— Brother Phil Enlow: You know I was listening to Ben, as he prayed at the beginning of the service, and he just about prayed what I was thinking…for the service tonight.
But I’ve also been very, very conscious, that during this meeting the Lord has emphasized simplicity in a very special way. He’s not looking for theologians, He’s not looking for people who delve into the mysteries, who’ve got to get every…there’s some secret I’m missing so I’ve got to delve into it and find it, get a secret revelation. There’s so much of that that goes on in the world.
But there is a simplicity such that a child can know the Lord, and be what He wants them to be. And I want to be that. Didn’t Jesus say, unless you become like a little child, you won’t even enter the kingdom of heaven? We are so full of pride, so full of a false sense of self-ability, self-sufficiency, I guess, is the word I was trying to use.
But I appreciate the Lord emphasizing such simple things as being wholehearted, giving Him our heart. And once He has our heart, He can do everything else. All the issues of life flow from the heart, don’t we read in Proverbs?
And then how Jesus invites us to learn from Him, because He is the polar opposite of what human life on earth is. We’re filled with unrest and He wants to give us a rest.
And you know, I don’t know how well I conveyed some of it the other night, but the central thought of why we are at…why we have something other than rest is very, very simple. It’s our old nature fighting God. He says go this way and we say, no, I want to go that way.
In a thousand ways, we are resisting the simplicity of Him just…just learning from Him and saying Lord, You’re in charge. I’m not the one running the show here. And I yield myself to You and I trust You. And I’m not looking for it to be any other way.
And, even if I don’t like the way we go, from a natural standpoint, I know it’s right, because You’re the One that I’m learning from. That’s certainly how Jesus did.
And you know, Ben, in his prayer, used a phrase that came to me very distinctly this afternoon as I was just thinking about the service. I wasn’t looking for a particular something, but the simple phrase, ‘walk with me’ came to me. I mean, what could be simpler than the Lord saying, walk with me?
You know, we think of life as a journey, often. That’s the way it’s pictured, and that’s what it is. We each have, in one sense, our own journeys and yet, the Lord has intersected those journeys.
But, life is a very short journey. Young folks, you’re gonna learn that, if the Lord tarries. But it’s basically a journey from a mother’s womb to a grave. And the heart and the culture of our world is, what can I get out of it? How can I be happy? How can I find meaning? How can I find purpose? How can I gratify my own natural desires? A thousand and one things that all come straight in and center in self and what self wants.
Salvation is all about delivering us from that, because I think I said this last night, or one of the nights, you are not an accident. Not one of you here is an accident. God created you on purpose, and He loves you, made you like you are, so don’t try to be what you aren’t. Don’t say, I wish I were like them. You be you. You’re special in God’s eyes. God made you to be you, and He has a purpose and a plan, a road map for your life.
And wouldn’t it be nice, wouldn’t it be wonderful and wise, if we could get that to such a degree that we just say, yes Lord? I have only one job in this life, ultimately. Now you may give me things to do, but I mean the basic, guiding principle of my life needs to be so simple that…God, what do You want me to do?
You know, many of you will remember Brother Thomas giving, I think, what would probably sum up his greatest instruction or word of wisdom as to what we ought to do. How many of you remember what he said? “Seek God and do what He says.” It’s real complicated! But that was the guiding principle of his life.
But I think of people in the Bible that we read about. And one of them was a man named Enoch. And he lived in between Adam and Noah and the flood. And we don’t read a lot about his life other than he had a family and he was the father of Methuselah. And Methuselah’s grand place in history is the oldest recorded man in history, and that’s all we remember about him. But what do we remember about Enoch?
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He walked with God. I mean, what a testimony about a life! He didn’t build skyscrapers. He didn’t do this, he didn’t do that. He simply walked with God. And there was a relationship that…it wasn’t just, he visited God on Sunday, and then went about his life. Every part of his life was lived with a God-consciousness, a sense that God was not only with him, but God had a path for him to walk, had something for him to do.
And we don’t have a record of any great works that he did, but he certainly did the one thing that mattered to God, that God made a special record of this, for us, for all time. God was so pleased with this relationship that He had, that Enoch is one of the people who didn’t die! You know, you’ve heard how the preacher described it as they went for a walk one day, and the Lord finally said, hey, we’re closer to My place than yours. Let’s just come on and go to My place.
( laughter ).
I don’t know. That’s one way to put it, I guess. But whatever it is, wouldn’t it be nice to have that kind of a relationship? Do you realize that’s what He wants from us? We’re the ones who are kind of fearful and push Him…you know, hold Him at bay a little bit. We…part of it is self-will, part of it is fear. It’s a lot of things. But our nature doesn’t want that simplicity.
But God…that’s what God’s calling us to. And He loves you! He wants to have a relationship with you and with me. And He has a plan for our lives.
I’ll tell you, that’s something that young people wrestle with. Especially, because you’re setting out in life and you see a world out there, and it tells you what you’re supposed to do, and you feel desires, and you have abilities.
And, of course, the world says, follow your heart. Develop your abilities. Go out and conquer the world. Make your mark. Be happy. So many different ways that the same thing is put. But it boils down to a simple thing, it’s your life and your plan. I’m gonna go out and do what I think is right and meaningful, and basically, under your breath, you’re saying nobody else has the right to tell me what to do, this is my life. And that is so destructive, so wrong, not to realize that God created you for a reason!
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He has a place. He has a journey for you and me to walk, and the end of our journey is not a grave! The end of our journey…that’s the beginning! That is graduation day when they put us in that tomb! Thank God! I like it when some saint goes on to be with the Lord, and instead of talking about them passing or dying, they graduated! They don’t have to be here anymore. God called them home, and their life, their path goes on forever and ever. Don’t you want that kind of a path?
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As I was thinking about this, I was remembering a man who made a tremendous mark on the world that was very unexpected by his friends. You remember...those of you who are old enough will probably remember the five missionary martyrs, in South America? I think it was Ecuador, but it was someplace in that region.
And they were seeking to reach a totally unreached tribe, deep in the jungles. They had to ride in an airplane to get there, and land on a jungle river. Sue and I and some others actually had the opportunity to touch that plane and you wouldn’t believe how small it was. It would easily fit on the platform, easily! And we could take it and rock the frame. I mean the frame was dug out of the sandbar, years later. I can’t believe five guys got in there.
But they had a vision…but Jim Elliot was the most famous of these guys. And Jim Elliot was a man of unusual talent, ability. He went to a university. And he was one of these guys that everybody expected to go out into the world and do wonderful things, great things! And when he told his friends and acquaintances that God had called him to be a missionary, they called him a fool! What a waste! And he was the one who penned the words that have been so oft quoted. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
( congregational amens ).
And even…a lot of people would say, oh, what a waste! They went in there and they were killed immediately! And I remember, vividly, when this happened. Boy, the word went out throughout the Christian world, and it was an earthshaking event! And more people went to missionary service because of that, not shying from it. God used them in a powerful way! And decades later, in the following decades, God took the Gospel into that heathen tribe, saved all kinds of people. And some of those people who were saved were the people who did the killing.
( congregational amens ).
And God saved them, took them out of heathen darkness, total demon rule. And one of the things that came out, decades later, from one of the men who was the leader, one that killed them, was that when they killed them, they saw angels. Man, God was right there. That was their path. Man, I want that path.
Did not Paul say…I quoted this the other night, I think, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (NIV). You have to know the reason for being here. This world is not about what you can get out of it. It’s about God’s purpose, and you and me being here! And our destiny is not anything in this world, it’s out there.
Oh God, I want that to be the testimony of my life, in some fashion, that I walked with Him! You know it’s walking with Him…that means that He’s the One in charge. He’s the One who says, this is the way you need to go.
I remember…some of you may remember, years ago, there was a book…I believe it was, of some sort, that came out in certain religious circles. And of course, the world was such a terribly, busy place. And they were trying to come up with some spiritual wisdom for people who just lived these busy lives. People in the cities, they’re going and they’re coming, and they’ve just got constant activity. And the name of the book was, “Are You Running With Me, Jesus?”
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I mean, talk about getting it backwards! The hope of the Gospel is not Jesus coming down to walk with you through your plans!
( congregational amens ).
He’s got His own plans.
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And there is no other place where you’re gonna find rest, where you’re gonna be in the center of what God has purposed for your life, until everyone of us just asks one question, every day. Lord, what do You want me to do? Lord, I just want to walk with You. I want to have this relationship, this conscious—consciousness.
I remember Ricky…Brother Ricky preaching on this, having a conversation with the Lord. You remember that service? Yeah! That was special, because that’s what the Lord wants. He wants us to be able to breathe up our heart to Him and have a hearing ear. I often pray that. God, give me a hearing ear, so that I can discern when You’re talking to me. Do you know that God wants to…wants us to walk with Him to the point where we can actually hear His voice, and know what He’s saying to us?
But what an awesome testimony that that was for this man of God, Enoch, in the Bible. The whole character of his life, Enoch walked with God. And that was enough. That was all God was looking for. Oh, how complicated this is. But how we resist it!
Oh, you remember the scripture we’ve heard so many times about…from Isaiah 50, I think it is. All you who, “…compass yourselves about with sparks…” (KJV). And you walk in the fire you’ve built. In other words, you’re making your own plans. You got your own agenda, and that’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna lay down in sorrow.
But there’s another kind of people who obey the voice of the servant of God. They’re listening for His voice. Of course, they were under a system where they had to hear from God through prophets, and so forth. I’ll tell you, that’s the glorious thing. We can know Him individually! We all know Him, from the least to the greatest! That’s the New Covenant we’re in.
But basically, the heart is there where we’re saying, oh God, I want Your plan! I need to know…God, these plans that I have for my life, these thoughts about what I might do, Lord, I lay them at Your feet. God, I have no plan except to say, what do You want me to do?
Man, there is a surrender, but there is a surrender that brings peace to the heart. Oh, God! This is true for every one of us. I mean, you can get so busy in your life, and so involved in the things you think you have got to do, that we forget to just step back, take a deep breath and say, Lord, I’m not here to do what I think I need to do. You have promised to lead me.
Sometimes He could take you to a dark place where it looks like…looks hopeless, but you know, we just need to look up and say God, I am still in Your hands. You still love me.
( congregational amens ).
Lord, help me to just start where I’m at and begin to look to You. I’ll tell you, I’m so glad that God…He knows what’s wrong with us! He knew what was wrong with you and with me when He set out to save us!
( congregational amens ).
And it didn’t stop Him! How many of you get to a place in your Christian life where suddenly you come face to face with something, and you realize, oh my God, I didn’t know that was in there? I didn’t know I was so bad! Oh, Lord! How could You possibly have anything to do with somebody like me?
He said, “…I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (NIV). There’s something in the heart of God that gets a special joy out of taking something that is worthless in this world even, and making something out of it that will bring Him glory, and praise, and joy forever and ever and ever. There’s nobody too low for God to pick them up and say, you are my child. I have plans for you.
But oh God, do we need this! You know, we heard last night so much about the end of the age, and how we need to be ready. And people that aren’t even…that don’t even have oil in their lamps, they don’t have Christ in their heart, they’ve never settled the question. Do you belong to Christ, or do you belong to this world? It’s never been really answered. The door is there, but have you gone through that?
You know, you’re not born physically until you pass out of your mother’s womb. There’s an event. There’s a time. It doesn’t have to be a dramatic one. I mean, in the spiritual sense. But I’ll tell you, there is a time when we pass from death unto life!
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And if it happens, you’ll know it, because there’ll be peace in your heart! And as people are looking on, they’ll know. You’re not gonna have to go out and shout it. They’re gonna see that there is something different in your life. But oh God! That’s part of the message that was there last night. I pray, I just call on God to bring you…that whatever’s stopping you, that you’ll step back and look, and say, is this worth throwing my soul away for? That’s the issue!
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Let’s tell it straight! If you choose something other than Christ and His purpose and His plan for your life, you are choosing destruction!
( congregational amens ).
You might get a little bit of temporary pleasure out of this world and then it’s over! And you have thrown your soul away. And God loves you too much not to tell you the truth. Oh God! Help us, Lord!
And of course, we also were made aware that we’re living in the time that is…where that is approaching. We do not know the day nor the hour, and I am not gonna speculate. There have been too many idiots out there who try to calculate dates. Sorry for the word, but it’s the truth. Misled individuals, whatever.
( laughter ).
God has not fixed it to where we can calculate dates. He just says be ready! That’s all I need to do. But it’s be ready, if He should show up tonight! Wouldn’t that be awesome!
( congregational response ).
But it’s also be ready to stand in an hour of darkness! But you know the people who are gonna be able to stand are the ones that are walking with Him. You remember the scripture that Ben quoted in his prayer? I mean, like I said, we could have just said, there was my sermon.
( laughter ).
But he referred to that verse in Daniel, where Daniel was prophesying a time of terrible trouble that was coming in Israel, and it happened. About the second century BC, somewhere along in there. There was an evil king who came in and sacrificed a sow on the altar, desecrated it, took over, and compromised so many people.
But Daniel was looking forward. And he said, “…but the people that do know their God shall be strong…” and take action, is the sense of the Hebrew there. (KJV). They’re not gonna be paralyzed by the darkness. Folks, there is a darkness that is more than the absence of light. Or more than the absence of…more than wrong ideas. There is a spiritual power that’s very, very real!
( congregational amens ).
And it is swallowing up the world and it’s because God is taking His hand off progressively. And He’s taking His hand off because men do not want the truth. And there comes a time when God says, all right. And that is a form of judgment, when you are left to the mercy of demons.
But you know, He’s called us to live in this time? And it was said last night, very plainly, we’re not called to go live in a cave, and hide out and wait till Jesus comes. He’s gonna have a place for us. There could be people here who suffer in prison. People are doing it, all over the world, right now.
I don’t know where your path or mine takes us. But I’ll tell you, there’s one thing that matters in this world, and it’s people who are willing to walk the path that God has chosen! You know in Hebrews 12, there’s a scripture we quote so often. And it’s the one where we’re to, “…run with perseverance the race…” That is…
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“…Marked out for us.” I think the NIV puts it. I like that. It is a…there is a path. There he calls it a race. But either way, there is a way that God has already marked out. He’s planned, this is the way where you’re gonna be able to go and serve me in a broken world. You’re gonna become what I want you to become. You’re gonna do what I want you to do. Your life is gonna be filled with purpose and meaning, because what you do will last forever. It’s gonna have eternal implications.
Everyone around you, just about, is gonna be out there wasting their time on stuff that’s gonna wind up being burned up, and they’re gonna lose out completely. But I’ve got a path that I’m calling you to walk it…or run it, in this case. It’s a race.
Man, that’s the one I want. That’s the one I want! And I’ve got to look to Jesus to do it. I mean, you look at other examples. This obviously isn’t very organized, but that’s all right. I rarely am. But you look at Jesus Himself. Again, do you think that was the way He lived? The Father had a purpose and a plan, and He went to His Father every day and said, what’s on the agenda today?
What do you think He was praying about? He says, I only do what the Father shows me. Somehow, the Father was able to communicate what He was supposed to do, where He was supposed to go. Some days the disciples were expecting Him to go this way and He went this way.
Often that was the case. Why are You going through Samaria? Why would You go to such a place? God knew about somebody in need, and He sent His Son, and His Son had a sensitive enough heart to say, I’m not here to do my own will. I’m here to carry out His plan. He’s already marked out a path that’s gonna fulfill a plan He had in His heart before the world was.
That’s my job. That’s the only job I’ve got. I don’t have to sit there and study to be a theologian. I mean, God may have people that want to…that He teaches, and all of that. There’s a place for some of that. But that is not the heart! The heart is just somebody who says, I’m Yours, Lord, and I need You to lead me. And I’m willing to let go of my life and my will and my plans, lay them all on the altar and say, what do You want me to do?
Is that the defining characteristic of your life? It’s a sobering question, isn’t it? Isn’t that a simple message, a simple word? And that’s what the Lord would say to me, and to every one of us, tonight. What do we take away? How do we go forward? How do we face our own issues, the issues of our lives? How do we get from here to there?
How do we walk…how do we find out God’s plan for us? How do we walk in it? How do we even realize He’s got a plan? Seek Him with all your heart…but walk with Me is His word to you, tonight. Just walk with Me. I’m here. I know you, inside and out. I know you better than you know yourself, and I’ve got a loving plan for you.
You can muddle around, you can strive, you can try, but you’re gonna just waste a lot of time and energy, when you could just come to a place of rest, and just say the defining characteristic of my life needs to be this simple…I’m just gonna walk with Him.
