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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 786 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Phil Enlow: I'm here to tell you, I live too much as a pauper. I'm so busy looking at me and all the stuff that's wrong with me and trying to work up this thing called faith, I forget to look to the source. ( congregational amens ). And to simply believe the testimony that He loves me. ( congregational amens ). He doesn't love me because of anything that I am in myself. He loves me because it's His nature to love and because the love that He shows to us in itself has the power to change the object of that love. God's power is what we're talking about here. It's not the power that oh, I'm so great, I believe Jesus, and I got healed. It's Jesus has the power in Him to do what's needed in my life and I simply take it. Praise God! I was just thinking about a hymn...I may look it up here because I'm not sure I can quote the words exactly the way I want to. It's "Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus." There's some words in there that just really amaze me sometimes. There it is, 391. I'm just gonna look it up so I won't have to try to struggle with my memory here, but listen to the words. We sing this song and I think we just sing right over it. I tell you there're some saints of old who knew some things. You listen to this. "Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at his Word." How many of us struggle with simple things like taking Him at His word? Oh, God please forgive me, Oh God, please...well wait a minute. He said He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse of all unrighteousness if we come and confess 'em. Why are we begging? Why don't we just say, "thank you Lord for forgiving my sins." ( congregational amens ). I confess what I am. Lord, I accept that you love me and that you've forgiven me. I'm not gonna carry this burden around anymore. I'm not gonna be careless about it. Lord, I'm sorry. I want you to help me to do better but I accept your forgiveness. ( congregational amens ). You died for it. What am I trying to somehow add to that and somehow deserve it? God help us just to take Him at His word. "Just to rest upon His promise; Just to know, Thus saith the Lord." In other words you're not basing it on you. You're basing it on what God said. "Thus said the Lord." That ought to be good enough for us. God help us. "O how sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to trust His cleansing blood; Just in simple faith to plunge me 'Neath the healing cleansing flood." I tell you, if you're here with a burden of sin tonight, you can leave completely clean. ( congregational amens ). You don't have to carry that around, that's what Jesus was there for. ( congregational amens ). Jesus is our sin bearer. Oh, if you'll just come to Him and lay them at His feet and accept Him at His word, you can leave here free. Oh, as long as we're begging and asking we're not believing, are we? Listen to this, "Yes, 'tis sweet to trust in Jesus, Just from sin and self to cease; Just from Jesus simply taking Life and rest, and joy and peace." I tell you, these saints know some things? ( congregational amens ). My God, we're just, oh, it's like it's way out there. I don't deserve it and I don't know how to get a hold of it. How can I get God to give me all these things, this help that I need to live for Him? How about just taking it? How did you get forgiven of your sins when you came to Him? Did you just, ( straining ). "Yes I believe. I got it." ( laughter ). No. Well actually what we really have to do is come to the point where we quit doing all that and we say, all right Lord, I'm done here. You've done what I need. I just thank you. ( congregational amens ). But don't you know that the Lord is aware that we can't live for Him, that if we do it ourselves, we're going to get into the kind of bondage that Jimmy was talking about. Our desires run the wrong way and we're gonna.... If we operate in that realm, we're gonna fall into all kinds of traps 'cause we're just not that smart, we're not that strong. But oh, I tell you what, the same Lord that forgave our sins wants to come and just simply live in us. ( congregational amens ). Oh, Praise God! Can't we just come to Him everyday and say, Lord live in me today? Lord, I can't handle this, and when I get my eyes off of it come right back and say, Lord, I'm sorry, help me, teach me. Teach me just to accept your life in me and your strength to do what I need to do. Praise God! Praise the Lord. I tell you what, "I'm so glad I learned to trust Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend; And I know that Thou art with me, Wilt be with me to the end." ( congregational amens ). Praise God! I tell you like I said, these saints knew some things. But you know something, I believe there's life and there's blessing. The same God that was in Jesus is here. ( congregational amens ). Think about that. We just relegate those things to the past as though, well, that was a special, special something that we can't ever expect anything really to happen here. We're just gonna have to muddle through, and struggle and strive, and do all those things, and put up with our bondages, put up with all these things the devil does in our lives. Is that the way it's supposed to be? My God! You know intellectually we all know that. We know better than to say that if we know what the Word says. But you know something? Jesus said to his followers, "...as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." (KJV). Well how did the Father send Him? He was a human being with all our needs and weaknesses but He had his Father living in Him. That made a difference, didn't it? He did what He did by that power. I tell you we have a Lord who has come to live in us. ( congregational amens ). And I believe what He is doing and what He is working in us is to teach us to yield ourselves to Him and to believe Him. And I confess to you tonight there's plenty of needs in my life in this area, but I'm a candidate for God to teach me. I'm tired of the way things have been in areas of my life, and I'll bet you, I know I see heads nodding, there's a lot of you who feel the same way don't you? Aren't you tired of it? ( congregational amens ). Well you know what we need is not just a pep rally, we need to actually see that the God who was there is here. ( congregational praise ). Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." I know a lot of people use that in a casual sense, but there is...the word says 'are gathered.' That's what it says in the Greek. There's translations that go all over the place with that one, but the word there is gathered. Gathered means you're the subject of something happening. You didn't do this, God did it, that's what it's saying. All of us here are here because God has brought us here--those who are joined together in the body of Christ are joined together because God has taken the initiative and He's done it. ( congregational amens ). He has opened our eyes because the eyes of the world are blind to the gospel. They cannot see the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It takes divine initiative to set captives free and open blinded eyes so that we can see, not just flesh but you can see what's in that flesh. I'll tell you, the same God that was in Jesus Christ is here and the same principles apply. I don't know...I was thinking about this, this afternoon, Jimmy. I thought of these scriptures and I don't know why my mind kept going to that issue because I believe that there's a dual issue going on here. I believe God wants to reveal to some people the body of Christ. And it's not that we're anything. I guarantee you I can't do anything for you, Jimmy can't...just what he said awhile ago. But I tell you there's a Lord, who in spite of us, is here and He is in us and He's able to move. ( congregational amens ). There's nothing He cannot do. Many times what we need to do is be willing to step out and say, Lord, I need you, and more than that, I believe that you're here. I'm not just sort of vaguely oh God, somehow...there's a step of faith where this woman said if I do this I'll be healed. It was faith wasn't it? ( congregational amens ). She did something and you can look at other examples, and you look at blind Bartimaeus and how here's a blind man. He couldn't even see where Jesus was, but what did he do? He did what he knew to do--He cried out. That cry was the cry of faith, of "Jesus, I know you can help me. Please help me. Please do in me what needs to be done." And I'll tell you what did Jesus say when he was healed? "...Go..." in peace, "...your faith has healed you." (NIV). Jesus said in other occasions, "...According to your faith, be it unto you." (KJV). There's a real principle that God expects us to not only believe in an intellectual sense, but to actually put legs on our faith because He wants to be able to see our faith. Can God see your faith tonight? He can in one sense, but I mean can He see it in a sense that you're doing something about it. Are you willing to reach out and say, oh God, I need you. There's bondages in my life. There are...just exactly what Jimmy was talking about. There's things that I know right now I am battling. Satan has gained a hold in my life and I know it, but I want to be free. I want you to do something for me that has never happened. I want you to break that power. I tell you there is a presence when we gather like this. It's not just me. It's not Jimmy. It's all of us. It's Jesus in us. It's Christ in us, the hope of glory. There's no virtue in us at all. ( congregational amens ). But we have got a mighty Lord. I tell you, I was writing some letters yesterday and a statement came to me that I used in several of them. I said, you know we have many battles but we have a mighty Savior. Jesus is a mighty Savior and that's exactly it. We are very aware that the power of darkness is gaining a tremendous hold in the world today and we're affected by it. I tell you, if you yield yourself in any area of your life to the devil, he will gladly take hold. ( congregational amens ). But you know, we just need to by faith to bring these things to Jesus, and not say, Lord, I'm gonna try harder. Lord I'm gonna make it up to you, I messed up this time. I'm gonna make it up to you. All these little games we play with our own egos instead of coming and saying, Lord, I need you. I've run out of options here. I have no plan B. You are it and not only that, I believe you are here and I'm coming because I recognize your presence, and that you have the power to help me. I'm expecting you to help me. ( congregational amens ). I believe there's some of you that need to just need to be willing to take steps of faith to help yourself. You know there's needs. You know there's bondages. Well, God will help you if He sees you stepping out in faith. And don't you go looking around inside trying to feel faith, and find it somehow somewhere. You look at Jesus. ( congregational amens ). You look at the examples you have throughout the gospel. He didn't run people through a screening process and say, listen, I don't know if you qualify. Did He? Did He? Sometimes He'd go through villages and heal everybody in the village. There was a spirit of compassion. And this isn't just about healing or about anything in particular, but I tell you we're a needy people tonight. ( congregational amens ). But we have no business just letting the devil run roughshod over our lives. We are His people. We are children of the King. ( congregational amens ). There is no point to our singing about all the wonderful things that He has done and then singing "Let's Go to Jesus" and then not going to Jesus. That doesn't make any sense. I plead guilty... too many times. God help me. God help every one of us to walk in the example that we have in the scriptures here. Praise God! We just need to cry out. We need to be willing to take that low place. She wasn't looking to put on a show. She just thought she could get her hand in there and get what she needed. And the Lord singled her out and had this recorded in the Word. This humble little woman has become an example to everyone of us. The Lord will take notice of you. There's nobody too low in His sight. There's nobody too small and too unimportant in His sight. Oh, the humble and needy are the ones He reaches out for. That's what He's after. ( congregational amens ). The high and the mighty, they're the ones that get bypassed. They've got too much pride, too much of everything else. We just need to recognize--my God, I'm a worthless sinner in myself but you have the power to change my life. ( congregational amens ). We're seeing lives changed, folks. This is not something where we are all in terrible, horrible shape and we just...we don't see any examples. We've see wonderful examples. We've seen God act. We've seen people brought out of darkness and strong holds loosed in our midst, but God is wanting to do more. ( congregational amens ). If we will bind our hearts together as the body of Christ and stand with those who need help from God, we're going to see devils be forced to leave. ( congregational amens ). And it won't be us getting all worked up. It'll be just Lord, our hearts and eyes are upon you. You have the power here. Lord, we believe that you're here, that you didn't die for no reason. You died to give us these things we need from you, Lord. Lord, you love us. We accept the fact that you love us. We're not going to try to be loveable, so you'll love us. We're just gonna say thank you, Lord. ( congregational amens ). Change me, help me but I accept what you say about me. I receive your gifts. They are gifts to me. They're not something I've got to earn. Oh, Praise God! Jimmy, I'm gonna turn it back to you or to the men and just... I don't know what the Lord's order is here tonight, but I believe that there's people that in the course of this meeting whether tonight or whatever who need to take steps of faith. Maybe it's just to seek somebody out for prayer, I don't know what form it should take. But I tell you, if you will dare to step out and say, I believe there's help here and I need help, God will meet you. ( congregational amens ). Don't you go like I say, looking to psychoanalyzing your own faith. You keep your eyes on the source of your help. ( congregational amens ). That's where the virtue comes--that's where it comes. Don't you go looking at the flesh, but God may use some of this to show somebody that the body of Christ is real, that Christ lives in us. Praise God, and it's a real truth. So praise the Lord. Praise God! -- Brother Jim Easterly: There's every kind of a need in the world represented right here. There's actually people in this building that need Christ, need the Lord, need salvation. There's others that are saved that need something else. You know what your need is. I want to tell you something, the scripture says that God so loved the world. If you're in sin and you're not even saved, He loves you. You know how I know that? Because He brought about circumstances to have you hear this tonight. ( congregational amens ). I don't know what your need is, but God knows and I think there's somebody here that knows. I'm gonna tell you this too, Phil stressed that Christ is here tonight. We look back to the things that happened then, and then we think about the things that are gonna happen in the future, but tonight is all you've got. The hem of His garment is what that woman touched. She knew that if she could but touch the hem of His garment, she'd be made whole. You know Phil and I, we've traveled around the world together and like he said, there's no virtue in either one of us, but there were people with that kind of faith where we went. One of them was paralyzed and she's dancing and singing now. ( congregational amens ). There was two women, one of them had had two or three miscarriages, the other had never been able to bear a child. They've both got healthy baby children today almost a year old. That wasn't anything me and Phil had for them. It was something Christ gave 'em. ( congregational amens ). Christ Jesus. They had a need. It wasn't salvation, but it was a need and they had faith. And like Phil said, you're gonna have to act on that faith. Listen, if you're here and you're not satisfied with your condition, that's the beginning of faith. I'm gonna tell you something, that hem of His garment was what she knew she had to touch. You know what you can touch tonight? You know what can be the hem of His garment tonight? This right here can be the hem of His garment. ( congregational amens ). Phil said something about this being free--it's not something that you can purchase. It's not something you could live good enough to get. Jesus said this through John on the Isle of Patmos. Let me read that because it'll be hard for me to quote it. It's in the last, it's right there at the end of the Bible in Revelation. You can touch the hem of His garment tonight. The hem of His garment for you can be right here. I don't care what your need is. You know what, faith is gonna have to do...the crowd you're gonna have to press through is this--it's the crowd of your embarrassment at coming down here. You might say, I've been in this church for 35 years. You need to come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden because I'll give you rest. And you know if you don't have that rest. I'm not gonna try to argue with you about that. You know. Beloved if that's your need, He's here to meet that need tonight. ( congregational amens ). Do you believe He's telling the truth or you believe He's a liar? I mean let's be frank. That's a harsh statement but either He's true or He's not true. If He's true, He can help you tonight. ( congregational amens ). He brought you here tonight to help you. Listen to what He says. "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!'" (NIV). I hear Him tonight and I say come. "...Whoever is thirsty, let him come..." Are you walking in dry places? Can you just not seem to break through? I don't care what your problem is. I don't care if it's your husband or your mom and dad or your kids. I don't care what it is. Did you know that if you come unto Jesus, He can take care of that need? "...Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." Beloved there's a drink of water for you tonight, and I don't pretend to know what your need is but I'm gonna tell you, I believe tonight with all my heart this could be the hem of His garment for you. You get through your embarrassment. That's the crowd you've got to press through. You get through all the unbelief and that oppression that Satan's laying on you right now, and you come down here. I don't know that we need to sing. Listen, Peter was preaching. He was in the midst of preaching and people cried out and they said, what must we do? I'm telling you what we need to do tonight. I don't care what your need is. If God has touched your heart tonight and you believe if you touch the hem of His garment that He'll help you, you get up and you come down here, and I promise you He'll meet you. Praise God! ( congregational amens ). Praise God, I'm telling you He's here to help tonight. Amen. Amen. Amen. ( congregational amens ). You press down here and you touch the hem of His garment. It's God's goodness that leads us to repentance. ( congregational amens ). It's because He loved the world that He sent Jesus. Come on Carl. Brother come down here. He can help you. Our God can help. ( congregational amens ). Oh, God help us. Thank you Lord. Praise God! Thank you Lord. Praise God! Oh God, thank you Lord. I don't care what your need is tonight, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (KJV). |
