Let's turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we
have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God
deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God.
But if our gospel be hid, it is
hid to them that are lost, in whom
the God of this world has blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who
is the image of God, should shine unto
them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus
the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake.
For God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be
of God, and not of us.
We are troubled on every side, yet not
distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed.
Always bearing about in the body the dying
of the Lord Jesus, that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our
body.
For we which live are always delivered unto
death for Jesus' sake.
That the life also of Jesus might be
made manifest in our mortal flesh.
So then death worketh in us, but life
in you.
We having the same spirit of faith, according
as it is written, I believed and therefore
I have spoken.
We also believe and therefore speak.
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord
Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus,
and shall present us with you.
For all things are for your sakes, that
the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of
many redound to the glory of God.
For which cause we faint not, but though
our outward man perish, yet the inner man
is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for
a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
While we look not at the things which
are seen, but the things which are not
seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are
eternal.
Paul is describing the Christian ministry.
He is describing the messenger.
This is a description of what a minister
is.
What a minister does.
It's a description of the ministry.
God's messenger.
Now God has called you to the ministry
to be his messenger.
And thus the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians
is very important for all of us.
Something that we need to study.
Something that we need to draw out concepts
from this.
Someone playing with the speaker in the back
room or something?
It's the whole system's gone.
Tom, why don't you lead us in one
more chorus while we're checking out the systems
here.
Do I lift up my soul unto Thee,
O Lord?
Do I lift up my soul, O my
God?
I trust in Thee.
Let me not be ashamed.
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
They have done that way.
I'll not be ashamed.
They have done that way.
I'll not be ashamed.
O my God.
I trust in Thee.
Let me not be ashamed.
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
They have done that way.
I've made the law.
I can't be seen by others.
I've passed the law.
O my God.
I trust in Thee.
Let me not be ashamed.
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
They have done that way.
I'll not be ashamed.
They have done that way.
I'll not be ashamed.
O my God.
I trust in Thee.
Let me not be ashamed.
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
I love Thee.
No other man has anything.
He has better health than I do.
I love Thee.
No other man has any.
He has better health than I do.
My knees shall praise Thee.
I will not spare thy mercy I will
lift up my hands unto thy feet I
lift my hands up Unto thy feet I
lift my hands up Unto thy feet Thy
hand shall bring me Thus will I bless
thee I will not My hands unto thy
feet His
hand and mine Thy hand shall bring me
Thus will I bless thee I will never
My hands unto thy feet Thus
will I bless thee I lift my hands
up I
lift
my hands up When I get to heaven
I wonder what heaven will do When I
get to heaven I'm gonna sing yesterday's When
I get to heaven I'm gonna walk with
Jesus Staying by his wonderful ways He's gone
and I'm staying Staying wonderfully safe Lost in
the love of the Lamb Staying, staying wonderfully
safe And I'm so glad I am Hallelujah
When I get to heaven I'm gonna walk
with Jesus When I get to heaven I'm
gonna sing yesterday When I get to heaven
I'm gonna walk with Jesus Staying by his
wonderful ways Therefore seeing we have received this
ministry As we have received mercy We faint
not But have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty Not walking in
craftiness Nor handling the word of God deceitfully
One of the first things concerning the ministry
Is that we are ministers of God's word
And there are many people Who have been
guilty Of handling the word of God deceitfully
It is tragic What goes on in the
name of God And in the name of
religion And in the name of Jesus Christ
The Reader's Digest this month has an interesting
article on Scientology And the guy who started
Scientology Back in 1950 or so Was a
writer And he wrote for a penny a
word And he said writing for a penny
a word Is ridiculous You can never get
rich that way The only way to get
rich Is to start a new religion And
so he decided to start a new religion
Which he called Scientology And you know all
of this science fantasy Fiction kind of stuff
And the book on Dianetics and so forth
But it was all started with one purpose
in mind To get rich And it worked
The guy is rich, very rich And there
are many people Who have gone into the
ministry With the concept of an easy way
of life It's a good living And there
are many who handle The word of God
deceitfully Using craftiness James
said be not many masters Knowing that you
are going to receive The greater condemnation I
take the ministry very seriously I take standing
before people very seriously I take representing God
very seriously Because you see as a minister
I am God's representative But the heavy thing
is Is that God is going to hold
me responsible As to how I represent him
I'm going to have to stand before God
one day And give an answer Or how
I represent God What attitude do people get
Or what idea or concept do people get
from my life God's a smoothie God's a
fast talker God will put one over on
you If you give him a chance God's
always broke He's always begging for funds God
needs man's support To keep his work going
These are the types of concepts of God
That have been put upon people And someday
We are going to give an account As
God's representatives You might be able to put
it over on the people You won't put
it over on God You might get by
with it As far as man is concerned
You won't get by with it With God
The Lord speaks about that servant To whom
the master entrusted his goods As he went
away into a far country And how this
servant did wickedly And how he Mishandled his
master's affairs How that he used it for
his own enrichment And how when the master
returned He required that he give an accounting
And he said cut him off And give
him his portion With the unbelievers For the
Lord said to whom much is required Given
much is required And he spoke about him
being beaten With many stripes Yet he who
knew not the will of God Yet he
did things worthy of many stripes Will be
beaten with few For unto whom much is
given Much is required Unto whom little is
given Little is required And as you dare
to stand up before people As God's representative
God is going to require That you represent
him properly Or else you're going to stand
responsible Before God With a greater responsibility Than
just an ordinary person Who makes no move
towards the ministry at all Or no move
towards being God's representative We're familiar with Moses
At the water of Meribah When the second
time around Through the wilderness The people were
murmuring and complaining And it got to Moses
He couldn't take it anymore He came before
God and said God I can't stand it
I've had it, I'm through All I've heard
for 40 years Is this miserable griping and
complaining God I can't take it And God
said Moses they're thirsty They need water Go
out and speak to the rock That it
might bring forth water That didn't satisfy Moses
He came out before the men, the people
And he said Must I smite this rock
again And give you water And he smote
the rock In anger Water came forth God
was merciful But God is also just He
said Moses I'm going to talk to you
Moses You did not represent me Before those
people You were representing your own anger Your
own feelings Your own emotions You weren't representing
me I told you to speak to the
rock I didn't tell you to smite the
rock I said speak to the rock But
in anger you smote the rock That wasn't
representing me Moses And because you failed to
represent me You cannot go into the promised
land Now this all is a picture And
that is why it was so important That
Moses followed the instructions Exactly and carefully For
in the New Testament We are told concerning
the whole Wilderness experience The rock and so
forth That This whole experience was The rock
in the wilderness Paul said that rock was
Jesus That rock from which the water of
life Came forth for the people That was
Jesus It was all a picture of Jesus
How that the water of life For us
from God Comes to us through Jesus But
it was necessary That the rock be smitten
Before the water came forth So the cross
was a necessity In order that the water
of life Might come forth to us from
him But Once the rock was smitten It
needs never to be smitten again For he
died once and for all And from that
time on All you have to do is
speak to the rock And the water of
life is available Moses broke the whole analogy
In smiting the rock twice He destroyed the
illustration That God was seeking to create Of
the once smitten rock Giving forth the water
of life And from then on Just speak
to the rock And the life of God
is yours And though Moses sought the Lord
diligently The Lord refused his prayers Refused his
requests And he could not Go into the
promised land Because he had failed to represent
God At the waters of Meribah You stand
before the people Representing God Never forget it
Never lose that awareness Whenever you stand before
people Realize I am God's representative Standing here
before them And they're going to get their
ideas And concepts of God From what they
see in me I represent God That is
surely the heaviest obligation That could ever be
upon any person To be God's representative I
do not take that at all lightly I
take that very seriously And thus with Paul
There are times when my body is spent
There are times when I am so tired
My eyes start to cross As I'm standing
after a service And talking with people And
they keep coming up And keep coming up
And keep coming up And I get to
where my head I can't even concentrate It's
difficult to listen To what they're even saying
And my eyes start to pull in And
just cross I'm so tired And I look
And I see there's still others waiting And
I think Oh God, I can't do it
But I've got to do it I am
their link with God And I can't really
represent God As being impatient with them Or
God not wanting to hear their problem Or
God not being concerned with their need And
I just have to say God give me
the help and the strength I don't have
it, I'm through I've wiped out God Strengthen
me Lord Because I want to represent you
I don't want to get in a hurry
I don't want to get pushy with people
I don't want to push them away Because
I don't want people to think that God
Is pushing them away God's representative The
ministry that is ours And so as we
have received mercy We faint not God gives
us that help and that strength Now, in
verse 5, Paul said For we preach not
ourselves But Christ Jesus, the Lord And ourselves,
your servants For Jesus sake We
have an incurable desire To receive glory
and honor from men Our old flesh And
you're all living in a body of flesh
None of you have received your metamorphosis yet
And your old body of flesh delights In
receiving glory and honor from men I love
it When people think that I am more
spiritual Than I really am Isn't that horrible?
That my old flesh delights In people thinking
that I am deeply spiritual What a horrible
thing to delight in I delight in the
glory and the attention of man My flesh
does That's how evil my flesh is And
if I would allow my flesh It would
color the stories And tint the stories So
that some of the glory Or much of
the glory would come to me I become
the hero in the story I become the
wise man with the answer It was my
prayers that finally broke through And if you
will examine what you've been saying Much of
it has been to draw the glory of
people to you That they might think that
you are really more spiritual Than you really
are But one thing God will not do
Is share his glory with man And therefore
it is absolutely vital That I keep my
body under Under control The old flesh desires
that I keep them under Because if I
don't keep my flesh under It's going to
be up there Taking the bows Seeking to
take the glory and the credit And receive
the applause of the people And the oohs
and the ahhs And the more success God
gives to your ministry The more prevalent is
the tendency of man to elevate you And
thus the greater is the necessity Of keeping
your body under As we were walking away
from the Anaheim Stadium The other night About
25,000 people there And my son Jeff
was with me And he said, well what
did you think of it dad?
And I said, this thing could be extremely
dangerous And he said, what do you mean?
I said, did you notice how much exaltation
there was of man?
Personalities Now the real danger is that When
they begin to magnify the personalities I noticed
that many of these personalities that they were
magnifying Began to take on The star studded
aura That was being pumped towards them by
the people In other words all of a
sudden I am important Oh my, that's me
they're applauding for And so you go into
a little act You're not real, you're not
yourself Now it's, you know, I'm trying to
over emote So that they will really know
how wonderful I really am Kind of a
thing And I become impressed with myself Because
of the way the people are responding or
reacting And I told Jeff, I don't like
to be in situations like this I don't
like to be up there, you know, where
Chuck Smith That's bad That's
bad Because I'm not above My flesh isn't
above Thinking Chuck Smith And my flesh could
pick up on that real fast And it
is something that you've got to Constantly be
keeping in balance in your ministry Because people
are going to try to Put you up
on that pedestal But as sure as you
try to stand on that pedestal You're going
to get cut down God's not going to
share his glory So we preach not ourselves
Be careful that we don't preach ourselves That
we don't seek to set ourselves in a
Beautiful, glorious light But we preach Christ It
is a tragedy, I think, that God has
to use man It seems to me that
angels could do such a Much more effective
job But God has chosen to use man
And God has chosen to use you But
to be used of God is a heavy
responsibility And to be continued in that use
by God You must keep your body under
You cannot allow the flesh to arise And
begin to exalt your flesh For he that
exalteth himself shall be abased And God will
abase you Paul's fear was And the reason
for his keeping his body under Was lest
having preached to others I would be put
on the shelf I would become a castaway
I'd be cast aside, no longer usable by
God And you can see throughout the world
So many men who once had powerful, mighty
ministries Sitting on the shelf Because they failed
to keep their bodies under But we
preach Christ, Jesus, the Lord And ourselves, servants
That's what the word minister means Jesus
set the example for us, for his disciples
The night in which he was betrayed He
took the towel and girded himself with the
towel And he went around and began to
wash the disciples' feet Which was the duty
of the servant when you came into a
house And when challenged about it, he said
I have set before you an example Not
that we are to wash feet But we
are to look at our position as a
servant Not in a position of I start
ordering people around To do my work, or
to do God's work I am not there
at Calvary Chapel as a lord over the
flock But I am there as a servant
to the flock I am there to pick
up after them I am there to be
available for them And for their needs and
for their problems I am there to help
them whenever possible I am not there to
lord over them or to rule over them
And if you want really to be a
true Christian minister You've got to see yourself
as a servant That's what the minister is
Now Jesus said the Gentiles or the heathen
Love to exercise authority and lordship But it
shall not be so among you For whosoever
among you would be the chief Let him
be the servant of all So I preach
not myself But I preach Jesus Christ as
the Lord I'm not the Lord I preach
Jesus Christ as the Lord And ourselves servants
for his sake You need to have that
concept of the ministry But
we have this treasure in earthen vessels That
the excellency of the power may be of
God And not of us This glorious treasure
that we possess The gospel of Jesus Christ
and the commission To share that gospel with
the dying world It surely is the greatest
treasure in the world today The most valuable
treasure in the world Is salvation through Jesus
Christ What should a prophet of manna be
Would gain the whole world but lose his
own soul This treasure in Jesus Christ The
salvation, the glorious gospel, the good news This
treasure What did God put the treasure in?
Earthen vessels or clay pots Now the Lord
delighted in ludicrous situations He often created ludicrous
situations When the Midianites invaded the land
of Israel 135,000 like grasshoppers covering the
earth The angel of the Lord
came to Gideon As he was at the
threshing floor of his father He said, Gideon,
go in this thy might And deliver the
children of Israel Out of the hands of
the Midianites He said, oh Lord, my father's
family is nothing And I'm the least in
my father's household You don't mean me How
do I really know you're calling me, Lord?
Let me fix you something to eat And
fix the angel something to eat And of
course he put his thing out And the
fire consumed it Lord, be patient with me
This is a heavy thing you've called me
to do Let me put out this fleece
tonight Finally convinced, so he called the army
Sounded the trumpet And 32,000 Israelites responded
And the word of the Lord came to
Gideon Saying, the men that are with you
are too many Why?
Because I know the heart of the people
And if I would deliver the Midianites Into
the hands of the 32,000 They would
glory in what they had done You see,
the reason why God was creating This totally,
absolutely ludicrous situation Is because God knows the
stupidity of man And God knows how the
flesh loves to glory And receive glory And
God doesn't want the flesh to glory In
what God has done God, when he works,
wants to receive the glory himself For the
work that he has wrought God doesn't want
you attracting people to you Or to your
ministry God wants you attracting people to him
Go out and tell your army, Gideon Everyone
who is afraid to fight, go home He
called the troops and he said Okay, fellows,
all of you that are afraid to fight,
go home And 22,000 of them turned
and went home Now we're getting better odds
It's down to 13 and a half to
one Gideon, the men that are with you
are too many I know the heart of
these people God knows the heart of man
God knows how incurably self-righteous we are
God knows how incurably we are As far
as our desire for glory And God has
to make the thing absolutely ridiculous Take them
down to the river Let them get a
drink And watch how they drink Those that
get down and put their face in the
water Send them home And those that will
pick it up in their hand And lap
it as a dog Then by these I
will deliver the Midianites into your hand Gideon
counted the 300 And set them aside Why?
In order that only God could get the
glory Now, it is ludicrous To take such
a valuable treasure And put it in such
a cheap vessel The most glorious treasure in
the universe Is placed in a common clay
pot In order that the attention might be
drawn to the contents And not to the
pot God makes it absolutely ludicrous The
glorious treasure Gospel of Jesus Christ Is put
in this earthen vessel In me In order
that the glory of the excellency might be
unto God The excellency of the power unto
Him And not unto us Now, I heard
Norman Grubb one time say At that minister's
prayer conference up there at Forest Home That
Armin Gesswein had years ago And it was
there that I first met Armin And it
was there that God used Armin to help
me realize How powerful God was that even
Lutherans could be saved And really committed to
Jesus Christ And Norman Grubb speaking there in
the deep things of God Declared That the
greatest capacity of man Is that of a
container I can actually contain God God dwells
in me This treasure in an earthen vessel
But wait a minute I don't think that
that is the greatest That's a marvelous capacity
But the contents aren't in the vessel to
stagnate there The contents are in the vessel
In order that they might be poured out
to those that are in need Thus the
greatest capacity Is not that of containing God
But that of sharing or pouring forth God
To a needy life That as a vessel
Containing God I can actually pour forth the
contents To a needy world around me That's
God's objective for your life There must always
be this objective work of God That which
God does for you But he always does
it with an objective In order that through
you He might reach others or be poured
out to others So the highest capacity comes
Not when I'm containing But when I'm pouring
forth the contents Now What we must be
extremely careful about Is that when we pour
forth the contents That it comes forth as
pure as possible Without
the taste of the vessel You ever had
a vessel that tasted the water?
My daughter loves cinnamon tea And
we have a pitcher in our house That
is devoted to orange juice And we bought
it To contain orange juice And a couple
of weeks ago Our daughter made Well, she
made her tea And then she poured this
cinnamon tea In this orange juice container And
ever since then I've had cinnamon-tasted orange
juice Cinnamon-flavored orange juice Now, I don't
mind cinnamon flavor I don't like cinnamon-flavored
orange juice But unfortunately this vessel Got the
taste of the cinnamon And now I get
the taste of cinnamon And I'm about ready
to throw it away Or give it to
her for a wedding present So that she
can keep her tea in it But we've
got to get a new orange juice container
Because I just don't like cinnamon-flavored orange
juice I like orange juice orange juice And
orange juice-flavored orange juice When the vessel
starts putting The taste of the vessel into
the contents It's time to get rid of
the vessel You don't want the taste of
the vessel in the contents You want only
the taste of the content People don't need
to have your taste Lingering in their mouth
When you're through ministering with them When they
come to receive God And the Word of
God And the contents of the Spirit of
God From your life Let it pour forth
as pure as possible Without you getting your
little flavor And taste into the thing We
have this treasure in earthen vessels This glorious
gospel Containing of God In this life That
the excellency of the power May be of
God And not of us Now as ministers
No one said it was going to be
easy Jesus said a servant isn't greater than
his Lord If they persecuted me They're going
to persecute you If they didn't receive me
They're not going to receive you And so
Paul speaks about the Christian ministry Distressed Perplexed
We go through heavy, deep trials Where once
a week we want to quit our church
Or three times a day Whatever the case
may be No one said it's going to
be easy And if you were looking for
something easy Then you shouldn't have gotten into
it And if you're still looking for something
easy You ought to get out of it
And if it is easy You probably aren't
a true minister We're
distressed on every side But the secret The
secret of it all The secret that you
must learn Is the ability to see the
invisible If you can develop this capacity You
can go through every distressing Perplexing situation And
come out on top But you've got to
develop the capacity Of seeing the invisible For
we look not at the things which are
seen That's how, though I'm distressed I'm never
cast down, you know Perplexed, not distressed Why?
Because I can see What other men don't
see I see the invisible For we look
not at the things which are seen For
these things are only temporal But the things
which are not seen For they are eternal
The classic case of Elisha, the prophet of
Israel When Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria
Was planning all of these Ambushes against the
king of Samaria And every ambush that he
would set up Elisha would go to the
king of Samaria And say, now stay away
from this place They've got an ambush set
for you there And Elisha didn't save him
once nor twice But just many times Until
the king of Assyria Called his generals together
And he said, all right, fellas Which of
you is for my enemy?
And they said, really, king None of us
are for your enemy We're all loyal We're
not traitors But there's a prophet of God
Over there in Israel And you can't talk
to your wife In your bedchamber But what
he doesn't know What you're saying And so
Ben-Hadad said Find out where he is
And bring him captive And so they heard
that He was in the city of Dothan
And so the Syrian army At night moved
in With their chariots With their infantry And
they surrounded The city of Dothan And in
the morning When the servant of Elisha The
prophet Gehazi awoke And went out He looked
upon the hills And he saw the Syrian
army The chariots of Syria And he came
into Elisha With a despairing cry Alas The
common vernacular equivalent Is we've had it And
Elisha didn't even go out Didn't even get
disturbed Didn't get upset He said, oh Lord
Open his eyes That he might see And
the eyes of Gehazi Were opened And he
saw the chariots Of the angels of God
All around them And all surrounding The Syrian
army And he had a complete change of
attitude It was no longer Alas master we've
had it It was Alas master they've had
it He now sees things From a whole
new perspective The ability to see the invisible
As you read the 11th chapter Of the
book of Hebrews And it tells you Of
the tremendous exploits Of the men of faith
In the Old Testament And how God blessed
them And prospered them with Cadillacs And perfect
health How
that they wandered around in rags Destitute How
they were stoned How they were sought in
two Men of whom the world was not
worthy For they endured All of the stonings
And the beatings And the imprisonments And the
destitution They endured it says As seeing the
invisible You see therein is always the secret
The man of faith Rather than being blind
Has a better sight than anybody else He
sees more than anybody else The man of
faith sees What the others cannot see And
thus he does not despair He is not
cast down He is not destroyed Because he
can see More than anybody else Where the
others are only looking At the obvious physical
visible things He sees the power of God
Above and beyond Now every time I start
Getting my eyes on situations I start going
under And it is then that the Lord
Has to lift me up And let me
see beyond And above the situations To the
greatness of God And to the power of
God We do despair many times Only because
we're looking At what can be seen And
I've tried every avenue And there's no way
out I might as well lie down and
die You're looking at only that Which can
be seen You've lost sight of the invisible
You've lost sight of God And the greatness
And the power of God It's easy to
lose sight of God When we were in
that particular phase Where we had to get
out Of the facility that we were in
Just because we had so outgrown The little
chapel And the Lord opened the door For
us to buy that ten acres And we
had a huge Building prospect before us We
had $67,000 The ten acres cost us
$300,000 A man loaned us $90,000
So we were able to borrow From the
savings and loan $150,000 The improvements alone
Were going to cost us $100,000 In
fact, $112,000 The tent cost us $16
,000 And here we were In
a growing church We really had it made
We were in triple services The very fact
that we had $67,000 in the bank
was great Because everything was paid for Here
we are in good shape We've got $67
,000 We could just stay right here Where
we are Let things be overcrowded And be
very comfortable Not comfortable, really I mean, financially
comfortable But not physically comfortable Because there are
so many people It was uncomfortable As I
would drive up Sunflower Avenue And wait for
the left turn arrow To go down Fairview
and go home I would look over at
that huge Plot of ground And in my
mind would come The tremendous obligations That were
before us What I was taking and leading
These people into Buildings that were going to
cost More than a million dollars With most
donated labor And I would start getting the
qualms And wanting to back out And wanting
to run And I would say What am
I doing to these precious people?
Leading them into something As gigantic as that
And of course the thoughts Start coming What
are you going to do in the year
When the $90,000 is due?
And in the two years When the $150
,000 is due?
And then how are you going to In
the meantime in those two years Put out
over a million dollars To build new buildings?
What are you doing to these people, Chuck?
And the Lord would say to me Whose
church is it?
And I would say Well, it's your church,
Lord Who created this whole situation?
You did, Lord Then why are you worried
about it?
And I would say Well, I don't know,
Lord It's just my nature But you see
I'd start to see the invisible I'd start
to see what others weren't seeing And by
the time I got to the San Diego
freeway I was totally free I was, praise
the Lord, it's His church If the whole
thing goes down the tubes It's His church
going down the tubes Not me It's His
church Let Him worry about where it's going
to come from But the Lord had to
take me through that lesson Two or three
times a week Where I would start to
get under the burden of it And then
the Lord would again remind me Whose church
is it?
And when I get my eyes off of
what I could see And onto what I
couldn't see I rested, I had peace, I
had victory, I had joy In the ministry
you've got to have the spiritual insight If
you're going to survive Because you are going
to get into dilemmas And situations, distressing situations
That you're not going to be able to
figure the way out yourself And you may
try every possible avenue And find every door
closed And be left in an absolute dilemma
But then God always has ways that we
don't know about anyhow And just because I've
exhausted the capacities Of my own puny little
brain It doesn't mean that God has exhausted
All the possibilities in a situation And unbelief
usually arises from Our trying to figure things
out And when we get to that place
Where we can't figure out how God can
do it Then is where unbelief usually takes
over Because I believe that if I can't
figure it out There's no way to do
it But that's magnifying my own understanding Far
beyond what it should be magnifying For God
has resources that you know nothing about God
has ways that you haven't even thought of
My ways are not your ways My thoughts
are not your thoughts My ways are beyond
your finding out, saith the Lord And you've
got to develop that spiritual insight To where
you can begin to see The things that
others cannot see You begin to see the
power of God And the power of the
Holy Spirit And the power of Jesus Christ
working in his church And his ability to
do exceeding, abundantly Above all that you could
ask or think We get our eyes upon
the situation And we always become defeated Because
we are so limited The king was walking
on the wall And the lady said, Have
mercy on me, king, and judge me And
he says, what do you want me to
do?
Go to the barn floor and sweep up
something?
I'm as hungry as you are, lady, what's
your problem?
She said, well, yesterday this lady and I
Made a covenant together We were going to
eat our babies And yesterday we ate my
baby And now she's hit her baby And
she won't produce it so we can eat
it And the king tore his clothes and
he said, God help me if I don't
have the head of that Elisha Interesting thing,
the king wanted to blame The prophet of
God for his problems Though it was really
the king's fault for the problems Elisha was
sitting in his house with some of his
friends And he says, look what that son
of a murderer Is going to do now
He's sending a guy down here for my
head He said, when the guy gets here
He said, pin him fast with the door
For behold, the steps of his master Are
right behind him And so footsteps came up
on the door And this guy knocked And
the guys opened the door and pinned him
and held him And behind him, here came
the king And he said to Elisha, Aren't
thou the one that is troubling Israel?
Elisha said, no, you got it wrong, king
You're the one that's been troubling Israel You
brought in the Baal worship and all this
kind of stuff You're the one that's brought
this problem But don't worry Tomorrow morning They'll
be selling a bushel of wheat for 65
cents Fine flour there in the gate of
the city A bushel of barley, two bushels
of barley for 65 cents And the man
upon whom the king leans Says, if God
would open up windows in heaven Could such
a thing be How could God do that?
These people are so hungry How could God
do that?
You see, he was looking at it from
a purely human standpoint Trying to figure out
how God could do it And then he
becomes ridiculous, mocking If God would open up
He saw God going around pulling open windows
in heaven And dumping flour down on them
Became foolish The prophet said, hey, fellow You'll
see it, but you won't eat it For
God had ways That they hadn't even thought
about For we look not at the things
which are seen But the things which are
not seen You've got to develop the spiritual
insight You've got to see Greater is he
that is in you Than he that is
in the world Greater is the power of
God Than any situation that you could be
facing Greater is God's power Than any diagnosis
Of any doctor, anything else You've got to
keep your eyes on God And not on
the situations The
Christian ministry is not easy Unless It's impossible
Unless you keep your eyes on the Lord
You'll go under Unless you keep your eyes
on him So You're the messenger Man, what
good news you have to carry What a
treasure to the world God put that treasure
in your old pot You're the earthen vessel
Let the contents flow forth Unadulterated Let them
flow forth pure And just keep your eyes
on Jesus Knowing that you represent him Before
those people before whom you stand And they're
going to develop their ideas And concepts of
God From what they see in you But
a messenger Has to have a message And
what is the message That you are bringing
to the people I am convinced That in
98% of the churches today The problem
with the church Is that they are bringing
The wrong message to the people And that's
why The churches are struggling For finances For
enthusiasm For workers For life It's because the
message That the church is bringing to the
people Is not a true biblical message Or
only a part And really a minor part
of the message And we have been actually
emphasizing The wrong thing in our ministry I
did for years I emphasized the wrong things
My preaching I was preaching My emphasis was
entirely opposite Of what it should be And
when I began to preach God's message of
the New Testament Rather than the typical church
message Is when God began To bless the
people And bless the church And add to
the church And the Lord didn't really give
me this insight And help me to define
it Until just this last weekend And so
tomorrow night We'll be sharing with you the
message And I think that this is very
vital For each of you messengers To make
sure of the message That you're carrying to
the people And I'm excited About serving God
And I'm thrilled With the privilege of representing
Him And yet I'm appalled At the responsibility
That is on me Because I am His
representative Paul speaks about running in vain Oh
God help that we don't run in vain
God keep us from that trap of glory
Or receiving glory God keep us from that
trap It has destroyed so many Shakespeare
has one of his characters saying Cromwell flee
ambition For by this sin the angels fell
Seeking glory For myself instead of God It
destroyed Lucifer And it can destroy you Father
we pray that your Holy Spirit Will just
take your word And burn it into our
hearts And help us Lord that We will
not be like the man Who looks in
the mirror And immediately forgets what he saw
May we become doers of the word And
not hearers only And as Paul said Lord
help us That we might examine ourselves And
judge ourselves Lest we would be judged of
thee May we take Lord Well better than
that Lord Let your Holy Spirit turn the
light on And reveal what is in our
heart Search me oh God Know my thoughts
Try me know my ways See if there
be Some way of wickedness in me Lord
Reveal it In order that I might repent
And confess of it And be clean before
you God In order that I might stand
before thee someday And receive your approbation Well
done Good faithful servant God I don't want
to be knocking And hear the voice saying
Depart I never knew you Lord I prophesied
in your name I preached to people I
prayed for the sick May we preach
Jesus Christ as Lord In Jesus name