— Brother Phil Enlow: I think I’ve said this in the past. There’s a part of me that says, oh God, I wish it were over. I wish we didn’t have to live in this crazy world anymore. You know, we heard about some things this morning, all the violence going on. It’s getting worse and worse. And it will, because the Devil is loose. And we can get to that place where we just get weary with that and say, oh God! I don’t think…as I said recently, we haven’t seen anything yet.
But another part of me that says, God, don’t come. Don’t send Jesus back until the last sinner is converted. I know that’s gonna happen. God will not lose a single one that He knows will come. And so, I want to be one that’s involved in that.
Thank God for the broadcast. I appreciate the encouragement that’s come because of that. I know there is not anything in me. I can’t take a first little bit of credit for anything. If God has used me, if God has used us, it’s Him.
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Let’s just bow before Him and give Him the glory. I want to be in a position where I can go to Him with that kind of a heart. Oh, God! I mean, when you really stop and think about the reality of our situation, how could we ever go to God on any other ground? What a foolish thing.
Peter didn’t even think he needed to go to God. And he found out, the hard way. And, you know, God turned that around and used it as a life lesson. Anybody been through one of those life lessons where you’re gonna do it your way and…there’s a willfulness there, and God has to say, all right, I can’t just talk to you, I’m gonna have to show you.
Well, God is faithful. Thank God! The song that was sung this morning, God is faithful! He’s not gonna leave you or me in the condition we’re in. I want to learn to come the easier way, don’t you?
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And just lay hold of this and say, yes, Father, You said it, this is true, and this applies to me. Take my focus off of other people, and their needs, and how bad they are, and how much they need to be fixed, and help me to look in the mirror and say, God, open my eyes and fix me. How can I be that channel?
How can I be the one that stands in the gap, when I’m really standing in the way? God would use me to be a channel of life, but I’m sitting here full of other things…wanting Him, wanting Santa Claus to fix somebody, fix them, Lord, get them.
But here is the posture that God is looking for. It’s “…your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (NIV). Your will, not mine! There’s a place, and I can’t give you a formula for it, but there is a place where God can impart a faith that is specific, where we can believe that something specific is going to happen. That doesn’t come because somebody is somebody special, and they’ve got it in them to somehow be that. There is somebody who knows God well enough and God can impart that faith.
But there are other times when we don’t know. And when we come to God, we need to have a heart that is surrendered, where we are not dictating the outcome that we want to see. We’re saying, Lord, I don’t know. I’m laying this need before You because You told me to come. You told me You care, and I believe You.
But Lord, I’m not the one that’s in the position here to see Your plan and to know what the real need is. There are things about me I don’t know, let alone situations. What is Your plan? It might be Your plan to heal me and make me a great example of healing! It might be Your purpose to allow me to go through something because You want to do a work in me.
Is one better than another? Well, from an earthly point of view, sure. If we’re thinking selfishly, yeah, sure, I want to be happy and healthy and all of that. We need to have a heavenly point of view that says, God, You have a plan. Things are not happening randomly. You are the One who foresaw everything before the foundation of the world. And You are working that out and You allowed me to be part of that.
Oh God, who am I to sit here and try to tell You what to do? You’re the One with the plan, Lord. I want to humble myself and surrender to that plan. Is that your posture when you pray? I believe God can help us, don’t you? He has to help us.
That’s why this is called salvation. This isn’t called, you know, some sort of self-help program where we learn some religious principles and put them into practice and then we get God to do stuff. This is a surrender to a personal Father who knows what He’s doing. And Father does know best.
And so, we need to take that place where we just allow Him to do what He’s going to do. I’ll guarantee you won’t look back and say, God, You didn’t do right. I was right and You were wrong. It’s not gonna be that way. And I’ll tell you, we’re gonna be prostrate in praise! We will come there and be so blown away with His goodness toward us, when we look back and we see what He had to deal with!
You think you’re so great? Just like Paul, just like every other sinner, we are a mess and we need a Savior. But we’ve got one! We’ve got one who’s able to finish what He started. “He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him….” He’s praying for you right now, in your need.
Talk about prayer. Jesus is in a pretty good place to do some praying, isn’t He? And He’s praying for you right now, and no matter what your need is. If you’re conscious of that need, that’s a good thing, but don’t be discouraged by that. Don’t forget this. Okay?
Then he begins to get into some of the other things. Most of what goes before the foundation, but “…Give us today our daily bread.” There’s a word in there that kind of jumped out at me, as I thought about it. And it’s the word ‘daily.’
You know…this thing called prayer, this thing of going to God is not just bopping along through life and then all of a sudden, a big need happens, and then, oh, I better pray. This is a relationship, where we are looking to God, not just day by day, but moment by moment, with this attitude, Lord, I need You and I need Your provision.
Yes, I’m gonna to be faithful to do what You give me to do. But ultimately, my situation and my needs are in Your hands. Isn’t that what Jesus said? You look down, later on in this same passage, and He talks…well, we mentioned that, where He talks about our needs and not being absorbed with that. But seeking first, what?
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“…The kingdom of God, and His righteousness…” (KJV). So, here we come back to what Jesus had promised, that your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things. But the daily part is what got my attention.
You know, Brother Ricky mentioned, ministered awhile back, and likened our relationship and our walk with God to a conversation, because prayer really gets to that point, where we’re waiting on Him, we’re looking to Him, and we’re talking to Him. But we also need to have our ears tuned, because the closer we get to Him, the more we know His ways, the more our hearts are prepared and humbled with the stature, with the position that Jesus describes here, we’re gonna be more and more in a position to hear His voice.
And I believe that’s what God is looking for, is a people that He can commune with, who walk with Him. That was the testimony about Noah. Noah walked with God. God could talk to him. And he listened. He knew his place.
I’ll tell you, do we know ours? God help us, every single day, not to get so self-absorbed in our mundane little lives that we forget why we’re here. We’re here to get to know Him. We sang, “That I May Know Him,” this morning. So many of the songs, so many of everything just seemed to dovetail into what the Lord is wanting. He wants a people who know Him, who can go to Him, who can talk to Him.
But if I’m gonna do that, I need to have a certain mindset, if you will—a certain way of seeing Him and seeing myself, and coming with that humble spirit. I’ll tell you, a humble and a contrite heart, He will not despise, the scripture says. He lives in a high and holy place, but also with him that’s humble and contrite. And I want to be one of those kinds of people, don’t you?
Oh, praise God! God is so merciful to His children. He cares about the smallest and weakest of His children. But here’s a big one, and this is an area where we can truly come to Him and think we are praying about something, and we’re the ones who are in the way. And by God, we’re justified!
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (NIV). Folks, there is no place in the heart of a Christian, one who would truly follow Jesus, to have something that is harbored in the heart against anyone! If you’re harboring something there, man, you are carrying a load! You are getting in God’s way!
( congregational amens ).
Because it will drive you, it will color what you’re thinking needs to happen, because you’ve been injured, something’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Oh God, get us to a place where we can humble ourselves before this great and amazing Father, and be like Him. Oh, there needs to be a sense of a willingness to forgive.
Did not Jesus say, if you won’t forgive neither will your heavenly Father forgive you? That’s pretty plain language. I know it’s not easy. I know there are situations, there are traumas, there are things that have happened in people’s lives. But I’ll tell you, if we are willing—if we are willing, and want to be what He wants us to be, God will heal those. God will give us grace to let go, regardless of what somebody else does. We don’t have to carry that burden.
But oh, I want to have a heart that doesn’t harbor things, that isn’t quick to be angry, and all those…that just reveals a spirit that is self-centered, self-righteous, that thinks everybody else needs to straighten up and be different. God, why aren’t you fixing it?
Oh God, help us to come to a place where we see that we are the need! I don’t know what God’s will and God’s plan is about situations. We need to be willing to lay that in His hands. But if we’re harboring things, we cannot even see straight, we can’t think straight. God, take that stuff out of our spirits and set us free. How can we intervene on somebody else’s behalf if we’re just having those kinds of reactions and that’s the way we think and live? Oh God, set us free, deliver us!
“And lead us not into temptation…” I’m not gonna try to, “…but deliver us from the evil one.” I’m not gonna try to unpack that other than this. There certainly should be a desire on the part of God’s people not to dabble in sin, not to be against this holy, wonderful, awesome God.
Lord, I don’t want to be in a place, I don’t want to bring dishonor on You. Help me in this area. God, I’m just appealing to You, protect me, deliver me! Does that not also carry with it the connotation, I’m somebody in need! He is the Savior. It is by His power that I’m able to be delivered. Oh God, I just come. Please, deliver me! Whatever my need is, I need deliverance. I don’t want to go the wrong way, but I need to be delivered in order not to go the wrong way. Do you get that?
( congregation inaudible ).
Yeah. Do you see the mindset that Jesus is painting here? Our Father, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed…” sacred, respected, to be your name, Savior,”…your kingdom come…” your will, not mine, “…your will be done…” Didn’t Jesus say that? Now, the Father didn’t get mad with Him because He said if there is any way to avoid this. But He said, nevertheless, “…not my will, but yours be done.”
If you’ve been in a place where that’s been a difficult prayer for you, think about Jesus. That was kind of a tough prayer to be able to pray, but He did it. And He did it for you and for me. Thank God! “…Your will…” not mine, “…be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Right here, right now! It’s gonna be fine there. It’s fine in heaven. But right now, in the presence of evil, living in bodies that want to go the wrong way with an old nature that wants to go the wrong way, I need a Savior!
I need to come with that kind of posture. I’ll tell you, if God can help us to learn how to come to God that way, we’re gonna be in a position where we’re not the barrier to what God wants to do. God can begin to work through us. We can begin in a deeper way to pray for others, to pray for situations, and God can help us to know how to pray and how to pray in faith.
And I believe God’s gonna do all kinds of things. As I say, this is focused mostly on the one who’s doing the praying. But we know from the Word, that God wants us to pray one for another, don’t we? But how can I do that if I don’t even get this? If I don’t have a foundation to be able to pray…God, build that into our hearts, so that we’re able to walk with Him and just simply seek His will in our own.
I’ll just refer briefly, I don’t think this needs to go on much longer. But I thought about an example that we’ve used so many times. But I want us to see it in the context of this prayer, because I believe it’s what this prayer looks like in action.
And you remember Paul, in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, talking about his own experience. And this was the experience where he alluded back to the time when God had showed him these amazing supernatural things, caught him up to the third heaven, saw all kinds of wonderful things. Well, what does that tend to do to a human being?
( congregation inaudible ).
Pride, yeah. He’s doing that because I’m somebody. Right. So, here’s Paul, and it’s obvious from the way the passage plays out, this is man who is humbled. This is a man who gets the ‘our’ part right. His life was not focused on him, it was on the people that he went to serve, that he sought to serve.
We talked about that recently, in chapter 4. It’s not about me, I’m your servant. I’m doing this, even though death has to work in me, life works in you. That was the focus of his heart. Man, that’s somebody who’s learned something of the ways of God, isn’t it? That he can think that way. We don’t think that way naturally. We need God to change the way we think.
So anyway, it’s evident that he wanted God’s will. It’s evident he wanted God’s blessing. It’s evident that he sought to serve God effectively. But God saw a problem that Paul didn’t see. God recognized that this tendency of human pride to get in the way was going to hinder him from doing the very thing that he wanted to do.
And so, Paul…well, let’s back up and say, you remember what the situation was? God allowed—allowed a demon to harass him. God literally stepped back and said, all right, go for it. Now, was God punishing Paul? Did he do something wrong for that to happen?
Paul, of course, reacted, based upon his understanding. Oh God, I want to serve you. I want to do Your will. This guy’s getting in my way! Get rid of this devil! What’s going on here? Lord, please, deliver me from this!
Well, one thing is encouraging to me…you know, Paul obviously coming with a right motive, but with a lack of understanding. God didn’t get mad at him for that. There is not even a hint of rebuke…oh, Paul, that’s not right. But God allowed Paul to do some serious praying about that need.
But obviously, what Jesus had said in Matthew chapter 6, was certainly his mindset. It’s the way he saw himself, the way he saw God, the way he saw the needs of the Kingdom being paramount. This is what my life is about. Oh God, I want to serve you more effectively! This guy’s getting in the way! Until the Lord finally spoke to Paul.
Now, if Paul had not been that kind of a person that Jesus described, would he even have heard God’s voice? He would’ve said, oh, that’s just the Devil. I know how this is supposed to work out. That’s just the Devil lying to me because he wants to hang around, wants me to give up…no. Paul was humbled enough, experienced enough in walking with God, that God could reveal to him why this was happening. Wouldn’t that be a good place to be?
And so, the Lord finally said, “…my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (KJV). You know, when the Lord speaks, it doesn’t take a lot of words. Just a handful of words and all of a sudden there is a power.
You know, I think I’ve mentioned many times how the struggle that John Bunyan, the author of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” went through when he came to the Lord. He’d go through a week of just horrendous bombardment of wicked thoughts, trying to tear down any hope, any sense that God would care about him. And all of a sudden, God would speak about two or three words and all of that would just dissipate. I’ll tell you, the Word of God is powerful.
But here was a man who was willing to do God’s will, just didn’t understand. And so, God was able to say, all right, now it’s time. This is here for a reason, Paul. I want to keep you from…I want to fulfill the desire that I planted in you to be effective. I want you to be effective! But I know human nature. I get the fact that if I let you go, you’re gonna get in my way. So, I got to do something about it.
And that’s why I let this devil harass you, because the very time that you feel that weakness, that inability, that’s when you’re gonna raise your hands and say, Lord, You’re gonna have to gird me. I don’t have what it takes, but You do. And Your promise is that Your strength is made perfect in weakness.
So, Paul changed his tune, didn’t he? He said, okay, I thought that was a bad thing, now I’m gonna glory in it, Praise God, I’m weak! Isn’t that awesome? Because that drives me to my Heavenly Father, where all the help comes from to begin with.
I’ll tell you, God is changing His people. Are we willing to be changed? Are we willing to have a real foundation for being a people of prayer, being that kind of people? Are we willing to let the Lord get in here and change us, so that we are able to be one of those who can stand in the gap?
God, deliver us. We have a lot more that we need to be delivered from than we have any idea. But we’ve got a God that’s faithful if we’re willing. I want to be willing today and just put my hope and my trust in Him. He truly is faithful.
And I’ll tell you, there’s no telling what He might use us for, and yet I don’t want to say that in a sense that, oh praise God, we’re gonna get out there and we’re gonna glory in this, and glory in that. We’re gonna glory in Him!
We’re never gonna be able to look in the mirror and say, man, you did good. Hogwash! He did good! We need to get out of His way and learn how to be instruments in His hands. He is going to bring us through.
But we have Someone to whom we can go. He is our Father! He’s ‘our’ Father! We’re part of a community, part of a family that’s gonna live forever! Let’s start living that in a deeper way right now. And God will be with us! Praise God!
