TV Transcripts

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1624 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

Phil: Well, it seems like every time we have a men’s meeting, it seems like without fail, so many of the thoughts that I had connection with the service came forth in various ways. And I feel like the Lord is speaking many of the same things to us. The thoughts that I’ve had are very connected to the most recent services, and it almost seems like a lot of it is repetitious. And yet, I think the Lord wants us to see it over and over again, number one, but also to see things from different points of view.

And I feel like the thoughts I’ve had this morning are really the key to Christian living, the key to Christian living. I mean, that’s a pretentious title, in a way, to say, there is the key. But yet, I believe with all my heart that there’s a simplicity that the Lord wants us to discover, don’t you? We’re the ones who complicate it. We just imagine so many things.

But Brother Alan takes the services here, and then the Lord helps him to pick the ones that are gonna wind up on the broadcast. And I recently got the list for November. And the first service, the first two weeks are going to be from a service preached just about a year ago, now, on You, God, and the Devil, I think is the title, or close to that, anyway. And I just got, now, I worked on the transcription so that it can be on the website on the appropriate day, and just brought back to me the wonderful truths that are in 1 Peter 5. And I felt like the Lord quickened some very simple things from that once again.

And we do see that there is quite a portrayal of God and His role in everything. We see the devil and what he’s about. But the focus, of course, in that context is of God defining what He’s looking for from us in order to accomplish the thing that He has set out to accomplish.

And in several places, there are references in this chapter to where He’s headed with all of this. And that is something He calls glory. Now, we see glimpses of this simple fact that God is a glorious being. There is a brightness about Him and about His kingdom that human eyes couldn’t stand. Jesus spoke of a time when the kingdom would be reaped, the harvest would be reaped, and says, “Then the saints of God will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

So, here the Lord is taking people like us with all this lacking in us, all the things that are wrong with us, no matter where we’ve come from. We may have come from the gutter. But yet, God absolutely has the power to transform anyone who will put their lives in His hand into someone who can stand there on that day with the same glory that Isaiah observed in chapter six where the Lord caught him up to that high place. He saw the Lord sitting on a throne and there was a glory that just overpowered him.

And how many other times has that happened in the scriptures? The mountaintop where Jesus went up and he was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, and all of a sudden, they saw a glowing figure that just overpowered them, and Moses and Elijah talking with him.

I mean, the reality of what lies beyond our vision in this world is something God wants us to know. We live in a blind, sin-cursed world that has no clue what everything is about. And yet, you see the themes that the Lord allows Peter to weave into this that I believe are so key to what God is looking for from us and what He expects to accomplish.

But again, he mentions, he’s talking in the beginning of the chapter to the elders, but he mentions that he is also one who will share in the glory to be revealed. That’s what’s coming. And I think we’ve made this point before that there is coming a day when all this will drop away. We will see as we are seen, we will know as we’re known. And those who know him will shine, again, like the sun. And there will be a glowing company of people who have been transformed by what God has done through the cross that we’ve singing about this morning.

Thank God it will, and we will know when we get there that it has been all Him and that our place is simply to put our lives in His hands and trust Him. It really comes down to that. And of course, he comes down to the, late in the passage, and he comes back to that same theme. “The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a while will himself restore you, make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever.”

Once again, we see a God Who has a purpose. He is calling out a people from this broken world and His purpose is to take us even as we are and change us into beings who will absolutely be at home in such a place and be able to live with Him and share that glory forever and ever, a life of, of meaning and purpose.

And of course, we see that, we obviously see the reference there to sufferings as part of it, so we know that there is something that He is doing. There’s a reason that we’re here, as we’ve said many times, that He doesn’t just simply save us and take us right on to glory. But rather, we are here for a reason and for a season to accomplish something in us and for Him to live in and through us.

These are things that are easy to say and they sound repetitious, but how many of you feel like you’ve really got a handle, a full handle on this and you know all about it and you’re just there? And I’m not seeing any hands because we are very much in the middle of a process that we understand far less than we would like to think and like to claim.

And so, the Lord is wanting, and yet, the Lord is not wanting us to know that so that we will be discouraged, but rather, that we will have our minds and hearts focused. This is a worldview issue. This is how we see the world around us, its purpose, and our place in it.

Because this world is blind. We’ve said that many times. It has been blinded through sin and the power of the kingdom of darkness, these angels that fell and rebelled against God. There is a real kingdom at work, and we see it, as we said many times, unfolding before us, the depth of the hold that is upon the human race.

And so, when Peter talks about the devil, what does he say? He says, “Be alert and sober of mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion.” What is he doing? “Looking for someone to devour.”

Now, we’ve had a couple of messages in the past about “devil’s food.” The reality is, the devils, the angels that fell, and we call them demons or devils now, their entire existence has been reduced to one simple thing. They have this evil nature that just craves expression. But how do they get that expression? They’re gonna have to get it through people. They need the flesh of a human being who’s living in this world in order to get their jollies, to get their satisfaction.

You remember how Jesus talked about an unclean spirit going out of a man? What happens? Goes through dry places seeking rest and finding none. There’s nothing out there. If a demon cannot be bothering and working and even living in and through a human being, it is miserable. Its entire existence, you think about a hopeless drug addict who just cannot live without the drug. Well, that’s the condition that demons are in and that’s why they are preying upon human flesh. And of course, Peter’s warning believers that we need to be on the guard because he will work through you.

But I mean, you wanna know the character of a devil? You think about some of the terrible crimes that we read about, and you realize where the inspiration comes from. What’s going on is there’s a spirit on the inside, or spirits, that live and inhabit that human being. And they will drive, say, a human being to commit a horrible, brutal murder without any conscience. What’s going on, there? Is that just the man? No, you’ve got demonic power that is sitting there enjoying that, loving it, feeding on it. That’s the character of the devil in this world and that’s what’s happening in the world.

You have that picture in Revelation of the man of the, I’m trying to picture the exact thing, but he’s a warrior on a white horse, and he’s called the Word of God. And he leads an army out into the world and many people are slain. What does that warrior do when that happens? Remember that passage late in Revelation? He calls to the fowls of the air, Come and feed. That’s what’s happening right now. There are people who are rejecting the Word of God, they’re rejecting what they know. And all that’s left is to be devil’s food.

There are really only two alternatives. We’re either gonna participate in what God is, is revealing to us, the simplicity of it in this chapter, or people are gonna be devil’s food and perish. Those are the only two gates there are. That’s the only two ways there are. And so, we’re called to this.

And one of the key thoughts, the key word in the middle of it is humility. And I believe the Lord wants us to understand that in a greater measure than perhaps we do. We know that humility is a virtue that we’re called to have, and trying to navigate that and understand it, we tend to think of it in human terms.

I mean, one way that humility so-called works in this world is you have somebody who’s in a position of power and influence, right? And then, somebody else comes along and they need something and they want something. Again, everybody’s out for themselves in this world. And so, what do they do? In order to get what they want, they will kowtow, they will come down and just act real humble, like they’re acknowledging this person who’s in this great power, great place of influence, and they’ll call that “being humble.”

There’s not a bit of humility in it. The reality is, what the humility that God calls us to, it’s not even an emotion. I think it’s, I’ve met people and I guess I’ve done it myself. We’ve all done it at one time or another if we’ve known the Lord or any length of time, we’ll get some little glimpse of what we really are, and it’ll make us so focused on what we’re not that we’re in a puddle of self-pity and, What’s the matter with me, and, Oh, poor me, and, I just can’t get it right, and on and on and on. We call that humility.

I mean, get real. If you wanna know why you’re such a failure at living the Christian life, read Romans 7. How can we live the Christian life in the strength of what we were born with in Adam? It can’t happen.

And so, I felt like the Lord just dropped a simple thought into my mind that what we’re dealing with here is not, it’s not this emotion we gotta come up with. Oh, I’ve gotta be humble. I’ve gotta act a certain way, and I can’t. I tell you, you can do all that and it’ll actually be an expression of pride. I’m humble, and of course, we have the, the expression, I’m humble and proud of it. But seriously, if we’re so focused on us and what we are and what we aren’t, that’s pride.

Folks, my existence, my value as a human being has nothing to do with what I am or am not in this world. It has nothing to do with how other people see me and evaluate me. And the more we and our thinking are geared to that and bound by that, the more we are in prison. And that prison is founded upon pride, me trying to be something.

And that’s the very thing that God sent his Son into the world to save us from. And oh, how we fight Him! Oh, how we don’t get that. And I just, I pray that God will somehow make this alive in us that we can get what He’s really talking about here. He’s not looking for people to act humble. He’s not looking for people to do a lot of work and do a lot of this and do a lot of that and it just, somehow, we are generating this sense, Okay, I’m humble now, everything’s okay.

The reality is, what God wants us to face is not an emotion or something where He’s accusing us of not measuring up. It’s just simple fact. I mean, get real. If you’re not a helpless sinner in yourself, you don’t need a savior. And if you do, it’s just a fact that we have to live with and acknowledge. We don’t have to spend our time thinking, Oh, I should be better, I should be this, I should, no, I am what I am. I need Jesus instead of me. He is everything I am not.

And so, it’s not like I have to come up with this, Oh, I’m so humble and I gotta, oops, my, my emotions aren’t quite right now. I gotta get humble, here. It’s just recognizing, this is what I am, and I don’t even need to spend time worrying about it. I’m just, and when the Lord shows me something, I mean, He does it for all the right reasons. Absolutely, His heart is for us. And so, now you see the definition of this played out, though.

Peter begins with addressing the elders. Now, in New Testament order, I think you could easily go through the scriptures and demonstrate this. Church order has grown into this monstrosity of different levels and different places, different things. But elders, pastors, shepherds, bishops, they were all the same thing in the New Testament.

When Paul preached the gospel on that, especially in the first missionary journey, it becomes very evident. He went, they preached the gospel, they gathered a group of saints, and encouraged them to, to meet together and to look to the Lord.

And then, he traveled back there, it was a matter of weeks or months later at most. And what does it say he did? He ordained elders. Now, what was he looking for? He was looking for people that God laid his hand on, maybe just a little bit more mature. But whatever it was, it wasn’t human qualification. It was a divine gift. And the function of that gift was simply to be a watchman, someone who would care for others, someone who would focus their attention on being a big brother to the family and looking out for all of the other ones.

And so, it wasn’t this big ecclesiastical thing that we talk about today. It was just a very simple thing. You had people whose gift and calling was to watch out for the sheep. And the very fact that it’s that sense of being a shepherd that the Lord is talking about.

I find it interesting, a fact I pointed out many times, that when Peter addresses them, he does not say, Now, listen, I was the first and greatest apostle, and I want you to get that so you’ll pay attention to what I’m telling you, now. Don’t forget, I was the one who spoke on the day of Pentecost! No, you don’t get that sense at all from him. “To the elders among you, I appeal,” doesn’t say, I command. I appeal as, what? “A fellow elder.” See, this is just somebody who was among them. He didn’t lift himself up and talk down to them.

He said: Brothers, here we are. I just wanna share some things with you, but I’m not lifting myself up to any special place. There’s only one that deserves that place. His name is Jesus. And so, I’m gonna appeal to you as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed.

Right off, you get a sense that this whole picture is not just individualism. This is not just “me and Jesus,” is it, okay? So, now he encourages the shepherds, and he says, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care.” Now, interesting that he uses the analogy, because we don’t think of sheep as very smart animals, do we? Step one, if we’re gonna talk about being humble and humility being simply dealing with facts, I’ve gotta absolutely accept the fact that when it comes to things that really matter, eternal matters, I’m just a sheep.

I don’t know. I mean, I don’t care what intelligence people have in this world or what their accomplishments are in this world. When it comes to eternal matters, I’m as dumb as they come. I need a shepherd. I need somebody who can lead me and teach me. I’m not in a position to explain things to the shepherd. I need watch care, okay?

Now, you’ve got some under-shepherds, though, who are helping the sheep. But let’s remember in this, part of this is getting what it means to be humble. It’s simply accepting the facts of the matter. And they’re not wallowing in that and saying, Oh, I wish it were different, but rather, (sighs) That’s the way it is, and because of that, I don’t have to worry. I can just put my life in His hands.

Now, the character of the shepherd. In the context of humility, what does a being a shepherd look like? “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them not because you must, but because you are willing.” Right there, you got the possibility that someone could just see this as an unwanted duty. Oh, bother. Why don’t they leave me alone? I’ve got my own stuff to worry about, and there they are again. No, there’s this sense that this is what defines my life, is fulfilling his purpose for me and walking in that. There’s a willingness there, okay?

“As God wants you to be, not pursuing dishonest gain.” Of course, we see a lot of that in religion where it’s more about the prestige someone can get or the money they can get out of it. God help us, we’re not doing this with any other motive than simply serving God. Money, no money, that’s not part of it.

When Jesus sent out the disciples, he said, Don’t even take money in your pocket. Don’t take anything extra. Just go. And the Lord, the implication was the Lord will take care of those kinds of things. Just focus on what your job is, all right? “Not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve, eager to serve.”

And very important, “Not lording it over those entrusted to you.” Just because someone is given a position where they’re watching over and others are meant to recognize that, that’s not a position of demanding, of lording it over and commanding people and trying to lift yourself up and subjugate people under your hand.

It has nothing to do with that, does it? God help us, everyone to have that kind of a spirit in every relationship that we have. If God’s put you in a place where you’re over somebody else, you’re not a little dictator. Don’t act like Hitler. Don’t act like some boss, some mob boss. We need to have the same spirit that was in Jesus, don’t we? Okay?

“Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, or appears, You will receive the crown of glory,” there’s that word again, “that will never fade away.”

I mean, here we have the possibility existing of somebody called to be an elder and their main focus is, what I can get out of this life, my plans, what I want. And here’s the Lord calling and saying, Wait a minute. This world is passing away.

Someone mentioned the scripture about not serving two masters. I mean, almost every scripture that was shared this morning bears on what I’m talking about. It was wonderful. But I’ll tell you, God has called us out of this world to be like Him, and you’re talking about the chief shepherd. He’s a pretty good example, isn’t he?

Wow! You think of somebody who learned how to be a servant. You think of what he said about being the Good Shepherd and his sheep hearing his voice. He called them, they listened to him, and he chooses them, he saves them, and no one can take them out of his hand. No one can pluck them out of his hand and no one can pluck them out of the Father’s hand because the Father’s hand is around the whole deal. No one’s able to pluck them out of His hand. I didn’t quote that very well, but that’s the substance of what he said.

But think of the amazing spirit and heart. I mean, you’re talking about the creator of the universe, here, who came down here. Didn’t pass himself off and say, Hey, look, didn’t trade on who he was. I mean, he heals somebody and says: Don’t tell anybody. I’m not here to make a splash. I’m not here to make a name for myself in that carnal sense, that earthly sense. I just have a mission. I’m here because I’m part of a plan that started in the heart of God.

Well, isn’t that what God’s called you and me to? Does he actually have a plan or is this just happening randomly? No, there is a heart of God that is working out something that is amazing.

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1620 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

Phil: If He knows how many hairs are on your head and He plans the destiny of nations, do you not think He has a plan for our lives? Think about that. You know, how many times have we referred to Hebrews 12 where we’re told to run with patience, or endurance, what? The race marked out for us.

Do you know God has already written your story. He’s written the history of your life in advance because He knows the choices you and I will make, some of ‘em won’t be the great greatest will they, but God wants us to get so in tune with Him that we are living out the story He’s planned for us.

You know, I’m sure I’ve said something along this line before, but Sue and I both grew up in a church movement, I guess, denomination, that was very missionary oriented. And so, it was very common for… I mean the pattern was for missionaries to go over and serve whatever term was appropriate for their field, maybe four or five years, and then they’d come home for a year of furlough. Well, part of that was to get rest; part of it was to go around and promote the missionary effort.

But I remember over and over and over again during my growing up years being in missionary rallies of one kind or another, and the emphasis being made at the end of God calling young people to lay down their lives, to serve Him and basically saying, it’s not my life, I’m gonna do your will, Lord and just surrender in that area. Well, that’s very appropriate, wasn’t it? I think a lot of times it came across as, this is for people who wanna be missionaries, who are willing to be missionaries, or preachers, or some kind of fulltime service.

Folks, do you really think that that’s all it’s talking about? Every single person that He ever calls God has His plan for your life and it’s one that we need to just realize, my life is not mine. If I’m Christ’s, He’s called me to step into His story, a story that He’s already written. I know how it’s coming out, but He wants me to live out. It isn’t just about getting saved and then being there, this is about what happens in between. We’re here for a reason and God wants every one of us to live our lives seeking out stepping into His story.

You suppose we’d have more rest, and sense of purpose if we did that? I mean, there’s so much about us that just fights that and struggles, and we live according to natural wisdom far more. Oh, I just pray that I think God wants every one of His children to realize all of the issues of life matter to Him.

Now, I’ll tell this one little thing, I can’t remember if I ever had before or not, but I will risk it. (chuckles) You know, we were in college when Sue and I were in college, we were going together, but also, we were planning. I mean, the sense was, I’m here to be prepared for missionary service, okay, and so that was the whole idea.

And God knows the issues of every heart. There’s no formula here, but God knows the issues of your life. He knows what matters to you, He knows issues that we need to come to a place of surrender about, okay. And it’s different from you, for you and you, but every part of every one of us has things in our lives and in our thinking that matter to us to the point where God has to put His finger on that thing and do something about it and bring us to a point where we’ll lay that on the altar. Not just this general thing, but that thing, I surrender.

Well, like I say, I will risk this, but apparently in Sue’s mind she certainly is not different from most of you either. The question of marriage was an issue, and there was a wrestling, and there was a place where God brought her to where, I don’t know all the details, but the way I remember it was that if I called you to not be married and to go and be a missionary, would you be willing?

And not all the things that we surrender necessarily are taken away from us. We don’t know that one way or another, but if they surrendered God knows, God has the plan, not me. And so that was a point of wrestling. And the Lord brought her to that place where she said, yes, Lord. If that’s what it comes to, I surrender.

How many of you have issues in your life right now where the Lord wants to bring you to that place? You’re not really free until that’s laid down if the Lord puts His hand on it. So, this isn’t just her, this is everybody.

But the interesting thing was I didn’t know anything about this. I was over in the men’s dorm, and I had this incredible sense of freedom come over me that thinking about marriage, and it was marriage to her. I’ll guarantee I got the better deal out of that! (congregation laughing) No question about that. But I was sit… Just out of the blue I was sitting there thinking about it, having this sense of freedom and peace come over me. Like this is God’s plan.

And I was thinking about, now where can we live? And I know about the apartments you can rent from the school, the married couple’s apartments. And it was just churning in my mind, I had this sense of freedom. Well, what I didn’t know was this was absolutely happening at the same time as what was happening with her. You see the Lord at work in our lives if we’ll just listen to Him and learn from Him and learn to learn to live His life and not the one that we’ve planned.

Folks, this world is built on following natural desires. We certainly read that in Ephesians two, didn’t we? Everybody is born with all kinds of desires and ideas. And if we’re gonna be His, if we’re gonna live out this amazing purpose that we see from the before the creation on into the coming ages. The part that matters to us today is, are we participating in that purpose? Do our lives belong to Him?

Because if He has our lives then we can begin to fulfill His purposes. We can be the members of the body of Christ, we can be a blessing and a strength one to another, not because of who we are, or anything but because we are allowing Him to live in and through us.

And it’s hard to talk about this without focusing on the Lord Jesus as the ultimate example. Do you think that His life was just a case of the Father sending Him down here, giving Him a general idea of what He wanted to accomplish and a whole bunch of beliefs and saying, go do it, go figure it out. Everything about the earthly life of Jesus had been planned from all eternity. So many of the things came out of the mouths of prophets long before He ever came.

Oh wait, didn’t Paul say we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do? You see that applied to Jesus. Everything Jesus accomplished, everything He did was something that God had already planned in detail.

So, what was Jesus’ part in this? It was to seek the Father. He said, I didn’t come, Lord, Father, you gave me a body, I came to do your will, not mine. I’m not here to do my will, but the will of Him that sent me. And to finish His work. There was literally a yieldedness to, to fulfill every purpose of God, even with the one that took Him to the cross, that made him a slave and a servant. All of that was planned in advance in every detail. So, his life was not one of trying to figure it out, looking at circumstances and getting upset about ‘em.

And nobody here would ever do that! But all the things that we do when we rely on our own understanding, our own wisdom, what we see, what we feel, what we believe, all these things get in the way of the things God wants to do in and through us. And He wants us to grow up as His children and learn how to do what Jesus said. What did he say? “Take my yoke. Learn from me for I am humble and gentle in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Now, why could He rest? Why did He rest? I mean, He rested knowing that things weren’t gonna be always pleasant, but He understood, I am part of a purpose that was begotten in the mind and the heart and the will of God before the foundation of the world. And this is my place in that. And so, my job is simply to look to Him every day, and show me, to show me what He wants me to do and then to do it.

And when I see things that are distressing, I can certainly talk to Him about it, but I’m not to sit here and be (mimics anger), everything’s all gone to hell in a hand basket. God, I don’t know what’s going on. Where are you? He’s right there. And He’s the one who’s able to take us through all the ups and downs and hurts, and everything that happens in this life and help us to live a life of purpose, of value. You are valuable to Him, you matter.

Do you think He has designed this grand scheme, and He’s already determined what’s gonna happen in every nation? Do you think the One who sees the sparrow fall doesn’t have a plan for our lives? Do you really think He doesn’t have one? That His plan is to call missionaries to lay down their lives and everybody else is just supposed to go marry whom they will, choose whatever career they want, live where they want, come and go as they please?

Every one of us needs to just lay down our will and say, Lord, I am yours. Show me the issues of my life, and the things that cause me anxiety and fear, help me just to lay them at your feet and say, Lord, you’ve got this. You are my God; Jesus is my savior. My hope is in you, it’s never in me. I may not understand, but I know that in all things you are working not for my evil, but for my good. Not for my hurt, but for my good. And it’s because You have called me according to Your purpose.

Is His purpose worth living for? Is there anything worth living for in this world, but His purpose? No, absolutely not. And I pray that God will bring us to a place where we are so confident of who we are in Him, not because of us. We’re confident of His purpose, the certainty of it, who we are. Our identity comes not from what people say, and do to us and circumstances of life, it comes from who He says I am. I’m His beloved child. He loves me. He’s called me according to His purpose.

It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t choose the important people of the world, to accomplish His purposes, He chooses the things that are not to bring to nothing things that are. Isn’t that what Paul said in 1 Corinthians one? We don’t have to be something in the eyes of people, we can be just as long as we’re His and we can know that we’re loved. We can have a rest that transcends what people say, and how they act and how they treat us ‘cause we know we have a rest.

You think Jesus went around upset, and anxious at all the things that happened around Him? How dare they say that? Don’t they know who I am? I’m tired of that, if you say one more thing…. See, we understand that’s not how He was, but doesn’t He want us to learn from that and say, we don’t have to be that way either. We can live our lives with a sense of holy expectation, but yet with a sense of patience, knowing that the things God wants to accomplish in us do take time.

And many times the things that stop us from being able to enter into things in Him are the issues of our lives that He has to stop and deal with. And so even if He gives us a vision and a sense, oh I want you to be all members of the body of Christ, that’s who you are. I want you to have the gifts, We don’t have to be anxious about that. We just start where we’re at and say, Lord, I’m in your hands. Let me just take one day at a time and look to You and just walk through this day with You. And if there’s something I need to know, I’m trusting You to show me. I can’t figure this out and I don’t have to, it’s not my job. Not my job to….

And of course a lot of us have a real problem being fixits. We see something we perceive to be a need, something wrong or something may even be good, we wanna see something happen. We wanna see somebody change and so we’re gonna jump in there and “help God out.” How did that work for Peter? That was his nature, wasn’t it? But we’re all like that. And that’s why Jesus said to him at the end there, when you were young you dressed yourself, and you went where you wanted to go. But when you’re old, you’ll stretch forth your hands, another’s gonna dress you and carry you where you don’t want to go.

That’s where I want to be. That’s the death by which we glorify Him. We’re dying to what we would be naturally in this world, but we’re embracing a life that will never end. You know, the world will look at you and tell you you’re a fool. I often think back to Jim Elliot, gifted young man, come through university training, everybody expected him to be really somebody in the world. He had what it took. And God called him to be a missionary to savage people in an out-of-the-way jungle in South America.

And his friends thought he was a fool. And so, he wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Oh, do we need God’s perspective on life? On the decisions young people are making right now, this isn’t just for you, but it is for you. You’re at the cusp of your life, God has a purpose in who you are, where you’re going, who you marry, what you do.

He’s already designed a life for you that is meaningful. It may not be what you think of it naturally as something you want, but I’ll guarantee when we get to the other end, we’re gonna say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for delivering from me, thank you for delivering from my purposes. I thought this would make me happy, and I got there and it didn’t and all I did was make a mess.

God wants us to learn from Him and say, Lord help me to live the life You have designed for me right now today to realize that I can live that life and not this other one that I’ve been trying to live. I don’t have to be afraid, don’t have to be anxious about all these things. Yeah, I can feel that, but I can take it to you immediately, can’t I? I can have that peace that passes all understanding.

God wants His people to have more rest. Do you have rest today about the issues of your life? Are you at rest or is there something that’s just, I gotta fix this, I gotta change that? Oh, I’m worried about this, I’m worried about that. God wants us to cast all our cares upon Him, why? Why should we do that? Who’s He? He doesn’t care.

Yes, He cares. Yes, He cares. He cares about you right now this morning, every single one of you He loves us with a love we cannot imagine. He has plans for us that we cannot imagine. But those plans aren’t just something way out there, they’re right here. They’re this afternoon, they’re tomorrow morning, they’re this week.

What God has, the purpose for my life and everybody’s individual. You can’t make patterns out of this and formulas out of it. It’s a matter of learning to walk with Him, but to believe Him. Do you really believe this is true of you right now here today? Do you see how important chapter one is? If we don’t see ourselves there, my God that is the place to start. You better cry out to God and say, Lord, help me, open my eyes. I can’t figure this out, but You’re gonna have to show me. You’re gonna have to reveal yourself to me.

And I’ll tell you, He will. If there’s anything in your heart, and if there’s anything in your heart that wants that, you better remember that didn’t come from you that came from Him, that was grace. That’s grace at work to even give us the inclination to want God, to be interested in Him at all. Oh, how merciful and faithful God is. But I’ll tell you God has a specific plan for your life marked out.

You look through the scriptures and you see Moses, and David and Jeremiah the prophet, you know I chose you from the womb to be a prophet of the nations. You say what? I dunno what God’s purpose is. It isn’t necessarily some grand thing in the eyes of men, but if it’s your place, nobody else in the history of this planet can fill it. I wanna fill the place that He’s called me to be.

If it’s to be the doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, isn’t that what David said? I’d rather be that than anything. Dwell in the tents of wickedness. There’s nothing in this world that is worth anything, but this is the thing God wants you to understand. The God who has planned everything in the beginning has also planned a life out for you. All the details of your life, He’s already planned and worked them out.

All he wants you to do is to let go and find that place of peace and surrender where you’re looking to him to step by step make you into who He wants you to be and lead you safely to that day when He can say, this is what I’ve been doing, here they are grown up, they’re ready. He’s the only one that can do that.

To Him who’s able to do more than we could ask, or imagine according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church throughout all the ages, praise God, praise God!

So that’s the thing, where are you with respect to this simple truth? Do you realize who you are in Him? Do you realize that He has a specific plan for your life? Is that the one you want? Are you willing to look to Him and say, God, I need you to show me. Show me today and help me to be patient with it. Help me to be at rest. Help me just to look to you and I tell you God is gonna bring all of His children through and finish what He started. Thank the Lord!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1618 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

Phil: How many of us could say that going through every day, that all of our feelings, our thoughts, our actions, our reactions to things that happen, things that people say, things that people do, oh, it flows right straight out of the heart of God. We never say a cross word. Never have an evil, a bad thought. Never get angry. Never. You suppose we might need just a little bit more than we got? You think the Lord has more for us than where we’re at right now?

Well, here’s Timothy obviously well on into his ministry, and what is it that Paul’s encouraging him to do, to seek? Pursue righteousness. Now, it’s interesting that word pursue. I looked a couple of these up just to see what the original word was. I don’t even remember. I couldn’t tell you what it is literally. But it’s an interesting word in this respect. It’s used in two very different senses.

One of the uses is persecute. When Paul was Saul, the Jew, going around trying to arrest Christians and get ahold of them, there was a pursuit there, but it was a persecution, and literally it meant to pursue somebody to… This is what my life is about. This is a conviction that motivates me to action.

But now here is Paul using the same word to say there’s something else you need to be pursuing. It needs to have that same conviction that drives us to action, is what he’s saying. Pursue this. It’s the same word, I believe, that he uses in Philippians 3, the scripture we use so many times. I press forward. This is what I’m after. I pursue this one thing, I press.

And again, you have this sense that there’s opposition. But God give us the grace to constantly, instead of just settling, instead of saying, Where I’m at is okay, to recognize that God is at work to change us and He’s changing us so He can use us.

How can we be what God has called us to be in this hour if we just sleepwalk through it, and we accept where we’re at right now, and we don’t mind getting angry. We don’t mind getting upset. We don’t mind blowing off steam and thinking about this and all engrossed in that and just somehow disconnected from Him, when God is wanting us to say, Wait a minute, I need him. This is not what he has for me.

We’re told in in Galatians, Don’t walk in the flesh, and he gives us a whole list of characteristics that come out of this old nature. But rather — and many of these things that he’s telling Timothy to seek right here, come right straight off of that list — love, joy, peace, self-control, all of these things, these qualities that only come from Him. Folks, I need that, don’t you, this morning?

And I had this sense as I was reading this the other day that God is well aware of our need. Aren’t you glad He’s patient with us? Oh, thank God. Does He have reason to be? He does with me. You’re supposed to say, yes! God is so patient.

But here’s God looking down on me and saying, Yeah, he thinks he’s doing good. He’s not robbing any banks. He’s not doing any gross thing. And he’s mostly has a good spirit about things. But I see a need. I see areas where fleshly reactions, old nature thoughts and motivations keep cropping up. I gotta do something.

Well, guess how he works. He’s gonna put you in a situation where that comes to the front. How many times have you been in a situation where maybe you have a tendency to blow off steam in certain circumstances? Well, guess what? Don’t be surprised if God keeps putting you in that circumstance. And God does it. And yes, an enemy may be involved in that, but God does it.

Why would he do something like that? You think maybe He wants us to react like Timothy was called to react? Say, Wait a minute, this isn’t the Lord. I got a need here. And God has used this circumstance to make me aware of a need maybe I didn’t even really think about it, I wasn’t that aware of it. But God wants to do something in me. After all, He wants me to become like Jesus.

How many of you’re there? Yeah, we got a ways to go. We got things that God has for…. Does God have everything for us? Oh, we love to sing about it and then assert it, but when it comes to literally living in the reality of what He has given to us, that’s where the rubber meets the road, as we say. And God has a way of putting us in circumstances where we’re gonna sink or swim.

We’re gonna just give in to something and kind of be where we’ve stayed, the bondage is just gonna go right on, and we’re just gonna, Help me, give into self-pity and resentment and blaming somebody else, all the human reactions that we all have at one time or another, instead of saying, Oh God, you have allowed me to see this need in me, but I know you have an answer. I know there’s a throne where I can go. I know I didn’t earn the right to go there and you promised me that you would receive me with mercy.

Well, that’s what I need, Lord. I’m in a place where I need mercy. I can’t come and say, I deserve to come here. But Lord, you promised the mercy, but you promised the grace. I need the river of life to flow into me. I need divine strength that I do not possess or I’m just gonna keep on being what I’m being.

How many of us have settled? How many of us have just settled for where we’re at, really? In more ways than I want to admit. How many of you think that’s what the Lord wants? How many of you think that’s what Paul wanted for Timothy? Okay, Timothy, you’ve made it, you’re successful now, you can go around and preach to people and encourage them and just go with the flow.

Folks, the Christian life in one sense is a flow, but it’s a flow against opposition. And in fact, it’s swimming against the tide. ‘Cause this tide here is gonna fight you every step of the way. The only way we can do it is divine life and divine strength. I need to lay hold of the eternal life.

And that’s the picture you get here. Paul says to pursue and he gives a list of all these wonderful virtues that you and I lack naturally but we need so much. Pursue that. That’s what your life needs to be about. Remember when I was pursuing Christians ‘cause I thought I was serving God and arresting them, having them killed?

But now I’m pursuing something else, I’m pressing forward, I see that there is something that I do not have and I’m gonna have to go against opposition in order to get that because I need it. It’s not enough just to say it’s there. Hallelujah, it’s there. I need it. I need it. So, pursue that and then fight.

Again, there’s that sense of opposition, pursue and fight. But then he says, Take hold. How much of what Christ died for is something that we possess? that we have literally said, That’s mine? How many of you think that God wants us to seek him about things and literally expect him to answer, and expect him to give the grace? Can we not go to him on the basis of his promises and say, Lord, you said.

I think of times in the scriptures, again, look these up, but it seems like in… I know Jehoshaphat. When they were faced with that terrible army that was coming against him, when they went to God, one of the things they said was, Lord, you said. Lord, you promised, and this is why we’re coming to you. You see what’s coming against us, but you promised. Well, God gave them a victory without even having to fight, in that instance.

And you think about after the day, well, shortly after the day of Pentecost, when the young church was, when Peter and John were arrested and beaten, and then they prayed. Boy, they didn’t go on the defensive, did they? They said, Lord, you’ve allowed everything. Everything that’s happened has happened according to your will.

They were going right back to the promises of the Old Testament of what God said He was gonna do. Lord, you are in charge, we’re looking to you. But it’s not enough that just we sit here and, oh God, don’t let them hurt us. They said, Lord, stretch forth your hand. Stretch forth your hand. And God came down and gave them power that they didn’t have before.

Lord, help us, help me. I confess my weakness and my need this morning. Anybody else? [Congregants] Yes, amen. I believe that there’s a God who will hear and answer prayer if we’ll look to Him and pray and say, God, we need you.

We’re living in an age that will absolutely put Christians to sleep. Isn’t that what Paul warned about in 1 Thessalonians? He’s talking about the coming of the Lord and what it means for us. The catching away and what it means for the world the outpouring of wrath. But it talks about us not going to sleep. We don’t sleep like they do. We need to be alive and awake and saying, Lord, again, you’ve got us here now for a reason, but we need you.

We don’t need to just fight a defensive battle. We don’t need to just go to sleep and say, We’ve got it, we’ve got it. We need to be saying, God, there’s always something. That’s what Paul said, isn’t it, in Philippians? I haven’t arrived. There’s always something more that I need to lay hold of.

And God was constantly putting battles in his way so that he could say, God, I need this. I see the need right here. I feel this enemy that wants to oppress me and you’ve allowed him to oppress me. And here I am, I wanna serve you. Oh God, I’m calling upon your name. 2 Corinthians, 10 is it? 12? Somewhere in there, that testimony that he gave of how God showed him something, God put him in a place where all he could do was cry out to God.

And there was a case where he had to do some waiting, wasn’t it? That’s what Billy said. He didn’t get his answer the first time he prayed. He prayed three different seasons, I would say, and really called out to God. And finally the Lord opened his eyes and said, “My strength has made perfect in weakness.”

And he was in utter agreement. Thank you, Lord, that I’m weak. Thank you that I’m needy. How many of you can really be glad about that? I mean, we can say that, but how many of you are just glad that you can’t do anything without the Lord? But it’s the truth. [Congregant] Amen.

But yet what we can do with him? I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Whatever the Lord puts in front of you and me, He wants us to fight through whatever would oppose us taking hold of what He has given us. Does that make sense?

God’s gonna put you in the middle of battles that you didn’t ask for, but he’s not doing it to discourage you. He’s not doing it to see you be defeated. He wants us to respond on the basis of this word. That’s what the wilderness was about, to teach people that man didn’t live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of His mouth. God has a way of lifting these words off of the pages of this book and applying them to our lives in critical areas in times of need.

How many of you know that? How many have experienced that? God knows how to speak if we have ears to listen. God give us those ears but help us to understand what the Christian life is about. There’s going to be a fighting and it’s not just offensive fighting.

God is gonna set things before us. Now if some of them are virtues that we lack and we need, then we’re gonna have to go to God and say, God, I can’t handle this situation. I get mad every time this happens. And I need You to come in and fill me and give me the kind of patience and love and forgiveness and whatever’s needed, I need You to be in me what I need.

Sometimes it’s going to be doing something because God has not called us just to live for ourselves, but to be channels of His life to one another. We are so full of trying to survive spiritually, we can’t even do that half the time. May God give us the grace to learn how to take everything to Him and say, God, I need you today. I need you every hour. I need you, Father, as much as your Son needed you to do what He did.

And of the Son it says he learned obedience. How did He learn that? By the things that He suffered. And as a result of that, He became the author of eternal salvation. Praise God for what He was willing to do for you and for me.

But this is the life to which we’ve been called. It’s one where we’re going to have to fight and take ground from the enemy, the devil does not want to give up. Our flesh doesn’t want to give it up. The power of sin to rule over us is a real power. And if we just float along and go with the flow, it’s gonna continue to have a stronghold in our lives more than we wanna admit.

But here is God calling us and saying, I’ve given you everything, but you’re gonna have to fight for it. You’re gonna have to come to times when everything is opposed to you possessing what I have given you. And you’re gonna have to stand up to that and say, I believe in Him more than I believe in the strength of this sin. I believe in His provision. I believe in His power. I believe in the cross. I believe in what happened there. And I’m gonna stand there and put my trust and my hope in what God has said and what He has provided for me, it’s mine and I will have it.

There’s a holy boldness that God wants for his people, not based upon a selfish spirit, but upon saying, I will not give in to this sin nature that wants to have had dominion over me. Jesus has made provision at the cross that I can have Him and have life more abundantly. And I’m gonna take this circumstance right now that I’m facing, this issue.

Maybe nobody even knows about it, but it’s the way I feel about something, the response that I have. I need grace. I need to be changed. I need a measure of that life of God to come in right here and give me the strength that I do not possess to take dominion over this thing and say, I will not be how you want me to be, devil, I am His. I’m gonna glorify God in this body and in this spirit, which are his. Praise God!

I don’t know, this is kind of meandered around this morning and I just trust the Lord with it. But how many of you need him? How many of you need more? Does this make any sense this morning?

God has everything you need. Wherever you are at, wherever I’m at, He’s got it. Is there anything that’s lacking? Is His power not enough? So, where’s the problem? Where’s the lack? Are we really taking hold? See, that’s what Paul said, I press forward. And he talked about pressing to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me.

Is Christ taking hold of you? Yeah, He had something in mind, didn’t He? In doing that, He said, I’ve taken hold of you, now there’s something out there I want you to take hold. This is how your life is gonna grow. This is how you’re gonna become like me. You’re gonna have to put forth some effort here. You’re gonna have to exercise some real faith in me, not in you and your weakness. Your faith in my power to deliver is gonna have to become greater than your faith in all that’s wrong and all that’s lacking.

And then, if we’re asleep, God wake us up. God help us to realize the hour in which we live. And I confess my need. I believe I’m not the only one. Maybe that’s why the Lord has let me wander around this and think about it and wish somebody else would get up and preach, to be truthful with you. But how many of you think this is what we need?

How many of you think he’s telling us this to make us feel bad and condemn us and hold us down? No, it’s because He has paid an incredible price to open up a stream where He can share His life with us. That life is the only thing that can empower us to be any different than anybody else in this world.

But it doesn’t all come in at once. I need to drink that in just like the people of the world are drinking in the spirit that’s in the world, or that we eat food to sustain our flesh. I need His Spirit, I need to spend time with him, I need to believe him, I need to exercise His word, I need to worship. All the things that the scripture tells us to do. Ask, seek, and knock, all those things, coming to Him.

But coming with an expectant heart instead of saying, Oh, well, forgive me, I messed up again. God wants to take us beyond messing up again and give us the strength to be victorious. And the more He’s able to work in us, the more He’s going to be able to work through us. And He’ll be able to give us things to do, and it will be Him doing it through us and not us.

You don’t need me, you need Him. And we don’t need each other in a natural sense, we need the Christ that lives in one another. And He is absolutely working to bring us to that place. But there’s no way around this. We’re gonna have to set ourselves to seek after something. That seeking after, that motivation, that basic thing that motivates us as to what we do and why we do it, is gonna drive us to have to fight through a lot of opposition.

But we’re fighting to only hold of something. This is not a matter of having to fight the bank teller to get your money. That part doesn’t work like that. But there is opposition that will try to keep you from going into the bank. And God wants us to say, Wait a minute, I believe him more than I believe all of this opposition. It is mine and I will have it.

And you think of somebody like Caleb who had that kind of a spirit, that when the time came, he says, Give me my mountain. And he went into a particularly difficult area as an 85-year-old man and chased the giants out because God was with him. He didn’t do this presumptuously, he did it because God had promised. And he went in based upon that promise, actively trusting in God. God gave him the victory and later on, he had stuff that he could share with other people.

Do you see the picture of what God is wanting for us right now. If we’re asleep, help us to wake up, Lord. If we’re just yielding to something that has been there all of our lives, God help us to do something about it, to say, Lord, you didn’t save me just to leave me like I am. You saved me so that you could fill me and change me.

And yours is the only resource, Lord. Give me the strength to fight when I don’t even feel like fighting, I’m too tired. Lord, you’re gonna have to strengthen me so I can even do this.

I mentioned it sounding exhausting. Well, it is if we’re thinking, I’ve got to somehow do it in my own strength. But Lord, we can come to you and say, You told us those who wait on you will do, what? Renew their strength. And all the things that flow from that.

Well, I’ll just put this out there and let the Lord do what do with it what He will. But I just pray that God will burn these truths, that the motivation in life is to obtain the virtues, the things that come from His life living in us and expressing itself through us. We realize there’s a battle to do that. We’re gonna have to fight actively. And if we don’t, if we coast instead of climbing, we’re gonna be sliding back and not even realize it many times.

And we’re gonna realize that what God has laid up for us does in fact belong to us. Oh the devil will give you 1,001 reasons why, Oh, this just isn’t for you. This is for the special ones. You’re just too bad. Look at your track record.

Praise God, every one of us has got a bad track record, if you want to go by that. Every one of us has needs. That’s why Jesus went to the cross. That’s why He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him, freely — freely — give us all things? I need some of those all things today, don’t you?

But I believe God is faithful and God is encouraging us to whatever the issue is in your life, whatever battle He puts you in right now, you have every right to go to God about it. Say, Lord, here’s the situation. I feel this way. I can’t handle this. My nature wants to drive me in this direction. I need more of You right now, Lord. Pour your life into me so that I can be the person You want me to be. There’s no other way, Lord.

And God’s gonna put the battles there, not because He wants to bring us to defeat, because He wants to share His victory with us. Praise God! To God be the glory!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1616 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

Phil: I thank God that I, I thank God that I can just believe it when I need it, in that presence tense, and I lack nothing. Wouldn’t that be a good conviction to live with? Have you ever been in a place where you just, you didn’t have what you needed, and God just messed up and forgot all about you? Sometimes he can allow it to feel that way, but we have everything we need if we will look to him from the depths of our heart.

Folks, I’m trusting that everybody here has this relationship with God, and just needs to grow in it. I need to grow, I guarantee you, had to do some growing this morning. You think it’s easy to stand up here and do this? We need the Lord, folks, every single one of us needs the Lord. But oh, what an awesome truth it is that the Lord is right now my personal shepherd. He’s watching over me. And because of that, I lack nothing.

I don’t know what a title would be, “We Have Everything We Need,” that would be a long version of it. Or, “We Lack Nothing.” But I praise God, I pray that God will make this real, so that while we can sit here, and maybe there’s nothing immediate happening right now, that we can go through this week and realize everything that happens that we face, that we feel is a difficult thing, when that now happens, and that’s what’s happening in that now, we can say, “Hey, I got what I need, Lord.”

The Scripture we’ve often used again about the fight of faith, here’s Paul knowing what it takes to serve God in this broken world. And he says to Timothy, “Fight the good fight of the faith.” What does that entail? What follows that expression? Somebody remember the Scripture? “Lay hold, lay hold,” there’s something that I have put there for you. It’s there, you’ve got what you need. You’ve got all the money in the bank you could ever need in this kingdom, the spiritual bank. You know what, understand what I’m talking about. There are untold riches that Paul has talked about, everything that God, he knows we’ll ever need is there, and it belongs to his children. Praise God!

So, okay, he goes through and he talks a little bit about what this entails. And the first part we can all say, “Oh yeah, that sounds great. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. Oh, bring it on, Lord, that sounds idyllic. Oh, sounds like a vacation.” (laughing)

Well, I thank God that that’s true, and there are times when that’s exactly how it is. God just refreshes us and quiets us. We’re not striving, we’re not in the middle of a battle, but we can, (sighing) “Oh. I just need, I just need something. I need you to refresh me, Lord. I need you to help me. And you know what I need, you know exactly what I need.” I thank God that that’s his heart to give us all of that.

But you know, the Lord knows that if that’s all he does, we’re gonna get awful spoiled. And there’s a lot of stuff that he wants to fix in us and change in us. He can’t change when everything is just idyllic, (chuckling) and wonderful.

But here he says, “He guides me along the right paths.” How many of you want to be guided? How many of you believe there is a path that God has, as we’ve said before, laid out before you? Do you believe God has made a plan for your life? Do you want that plan? Are you willing to seek him about that plan?

That’s pretty basic to the Lord being my Shepherd. I can’t really honestly understand him as my Shepherd, and say, “Okay, Lord, see you later. I’ve got, I wanna do this, I wanna do that.” I’ve gotta be willing to let him lead. And I’ve gotta be willing to let him know that I need him.

Again, I think we’ve recently used the verse where he said, “Your ears will hear a voice behind you, a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’” How many of you believe the Shepherd wants to lead you? I believe he does, I believe he can lead us in ways that are right.

Another thing that was said this morning was how many times, how many situations present us with challenges, and choices, I guess is the word.? And my choice could easily be if I follow my old nature, I’m gonna go this way. Well, is that the right path? Is it the right path for me to react according to my old nature, and say, “This is the way I’m gonna go, and this is how I’m gonna react to this situation.”

No, God is gonna put us in a place where he’s gonna say, “This is the right path.” It could involve forgiveness, that was emphasized in our meeting this morning. It could involve a lot of things where we’re willing to humble ourselves, and say, “All right, Lord, you are the Shepherd, you know. I’m gonna humble myself unto your hand. You’re the one who not only leads me, but you’re gonna provide what I need, ‘cause I need you, Lord, I don’t have what it takes.”

But you see where David is coming from, and this guiding principle of his life, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even, now here’s this part, “even though I walk through the darkest valley, the valley of the shadow of death.” Literally, obviously, life is not all about pleasant pastures, and cool streams, is it? There are times when his path — now put that together with the fact that he leads me.

And yet here David finds himself in the darkest valley. What do you draw from that? What conclusion do you draw from that? The Lord led him there. The Lord had a purpose in taking David into a very dark, difficult place, many times, of course. God had a reason, God brought him to that. But what did he learn from that? And how did he react to that? How did he react to the prospect of it?

Obviously, he’s talking about that, even though that happens. David had such a conviction that he was able to say, “I will fear no evil.” Now, does that mean David never experienced fear? Of course not, we all do. But there comes a point where fear is a choice. You understand what I’m saying? I don’t care what it is, it could be a thousand other things that come from this old nature. But it comes to a point where that becomes a choice.

David says, “I recognize I could be in that situation.” He could lead me into that situation, how am I gonna handle that? And here’s how I’m gonna handle it, I will, I’m gonna make a choice.

Now how could he make that choice? Was this just bravado? Was this strong character, and all these natural qualities? No, this goes right back to, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all, I lack nothing.” Do you see where that bedrock conviction allows people to go through those times and say, “I will fear no evil,” because we know what the Devil’s gonna try to do. “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control.” Every single one of us fights that battle. But wouldn’t it be good to be able to say, “I will.”

Now, how could he make that kind of a choice, like, “Yeah, I will?” How could he make that choice without understanding that God was going to give him what he needed in order to be able to make that choice? Do you see the dependence that is implied in everything that he’s writing here? “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” Based upon that, I will not fear. I will fear no evil, why? Again, “For you are with me.” Praise God!

I’ll tell you what, do you need the Lord with you in those times? I do. Has he promised? Does he want us to learn how to lean upon him, and to hold that bedrock conviction, and act accordingly during those times?

You know, sadly, from our point of view, how do we have to learn that? How do we learn such things? Ah, experience. And like I said this morning, it would be so nice if we could learn all this in seminars, and just have it all down. But there’s only one way that I can learn about God’s faithfulness in difficult times, is to go through difficult times and trust him and experience his faithfulness!

We had a message a while back about, “From Test to Testimony.” How do you get a testimony? Say, “I’ve been there, God took me through a dark valley. He didn’t allow me to see any hope, that the Devil was just filling my head with all kinds of nonsense, all kinds of stuff. But somehow there was a measure of faith that he had put in here, that he enabled me to pull on, and to lean on, and to begin to express.

And I called out to him and I looked to him, and I remembered that he is my Savior, he is my Shepherd. And I looked to him and I called on him, and he was, he gave me the strength. He didn’t just make it all go away. but I had found out that I wasn’t alone, that right in that dark time, he was right there. He never let go of my hand. He walked with me through it.”

And, of course, you all know that picture, was it a vision or something that somebody had when they saw their life, and they saw the two sets of footprints in the sand. And then it came a time in that person’s life when everything looked bad, everything looked difficult. And there was only one set of footprints. And he said, “Lord, I don’t understand. That was the time I needed you most, what’s going on? Why, why was I alone?” And he says, “You weren’t alone. There’s only one set of footprints because I was carrying you.”

You think about the heart of this Shepherd. I mean, you got all kinds of shepherds, would-be shepherds in this world, but you think about this Shepherd. We already talked about Jesus saying he was a good Shepherd. He gave his life for the sheep. But the prophecy in Isaiah, I’m not gonna look it up, and I probably won’t remember it all perfectly, but, “He shall feed his flock,” how? Like a shepherd.

He’s gonna carry the lambs in his arms. Do you feel weak and small and unimportant? You might be a child, and you’re wondering how in the world does he care about me? If he needs to do it, he’s gonna carry you in his arms. He’s gonna gently lead those that are young.

You sense the heart of what God wants to communicate to his people. He wants everyone here to know how he thinks about you, and how much he cares about you, and how much he wants to bury this conviction in your heart today, so that you’ll always know, regardless of what happens, he’s there, he’s in the middle of it with you.

There’s a reason he led you that way, and he did it so he could show his power and his glory in your heart and your life. And you are never without something that you need, because he will always give you what you need in the circumstance. Praise God!

This is not real deep theology, but I mean, this is life, folks. Do you see why David was a man after God’s own heart, and how much the Lord was able to express himself through David? You see it in his other Psalms, but what a picture of a worldview, if you will, if you wanna put it that way. This is the way David saw life.

“Even though I walked through the darkest valley, I will, I will,” that’s a choice, “I will fear no evil.” That doesn’t mean he didn’t fear, or feel fear. Everybody does that. The question is not whether we feel fear. The question is what do we do about it? I will not yield to that. I will still claim that God is faithful, that he is with me, his Word is still true. I’m gonna rely on him.

And not only that, I’m gonna rely on him for the ability to rely on him! I mean, think about that. I have everything I need, but it all comes from him, every bit of it. Are you willing to take that place, and realize how dependent you are on him? The more I go, the more I say, “Yes, Lord. You’ve shown me so many ways in my life how desperately I need you. The times I thought I was smart enough, or I was strong enough, or I was this, I was that, and you had to show me that I wasn’t. But in that, you showed me how faithful you are. You showed me that I’m never without the hope of all that you have promised.”

Can you sense in David’s words that he’s saying these same things? “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Now obviously, in order for that to be true, you gotta have some enemies around that are threatening you. So again, God is taking David into a place that from every earthly point of view looks like a bad place to be. It looks like a place of danger. And yet God was giving him a provision for that situation.

Does that sound like something we need? To be able to see the Lord, not just in this theoretical way, but I mean to see him right in that particular moment, say, “Lord, I need some food here, and you’ve promised to lay that table before me.” Again, that’s that situation where you’re in darkness, but there’s light that’s coming through, and God is feeding your soul with something that’s true. Folks, I wanna be one of those that just believes his Word, in the face of whatever comes.

“You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.” But here is the conviction about this. He’s talking, first of all, about all the circumstances of life. Some of them are pleasant, some of them are not. But God’s always with me. I always have what I need. So where are we going with all this?

All right, surely, that’s an awesome word to begin that verse 6 with, isn’t it? “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, all the days of my life,” every single one of them, every single one of them, even when you can’t see it or feel it, “your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell….” Boy, that’s a pretty strong, clear statement.

But do you see the basis on which he could make that? There was a relationship with a God who had made himself known, and basically said, “I want a relationship with you, but this is how it’s gonna be. You’re just a sheep, you don’t know. You can’t really provide for yourself. You don’t know what your purpose is here, and I do. And you need me to guide your steps and tell you where to go to give you what you need. And that’s what I want.

“And I’m doing it, not because I wanna be somebody, some big shot, and it’s all about ego. This is because my nature is to love you and to care about you. You could be the smallest and weakest sheep, but I care. And not only that, I’m not gonna lose you.”

You think the Lord’s gonna forget about one of his? You think we’re gonna be lost in the shuffle? A God who can track every hair on my head, and the ones that have fallen out, knows about every one of them, he can handle it. He can keep up with me. I need him to keep up with me, I need him every hour. Praise God!

“Surely,” now he’s looking forward to the things that will happen in the rest of his life, and based on everything that he said so far, and his conviction about about the Lord being his Shepherd, and lacking nothing, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” And it doesn’t end there, does it? “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Praise God!

Is that the conviction that is resident in your heart and your life today, wherever you’re at in your life? I pray that God will just burn that deep in my heart, and yours as well. This is what he wants. And if you haven’t come to that, you have every right to reach out to him. “He that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently or earnestly seek him.” I’ll tell you, God will never turn away an honest -seeking heart. You have every right to come to him, and lay your cards on the table and say, “Lord, I need you. I can’t run my own life, I just need you. I need this relationship.”

He wants it more than you do. Do you understand that? I thank God that he’s so merciful, because we’re just like the sheep, sometimes we wander in our own way, we get into briers, we do all kinds of stupid stuff.

But anyway, I’m so thankful, and there’s nothing revolutionary here, but I just felt like the Lord wanted to remind us of something that’s pretty important, don’t you think? Talk about living in a scary world, an unpredictable one, but I’m not alone. The One who made this world is my Shepherd, and he has foreseen everything that I could ever possibly need. And he’s made it available, and he made it available through the death of his Son. (sighing) I can trust somebody like that.

Does that define your life? I hope it does. But right now you have every reason to have a heart of joy, and thankfulness, and expectation, and that light, I can put the future in his hands. That’s his job, to work that out, to mark my path out and take me through it, because I know when the, like I say, when we get on the train, we’ll have the ticket.

But he also wants me to be able to leave that past, and live in the is, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” There’s something that’s very present. It’s also a very positive statement though, the is. That’s the other thing, it’s not just a time thing. This is a positive statement, “The Lord is,” this is positive, this is real. This is not just some fantasy that I’ve come up with. The Lord really is, right now, he is my Shepherd. He is the one to whom I look, and I lack nothing.

What do you lack this morning? And maybe we need to look up, maybe this needs to be a little more real so that we’re able to say, “Lord, you know what I need right now, and I’m looking to you in confidence because I know I don’t deserve anything.” I don’t, I can’t come and say, “Lord, I deserve this.” We’re gonna have to come on the ground of what Jesus did, but we can go to that throne and find mercy.

Anybody here need mercy? Yeah, but we can find that there, can’t we? You go right past all the courts of the world. I don’t care what it is, every human institution, we go right past that to the throne that rules the universe, and find mercy and grace, to do what? Help us, when? In our time of need. Thank God!

You think he’s gonna run outta strength? You read the last part of Isaiah 40, he’s got all the strength that he needs, and he’s more than willing to share it. I’m just so thankful to have a Shepherd this morning, aren’t you? I’m just to be able to, I’m so thankful to be able to leave the past in his hands, and leave the future in his hands, and just say, “Thank you, Lord. You are what I need right now, and I have everything that I need, and I’m trusting in you.” To your name be glory!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1607 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: There are choices being made today that have eternal ramifications. How many know what happens when people persist in pushing the Lord aside, rationalizing their way around this thing that really has…really is the idol that my heart worships? That’s really the thing that’s most important to me that I just won’t give up. I can’t lay that down. You cling to that long enough, when the Lord comes calling, what happens? What happens? There comes a day when the Lord takes His hands off!

How many of you think that you can come to the Lord when He stops helping you? We’re saved by grace. Grace is the divine help that I need to believe and repent. That’s central to it, because I can’t do that. I don’t even have the motivation, the strength. I don’t have anything that it takes to do that. I need God’s influence upon my heart and His strength to do it!

Now, He doesn’t force me to do it. But He makes it possible for me to respond. And if I don’t respond, and I resist that, as Hebrews says, and do, “…despite unto the Spirit of grace” (KJV), despise it, resist it, there comes a day when the Lord says, you’ve made your choice.

The world is in that place. Not only is it in that place, how many of you know that the majority of the world has made its choice? The Devil is…his objective, in this hour, is to unite the world against God. That’s something he has not been able to do, because God absolutely put a limit on him. Through the cross there was a victory that was won. He has not been able to unite the nations of the world and absolutely drive the influence of God out of this world. He’s not been able to do it.

But there comes a period, at the end, where the Lord says, all right. I’ve spoken with the world, I’ve sent out the Gospel, I’ve reached out to the hearts of people. Now…now you’re all gonna come into a valley and make your choice. And I’m gonna let the devil loose to do what he…to follow his dream, and, of course, we know how that turns out. Just when it looks like he has won the ultimate victory, the Lord comes on the scene. Fire reigns down. There is no victory that this devil can win.

But I’ll tell you, we need…I just pray for, I pray for everybody that hears this. Think about some of the examples that we have in scripture. I looked up three references this morning. I’m not gonna look them up. I can just tell you, but Paul had an associate whose name was Demas. How many of you remember Demas? Two different letters, Paul is giving his greetings from people who are with him. Luke was one of them in both cases, and Demas was one of his fellow workers, fellow worker of the apostle Paul.

But there was something down in Demas’ heart that was the true idol, if you will, the true god over what he wanted to do. And so there came a time when Paul had to sadly say, Demas has forsaken me. Why did he do that? He, “…loved this present world.” There was a long time he was an associate of Paul, went through so many things with him, labored with him on the outside, but inside, there was a heart that had never surrendered!

Praise God! I’m want to…I’m hoping that this will get across in two ways, that this will get across the seriousness and the absoluteness of the Gospel on the one hand, but it will also not discourage or make fearful a saint who has a tender conscience and looks at their own weakness and says, oh God, I must be one of those that’s lost!

God wants you to know that He has everything you need. Jesus Christ has given us, is all that we need! Thank God! We’re none of us saved based on our own ability, our own strength. It’s all Him! But it has to be given to Him, doesn’t it? You can’t have something that you hold on to in your heart.

Think of Judas. Up until the Last Supper, the disciples had no idea, the rest of them. They were all sent out to cast out devils, to heal the sick, to preach the coming Kingdom, and there was Judas right among them. But there was one problem. He loved money. Very similar to the rich young ruler, isn’t it? He was there when the rich young ruler was…you know, did what he did.

I’ll tell you, you can get your conscience so seared in a certain area, if you’re not careful. If we ever stop listening to God’s voice in certain areas of our lives, we get to where we can’t hear it anymore. But that man loved money to the point where he was willing, ultimately, to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. My God, what a…I mean, he realized what he’d done. He killed himself, but you think about the seriousness of this.

You contrast that with a woman who was from Moab, one of the enemies of Israel, heathen worshipers, and you remember the story of how Naomi, and her husband, and their sons went over to Moab during, I guess it was a famine of some kind, some kind of problem. And, the men married Moabite women. And the famine ended, and all three of the men died! So Naomi goes back…gets ready to go back to her native country, and the girls love her, want to go with her.

And so she says, please go back, you have no hope coming with me. I don’t have a husband. If I had one, and I had sons, would you wait for them to grow? Go on back. Orpah went back, didn’t she? And it wasn’t that she didn’t love her, but there was something, in the natural level, that absolutely was more important to her than anything.

But what happened with Ruth? Entreat me not to leave you, nor to follow after you. “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.” (NIV). Does that sound like 100 percent identification? Is that what the Lord’s looking for from every single one of us, folks?

This is the valley of decision. There are only two exits out of this valley. One of them is the path of self will where we’re gonna cling to something that comes from our own nature, regardless of what it is. It could be just the desires of the flesh. It could be a religious desire to look good and win people’s approval.

It could be like the Pharisees. Did they think they were in good shape with God? Oh, they were confident in their own righteousness, but they had so closed their minds, their hearts, to what God was saying, His Son stood there in their midst, and they were absolutely blind, and Jesus wept knowing what was coming.

I wonder how Jesus feels right now, when He looks down at our country. Do you not know that judgment hangs over this nation, not just this nation, but the world?

( congregational response ).

To whom much is given, much is required. That’s exactly right. You know, some of the examples in scripture…one of them is one that should be close to our hearts, because it comes from the parable of the midnight cry. You had a situation where it was midnight. It was dark. You had a group of people. Every one of them was a professing follower, a believer in Jesus, because they were all gathered together waiting for the coming of the bridegroom. This was not people off doing their earthly thing. These were people who looked like followers of Jesus, followers of God, and there they were waiting.

And when the time came, half of them found out they did not have what they needed. They had made a profession. They had gone along outwardly, but the heart had never been surrendered! That’s what it comes down to. God had never come to live on the inside, and to take over the throne of the heart.

That’s what we see, and we’ve seen over the years. We’ve seen young people grow up, and all of a sudden, there’s a pull in this direction, there’s a pull in that direction. And sometimes you’ll see them…they’ll go there, and they say well, I can do that again. You’ve got your ideas. I’ve got mine. It’s been so many different ways, but I believe there’s a heart.

The same Jesus we were talking about this morning, His heart deeply longs for everyone who hears these words, to take seriously the valley of decision, because God has a day on His calendar, and it’s not gonna last forever.

And the people who make the wrong choice to follow their own earthly, natural desires, whatever the form…it could be one of these sexual perversions. It could just be self-will. It could be a particular mate, a particular career, a particular thing you want to do, possessions, pride. You name it.

Anything that comes out of human nature that takes the place, that is the central dominating principle of your life where Jesus would say, you lay that down and come and take up your cross and follow Me, and you go away sadly.

But what happens is so many people, as I say, rationalize that desire and feel like, it’s okay, Lord. I can still…I believe in You. I’ll serve You. If I make all that money, think of all the good I can do. Or…I can win this person to the Lord that I’m so interested in. I mean, it just runs the gamut, doesn’t it?

You think back about people that have been here. Do we need to reckon on this day or not? Do you think the Lord has a burden about this? “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” I have no idea what the dates are.

You saw this process play out in the life of Jesus. As I said, He foretold what was going to happen, because they didn’t know the hour of their visitation. They didn’t recognize it. And yet, God waited for decades, and there were thousands among the Jews who did respond. Praise God! They were the true children of Abraham.

They responded to the Gospel right in midst, right under the noses of all these religious leaders, and how did they respond? They persecuted, they killed! They did everything in the world to stamp it out! And there was an absolute divide among the people where people either chose to follow Christ 100 percent, or they absolutely chose to oppose Him 100 percent.

And there came a day when the Lord removed His people from Jerusalem. In this case, He warned them, and they left Jerusalem and they were in a safe place, and the Roman armies came around them, and judgment fell. You know, Paul told about the condition of the people. He said, wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.

It’s awfully easy to get kind of caught up in listening to the world, and almost being in tune with it, almost sympathizing with it. I don’t want a hateful spirit. I don’t want an angry spirit, but I want a truthful spirit, that’s able to tell people the truth in love, and say, Jesus Christ is Lord.

The only reason you were created in the first place was to love and to serve Him and to be part of a Kingdom. Every part of your natural being has been corrupted by a principle called sin. There is only one remedy, and that is that Jesus bore the guilt of your sins that you have committed when He went to that cross, and when He went down into that tomb, He took you with Him if you are really a part of Him, if you really identify with Him, you are laying your life down as surely as He did.

And only on that ground is a holy God able to come and take up residence in us and begin to live His life in us. Or as we sang this morning, it’s Christ in us, isn’t it? That’s the only hope I have this morning. The further I go, the more I realize that I am utterly, utterly unable to live for Him. I have nothing in me to which I can look and say, there’s the strength that I need. There’s the resolve. There is this, there is that. There’s no goodness, there’s no nothing in here but Jesus that I can look to. Is He not enough?

( congregational response ).

Oh, thank God! But this is an hour when people are making choices. And I just want to say, all I can do is put this out there. If there’s something disturbing you this morning, you need to pray. You need to call on God from the depths of your soul and ask Him to give you an honest heart, because if you are in love, or you are married, as it were, to whatever it is your natural being desires to the point where you’re gonna find a way to rationalize that, you’re gonna wind up married to that, and totally unready, totally shocked when Jesus Christ returns, and the fire begins to fall. That’s what’s coming, folks. That is how serious this is.

You know, Paul, when he talks about a living sacrifice, he says, “…be not conformed to this world: but be…transformed…” (KJV). That’s what God has called us to. And I’ll tell you, if you listen to the voices of the world, you listen to these…particularly, these companies that are behind the message that is being trumpeted in our land today, you listen to that, you listen to your friends and the logic that they have to justify what it is that they want to do, if you listen that and let it affect you, is that a good thing?

You see the warning? You see where that leads, where God has literally…this is a time on God’s calendar when men have been called into this place where they’re being told to…all right, make your choice. This is it. You’re either going to bow down to My Son and worship Me and let Me have your life and let me make you fit for My Kingdom, or you’re gonna cling to your nature, and you’re gonna perish with this world. That’s what…that’s the choice that’s being made.

And I’ll tell you, the people who, in one sense, need this the most, they’re not gonna be able to hear it. So many ears are already shut. They can’t hear, just as they didn’t…if they couldn’t hear the Son of God when He spoke on earth, how are they gonna hear Him now? But there are people who can hear this, and I pray for everyone that has ears to hear in any sense. Listen. Call upon the Lord when He is near. When is the day of salvation?

( congregational response ).

Today is the day of salvation. “…Now is the accepted time.” I’ll tell you, when He speaks, and you find a way to deflect that or say, not now, or, I’ll bargain with You, Lord. If I can do this, then, I’ll serve You. Basically, that’s no.

Do you know, do you absolutely know that if you do that, if the Lord will ever come back? That’s a sober thing. I thank God He’s merciful. I thank God He knows, and one thing I see that God is going to reach out, and He’s going to save the last one that will surrender. He hasn’t forgotten anybody. His mercy reaches out and reaches out and reaches out.

He does say, “My spirit shall not always strive with man.” But boy, there’s a striving beyond anything that you and I would do. If we could see, with His eyes, everything that’s going on, man, I think we’d be ready to just pour out fire and brimstone right now. But God is so merciful to reach out.

But there will come a day when it will be everybody, you know, “…he that is holy, let him be holy still.” “He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.” Let him that’s wicked, be wicked still. Every choice has been made. When that happens, there’s nothing left but for God to send His Son to gather His people out of this world. And everyone that’s left behind is going to perish, and then there’s nothing but judgment that follows that.

“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” (NIV). If you are in a valley of decision today, I pray, and believers, pray…if you’ve come through that and given your heart to Jesus irrevocably, you’ve laid it down, there’s no taking it back, pray for those who are in that valley of decision that God will, absolutely, press home the claims of the Gospel, that there will be an honesty of heart about issues that would stand between any person and surrender!

It doesn’t have to be just riches. It could be anything that flows out of this nature. My God, we need Him. Don’t be one of those like the foolish virgins that gets there, and you think, oh, I’ve been in the Bible Tabernacle all my life. I’m good. If you’ve got no oil, you’ve got no life. Jesus has not taken residence in the heart. He’s not possessed the heart.

There’ll be issues, there’ll be battles, but He will take you through every one that you face. He’ll walk with you through life. He will give you so much more than you think you’re giving up. You won’t even be able to imagine it. It’s worth everything to be born again.

( congregational response ).

But if you’re in that valley of decision today, my prayer and our prayer needs to be, oh God, press those claims until they are met with real faith and surrender. And I’ll tell you, there’ll be something to shout about today.

There are two exits out of that valley. One of them is to destruction. The other one is to life that never ends. Thank God that we have a hope in Jesus, because we don’t have one in ourselves. But oh, it means handing Him over the ownership, the throne, any way you want to put it, of our hearts, and letting Him lead us step by step, and He will.

But I pray for God’s people that they will live with the realization of where we’re at, understand the time of history, what’s going on in the world. There’s no point in just getting angry about everything that’s going on. It’s gonna be worse than this before it’s over.

You might as well just say, Lord Jesus, give us courage. Give us strength. Give us wisdom. Help us to shine. Help people to see Jesus in us, not anger. Help people that have a capacity to see light, to see it in us. And help us to be of one heart and one mind and not allow the devil to come in in any form, and hinder the presence of Christ. We need Him like we’ve never needed Him before. Has He not promised never to leave us or forsake us?

Praise God for the hope that He has given to us! But I can’t just walk away from the sense of this valley of decision. Anybody who hears this, anybody who’s here who is in that, I pray with all that I have that God will just convict your heart to the point where you will come down and just give it to Him, whatever the issue is.

What is it that’s holding you back? What is it that would hold you back? See if there’s something that holds you back from doing this, that’s your god. That’s your god. And some day, if you hang on to that, you’re gonna stand before Jesus Christ, and He will say, do you remember when I talked to you? I offered you life, and you were more interested in that boyfriend, that girlfriend, that whatever it was, and you chose that over Me. Do you want to be in that place? I pray that God will bring the conviction of His Spirit where it’s needed this morning. I praise Him for His goodness. Praise the Lord!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1603 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: It’s interesting the number of times in scripture, and I don’t want to make an exact equivalency out of every one of them, but where God’s people actually went to God in prayer and talked with Him about judgment that was pending…and in some cases, postponed it.

Now, Abraham is an example of somebody who went to God on behalf of Sodom and, of course, the situation had gone beyond that point. But did not God say, yes, if I find as many as ten, I won’t destroy it? So, He’s listening and responding to the intervention of…to somebody who’s reaching out and saying, oh God! And you see this throughout history.

You see Moses…you remember the time when things got so bad, I think it was in the wilderness, was one of those many incidents, when the Lord said, stand aside, let me destroy them. I’ll make a greater nation out of you and Moses said, no! What about Your great name?

You can argue the theology of that. I believe God was testing him, but the heart of Moses was an expression of God’s heart. It was, Lord, I know we don’t deserve it, but God show mercy! Lord, for the sake of Your great name, forgive, pardon. Lord, if it’s necessary, I’ll give my life so they can be spared. Wow! What an expression of God’s heart came through a man.

And how many other times do we see it? We see…I mean, do you remember how after Solomon, who kind of drifted away from all that he’d had as a young man, started giving into idolatry, actually established heathen places of worship for some of his wives, who led him astray? And then God tore the kingdom apart. The northern kingdom of ten tribes established their own government, and from day one, they worshiped idols instead of the living God. They never did ever come back to God.

He sent them Elijah, Elisha, all kinds of situations. Foreign governments came in. You name it. God reached out to them for generations. He judged their sin in so many different ways, and they still hardened their hearts and refused to hear. Finally, He said, it’s done, sent the Assyrians in and dispersed them everywhere.

The southern kingdom was there in Jerusalem. But you look at the southern kingdom and it’s a checkered history. Over and over again, there were wicked kings. And even when there were good kings who actually, to one degree or another, they reached out and said, Lord, we want to serve You. We recognize You are our God. Oh God, help us!

God honored those who reached out, but the people out in the villages and out in the towns, they were still…idolatry was still in the heart. All it took was for that leader to pass off the scene and somebody else come in and boom, they were right back in all their wicked practices, sacrificing children, all the things that they did.

But it’s interesting how the history unfolded. I’m not gonna try to…I couldn’t even go through it. I’m not gonna try to go through all of that, but you remember how Hezekiah was a faithful servant, somebody who really reached out to God and established righteousness, did away with a lot of the idolatry, and they began to celebrate the feasts, they began to observe the law. He did everything he knew to do. And he reached the end of his life, and God gave him an extra period of time.

Yet, out of the heritage of that, his son Manasseh, came to the throne, or the next ruler of any significance was Manasseh. He ruled for 55 years. And the Lord said of him, through the prophets, that he had done worse, committed worse sins than the Amorites that he had driven out so Israel could have the land.

How many of you remember back when the Lord was talking to Abraham and talking about what was coming? One of the things He said…He talked about the Amorites. It was a particular group of people that lived in that area. And He said, “…the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” (KJV).

It’s like there’s a cup, and it represents the wickedness of a nation, and every time a nation acts wickedly, something more goes in that cup. And God was withholding judgment even from a wicked nation called the Amorites, because it hadn’t reached a certain point.

Do you see the hand, do you see the mercy of God that’s not anxious to judge, but wants to wait and wants to give people an opportunity? But here was a nation that was the nation of Israel, Judah at this time, became more wicked than the Amorites that they had displaced. And it reached a point where judgment was inevitable. They reached the point that, I believe, America has reached, where it’s not a matter of if, but when.

And the reality is, even Manasseh humbled himself toward the end of his life. How many of you know that? God allowed him to be so humiliated in battle that he humbled himself and began to actually undue some of his stuff, and acknowledge the Lord and all of that. But do you know that didn’t stop it? His son came along, ruled for about two years, and did exactly the same stuff that he did, got assassinated by some of his officials.

And then, Josiah came along. How many of you remember Josiah? What an amazing interlude in that period of history. So, here was a man, a young man. He was about the age of some of you or younger. And he had already been king a number of years. And the scripture says he began to seek the Lord, and it came into his heart to restore the temple and to clean it up and to get rid of all the bad stuff, all, everything that had to do with idolatry.

He even went back into the northern kingdom, and there were altars that had been dedicated to idols, and he burned bones of their prophets on those idols, desecrated them, did everything he knew to undo all this evil that had been done. They had a celebration of the Passover and all that went with it that was unlike any that had ever gone before.

This was a man with all his heart sought God. Do you think that stopped judgment? No, but it sure did postpone it. God gave them a space. Whatever was coming, it’s not gonna come while My servant, Josiah, is there. We’re gonna hold off on this.

It’s coming, and there were three or four more kings, and it began to unfold as Nebuchadnezzar came three different times to tear down the nation. Finally, he said I’m done with you. We’re gonna tear it all down. All of that was prophesied in the prophets. But you had godly people who intervened.

One of the scriptures that came to my mind was in Ezekiel. Ezekiel was carried away from Jerusalem with the first group. You remember how Daniel and his friends were carried to Babylon? There’s a whole bunch of people that were literally carried off into exile, and they settled in communities in Babylon. Well, Ezekiel was one of them.

And God began to give him all kinds of visions and revelations, and it was very obvious that he was somebody that God was speaking through. Even then, the people weren’t listening to him. But one thing that he said…I think you can look this up. I’m not even opening the scripture so far. I’m sorry, I’m just talking, and just referring to scriptures, but I believe it’s in chapter 22 at the end of Ezekiel.

He talks about the conditions over there in Jerusalem, and how bad they are, and how much evil they’re doing. And it says, the Lord looked and wondered, there’s nobody to stand in the gap. He looked for somebody to stand in the gap and make up the hedge, plug the wall, different translations. But do you see what is happening, what God is looking for?

There’s another scripture in Isaiah. This is much earlier in their history…the same thought in chapter 59. All the terrible things that are going on, and nobody was standing up and wanting to do what was right. God is always looking for people that will stand up and do what is right.

And I tell you, we have a power to intervene, to make a difference in this country. We are not victims. We are here for a reason. How many of you think you’re an accident, that living now is just happenstance? Oh, this is just where I happen to live, and you know, God knows about me and all that. God is a God who plans. You and I are here because of a divine appointment.

You know, one of the scriptures that I said, another one that came to me, as I’ve thought about all of this, meditated on it over the last several days especially, how about the story of Esther? The Devil had a tremendous plot, in this case, that he had hatched against Israelites, who were still, at this point, they were scattered through the empire that followed Babylon. The Medes and the Persians had this empire, and a lot of the Jews were still settled among them.

But this wicked man named Haman got it into his heart, not just to punish the guy who had disrespected him, but to exterminate the whole bunch. Where do you think that came from? That came from Satan. That came from the heart of Satan, who hated anybody that represented God to any degree.

And the people got wind of all this. They began crying out, but you remember what happened, don’t you? The Lord had placed Esther as queen. Do you think that was an accident? That was no accident. God had His hand…the king did not even have a clue what her background was, probably didn’t care. She was the one that caught his eye and just captured his fancy. And God was behind every single bit of it, raised her up, prepared her in every way.

And so, you remember the story of how her uncle, Mordecai…I’m trying to remember. Don’t get old! But you remember how Mordecai, her uncle, was mourning, and she’s trying to find out, why is he doing this, why is he acting like this? She sent out one of the servants to find out, and finds out the whole story.

And he sends back word and says, go to king and plead for us. And she says, you can’t do it. It doesn’t work that way. Anybody that walks into the king uninvited, it’s automatically death unless he extends the scepter. I am as good as dead if I go in there. I’m not messing with that.

But do you remember what message that he sent back? Who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? “For Such a Time as This,” is not a bad title. For such a time as this, you and I have come here, just like Esther did. And she got to the point where she said, if I perish, I perish. Let’s pray. I’m gonna go into the king, and I’m gonna plead our cause.

Do we not have the right to call upon God on behalf of the nation, on behalf of its people, on behalf of the purposes of God, for us, but not only for us but for others that He would still reach? God’s not through. I don’t believe we’ve gotten down to that point where we’re gonna hear that trumpet this afternoon. We’re here for a time and for a purpose, to reach out to God and to cry out.

One of the things that’s interesting is in the life of Daniel. You go back and read the beginning of chapter nine, and you find out where Daniel reads the prophesy of Jeremiah, which was just a generation or so earlier, that says the captivity is gonna last 70 years, so, what does he do? He sets aside a time of fasting and prayer and goes to God.

And he starts confessing the sins of Israel, and he doesn’t say, those bad people did all this bad stuff! He says, we have sinned. If you’re an American, America has sinned. We can go to God and say, God, we’ve sinned.

And Daniel’s appeal to God was not, oh God, we deserve another chance. It’s, oh God, the only basis upon which I’m coming to You is because you’re a God of mercy. I’m not appealing to You on any merit of ours. I’m appealing to You because of Your mercy, Lord. Please show mercy. God, fulfill Your Word.

I know there’s a lot of people out there that, and I confess I have reacted with mixed emotions when people have pulled out 2nd Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves…and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (NIV).

And I think what I’ve reacted to is the notion that, for many people, it’s, oh God, if God’s people will just cry out, everything will get back to normal, and we’ll live a prosperous, happy, comfortable life. That’s not the heart and the purpose of God. Sometimes, we get that as a bonus. We have for many years.

The other thing is the equivalency some people make with Israel. Well, we’re not Israel. We’re America, but we have a responsibility to the heritage that we have been given. God has allowed us to have a lot of divine principle baked into our culture, that is being canceled and rebuked and shut down, right and left in our nation today.

But I’ll tell you, we have every right to go to the highest court in the universe, and to make it a matter of genuine prayer, that God will forgive the sin and will show mercy to this nation, will give us some time, not more time to sleep, but time to be about His business, that He will reach people, that He will reach right into the halls of some of the very people who are our worst enemies, spiritually right now…that He will reach in there and pull some of them out of the fire.

Did not Jesus say, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail…” (KJV). Satan will put up gates and try to trap his people inside his kingdom. Jesus has the power to reach past that. There are people that He wants to reach, but just as Satan uses people to accomplish his purposes, so does God.

And I believe this a time when God’s people need to wake up and cry out to Him and say, oh God, this nation has, indeed, rebelled against You and is deserving of judgment. God, we appeal to You for mercy! Forgive, help us, raise up voices among Your people. It’s not about the Constitution. It’s not about all this other stuff. It’s about the Kingdom of God!

( congregational amens ).

You notice the prayer that we referred to so recently, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” But what about…you know, it gets down to our needs, as individuals, doesn’t it? But, before that, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” That’s what needs to be the heart of God’s people, at whatever level it happens, whatever…I mean, we are among the people of this planet like leaven. We have the power to influence, to slow down things, to create opportunities for the people that God will reach.

May God give us the faith and give us the burden to cry out. What a song we sang about our land, heal our land. This land is in horrible, spiritual shape, but God has a remnant. Even though much of this, much of what purports to be Christian religion is false, there is that which is true. God has His people.

And I believe there’s a burden that’s being shared among many right now, that we are at a tipping point. If God’s people just sit back and let things happen, it ain’t gonna be good. We have an opportunity to band together in the spirit and cry out to God and say, oh God, intervene…God, may Your purposes in this hour be fulfilled. May every one that is Yours come.

Work in our hearts, help us to see what this world is about. It’s a temporary place in which God is calling and gathering a people. Yes, there are people right and left who are making choices. They are coming to that final crossroads and they’re saying no to God, and they’re going down this road. It leads to judgment.

I don’t know how many of you remember it, but there was a…we’re not quite to this point yet, but we will get there. There was a vision given, very plain, just about 50 or 51 years ago in our church, and it showed America and its judgment. And it showed the entire nation on fire. I don’t know exactly what and when and all of that, but I do know that’s what’s gonna happen when the whole world comes to an end. Thank God, just like Sodom and Gomorrah, God will get His people out, and then judgment will fall. That’s where this world is headed.

But in the meantime, are we here for such a time as this? Has God ordained that you and I live right now? Has He given us nothing to do but circle the wagons and wait for Jesus to come? Or can we actually intervene? Satan has witches that are trying to intervene. We have the power of the Son of God who lives in us. We have power to make a difference if we will.

I just pray that God will help me. I mean, of all people, I’m probably the last one to get up and say some of these things. I’ve seen them, but like I say, my own tendency is just to, oh well, there’s nothing we can do. But there is something we can do. We can live for God. We can live out the purposes for which God has placed us in this time, in this place, in this hour. And ask Him for the grace to be faithful until He comes, because that day is drawing ever nearer.

The things that God has shown us are unfolding. We are seeing Satan loosed. He’s being loosed because people are making choices to reject God. But God has a people, and we’re here to rise up and resist what is happening in the Spirit and fight.

Don’t you know there are angels of God who are at work? But, do you know that we have a part in their effectiveness? When we pray, angels receive strength to fight the battles. We’re gonna learn a whole lot of things when we get to the other side, but God has given people enough of a glimpse to know those things happen. That’s reality. We literally have a part to play.

May God give us that grace, and may His name be honored. Praise God! I didn’t even open this, but we referred to a lot of scripture. But I believe with all my heart, God has brought us to the kingdom for such a time as this. And may He give us the grace to live with an awareness of it, and to cry out to Him to intervene in what we’re seeing taking place in our country and in our world, not just that we might return to a comfortable life but that His purposes will be fulfilled, that everyone will come who’s gonna come. Praise God!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1602 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: I’ve had so many thoughts and they’re certainly not organized. All I can do is say, Lord, You’re gonna have to get out what You want. But my thoughts have run to…I guess, in a sense it’s a follow-up to the service that we had a few weeks ago about, “What is Happening?”

And, of course, that became the subject of the article in the MCM this time. And, I think the focus of that was on the fact that what is happening is not simply events in the human realm, but rather there is a satanic design behind it. And that’s certainly true, isn’t it? We see the hand of Lucifer doing everything in his power to bring about his dream of ruling over this planet and driving God’s influence out of it.

And, for God’s purposes…thank God He reigns in spite of whatever we see…for God’s purposes He is allowing these things to happen. And He’s allowing them for a reason. And, of course, we talked about that fact that this is satanic, and so then, how do we react to that?

But I guess my thoughts this morning go beyond that to what do we do? Because, I confess, when I see things unfold as they are and I’m at an age and a place where I feel my infirmities, I feel weak and tired a lot of the time…I think tired is my middle name, but thank God He’s got the energy I need. But, an easy reaction is, oh well, throw up our hands. You know, things are unfolding as they are. All we can do is hunker down and wait for Jesus to come.

But I believe that God has put us here for a reason. We’re living when we are and there’s a purpose in it. And it’s not just to sit here and do nothing. And, of course, you’ve got people out there that say, well yeah, we need to take to the streets. We need to get on social media. We need to pack guns. We need to do all kinds of stuff. And, I don’t believe those are the answers. But I believe God does have a place for His people in an hour like this.

Now, you might ask, how do we get to a place like this? What happens to bring it about? And the fact is, if you look through history you will see that nations have arisen and fallen throughout history. They have been…in the ancient world there was one empire after another and we even see, through the prophets, that God’s hand was in raising them up!

Nebuchadnezzar had the power that he had over the known world of his day because God gave it to him for a divine purpose. Part of that was judgment upon other nations. But then of course there came the time when their own wickedness caught up with them and God raised up yet another empire to tear them down. And we saw Daniel literally reading the handwriting on the wall. That wasn’t just an expression, that was quite literal. And it was that very night the Medes and Persians came in.

Well, they lasted for a while and then the Greeks came in. And then they split apart into four different empires that fought against each other until Rome finally took over. And you know, Rome had its day and you see this throughout history that God has allowed nations to rise up, within His purposes, but then He has judged them for their wickedness.

And nobody exemplifies that more than Israel itself. Israel has a unique place in history. And God raised them up to bring forth the prophets, to reveal Himself, not just to them but through them to the nations, and we see Him doing that. You read the Old Testament prophets and the history and you will see that it wasn’t just to Israel that the prophets were sent. They were sent to other nations as well and other nations recognized, hey, if a prophet of Israel says something, you better listen.

And so, we see Jonah traveling way out into modern Iraq, to Nineveh and the people immediately just take warning and they listened and they humbled themselves and God changed history, didn’t He?

And so…but we see this pattern come forth in Israel is where I started, where they had access to the Word of God like no other nation. And how many of you know that the scripture says to whom, “…much is given, of him shall be much required…”? (KJV). And so, Israel had a responsibility that went way beyond the other nations around them. Yes, God judged them. But He judged them based upon their reaction to the light that they had.

But Israel had prophets sent to them generation after generation after generation. And yet, the word of the prophet was, I spoke to you, I did all of this, but you chose what is evil. You chose to do what you did.

And, you remember last week we talked about the key to the Christian life is choices, that we have a God who has placed us in a place where we can make choices, if we will, but we reap the consequences of those choices. Those who yield to the flesh, what are they gonna get out of it? Corruption. Those who yield to the Spirit, there’ll be the fruit of life in us. And so, a lot of what defines our individual lives is built upon the choices that we make.

And it’s what we think about. That’s one thing I never really mentioned last week. What do you allow to happen in your mind that nobody else knows about? Do you realize we have a choice what we think about? That’s why Paul says, whatsoever things are good and honest and good report and all of that. There are choices that you and I make, but there are choices that human beings make.

There are choices that nations make, and God judges people based upon their response to His light, whatever it is, whether it’s a little or a lot. And God judges a nation for their choice to either accept or reject that.

And I believe with all my heart what we are seeing in this country is a fruit of America’s choices. How many of you believe that this is a nation under God’s judgment? We saw a shot across the bow, if you will, is what people have called it, 9/11. There was an act of judgment where God took His hand back and allowed us to be attacked in a way we had never before been attacked.

And, you know, we need to stop and realize where we’re at in history. If you go back to our beginnings, if you were to research it…and it’s out there for anybody to read that wants to…there is a Godly heritage in spite of all that has been wrong and all that is wrong in our nation.

There is a Godly heritage of people in the beginnings of this country, going back to the Colonial days, going back especially to the founding of the nation, of the government, of a recognition of God. A recognition that we live under His laws, under His reign, that if we respect Him and live with that acknowledgment that His blessings will be upon us and He will be with us. But if we ever depart from that, it won’t be so good.

I mean, George Washington was explicit in his inaugural address about that principle. You don’t have to go back to George Washington. Go back to Reagan. He made the statement something like this. If we ever cease to become a nation under God, then we will become a nation gone under. Simple, but truth.

And you go back…I mean, literally there are people who have documented the things that have been stood for, in our founding. You go back to the Constitution and its formation. It took a lot of people a lot of time to come up with our Constitution. And when they got done, someone was asked what they had come up with and it was a Republic, if you can keep it, was one of the statements.

But there was another one of the Founding Fathers who said this style of government, this Constitution that we’ve come up with will only work among a religious people. And, of course, he didn’t mean religious like I sometimes use it, but rather a people who respect God.

How many of you realize that during the Constitutional Congress, when they called people together to devise the Constitution, they were wrestling with different issues? In the first place, many of the delegates were ministers. They were a fruit of the first great awakening when God mightily visited this nation, back in the middle of the 1700s. God was…there was an influence baked into our culture, into our thinking, of recognizing that we live and operate under a God who is supreme.

How many of you know, and here’s a simple fact, how many of you are aware that there came times when they were devising our Constitution that they would come up against a sticky issue? How are we gonna handle this? What are we gonna devise to meet this particular need? They would literally call a halt, call a time, perhaps a day or whatever, of prayer and fasting to seek wisdom from God.

Can you imagine that happening in Congress today? You see where we’ve fallen? See what’s happened to this country? That’s our heritage. And for probably the first hundred years of our heritage, if you went to law school or you went to some kind of law training, the entire theory of law was this. There is a God who is supreme. He has laws that govern human affairs, as to what is right and what is wrong. Any law that we devise, anything that we stand for, has to first recognize that. That is over all, and under that we get down to the details, and so we make laws that respect those laws.

And somewhere toward the end of the 1800s that theory began to change, and all of a sudden, we become humanistic and, no, we’re gonna do things our way. We don’t have to recognize that stuff anymore and it just…they began to move away from that. And we have been moving away ever since.

And of course, we talked about…we talked about what happened in the 60s and the rebellion that occurred in the 60s. Well, the reality is the society we live in today the children and grandchildren of the 60s are our college professors, our newscasters, our entertainers and many of our politicians, and you go on from there.

People have gone into industry and business, and they’re still children of the 60s, people who no longer recognize that we are a nation under God. We have a major party that refuses to say those words. So, do you think that these facts have anything to do, perhaps, with where we’re at?

( congregational amens ).

Yeah, they have everything to do with it And you look back at the sins of ancient Israel that caused them to find the place…to find themselves in the place that they found themselves, facing judgment, one of them was idolatry! What do the scriptures say in the New Testament? How is idolatry defined? I mean, what is idolatry?

What would it be in our society? We don’t literally bow down to blocks of wood and stone and images. Most people don’t. You still see that in India. I’ve observed it but…what do the scriptures say? It says, “…covetousness, which is idolatry.” The materialism, the worship of money and stuff and all that comes with it, the power and the pride and all of that, we have been given over to that.

We have taken God’s blessings and worshipped the blessing and despised the Blesser. And we have imagined it is because of our goodness and our worthiness that we have what we have and we are what we are. God has allowed America to become the greatest nation, arguably, in the history of the planet. There’s never been one like it.

But we’ve got to this place because of God’s blessing, and for no other reason. We cannot look in the mirror, like Nebuchadnezzar did and say, look at this great country that I have built for my name and my glory. The spirit of Babylon…let’s build us a tower and us a city that’s gonna reach into heaven. God help us!

But we’re guilty of one of the great sins that plagued ancient Israel that God pointed out to them. But what about the area of sex and gender? My God, have we not rebelled against God and against the order that He established in the world? And it’s not just that people do certain things, but they glory in it. They have enshrined it in law.

Talk about no longer recognizing the supremacy of God’s laws? They have enshrined it in law and they are teaching it in many public schools, right down to the kindergarten level. You do what you want. It’s all about what kind of inclinations arise in you. It’s all good. And don’t dare say anything against it!

That’s where we’re at. You think God just is gonna sit back and say, oh yeah, I’m gonna bless you? God bless America. Folks, we have a nation that God has warned, that has rejected and renounced the God we supposedly recognize as supreme. The question is not if judgment comes, but when, and how?

And I believe with all my heart the things we’re seeing unfold this year are part of that…9/11 was. God knows what’s coming. And none of this is to minister fear. But I’ll tell you, we are seeing the repeating of patterns.

One of the things I’ve reacted to over the years are so many people making the equivalency between us and Israel. Well, we’re not Israel, but they’re not us, either. Israel had its place in the economy of God in that time, but we have had a place. We have had a sphere of influence on this planet. God has used America to spread His fame when we did what we were supposed to do.

I’ll tell you, how many people have read some of the effects of World War II? Some of the things the Lord did through that era. God used the United States to take down Japan, which was a stronghold of Satan. And because of that, and their defeat, and their disillusionment with their system, the Gospel found an entryway in there.

I’ve told you before about…as a young man…a boy, I guess, meeting the man who led the Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor. He was the commander. He was in the lead plane. Come on! Let’s attack them at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. That man later came to Christ, and became an evangelist. And I’ve still, somewhere…I’ve got a little New Testament with his signature in it, Mitsuo Fuchida.

And there are so many other tales that have come out of how God used people from this country to reach out, to break down walls. God knows how to take the events and the choices, the nations of this world, and to mold it all together to reach His, because God has a purpose! Satan does have a purpose, but God has a purpose, doesn’t He? The words of Jesus, “All that the Father giveth me…

( congregational response ).

…Shall come to me.” Thank God! That’s a positive statement. There’s not anyone gonna be lost. I remember seeing, years ago, on a TV network, they’re raising money and their pitch was, if you don’t give to us, millions of people will go to hell because you didn’t give.

Seriously? I’m all for supporting something that is getting the Gospel out, but my God is faithful! My God is not going to lose somebody because of me! If I mess up, He’ll have somebody else to step in, but God will save every one of His! That’s His purpose.

His purpose is not to bless nations in material ways and make that the center of anything. But God has a purpose to reach His people and they will be reached, and when Jesus comes, His Kingdom will be complete! Every seat at His table will be full!

And I’ll tell you, we’re gonna look back and say, Lord, how did you take that mess and make this out of it? What a great God you are! But the question comes again, what do we do about it?

It’s interesting the number of times in scripture, and I don’t want to make an exact equivalency out of every one of them, but where God’s people actually went to God in prayer and talked with Him about judgment that was pending…and in some cases, postponed it.

Now, Abraham is an example of somebody who went to God on behalf of Sodom and, of course, the situation had gone beyond that point. But did not God say, yes, if I find as many as ten, I won’t destroy it? So, He’s listening and responding to the intervention of…to somebody who’s reaching out and saying, oh God!

And you see this throughout history. You see Moses…you remember the time when things got so bad, I think it was in the wilderness, was one of those many incidents, when the Lord said, stand aside, let me destroy them. I’ll make a greater nation out of you and Moses said, no! What about Your great name?

You can argue the theology of that. I believe God was testing him, but the heart of Moses was an expression of God’s heart. It was, Lord, I know we don’t deserve it, but God show mercy!