Christians need to realize prayer is a vibrant action of love and devotion with God. This is the Chapel Platform coming to you from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Introducing today's speaker is Dr. Rod Bell Sr. Our speaker today is Dr. Victor Sattica, missionary to Lebanon. He delivered this message on Friday, August 8, 1986 at a prayer service of the World Congress of Fundamentalists, which was held that year at Bob Jones University. Having lived a long life of depending on the Lord, Dr. Sadeka has learned that we need to pray continuously in our walk with God. Let us listen carefully to today's message, which is also available on the internet at WMUU.com. Please turn in your Bible to 2 Kings chapter 4 and follow along with verses 1 through 7. Dr. Sadeka's needed message is titled, Prayer Under Pressure. Victor Sadeka is a man that God has greatly greatly used in the Lebanon area. He's pastor of the First Baptist Church, Baptist Bible Church in Beirut, Lebanon. He's field coordinator for the Mideast Baptist Mission and secretary for the Mideast Bible Council. He is a translator, an interpreter, an author, a man that God has greatly used for the defense of the faith in that country. We should put him on your prayer list and pray for his work there in Beirut, Lebanon. Brother Sabati. I'd like to draw your attention for this morning to one of the very interesting chapters of the Bible with relation to this meeting in particular, and that is 2 Kings chapter 4, a chapter which contains at least two incidents of the mighty victory in prayer achieved by women. I would like to draw attention to the first of these two accounts, the one which is recorded in verses 1 to 7 of 2 Kings chapter 4. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying, thy servant my husband is dead. And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be slaves. And Elijah said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thy handmaid hath not anything in the house except a pot of oil. Then he said, Go borrow thee vessels from all thy neighbours, even empty vessels borrow not a few. and when thou art come in thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons and shall pour out into all those vessels and thou shalt set aside that which is full so she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured out and it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said unto her sons bring me yet a vessel And he said unto her, there is not a vessel more, and the oil stopped flowing. And she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children on the rest. I was wanting to speak this morning on the subject of prayer under pressure. I don't pretend to be a great expert in prayer. I wish I was much more of a prayer warrior than I am, but I do know something about pressure. Having lived in the Middle East and in Beirut, which is, as you know, a very, very violent city, and having lived there all these years, and I realize that many of the times as we go along in life, we face pressures. You all face pressures. Some of you right now are facing difficult decisions, or you're going through difficult times. And every one of us will go through difficult times at some stage or another in our lives. The Lord Jesus did not leave us under any false illusion. He said, in the world ye shall have tribulation. And it's very obvious that all those, as the scripture says, who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If you do what is right and you seek to live the way the Lord wants you to live, you will face pressure. It will not be a bed of roses, it will not be a Roman holiday, it will not be easygoing. There will be times when you will face pressure because of the faith. And there are times when we face pressure because of the fact that we are human beings living in a world which has been distorted and messed up by sin. And we suffer along with the rest of humanity because of the consequences of sin. And so we all have problems. I suppose that we have so many different points, but problems probably are what we all share. Not the same problems, but we all have problems. We all are under pressure at one time or another. And I can very much sympathise with people who are under pressure because I must admit it's been very difficult living where I live for the past 12 years of raging civil war. But then even though you don't have the kind of problems I have, you have your own. And somehow every one of us has problems which seem to be big enough for each one of us. This woman had some very, very distinct problems and I'd like to discuss her in relation to prayer. Now I realize that we should be praying at all times and the scripture admonishes us that men and women should pray at all times lifting up holy hands. We ought to pray without ceasing. We are certain not to make prayer just a fire escape. We shouldn't be praying just at the time of need. In fact the scripture is clear that those who disobey God cannot really expect too much answer to their prayer if they only come to God when they need him. The scripture is clear when it says in the book of Zechariah that as I have spoken unto you and you have heard me not even so shall you call unto me and I will hear you not says the Lord of hosts. But it is a fact of life and I don't think any of us can deny it. that we do have more of an inclination and more of a willingness to pray when we are under pressure. It might not be that that is the way it should be, but that's the way it is. And this woman had a real problem. I believe that she was a woman who prayed previously. I don't think that this was the only time she prayed, but I know that she prayed more intensely, more fervently at that time than she did before because she was under pressure. And I would like to refer to a few thoughts here from this passage, noticing first the pressure that she felt. It is a fact that as we pray, the Lord gives us relief. But I'm not trying to present a Norman Vincent Beale religious psychological approach. In other words, utter a prayer so that you will just feel better. No. Prayer is not primarily designed to make us feel better. even though prayer does make us feel better. That's a by-product. Prayer is not supposed to be simply an exercise in some kind of religious therapy. Prayer is supposed to be an asking and receiving situation, a communication with God, an expression of our needs, an expression of our love, an expression of our adoration. It is supposed to be communication. And while we are involved in communicating with God, we do also get the relief and we get the pressure removed off us. But ultimately, God wants us to pray so that he will answer. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy might be full. The pressure that she felt. She had tremendous pressure. She faced emotional pressure. She was about to lose her only children. as far as we can understand she only had these two sons and she was about to lose them both and I don't even have to start telling you how awful it would be for a mother to lose her only two children to have them hauled away and taken off to serve as slaves as bond servants to pay off a debt which they had not directly incurred And I'm sure that you can feel with her as her heart was actually wrenched by this awful situation. Sometimes we come through a very difficult situation. We ask ourselves, Lord, why are you allowing this to happen to me? And we develop an attitude of actually, in a way, blaming God. And I think the Lord understands. But on the other hand, we should understand that it's not the Lord's fault. And even when we pass through difficult conditions, the Lord will allow us to pass through circumstances which we cannot understand and we fail to find any reason for. But as we look back in retrospect sometime later, we discover that that which was dark and incomprehensible all of a sudden becomes easier to understand and we can see why the Lord allowed this to happen. She faced emotional pressure. She faced social pressure. She was going to lose face in front of her neighbors, and she was going to have to live a very lonely life. And loneliness can be a very, very difficult situation. A lot of people do things that they shouldn't do because they're lonely. As someone has said, and I'd like to pass on this little cliché, you might be lonely, but you're never alone. And we should keep this in mind. You're never alone. Because he said, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age. She faced a social problem, social pressure, emotional pressure. She also faced financial pressure. Very few of us here can honestly say that we have not faced financial pressure. I dare say that a good 90% of us at least have gone through times of financial difficulty. and she faced a very serious problem because she was about to lose her source of income. I don't think she knew she had a means of earning money herself. It is only due to the side benefits of the gospel that women have at this time and at this stage in history become more or less capable of economic independence. At that time She would have literally starved or had to become an object of charity. No source of income. She faced the prospect of dire poverty. And this was a problem. And we all face these kind of problems. We all face emotional pressure, social pressure and financial pressure. And when we face these kind of situations we have a real definite and deep seated fear. And I'd like to refer to the pain that she feared. She was worried about her children. She was perturbed over her children. You say, well, worry is not right. Let me tell you something. Worry is not right. But I worry. And you worry. And let's face it. Let's face it, let's not try to convince ourselves that because the Bible says be anxious for nothing that it's just as easy as that. One of the most difficult things in the world is not to worry. Especially if you are a caring and a compassionate person. Worry is one of the constant nagging problems that I personally live with and that my family lives with, that the people in the city where I live have to cope with all the time. if one of our sons coming home from the university which is about from here to the dining room area away from where we live if they're 15 minutes late then we start getting our pressure starts going up and 30 minutes later we all have to be out looking for them because they could be kidnapped and killed within half an hour it hasn't happened to them thankfully but it's happened to many others so we all have conditions and situations you don't live in the situation of Beirut And for that I think you can be truly thankful. But we all have situations which cause us anxiety. We should roll our burdens on the Lord. And this is a practice that we only can learn as we practice it. You can't just simply say, well I'm going to forget about this thing. It doesn't work that way. You know it doesn't work that way. And if we're going to be honest with anybody, we've got to be honest with ourselves and with God. And so she faced, she had a nagging worry about her children. She faced the prospect of loneliness and the prospect of need. And these were forms of pain that she couldn't really bear. Now a lot of people under the circumstances that this woman went through would have acted differently. Some people would take a lot of pills. Some people would try to compensate by going out and doing something else to make them forget about their situation. And as you know you have the problems of alcohol and all that. She did the right thing. And I would recommend to you the plan that she followed. First she resorted to God. Elisha was God's man on the scene. And so she went to Elisha. And even when you find it hard to even believe, go to God in prayer. And if you can't believe God, at least confess and say, Lord, I just don't believe that you can solve this problem for me. Help my unbelief. And start from that point. And go on to pray and to seek God's face. Let's not seek relief in other ways. King Asa in the Bible we have a reference to him when he got into trouble the scripture makes a notation about his sickness and he went not to the prophet he went not to the Lord but he went to doctors. And that is not to say that it's wrong to go to a doctor but it is to say that it is wrong to depend upon the arm of the flesh. And he no longer sought the face of the Lord. King Saul is another example. God is the solution, and even if God sees fit to use men or methods to solve our problem and to relieve the pressure which is pressing upon us, nevertheless it is God who does this, because every good thing descends from the Father of Lights above. And every good thing that will come your way, no matter which or whatever the channel might be, is ultimately emanating from God. And so let us go to Him, let us depend upon Him. Let us realize that it is God who works for us, in us, to do and to will His good pleasure. She not only resorted to God, she also referred to God's promises. You notice that statement where she said here, And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. And as if she were saying in the words of Psalm 34 and verse 10, The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Or possibly the statement in Psalm 37 verse 25, I have been young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. And there is a gentle rebuke in her statement, for she says, Thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take him. God is flattered when you remind him of his promises. The story is told of one of the commanders of Alexander going to the man who was Alexander the Great and asking for a big reward from the treasurer. And the treasurer was surprised and he went back to the emperor Alexander and he said to him, is it true that you've authorized the general to have such and such a big reward? And Alexander said, no, I didn't tell him to take that much. I simply told him to go and ask for as much as he wanted. But I am flattered that he took me at my word. That he believed my promise. Give him whatever he asks for, even if it scrapes our treasury clean. I like that. And the Lord is honored as we remind him of his promises. And our faith is strengthened as later on we see the Lord honoring his promises. Because they that honor him, he will honor. She went to the Lord. She went to God. She referred to God's promises. And she responded to God's word. She was given a kind of a strange command. She was told to go and borrow empty vessels. And she had just a little bit of oil. He said to her, he says, what do you have? And she says, I don't have anything in the house except a pot of oil. Bless your heart. Listen, let me tell you something. If you have a pot of oil, that's all you need. You know what the oil is? Of course, you know the oil is the Holy Spirit. And if you have a pot of oil, if you have the Holy Spirit, then that's all that you really need to have. Because having it, in other words, having God, you have all that you need. He is our all-sufficiency. You don't have to have a lot of other resources. We might envy people to have this and that and something else. And if we were to just go and look into the recesses of their hearts, we might discover that they envy us. They envy us because we have the one thing they don't have. We have the Lord and having Him, we have all that comes along with having Him. We have the peace and the tranquility and the stability and the sense of purpose and the sense of fulfillment. A fruitful and a useful life and all of these things cannot be bought by money. or all of the other things that we might desire to have and might envy others for having. She responded to God's word. And the scripture tells us in John chapter 15, if my words, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. And last but not least, and I move on, not only the plan that she followed But the plenty that she found. All the vessels were filled. And that speaks to me of abundance. And it's the desire of the Lord that we have an abundant life. An overflowing life. That doesn't necessarily mean a life of ease and riches. But it means a full life. A life that is worth living. She had abundance. Not only were all the vessels filled, all the needs were met. She had satisfaction. And you can get satisfaction as you seek the Lord. That need in your life can be met. Whatever it is. And then all the challenges were overcome. She had victory. She had victory. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Let me say this in closing. Nobody has a monopoly on prayer. In referring to Elisha, James tells us that Elisha was a man of like passions as we are. And yet he prayed. And the Lord for three and a half years did not even give rain, not even dew. And the whole point of citing the example of Elisha is to tell us that no one has a monopoly on prayer. No one can say that I wish I could pray but I can't because I'm not one of this elite group. I'm one of these gifted people who can pray. Here and in other places we stand equal. May God give us to pray as we face pressures in life. May we not resort to the world's systems or to relief or to solutions from the world. Let's realize that the Lord is our all-sufficiency. What do you have? I only have a pot of oil. Do you have oil today? Do you have the Holy Spirit? Are you saved? And if you are, and I trust and feel confident that most of us are, probably all of us, then you have all that it takes, all that is needed. to see that pressure relieved in God's due time. And until He relieves the pressure, He gives you the strength to bear it. Shall we pray? Our Lord and our God, we are grateful to Thee for the fact that we are not left in this difficult and evil world bereft, alone. But You walk by our side. You are ever ready to sustain us. and you invite us to come in prayer to you. We pray, Lord God, that you'll help each one of us, especially in the times of difficulty and pressure, which will come our way. Help us that we might not resort to the physicians and the solutions of the world, but that we might, as this woman did, resort to thee. Give us confidence to believe, as we pray, that you will answer. Bless our lives, our families and homes, represent it here. May the Lord Jesus be honored in and through us, one and all, for his name's sake. Amen. Thank you for joining us for The Chapel Platform. If you would like a copy of today's message, please send a check for $5.13 to Campus Store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina. The zip code is 29614. Please mention the speaker, Dr. Victor Sattica, the message titled, Prayer Under Pressure, and also be sure to mention today's date. Today's message is also available on the internet at wmuu.com. The Chapel Platform is sponsored by Bob Jones University.