Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 794 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Turn if you will to Psalm 37. I was just thinking and meditating this morning, and praying, and actually doing a bit of battle--not just a bit, quite a bit. The devil loves to come and oppress us, doesn't he, and tell us all kinds of things. If he can get us to believe all the...that's the only victory he can win is when we start listening to him at all.

But I had a scripture come to me that's from this passage. And this is a Psalm of David, and of course, we know from the life of David some of the things that he went through. He was a young man who was just a Godly man, a young man who had faith. Evidently the Lord's hand was with him. As a teenager, he was just out doing the job that his father had given him to do--keeping sheep.

And one day the prophet came around and came to the family. And the Lord had told him that one of Jesse's sons was going to be anointed king over Israel because God had rejected Saul. And so, we remember the story of how they went through all of the sons--I mean the ones that were there at the house, the ones that Jesse thought there was any possibility that these would be the ones. So he went through and the Lord said, no, it's not any of these.

And so he asked Jesse, is there anybody else? And of course, Jesse said, yeah, David--young David's out tending the sheep. And Samuel said, go get him. So they brought him in. The Lord says, this is the one. And so, here is David--a teenager, looking to God and God puts His hand upon him and says, you are king of Israel.

So he marched immediately down to Jerusalem and said, Saul get off the throne. I'm here to take...no, he didn't do that, did he? It didn't happen that way. There was a lot of years that went by. There were years when it looked like evil was going to triumph. It looked like everything in the world was going wrong.

You know we referred recently, and I have often referred to the experiences that they went through. They were having to live at one point...there were a few followers of David--several followers, several hundred actually, and they had to live in a foreign country because things were just not safe in Israel at that time. And it just wasn't God's time.

And so, there they were and they went out to battle one day and came home and everything was gone. I mean, it just looked like God was abandoning them. All these hopes and promises and dreams of what they were expecting God to do in Israel were just...what's going on? Why are things the way they are? God, we're trusting in you. What's happening?

And so I believe it was in the spirit of this and I don't know at what point this particular Psalm was written, whether this was after he has ascended to the throne or while he was still running for his life, but whatever it is, it's some good thoughts. And he says this--I'll read it in the NIV. "Do not fret because of evil men..."--don't worry--"...or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."

And this is the scripture that came back to me. Now it came back with the way I learned it in the King James originally, where it says, "Rest in the LORD...." Here it says, "Be still before the LORD..." but it means the same thing, because a lot of times that's not how we feel. We're saying, Lord, what's wrong? And we're basing our question and the thought that's behind that on what we see and what we feel. On present conditions, we're saying, something is wrong, when God says, "Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him...."

Now that's something that does not come naturally to us. We simply are geared in our thinking and in our society...everything has geared us to be anything but patient. We want to push a button and get it done and if it doesn't, in two seconds we say, the heck with that and we go do something else. And too much of that thinking creeps into our spiritual lives. We think we're gonna set off in a certain direction and set our hearts in a certain way and have that certain expectations of God and 'bam' it's gonna happen.

But God says, and just like He did to David, wait. Trust. Rest. All of these things--"... wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land." God has a plan and has a purpose and He has a time, doesn't He, for every thing.

You know I had something come back to me that I hadn't thought about in, Good Lord, I don't remember. There was a song, I wish I could remember all the words, but it was a children's chorus that we sang when I was a real young boy. And it was...the title of it, some of you may know it, was "God's Clock." But the underlying thought of it was that God has a time for everything--that His plans, His purposes, are absolutely sure and steadfast and when it's time, God'll take care of it. And our job is simply to commit our whole being into the Lord's hands and let His clock tick at its own pace, and not be stirred, or not be swept aside, not be discouraged, not have anything deter us from keeping our eyes on the faithfulness of the God who has promised.

You know, David was needing to apply this, of course, in a national sense, because God had promised him the kingdom and the throne. And it was something like 12 or 13 years that he was basically on the run for his life and it looked like anything but that God was gonna fulfill His promise. But you know, God was teaching David. God was working in David. God was doing things that were necessary in order to prepare that man to be the king that He wanted him to be.

God does not waste a second. That's something you and I need to know. That's something I need to know, real bad. God does not waste a second in His dealings with us. He is never, ever, ever late. Think about that. God is never, ever, ever late in a single thing that He does. You know we're told about the coming of the Lord. Why is God waiting? Why hasn't God smashed to bits all this wickedness in this world? The scripture tells us. We don't have to guess. He said, He's longsuffering toward us, "...not willing that any should perish..." God knows every one that is His and is gonna bring to Himself--He's not gonna leave one behind. That means He's not gonna leave you behind if you're His.

( congregational amens ).

God is going to finish the job that He started. And what He's desiring in us is the attitudes that are counseled in this scripture--" Trust in the LORD." What does the scripture say about the one who trusts in the Lord? They're blessed--who's hope the Lord is. That's a scripture the Lord gave Brother Thomas that one time when he was experiencing a great disappointment in his life.

You ever been disappointed? You ever seen it where it looked like your way was hedged up and it was all--difficult? And somebody else wasn't serving the Lord at all and they were getting along great. You ever have that happen to you? Well so did David. You remember Psalm 73. I won't turn to it, but how David was just...he got his eyes off the Lord, didn't he? He got to looking at the prosperity of the wicked and how things were going so well for them.

And boy, it caused him to begin to doubt and to get...you know, what's going on here? Why am I doing what I'm doing? I'm serving God and look where it's getting me. Until he went in to the sanctuary and he began...God began to open his eyes and he began to be able to take a longer look with the eye of faith. And suddenly he saw how it was gonna turn out. You know I got Jimmy Robbins' word on this. He's read the last chapter and it turns out real good.

( laughter ).

We don't need Jimmy's--we've got the Lord's, don't we? But I like that saying, because it's something we need to remind ourselves. There's not a single thing that God has promised to His people that He will not fulfill.

( congregational amens ).

And God help me and God help all of us not to get antsy along the way, but to simply stay upon our God and look to Him, and trust in Him, and be willing to do what He says here. "Trust in the LORD and do good..." You ever tempted to sort of let down your guard and say, what the heck, I'm trying to do right here and I'm getting further behind. It doesn't pay to do what's right. Let me just sort of compromise here a little bit.

No. God is wanting us to be proven in the fire. We're gonna have to have...real faith has to stand against something. If you've got it in your hand, what's faith have to do with it? There it is. But God wants to put something before us in the way of a divine promise, and then what He rewards is those are able by faith to see that and to believe in it and to commit themselves to it and to say, God, that's what I believe in--right there. I can't see it. I cannot touch it. I can't put my hand on it. Everything seems contrary to it, but like Abraham, against hope I continue to hope, Lord, because I know who promised it. I know that you are able to do what you say. I know that you are a trustworthy person. I know that you would never tell me to trust in something and then go back on your Word.

That's the kind...that's what God is calling a people to. That's what faith is. Faith has a vision. Faith is able to see beyond the present. It says, things are not always going to be as they are now. And that's what David was led to have this sense and this faith right here in this terrible time that he went through for 13 years or so. But he learned, verse 4, "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." And 'course we know that's not Cadillacs and all those kinds of things. If that's what our heart's on, we're not delighting on the Lord, are we? But what God wants is a people whose heart and whose desire is not self centered, but it is God, I want what you want.

( congregational amens ).

I believe in your government and I believe that the only righteous government of my own life, to begin with, is yours. Lord, lead me to lay down my own will and my own desires and all the selfish things that possess me. God, I just want you to have your way in my life and God, within the church. And ultimately, I'll tell you, God is gonna...this is gonna be true in the whole universe. Do you believe it?

( congregational amens ).

Do you believe that God means to eradicate evil from His universe? I do.

( congregational amens ).

I don't care what it looks like. I don't care what the devil whispers in my ear. God is on His throne, and just like that children's song, God's clock, tick tock, it's ticking along. When it ticks to the right second that's on His schedule, don't you worry, God's gonna fulfill His purpose and His plan.

Don't you know that those who were waiting for the coming of the Messiah--that faithful handful that believed the Word of God and knew that He was coming, don't you know that they were anguished--there was anguish in their hearts. Oh God, we see the conditions. God, if you just come--if you'll just send the Messiah to do something about this. But what does the Word of God say? "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son..." (KJV). Was God uninterested before that? No. There was absolutely a proper time for everything. Do you believe that's the kind of a God we have?

( congregational amens ).

DO we believe it with respect to our own individual lives, enough to just delight ourselves in the Lord and know that He's going to fulfill those desires of our hearts, at His time and in His way?

That's why he says in verse 5, "Commit your way to the LORD...." (NIV). Now a commitment is when you put something in somebody's hands and you don't take it back. And I'm afraid a lot of my prayers at times have been a lot of anxious wailing and crying and this, that, and the other before God. And then I took it back and began to worry about it, just as though it was all on my shoulders, when God says to commit my way to the Lord and to say, God, I can't figure this thing out. God, I can't do it--I can't fulfill your vision. I have no power to do anything. All I can do is just give my whole self to You and just believe that what You have said and what You have promised, You will do. Praise God!

"Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this." "He will bring it to pass" it says in many of yours. But I'll tell you one thing, the scripture that jumped out at me was verse 7. "Be still before the LORD...." Rest in the Lord. Do you think God...and I've said this many times...do you think God is anxious about the outcome of anything? Is He worried?

Has He gone off on a journey or gone to sleep like Elijah was mocking the prophets of Baal about their gods? Is God unaware? Do we have to somehow tug on His divine sleeve and say, God have you forgotten about me? Oh God, are you too big to care about me and my needs and my problems--or this situation or that? Do you think that's the kind of a God we serve? Or do you think He's done everything that's been necessary from the foundation of the world. Is there a devil in Hell that can stop what God has said He's going to do?

You see, I believe the people who see that are able to rest in Him and to put it in His hands, because He's not anxious. He's not worried and what He desires for me to have and for you to have is to be able to share in the rest that He has about all of things that He's promised and planned. That would be a good thing, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that make it a little easier to go forward and when we cry out to God, we're saying, oh God...we're not begging Him to do things as though He's unwilling, but we're just calling upon Him. We're...there's an exercise of spirit that God is working in us just like He worked in David through those 13 years.

But you know, the day came when David sat on that throne and all the devils in hell and all the devils in Israel couldn't stop it. God absolutely brought it to pass. And so he says, "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret..."--don't worry--"...when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes"...and so forth. This is the passage of scripture where it talks about the meek inheriting the earth. Folks, if we're trusting in the Lord, we are on the winning side."

( congregational amens ).

We are on the winning side. But yet, you look at the heroes of faith in the Old Testament and you will see every one of them had to do what David...what Abraham had to do. They had to believe God in spite of conditions. And they had to be willing to stay upon their God and a lot of them actually died in faith--they died believing in the promise of a Savior who was to come. But yet, that Savior didn't come in their lifetime. But they died believing it.

( congregational amens ).

Was that an attack on the faithfulness of God? Was there anything lacking on His part? No. It was absolutely...He's the one who ministered that confidence to those people, and that's why they're recorded in this scripture as examples to us. I just...I don't know what exactly the Lord has in mind, but I know that there are things that He has promised--things that He has told us in His Word.

I know there's things Brother Thomas has preached, way back. And it's a picture--it's a vision of the church of Jesus Christ that God desires to bring us to. I'm not ready to give up on that. I'm not ready to settle for where we're at.

( congregational amens ).

Are you? I believe that the Spirit of God was moving in much of that as a prophetic vision that God wanted a restored church. And we sang the song this morning, 'He will reign in His church.' Is there anyone here this morning that thinks that we have it all, that we are exactly where God wants us to be in the sense that...in this sense, that what we have is all there is? No.

I believe God has much more for us. I believe in the things that were preached in those days--that God is going to have a people that walk together in love, that are full of the Holy Ghost, that have His presence and His power and where He can work when He wants to work to deliver somebody. I believe there's still people out here that God would bring in. I just pray that God would just burn that vision in my own heart so that I won't be turned aside by every little whisper of the devil in my ears.

( congregational amens ).

Because he's doing some mighty whispering right now. But I'll tell you what, he's upset. He's concerned.

( congregational amens ).

I don't believe this is a pep rally this morning. I believe God is concerned. I believe God is wanting to lift our vision from the narrow comfortable lives that we live and to say, I've got something more for you but you're gonna have to be patient. You're gonna have to endure. You're gonna have to believe me and commit your way to my vision. Stop living for your vision of life. I've got one for you. I want you to serve me. Oh, there's so much more that I want to give you.

Let's turn to a familiar scripture in Hebrews chapter 10. The writer here is encouraging the people with some of the experiences they had been through. In verse 32 he says to them, "Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions." How many of us have ever gone through much of that? Boy, we've had it easy, haven't we? I thank God for His blessings. I'm not asking for this, but God knows. But you know, people have had to give up their lives to serve Christ. People have had to have faith. Suppose that we had an evil government take over and all of a sudden one day a soldier marched up to your house and ordered you out and said, we're taking this over. You're out on the street. Sorry, you've lost everything.

I mean, that's what He's talking about here. Think about how that would be, what you would do, and how you would feel. But the writer here is talking about how they stood up to that, because they were able to look past that and say, all this doesn't matter. What I have here doesn't matter. I've got something there that will never fade away.

( congregational amens ).

There's nothing this government can do about that. I have laid my...I've put my trust and my hope in Christ and I have something eternal. All this is just temporary. It doesn't matter. I'm trusting in Christ. I'm not gonna give up. And so it's in the light of that, that he gives them the present admonition. He says, "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay."

Now see there's the thought. God has a clock, and boy, one of these days...now He hasn't told us, He hasn't told me where that clock is. I don't know. I believe we're somewhere in the last hour. I'm confident of that much. But God alone knows what's ahead and what it's gonna look like before it's over. It may look like evil has triumphed and we're on the run, but I tell you, God will never fail His people. His vision will never, ever, ever fail. His time schedule cannot be altered by one second by any devil in hell.

And God wants us to have that confidence toward Him, because if we have that confidence toward Him it affects us now. That's what gives us strength to stand against the whispers of the enemy now. Because he can say, look at this condition, look at that need, look at this. And you can say, devil, it doesn't matter. God is working.

You know, here's something about real Christianity, not this religion people call Christianity, but I'm talking about real Christianity--what does God work with? That's a vague question. Does God work with people's behavior and try to straighten them out in that sense or does He work with people's hearts? He works from the inside out, doesn't He?

But you know what? That means that a lot of the things that God does are hidden. They're not things that you can see. They're not always things that you can point to and the devil takes a lot of advantage of that. He'll say, look at this condition. But you don't know what's going on down in the heart. You don't know what God may be doing in people's lives and hearts. The testimony of so many is what God is doing down on the inside. Well I'll tell you, I believe that the inward work that God is bringing about in out hearts right now, it's gonna be outward before it's over.

( congregational amens ).

You know, the whole picture of what God is doing in the earth among His people is the same thing. What are we pointing toward in terms of the coming of Christ? It's the manifestation of the sons of God. Now what does that mean? That means that God has been doing a work that has been hidden from the eyes of men. They don't know what God's up to. But God is doing something in His people that is so amazing but it's all down inside. It's something that they cannot see because we're still flesh and blood creatures. But oh, on that day, suddenly the Lord is gonna pull back the veil and we who have trusted and committed our lives to Him, we're gonna burst forth in glory.

( congregational amens ).

We're gonna have the same glory that Jesus himself has. We're gonna have bodies just like His and then people are gonna look at you--who may have despised you and thought you were nothing--and say, whoa, I had no Idea. But you know that principle is true right now. God is working in hearts and in lives. And what He's wanting from me, particularly--and I suspect from one or two of you as well, is that we trust Him, is that we have a spirit of perseverance and patience--that we never give up, believing in vision and in the promise that God has given us that He is going to reign and rule in His church, and we can have more than we have right now.

( congregational amens ).

I believe it with all my heart. We are not... "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Praise God.

( congregational amens ).

I just pray that God will burn that into my heart in a stronger way because I...this is just an area the devil beats up about. But he's defeated. I praise God so much for the spirit that was in the singing and the worship this morning. It lifted my heart. It got me off of thinking about myself and feeling my own weakness, because my weakness is not a deterrent to His strength. In fact, it's the means--it's the condition that's necessary for His strength to come forth.

( congregational amens ).

If you're seeing anything this morning that's good, it ain't me. I can tell you that. I didn't feel like being up here. I didn't feel like doing anything this morning, but God is helping every one of us not to go by those things, but to go by...to keep our eyes on the goal and to say, God you are faithful. I'm gonna stay the course. I'm gonna be one who believes you in the face of everything I feel and see, of everything the devil points to and says I ain't giving up that ground.

We're gonna have to stand and look at his face and say, devil you are. I don't care what you make it look like. God is still true and we are trusting in Him. This is His church. He will reign and rule in this church--beginning with me. You know, we can't take that attitude--beginning with so-and-so and so-and-so, we have to take that beginning with us. And if everyone is a committee of one to do that, I'll tell you, God is going to burst forth in this church in some way. However He does it, this is gonna be a church where people can come and find help. And I believe in a measure we've enjoyed that over the years. But I believe God has more for us.

( congregational amens ).

I don't want to despise anything God has ever done. He's been so merciful. He's been so faithful to us.

( congregational amens ).

In sprite of...yeah that's right Chip--in spite of us, in spite of me certainly. Oh, God is faithful but He doesn't want us to give up on the things that He has given to us by a Word of anointing. Much of it is so many years ago, I believe those words are coming to pass. I believe God is gonna restore His church. I believe before it's over there's gonna be a purity that we have never imagined. He's gonna do it. Our job is not to do it. Our job is to say, God just work in me. Bring us to that place. Praise God!

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