Redeeming Love Bible Broadcast
Redeeming Love Bible Broadcast
Know Who You're Asking
Today we look at Proverbs 10:22 and the profound truth about the nature of God's provision that many believers overlook.
When Israel crossed the Jordan River, God didn't just part the waters—He completely dried the ground beneath their feet. This wasn't merely practical; it revealed God's character. He doesn't give partial blessings or halfway solutions. From creation to salvation, from feeding thousands to healing the sick, God's work is always complete.
Yet many of us approach prayer with a scarcity mindset, afraid to ask boldly or expecting God's gifts to come with hidden troubles attached. We've forgotten who we're praying to—the eternal, limitless God who exists outside creation's framework while intimately working within it. The God who made you in His image, who calls you beloved, who gave His only Son for your salvation.
The way we pray reveals what we believe about God. Do we trust Him as the giver of good gifts? Do we believe His blessings truly come without sorrow? When Jesus healed, He didn't leave people needing further treatment. When He fed crowds, everyone ate until satisfied with baskets left over. When He saved us, He didn't just rescue us from hell but gave us abundant life and seated us with Him in heavenly places.
God delights in your bold requests that bring glory to His name. Whatever situation you're facing, He wants to walk through it with you, providing in ways that exceed your imagination and create opportunities for testimony. Your prayers don't need to be timid—approach Him confidently as a child who knows their Father gives perfectly good gifts.
Contact us at redeemingthelost@icloud.com or visit gbtministries.com to share how this message has impacted you.
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Welcome to the Redeeming Love Bible broadcast. My name is Phil Duddy, evangelist with Grace Baptist Tabernacle of King, north Carolina, excited to have you with me on the program today as we unfold Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 22. Please do reach out to us at redeemingthelostedicloudcom. We would love to hear from you. So let's go over to the book of Proverbs and chapter 10, verse 22.
Speaker 1:The blessing of the Lord. It maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. And so today we're going to be unfolding this one sentence from the Word of God and we're going to be in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. But this is going to kind of be an anchor verse and there's going to be a lot that gets said in this message. It's a big message and the Lord wants you to hear this because this is going to impact your relationship with Him and your circumstances and your relationships with other people as well. And so very, very personal message today.
Speaker 1:But we're starting with the blessing of the Lord and need to look at whose blessing this is, whose goodwill this is, whose favor this is. This is the favor of the Lord, and you'll notice that Lord is in all capital letters. This is the favor of I Am. This is the favor of I am, this is the favor of the only real, true living God. And this is the favor and the blessing of the God who created time, the God who created creation, the God who created nature, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who formed your body out of the dust of the earth, the God who made you in his image. He made you with a soul and he made you with a mind and he made you with a body. He made you in his image. He made you particularly. He made you the way he wanted you to be. He made you exactly. You know exactly how he made you, because that's what he wanted to do, because he is the Lord, he is God, he is King. This is the God who is love. This is the God who is holiness. This is the God who is truth. This is the God who is justice.
Speaker 1:This is the God who you look at it in the Old Testament, he only really ever describes who he is. He gives descriptions, descriptions of who he is, and he gives descriptions of who he is because he wants you to know who he is, because this God has no limits, every physical limit that we experience, every limitation of our body, every limitation of time, every limitation of space, every you know limitation of physics and you know physics and science describes it. But everything you know, the entire framework of how you and I go about our lives in this world. God's the one who made that about our lives in this world. God's the one who made that and God's the one who exists outside of that. And God is the one who interacts with us as we are living in that. So God made the entire framework of creation. God exists outside the entire framework of creation. He's not limited or bound by it and yet, at the same time, he interacts with us as we are in it, and he describes who he is.
Speaker 1:Even the Lord came when he was born. And Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. You notice how he starts describing himself. He's Jesus. His name translates to Savior. He's the only begotten Son of God. He is the way and the truth and the life. He is the resurrection and the life.
Speaker 1:This is how God introduces himself. He introduces himself by simply describing who he is in ways that we can tangibly know and understand. And so the blessing of the Lord. This is the one who's giving the blessing, and we cannot take any of this message outside of that context. We can't take the Lord's blessing, we can't take prayer, we can't take prosperity. We cannot take those things out of the context of the Lord who is giving them, out of the context of the God who is giving them, out of the context of a God who, if you're saved and born again today, a God who is in the most intimate and personal of relationships with you right now, we can't take anything that the Lord says or does outside of the context of that relationship, who he is and who he has made you and I to be as born-again men, women and children, who he has made us to be as the church, who he has made us to be as his adopted sons and daughters, as kings and priests in his kingdom, as beloved, as brethren, as saints, as the church. And that's all from the New Testament, my friend.
Speaker 1:But the reality is we can't take prayer outside of that context and we can't take the gifts of God outside of that context. We can't take the blessings and who are we praying to and who has he made us to be in him? And so the blessing of the Lord, and the proverb starts to unfold what that is and what it does. It makes rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. So God gives good things and those things that God gives us, he gives us, he's a giving God, he's a loving God, he's Abba, he's Father, he gives and he gives good gifts. He gives the Holy Spirit and he gives good gifts. He gives the Holy Spirit. You know, scripture tells us that Jesus, god, gave his only begotten Son, and then Jesus gave the Holy Spirit. He's a giving God, he gives and he gives and he gives and he gives good things, and it maketh rich, it profits us and, furthermore, he doesn't add any sorrow with it.
Speaker 1:And so, with that in mind, I'm going to come back to Joshua, joshua, chapter 3, in verse 17. And this is a momentous occasion in the history of Israel. The Lord is getting ready and he's leading them. He's leading Israel under Joshua. And so Moses has gone to be with the Lord at this point, and Joshua has been raised up to lead Israel. And the Lord is leading all of them across the Jordan, and they're going to. They're going to be going to Jericho very, very shortly, but first he's leading them over the Jordan, and I want to draw your attention to one detail here, chapter 3, verse 17.
Speaker 1:And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. And so Jordan is a river and the scripture tells us it was at a flood tide at that point and God brought them over the river. God stopped up the river and this was reminiscent of how God had brought the people through the Red Sea out of Egypt. And in both occasions I want to draw your attention to something they came over on dry ground. Now, jordan is a river, and if God had just stopped off the water, you know, my friend, you know if the water had just stopped naturally and this is a little detail, but it's a huge detail Notice that there was no mud when God brought these people over. He brought these people over.
Speaker 1:When God stopped up the Jordan, he didn't just stop the water, but the ground was dry. The people did not have to walk over the mud. And if you've ever tried to do anything in mud, if you've tried to walk in it, if you've tried to run in it, if you've tried to build things in it, if you've tried to work in it, if you've tried to drive through it, you've got to deal with the mud. You get stuck, you slip and you slide. And we're talking about a few million people walking over a river in roughly the same place, and yet they walked over. And this is how deep God went with this action that he took. This is how deep God went.
Speaker 1:He considered the fact that he was going to bring them over on dry ground and so, god being God, he didn't just stop the water, but he dried the ground to make it easy for the people to pass over. They could just walk right over and, what's more, they could go back in and they could get 12 stones and they could bring the 12 stones up out of the river and they could make and leave those stones there as stones of remembrance for what God did that day. But, my friend, god brought them over and there was no mud for them to slip, there was no mud for them to trip. There was no mud for them to trip, there was no mud for them to get stuck, there was no mud to hinder the progress, to slow them down. But no, God didn't. He dried up that river, temporarily dried it up so that these people could walk through and, in doing so, know that he is God. So he expresses who he is and what he does. He didn't just sort of dry it up and stop the river and say, okay, now struggle on over and trip and fall and have this whole mess. No, he brought them over on dry ground. This is the kind of God, who he is.
Speaker 1:And if you look at all the, there's so many examples of this. Go all the way back to creation. God didn't just make a good creation, he made a creation that was very good when he parted the Red Sea and the people walked over on dry land through the Red Sea. They walked over on dry land. He didn't just do that, but God had a personal interest in defeating Egypt. You look at, you know, in the days of Elisha there was a widow who needed to pay a debt and God didn't just give them enough to pay the debt. He gave them enough to pay the debt. I believe it's in 2 Kings 4. He gave them enough to handle the debt, to pay off the debt, and told them to live on the rest.
Speaker 1:If you look at the life of Jesus, there were two separate occasions in which Jesus fed crowds, and there was one crowd of 5,000, there was another crowd of 4,000. But he took a few loaves of bread and a few fish and he fed those crowds On both occasions. He didn't just give the people a few bites of food. They ate as much as they could and on both occasions there were leftovers. There were entire baskets full of leftovers. There was an abundance.
Speaker 1:And whenever the Lord would restore someone's sight at the end of the healing, that person's sight was completely restored. Whenever the Lord healed leprosy at the end of the healing, the leprosy was fully healed. Whenever the Lord healed palsy, at the end of the healing, that person got up and walked and got up and ran and got up and jumped and got up and leaped and got up and worshipped Fever. Whenever fever was healed, fever was fully healed. And whenever leprosy was healed, leprosy was all the way healed. Whenever devils were driven out, devils were fully and completely driven out. Whenever the dead were raised to life, they were fully and completely raised to life.
Speaker 1:Now, friend, what I'm getting at here is that God doesn't do anything halfway. God doesn't give you a halfway blessing. He doesn't give you a blessing. That's only kind of a blessing. He doesn't give you a blessing that's only sort of a blessing. He doesn't give you a blessing that is going to give you a blessing. That's only kind of a blessing. He doesn't give you a blessing. That's only sort of a blessing. He doesn't give you a blessing that is going to give you a whole lot of sorrow and a whole lot of trouble and a whole lot of anxiety along with it.
Speaker 1:No, god gives you simply good things. They are good and they're completely good and they're totally and they're completely good and they're totally good and they're utterly good and they're wholly good and they're entirely good. They are perfectly good because that is the heart and that is the nature of our God. He doesn't give you junk. He doesn't give you trash. He doesn't give you this garbage. He doesn't give you anything like that. No, he gives you good things. He gives you things that are going to benefit you. He gives you things that are going to enrich you. He gives you things that are going to bless you. He gives you things that are not going to weigh you down later. He gives you things that are going to grow. He gives you things that are going to be. He gives you things that are going to be fruitful and prosperous. This is the kind of God that he is.
Speaker 1:And so, my friend, when we pray, we need to pray in light of who God is. We need to pray in light of his nature, his authority, his love. We need to ask because, you know, the Lord tells us to ask. The Lord tells us ask, seek and knock. The Lord tells us ask and it will be given to you. The Lord says that you know. Whatsoever you ask in his name, you're going to receive it, so that he will receive glory, his name will be glorified on the earth. We've got a God who has a throne of grace and he tells us come before the throne of grace. You're going to find mercy, you're going to find grace to help in your time of need. We've got a God who not only knows what we need before we need it, but at the same time, he wants us to ask. And, my friend, there's a reason for that Because nothing is given and nothing is done outside of the context of your relationship with God when it comes to prayer.
Speaker 1:You have Christian brother, sister around the world. You have a relationship with God that God initiated, god started and God forged, god created, god took you and God saved you and God gave you his Holy Spirit. God applied his blood to you. God forgave your sin was all of a sudden forgiven. Your sin was under Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died your death.
Speaker 1:Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. You're alive in him. You have eternal life. You've got the Comforter with a capital C. You've got the Holy Spirit. You're in relationship with God. God talks with you, god leads you, god walks with you, god delights in you, god loves you. God cannot and will not ever forget you. God knows you and he is faithful to you. He's your husband, he's your heir, he's your husband, he's your heir. He's your king, he's your Lord, he's your God, he's your provider, he's your protector, he's your great high priest. He has brought you into a precious, precious, precious relationship with him, and when we pray, our prayer occurs within that relationship, within that love relationship.
Speaker 1:And so let us ask, knowing and trusting the nature of the God who we're asking. You know and we have it in James that you know, you ask and you have not because you're asking to consume it on your lust. That's not what I'm talking about. That's a separate thing, because God will not honor anybody who's asking him for something so we can go and consume it on our lust. That's not who God is. But what I'm telling you, my friend, is that God is an abundant God, god is a giving God, and we ask in faith, we ask knowing him, we ask knowing that God delights in blessing, that God gives good things and that what God gives is perfect and good. What God gives is perfect and good. It's perfect and good. And so, you know, when we ask, you know, just go back through those examples again to show you this Take the loaves and the fishes.
Speaker 1:Jesus didn't just give them a couple bites, jesus gave them as much as they could eat and leftovers. Take, you know. You know devils driven out. They weren't only driven out for an hour, they were driven out completely. The restoration of sight to the blind, you know. You know Jesus did that on multiple occasions with multiple people, and those people didn't need glasses afterwards. My friends, you know this is a God and he's our God and he loves us and this is the type of thing that he gives.
Speaker 1:And so let's ask in boldness, let's ask fully, let's ask not just for enough to get by, but ask knowing that God gives abundance, knowing that God gives abundance. Because, my friend, to ask for you know a halfway answer, to ask, you know, just for something that'll, you know, just kind of get you by and get you through the day, my friend, that brings no glory to the name of God, because that's not who God is and that's not what God wants you to have. God wants you to be filled. And look at your salvation. God didn't just save you from hell and leave you to struggle through this life. Absolutely not. And so let's not pray that way when it comes to our needs. Let's not pray that way when it comes to the needs of other people. Let's not pray that way when it comes to the desires of our heart before the Lord. Let's not pray that way when it comes to anything, because your salvation and the salvation that God has so richly provided for, whosoever will believe on the name of the Lord, jesus Christ, he didn't just save you from hell, he did, but he didn't stop there.
Speaker 1:The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And Jesus himself would say you know John, chapter 10, I'm not come, you know, to steal, he comes to steal and to kill and destroy. But Jesus has come so that you might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus would say you know in other places, you know, if you believe on him, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Out of your belly shall come rivers, not just a little trickle, not just a little stream, but rivers, rivers of living water. And so, my friend, you have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You have the Lord is giving and giving, and giving and giving and giving. My friend, you have every spiritual blessing. In heavenly places. You are seated with Jesus Christ, right now, this moment, in heavenly places, your life is hid with Jesus Christ. You've got promise after promise after promise in the future, and you've got abundant eternal life right now, with a standing command.
Speaker 1:God tells us ask. God tells us ask and you'll receive. God tells us ask and seek and knock, god tells us. He tells us this is who I am and this is the one you're asking. And you've got a standing with me. You are beloved in my sight. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you and I love to give you good things.
Speaker 1:And so, my friend, let us not fall short and treat God as if he doesn't, because he's not a halfway sort of a God. And so, my friend, you know, ask him, knowing who he is. And so, my friend, you know, ask him, knowing who he is, ask him knowing who he has made you to be. Ask him, pour out the desires of your heart. My friend, ask him knowing that whatsoever you ask in his name, you will receive. You will receive, so that the Father may be glorified. God desires you to ask and God desires to you know, the phrase in America is answer to prayer. You know, answer to prayer. He desires to answer prayers in such a way that he is glorified, in such a way that he is glorified on this earth. And so, no, he's not going to give you some junky answer to your prayer. So, no, he's not going to rebuke you for asking something in his name.
Speaker 1:This is the God, you know, his Holy Spirit he gave. He's the one who gave us Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 22. And he's the one who said you know, the blessing of the Lord, my blessing, makes rich and I don't add any sorrow with it. This is the God who said that. And so, my friend, when we pray, pray knowing who he is Pray, trusting who he is Pray, trusting that God is not going to give you anything that he doesn't want you to have. God gives you good things, my friend, and so let's approach him that way, let's pray that way, knowing that he gives good things. And if you want to know, you know what's the number one example of a gift that God has given. His name is Jesus Christ. God gave his only begotten son, his only begotten son, his only begotten son. God gave everything that God could possibly give. God didn't hold anything back. Fully God and fully man at the same time. Fully God and fully man.
Speaker 1:And when Jesus was ministering we've heard about some of the things that he did he fully restored sight to the blind. He fully healed leprosy. He fed people, he raised people from the dead on several occasions, my friend, he cared for people, he ministered to people. There are times, you know, multitudes came and Jesus healed the diseases. Jesus drove out the devils. He took our infirmities on himself and he drove them out. He drove them out, he drove them out. He ministered to them, ministered to them, ministered to them. And we look at the cross, my friend. He took all of our sin. He didn't just take some of it, he didn't just take the really gross sin, he didn't just take the really little sin, really gross sin. He didn't just take the really little sin, no, he didn't take some of it, he took all of it. He didn't just almost die, he did die. He didn't somewhat raise from the dead, no, he fully raised from the dead and he's alive today, my friend.
Speaker 1:So if you haven't heard anything today, hear this that God gives a fullness whenever God gives, god gives good gifts, and so take him the desires of your heart, my friend. This is the God who we're talking about and Christian brother and sister in Christ. This is the God who saved us, this is the God who gave us his Holy Spirit, this is the God who loves us and this is the God who delights in us asking and delights in us trusting and delights in us seeking, and this is the God who delights in giving us good things. And so thank you so much for being with me today. I pray that this has been a real blessing to you, my friend, a real encouragement to you.
Speaker 1:You know, again, I've tried to keep it sort of intentionally vague because there are so many listeners in so many different situations around the world, in so many different nations. As I record this, we're in approximately 60 separate nations outside of the United States and I'd love to hear about you. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to pray with you. So let me know, you can contact us here at the program. You can contact, you know, we're a ministry of Grace Baptist Tabernacle in King, north Carolina. You can contact us at redeemingthelostedicloudcom. You can also reach us in several ways through our website, gbtministriescom. You'll find. That's where our service times are. That's where our location is. You can find a phone number there. You can call us on the phone. We would love to hear from you, my friend.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear how we can pray with you, how the Lord is moving in your life, and so, whatever situation is going on in your life, my born again brother and sister in Christ, whatever situation's going on, god knows it, god loves you in it and God ministers to you in it. God will minister to you and he seeks, he's looking for you to walk together through your situation with Him. He's looking to lead you through your situation and, as he does, you're going to grow in relationship with Him. You're going to grow deeper with Him. You're going to grow deeper with him. You're going to grow closer with him. You're going to have a testimony to share with other people.
Speaker 1:God's name and God's nature is going to be glorified through you and it's going to be glorified through you and other people are going to see it.
Speaker 1:Other people right around you are going to see it and you're going to get an opportunity to testify. You're going to get an opportunity to introduce people to Jesus and, my friend, it's a glorious thing because the way God will bring you through your situation is better than anything the world could offer, better than anything you know you can come up with in your imagination. But God's way and God's wisdom and God's love and God's holiness is so much sweeter and so much better than anything this world could ever offer, and I pray that this has been an encouragement to you. So go before the Lord, my friend, ask, seek and knock. Ask in the name of Jesus, and this is something that Jesus said. You know whatsoever, you ask in my name, you're going to receive it, so that the Father will be glorified on this earth. And so, friend, thank you so much for being here with me today, and may the Lord continue to richly, richly bless us. Amen, thank you.