by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Matthew 17:20, “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder-place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
Matthew 28:18, “All power is given unto me.”
Matthew 19:20, “With God all things are possible.”
Mark 10:27, “With God all things are possible.”
Luke 18:27, “With God nothing shall be impossible.”
Luke 1:31, “With God nothing shall be impossible.”
Mark 9:23, “All things are possible to him that believeth.”
Mark 14:36, “All things are possible unto thee.”
Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
If we were to put it in our modern day slant, our language would be, “Ain’t nothin’ impossible for our God” for with God all things are possible. When Mary heard that she, a virgin, was going to become the mother of the Christ child said, “I’ve never known a man” and the angel replied, “With God nothing shall be impossible.”
Sarah in Genesis 18:14, when it was announced to Abraham that at age 90 she would have a child with him, laughed in unbelief. God then said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” That question was answered in Jeremiah 32:17 plainly, “There is nothing too hard for the LORD.”
THERE IS NO SINNER THAT GOD CANNOT SAVE FROM GOING TO HELL.
“Preacher my husband is unsaved and a hard man!” Yes, but God specializes in saving the souls of hard men. I am thinking of a truck driver named Shorty Eakin who was the last of 18 family members who trusted Christ. He was a rough man and fought conviction for a long time. I am thinking of a local newsman who attacked our church, the Longview Baptist Temple, in a series about the baptizing of children.
Ali Martin was a rough man when it came to the things of God. Yet, one of our soul winners led his wife to Christ and eventually he trusted Christ and now has a national radio ministry. He left the left-wing biased media and gave his talents to Christ.
I am thinking of one our faithful deacons, Dane Matney, who was a bar-hopping, hard, and tough man. He had little to do with God, and yet a soul winner led him to Christ and he and his dear wife have for over 3 decades served faithfully at the Longview Baptist Temple of Longview, Texas. They have a son, J. D., who is a Texas Baptist College graduate.
I am thinking of one of our LBT men named Jack Rickman who gambled, lived like the Devil, and was on the verge of losing everything. Yet, a soul winner gave Jack the Gospel, and in spite of bad health he has been a faithful soul winner for 3 decades since he trusted Christ and his life was turned right side up.
I could list a hundred men and women like these dear people whom Christ did what no one thought was possible. We have an Almighty God! LBT is filled with stories of what God can do! Do not think for a second that there is someone too hard for God to save his or her soul from going to Hell.
THERE IS NO PRAYER THAT GOD CANNOT ANSWER.
We can travel no further than we travel on our knees as God’s people. The prayer life is life! No relationship can sustain itself without communication. Nine out of ten times the main stumbling block to marital bliss is the lack of communication. The same is true of our relationship with our God.
Dr. John R. Rice would often tell of going to Heaven and being taken on a tour by an angel. They would come to one room, and Dr. Rice asked the angel what are all of these gift-wrapped packages, and the angel replied, “These are the things God had for you that you did not ask for!”
Prayer is asking and receiving! Prayer is getting to know the mind of Christ and staying in tune with Christ. God has no hands but our hands, no mind but our mind, no feet but our feet, and no tongue but our tongue. “What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” We could not save our own soul and neither can we save our own lives. Prayer is aligning our life’s purpose with God’s purpose. Prayer is adjusting our mind to Christ’s mind. Prayer is lining up our work to God’s work.
Prayer is tapping in to God’s power and God’s mind while channeling it not to us, but through us, to be able to accomplish that which man considers impossible. God’s people can align their lives with God’s Word, but can only stay aligned through the power of prayer.
When God instructs us in the Scriptures, equips us, empowers us, and then sends us on a mission that the world deems impossible, we must stay in touch with Heaven through prayer so the supply line from Heaven to Earth remains healthy.
THERE IS NO PROBLEM THAT GOD CANNOT SOLVE.
The 38 years of ministry that God has given to this preacher have not gone without problems. There is no mountain peak in anyone’s life without a corresponding valley. We are to pass through the valley and not to stay in the valley. When we stop to focus on that which many times are things out of our control, we paralyze ourselves.
Who has the answers? Only God has the answers, and to fail to pray is ridiculous rationale. He who must face tomorrow must consult Him Who holds tomorrow in His hands. I must stay on course and I need God’s Word, God’s power, and prayer to stay on course. God’s GPS cannot work without prayer!
THERE IS NO PLACE THAT GOD CANNOT SEND REVIVAL.
Jonah was used of God to send revival to Nineveh. There is no sinner too hard and no society too hard for God. The secret is to do it God’s way and not man’s way. We must not sit around waiting for another Day of Pentecost. We must be obedient to the Great Commission and provide the foundation for revival.
The secret of Nineveh’s revival was the conversion factor that preceded the revival factor. If not, man will end up blaming God eventually for the lack of revival while the truth is man is to blame because of a lack of soul consciousness. Personal soul winning will always, and must always, precede revival. God’s people must provide the material which God can utilize to bring about revival.
There is no place that is too hard for God to bring revival if man will do his part in sowing the incorruptible seed! The great campaigns of every generation were based and bathed in the winning of souls to Christ. Jesus commanded His people to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He never said to us to go into all the world and bring about revival, for God is the author of revival not man!
THERE IS NO THING TOO HARD THAT GOD CANNOT DO.
We serve an all powerful God, for He can heal disease, save a drunkard husband, save an atheist, save agnostics, bring revival anywhere and answer any prayer.
Psalm 46:1, “He is a very present help in time of need.”
Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Psalm 8:1-4, “Oh, LORD, our LORD how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hath set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him: and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
It’s amazing to think that God, Who placed the moon and the stars in the skies, knows each of us and that He can help each of us.
- There is no sinner that God cannot save.
- There is no prayer that God cannot answer.
- There is no problem that God cannot solve.
- There is no place that God cannot send revival.
- There is no thing that God cannot do.
How can this be? It is plausible because God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Psalm 139 says God is in Heaven, God is in the sea, and God is everywhere. Habakkuk 2:20 says the Lord is in his holy temple. Isaiah 66:1, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.” God is saying my throne is in Heaven and my feet rest on the Earth. God said in Jeremiah 22:24, “I fill the earth.” Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place.”
366 times God says He is with the individual! Five times in the Scriptures God tells us, “I will never leave thee.” Nine times God says, “I will not leave thee.”
Hebrews 13:5, “…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” There are five negatives in that verse emphasizing the fact that God will never leave his people. Matthew 28:20 says, “…lo I am with you always.”
Acts 17:27, “…he be not far from every one of us:” He is not far from the educable slow, the deaf, the mission men, the homeless, the blind, the cripple and the brokenhearted.
God is omni-present, meaning God is with us individually. He knows where you are at every moment of the day. God is with the truck driver in the cab of a truck driving across the nation’s highways all night. Those serving on foreign soil fighting the war on terrorism have a God Who is with them.
Our God is in the college dorms with those preparing for life, in the barracks as a lonely service man or woman Who thinks of home, in the woods where the luckless, friendless, and homeless people think of what might have been. Our God is in the rescue mission with the one who laments his mistaken decisions. Our God is in the college apartment where the patient wife awaits her small allotment of time with her husband.
God is not only Omnipotent, but God is also Omni-present for He is with you! God is Omnipotent for he is all-powerful.
God parted the waters of the Red Sea, spoke and the heavens danced through the skies, the stars twinkled at night, the moon came out as the great light of the night, and the sun rose as the king of the day, and that same God is with you! God, who keeps the universe in perfect alignment, also hears the cry of the baby in the nursery.
God is in the rest home where memories are the only future that is known. He is in the prison where both the innocent and the guilty are serving time. He is in the parsonage with the country preacher who tosses and turns throughout the night because his people do not understand. He is in the little dwelling place where a father has left a mother to care and provide for her children alone. He is in the steel mill where the hard-working honest man provides for his family.
He is in the lonely place where an evangelist in a motel room looks at a picture of his wife and wishes they were together. He is in the hospital room where the doctor says, “I’m sorry, it’s malignant.” He is in the funeral home where friends try to say, “I love you” to the bereaved. He is in the bedroom with a child who tries to accept the fact that his or her father is not coming back home. He is in the maternity ward when a baby boy is born with major physical problems or the death of a baby girl like our granddaughter Katie.
Our God is not only in the heavens and not only does his platform span the heavens, but our God is in the delivery room when a repentant unwed mother suffers and travails to give birth alone. He is there when a mother bathes a child who never will be able to bath itself. He is there when a doctor says, “I must operate.” He is there when Mayo Clinic says we have done all we can do. He is there when all of your dreams for your child have fallen on the pavement of providence and your adult child has broken your heart.
God is there when those who were friends walk away on a cloudy day. He is there in the courtroom when the innocent is pronounced guilty. He is there in babyland where you have laid your baby to rest.
He is in the room of silence where the deaf reside. He is there in the room of darkness where the blind live. He is in the room of confusion where the educable slow live. He is in the home of the busy housewife where it seems the day will never end. He is in the schoolroom where the underpaid teacher tries to balance his bills with his income.
God is Omni-present which means He is with you everywhere you are, but He is also Omniscient which means God knows everything.
Job 23 says, “He knoweth the way I take.”
- Psalm 44:1 – God knows the secrets of our hearts.
- Psalm 103:14 – God knows our frame.
- Matthew 6:8 – God knows what we need.
- Acts 15:8 – God knows what is in our hearts.
- 2 Timothy 2:19 – God knows that I am his.
- Psalm 8:4 – God is mindful of us.
God knows your loneliness, heartache, heartbreak, and pain, and every bird that takes off from the runway in your yard is guided by God for He charts his course of flight.
- God knows all.
- God can do all.
- God is with all.
The wonderful thing is that the same God can forgive your sins, answer your prayers, solve your problems, bring revival, and do that tough seemingly impossible thing.
Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
http://solvechurchproblems.com