “It is a lot of help.” But that being said, they are watching.
There are indeed angels watching over us. Now, I do not want us to get into angel worship, because that would be sad. It would be against Christ. But they serve their purpose as watchers.
Actually, in Genesis 18, if you remember, before the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is very clear there. God comes down with two men, and they are watchers.
They have come down to observe the situation. They are looking and saying, “Okay, the iniquity of Sodom and Gomorrah has reached a point where something has got to be done.”
They talk with Abraham about this, if you remember. What they have done is decree that it is now time for God to judge Sodom and Gomorrah.
In other words, they observe. They are diligently observing everything. They are watchers. That is their responsibility. They report back to God, and they are of such one heart with God.
They are there to serve God’s purpose, and they want what God wants. They are interested in God’s economy, not man’s economy. They looked at Sodom and Gomorrah and said, “Something has got to be done here.”
They go back and agree with God, and they say, “Yes, it is time.” So really, it is God’s decree that they are decreeing. But they have become so one with the Lord and His purposes and His heart that their decree becomes the Lord’s decree.
I hope we get that. It is very important.
Then we have the holy ones. In Isaiah 6, you remember the seraphim are there. What do they do? They are crying out:
Holy, holy, holy.
They are concerned about the holiness of God. They measure everything by God’s holiness. They are not only watching, but they are measuring. They are measuring things. Does this measure up?
Now, holy means uncommon. Our Lord Jesus, we know, is totally uncommon when compared to us. We are the common ones. The measure in our Christian life is really Christ—His holiness.
They are looking out for the holiness of God. We know Nebuchadnezzar, at one point, realized that God had given him this kingdom. But all of a sudden, he started bragging about it: “Look at all of this. Look at all that I have done. Look how great I am.”
Taking a little glory from the Lord—taking a lot of glory from the Lord. Have we not all fallen in that area in our lives personally?
The holy ones said, “I think it is enough. Nebuchadnezzar needs to be disciplined. He needs to know that God is in charge,” and brought and humbled before God, testifying before the nations that God is really in charge.
That is what happened. They decreed this decree—these watchers and holy ones. They came down and decreed this decree, and it happened.
Brothers and sisters, God has these celestial watchers, these angelic watchers and holy ones, and they are still serving in this way today.
But today God also has an earthly watcher—one here on this earth, terrestrial if you want to call it a terrestrial watcher. It is His church.
We are called to be watchers and holy ones. His church is called to watch. I think it is very clear from the Scriptures I have read this morning: watch and pray, watch and pray. That is the church.
Brothers and sisters, do you know what the word saints means? It means holy ones.
We are to be concerned about the holiness of God. We are to be watching. We are watchmen.
O watchmen, what of the night? This is the application today, brothers and sisters. The Lord has called us to be His earthly watchmen.
We are to join with those celestial beings who are watching as well, and we are to be before the Lord. Our heart is to be one with the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we are in prayer before the Lord, we begin to get a sense of how every situation we are praying about is affecting God’s economy.
As we pray, the Lord begins to give us discernment about a matter or an issue. I know right now we have been praying particularly about the situation in the Middle East.
The Lord begins to give you some sensing, some more specific way to pray. He says, “Okay, this needs to be bound, and this needs to be loosed.”
Remember the Scriptures I have been reading? Binding and loosing. That is what He said to Peter:
Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
It is all connected to watching and praying. So we are to be watchers, and we are to be in prayer.
Now, if we know the Lord’s will, we can be very specific. But what if we do not really know yet? We are praying about a situation, we have been watching, and we are concerned about the Lord’s interest in this situation—not just our interest, but the Lord’s interest.
We are praying, but we do not yet know the Lord’s will in a matter. What do we do?
Stand and withstand. In other words, we can always stand for God’s will.
When we are praying, it is more exciting if we know specifics—when the Lord gives us something specifically to bind or loose. But, brothers and sisters, we should never forget that the primary issue with God is that His will be done.
We can stand in any situation. Even if we do not know His will, we can stand for God’s will.
“Lord, we are with You in this. We stand for Your will. We do not know what that means right now. We do not know what Your will is, but we stand with You for Your will.”
“We will continue to pray about this situation. If it pleases You to reveal more to our hearts concerning how to pray more specifically, we will. But we do stand in the name of Jesus Christ that the will of God be done in this situation.”
“Lord, we know that the enemy is at work. We ask that You would restrain our adversary, bind him up in this situation, and confuse his devices.”
Binding and loosing—we can do that.
I know one thing for which we have been praying: that the Lord would loose the power of the gospel, particularly in the Middle East.
That almost seems impossible from the testimonies that we have heard from Peterson and others, and from what we have seen on television. But God knows there is a timing.
Brothers and sisters, that is the other thing the watchers are watching for: timing. “Is it the right time, Lord? Is it now time that You can get the gospel into these countries, into the Middle East? Is this the hour that there will be the breakthrough?”
I do not know. The Lord knows. But that is what a watcher is about: “Is this time?”
“Lord, is the iniquity of this situation to such an extent that it is now time for You to judge it?”
Before He delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, do you know what He did? He challenged every god of Egypt—the gods of the gnats, the flies, the frogs, all of that. They were gods of Egypt.
He destroyed them one by one. Finally, in the last hour, remember Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He would not go back, and he was going to destroy the nation of Israel.
They were backed up against the Red Sea, and his heart was to destroy them.
God allowed it. I can imagine the fear that must have entered their hearts when they saw all his chariots coming their way.
But the Lord did something totally unexpected. He opened up the Red Sea.
Brothers and sisters, are you standing against the Red Sea in your life? You know that God has called you out, but some of your circumstances are there, and it looks like the enemy is about to destroy your life.
There is a way through the Red Sea. The Lord told Moses to lift the rod of his authority. He did, the Red Sea parted, and the children of Israel went through the Red Sea. It was their deliverance.
But it was also the destruction of the enemy, because in the midst of the Red Sea the Lord closed the waters down on them, and they all drowned.
All by the decree of watchers and holy ones.
Brothers and sisters, we are called—that is the church—to be watchers and pray. We must be active in that.
I hope you will give me a few more minutes.
We cannot just be passing by. We cannot just stand by and be a critic. Let me explain this.
Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech in Paris, I think in 1928. It has been dubbed “The Man in the Arena,” because out of that eighteen-page document there is about an eight-line paragraph dealing with a man in the arena.
That has always impressed me. There is some analogy, I think, to the Christian warrior.
He says the credit does not go to the critic who observes the man in the arena, who toils and tries, and tries and tries, and sheds his sweat and blood and his life in the arena.
The credit goes to the man in the arena. The man in the arena may fail many times. He knows great defeats, but he also knows great victory.
The critic, who never knows defeat, who sits on the outside and observes the man in the arena, will never know defeat; but neither will he know victory.
Brothers and sisters, let us not become Christian critics.
I think when we find that our lives, for whatever reason, have turned mostly to criticism, we have become critics. We are no longer the man in the arena. We will never know the great victories.
Yes, like Peter, who experienced a great defeat when he denied the Lord three times—the depths of defeat.
But he also experienced the glories of Christ, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Great victories our brother Peter knew.
Brothers and sisters, we are called to be watchmen. We are called to be in the arena.
In 1 Peter 4:7, I shared that the end of all things is at hand. “Be ye therefore sober and watchful unto prayer.” That is God’s warning to us at the end.
He says, “The end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer.” We are in the fourth watch. The end of all things is at hand. The Lord tells us that we have to watch and be in prayer.
In Luke 21:34-36, where I read earlier, it says, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting.”
I looked up that word, surfeiting. I want somebody else to check this with your computers, but as far as I can tell, there is only one place that word is used, and it is right here.
I thought it meant suffering, but that is not what it says. It says surfeiting. The Greek there means pain, as in seizure.
In other words, brothers and sisters, what the Holy Spirit is trying to warn us of in this last hour is that, yes, there will be a lot of pain in our lives. But we have to be very careful that the pain of life does not grip us to such an extent that we lose our point of reference.
We must not lose our calling to be watchful, to be watchmen, and to be in prayer. We must not let it overwhelm us to the point that our concerns are totally inward and for ourselves, and we lose what God is after.
It is a warning. He does not say we will not experience this pain. He says, “Do not be overcome by it.”
Now, I am not being harsh at all here, brothers and sisters, because God has promised us that His grace is sufficient.
I think—and I know—that there are many in our midst being challenged by that very verse. We wake up some mornings and say, “Lord, is Your grace sufficient? I am not sure. I cannot handle this, Lord.”
I think that is the best position to be in: “I cannot handle it, Lord, but Your grace is sufficient.” I hope we can say that. May God give us the courage to say that: “Thy grace is sufficient.”
He also says, “Do not be overcome with drunkenness.” As I thought about that, that is indulgence. We can indulge ourselves in many things. It includes alcohol, of course, but there are many things of this world in which we can indulge.
It is really our way of escaping our problems, I think. That is why we look so greatly to the weekend: so we can escape the week that we have had.
But, brothers and sisters, it is just indulgence. The Lord says, “Do not be overcome by these things. Be aware. Be My watchman. Be aware: these things can take over your life.”
Just a desire to be free of the pressures sometimes can lock us up, can it? We want the pressures to go away. The Lord has not promised us the pressures would go away. He has promised us that His grace is sufficient in the pressure.
Brothers and sisters, we can be overcome. That is why we need one another.
I doubt there is anybody here who has not been in the ditch of life, or the pit, at times in our lives. It has taken the hand of a brother and sister to draw us out. The Lord uses one another.
He also warns us not to be overcome by the cares of life. I think this is the most deceitful of them all, because the cares of life are natural things in your life that you have to take care of.
You have to take care of your children, whether they are bad or good, whether they are screaming or sleeping. You have to take care of them.
The cares of life—getting to work, having to make money. Often we impact ourselves because we get so much in debt. But the point is, the Lord says, “You have to be careful about the cares of life.”
The natural things that you care about must not get in the way of what God is doing. “I called you to be a watcher. O watcher, what of the night?”
“Well, Lord, I do not know about the night. All I know is that my boss really got on my nerves last week. I was ready to chunk the whole job, but my wife said, ‘No, you cannot do that, because we have to make the car payment and the house payment. You have to stay at work.’”
You say, “But honey, you do not understand.” She says, “I understand one thing: if we do not eat, it is not going to be too happy around here. You have to stay there.”
I am making fun of it, but really these become real pressures in our lives—just everyday living. It is more intense than ever. We have more choices today than I have ever heard of.
I read a little thing that John Blanchard sent me by email. It was about the way things used to be.
This guy talks about when he grew up there was no television. I still remember when there was no television.
We had three cars to pick from: Chevrolet, Ford, and some other one. We could either get black or white, I think. Those were all the colors we had.
We did not lock our doors at night. We did not even think about it. We slept with the windows open. We did not have air conditioning.
It just went on and on and on. There were, of course, no rocket ships, no men on the moon, none of that. Airplanes were around, but they were more of a novelty to us than anything. We certainly did not ride on them.
The story gets to the end and says, “Now, how old is this man?” He is fifty-eight years old. That happens to be exactly how old I am, so that is why it hit me so hard.
I said, “Lord, things have changed tremendously.” But all of this has added to the cares of our life. The Lord says, “Be careful about these things.”
One last thing I want to share with you, if you will bear with me, please. I think it is so important.
I think often the Lord has called us to be a watcher and a prayer, but so often in our Christian life, either through our failures or whatever, we feel that we are really not worth much, that we really do not count much, that we really cannot pray and watch. We will leave that to others.
Oh, brothers and sisters, how we dishonor our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the cross when we do things like this—and the work of the cross that has delivered us from everything.
There is a sense that we are insignificant. I want you to realize that I understand it. When I was out there looking at the stars the other night, I felt pretty insignificant.
There is that sense, in the whole scheme of things, in the universe. If you want to know how insignificant you are, go to the ocean, put your finger in it, pull it out, and see how much difference you have made.
As a matter of fact, we do not have to go to the ocean. Get a little glass of water. Once the ripples settle down, you cannot see any difference. So how can you make a difference? Who are you?
But that is not God’s estimation of you personally, brothers and sisters.
God realized you were in trouble. God realized you were a sinner. God realized you needed help. He went to the cross just for you. He went to the cross just for me.
He loves you enough. He cares about you. You are big enough in God’s heart that He would die for you and give His life for you.
Today, He constantly is praying for you—every hour, every moment. Do you realize that? That is how much you mean to Him.
So, in one sense, there is this insignificance. Brothers and sisters, we may say, “Well, Lord, I have failed You.” Peter failed the Lord Jesus Christ tremendously.
But was that the end of Peter? Did Peter quit praying? Did Peter quit going on? No. Once the Lord restored Peter, Peter went on in his calling in the Lord Jesus Christ.
My concern is that sometimes, even after we are restored, even after we see the forgiveness of the Lord, we still have this little voice in our minds when we come to worship or come to pray that says, “Hypocrite.”
“How can you pray? How can you worship? Look what you have done.”
“But I have asked the Lord for forgiveness, and His blood is covering me. He has even forgotten about it.”
“You are a hypocrite.”
I think that is one word that scares every man to his knees. It brings us to our knees. It does not matter whether you are a Christian or not. To be called a hypocrite is one of the worst things you can be called, and we know that.
The enemy uses it all the time to keep your mouth shut, to keep you from watching and praying.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord has forgiven you. Whatever it is, it is gone. I want you to know that. It is gone. He has taken it even out of His mind. I do not know how He does that, but He has.
You still have it because the enemy keeps reminding you. But I want you to know: you are not insignificant in the Lord’s eyes. He has called you to be a watcher.
O watchman, what of the night?
May the Lord ask each one of us that question, and may we see how we answer.
Lord, we just come to Thee today. Lord, what a marvelous Lord Thou art.
Lord, with all Thy wisdom and knowledge, Thou callest us to be a part not only of our own little world, in our family life and in our work life, but in the entire universe.
Lord, Thou hast called us to be a watcher and a prayer: to know Thy heart, to agree with Thee. Lord, Thou waitest. Thou even waitest for those who will agree with Thee.
Lord, I pray that Thou wilt awaken us in this last hour, this fourth watch of the night.
Lord, encourage us all, Lord Jesus, to be watchers in prayer.
In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.