Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 781 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: We're not so strong, and so smart, and so able as we think we are. If it were not for the grace of an almighty God, every one of us would be crushed in this world.

( congregational amens ).

We're not strong enough for the devil and the forces of darkness that are ruling in this present evil world. We're not wise enough to outsmart him. All he does is dangle the dainties of this world in front of us and let us outsmart ourselves. But I'll tell you, God's people...it'll do us well if we realize that this is exactly what we are, that we are that needy and that dependent upon God, and get off our high horse and say Lord, I am what you say I am.

Remember the old hymn, "Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?" You know there's actually churches out there that have changed the words. They say "for such a one as I"? They don't like to say worm. But I'll tell you, unless we have seen our limitations and what we are before a holy God, I don't think we've got the picture. Praise God!

God did not call them worms because He was trying to just grind them into the ground, and say, you're insignificant, you're nothing, I don't care about you. It was not meant to be a put-down. It was meant to be a statement of fact.

( congregational amens ).

We simply do not have control, folks. We need a great and a mighty God. There are things that happen in our lives, and we wonder why did that happen, what's going on here? I believe God has to remind us many times that we are what He says we are, that we need Him!

( congregational amens ).

And I'll tell you, if you're feeling your weakness in your life because of things that are happening, it's God's mercy, it's not His anger towards you. It's that He would turn you and me toward Him! He wants our hearts turned to Him that He might make us strong, that He might help us. And He stands ready and willing. That's the whole point of this passage. That's why God saw fit to cause men centuries ago...2500 years ago at least, more than that...to write down these words, to hear them from God, to write them down, have them preserved. Don't you think the devil would loved to have blotted out this Word and caused it not to be transmitted to us today?

( congregational response ).

We have a God who preserved His Word.

( congregational amens ).

And He has said, He exalts His Word above His name!

( congregational amens ).

There's not a word that's written in this book that God will not fulfill. That doesn't mean you and I understand it all, 'cause I don't. Maybe you do, you can explain it to me. But I'll tell you what, there's a God who understands every little stroke of the pen in this book and He knows how to fulfill what He has said. There isn't devil in hell that can stop it. That's why I put my hope in Him!

( congregational amens ).

I praise Him this morning 'cause He is my help!

( congregational praise ).

He's my hope. I believe His words. You know if you exist and you realize, Lord, I'm a worm. I look at me, I'm looking around...the world around me is wicked. People don't care about God. I see the way the world's going...I mean the parallel is obvious...should be obvious to us. Just as the nation of Israel was headed downhill towards a terrible destruction, so is our world headed in the same direction. God has called us to stand in this hour and to be a light. Does anybody feel strong enough to do that in yourself? No! We are not...we are worms in terms of our strength. In the grand scheme of thing, that's all we are. Now we may puff out our chest and be offended at that, but I tell you it's the truth--it's the truth.

And I'll tell you, coming to a place where we enter into what God has declared here, it would behoove us to recognize what we are, and to say, thank You, Lord...that though I am a worm, I'm Your worm Lord. I'm willing to trust in You, and I know that what's gonna happen is gonna happen because of Your promise and not because of who I am or any ability in me! That takes it out of my hands. My job is to believe Him, to trust in Him, to stand firm and say, Lord, regardless of what happens, regardless of what anybody else does, I believe in You.

( congregational amens ).

I believe in a hill called Mount Calvary. Praise God! Though the world is gonna come to an end and all these things are gonna happen on the earth, I believe in You. I believe there's a rock that You have placed under my feet that will stand when the world is gone! I'll tell you, has God birthed that confidence in your heart? That's what He desires to give everyone of His children. He wants you to have a personal confidence that this applies to you, though you may feel like a worm at times.

Oh, I'll tell you what, praise God, but that's why the Lord says, do not be afraid. Oh we are bedeviled by fears in our lives...fear of what's gonna happen, fear of what might happen...most of the time it never will. 'Course I know nobody here ever experiences that. But I'll tell you...we live so often...the sense of our own inability to control things causes us just to be terrified of all kinds of things, and the devil is quick to pour fuel on the fire, isn't he?

And we read the promises of God and we look...where do we look now? Where does the devil focus your attention? On us...saying, you'll never be that, who are you kidding? You'll never...these promises don't apply to you. Look at all that's wrong with you, look at how weak you are, you can never do that. And he tells us all kinds of things that would cause us to be afraid, and to shrink back, and to just all the time be in a state of anxiety about things. But I'll tell you, God says, don't be afraid.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! I believe if God says, don't be afraid, and He says it throughout the scriptures, I believe He means for us to not be afraid! Obviously I cannot avoid fear based upon some kind of trumped-up self-confidence. God knows how to undercut you if you are full of self-confidence, and you think you can do something by yourself. Sometimes we have to fall in the mud because that's exactly the kind of a spirit that we're moving in.

And God is faithful enough to cause us to fall flat in the mud, until we say, oh Lord, forgive me. I was trying to do it myself. I was careless. I thought I had it made. I thought I had gotten to that plateau where all that was behind me, and I could just kind of coast along because I had it made. And the Lord says, you didn't get there because you were strong, you got there because I was faithful.

( congregational amens ).

Because you put your hope in me, that's why you were able to reach a place where you sensed a certain amount of victory. But you were taking credit for something that I did. You were standing in your own strength. You forgot what I said about not being over-confident, but knowing that I'm able to give grace in all types of things. But, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth..." do what?

( congregational response ).

"...Take heed lest he fall." (KJV). Praise God! That's the problem. We think we're standing, we think we're something, and we're not. But oh, I'll tell you, God's Word to you this morning...if you're afraid of anything in your life, if there's anything that's assaulting your mind and causing you right now to be afraid, God's Word to you is don't fear, even though you are a worm...even though you are helpless in the face of everything that is going on in this world in your life, because...He says, "O little Israel...." (NIV). It kind of reminds me of what Jesus said...talks about the kingdom. Praise God! Somebody help me with the words.

( congregation inaudible ).

"Fear not, little flock...."(KJV). Thank you. Fear not...little flock. Why? Why did He say that? "...It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Praise God, that's by grace. I don't deserve the kingdom, do you?

( congregational response ).

Has anybody here done anything to deserve a kingdom? But we've got an almighty Father in heaven, and it's His pleasure to give the kingdom. Praise God! What do we do? We come, we fall at His feet, we believe in Him, we put our lives in His hands and our trust and hope in Him. Then we have no reason to fear because we can always look up and know that He's on the throne. Praise God!

We need to remind ourselves constantly because the way we walk in this world is by faith, we don't see all these things that He's promised most of the time. It doesn't look like we're strong. It doesn't look like He's faithful sometimes. He allows things to happen in our lives and we say, why, Lord, what happened here, what's going on.

But I'll tell you, we have a God whose promise is faithful. He says, "...Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come...." "...Ye have need of patience...." He says, in Hebrews 10, I believe it is. "...Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." Praise God!

I pray that God will give me the strength today to be patient in the face of whatever is happening in my life because there's plenty. I'm just like you. There are things that make me afraid. There are things that cause me to feel weak. There are things that pull on me from many directions just like you. We're all in the same boat. But I'll tell you, we have somebody who says, "Do not be afraid...worm...." (NIV). You may be a worm, but you don't have to be afraid because I'm with you!

( congregational amens ).

I will help you! Praise God! "...O little Israel, for I myself will help you, declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." And He says this, "See, I will make you into a threshing sledge..."--"...A new sharp threshing instrument..." I think it says in the King James. "...New and sharp, with many teeth...."

You know I talked about worms not having teeth...God's gonna put some teeth in our mouth. Now you think about a transformation from a worm to a sharp threshing instrument to a big old sledge, an instrument whereby you go out and harvest something...and it has good sharp teeth! That's a transformation!

There's a picture of God taking nothing and making something out of it. God in his plan in the earth has not determined to go out and call the high and the mighty and the strong, has He? He's determined to call those that are nothing, those that are weak, those that are nothing in the eyes of the world, and He's gonna use them to bring to nothing all the things that are.

I'll tell you what, God is so faithful. I believe His Word to me, I believe His Word to all of us this morning is that He is faithful who promised, and though you feel as weak as you ever have, and though you can't see how in the world God could ever fulfill His promises to us, He is absolutely faithful.

( congregational praise ).

Praise God! You know I commented a while ago about people who are actually teaching that our destiny is to take over the world, and they've got these grandiose spiritual ideas about how they're gonna rise up in this great realm of faith and go out and just empty the cemeteries...go through the hospitals and just get everybody out of there, put the doctors all out of business, and take over the world.

I'll tell you, we need to understand what God's purpose is though. Our purpose is not to transform this world, our purpose is to fulfill the great commission that God has given to us, and to grow up into Him, and to be ready for the Kingdom of God which is eternal and which is to come. How many times do you look out in the world, even in the religious world, you say, well who are we? We're nothing. We're just a small ragtag bunch of people in Moore County, North Carolina...no place special. You look at all the greatness of the needs in the earth. You look at all the great organizations that there are out there, doing all these great grandiose things. Who are we? But I'll tell you what, if we, though we be worms, will put ourselves in God's hands, God will fulfill His vision and His purpose for our lives and this church.

( congregational amens ).

And I pray that God will help me to have enough of a vision and enough of a confidence toward Him that I will be able to look past what I am and to see God, you are able to do everything that is needed in me. The whole point of salvation is that I cannot do these things.

( congregational amens ).

That's the point! That's why we need someone named Jesus! Jesus means savior! I don't need someone to give me a lecture on how I'm supposed to live and then say, okay, go for it. Make yourself strong, gear yourself up. I need someone who says, I'm able to save you though you cannot do all these things. I'm gonna put a new life in you. I'm gonna change you. I'm gonna do it, that's the whole point!

( congregational amens ).

Now how do they become this threshing sledge, new and sharp with many teeth? It says, I will make you--I will make you! So what's going on in your life today? Are you in a position where you can say, oh God, I cannot do anything, I feel like I'm such a failure. Every way I turn I find myself in a state of failure and thinking, oh my God, this is impossible. But oh God, help me to lift my eyes to You, and to praise You, and to believe Your promises, and to remember that You are the one who has promised to make me what You want me to be.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! The song we sing, "He is Able." He is able! That's the whole message of the gospel. That's why He can say, "Do not be afraid, O worm, Jacob, O little Israel...." Don't be afraid. "...For I myself will help you, declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel."

You know the hills were symbolic of nations, of peoples, of power and elevated places in the earth, in a sense. It wasn't just literal hills like you think of, these were men and groups of men and nations of men who were lifted up in their own eyes and ruled over others. So the Lord is using that kind of language that they would have understood. But that's not the kind of nations that God has called us to conquer. There is a spiritual warfare that is going on in the earth today. There is a harvest that's being gathered. I believe God has called us for such an hour as this to participate in that.

( congregational amens ).

I see storms coming upon this world. I see all kinds of things coming. And my prayer is, oh God, You know all about it, You know what we are! You know that we don't have what it takes to be Your people in such an hour. But God help us! God do in us what's necessary that we might be able to stand strong. I'll tell you, we live in an hour when we need to have Christ...present tense. We cannot walk in tradition. We cannot walk in any thing except the living presence of Christ.

( congregational amens ).

I'm a worm, I don't deserve this. I don't have any strength to draw upon. I have nothing but Him and that's all we need.

( congregational amens ).

I'll tell you, we need to cry out to Him in all these little things in our life that cause us to be afraid. And say, oh God, You told me not to be afraid. I trust in You. I don't see the way...how in the world You're gonna do what You say You're gonna do, but I believe You. Everything in the world militates against what I see, what I'm supposed to be doing in this world...standing true to You in a world that's going the other way. But God, give me the strength on the inside. Help me to be a strength to others that are around me, help me to be a light in this world. God has called His people to be a light, and I believe we can be.

( congregational amens ).

I'm confident we can be, not because of who we are, but because of who He is.

( congregational amens ).

So you think you're not strong, I'll tell you God can bring strength through you that you have no idea because it's not your strength. So I'll tell you, we need to put our lives in God's hands today, and trust Him, and believe Him, and understand the hour in which we live, and not get so buried in the minutia of our little lives that we lose track of what's going on. God, open our eyes and help us.

Though we are a worm like Jacob, God is able to make us into something that can thresh mountains in the spirit. I don't know what that means. I'm not a triumphalist, like I say, that we're gonna take over the world, but I'll tell you, we can do what God has called us to do. And we can do it, not because of us, but because of Him. I praise Him this morning, don't you?

( congregational amens ).

Fear not, you worm...that's a good title. That'll get somebody's attention. Fear not, you worm. Praise the Lord. Well I'm glad to be that kind of a worm, because I have a God who is able. He is able! Praise God!

( congregational amens ).

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