— Brother Phil Enlow: We are the ones who make trouble for ourselves by the way we react to the things that God designs and allows in our lives. Let”s let that sink in. Quit blaming the stuff that happened ten years ago, twenty years ago, thirty years ago, or whenever. Stop blaming the people in your life. You look in the mirror and say, I”m the one. Jesus experienced a lot more than you and I did. How did He handle it? Oh, yeah, but He was the Son of God! Yeah, He was a man, too. He came down to experience every temptation, everything that we experience. Did He not?
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Thank God, He showed us what it”s like to do that without sin. Thank God for the Lamb—the spotless Lamb! Praise God! But He doesn”t just say, learn from…I”m gonna give you a course in this. I”m gonna teach you the concepts and then you go out and do it. Learn from me!
How did He do what He did? There was a…not just a union with the Father, in the sense that He agreed with him. He did that. That”s a key right there. We fight God. So many times in our lives, He”s trying to do something, we”re fighting Him. We don”t even realize we”re fighting Him because we think we”re right, and He doesn”t have any right touching that. Or, it”s not really Him, or something. You know, there”s always some excuse to deflect. But see, not only was Jesus in complete agreement with his Father about everything…that”s a pretty good prescription for peace, isn”t it?
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He was in agreement with the Father, but He was dependent upon the Father, because the reality is even when we know what to do, we don”t have the power to do it! God wants us to take that place. It does something in us that nothing else can do. You could get people to be religious and proud of it. But for us to take a lowly, humble, dependent, needy…the only hope that I can have is mercy, that is as contrary to human nature as you can get. But that is what salvation is about.
Do we want to enjoy what Jesus is so freely offering to all? This is how it happens. And I just pray that God will burn this truth into my heart, because it”s so simple but it”s so hard! We are so stubborn! We fight so hard, “cause it”s the way we think it”s supposed to go! God, we”ve got to go this way! What are you taking me this way for? Why don”t you fix this?
You know we can even get where Paul got. How many times do we use the scripture where the devil began tormenting Him and He went to God about it? God, get rid of this guy! And finally, the Lord said, “…my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (KJV). And Paul saw that there was a reason God had allowed that.
And what did he do? Did he say, all right, I”m not happy about it? No! Thank God for what you”re doing! God, I get it! Because my heart is to agree with You, to be useful to You. If this is what it takes, then okay, Lord, I get it!
Man, do you see Jesus pictured in that as well? You think about the Son of God. You think about somebody who was there, with the Father, before the world was, before there was any such thing as a creation…a glorious, divine Son of God, speaking galaxies into existence. And now there He is on earth dependent upon his Father for everything. What a place He took!
And his life is characterized by what He said, “…I am gentle.” (NIV). Think about how He treated the people around him, and how they treated him. And yet there was this gentleness, this compassion. They saw God in him. It was real! It was alive! “…I am gentle and humble in heart.” Does that describe you?
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I don”t think it describes any of us very well. We are proud and stubborn.
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See, I got somebody here who agrees with me. I know you all do.
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You all should. Because it”s the truth, isn”t it? Oh God, do we have stuff to learn to get to this place where we can just let go. Aren”t you glad God doesn”t dump it all on us at once? Oh my!
But you know, if we are just willing to get what Jesus is saying…the simplicity of it. To get up in the morning and look to Him and say, my place today is not to figure it all out. It”s not to chart my course. It”s not to do all the stuff that the world tells us to do, or my own nature drives me to do, or just to seek this because I like it, or I want it, or I think I should go this…God, I give you a blank check. Lead me.
Do what is needed in me today! Open my eyes to my own needs! Open my eyes to where I”m not being gentle and humble in heart, because that”s the big, great need that we all have. Every single one of us needs to come to a place…praise God, where we can just let go and find rest for our souls.
I believe there are saints of God in history that have come to a deeper place than most of us. And you read their testimonies and you will discover that in every case it was a surrender. It was coming into a perfect alignment, a more and more perfect, let me put it that way, alignment with the Father”s will, where we have a heart that trusts Him, enough to say, God, I don”t know what is right or best for me, and You do, and I”m giving You a blank check.
Work in me. Help me to surrender issue by issue, and learn from You how to handle life so that I can be this kind of a person. This is what You long for me.
What am I fighting for? My way! And some of us are more stubborn than others. But we all are stubborn in our own ways. Oh God, give us the grace to let go and have what He offers.
I was thinking of the scripture we preached three different messages on one time, where God…well, let me look over at it. It”s in Isaiah 26, the promise of God. “You will keep in perfect peace…” in the Hebrew there it says, “peace, peace.” You will keep in peace, peace, “…those whose minds are steadfast….” We don”t go this way and go that way based on our feelings, and how things look. There”s a steadfastness.
There”s a consistency. Lord, I don”t care whether I”m on the mountain or I”m in the valley, I”m trusting you! That”s where I”m headed! I want you! I want your will, period! There”s a steadfastness that doesn”t bend with the wind, doesn”t react to every little thing, everything that goes wrong that we don”t like. “…those whose minds are steadfast…” why? “…because they trust in you.”
( congregational amens ).
“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal.” Man, you want a rock? Do you think we”re gonna need a rock in this world?
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You don”t see it. It”s so close to coming apart that all God would have to do is say the word and everything would collapse in our society, and the world. We were talking today at lunch, it”s a house of cards, folks. I”m not saying that to make people feel afraid. But the reality is, we have no security in this world…except Him.
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Do you want to face this, the stuff in this world without him?
( sighing ).
You”re pretty blind if that”s the way you feel. May God open eyes. But I want to be one of these that comes to Him with these burdens and realizes this is not how He wants me to live. It could be a hard heart of self-will. It could be a reaction to somebody.
It could be fear. Fear is a burden people carry. God didn”t give us the spirit of fear. He doesn”t want us to sit here and be in a state of anxiety about what”s gonna happen to me? Praise God! We ought to be able to say with Paul, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” What do you lose if you die?
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Paul says, it”s gain.
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Man, that”s a ticket out of here. I”ll tell you, there are plenty of times… you know, getting a little older, you start thinking, oh my God, how long do I have to live in this place?
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Part of me just says, God, take me on, I want out of here. There”s nothing here. I mean, you”re young, you don”t realize a lot of things, but you get a little older, you see the vanity of this world.
And especially if you see it at all with God”s revelation. God wants us to see clearly, through his eyes so that we can walk with Him and learn from Him. But, you know, as long as we”re here, there are gonna be people who are gonna have to stand in this darkness and this storm. We”re going to need Him.
( congregational amens ).
We”re gonna need exactly what Jesus said. Yes, there may be times we”ll fight battles. We may have to go say, Lord, if there”s any way I can get out of this, take it from me, take this cup from me. But the bottom line has always got to be, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.
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If that is the bedrock conviction of our hearts, and it”s not just a religious saying that we have, but it”s something that God has birthed in here, man, you”ve got what you need. Did you happen to notice that when Jesus got done praying that, what happened? Do you remember? Angels came and did what?
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Strengthened him! You know, what did…what did Isaiah say about the fact that we do get weary sometimes. But those who hope, or those who rest in the Lord, wait on the Lord, different translations, anyway, those who wait on the Lord will do what?
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They”ll, “…renew their strength.” And then all the different ways that that”s manifested. How many of you need your strength renewed?
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How many of you need a deeper rest in your life? How many believe it”s there?
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Are you beginning to understand what the issue is? Go look in the mirror and say, if I have a heart of unrest, God didn”t give it to me. I can”t blame the devil. Jesus had to deal with the devil and He had rest. How did He do that? Well, He was aligned at all points with his Father. He said, didn”t come to do my will, I came to do his.
And so, at every point, it was God, Father, what do you want me to do? I have no agenda here, no “dog in this hunt.” Lord, I”m just…Father, I”m here to do your will. Help me to be just surrendered and aligned with You and trusting in Your strength to be able to do what You want me to do.
At every point, He was just connected to his Father…His will, His might, His actions, every part. That”s what the Lord wants us to learn from Him. The more we do that, the more we”re gonna be what He wants us to be in this broken world, to one another, to people outside. As long as the Lord”s got us here, He has a reason!
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He made you and me with a purpose! There”s not a single person in this place that”s an accident!
You were made by a gracious God on purpose, Who loves you and has an eternal purpose for your heart. But right now, He”s got you here, got me here. Yeah, there are battles. Yes, it”s a tough world. But He is right here with us, and He longs to bring us to a place where we can have, in spite of everything that”s going on around us, we can still have a rest in here, because we”re in harmony with him. And I”ll tell you, God”s looking for that kind of a person.
But think of what He offers us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened….” is that you tonight? Well, He”s inviting you. What are you carrying tonight? Bring it to him. You know, like the old gospel Song, take it to the Lord. “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” Some of you remember that one. I hear Livera. I know she knows them all.
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Absolutely. Praise God! “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you….” Take it…it”s not saying I”m gonna impose this on you and force you to do. No, He wants a willing heart that says, God, I want to be connected to You. My safety is being connected to You and surrendered to Your will! I”m not safe trusting myself!
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It doesn”t work! Oh, that”s the hardest thing in the world to find the grace to realize what our real problem is. And what God…the lengths God is willing to go to take somebody like me, and refurbish me, refit me, change me completely, replace the old me with a new me. And make me able to walk with Him in a totally different world. Man, that”s worth everything, isn”t it?
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God wants us to go out of here with a deeper sense of rest. But not just the rest, like it”s an experience, a passing experience. He wants this to become more of a characteristic of our lives because we learn how it happens.
We learn how Jesus managed to stay in a place of rest. How did that happen? He spent time with His Father. He walked with Him. He sought His will. He did it. He trusted His Father in everything, and He understood that the supply of the Spirit that He needed to do what He did came from His Father. He said, it”s the Father in me doing the works. Well, Christ wants to be the source of our strength and the source of all that we are. He”s able to share that same life that was in Him with us.
( congregational amens ).
That”s what gives us the power to be something that we are otherwise not and could never be. “Take my yoke…” that”s a voluntary thing “…upon you and learn from me…” that”s the school-of-hard knocks, that”s not a classroom “…for I am gentle and humble in heart…” and what a positive promise, “…you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Oh, praise God! This world”s burden is nothing like this. It”ll give you burdens all right, but it”s nothing like this. And I don”t care what you achieve here, it”s going up in flames. And your life will be gone. But everything that we do in Him…peace is gonna be…is gonna reign with us forever. Love, joy, peace are the first three fruits of the Spirit. They”re going to be with us forever!
Do you think there will ever be any disharmony in the new creation? Perfect harmony! We hardly even know how to describe that! We are so full of disharmony in this world we can”t even imagine what that must be like! To be in perfect harmony, every need met, fulfilling the purpose for which we were designed in the first place. That”s what God longs for every person here, starting with me, to experience in a deeper way. Do you want that tonight?
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Praise God! Then we”re gonna have to do what He says here. Come to Him. Do you feel…have you got a burden weighing you down? Learn how, by faith, to bring it to Him. Realize He means you.
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If you”re weary and burdened. He just says, “…all you who are weary and burdened.” Are you a part of all? Yeah, so am I. This is simple stuff, isn”t it? I mean, how many times have we heard this scripture? But have we heard it? Have we really heard it? God wants us to hear it with our hearts, and say, yes, Lord. I”m willing to let go of my way and just put myself in your hands and learn.
And I thank you for the rest and the peace that You”re gonna increasingly impart to my heart. And I pray that other people will see it and experience that, taste it. And they”ll want what I have, because it isn”t a “what,” it”s a “Who.” Praise God! I”ll tell you, the Lord is so faithful to us. Think about…He”s looking for hearts but He”s longing to give every single one of us a deep rest in our souls. Are you a candidate for that tonight?
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Praise God! Well, we have His promise, don”t we?
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