Give God No Rest
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Intro:
6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,
7 And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
As we continue to study prayer throughout the Bible, the title of my message is, [Give God No Rest].
On a Wednesday evening, March 25, 2015, I preached a message with this title here. I had been in Vulcan barely a month. I served as interim pastor, and thought after three months, I would be back on the road. And I was, it just wasn’t to hold a revival, it was to go to Walmart.
But that message was not the first time I read this passage of scripture. In 2014, I held a revival in Joplin. Pastor Tucker, his wife and grandson came.
I went to Pastor’s hotel to visit with them and he instructed me:
“Get your bible and turn to Isaiah 62. Read the verses. Here is a title, ‘Give God No Rest’ and here is a subject, ‘Prayer.’”
He then spent over thirty minutes talking to me about why we cannot give up when God doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, we are to give Him no rest until He answered.
I took notes and listened as he spoke. I always valued his input and isight in the Lord. He came from a generation who learned not to give up or quit.
Their attitude came from what they faced, a World War, the Great Depression, another World War.
Winston Churchill summarized the attitude of those alive at that time. He spoke to a school and told them, “never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
That was an era of history where people knew they were a part of something bigger than themselves. They had a common enemy and a shared resolve to spread freedom.
They knew the risk of giving up or giving in, so they never allowed themselves to even go there.
Their day seems vastly different from ours. We live in an time of individualism. People break into groups of others who align with their believes. The idea is I AM right and everyone else is wrong.
Giving in comes rather easy for everything is about SELF satisfaction and PERSONAL fulfillment. If we do not like something, we can quit and blame others.
Why?
In part we live in a day where everything is instant.
We’ve exchanged mailing a letter for sending a quick email.
We’ve done away with phone calls so we can respond quickly by text.
We’ve stopped ordering from catalogs and started purchasing online, with promises of one day shipping.
We no longer drive sixty-two days to get from coast to coast, to either flying within a few hours, or driving it within forty fives hours.
Everything we need is here and now. Should we have to wait, we declare, I JUST DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME!
The idea is not never give in, but do what feels right.
How does this connect with Isaiah?
As we’ve become increasingly impatient as a society, we will that surface within the Body of Christ. However, God knew the day would come where people would become:
so busy
so fast-based
so fulfillment-driven
That they might grow impatient if He does not ANSWER as soon as we’ve said amen, or shortly thereafter.
So He spoke to His servant, the Prophet Isaiah. He wanted everyone to know we have permission to, “take no rest you who pray. Give no rest to to the Lord until He completes His work.”
He prophesied at a vital time in Israel and Judah’s history.
Israel quickly gave into pagan worship
Judah appeared Godly on the outside, but they tolerated sin and pagan worship in secret.
God used Isaiah to call His people from seeking personal pleasure and fulfillment to realizing they were part of something bigger than themselves.
Therefore people needed to pray, never giving up or becoming silent.
This morning, I want to see what happens when we choose to give God no rest. What will God do in and through those who refuse to stop praying?
I have three points, [Awesome Presence], [Anointed Power], and [Answered Prayers].
Let’s begin
1. Awesome Presence
1. Awesome Presence
1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
God’s people live din a time of spiritual darkness. The interesting part though is that THEY walked in darkness. It is not as though the other pagan nations were consumed with evil.
No, the people of God began to either become blatant participants in sin, or they at least tolerated ungodliness.
Therefore, God promised His Light in response to the utter darkness that consumed society.
Isaiah 58-59 detail the sins of the people.
They became consumed with hypocrisy (58:1-5). When they did pray or fast, it was so that they could boast to others about their spirituality.
They neglected the Sabbath (58:13-14). Nearly the entire nation did what they wanted on the day reserved to worship God.
They had blood on their hands as senseless violence and murder became common (59:3).
They became dishonest, willingly lying and rushing to do wrong (59:3-8).
Talk about darkness. Isn’t it interesting that the same devil who tempted Judah is the same devil who has tempted many Christians in our time?
Because of their disinterest in God, they endured a national season of:
unanswered prayers
despair
spiritual blindness and utter frustration
But God stirred the hearts of the remnant. They began to pray:
9 Therefore justice is far from us, Nor does righteousness overtake us; We look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness!
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; We are as dead men in desolate places.
God responded to their repentance and spoke to Isaiah. He showed him that better days were ahead. He promised that the light of God would begin to shine on them.
Isaiah began to herald:
Arise, Get Up, Listen, Your light has come
Light represents salvation. Darkness might cover the earth, but when the Light begins to shine, the presence and glory of God will begin to flow once again.
Listen, when people begin to pray, to repent, and to humble themselves before the Lord, He will send an awesome awareness of His presence.
God sends His presence, which we feel. Then there is a dimension where we can go, where we see His glory and others will see the glory on us.
The word glory literally means, a substance that is weighty or heavy. God wants His presence to get on us so strong that He consumes our lives, He weight heavy on our minds.
I asked myself this week, how much do we think about God throughout the day? Is He always in our thoughts or do we go through the day so busy that we forgot to notice Him?
When we Give God No Rest, we will live with an awareness of His awesome presence. What else do we have?
2. Anointed Power
2. Anointed Power
1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
After promising an awareness of God’s awesome presence, He shows how we can live in that supernatural realm.
He begins to prophesy about a day when people would see the effects of the anointing. Anointed means set apart. The anointing is not a feeling, but a reality. When the Holy Spirit comes upon someone, they become anointed.
As they walk in their anointing, God will give them supernatural power, or the ability to do what is otherwise humanly impossible.
Notice what Isaiah does. He takes the problems people face in this life and shows how God’s anointed power makes the difference.
He references the poor. Poverty created many problems for Judah. There was NOTHING good to say about property. However, with anointed power, the poor will hear the good news.
What about brokenhearted people. Judah faced many heartaches, but Isaiah promised a day would come where those who’ve felt the sting of heartbreak will find supernatural comfort.
Captivity and prison were next on the list. However, the prisoner and captive will experience freedom, liberty, and open doors as a result of the anointing.
I like verse two, because it references the acceptable year of the Lord. God set up a special year for His people, He called it a Year of Jubilee.
Every fifty years, debts were canceled, property was returned to the original owners, slaves were set free, and people rested from their labors.
For years, God’s people allowed themselves to become captive to the enemy’s schemes. They were held in bondage, but Isaiah looked to the day where the anointing would break the burden of sin off people’s lives.
Then, they would begin to see a difference in their lives:
Instead of being covered in ashes, God would make them beautiful.
Instead of living in a state of mourning, God would give them supernatural joy.
Instead of clothing themselves with shame and heaviness, they would receive a garment of praise!
Remember, Isaiah is showing them the benefits of giving God No Rest. As they committed to prayer, including repentance and intercession, God would send His anointed power to help them!
Do we see the benefits of praying through and patiently waiting on the Lord.
When we do, He will send His awesome presence, we will feel anointed power, and then we will start to have...
3. Answered Prayers
3. Answered Prayers
1 For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
Isaiah if people wanted to see God’s promises come to pass, they HAD TO PRAY. Therefore, he lead the way. He promised, because I love Zion so much, I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until she walks in righteousness and enjoys salvation.
When we think Zion, we need to think God’s presence. Though Jerusalem was the capital of Judah, Zion was the location of the Ark of the Covenant, within Jerusalem.
He first focuses on the presence of God. Because I so long for God’s presence and glory in our nation, I cannot hold my peace.
Then, Isaiah understood, once God came in His presence, the entire nation needed help.
He longed for God to consume His people with wonder of God’s splendor. Then, and only then, would the desire to what is right, reflecting God’s character, consume their thoughts and lives.
How was this all to come to pass? How would God answer their prayer for His awesome presence and His anointed power?
6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,
7 And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Notice a few words. Watchmen. In battle, armies would station men on the wall to watch for the enemy. Should the enemy come close, the watchmen would sound an alarm to the captains of the military.
The watchmen on the wall of Jerusalem were spiritual in nature. They were to position themselves in a posture of prayer and intercession.
They were to live in a constant awareness, day and night, that the people needed God’s help!
Therefore, they were not to KEEP SILENT. Meaning they were to keep praying, keep seeking, keep declaring God’s promises, keep believing God will answer!
And I absolutely love the instructions, GIVE HIM NO REST!
That means if they wanted their prayers answered, they could not rest from praying and asking the Lord to accomplish His will.
EVEN if that meant that waiting patiently for the Lord. Even if they had to pray for years. They were to keep their petitions and praise before God, giving Him NO REST!
Close:
Give God No Rest.
It amazes me that God’s word speaks to ancient audiences as powerfully as he speaks to us today. Over 2500 years ago, God needed a prophet to rally His people to pray.
Therefore, these passages serve a dual purpose. First they were to enlist Judah to pray and second they are to equip our church to pray.
While our need to pray is the same, there is a vast difference between Isaiah’s time and our time. The difference is the Person Isaiah prophesied about over and over.
He told of a coming Savior, one who would redeem humanity, we know Him as Jesus, but in the course of 66 books, He called Him:
Lord
Immanuel
Wonderful
Counselor
Mighty God
Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace
Cornerstone
King
Shepherd
Servant of God
Lamb of God
Leader
Commander
Redeemer
Anointed One
Over and over, Isaiah prayed and sought God. He told those around him, keep on praying, give Him no rest.
But he didn’t know the name of the man, let alone the man personally, who would make it possible to pray and get close to the Father.
But we know Him, for He lives within us! Isaiah prayed looking ahead the coming of Christ. We pray with assurance in the words of the Christ who came!
Isaiah promised God’s Awesome presence would come as God sent His light in the darkness.
Jesus promised:
12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Isaiah spoke of the positive effects of the anointed power, Jesus spoke in the synagogue
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Isaiah told us to give God no rest, and Jesus told us:
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
We are at a critical juncture in Christianity. We look at the problems that surround us. We see the perplexity in our society. We see the spiritual attack after spiritual attack.
I agree, it could be easy to give way to the spirit of the age and merely go along to get along.
God has set us on the wall. He’s called us to be His watchmen. He’s revealed to us His awesome presence, His anointed power, and He is ready to answer our prayers.
But we have an assignment if this is to happen. We cannot keep silent, we will never hold our peace, and we will GIVE GOD NO REST!
So when the enemy creeps in and whispers his lies that cause us to doubt God, we cannot believe him. He will tell us that God has forgotten our requests or that He will not answer us.
In those moments, we GIVE GOD NO REST!
I feel the Spirit calling us this morning:
GIVE GOD NO REST!
GIVE GOD NO REST until he saves our families
GIVE GOD NO REST until he baptizes us in the Holy Spirit
GIVE GOD NO REST until brings our prodigal sons and daughters home
GIVE GOD NO REST until heals our sickness or disease
GIVE GOD NO REST until he removes the pain from our bodies
GIVE GOD NO REST until the blind see, the deaf hear, or the dead are raised
GIVE GOD NO REST until the drug epidemic of our community disappears
GIVE GOD NO REST until families fill God’s house, leading their children in the ways of the Lord
GIVE GOD NO REST until sends revival to our church
GIVE GOD NO REST until the wind begins to blow, the fire begins to glow, and the Spirit begins to flow
GIVE GOD NO REST until He fulfills every promise He has made to us!
GIVE GOD NO REST until we hear the sound of the trumpet
GIVE GOD NO REST until the dead in Christ begin to rise
GIVE GOD NO REST until we leave this earth to spend an eternity with Him
And when we get there, we will not rest from our labors, and spend eternity crying out HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, is the Lord God Almighty, WHO WAS AND IS AND IS TO COME!
He desires to pour out His awesome presence
He wants us to walk in HIs anointed power
He longs to answer our prayers
So we must determine, I WILL NOT KEEP SILENT, I WILL NOT HOLD MY PEACE, I WILL GIVE GOD NO REST!