TV Transcripts

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1453 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

 — Brother Phil Enlow: We need to understand what’s going on in the world in which we live. We need to realize the hour in which we live and the incredible importance of taking our stand with Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God! He is Lord! I don’t care what the Devil says, what he is allowed to do! Jesus Christ reigns!

And we need to never look at this world and be dismayed by what we see and say, oh we’ve got to fix it, we’ve got to do something. We’ve got to shine our light and not be ashamed of Jesus Christ in this world, and just take what’s coming and trust God to bring us through.

But there is a — do you see what’s going on? People hate the truth! I mean, you look back at — well, I mentioned earlier, the days of Noah — how often we’ve used that. It’s because Jesus used it. That’s what He said, this is what it’s gonna be like when I come — like the days of Noah. And what an amazing, amazing demonstration of God’s mercy and God’s love we see in spite of the terrible judgment that came.

We have the Lord’s testimony at the beginning of that particular account, that the thoughts and intents of men’s hearts were what? Only evil continually. It sounds like they were already in this condition, and God says, yet, there’ll be 120 years! We don’t have a God that’s rushing to judgment, that’s looking to kill people, looking to judge people. We have a God who is gonna reach out with mercy to that last soul that will hear His voice and embrace His Son. Thank God!

Folks, if you’re here today, this should not frighten you. This should cause you to find hope in Jesus Christ, because the smallest child that puts their faith in Jesus Christ is safe for eternity! God sees every heart and He is in charge! There’s not a devil in hell that can steal anything out of God’s hand. Thank God!

But oh, we see that awful time of judgment when God waited that 120 years and then finally the day came. Those who were ready were prepared. They walked with God. They listened to His voice during all — in the midst of all of this they stood with God and God made a way for them to be rescued out of that. I’ve made this point many times over the years. You know, so many people talk about being left behind and all that stuff that’s gonna happen. What happened to those who were left behind?

( congregational response ).

They died, didn’t they? All of them — every single one that was left behind died. Man, this is not one of those deals where you can say, I’m just gonna just wait and see. One of these days the Rapture’s gonna happen, then I’ll get serious because I’ll realize, hey it really was true. It doesn’t work that way.

There’s gonna come a day when — I mean, this is the day of decision. This is the day when men are choosing. They’re either gonna be with Jesus or they’re gonna be with the world. There’s a division that’s happening right now. It’s astounding what’s going on. I mean, how many of you who can think back to the days when the Lord was showing us many of those things, and we looked at the world and we saw plenty wrong. But how many of you could have imagined some of the things that are part of our daily life today?

I mean — imagine if Brother Thomas suddenly, not knowing any of this, suddenly stepped back into this, and looked around and read the headlines. It would absolutely — I mean — obviously, he’s in a position to know. But, my God, what an incredible down-hill slide. And we’re in the middle of it. It just kind of happens a little at a time, a little at a time. But you suddenly look back and see where you were. Man, we’re not just heading for the cliff, we’ve gone off the cliff. But oh, thank God, Jesus is in charge.

( congregational amens ).

Thank God! And I’ll just refer — there are so many things you could bring into this. I don’t want to belabor it, but I don’t want to soft-pedal it either. I don’t know, for some reason my mind went back to this. It’s just something we need to bring out from time to time, so people don’t lose sight of where we’re at — people understand why things are going on in the world.

Do you ever wonder, do you ever look and say, why is this? Why is God allowing it? What’s going on? Well here’s the answer. God is letting lost men choose what they want. Oh my, how we need Him! My God, how we need Him! If there’s anybody that’s got a heart that something is pulling you towards the Lord, something is still tugging at the heart, man, you better run!

You better run to the Lord, because, I’ll tell you, you’re gonna go through one of two doors. There are only two destinies. There are only two doors through which any human being can go. One of them is to bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, surrender to His Lordship, open up the heart, invite Him in as resident Lord and Savior, and stand uncompromisingly with Him! That’s door number one.

Door number two is to say, God, I am my own god. I reject Your Word. I reject Your life. It’s my life! I’m gonna do with it as I please. That’s door number two. Those are the choices! It’s God or the Devil. And we are seeing the human race, more and more, being divided into those two categories.

What do you think it’s gonna be like when Jesus comes? Do you think there’s gonna be somebody that’s just — it’s going to be total delusion on one side, total shock. And it’s gonna be — I’ll tell you, hands in the air. Praise God! The race is run! There’s gonna be a handful still here on that day who will get to look up and say, praise God, the day has finally come! Jesus is here! Justice is finally gonna be served! We don’t have to live in this awful place anymore! We’ve got Jesus coming to take us to another place. The same Jesus who came out of that tomb so long ago has now come as He’s promised.

Of course, there’s another door, isn’t there? And that door is in here. And that’s the one that Jesus comes to and knocks. And what determines everything, everything, is what men do when He comes. When He brings the conviction of His truth, what do we do with it?

You have this contrast drawn — down below He’s talking about belief in the truth and the other group, the saints to whom He was writing. So, you’ve got a group here that has believed the lie. And you got another group down here who’s believed the truth. So you see, it’s exactly the same thing Jesus was talking about. There is a truth that will come knocking on the door of every individual heart.

( congregational amens ).

And that truth will show you some things about yourself that you don’t want to see. It will show you that you’re a sinner. You’re not the person you think you are. It’ll show you that you are not ready to stand before Him. It’ll show you what’s wrong but yet it won’t do it in a condemning way. It will do it in a truthful way that lifts up. And I’ll tell you, once we are willing to humble ourselves to that conviction, then God will lift up a Savior.

( congregational amens ).

And say, but I have provided completely for you. I love you. I’m not showing you this because I hate you. I’m showing you this because I love you and because I’ve made a way out of this. And I’ll tell you, whenever that heart just lets go and opens up — opens that door….

You see, there’s a choice that’s involved. There’s a choice that is made at some point. Do I push Him away and say, no, or do I open the door and say, yes, You can have my heart. I’ll tell you one thing, this is not — this is not a deal where we’re interested in taking our young people and brainwashing them with religion. That’s no defense against this. Christianity is not a lifestyle. It’s not a set of beliefs you embrace, and belonging to a church, quote-unquote, and participating in its activities and carrying on a certain lifestyle. Man, there’s only one thing that God is looking for. He is looking to take up residence in the heart and impart a brand-new life.

( congregational amens ).

If Jesus has not come in, you’ve never been born again. Then you are gonna be swallowed up. If that never takes place, you are going to be swallowed up by this darkness that is overtaking our world. Sooner or later, it will overtake you and that is where your destiny will lie. Oh God! I don’t know, I somehow sense that His heart is reaching out and wanting to warn, wanting to cause people to recognize what’s going on in the world, because it is a time to choose. It’s a time when men are making up their minds.

I believe it’s a time when God is going to reach out and pull in a harvest in the middle of all of this. God’s absolutely not taken by surprise. There is no dismay in Heaven. There are no emergency meetings! God has everything exactly under control! But the way this is playing out is exactly the way it played out in Noah’s day and also in Lot’s day when he was brought out of Sodom.

Do you think there was anybody in Sodom that Lot could have gone to and explained all of this to? No! There was a point in time when their condition was sealed! There was nothing left to do but get Lot out and bring judgment!

That’s going to be the way it is when Jesus comes! There won’t be any gray area! There won’t be any middle ground! Everyone will have totally identified themselves with Jesus, or they will have identified themselves with the world and they will be blind and shocked at that moment when He comes.

That’s the reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe — now I noticed this years ago. It does not say they will believe ‘a’ lie. This is not just any old lie. This is ‘the’ lie. There is something specific. And if you will go all the way back to the beginning, what was the lie that the human race was sold?

( congregational response ).

You will not die. You will be as gods. You see the connection? There is a lie. If you will take an independent course, you will be like a god. You have the right to choose your own path, to do your own thing, and you shall be as gods. And you will have a race of people on this planet who will embrace that lie. And there will be people you will not be able to explain this to. Folks, we’re gonna have battle in prayer.

( congregational amens ).

We’re gonna have to fight with God’s armament, God’s weapons. We have the privilege of standing in an amazing hour. And we have a God who will bring His people through. He will never leave us nor forsake us, not ‘til the end of the age. But it’s a challenging time. We’re gonna have to trust people into God’s hands. We’re gonna have to pray, and pray that God, who alone can penetrate that darkness, will do it, and change hearts and break them out of the dungeons of sin that hold them in darkness.

But, oh praise God for what comes next! This is one of the glorious ‘buts’ of scripture. All of this terrible thing that He describes, this period of the time of the end that’s coming, when evil will be allowed to reign and find full expression in the earth — ‘but!’ And that’s a message to everyone here that loves the Lord and knows Him today.

“But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord.” (NIV). Doesn’t that sound good? He doesn’t say, all you righteous people who have measured up and earned your way into His favor. This is, ‘loved by the Lord.’ That’s the amazing thing, when people have embraced, when people embraced the darkness that is overspreading the world, what they are saying no to is not the anger and the dominion and the spirit of God that wants to take over somebody’s life and ruin it. It’s the love of God! They’re refusing it! They’re saying, I will not bow!

But for those who bow, it’s not to a tyrant, it’s to Somebody who loves us with an everlasting love. I’ll tell you, I believe there are a lot of hearts — I mean, this is the nature of things. God made us to love — to be loved. There are a lot of empty hearts out there, hearts that have been wounded. And God has the answer to every wound, every hurt, everything — it’s His love. I’ll tell you, when we open our hearts to that love and it begins to percolate out into all of the things that have affected us, what a glorious thing it is! Thank God! Loved by the Lord!

Because from the beginning God chose you to be saved, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit! You see God coming to work in our hearts, God coming to knock on our door, God coming to convict us when we’re going down the wrong path, God intervening with our lives!

You know what God said in Noah’s day — He said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man.” (KJV). But think what He is saying there. In spite of all of the things that were terrible, that were wrong with the society of that day, all the evil things that men were doing, God was still working! God was striving! God was there trying to resist, trying to convict, trying to speak! Man, what a God we serve! That God is still at work. That God knows how to work with a heart, knows how to reach us, knows how to set us apart.

“… Through belief in the truth.” (NIV). Folks, that’s what we have in the world. We have the lie and we have the truth. And it’s not just a set of doctrines. It’s not a philosophy. It’s not just words of — my world view versus yours, and they’re all equally good. This is, Jesus Christ who is the truth and this lie that Satan has peddled, that you are really gods, and if you will take the independent course you will find your destiny. And that is what will separate the human race into two camps when Jesus comes.

But, “He called you to this through our gospel …” Through the good news, why? “… That you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Folks, the challenge to God’s people is that we take an uncompromising stand, not a hard-hearted, finger-pointing kind of thing, but an uncompromising stand with Jesus Christ, that we live in this world that we live in with an awareness of what’s going on.

The messages that are coming through movies, the messages that are coming through the television, through, you name it. It permeates our society. It can soften our understanding of things, it can soften our convictions. But folks, we need to stand absolutely for the truth of God and pray for everyone that we have an influence in, pray for our young people, because it’s not enough just to be brought up here and taught the stuff that we teach. You’re gonna have to have an encounter with Jesus Christ.

You’re gonna have to have an encounter where you surrender your heart. You say, oh God, come in, take my heart. It doesn’t belong to me anymore. I surrender my heart and my life. That’s why You made me in the first place. You made me because You want to love me and live with me and for me to live with You forever and ever. And I see what You’ve done to make that possible. The nail-scared hands that were stretched out, were stretched out because of my sins. Oh, my God! That has got to become real!

( congregational amens).

It’s got to become personal! Every heart is going to have to make a choice when it comes to this issue. I am with Him or I am with the world. There is a line. We’ve use that analogy before, the line drawn in the sand. If we are not seeing that in our day, when will we? It’s almost been 50 years since some of these things have happened, about 50 years — since I was in college. It hardly seems possible. But I watched my generation just absolutely going over the cliff and just setting their hearts against God.

And then the Lord began to reveal what’s really going on. It’s not just something in society. There’s a power — there’s a demonic power that has reached out to men and God’s taken His hands back and said, all right. This is a time to choose, because men are choosing an eternal destiny. Folks, if you know the Lord, praise God!

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! As I say, you don’t have to be strong, you don’t have to be wise, you don’t have to be anything, except to trust in Jesus with all of your heart! He will bring every one of His through! We will stand! We will share in this glory that He has promised!

But there is coming a day when God is going to balance the scales of justice. The wicked things that we see in this world, they will not be allowed to stand. They will be brought to an end. There won’t be anybody that will be on the fence at that hour. Everyone will have made their choice. This is the time to choose, because I’ll tell you, there comes a time when God does take His hand off.

And I know the Devil loves to use that and say, well, you’ve gone too far. If there is something in you that has a desire toward God, you haven’t gone too far. That’s God encouraging you to put your trust in Him. The people that have gone too far don’t care anymore. They don’t have any real desire for God. If you have a desire for God, it comes because God’s at work in your heart and it’s because He love you. You need to latch onto that with every ounce of your being!

You need to say, Devil, get out of here! I don’t believe you! God’s touching my heart! That means He’s reaching out to me! That means He wants me! I want Him! I’m not gonna listen to you! It’s a momentous hour that we live in. I have no idea how long this is gonna go on. But man, is it not accelerating?

( congregational response ).

Do we not see a progression from day to day to day? It’s just mind-boggling! The headlines of today were unthinkable a year ago, some of them. And it’s getting faster and faster. But you know what, what did Jesus say? When you see these things, what are we supposed to do? Hang our heads? “Lift up your heads.” Rejoice! The day of redemption is drawing nigh.

We live in a momentous hour. But I just pray that everyone here, anybody that hears this, if you haven’t made your choice, if God’s knocked on the door of your heart, and you haven’t really made a clear-cut stand, you’re 100 percent with Him, man, you better listen to this!

( congregational amens ).

You better listen! This is God. This is not just me. This is God, reaching out because He loves you. Because if you’re not 100 percent with Him, then you are with the Devil. There’s no way to mix the two. You can’t have one foot in each kingdom. God is absolutely separating and we are seeing it, we’re experiencing it. But oh, the hope that He has given to every one who will put their trust in Him! Praise God!

Let’s go forward and look to Him and ask Him for the grace to stand in an hour like this, to never lose the sense that the God we serve, the Lord we serve, is on His throne! He will not abandon His own. He is going to come and He’s gonna come at exactly the right time. He’s not in a rush because He’s not willing that people perish, remember that?

( congregational response ).

See, it’s His mercy that’s holding back. It’s His mercy that is giving every possible opportunity to men to make the right choice! But there will come a day when that choice will end. And He’s gonna come and everything will wind up. And everyone will stand before the judgement of God. Oh, Praise God! I know I have no right in myself. There’s no possible way I could qualify myself for any of this. I stand by the grace of God!

( congregational amens ).

Everybody who stands at all, stands by the grace and the mercy of God who has done everything necessary to open Heaven’s door to us.

( congregational amens ).

So we have every reason to rejoice but we have reason to be sober too. Pay attention to what your kids are getting.

( congregational amens ).

Pay attention to what’s going on in schools, what’s going on in colleges. You have no idea how the Devil is at work. But I’ll tell you, God is at work too, isn’t He?

( congregational response ).
Let’s just cast our lot with Him 100 percent. Praise God! Praise God!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1451 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: But think about the life of Jesus. Again, how did He do what He did? Do you think there was this difference between, okay, Father, I know You’re there, thank God, overshadow Me. But I’m doing carpentry today, that’s just ordinary. I can handle this?

Do you see the problem? We think we can handle stuff. We think, based upon the stuff we know, that we can take that knowledge and translate it into godly living. And as long as we don’t steal and rob and do something really bad and really stupid, we’re okay. Is that what the Lord wants? No. Are we really, if we’re doing that, are we really living out the life of Christ? No, we’re not. We’re just living out a religious façade. And God wants every one of us that knows Him to be real.

And so, Jesus lived His entire life dependent upon His Father. We’re told in Hebrews, in one place, that He offered Himself by the eternal Spirit. You notice the agency. Notice how He did what He did. See, we’re talking about the ‘how.’ How did Jesus do what He did? He offered Himself, without spot…sinless…without spot to God, by the eternal Spirit.

But I don’t need that, I’m good. You see the problem. Jesus knew how it worked. He knew if He was gonna produce the kind of fruit that God was looking for, not just what looked good to men — He knew if He were gonna produce the kind of fruit that God was looking for, it was gonna have to be done supernaturally. He was gonna have to depend moment by moment upon His heavenly Father and look to Him, and He did.

And so, I mean, there were battles that He fought. There were all kinds of stuff He had to stand against. He had to cry out to God. Oh, God, if there’s any way, as we’ve said so many times, let this cup pass but, nonetheless, Your will.

So do you see from this passage that we’ve talked about, what the issues are? In the first place, if you’re just living by your natural life, and there’s all this strife and all these things going on on the inside, don’t lie about it. Don’t pretend everything’s okay. If you’re conscious of that at all, God’s trying to tell you something, and there’s something that He wants to change. This is not how I want you to live. I don’t want you to live this life of misery and anxiety.

Serving Christ is not meant to be an unbearable burden. His burden is light. How can it be light if I’ve got to measure up, if I’ve got to try? This is not a passage about trying. This is a passage about learning how to, not just know that He provided it all but how we access that? How does that become real in me? And there’s such a simplicity to it.

But you’ve got somebody that really is under the control of their old nature, and I’m lacking something…okay, God, here’s what I need. Is that what the Lord’s looking for? He’s looking for a heart that says, yeah, not only am I in need, but I’m on board with what You want. It’s not about my earthly desires. It’s about Your heart and Your purpose and Your desires. That’s what I want, Lord.

You see how easily the barrier comes. But if you come along to God, and say, God, I’ve been doing good lately. I thank You that I’m not like other men.

( laughing ).

And, you list off all the stuff you do. What’s God gonna do to you? He’s gonna resist you, isn’t He? He’s not interested in you coming to Him in pride.

So, coming and asking is at the heart of all of this, but Lord, are we so corrupted by our own ways and our own ideas that we get in the way? And, there’s God longing to give us all that He has provided, and we are blocking the way.

We are either not coming to Him out of ignorance in many cases…I think ignorance is a lot of it. We’re not conscious enough of how much it’s true that we can’t do anything without Him. We can’t be the kind of people He wants us to be unless we come to Him and have that moment-to-moment attitude.

It’s not like there are magic words. I think there’s something real in saying, oh God, help me, whenever we feel the need, but those aren’t magic words. If they come from a heart that says, oh God, I’m running into something right now and my attitude wants to be wrong. My motivation wants to be wrong.

Something is not right in here with respect to the situation I’m in…and I’m aware of it, Lord, and I see where I go wrong here. This gets me over and over again. I have a need here. Oh God, I come to You as one who cannot help himself. I’m not coming because I deserve to come. I’m coming because I’m in genuine need, Lord.

I don’t think there’s a person here who’s served the Lord any length of time that doesn’t know, can’t identify with what I said about coming to God when we’ve made a mess. What about the need that got us in that mess? You think maybe we need to have a greater sense, every moment?

It doesn’t have to be some issue that’s in our face. We can still have that attitude. Lord, I’m not here to do my thing. I can’t live this life, but I know that You love me. I know You’ve given everything so that I can have this other life. But Lord, I just present it to You this day and say, live in me.

Help me with the things that You know are coming. Help me to be the kind of person, to ‘be’ the kind of person You want me to be, not to do the right stuff, but to have it in here…to love, to seek unity, to seek harmony, to seek the welfare of others, to praise You, just to have a peace in here.

What a witness that is, when there’s a genuine rest. How can you have that? I’m gonna be proud? No, we’re gonna have to put all that aside. There are no grounds for that. There are no grounds for anyone of us to lift ourselves above the others and say, I’ve got it, I’ve got it. Look up at me. You look up at Jesus. He gave himself for everyone here. Praise God!

Think of the things that Paul sought. You know, Paul was a man who was in danger, many times. He enumerates some of the things that he’d gone through, the beatings, the imprisonments, the deprivation, all the stuff that he was called to go through to do the job that God had given him to do, and he did it with a will to serve and please God.

But when it came down to it, what was the thing that drove Paul to reach out to God? What was it that caused him to say, oh God, help me? Was it, oh God, get the beating off of me, get me out of jail, get me out of…was it that, or was it, Lord, I want to know You?

I want to know the power of Your resurrection, the fellowship of Your sufferings, conformable unto Your death. God, I see past, I see past just the knowledge. I see past the wisdom. I’ve got the understanding of what this is about and where it’s going. God, I’m in—I’m all in. That’s what my prayer is about. Oh God, I want to press through!

You think of David…even the Old Testament before a lot of this was laid out for us like it is in the New after Jesus came…David was in a lot of places of real problem, wasn’t he? He was running for his life for years and years. He always had people that were against him. Things looked pretty rough at times, and he’d cry out, oh, help me, Lord! My enemies are about to close in.

There’s nothing wrong with that! But yet, David found the heart to pray for other stuff. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” (KJV). “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me…see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

You see, David was not simply looking for answers to his natural problems. He was looking for the heart things that he knew he needed, because he was a man after God’s own heart.

Are you? Am I? Do you see that God is looking for a response, from every one of us, a greater awareness of our need? What do we do with that? Do we hold back and say, oh, He wouldn’t do something for somebody like me? Look at me. That’s the very one He’s looking to do it for. If you’re in need, we have that throne of grace. That’s when we come is when we’re in need.

But oh, the missing piece so many times is simply, we don’t come to Him and say, oh God, help me. And of course, you have to throw this in, because it gets down to the understanding of how God answers our prayers sometimes.

Now, we all know, and we will all…anybody who’s been here any length of time will snicker at this. But how do you get patience? See, I told you. We know that patience comes from tribulation or trouble. It comes from, literally, having to go through something that calls for something we don’t have, that causes us to reach up and say, oh God, give me the strength right now to endure. I do not have it within me, but You have promised it to me. And so, I am looking to you, and God will form something in you through that that could not happen any other way.

But that’s true for every Christian virtue. They come from the experience of life in a broken world that causes us to have to cry out and say, oh God, I’m in need. Lord, I see the lack that I have right now. I see this part of me that wants to rise up and react in a certain way, and I know that’s not You! But Lord, I’m coming to You. Make me the kind of person who looks to You all the time. Strengthen that part of me that keeps getting in that weak place, so that I don’t make the mess to start with, and then help me not to get proud.

Oh, there’s so much that He’s got to work on. Do you have any idea what kind of people we’re gonna be over there and what He’s got to…all the stuff He’s got to do? Man, only God can do it. I’m glad. I freely give Him the job. I learned a long time ago.

And you know, Paul, didn’t he learn the hard way? He tried so hard in Romans 7 to serve God and discovered the problem. Ah ha! As long…as long as we’re in these bodies, there’s a law operating down here that keeps me, makes it impossible for me to please God. Who’s gonna set me free?

What was the answer? It was a new life. It was a new spirit. It was a new heart that only God can bring. I’ve got to have a power that doesn’t originate in me. And to use that power, I’ve got to operate…to do what He wants, it’s got to be in harmony with Him.

Do you think there’s a God who will answer that kind of heart that reaches out to Him? That’s what He says here. Come near to God, and He’ll come near to you. You stay away, and you just keep doing your own thing, and God will sit there and watch you until you get tired of it. And He’s doing it because He loves you and wants you to come. He’s looking for a response. We cannot be what He has designed us to be without responding.

I’m gonna say this to people that don’t know Him. Has God talked to your heart? Has He made these truths real? Has He pressed them upon your heart that you cannot succeed in this life? You’re gonna have to know Him! It’s not about this world. It’s about His purpose and His Kingdom.

What have you done about it? Are you waiting for God to just pick you up and dump you in the Kingdom? God is looking for you to call upon Him, to seek Him from your heart! He will answer! But it’s those who call upon Him.

See, the problem with Israel, so many over all the centuries, God said, I called, but you didn’t answer. God is looking for a heart that responds to His grace. Don’t worry. He’ll give you everything you need, but you’re gonna have to say, yes, I’m in—I’m all in.

You don’t have to wait. If you don’t know Him, you can call upon Him right now from the depths of your heart. You call upon Him to save you, He will! But it’s got to be from the heart, it’s got to be with your whole heart.

Do we have any reason to think that God will hear the cry of people like us? You think? That’s what it’s all about! I mean, look at scriptures that we know about. Luke 11 certainly comes to mind. This is where we have the so-called Lord’s Prayer, and I won’t read all of it.

But then, He has the parable of the three loaves, and this is the guy who’s got a man come to him in his journey, and he doesn’t have any food for him. He’s got a rich neighbor. He goes to him, and he begs him! He knocks on the door at midnight! It’s a bad time.

And the guy puts him off and puts him off, and he sits there, and he keeps right on knocking. I’m knocking. I’m in need. What is the Lord trying to tell us there? That the asking is not necessarily just a…all right, I asked Him, He didn’t answer. There’s a persistence. This is, God, this is my only hope. My hope is…I’m all in, Lord. I’m not looking anywhere else. I have a need. You are the only One that can give me that need. I’m gonna stay upon that until You answer.

There’s something that does to us. It’s not that God’s reluctant. It’s what He wants to form in us by the very act of that kind of faith, that kind of persistence. And so, that’s what He’s getting at here.

It says, eventually, “…because of the man’s boldness he will get up…” this neighbor, “…will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you: Ask…” (NIV). And, what about the paraphrase we’ve heard so many times? Ask, and keep on asking. Seek, and keep on seeking. Knock, and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened.

“For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

You have not because…you ask not. Don’t let the Devil talk you out of asking of God the things that He has promised to give us! That’s what it’s all about.

Listen to how Paul prayed. A familiar passage in Ephesians chapter 3, I believe it is, the one I’m thinking of. There are so many things you could bring into this, but that’s not necessary. But Paul has been expounding the what, the how and the why throughout this whole passage. He talks about God’s eternal purpose, and then he says, verse 14, “For this reason I kneel before the Father….”

So, Paul, at this point, Paul’s praying for them, because they don’t know enough to pray for themselves. But God wants you and me, every one of us, to get this so we can say, oh, that’s what I need to be praying. This is my need. This is the missing piece. I can’t just sit there and come to church and expect everything to happen and be like it’s supposed to be. God wants me actively engaged and saying, oh God, I need You every hour. I sense this need in my heart. It’s not just my circumstances, it’s my heart. Lord, I can’t get it right, but You promised. I need You, Lord. That’s what it’s about.

“…I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your…” Circumstances? “…In your inner being.” That’s the crux of the matter. That’s seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness. He’ll take care of the other stuff. All right?

“…In your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Is this just for a special few, or does God want every one of us to begin to tap into what He’s given to us?

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!”

You know, Romans 8 talks about His purpose and the fact that everything works together to help fulfill that purpose. His purpose is to make us like His Son, but what does He say there? “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (KJV).

You have not because you ask not. Where do you start? Well, you start at the same place Brother Thomas used to say…where you’re at, with what you have, and where you’re not, with what you don’t have. We don’t have to do all this in one day. It’s a lifestyle of recognizing our need of God, what His purpose is, how we participate in that.

God, I need You. There’s something going on in my heart right now. I know this is not from You. I can’t fix it, Lord. But I’m asking. But I’m not just asking as though, oh God, You’re not gonna listen to somebody like me. I’m not measuring up. You’re gonna answer because I’m in need, and I’m coming to the One who’s able to answer that need.

You think this is the missing piece for any of us? Yeah. God longs to share everything. The problem’s not on His side. But He knows how the whole thing works, knows what He’s trying to do, and He is looking for people who come to Him with all of their hearts. If we seek Him, search for Him, we’ll find Him, when? When we search for Him with all of our hearts.

You see what God’s after? God will take us through things and past things that have been issues all of our whole lives. He can heal. He can change. He can do whatever is needed! But we’re gonna have to come to Him with that attitude. Oh God, I’m humbling myself. This is not groveling. This is not acting humble. This is genuinely…God, this is where I’m at. I don’t have to pretend this. I am weak. It’s the truth. And I’m just coming to You on that ground, but I’m also coming because You have invited me to come, and I know that You’re just longing to step in, and answer my prayer.

And so, I’m gonna believe You. I’m gonna step out in faith and believe that You’re gonna help me right in my present situation. And if there’s a time element involved, so be it. I’m just gonna keep that same posture before You every moment, every issue, every day, all day, 24/7, so forth.

I’m all in, Lord…but I need You, and I’m not gonna sit here and expect things to magically happen, because I believe in what You’ve told me. This is how it works. This is the wisdom of God that he wants us to actively reach out and take what He given to us for His purposes and His glory. Let’s bring Him the glory that He deserves. Praise God!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1437 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: You know, I’ve just been thinking about the service and my mind keeps coming back to a single word. And it’s an exciting subject called ‘trouble.’

( laughing ).

But I don’t know, it just seems to keep coming back to that and I think we all know what that’s about. But, I feel like the Lord wants to explore it just a little bit this morning and give us, maybe, a fresh look.

And I thought of a scripture, just as a sort of starting point, in the words of Jesus in John 16. Jesus has just been talking with His disciples. This is the night before He was crucified, giving them words of instruction, of encouragement, knowing that very shortly they’re gonna be frightened and scattered, but needing to have a sense that, hey, this is going someplace good, even though we don’t understand what’s happening right now. We know who this is and we trust in Him.

And so, Jesus says in verse 31…they reach a point where they seem to have a settled conviction as to who He is and we know you’re from God. And so, Jesus says, “You believe at last! Jesus answered.” (NIV). This is 16, if I didn’t say that. “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

Praise God! Isn’t that a truth that we all need to lay hold of? “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.” That sounds like a pretty positive, simple statement, to me, doesn’t it you? “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

( congregational praise ).

Thank God for that balance. There’s the overcoming, there’s the peace. So, you see that the Lord is dealing with a fact, isn’t He? I mean, we all understand that. That’s the kind of world we live in.

And you know, I looked up the word ‘trouble.’ I don’t think there’s anything revolutionary about it, but it’s used as a translation of several different terms and some of them are just simply the word ‘adversity.’ You could really substitute that word. Our nature wants things to be smooth, doesn’t it? We’re born into a world that is bent a certain way and our nature agrees with it. And so, by nature, we want things to be smooth, to be easy, to be…to have the soft wind blowing and going in the direction we want it to go, to have our desires catered to and everything to be pleasant.

And yet, we know from the Word, we know from experience, hopefully, most of us, that that’s not the kind of world, really, we live in. That world that we would try to be a part of, by nature, is headed for catastrophe. We talked about that last week. There is a day coming. And this is a very temporary thing. And God has a larger purpose in it than just smoothing our feathers and making life smooth and easy.

And so, I was just thinking, as I say, of exploring this subject and even this morning I thought of a way to talk about this, and the Lord will have to help me, as He always does, anyway. I certainly can’t do this.

But I thought about it from this point of view. Suppose you were from somewhere else, other than this world. And somehow you found yourself here and you arrive on the scene and you say, what’s going on here? And imagine you were also able to see, not only the physical world, but the spiritual realm. And so, you’re saying, I don’t get this. Somebody explain this to me.

And so, whoever’s explaining it to you says, well, there’s a God who’s over all. He’s everywhere and He’s all-powerful and He has a plan from the foundation of the world. And He created this beautiful place and He created a race of people that He intended to be His sons and daughters, to live with Him and to enjoy Him and to share His life and all of that, but they rebelled.

And so…and there was an enemy that He had. One of His servants was an enemy. And so, he led them in rebellion and now the world is under the dominion of this other…this wicked being who just causes trouble. And so, that’s where it’s at.

And so, your question, of course, is, well, my God, He’s all-powerful. Why doesn’t He just fix it? Why doesn’t He just step in and end all this stuff? And so, whoever it is that’s explaining to you says, well, now let’s watch. Let’s see what God’s trying to do with this.

And so, we see God having a purpose. Perhaps He’s calling somebody out of this world. And He calls them to Himself and He makes them aware and they give their lives to Him and basically, coming to Him is changing sides, because we’re all born as citizens of this world and our allegiance, effectively, is here. That’s it. Satan is our god. We may not think that. We may think, I’m doing what I want, but that’s…effectively, we’re serving him.

But I’ll tell you, coming to Christ is changing sides. It is recognizing that God has established a King, His Son on a throne, and He is in charge. And it’s also recognizing that this world has already been defeated. Praise God! We sang about it this morning, the victory that was won at the Cross. It’s real! And so, there is a Kingdom into which we have been called.

But yet, you might look from the outside and say, well, that’s wonderful! Praise God! All He has to do is just lift them out of here and take them there. He said, wait a minute, they’re not ready for that. I’ve got stuff that needs to be done. I have got a…not only have I got a place, a special place, for every single one that I make a part of my Kingdom, I’ve got a special place in this world that’s to come that’s just exactly…they’re designed for it. And so, I’ve got to work in them to help get them ready for that.

Okay, well that’s great, but what about here? He says, oh, I’ve got purposes for every single one of My children here, every single one that I’ve got to make changes. They’re so geared, in a practical sense, to their life here and what people want out of this world, and so, I’ve got to change them.

Well, praise God! Then let’s just let the sun shine and let’s let them go to Sunday school and church and learn all about it and that’ll fix everything, won’t it? But it doesn’t work that way, does it?

And so, what happens…so you have this…I mean, you’re sitting there watching all of this and all of a sudden you watch one of God’s children and you watch this devil come up and begin to cause them trouble. All of a sudden, they’re going along, everything’s just great and grand and they’re not doing anything particularly wrong, but all of a sudden there’s this terrible trouble that comes into their life.

You say, wait a minute, what’s going on with that? Why isn’t God stepping in? Why doesn’t He stop that? And he says, just wait and watch. And so, you see the person involved begin to cry out and to say, oh, God, I can’t handle this. Lord, I don’t understand. There are all the questions, all the things that come up. But what it does is stir people up to say, wait a minute, I need God! I need this One to whom I’ve turned. I can’t handle this! Lord, help me to understand what I need to understand. Help me to be set free from things that you see in me that I don’t see. But oh, God, I’m looking to You!

And you’re sitting there watching all of this and you’re asking about it, and you watch them begin to grow and you watch them begin to get stronger in their confidence toward God and their attitudes towards others and they begin to be changed.

And whoever is talking to you says, you know, it’s kind of like a sculptor. God’s creating every one of His children as a special masterpiece. Everyone’s different and God is absolutely working on each one. And you know on a sculpture there’s stuff that’s got to be chipped away, isn’t there? Everything has got to…something has got to change.

And so, God is taking things out and chipping them away, and the person who’s being chipped usually doesn’t get it. And so, we react and we say, oh, God, not that! And the Lord says, yes, let go! Exactly what Steve said at the beginning of the service. Let go, trust God, just surrender into His hands. He knows what He’s doing.

Now remember, we’re standing outside, and we’re looking at this from God’s point of view and whoever’s talking about this says, don’t forget, God planned all this before the world was framed. And here we are, we’re watching the middle of it. We’re seeing the outworking of something. And so, our question is, okay, so how’s it gonna come out? I still don’t quite understand what’s going on. How does this come out?

And boy, I haven’t thought this part through but I’ll tell you, wouldn’t it be something if you could jump ahead to the end of time? But whoever’s saying this, I’ll tell you, God has got this! This God who planned this from all eternity, He has absolutely got His hand on that person. He knows the plan. He knows how much to let the devil get in there. Do you know the devil can’t get in there unless the Lord lets him? So, if trouble comes and the devil’s brought it, don’t ever forget the Lord sent it! And He sent it because of a loving, wonderful, personal purpose. And He has a reason.

I mean, there’s nothing I’m saying that we haven’t heard many times, but I’ll tell you, seems like we need this. We need this because it’s not just the information, we’re every one of us in real situations. And the trouble we’re talking about isn’t necessarily just some terrible, outward thing that comes upon us. You know, our property is destroyed, or someone’s sick, or someone’s just died or it could be a thousand and one things.

It could be something that’s inside your own heart that you’re struggling with and nobody else knows about. But oh, it’s trouble. Oh, God, I’m struggling, I’m full of fear. I’m full of…something happened to me that was traumatic and it’s just eating on me and it’s sitting in there and I can’t let it go. Oh, it’s just…and it rises up and it begins to cause trouble in the present. It just goes into every facet of human nature.

You know, we talked Wednesday night…we sort of had a service of participation where everybody chipped in and boy, the Lord helped us, didn’t He? I was sitting there fighting it, saying no, I’ll let somebody else, and then I don’t know, the Lord just…He won. But what we did was to explore all the ways that the devil works, his bag of tricks, if you will. Or, “…we are not ignorant…,” Paul said in one place, “…of his devices.” (KJV).

But we’ve got this enemy of God who is so deceived in his mind that he is still trying to win. And all his…it doesn’t matter whether he even thinks he can. His nature drives him to do what he’s doing. He is going to relentlessly work.

But you know, I want us to see something this morning, perhaps in a fresh way. Imagine now you’re still standing out there and looking, and saying, but help me to understand what’s going on. Why is the Lord letting the devil do that?

And the answer comes back. The devil is only a tool. He is a tool in the hands of God to fulfill something that is absolutely eternal. It is a purpose that God conceived in His mind. Every one that He deals with, every person that He calls is someone that He knew intimately before He ever created the world. That’s mind boggling! To think that there are things in the depths of my being that I don’t even know as I ought, perhaps, but God knew them! What a God we serve, who’s able to take that…to take the tangled threads of this world and weave them into something that is eternal.

And I can just hear you saying, well, looking on this scene, boy, the devil must be awfully frustrated. He can’t possibly win and there he is. All he’s doing is spinning his wheels and everything he does turns out for God’s purpose instead of his. Praise God!

I’ll tell you…and isn’t it interesting how the Lord wants us to react in all of this. He prefaces what He says there, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.” (NIV). Peace. That’s amazing!

But you know, if we could see, if we could take the vantage point of that person who has suddenly arrived on our planet, trying to explain it, trying to understand it, if we could suddenly see from that point of view, wouldn’t that change everything? You know, we could actually sing, “He didn’t bring us this far to leave us,” and believe it, in practice.

We wouldn’t…we tend to sing these things, and it’s good and I understand we’re in the process, we’re growing, we’re learning so I’m not saying that in any condemning way. But you understand what I’m saying. We sing a lot of things and it’s good to profess them but possessing them is much…there’s a lot more to possessing something than simply getting information.

I’ll tell you, there’s a God who wants to do something in us that’s real, that’s practical. We could have the most perfect doctrine, the most perfect program that one could conceive and we would still have nothing of eternal value if God didn’t come in and really transform lives and hearts.

And I’ll tell you, the only way He can do it is to introduce what we call trouble in some form or other. And so, I’ll tell you, it’s not our enemy, it’s our friend. But if we can see, as I say, the way…from His point of view, we would have a peace that passes understanding. We’d be able to cast all our care upon Him knowing that He cares for us. “But take heart…” He says. “…You will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

And you know, you could sort of look at the lives of people in the scriptures. We know about events that happened. But wouldn’t it be nice just to step back…wouldn’t it be nice if we could step back and take the viewpoint of somebody who is able to see all the stuff that’s going on, not just the physical?

I mean, you think about the life of Jesus. He came down into the world that we live in. He came to a world of trouble and experienced it all, in one form or another. And so…I mean, this is not somebody that we can’t go to. This is somebody who absolutely knows everything you and I have ever experienced to the ‘nth’ degree and He is able.

You know, we practiced an old song this morning, “He’s Ever Interceding.” What a glorious, simple truth that God has given His Son and just…He didn’t sit there on a throne or direct traffic from up there. He came down. You think of the weakness, you think of the vulnerability, in a sense, of being a little fetus and then a little baby, completely helpless, completely dependent upon a human mother.

But oh, I’ll tell you, there was a God who overshadowed every bit of that. There He was, a little child and some wise men came from the east and they went to the…in all innocence they went and said, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (KJV). And the king got wind of it. He said, whoa.

Now what do you think was going on behind the scenes in that? Do you think, just maybe, the devil was trying to say, hey, I got a chance to do something about this? I know this was coming. Man, we’ve got somebody in here that I need to deal with. This is the Son of God.

So, what did he do? He came up with a scheme immediately to send to Bethlehem and let’s kill every baby under two years old. We don’t know which one it is, but we know we’ll get rid of Him if we do that. Now what was the inspiration behind that?

( congregation inaudible ).

Yeah! You see Satan intervening, but how about God intervening? Yeah! He sent an angel and said, get up…in the middle of the night, get out of here to Egypt. And so, they weren’t there. And over and over and over again you see this in the life of Jesus, how Satan is just constantly trying to find some way to get to Him, to undermine Him.

There were times He couldn’t go certain places because they were out to kill Him and it wasn’t the time, it wasn’t the purpose of God at that point. Every point…we see Jesus going out into the wilderness and at His weakest point the Father steps back and Satan is allowed to come at Him to appeal to His human nature from every possible angle. And Jesus went there and He prayed and He looked to God.

I don’t doubt that this was the place where the writer to the Hebrews must have referred to, certainly it was one of them. Where, “…with strong crying and tears…” He cried out, “…unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard…” There was some serious praying that Jesus did.

I wonder how serious we are, sometimes. But He understood the issues. He said, oh, God, I’m here to do Your will, I’m not here to do My will. I’m part of something that’s eternal and my whole hope, my whole trust is in You and I recognize there is a war that’s going on. Satan is being allowed to work in me.

And isn’t it interesting, that we pointed out so many times, that at that very scripture that talks about how He had to cry out and pray and He learned—learned obedience. There was something that Jesus had to go through to get ready to be able to do what He did. And it only came as trouble came. And trouble came because the devil…because the Father stepped back and let the devil do his thing.

But the devil’s purpose was to destroy Him, God’s purpose was to shape Him and make Him the Savior that we need and we worship today! Praise God!

So, the Father was changing Him and He learned, “…obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect….” Wait a minute, I thought He was perfect. But there was a completeness that made it…He needed a completeness that could only happen as He came here to the world of sin and trouble and overcame, personally, while feeling every weakness that you and I have ever felt. And He came through it all.

I mean, you talk about what He says right here, “…take heart! I have overcome the world.” (NIV). He knew that there was a victory that He had come to win. He understood the battle! He understood the Father’s plan! He understood His place in it and He yielded Himself to that place!

Is that not what God has called every one of us to in His Kingdom? To absolutely give our lives to Him so that He can shape us for what His purpose is, not only here, but in eternity? Praise God, I’m so glad that we don’t have to…that we can have an understanding. God wants us to get this because…well, I thought of a scripture, back in chapter 15, I think it is. I’ll just look at it real quickly.

In the first place, verse 16, Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you….” Praise God! Folks, if you have come to a knowledge of God…I’m not gonna go down the line where it’s all up to God and we have no responsibility. I’m not gonna go to that extreme, but I’ll tell you, there is a God who chooses. There is a God who calls somebody out of this world.

We didn’t go looking for Him. He came looking for me. I would never, in a million years, have gone after Him. I would have lived and died in blindness, if God had not overshadowed my heart and made Himself known to me and then given me the strength and the grace to repent and put my faith in Jesus Christ. I would never have done it.

And so, here is Jesus talking to His disciples saying, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” Praise God!

But look down later on. “Peace I leave with you….” Jesus was about to leave this world but He says I’m gonna leave something for you. I’m gonna leave my peace. He says, “…my peace I give you.” Do you think Jesus is worried? Do you think He has any anxiety about whether God can pull this off? Does He want us to live in a state of anxiety? Oh, my God, what’s gonna happen?

No, we have access to the very peace of God. Isn’t that what it says? Is He at peace? He knows what He’s purposed. He understands, the devil is My tool. He cannot win when it comes to My people.

Do we understand that? Can we come with all the things that…all the troubles that life brings, that God sends to work in us to help us, can we understand that to the point where we can let the peace of God, which transcends understanding…you can’t even understand it.

Sometimes it doesn’t make sense. How can I be at peace with this going on? And there’s the world…I mean, there’s the Lord helping us but also bearing witness to the world. They’re looking on and saying, I don’t get this. Maybe they’ve got something I need. Just one of the purposes of God.

“…The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I’ll tell you, we’ve got an awesome God and trouble is not our enemy. If we can understand the purpose of God, it is a friend that we can rest in God in.

I’m not making light of trouble. Trouble can be a traumatic, difficult thing. There are some terrible things that, from a human point of view, that God allows His people to go through, but I’ll tell you, there’s never a time, there’s never a place where if you’re His child He has left you for one second.

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1433 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: We have the same promise. What happened to Jesus is the promise! It’s the hope that we have been given, every single one of us. “Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep…” (NIV). That is, we will not all die. There will be people who are here when Christ comes.

“But we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” Oh, wait a minute. We’ve got the last enemy, the last trumpet. This kind of sounds like the end to me, doesn’t it? Yeah, there isn’t anything happening after this other than judgement and eternity.

“…In the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound…” There’s nothing secret about that, is it? “…The dead will be raised imperishable.” Wow. I need…I mean, that’s a miracle. Only God can do that. Only God can grant that kind of a life that cannot die, incapable of dying. “…Will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

How many here need to be changed? Oh, praise God! That’s the hope that we have in that day, and it’s coming. “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then…” at that time, “…the saying that is written will come true: Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

So, what we have now is a picture of Christ reigning. It’s not a visible reign to the world. It’s a case where He reveals Himself to willing hearts. He comes to make His home in those hearts. He goes to work in those hearts to change us, to prepare us for that time. And I’ll tell you, when the work is done that’s the day of Jesus Christ. That’s the time when He comes, and He gathers His people out of the world, and there’s nothing left but destruction. That’s the day. What a day that will be!

But you think about how sober and how serious it is. It’s an awesome for everyone that’s put their faith in Jesus Christ. It needs to overshadow every other consideration in our lives, because there is coming a day. Praise God!

But I’ll tell you, if there’s anybody who’s not serious, who hasn’t really ever surrendered the heart to Christ, you are in a place where you need—you need to hear the voice of the Son of God when He speaks to you, and not sidestep it and not say, but it’s my life.

You know, one of the things that Jesus said…now He didn’t quite go there in Luke 17. I’ll just refer back to it, because Jesus warned about this life that we’ve been given. How many times did He say this in His ministry? He that hangs on to his life, just put it in our language. He that hangs on to his life…what’s the prospect? What do you have to look forward to? These are the words of Jesus that will never pass away. You better reckon on this. You want to hang on to your life and your plans and your way and say it’s mine? You will lose it!

There’s no question about that. That’s reality. You may not see that. You may not feel it, but I’ll tell you, I pray that God will open hearts.

And you think about what it takes for God to rescue somebody from this evil world. Think about what Jesus said, “…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (KJV). Think about what He’s saying there. We live in a world that is in prison—that is a prison basically. It’s a prison planet.

Every person born into this world is a slave and blind. All you know is the desires that arise from your heart, the ideas that you take in from your surroundings. There is a nature that is bent against God, and there is a world of evil spirits that control everything, that rule over this planet. Satan is called the god of this world. This is what we’re up against, folks.

But I’ll tell you, I serve One who defeated him completely at the cross, who has all authority in heaven and earth. But I’ll tell you, when it comes to saving somebody, it’s not just a matter of informing people of the facts, and they just take their own free will, supposedly, and just…okay, I’ll accept You.

Man, this is a confrontation between God’s power and Satan’s power over the will of somebody. And it’s not, okay, I like Your plan. I’m gonna agree to it. This is, I’m surrendering. This is, I recognize my condition. I recognize that there’s nothing that I can do to help myself. I recognize that I can’t deserve this. I can do nothing, Lord.

But, it’s not just the fact that I don’t deserve it, it’s that I don’t have the power! I have no power to change! I know many who remember Brother Thomas talking about going door to door and witnessing and talking to a man one day who, best I remember the story, he told Brother Thomas that as a teenager he had picked up a pamphlet that was written by some atheist. And somehow, it had clicked with him, and he had embraced what he was reading, the philosophy, and he said from that day forward, he had no desire for God, no ability. You just couldn’t touch him at all. It wasn’t even that he was antagonistic. He just was dead.

You think about what it took for God to save Saul. You think about this man that had supposedly, in his own mind, devoted his life serving God. And he was there when they were stoning Stephen, and watched Stephen kneel down and say, Father, into Your hands, I commend my spirit. “Do not hold this sin against them.” (NIV).

And, he’s watching this Godly man lay down his life, and he’s standing there holding the coats of those who are throwing the stones and agreeing with them! Do you think he was just a little bit blind? You think about what it takes to reach a man like that. God had to arrest him. God had to penetrate the darkness of the human heart.

Oh, God, we need to pray that every one who hears this Word, that God will confront the heart, will penetrate past the mind and it won’t just be just a religious thing I can add to my life, that God will make real who He is and what your life really is about and what’s at stake. Is He Lord? Are you a citizen of that kingdom, or are you a citizen of this one?

It’s pretty plain to me that when that day comes, it’s gonna be one or the other. You’re either gonna be all in with one or all in with the other. I want to be all in right now. That’s the only safe place. Jesus didn’t say wait until you see all of this and then get ready. He said, be ready.

But oh, I’ll tell you what, the only possible way that anybody can be saved is when grace is extended, when God is there confronting the heart. That very presence of God is not just the influence to say you ought to give your life to Me. It is the very power by which we do it. If God is not there, you have neither the inclination nor the power to come to God. That’s why He says, call on Me when I’m near. That’s when you need to call.

Oh, I’ll tell you, if God ever speaks to you, you cry out to Him, and you say, oh God, help me…oh, God. I’ll tell you, I just pray that God will burn His Words, the reality of what we’re talking about today. There is coming a day! And God wants it to be a great comfort to those who know Him, but it’s a great, powerful warning to those who don’t. I’ll tell you what.

Here’s another thing that I see that encourages me, because I know that in our journey, we face many facts that we confront in our own lives, whether they’re circumstances, whether they’re weaknesses, whether they’re discouragements.

How many of you reach times in your life, you who know the Lord, when all of a sudden, you come face to face with something that’s in here? And it’s dismaying. And you wonder, oh my God, what’s the answer to this? This is discouraging. Here I’ve served the Lord for so many years, and look at the terrible thing I’ve just found out about myself, and it’s…what am I gonna do? Oh, could God love me?

I’ll tell you what, the very evidence, the very fact that God’s people become concerned at such a time, the very fact that you’re dismayed and don’t want things to be that way is the evidence that God is at work! What did He say in Philippians 1:6 about God who started the work will do, what?

( congregational response ).

Continue it. How long? “…Until the day of Jesus Christ.” There is coming a day. You see, there’s a graduation day for every child of God. There’s a time when the work is gonna be done, and He will pull back the veil and say, this is what I’ve been doing.

I’ll tell you, if God is at work in your heart, we need to let this reality that we’re in the middle of a process, but we know how it comes out! We need to lift up our hearts and say, praise God! Lord, You have brought me to a place of need, but You have the answer to my need! And so, my hope is in You this moment. I refuse to be discouraged by what I see, but rather encouraged that You are doing exactly what You said You’re gonna do. You’re continuing a work.

You know, I thought of this many times. Paul wrote those words in the first century. An awful lot of God’s people have died, but this Word says, He continues His work until…that means, in some sense, that work is going on. It’s not that people are trying to overcome sin in themselves. There’s a freedom when people die and go to be with the Lord. But I’ll tell you, there’s still a work.

God’s people have to learn stuff. God’s people, many of them perhaps, are among us more than we might realize. They’re sent on missions to planet earth. But I’ll tell you, God’s at work in every single child of God. Many die in ignorance. Do you think that God just leaves them in a corner in heaven? Or do you think maybe there’s some teaching that’s going on? And God is preparing every single child of God to come to that place together.

You know, there’s an awesome scripture that I thought about over in Ephesians. Ephesians is back in this other direction. Okay. Ephesians chapter 1. You know, Paul begins, and I don’t even want to try to go through his sentence, because it’s an endless sentence. But basically, Paul is exulting in what God has done for us, the forgiveness of sins and all that He’s done for us in Christ!

And, in verse 9 he says, “And he made known to us the mystery of his will….” Now, a mystery is something that you can’t understand unless God makes it known. I don’t care how smart you are. You’ll never figure it out if God doesn’t show you.

Isn’t it a good place to just humble ourselves and say, God, I can’t know anything unless You show me? I’m not smart enough to figure out Your Book. Think about that. There are a lot of people think they are. I’m not. I can’t figure this out. God has to reveal it.

But there is a mystery…according to what? Based upon what? His good pleasure, not my virtue, not anything in me. “…His good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ…” Okay? “…To be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”

You think that’s talking about the day of Christ? You think that’s talking about that climax of the ages? Here, Jesus was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, given all authority in heaven and earth, He has been reigning, not to fix the world, but to call a people out of it, to prepare them for a kingdom which will, all of a sudden, be unveiled before an unbelieving world.

It’s all gonna happen in one basic event. Don’t ask me to explain all the details. But, I know what Jesus said. I’m going with what He said, aren’t you? Praise God!

Now, here’s one thing that some people might be aware of. How about John chapter 5? I’m gonna just drop one little thing in…just a reminder that this all happens at the same time. John chapter 5, verses 28 and 29. Jesus said, “Do not be amazed at this….” Now, He just talked about the fact that God had put all judgment in His hands.

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming…” Some translations say, ‘an hour is coming.’ “…When all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

Does that sound like multiple judgments and multiple resurrections? This all happens at the same time, folks. The scriptures are consistent in how they present this day that we’re looking forward to. There is a day that’s coming. It’s real, and everybody in the grave is gonna be coming out. There will be a judgment, and there will be two destinies that will be manifest on that occasion.

What about 1st Thessalonians chapter 5? You know, we used that passage last week. And I’ll just refer briefly to it. 1st Thessalonians chapter 5, and Paul has been encouraging brothers about those who have died, that God’s gonna bring them with Him. We’re all gonna meet the Lord in the air. Does that sound the day of Jesus Christ? Sounds like it to me. It all happens together, doesn’t it?

“Now brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord…” Again, there’s that singular day. “…Will come like a thief in the night.” Unexpected. “While people are saying, peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, bothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”

Do you see the singular event that’s going on here? See what the Lord’s getting us ready for? He is reigning ‘til all enemies are under His feet. And I’ll tell you, when He’s done, He’s gonna say, Father, I have done what You’ve asked. Here is the Kingdom. It’s complete. There are no more enemies. Oh, praise God! What a day that will be! You talk about something to sing about and rejoice in! That’s the day that’s coming.

And I’ll tell you, the same Word of God that is able to speak and galaxies fling out across the endless space, that same God can simply speak and dissolve it. He has the power to do anything He wants to do.

So, it raises the question. Look at the world. Why doesn’t He intervene? The Devil loves to raise that question in people’s minds. Oh, if there’s a God of love, why does He let such bad things happen? Why did He do it in Noah’s day? I’ll tell you, His focus is on calling His people out of this very kind of a world.

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you.” Aren’t you glad He’s patient? I need a God whose patient with me, who knows how to work with me…all the stuff that He’s got to do in me, only God can do it.

The more I go, the more I say, oh, God. The stuff that needs to happen in my life, You are the only One who can do. I just call upon You to do it. I surrender. I believe You. I’ll tell you, there is no other path to life but surrender.

But, “He is patient…not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” That’s the reason God is allowing things to be like they are. There are still people that are hearing the Word of God. They’re still people. I don’t know how much longer. I’ll tell you, when we come to the end, it’s gonna be like it was in Noah’s day. There will be nobody who will be crossing the line. Like it was in Sodom, nobody else will be crossing the line. God knows when that day is.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Or “burned up” in other translations.

So, here is the conclusion of all of this for us. I’m about to lose my voice here. “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?” Folks, if you’re living your life under any other kind of idea about where things are at and how they’re going, you better reckon on this one. There is coming a day, and what Jesus has said will happen. There is coming a day.

Now, whether it happens in my lifetime or not, there is still coming a day! Because folks, like we said earlier, suppose I die, suppose you live your life and die, is that the end? A lot of worldly people would like to think so. That’s how they justify being able to do what they want while they’re here. That’s the only opportunity I’ve got. Then I’m gonna be dead and gone. There’s no God.

Good luck with that, because everyone is gonna be raised from the dead to stand before the One who sits on that throne right now. I’ll tell you, we need to reckon on these truths. They need to be so burned into our consciousness, that they are the reason we live. They are the hope upon which we constantly are able to lift up our eyes and see, no matter where we are at in our life and in our walk.

“You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” Praise God!

This is the same Word that Jesus said will never pass away. “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.”

And so forth. I’ll tell you, we need to reckon on this and be careful. Jesus warned about being caught up in the world, about sleeping, about drifting and getting just enamored with the world and busy with that and losing touch with what God has called us to do, and what He’s called us to be. Folks, we need to have…this needs to be front and center in our thinking.

There is coming a day. What if it were today? If you’re not ready, there’s coming a day. And, I pray that God will penetrate the darkness of your heart and make this real to you.

But, if you are here today, and you know the Lord, regardless of where you’re at in your journey, regardless of the difficulty, regardless of the attacks of the enemy, there is coming a day, and it will be worth it all when we get to that.

We’re gonna get there, and we’re gonna be able to look back and understand. God, I get it. I know why You took me that way. I could never have let go of my own way and laid hold of Your way if You hadn’t brought me the way that You did. Oh, praise God! He who has begun this good work will preform it ‘til the day of Jesus Christ! That day is coming! That day that will shock the world, but cause Christians to throw up their hands in praise and be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye and be with Him forever.

Are you ready for that day? Are you looking forward to that day? There is a day that’s coming. ‘There is coming a day,’ I guess is the line from the song. There is coming a day. Thank God for the reality of it. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words, Jesus said, will never pass away. Praise God! That’s my hope today. Is it yours? To God be the glory!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1427 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: If you have been called to be a part of the Body of Christ, to be a part of His Kingdom, there is a call of God in your life. You may be called to be a faithful housewife and mother of children. You may be called to be a faithful mother in Israel. You may be called to be a faithful worker on a job who manifests the Spirit of Christ, or the father of a home, the man of the house that builds a godly home. All of these things are divine calls that are just as real as the one Paul had.

And it’s interesting in the context here, he has just been talking about that what comes through him, he calls it, “…the aroma of Christ…” (NIV). You know, a good sermon title sometime might be, ‘what do you smell like?’ Well, Paul had the right kind of odor, didn’t he, spiritually speaking?

When Christ is in the life, there will be an aroma. There will be an atmosphere that that person generates that people…I’ll tell you, the Devil will know about it. It will have an effect on those around you.

I pray that God will…God will give us more of that, give me more of that, because I confess my need. God, it’s so easy for us just to run and do and be in our own strength and not realize what God has us here for. It’s not for this! It’s for eternity and God has a place for every one of us in this place.

But are we living from God? See, if we’re living from God, we’re gonna have an effect that will draw some, and they’ll say, man, I love that smell. Tell me more. And then there are gonna be others that are full of self-will and sin, and they’re gonna say, no, that stinks.

But are we really making that kind of a difference in people’s lives? May God help us to recognize that. So, of course Paul has this ministry now. God sent him. Okay, now how do I do this becomes the next question, doesn’t it?

And the scripture we have read so many times in chapter 3, he talks about the confidence that he has. “Such confidence as this…” in verse 4, “… is ours through Christ before God.” Now, he jumps right in and says, “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.”

Our ability—our ability to do the job! How does it come? It comes from God! Every one of us, if we’re honest and we’re seeking God, and we’re wanting to do His will, we confront inability and this sense of inability constantly! I certainly do. Oh my God, I’m not up for this. I can’t do this.

Well…guess what? Of course, you can’t. That’s the point. That’s why we’re called to live a ‘from God’ life. If God has put you in a place, you have every right to go to Him and say, God, You put me in this place. I’m trusting in You. I want to live with Your energy, with Your ability…You give me what I need.

This is not a…this is an ongoing relationship he’s talking about, isn’t it? I mean, every time I stand up here, I’m literally saying, God, I can’t do this, because He knows that in myself I can’t. This isn’t about human ability. This is about God. But God wants you to know that. He cares about you!

You…if God’s put you in a place, you have the ability that you need. God will supply it. God deliberately puts us in places where…we know we need Him. We don’t have any choice but to look to Him with all of our hearts. I’ll tell you, and it shows in the results.

You put somebody that’s an orator, that has a natural ability, that can entertain, you can fill churches with that. But I’ll tell you, I’d would rather stand up here in God’s energy, to whatever degree, and preach the truth and see a true remnant, because that’s all that’s going to be left when it’s done.

Those are the only ones that are going to stand, the ones that have the goods in the heart. It’s not the strong, it’s not the wise, it’s not all those things that the world values so highly. It’s those that come to this humble place and say, God, I don’t have anything. I just need You! And that’s what you’re offering through Christ. Praise God! That’s a message of hope for everybody.

And of course, we know the scriptures in chapter 4. This is when Paul talks about the outworking of that ministry. Now, he’s got the ministry. God’s given him the ability. He goes to the fountain, the source of that, and he talks about the fact that, yes, the world is blind, the Devil has blinded them but God brought me to a place where He shined His light in my heart.

The same God that spoke in the beginning and said, “Let there be light…” He shined deep in my heart and what He put there was a revelation! It’s the kind of knowledge that you cannot get from a book. You cannot get from another human being…I mean, unless God’s using it.

You cannot get it any other way except God penetrating the heart with the knowledge of who Jesus Christ is…not just to see Him as a babe in a manger but of Lord on a throne, who rules, before whom all men will one day stand. And not only seeing Him that way, but seeing the heart that would draw us and say, this is the glory I long to share with you. This is what it’s all about!

Do you think that made a difference in Paul’s life? It was a 180. He went from being a relentless opposer of anybody who would name the name of Christ to the greatest warrior that the first century had, who relentlessly went out and proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ with power.

But look at what he says in verse 7. How many times have we used this scripture? “But we have this treasure…” What’s the treasure?

( congregation inaudible ).

Well, it’s Christ, but, “…the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” It expands it just from the person to the attributes of that person. This revelation of God’s glory and God’s heart, God’s purpose for us.

“…We have this treasure in jars of clay…” Why? “…To show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” That’s what God was trying to…wants every one of us to know. And so, this is where he launches into the discussion about how God wants to get the treasure out of Paul into the people. What does it take?

( congregational inaudible ).

Yeah, we’ve got…if we’re left to ourselves, we will simply live in human energy, human will, all these human characteristics will dominate, won’t they? And so, God had to deliberately bring Paul through circumstances that put those to death. Why? Because He was mad at Paul? No, because He longed to fulfill the desire, that He put in Paul’s heart to share Christ.

I’ll tell you, something is going to dominate our lives, some form of life is gonna dominate in every single one of us, and God wants it to be Him. And so, you know, if He puts us in things, in situations that show us how much we need Him and how the wrong thing would just…it’s there and we need to let it go, we need to turn away from it. We need to say, oh God, let Your life live in me. If He does that, He’s doing it because He loves you.

But it isn’t just for you. It’s for somebody else that He’s ordained that you be in a position to help. God wants to pour life through every member of the Body of Christ for the benefit of every other member. This is what it takes.

And Paul…you know, Paul comes to the end of this and he’s just exulting in the glory of what God has given to him. And where were his eyes in all these troubles, all these difficulties that he goes through, where are his eyes? What’s he looking at? Is he looking at the trouble, looking at this world and, oh God, poor me? He is looking at the glory. He’s looking ahead.

There are some words that he uses in this that are interesting and I’d forgotten this. I’ve probably pointed it out before. You know, we have this word in English called ‘hyperbole.’ We tend to use it as an exaggeration, you want to make a point and you say it in a ‘way over the top’ way like, you’re on time today! Oh my God, the world’s going fall off its axis. Well, obviously, you know what we mean. We’re making a humorous point. It’s an exaggeration. Of course, my Dad used to call me ‘the late Mr. Enlow,’ I’m afraid.

( laughter ).

Sadly, I gave him reason, at times, to do that. But, nonetheless, we use it in a humorous way, but the same word…that’s a Greek word, hyperbole, and it means surpassing. It’s this, but it’s way beyond that. That’s the sense that you get. And when he’s talking about the power that’s from God, he’s talking about this all surpassing…this hyperbole power. This isn’t just power, this is way beyond, this is all we could ever hope to need.

But oh, when he comes down to the end, “…our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” How in the world do you translate that? In the Greek, it’s hyperbole unto hyperbole. It’s not even just way beyond, it’s way beyond way beyond!

You know, Paul had this sense of what it was about. Now I understand that Paul had actually had visions and been in heavenly places. He had seen with his own eyes. But God did that because He wanted a witness to the reality and the power and the glory that lay before us so that we would never be bogged down with the world, never be bogged down with our troubles here. But always say, wait a minute! This is part of getting ready for that! That’s where my eyes are.

And I will continually draw strength because He is enough. He is the one who’s going to take me there. I’m gonna live a ‘from God’ life instead of a ‘me, all about me’ life. And so, Paul launches directly into that with the hope that we have in chapter 5. “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed…” What’s he talking about?

( congregation inaudible ).

Our bodies. Yeah, we know they’re gonna die. I don’t care what you do with it, how pretty it is, and all this stuff you do with it to get through this life, it’s gonna die. It’s not eternal. So that’s what he’s talking about. It’s destroyed.

“…We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” Well, wait a minute, it’s a house from God, isn’t it? There’s that phrase again. Paul is not just living a ‘from God’ life here, but he’s recognizing my future is from God. That is what He’s promised me! One day I’m gonna have a body that won’t be like this one. It’s going to last forever.

This is a temporary home for me. I live in it right now, and it’s getting older, and all those things. And it’s gonna go away one of these days. But boy, I know what’s coming! I’m living for that! Praise God!

He’s got something for me that’s worth everything over there! He’s with me now! It’s not just that I have to wait for it all. He’s with me right now to get me through all this, to use it for His purposes here! But oh, what I’ve got waiting for me over there is amazing! The glory of what He has given…praise God! He talks down here about what is mortal being swallowed up by life.

“Now it is God…” verse 5, “…who has made us for this very purpose….” You want to know why God made you? Do you ever think about that? Why did God make me? He made me so that He could fill me with Himself and I could live with Him forever. That’s the purpose for which He made us.

Now, there are a whole lot of people that, sadly in this world, they’re gonna say, no, I want my life here. This is more important. They’re completely blind to reality.

But I’ll tell you what, God made you because He loved ‘you’ and wants ‘you’ to live with Him, forever, in a world that is nothing like this. Praise God!

He “…has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” I’ll tell you, when God comes in, by His Spirit, and we are born of that Spirit, that’s the seal! When God says, that one is mine, that is the guarantee of what is to come. Praise God! I’ll tell you, God’s able to finish what He started, and He’s promised to do it.

There’s one other expression that he uses and it’s later on this same chapter. When God is talking about the new creation…I needed to underline…yes, I have it. Down here he says, “Therefore…”, in verse 17, “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation….”

Now, that’s a present tense thing, isn’t it? That’s talking about here. Yes, we’ve got some of the old that we live in, but there is something eternal that God does in here. “…He is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Now, listen to what he says. “All this is from God….” Everything is from God. There is always this sense that Paul is laying out. Now think about this context. He’s saying, my ministry, I need to defend it, because there are people that are coming in that are messing with you. And I know that what I have is from God. This is not about me.

But in the context of that, he is painting a picture of himself as one who lives a ‘from God’ life. Everything about Paul, whether it had to do with his relations with the world, or the ministry, or the church, or whatever it was, God, You’re the source! God, You are my resource. I don’t want to live any part of my life just in my own strength, for my own purposes. God, help me. Paul’s whole life…it defined his thought and his actions.

Very quickly, what are some of the lessons…things that we know very well? And one of the lessons is, my resources are not enough. How many of you know that?

( congregation inaudible ).

Yeah. We need to reckon more readily than we do…my resources are not enough. If you’re bopping along through life and you think, yeah, I got it handled, God, you are blind! If God is constantly, or frequently, showing you your insufficiency in any area of your life, you need to be praising God. Why would He do such a thing? Except to deliver us from the tyranny and the slavery to our old nature so that we can be set free to live out His life! Praise God!

Now think about this simple lesson. God ‘is’ all we need…not just, God ‘has’ all we need. Do you get the difference? There are a lot of people who look at God as a divine vending machine…where I put my little faith nickel in there when I feel the need and I get out a blessing, and then I go on and live my life. And they want to use God for their purposes.

But I’ll tell you, we need to be seeking the Blesser, and not the blessing. And…while Paul talks about the particulars of what he receives from God, there’s this constant sense that, oh my God…if ‘from God’ is what my life is about, then He is the one. It’s my relationship with Him, so that whatever comes, He’s my resource. So, yes there was a blessing, but I’ll tell you, there was a relationship with the Blesser.

How many of you remember the scripture where God spoke to Abraham? What did He say to Abraham in Genesis 15? You look it up sometime. He said, “I am your shield, your very great reward.” He didn’t say, I will give you a shield and I’ll give you a reward. He said, I am—I am your reward.

What God…God wants us to see, wants every one of us to see Him in a deeper sense as, Lord, if I have You, I have it all. If I just have You, whatever I need will take care of itself. But I want you, Lord.

I don’t you just to heal me so I can go live my life. I don’t want You to give me money so I can pay my bills and then the crisis is over. I want You to…I want to have a relationship with You, I want my life to be connected with You as much as the branches are to the vine. I want to live out Your life. Isn’t that what God is looking for from every one of us in a deeper way?

You know, a lot of people look at God as a gas station. They live their life and they run on their own strength until they’ve run out of gas, and they want to come to a service and get gassed up a little bit. And you know, it’s important that we come together. I’m not minimizing that aspect of it. But, if that’s the source of your spiritual life, you’re gonna come and you’re gonna get something and go away and feel good, and you have a little bit of encouragement and then you…

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That’s not how God wants us to live. He wants us to live where, when we walk out of here, we have learned something about the God who wants to walk with us, wants to be our resource, on the job, in the home, all the other, all of it…wants to be Himself in and through us. That’s what He wants for us as individuals, what He wants for us as a church. He longs for us to live a ‘from God’ life.

I’ll just make a couple of very small points. Think about God’s ultimate purpose. Think about the last couple of chapters of Revelation. I’m not going to turn over there. But you remember the essence of it was God’s dwelling. Where was He going to dwell? With men! He longs to dwell in the midst of us! He longs to share Himself! That’s His heart!

In all of this, God didn’t…I mean we were the ones who were running pell-mell from God. He came looking for us! We didn’t go looking for Him. Doesn’t that reveal His heart towards us? And just like the circumstance this morning, help came, didn’t it? We’ve got a God who feels that way toward you when you’re in trouble, when you feel your need.

But you think about where He’s going with all this. One day there won’t be any of these difficulties and these trials. He’s gonna live with us. We’re gonna experience the wonderfulness of His being, His love, His joy, His peace. And it’s something that will never end. But He wants us to begin to experience that now. And the only way He can do it is to teach us through the experiences of life.

And look what He had produced in Paul. Paul defends his ministry and at every point he says, from God, from God, my virtue, my ministry, my ability, my purpose…all of this is from Him!

What an amazing thing to be able to make that our testimony. I can’t do a thing, but I’ve got God! And He loves me and He wants me to just let go and let Him have His way.

You know, a simple little statement at the end. If I have Him, circumstances do not determine my well-being. Think about that. If I have Him, circumstances don’t determine my well-being. Paul got to that point, where he could glory in his weakness, because he saw past it! He saw God’s heart in it. He saw God’s purpose in it.

And so, he was able to lift his eyes always and say, I see what’s going on, God, I have You in this. You’re bringing it for a good purpose and I have you. So, these difficulties that I’m experiencing right now, they do not define my well-being. My well-being is defined because I have You. I would rather have You in a prison, than live in a palace and have it all as the world defines that.

So, I’ll tell you, these are things God longs to teach every one of us, because He longs for you to know Him, and me to know Him in a better way, in a deeper, more practical, more everyday kind of way…to where we could say with Paul, every aspect of my life, it’s a ‘from God’ life, because He is the one who is orchestrating my life so He can share Himself with me. Is that worth everything? Yeah, it sure is. Praise God!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1413 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: Praise God! You know, last week we began in Revelation 12. I’m not gonna turn there, but you remember how we talked about there was a war in heaven, and how history is not just about what happens here in the realm that we can see. It’s not about kingdoms rising and falling, and political stuff and all that kind of thing. There really is a spiritual realm and there is a war going on.

And basically, we looked at Old Testament history and we saw that on the one hand we have Satan’s ambition. Satan rebelled against God who had created him and his ambition was to rule over that creation, to become like the Most High and to rule over it, to bring everything under his wicked rule.

And, we saw that particularly expressed in the Tower of Babel. You remember how God told Noah and his sons to fill the earth…scatter, fill the earth and all of that and be fruitful and multiply. And instead of doing that they…men began to coalesce and to gather themselves over in this place called Babel, some place in the Middle East. And, their ambition was to build them a city and a tower which would reach to heaven, make them a name, lest they be scattered abroad.

So you see this direct affront to what God had said. Rather, gather them together, and God saw enough of a threat in this that He deliberately scattered them across the globe, by confusing their languages, so the different family groups, different tribes couldn’t understand one another. And so, therefore, they migrated to Europe, to Asia, to the Americas, to Africa, to everywhere. And, we see what took place.

And, throughout the Old Testament, we see one kingdom after another trying to rise up, and God shutting them down, bringing somebody else on the scene. And always we see this picture in the Old Testament of God pulling the strings behind the scenes. And the reason for that is that God had a purpose long before Satan ever showed up on the scene. God had a purpose that was conceived in His heart before eternity, and so this is the purpose that is being unfolded and God is only using the Devil while he’s here to help fulfill His purpose. It’s amazing.

But one that that just jumped out at me as I was thinking about this is that we serve a God who is outside of time. He created time. He’s not limited by time. He can see the end from the beginning. It’s all present to Him. The Devil is confined by time. And so, you’ve got two different plans going on in the world. Which one do you want to be a part of? You know, when you really lay it out it doesn’t make any sense to think about being a part of this world’s system and just live for its values.

But I wanted to go through a lot of scriptures today, and I feel like we need to be looking at the scriptures, rather just my referring to them all the time. Maybe there’s a time for that. But, I wanted to look at some truths that really flesh this out in a way that I believe will help and encourage us.

One of them is in Daniel chapter 10, right at the end of it. And this is scripture that I preached on one time years ago. But this is the occasion when Daniel was seeking the Lord for 21 days…we’ve talked about this…and finally the angel shows up and says…God heard you from the beginning but I’ve been busy fighting with the prince of Persia.

Now who would an angel be fighting? Obviously it’s one of Satan’s angels. So this was a powerful figure who ruled over the kingdom of Persia. These were the gods of the nations. They were real beings. And they wielded real power, and so, while he was praying, there was a battle going on in the heavens, wasn’t there? There was war. And finally Michael, the chief prince over the people of Israel, this is God’s angel, came and helped him in the battle and then he came a talked to Daniel. So this was the occasion.

And, so in verse 20, he asks Daniel, “So he said, do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come…” (NIV). But here’s the interesting thing he says. “…But first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth.”

Now think about what he’s saying there. This angel is about to tell Daniel what’s about to happen. And basically, he goes on to talk about the fact that there’s gonna be three more emperors in this Media-Persia empire. And then somebody from Greece is gonna come. Who was that, for you historians? Alexander the Great was gonna rise up and conquer the known world, but when he died, still a young man in his 30’s, the whole kingdom was divided up into four parts.

Well, this is what the angel is about to unfold in a whole lot of details in the events of what was coming. But the point that he made, the point that he allowed us to see here was, this was already written. Now, let that sink in. History, because we serve a timeless God, history has already been written. Doesn’t that put a different perspective on things? I mean, we need to walk in the light of that and realize the God that we serve, and how He knows how to work things together.

You know, the scripture that we have used many times and I’ll just refer to it briefly, it’s in Psalm 139…wonderful Psalm of David, when David is just exulting in his understanding of God. God, You know everything. You are everywhere…no place I can go where You’re not.

And not only that, You…verse 13, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body.”

So, in the first place, here’s a God who can foresee and who works things. Even before we know all about it, He was there overseeing the fact that…David wasn’t even born yet and God was taking care of him. Now listen to what he says. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Whoa, does that change the perspective on everything! I mean, we’ve got a God, like I say, who has written…we talk about history, but God has written His Story and that’s the one that will come true, because it’s the God who is behind it. And I, I appreciate what Ben shared Wednesday night. It was exactly on track. It fits this exactly, because we’ve got people that go in the ditch…and I’m not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but we’ve got people who go in the ditch on the sovereignty of God and the will of man.

And those who go to one extreme think God…I mean, there’s no logical way to eliminate the idea that God created evil, created everything. It’s all His responsibility. He made me like I am. I don’t have any choice. I mean, they would not admit to that, but that’s really what it comes down to.

But then you’ve got people on the other side that are so much about free will and choice that God…it’s almost like God comes as a beggar, a salesman, trying to convince people to agree to His plan instead of Satan’s. And oh, poor God, if we don’t agree then His plan is just going to go begging. It’s gonna be like merchandise left on the shelf…too bad.

No, we’ve got a God who knows how to weave the story together. We’ve got a God who knows how to weave His creatures’ choices into His Story, so that we are responsible for choices, but yet, we’ve got a God who is underneath it all and weaving the story.

I’ll tell you, the weakest person…how many songs did we sing this morning about this? The weakest person who reaches out to Him, who understands, I can do nothing without You. I don’t have anything to bring to the table. Just as I am, Lord, I come. But this is a God who knows how to take that kind of a choice, just to surrender and trust in Him, and bring us all the way to Glory one day.

Oh, it doesn’t depend upon me and my strength. But oh, I’ll tell you, there are people that hear the message of love and they resist and they harden their heart. God weaves those choices into play as well.

And, you know, I love the example Ben used of Peter, ‘cause when the Lord warned Peter about what was coming…and Peter had a choice, didn’t he? He could have availed himself of Jesus’ warning and prayed and found strength and he would’ve learned something from that, but he didn’t, and he still learned a lesson and God still didn’t throw him in the trash!

God took the choices that He knew Peter was gonna make and He said, I’m gonna make something out of this. I’m gonna teach My servant something and he is going to become a strength to his brothers and sisters because he knows something about me that they haven’t gone through. So, what an awesome God we have, who can weave those choices into something.

Now that certainly is not a prescription where, oh, it’s all in God’s hands, I can just float through life, make my own choices and do as I please. You will reap what you sow, and so will I. So there’s always that encouragement by God. I’m gonna show you the way. I want you to make choices, but I’m gonna work in your life according to the choices you make.

So…I don’t know. God’s the only one who can put all this together, but He does. He’s written a story, not just of history, but He’s written my story. Praise the Lord! I want to recognize that and love Him and cooperate, and make the choices that will make the story bring Him glory.

But you know, there’s another side to that. The Bible talks about how He used Pharaoh, and how God hardened his heart. But if you go back to the beginning of what He said about Pharaoh…God told Moses, I know him.

In other words, God knew the kind of proud, stubborn man that he was, and He took advantage of his character and the choices that God knew he was gonna make. He said, I’m gonna use that. I’m gonna cause him to so rebel against me by just simply doing what I planned to do. I know how he’s gonna react and I’m gonna judge him, and everybody in the world is gonna hear about Me. So here’s God weaving the choices of a rebellious man into His plan, as well.

Hasn’t He done that throughout history? Whoa, what an amazing God we have! God is outside of time. The Devil is inside it. Now which side do you want to be on?

Now, there’s another side to it. This is how God actually unfolds His plan. I mean, we look at Old Testament history and we just see it going on and on and on…and, there’s the rebellion of Israel. There’s their unbelief. There’s a remnant. What in the world is all that about? Why did God take all of that time?

Well, there is a truth and it comes down to the concept of prophecy. Everything God does, He speaks. Now let’s see if we can unfold some of that, what I’m talking about. Look at 2nd Peter, chapter 1, is one good illustration of the nature of prophecy. And Peter, this is the last letter he wrote trying to encourage believers before he was taken from the scene.

And so, to begin with…I mean, what did they have to preach? What did they have to go on in the New Testament? We open the Gospels, we open the letters of Paul and we can talk about God’s plan. They didn’t have that. So what did they have? Yeah, they had the Old Testament and they had eyewitness testimony, and that’s basically what they went with. Okay?

So, in verse 16, “For we did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

When did that happen? That was the Mount of Transfiguration. You remember when the three disciples went up there and He started glowing like the sun, and Moses and Elijah appeared with Him. They were eyewitnesses of that. That wasn’t just something that they imagined. “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” So that’s one side of it. We’ve got eyewitness testimony to a whole lot of stuff that they were proclaiming. It wasn’t just second-hand stuff.

“And…” There was something else. “…We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Okay? So, what we have going on is something that God inspired. Folks, if we don’t have something that God is inspiring, what do we have? Nothing, just religion. But I’ll tell you, to be part of His Story is the whole…I mean, that’s the whole game. That’s what everything is about.

And so throughout all that dark, strange period of time when nations were rising and falling, and most of His people, that supposedly were His, were walking in heathen idolatry, God had a remnant and He had prophets that He called and He put the words in their mouth. So what in the world is prophecy about? Well, on one level, it’s certainly just prediction, isn’t it? And why would God predict things before they happen?

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Well…yeah, it’s certainly a witness, isn’t it? Just one example…this is everywhere in Isaiah, but I’m gonna just pick one little scripture here in Isaiah 48…48, there we go. He’s talking here to the Israelites who just, again, they were struggling with idolatry. So many of them were in unbelief. They didn’t know what in the world was going on.

And so, he says, at the beginning of this passage, “Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness—you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and rely on the God of Israel—the Lord Almighty is his name: I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. For I knew how stubborn you were….”

And so forth, and then He goes on and talks about the fact that…all these idols you’re messing around with, did they do this? No. I’ll tell you, we’ve got a God who bears witness to who He is by telling things before they happen. So, that’s part of it. And, many times we can look in the New Testament and we see the exact fulfillment of something that was spoken by somebody long ago, don’t we? So that’s part of the witness…that’s part of the reason why God did things the way He has done them.

But, there’s another thing. Constantly, throughout the Old Testament, you have this…these people that we call the Remnant. Even in the darkest hour, there were people who were faithful. May God give us the grace to do the same in the hour that’s unfolding before us. God has a remnant that is real. And so, there was this side of prophecy that was meant to give them hope, because it carried the sense of promise.

As I said last week, things will not always be as they are. Yes, things are bad, but I’ll tell you, something is coming! And I’m gonna speak it through my prophets. A king is coming! A kingdom is coming! Salvation, a New Covenant, all these wonderful blessings, they’re coming. Don’t worry, just trust Me, wait. It’s gonna come at the proper time. So you’ve got this sense of God’s promise.

And I’ll tell you one scripture that we love to use every now and then that illustrates this very well is over in Hebrews. That’s chapter 6. I want to bring together a number of scriptures that we’ve used…we’ve kind of cherry-picked them and used them in isolation, but I want us to see a bigger picture today.

I mean, this is talking about the fact that God made promises to Abraham and in order to back that up, He swore by Himself. And so, down in 16, the writer makes this point. “Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said….”

So, I have what I say but now I’m gonna back it up. You know, in court…I swear to God to tell the truth and the whole truth and all of that, and then they go ahead and lie, but still, you get the point. This is only as good as the oath. But this is the oath of God, isn’t it? All right.

“…The oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.”

Now, why did He do that? “God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

So God says there are two things and they are not…they cannot be changed. One of them is My purpose. I conceived this before the world was. I am not like Indiana Jones, making this up as I go along. I conceived this.

Satan didn’t know anything about My purpose. He jumped in and said, I’m gonna be like You. Well, he’s not like God. God had something in mind and He planned. He knew your name before the world. That’s the God we serve. And so, that is an unchanging purpose, will not be changed.

But, the other thing is a promise to carry out that unchanging purpose is also something that is unchangeable. And so those are the two unchanging things. Well, what is it that makes the promise good? It’s the promise of Somebody who is incapable of lying. That gives me solid hope, doesn’t it you? I’ve got a purpose that was declared before the foundation of the world. It cannot be changed. And the word of Somebody who cannot lie!

What are we putting that up against? The ambition of a rebel who cannot tell the truth! That’s what’s going on in our world. Those are the two camps. So we have that sense of promise that produces faith and hope in His people.

But here’s something that I want to try to get across, at least in a measure. The Word of God is more than prediction and promise. Turn over, if you will to Hebrews chapter 11. We’re in 6 now. Flip the page over and go to chapter 11. And the writer begins, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”

Now, here’s the verse. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” When God created the universe, how did He do it? He spoke! His words do not merely convey His wishes, His information; they have power! God did not say, Gabriel, go flip a switch and we’ll have some light! He said, “Let there be light.” And the very power to make that happen came out of His mouth.

I’ll tell you, that’s what God is doing throughout history. There was a God who is speaking things into existence by the very power of His words. Don’t the scriptures say about the Word of God, that, “…The word of God is living and active…”? It accomplishes things. I mean, there is literally…it’s the expression of His power.

Do you think maybe, just maybe we need some of that? Do you think that’s kind of central to what God is doing in this hour? We need to hear the voice of the Son of God in such a way that it has power to penetrate people’s hearts and change lives!