TV Transcripts

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1683 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: It’s amazing how many times I come to a men’s meeting and what I have on my heart is already there and it’s being expressed. I think it was more so today than usual. But I’m trusting the Lord this morning, more than usual, I think. And that’s a good thing. Because I believe the Lord is wanting His people to be set free, to be able to live for Him and serve Him in this time.

You know, last week we talked about Satan’s dream and God’s purpose. And kind of toward the end, we got to a point where I was saying something to the effect that God has allowed us, He has ordained that you and I live now. We weren’t assigned to the 1800s or to some other period of history. God has us alive now and it’s for a reason. And I believe we are, coming closer and closer to the end of the age. I don’t have any dates for you. God told us just to be ready, didn’t He?

( congregational amens ).

He didn’t say we’re going know the time. We will know the times and seasons. And I believe we can see the way things are shaping up. But I don’t know what all God has. But I do know that He wants a people who are alive and awake…

( congregational amens ).

…able to, as we’ve heard in the past, make the midnight cry and say, He’s coming, be ready. But also, He’s not done…He’s not done sharing the Gospel with people and reaching out and changing hearts and lives.

( congregational amens ).

There will come a time when that voice will cease, people will have made up their mind, and the scripture in Revelation will be fulfilled where the voice said, let him that is sinful, be sinful still. I’m paraphrasing. Let him that’s righteous, be righteous still. There’s gonna come a time when everybody will be in one camp or the other. But I believe with all my heart, God is reaching out.

And I believe the things that Brother Steven shared, and shared downstairs, and others did as well, are very, very central to that. There’s a scripture that I’m going to get to, that I thought about last week and I realized after I sat down, hey, I meant to use that scripture. Well, that’s kind of the one that comes back now, because it has to do with this very thing, about God’s people being here for a purpose and a reason…this is not just happenstance.

And the Kingdom of God does not consist of ‘the ministry’ and ‘the people.’ as though you’re just digits sitting there listening. God wants…God has a place in His Kingdom for every single believer.

( congregational amens ).

And He wants us to learn how to enter into that. Christianity has been institutionalized. It’s been turned into man-made traditions and organizations, where we have this structure and everybody just learns how to fit into the structure and do the stuff, believe the doctrines. God wants to set His people free, not just to run here and there, but to be free to follow Him.

You know, I’ve said many times, Jesus didn’t do things the same way twice. We tend to do them in the same way a thousand times. But I believe the Lord’s helping us, don’t you?

( congregational response ).

Because we don’t want to jump in the other ditch, and everybody run off doing their own thing and it’s just us doing it. That’s the other side of it. But I believe with all my heart there has to be a foundation. And, I guess the scriptures that we’ve used so many times, but they’re needful…there’s not a person here who knows the Lord, who doesn’t fight the battles that Steven describes. Every single one of us fights. And whether it’s a particular thing in our past, or a thing we’re dealing with today, we are in need of salvation in some fashion, every single day.

( congregational amens ).

Now, being born again, that’s a one-time thing, but I’m talking about the growing and the changing and the things that God needs to do in our lives. I don’t know anybody here that’s arrived. I certainly haven’t. And I discover things more and more that the Lord has to deal with. But the thing is, if we ever forget the foundation, man, it’s a rough battle!

( congregational response ).

How many know what I’m talking about? If you forget who you really are in Christ and what He has done, and that begins to be compromised in the slightest in your mind, then there’s an issue. There is room for the devil to work. And the way he typically does that, is not to say, oh, that’s not true. He just says, that’s not true of you…because, and then he will enumerate his arguments.

And God wants a people to come to the place where we put all of our hope in Jesus, period! End of story! That stain ain’t coming back! Once the bleach goes in, the stain is gone! God has thrown it into the sea of forgetfulness.

And you know you’ve heard the expression, ‘don’t go fishing in the sea of forgetfulness.’ God has forgotten the things that are a part…that He has cleansed. And thank God, He did it! Anyway, I’m just gonna go ahead and read some of this scripture that we’re so familiar with in Ephesians. How many times have we heard this? But how many times do we need to hear this? I need this this morning, do you? Anybody here?

( congregation inaudible ).

Yeah. Verse 3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us…” (NIV). Now I want to stop and say, don’t you have this “gospel for everybody else but not for me” in your mind when you read words like this. ‘Us’ means ‘us.’

Paul is talking…now think about for a minute who Paul is that’s writing this. Think about his past. Now he declared by the inspiration of the Spirit that he was the worst sinner ever. So, don’t you think of yourself that way. That title has already been taken and God saved him, and turned him into a mighty servant of God. God can do anything, because it’s not our power, it’s not our virtue, it’s not anything that’s in us.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will….” Everything comes out of…do you see that? Do you get the sense of that? That everything comes out of His heart. Not one part depends upon us.

( congregational response ).

Thank God! It comes from Him, doesn’t it?

( congregational amens ).

All right. “…To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have…” That’s a present tense possession, folks. “…We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance…” or agreement with, “…the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”

Wow! Paul’s just struggling for words there, isn’t he? If you look in the original, this is a run-on sentence if there ever was one. He just doesn’t know how to end the sentence!

“With all wisdom and understanding….” Boy, I’m glad He understands, don’t you…aren’t you? And He knows how to figure out every problem, the ones that cause us such trouble. “With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will…” again, based upon His good pleasure, “…according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”

Wow! I don’t see anything in there that depends on some virtue in me, or some knowledge, some ability, some anything. This comes from the heart of our Creator! God help us to reckon on that and remember and include ourselves in all the us’s of this passage. I’m preaching to me, as well as to you. Praise God!

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we…” Where’s he going with this, in other words? “…In order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” It’s certainly not for ours. We have nothing to boast about, do we?

( congregational amens ).

“And you also were included in Christ….” Now this is the experiential side of it. You know, we see the heart of God before time, but there has to come a point in history when this becomes personal. And I’ll ask, has it become personal with you? If it hasn’t this needs to be the one thing you’re concerned about. Praise God!

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel…” or the Good News, “…of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

Praise God! Simply put, that means if you’re His, if you’ve really been born of His Spirit, God put a mark on you, that no devil can counter! That mark says, that one’s mine! Devil, you can’t have him. You can’t have her.

( congregational amens ).

I’m guaranteeing, not only their present, where they’re at right now, but I’m guaranteeing how this is turning out.

( congregational amens ).

See, that’s…we’ve got to see this through God’s eyes. That’s why Paul’s expressing this. He longs to see the Ephesian church share the vision of the reality of what God had given to him. Praise God! All right? “…To the praise of his glory.”

And then of course, his prayer…I’m not going to read all of this, but the prayer that he has, that God would open their wisdom and give them the understanding that they needed to really appreciate the power of God that is available to be at work in us.

What is that power? How do you…what do you compare it to? How do you see it in action? Well, what Paul says, is we see the power of God in action by what happened when Jesus was in that tomb, and all hell meant to keep him there! And all hell couldn’t do it!

Folks, all hell can’t steal you from Jesus if you belong to Him! Do you belong to Him? Have you given Him your heart and your life? That’s the key. But oh, the power that God expressed, not just to bring him out of a tomb, give Him a new life, a life that cannot die, but He didn’t leave him there! He has caused Him to ascend into the heavens, and to sit on a throne.

I’m sure that…I don’t think it’s a chair sitting in heaven somewhere, but whatever it is, it’s a place of authority! Jesus…we’ve quoted this so many times, where Jesus said, all power, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” And that’s where he says, go therefore. So, everything flows from the heart and the purpose of God, accomplished at the cross, and made known to us.

Folks, if you are building your life on anything else, you’re building on sinking sand. If we are sort of acknowledging this in a vague sense, but not really embracing it as, this applies to me. I was one of the ones God was thinking about all back there. Oh my!

If we’re going to be the people of God in this hour, we’ve got to get the foundation right, because God said in the prophets, he was laying a foundation in Zion. And this was a sure foundation! This was not like the religion that was prevalent in the day, that was just a bunch of man-made rules. This was God’s foundation and those who put their trust in that would never come to ruin, never be ashamed, never come to the place and say, boy, I was a fool to trust in that.

Man, we’re gonna have our eyes so opened one day that we will just fall down in amazement at the mercy and the grace of God, and what He’s done for us! So anyway, but the thing that always gets me out of this particular passage…I’m gonna get to the next one. But the thing that always gets me, he comes down to the end and he talks about the power that he expressed through Christ and what He’s done and then he says basically, He did all that for you!

He wants you to know that that power that’s in Him is available to us. May God help us to avail ourselves of it and believe it! I’ll guarantee, there’s not a person here who knows the Lord, who isn’t struggling with something in your life.

( congregational inaudible ).

Yeah. Let’s just be honest. We need the Lord!

( congregational amens ).

And I pray that the Scripture that Brother Steven read, in Romans 6…God has given us a place where we can walk in newness of life. But we need to get this! God needs to reveal it to our hearts in a deeper way so we can actively believe it, and receive it.

You know, it is a process, isn’t it? We know that. But…we need to see the foundation, so we constantly go back to that and realize, hey, I’m on a foundation. I don’t care, the winds and waves are blowing, the doubts are coming, the Devil’s trying to flood my mind with this and with that, but my foundation stands sure because I didn’t place it, I didn’t build this foundation!

This isn’t something…this isn’t philosophy that I came up with to make me feel better. This is something God did! The greatest power in the universe! The only real power in the universe.

Okay, so where were we, from a real experiential standpoint, when the Gospel came to us? Did He go out and look for good people? Yeah, there are no good people, not by God’s standard.

“As for you…” chapter 2, “…you were dead in your transgressions and sins….” Dead is kind of a serious condition, isn’t it? This is not somebody who could help themselves. This isn’t a deal where God says, here are the principles, here are the rules. You follow these, and everything will be good. Your life will be better and you’ll have a purpose in life. This is somebody who is so far gone, so out of…beyond help, they’re dead.

As far as the purposes of God are concerned, “…you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” And that’s what we’re seeing in the world. It’s taken over.

“All of us….” All of us! Now Paul’s including himself, isn’t he? All of us! “All of us also lived among them at one time….” Now, I don’t care if you grew up in this church and you’re a good person. Again, there are no good people, by the true standard. But sometimes that can mask your need.

If you have a real past and you’ve been out there, you know, there’s an appreciation for what God has done for you. I mean, I grew up in the providence of God, I grew up in a preacher’s home. That doesn’t make me any better than anybody else. I have the same nature, the same need.

But you know, sometimes you can grow up and not realize your need. You know, the greatest thing God can do for you is to let you fall in the mud, sometimes, until you see, oh my God, I’m a sinner. I need a Savior!

( congregational amens ).

I pray that if that’s you, if you don’t know your need that God will show you out of His love and mercy, show you that you need what we’re talking about this morning. Because you do! The world is full of people who’ve said, no.

“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh…” That’s one of the biggies that the world is after. Oh, if it feels good, do it, follow it. “…And following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”

That is a pretty good description of the condition of the world. Now I know there’s a time when people who come along in ignorance. But I’ll tell you, there’s a time when God shines the light one way or another upon a heart, and that’s when people begin to be truly responsible. I’m gonna let God sort all of that out.

But I know that there is a…the condition of the human heart is beyond our ability to understand. I don’t think we really get it, particularly if we’ve grown up in a comfortable environment, and we hear the Word of God and we sing the songs, we just don’t have any idea what’s really going on here. But I’ll tell you, this is a desperate, desperate, needy world. And it’s only God that can do anything about it.

“But because…” What is the cause of what He’s doing? “…Because of his great love for us….” Not because He found something good in us, He didn’t. Not because He saw potential in us. Oh, if I recruit that one, they can help Me out in My kingdom. My God! We have nothing but ourselves to give to Him!

( congregational amens ).

Nothing! There’s nothing I could possibly present and say, Lord, here it is. I’ll trade this for eternal life. “…Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy…” He, “…made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…”

Who did all this? Suppose God had just stood back and let things…let events play out? There is not a single person who’s here or may ever hear this, not one single person who would ever escape the condition that prevails in this world. And the end of that condition is death. That’s it!

And you wouldn’t even know it. You would think you were living for some valid purpose. I’m trying to make myself something. I’m following my desires, I’m trying to be happy! And you have no idea what’s going on. But God intervened!

( congregational amens ).

Thank God! He’s the one who took the initiative, because without His initiative, we would have nothing! “…Made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” And I’ve got to put this in, because I’ve seen over the years, I feel like grace has been misunderstood. It’s just a kindly, accepting attitude on God’s part. Grace is God’s intervention!

( congregational amens ).

His grace is what works on my heart to make me aware of my need! It’s the influence and the power of His Spirit at work in my life. You can call it grace because I don’t deserve it! But grace is a real force, that invades my life, convicts me, and then not only convicts me, it gives me the power to believe!

I don’t even have the power to do that! That’s why the scripture says, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (KJV). Today is the day of salvation! That’s the only answer, because if God stops dealing with a heart, you don’t have the power to do it. You don’t even want to, let alone would you have the power if you did. I need God’s help!

The only answer that exists is for God to invade my life, show me my need, empower me to believe. Now He doesn’t overpower my will if I’m hard-hearted and resist it! You can do despite to the grace of God! But oh, praise God, that He has the will and the heart and the motive and the love that brings Him to that place of reaching down to me. because I don’t deserve it, and I could never deserve it!

“…It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us…” (NIV). This is past tense, folks. We don’t see ourselves the way God does. God has put us in a place that we don’t see. “…God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…”

But why? Why did He do that? “…In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” And this isn’t going to end. Ages to come.

I don’t have any idea what God’s planned. But I know it’s gonna be good. And I know there won’t be any sin, there won’t be any death, there won’t be any sorrow or sickness or age or anything else. It’s gonna be exactly what God wants.

And we will walk with Him in white because He had done it! He has done it, folks. Are you relying on that in a practical sense? Or is this just doctrine? This has got to get beyond doctrine with every single one of us, that God has laid a foundation that you and I can stand upon, and our sins can be gone!

Brother Phil: Where does immortality come from? God has revealed immortality through the Gospel. There’s a pathway to life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not be cast into an internal torture. Wait a minute, should not perish, perish, perish, but have everlasting life.

You can go on and on unlocking this subject. You see where the enemy has confused a whole lot of things. He’s accused God of something terrible, but yet there is an end, there is a destiny, God is not going to tolerate evil forever. There is an evil life force that is infecting the human race, and if He doesn’t do it, that evil will just go on.

You know, one Scripture, that the last time I preached on this, I did not use this Scripture, it came to me after the fact, but if you got questions about this, and I’m sure some do, this is not what you’ve heard, not what you’ve been taught, but look at Hebrews 10:20.

Well, let’s beginning in Verse 26, because what the writer here is dealing with is people who have come into a knowledge of truth. They know about God, they know what they ought to do, and they somehow never quite let go and cross the line, and enter, and embrace it. What happens if, when people stop short because they love their earthly life and that’s what they want more?

When it comes right down to it, there’s a choice to be made, like the song we sung this morning, how the Lord is drawing a line in the sand, they see all of that over there, but something holds them back and they want their life more than they want what God has.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only, So what is left? But only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. That’s pretty plain language, isn’t it?

You know, Revelation 20 talks about the fire, but it doesn’t really tell you specifically what the purpose of the fire is. Here you got judgment followed by fire, but what does the fire do? It consumes the enemies of God. Whatever there is of suffering and consequences of sin, is going on before that, but there is a day, it is appointed unto men, once to die, and after this, the judgment.

Interesting how people that are only born once, die twice. You notice that? You’re just born into this world, you’ve got Adam’s life in you, and that’s it, and your body dies, but that’s not the only death there is, there’s another death to come.

Those who are born twice, only die once. Praise God, because we serve One who has conquered death forever. That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus, You must be born again. There’s got to come into you a life the very life of God, the very, the tree of life. We’ve gotta have access back to that. Only Jesus can open the gate and allow us to get in there and partake of that, and be born of that life. That’s the life that cannot die.

These bodies will die, they’re temporary, if you’re living for this, you’re wasting your time. Seek first the kingdom of God. God can take care of the needs of this life, but oh, we better have God’s life, praise God! That’s the destiny of God’s people.

And this same God Who has written history before it happened, all the things that He says about those who cast their lot with Him, those who completely identify with Jesus, who lay down their lives, and embrace His, and set their hearts toward what He has promised. Oh, praise God! God knew that ahead of time. He knew all about it long before it happened.

What does it say? We were chosen in Him, before the foundation of the world. Oh, that means God just decides for everybody. No, but God’s sovereignty is one thing, but He does not use His sovereignty to override our responsibility to listen, and to humble ourselves, and to cast ourselves upon Him. But God also knows those who will do that. He says, I knew you before the foundation of the world, I planned for you.

David said, All of my days were written in Your book. David’s biography was already written before he was ever born. In fact, he says, When all of the substance that made up his physical body was just a bunch of minerals in the ground, God knew all about him then. And he’s just in awe of the greatness of God.

Oh my, I wanna be in His hands. I want to, that’s my, what a destiny! And that’s the glorious thing, a destiny is something that Someone else, really, the bottom line is, Someone else determines that, you catch cast yourself on Him, there is One who takes over Who is able to finish what He started. Praise God!

We know what the ultimate destiny is, but even if you think about your life here, what’s my destiny? I know that one day they’re gonna, I’m gonna leave this body, this physical life will be over, and then they’re either gonna cook me and scatter my ashes, or they’re gonna put me in the ground, one way or the other. And then what?

What does Paul say about that? To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord. Praise God, whatever happened before the Resurrection, I believe the Saints were having to wait. I believe when the Lord came forth from that tomb, He brought forth a host of captives with Him. He rescued all the Old Testament Saints who had just been waiting.

Oh, they knew what was coming. You see, the expectations of all the hope of the future, yet, they knew they were gonna have to die and wait. But when Jesus conquered death, He brought a host of captives with Him, and He opened a place where we can go and be with Him.

Praise God, praise God, and we will know when we stand there, we don’t stand there because of any virtue we have. My destiny was determined by what God did through Jesus Christ. I can rest in my hope in that, praise God!

And not only that, I’m not gonna be some spirit floating around somewhere, I’m gonna have a body. When’s that happen? When do we get these new bodies that we’re gonna have, the ones that are like Jesus? When He comes. The last enemy, what’s the last enemy? Death. When is that conquered? When Christ comes.

I mean, there’s just another witness that there are no more enemies after that, there’s no more battles, there’s no more history of this world, it’s gone. Death is finally forever conquered! And not only do we have life in our spirits, we have brand new bodies that are not subject to all of this. God’s purposes from the foundation of the world begin to unfold in ways that we cannot even imagine right now.

You know, we’ve talked about the glory, and all of those kinds of things, and they’re absolutely true, but look at what we’re told to expect, immediately following the passage in Revelation 20, that talks about the judgment. The next few verses give just a little bit of a glimpse beyond that, the Lord showed John some things.

Then, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Now the new heaven and new earth is exactly what the Lord revealed to Peter. We realize this one’s gonna be burned up. That’s its destiny, folks, this planet, everything about it, everything about this universe has been so corrupted by sin and death, it’s going to be destroyed, but there’s gonna be something to replace it, and it’s a new heaven and a new earth, where in dwells righteousness, praise God! It’s gonna be completely free from all of that stuff that’s wrong with this world and this universe.

Alright, A new heaven and a new earth, the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Again, does that reveal the destiny? It’s passed away, all right? And there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, a lot of this is figurative language, but there’s something real behind the figure, okay? I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

That’s the fancy, figurative language, but God’s talking about us, we’re the bride, we’re the bride. So even though God’s people have been in heaven, what we call heaven, someplace that is above us somewhere, God knows all about that stuff, I’m not gonna try to sort it all out, but I know there’s a place where God’s people are walking with Him right now, waiting for all of this to completely happen, okay?

But now we come past all of the judgment, all of the destruction. He says, Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people. Praise God! A holy God, can come and dwell with somebody like me. He’s got a job on his hands to make me ready for that. But isn’t that what everything’s about? Praise God!

And he will dwell with them, and will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. No more death except, oh, one little torture chamber, sorry, I forgot about that. All of that has been passed away.

See, it wasn’t just people that were thrown in that lake of fire, it was death itself. It was Hades, the, the place of the dead, everything was destroyed. God has an incinerator, folks, that’s the destiny of this world, that is the destiny of those who hardened their hearts against God.

Jesus said, and if I can remember the Scripture exactly, This is the condemnation, in John Chapter 3, This is the condemnation, this is the reason why this happens. Men, a light is coming into the world, but men loved darkness, instead of light. or rather than light, why? Because their deeds were evil.

People are making choices every day in this world. Those choices are fashioning them for their destiny. I’m so glad that I can just put my destiny in His hands. Praise God, is God able to finish what He started? Has He written my story?

I mean, you look, throughout the Scriptures, God told Jeremiah, I said, before you were formed in the womb, I chose you, I called you, and made you a prophet to the nations. Say, what? God was writing everyone’s story. God’s writing your story right now. I wanna live out that story, don’t you?

Doesn’t that mean that we need to be looking to God with a faith, with an expectation? It says, God, I know You have called me, You have loved me, You have made Yourself known to me, not because of any good thing You found in me, but because of Your love and Your purpose To have a people, to have a family, to share an eternity with. Praise God, and You’re able to bring me to that place.

You know, what was God’s purpose in the beginning when he created the beautiful creation then He brought Adam and Eve to it? What was their place in that creation? They were given the first creation to rule over. You remember that? All things were put under his feet, under his hand, under his rule.

But what we did was to disobey God, to rebel against Him, and effectively, hand over the control of everything to the Devil. And so God has, since that day, been calling a people out of that order of things, getting them ready to share in something that’s to come, that He’s promised, that is as certain as what God has done through Christ in the Resurrection, and all of those things, His Word will never pass away, that’s what’s coming.

And God is using this world, but think about what that means about the new creation. Are we just gonna sit around there and pluck harps? God is gonna bring forth this amazing creation, and He’s gonna put us in charge, and He’s fitting you for that. Every one of us is gonna be brought to the likeness of Christ, in the sense that we’re gonna be filled with His nature, His likeness, His character, and yet you and I are gonna, every one of you, everyone is different, everyone is unique, nobody’s ever been made like you, I’ve said it many times.

But God has got a place for you and for me in that brand new creation. It’s gonna be a life full of meaning and purpose and joy. You think about the sense of accomplishment that men have here, we’re able to do this and do that and accomplish the other, but to be set free from all the things of, all the sin and death, and all the selfishness of this world, and free to enjoy what God has given to us, and to love one another, and have fellowship with one another.

The things we’ll be able to explore, and you name it, I mean, you think of men exploring the Universe. Who knows, we got all eternity to enjoy the creation that God is gonna bring forth, and He’ll be right in the middle of it with us, we won’t ever be fighting against Him, and resisting Him, and doing it pridefully in that sense, we can enjoy.

Oh, I’ll tell you what, you can go on and on. When I think of Scripture, I’ll just throw this one in, that we so often quote in Philippians 1:6, I’m persuaded that He, which has begun a good work in you, will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ.

Now, think about this, Paul wrote that to first century believers. He said, God’s gonna be working in you till the day of Jesus Christ. Well, that’s still future to us. God knows exactly when it’s coming. That means there’s still things that God is doing in them, it’s not a matter of overcoming sin, they’re in the presence of the Lord, but there’s stuff that God wants to teach us, the things that God’s people are learning, and they’re learning it there, if they didn’t learn it here.

So many times, we see people that we know that they gave themselves to the Lord, but there’s still weaknesses and needs in their life, and it’s evident they hadn’t grown up. Well, is anybody here? Nobody here has totally grown up. If you and I died today, they’d say, Yeah, we believe they know the Lord but we saw needs.

The Lord knows about that, whatever we will be on that day, when we stand there in robed in white and in shining glory, God knows how to get His people there! That is a destiny that He determined! It’s not like we have to go out and somehow make it happen. We surrender and allow Him to work. Praise God!

What is the destiny of this world? To pass away, suddenly by fire. Does it make any sense to live for this world? What is the destiny ultimately, of those who absolutely, steadfastly refuse to humble themselves? What is the destiny? They will perish. There will be fire which consumes the enemies of God.

I don’t wanna be His enemy, I wanna be His friend. But that’s a destiny for so many. I pray that God will change that in the heart. We’re still in the time when God can reach some hearts, if He, that’s the thing, you know, you sometimes look out, and you say, Why in the world does God let this crazy world go on? Look at the terrible things that are happening.

God’s amazingly patient. We often quote the Scripture, Not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance, and in one sense, God wants everybody to be saved, we have another Scripture that says that, but when He says, when He talks about Him being patient, not willing that any should perish, who is He talking about?

You look in the context, He’s talking about God’s people. There are some of God’s people, yet in this world right now, who have not heard the Gospel, who have not yet been brought to that place of repentance, God is not going to leave anyone behind. That’s what he’s saying. That’s the only reason God’s waiting, because His table will be full on that day. Praise God!

That’s why we can pray and trust God to work in hearts that are in need today, but we serve a God who is absolutely in charge, there is a destiny for the world, there’s a destiny for the people of this world who refuse Him, but there is a destiny to which He has called His own. Praise God, He’s well able and willing to take us all the way there.

That’s what I wanna, I wanna live with that knowledge, I want that to shape my thinking, to understand who I am and what my life is about, and to realize, I might just be an instrument to help somebody that God wants to bring into the kingdom, but in the meantime, we can encourage one another, we can cry out to God to give us all that we need to stand in this dark hour, because we’re gonna need it, and He is willing, more than willing to finish everything that He started.

My destinies, my days, my times are in Your hand. Didn’t David say that? How many times has God revealed things like that to God’s people? It would be good for us to listen and to get that in our thinking, that shapes the way we look at everything, because we serve a God Who’s in control.

What is your destiny today? If there’s someone who hears this, and you’re, I don’t know, I’m not so sure. You better cry out to God. There’s a God Who’ll hear your voice. If you really want Him to make Himself known to you, He will. If that’s what matters to you more than just living out your life in this world and perishing, God will reveal Himself, and make Himself real to you.

He wants us to know, He wants us to be living with a confidence, not, Ah! I realize religion is producing a lot of people who will reach that day and wonder, Oh my God, I thought I was one of ‘em. God is not in religion, He’s in the relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not doctrine that’ll save you, and ritual, and all those kinds of things, it’s a living relationship with a Savior, and He comes to live on the inside, and He makes us brand new people.

We’re part of a new creation, right then, the life that will fill that creation enters the human heart, when we give that heart to Him, He comes in and he seals it by His Spirit and He absolutely seals our destiny, not because we are able to somehow achieve it, but because He is able to save those to the uttermost, who come unto God by Him. He is a mighty savior, to God be the glory, praise God!

Destiny is something we need to understand. You know, part of my desire was to make this so simple that kids can get it, I don’t know, I’m not very good at that, but maybe some of your Sunday school teachers can take it, but I’ll tell you, the destiny of this world is destruction. The destiny of its people who reject Him, is destruction. The destiny of those who trust in Christ, and He comes to live in there, is glory, and a life that never ends in a brand new creation.

Walking with Jesus, because he’s gonna hand the kingdom off to His Father, and walk among us, as our elder brother in that day, and God will be everything, His life will fill everything. To God be the glory! That sounds like a mighty good destiny to me, doesn’t it to you? Praise God!

Well, that’s my destiny, not because I’m anything. The more I go, the more I realize. God really, what He took on in trying to save me is amazing. Wow, but I could say the same thing about you. We all need a Savior. We have nothing to boast about except Him, but He is able, He is able to keep what we’ve committed unto Him against that day. It’s alive, it’s real, and it’s coming. Destiny is absolutely something. Like I say, God has written history. I wanna be on the right side of that history, and we can be, praise God, to Him be the glory!

Brother Phil: In the last week we talked about destiny, and we sort of went over what the Bible teaches about the destiny of the world, the destiny of the lost people of the world, the destiny of God’s people. And one point we made was the simple fact that God has history already written.

I mean, you think about destiny, it has to do with the destination, but it has to do with how you get there. And we’ve got a God who is over all, who absolutely has an end in mind and is in charge of the process to get us there. Thank God! We can put our hope in Him this morning.

But you know, I got to thinking about that because you could believe all that. But the thing is, God wants to bring this down to the level of where we live every single day. What good is truth about the general picture of where the world is going and all of that, if we don’t relate it to our daily lives, and how we get there.

And you know, I thought about a simple thing, simple question to ask. How many of you, understanding that God writes the big picture and history is already written, understands that God has already written the story of your life? You know, we talked about the book of truth that the Lord revealed to Daniel, but how many of you know there’s a page, or however many pages are necessary, in that book with your name on them. That God has planned all about you, He knows you. If He know how many hairs are on your head, I guess he knows the rest! And so, God has a plan for our lives.

And the reality is we didn’t choose when to be born, we didn’t choose the circumstances of those things. But God has us here for a reason. And we were born into the world at a particular time, and we know how God has revealed to us the reality of where our world is headed and how it’s gonna end. It’s not gonna end well for the world, and God is allowing Satan to pursue his purpose, to deceive those who want to be deceived, who want to rebel.

And we’re gonna see the greatest crescendo, if you will, or the greatest depth of darkness that this world will have ever have seen. And it’s unfolding before us every single day. And yet, this is the time in history when God has called upon us to live, and our lives fit into that picture.

And He wants us to know and to be able to move forward with a confidence in him that, yes, He is in control, and we’re gonna be able to fill our particular place in His plan. I want that for me. I don’t want to just muddle along, and believe the right stuff with my head and it not really translate into what happens in my life. So I believe with all my heart God wants us to understand that.

And you know, I was thinking of Esther, you know, this is the time of year when we read through Esther, if you’re reading the chronological Bible this past week. And Esther was born into an unusual time in history when the people of God had been first carried off to Babylon and they were conquered by the Medes and the Persians, and the Jews got scattered through their empire. But God had something that He was working out. Esther didn’t know anything about it. All she did was go through step by step and try to do the right thing and trust God. And God arranged for her to be queen.

And there came, and I won’t go through the story, which most of you know, but there came a time of desperate need. And you remember what her uncle, Mordecai, told her when she was questioning, what can I do about it? Who am I? And he says, who knows but you have been brought to the kingdom for such a time as this?

And I believe that’s true of us. We may not have that exalted place. We may not do something that in the span or the scope of history is that great, or something, where they’re gonna write a book about you because your name is so great. That’s not what it’s about. But God has a particular place, there’s a reason you’re alive now, that I am. And He is looking to accomplish something, not only in us but through us in this hour. And I pray that God will lead us to that, he will enable us in every way that is necessary.

Well, we know that when Jesus came in the flesh, began his ministry, one of the first things he did was to call disciples. There were those who followed him and then, led by God, he picked 12 of them to be his disciples in a special sense. And he trained them. He spent time with them. And then he actually commissioned them at several points, I think, but at least one point where he sent them out with the message, the kingdom is here and to heal the sick and so forth. All of those things that he put in their hands to do, and they did it.

And you remember some of the things that he told them. You know, it’s awful easy to think about, oh, the world is gonna get darker and darker, but how is that gonna affect me? Well, the Lord told them how standing up for him in a dark world was gonna affect them. He said men will persecute you. He mentions, at least in one place, they’ll kill you. They’ll put you in prison. They’ll bring you before councils. If they do, don’t worry, I’ll give you what to say when the time comes. I’m glad for that. God’s right with us in every situation.

But you will be hated by all nations for my sake. But he that endures to the end, the same will be saved. I’ll tell you, that’s what God is preparing us for. Whatever our place in all of God’s scheme is, God is preparing a people, and I believe with all my heart, I’m talking to some of those people. And I believe God is wanting to awaken us.

I thought about Matthew 24, I don’t want to get into a lot of this. You remember, this was right before, not long before Jesus was crucified, and the disciples were calling Jesus’ attention to the amazing building of the temple. And oh, look at this structure, and look at how this is built. And isn’t this amazing?

And of course, Jesus took the opportunity to say, Everything you see here is gonna be torn down. There will not even be one stone left upon another. Now, how did he know that? He’d read the book, hadn’t he. God revealed that what was happening, what was gonna happen.

They were living in a time when the last of Israel’s history was happening, and it was just a generation or so away when Rome was gonna come in and absolutely destroy the place and literally fulfill the words of Jesus. They were called to serve God in a time of amazing darkness, and rebellion and rejection of God’s word. And yet God had a people that he was rescuing outta that situation.

That’s what he’s doing today, God still has a people He’s reaching in the midst of this darkness. I wanna be one of the people that’s absolutely in harmony with what He’s doing. I certainly don’t have what it takes to do that, but that’s not the point.

So anyway, they ask him about it, and they ask him several questions. You know, when will this happen? The destruction of the temple. And what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age? So there’s several questions he addresses and they’re all kind of mixed up.

But the part I want to get to is what he says first. For it says, Watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name claiming ‘I am the Messiah,’ or I am God’s anointed. I’m somebody special that God has sent, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.

Does the daily news alarm you? There’s plenty to be alarmed about, but you know, these things are, this is part of life in this world. And he says, See to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famine, famines, and earthquakes in various places, all these other beginnings of birth pangs.

Then he wants to give them something, a little bit of an insight into what their life is gonna look like. I wonder if he came here and pointed you out and said, this is what your future’s gonna look like. It’d be sobering, wouldn’t it? Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death. Whoa, praise God! I wanna be part of that! But that’s the reality, folks, of what it means to serve God in a broken world and not live for this world, but the one to come because it’s that real to us. Thank God.

All right. And you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come.

So he gives a very broad picture there, but he also, you notice how he focuses on their destiny as servants, his servants in the first century. Praise God! Like I say, suppose he came here and gave us that kind of a picture? We are so accustomed to living in luxury and ease, our way of life here is just not like much of history. It’s not like it is in most of the world. Our brothers and sisters are suffering today.

And I don’t know what the history, what going forward is gonna look like, but I know this, God is preparing us. Notice how many times in all that he says about the end times, he uses the expression, Be ready. Well, how in the world can we be ready without getting ready?

You know, we think about, oh, well I know that’s coming and when the time comes, I’m good. That would be a lot like somebody who wants to be a great athlete, but doesn’t really wanna put in the time and the effort. I’m good. I know how running works. Boy, I’m just gonna step up there. It doesn’t work very well, does it? Praise God!

I remember one time, I was not a distance runner at all, to say the least. In fact, I didn’t even do any competitive running in high school. But one day I had practiced running, I think it was the half mile. I had messed around on at home, and boy, I was good to go. So I asked the coach if I could jump in there and run that. I got around halfway around the track, and everybody else was….

You don’t just do it because hey, I want to do that, I can do that, it’s not just some mental thing. There’s preparation that’s needed if we’re going to be some of these people that he can use in this kind of an hour and will have what it takes on the inside to prevail and to stand and to endure whatever comes.

You know, what if they suddenly put a gun to your head, or said, if you’re gonna serve God, you’re gonna be dead? I mean, that happens. That happens on probably daily on the global scale. I tell you, we’re gonna need something on the inside that’s real, praise God!

And you could read that and say, He that endures to the end will be saved. And the devil could turn that around and make it sound scary. Like, oh my God, I’ve gotta come up with something. I gotta come up with some sort of strength that gets me through all that stuff. What if this happens? What if that happens? Oh my God.

But you know, John kind of was one of the ones listening to this, and he wrote some wonderful encouraging words, didn’t he, about what it is that overcomes the world. It’s faith. Oh, okay, so I gotta come up with faith then. Is that where faith comes from?

Remember how many times we’ve talked about how faith is that supernatural ability that God plants in a willing heart. When we literally hand our lives over to him, he implants this thing called faith. And it’s a confidence in God. It’s recognizing the reality that He is in control, that He is worth serving. All the things that’s involved and our having an anchor in our soul. Praise God! It all comes from Him.

But faith is something that needs to grow. It doesn’t just sort of magically happen, does it? God has got to do things in our lives and we’re going to be ready when some of these things happen. We’re gonna have to be getting ready in the meantime, okay. And so we’re gonna need the Lord to work in us every single day to get us ready. Praise the Lord!

Anybody — I mean here’s the thing that just seemed to jump out at me this week. How many of us come here, we enjoy being with people that we know, we hear the word, and we rejoice, and we go out and we feel good, and we believe the stuff that we’ve heard, and then we just sort of put it on the shelf and we go through our daily lives and it just doesn’t really translate into daily living?

See, faith, that’s just — well, faith without works is what? It’s dead, isn’t it? If what we hear in here and what we claim to profess and believe in here is not somehow lived out, what good is it? It’s not, it’s not worth anything.

You know, I noticed that there’s two words that are very closely related in Greek. One of them is faith. And there’s another word that has one letter difference in Greek, and it’s translated most of the time in our Bibles as faithfulness. What’s the difference between faith and faithfulness? Faith is the inner conviction about something, that this is true and so forth. Faithfulness is living that out. There’s a fullness to that. There’s something that is real.

If I believe God is in charge, then there’s going to be something in me, if I am living that out, that when I get in a difficult, scary situation, I’m gonna remember, hey, God is faithful. In fact, isn’t that wonderful that he uses that word of Him? Great is Thy faithfulness.

Think about the exercise of faith that it took for Jeremiah to write the book of Lamentations, lamenting all the terrible things that had happened to Jerusalem and to the Jews, and the terrible destruction of Babylon. Oh my God, we’ve sinned against you. We’ve been judged. You’re right in all You’ve done, but all the terrible condition of things in the middle of it. But great is Thy faithfulness. Thy mercies, your mercies are new every morning.

I’ll tell you, there’s something that can enable in a spirit that’s in someone who has the, really has the faith and they’ve learned how to exercise that even in the darkest hour, we can worship God, we can know that He’s in charge, we can trust Him with all the situations that come up and know that He is faithful. Thank God!

You know, I’ve thought about a whole bunch of different titles, I guess ‘Faithful to the End’ is as good a one as any, but we sing that wonderful song, Faithful to the End, God will be faithful to the end. Praise God! Do you believe that? Do you believe that even if some of these circumstances that Jesus warned his disciples about, literally applied to you and to me, would we still trust God? Would we still be thankful and praise Him?

Now, how many of you think that you could just go along and just kind of casually go through your day-to-day living and not really get all that serious, and then all of a sudden everything fell apart and all of a sudden you were in that situation, that you’d be ready? You think maybe that God has a reason why he’s ordering things in our lives? God knows what it takes.

And the same God, like I say, that has a book of truth that outlines history before it happens, He knows my history, He knows my place, He knows your place. It’s not a matter of whether it’s a big place or an important place in our estimation, the fact that we even have a place in the kingdom of God is amazing. Thank God that he would include us!

The more you look in the mirror and see what you’re made out of, the more amazing it is that God would come in. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Praise God! Now, maybe you don’t think you’re a wretch, but you don’t see the truth about yourself if you don’t. Now, that doesn’t mean we have to wallow in that. But the reality is that we have been saved by amazing, amazing grace. Thank God for all that he has done.

But I know with all of my heart that God is looking to translate all that He has done for us at the cross, all that Jesus suffered on our behalf. He wants that to be translated into changes in our hearts, in our lives so that we grow up in Him, and that we are able to fulfill the functions that He has laid before us. Praise God!

Do you think the things that happen in your life are just random? That God just doesn’t really order your steps? That if somebody says something mean to you that pushes your button that, oh, that just happened? Or do you think just maybe the Lord put it in somebody’s heart or allowed someone to do that because He knows there’s a need in you, and He wants you and me to learn how to grow and how to react in a more Christlike way?

How do we grow, unless we have to deal with real life? I tell you that part of the burden of my heart, and I guess the older I get and the further along I go, the more of a burden it is that God would do something amazing in the younger generations. All the younger generations. I think, especially the young people.

I don’t know how many of you realize, and it just really dawns on you how loved you are. What God has called you to do and to be in this hour. Things that you could never possibly be in your own strength, that you would never choose the road that He’s laid out before you. But yet there’s a God who loves you, Who has this destiny in mind for you, but He has a reason you are here. You have come to the kingdom for such a time as this, and is a place He has designed for you.

And the things that you just react to and just kind of blow through, and just, you know, it’s fun, this, that and the other thing. And without really listening and taking hold of the things that He’s teaching you, and say, oh wait, this is connected with that. You mean I’m not supposed to get mad, I’m not supposed to be upset? I’m supposed to learn how to handle this in a different spirit?

It’s getting real quiet. Oh me. Oh me. We all understand that, don’t we? And here the Lord is putting us through our paces and giving us exercise and we don’t…. We can just go through it mindlessly and not realize, not realizing God knows my path, He’s written my history. He knows what I’m gonna be facing down the road and He’s working faithfully, faithfully to get me ready. And I’m just blowing it. I’m not paying any attention, and I need to wake up and realize how much He loves me and what He’s doing for me.

I want to do that more, don’t you? And I just, I long to see, I know the Lord longs to see a younger generation that just gets this. You do not need hand-me-down religion. You need a personal knowledge of a living God and his Son, Jesus Christ. You need a relationship where you will go to Him, you will recognize that every moment of your life is something lived under His mighty, loving hand.

And he wants to teach you every single day to look to Him. You are gonna run into, every day you’re gonna run into stuff where you can’t do it. You aren’t this, you can’t do that. Welcome to the human race. I’m exactly the same way. I get up in the morning, and I’ve got my own things to deal with. Every one of us does. But God is the one who is ordering our steps. And what he’s looking for is faith that is translated into daily life, faith in action.

You know, you think about, I talked about an athlete who doesn’t prepare, or just thinks because they know how something works, they can just step up and do it. But you know, the world is full of preparation that’s necessary. Education. How could you suddenly step in and be a scientist if you didn’t, you know, work at it. Prepare yourself.

They couldn’t just hire you to be a soldier, recruit you to be a soldier and hand you a gun and say, go fight. There’s a whole lot that goes into that to get ready for that, to have the knowledge, to have the practice, to know how to do this and how to do that.

God is training you right now for the things that are gonna come, the things that you will face in this world. Some of the stuff you don’t want to go through, you don’t like it. God has ordered it because He loves you enough to put you in places that will challenge you and get you ready, because He knows what’s coming.