Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 650 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Well, everything we do is by faith isn't it? That's the only way I know to please God. Turn, if you will, to 1st Timothy chapter 6, I believe it is. And let's see if the thoughts that I've been having are the Lord's thoughts or if they're mine. But I sense a need in myself and I sense it in others that I believe relates to this scripture.

Now I'm not gonna try to read the entire context at this particular point but this is Paul instructing young Timothy. I believe Paul was in prison at this time and Timothy was out in the field of labor. His ministry was going around and establishing churches, preaching the gospel, just doing the work of ministering and of establishing the church of Jesus Christ in a hostile world.

And so Paul was wanting to give him instructions, much as a father would his son, because I believe that was...in the Spirit that was the relationship that existed. There was a deep bond of love and affection and respect that I believe Paul had for Timothy, but he saw the needs. And he knew what the needs were, not by classroom instruction but because he had been there. He had certainly gone through a tremendous amount of pain, of suffering, of difficulty, of battle in order to serve God. And he knew what it took to serve God and to do it effectively.

And, of course, he warns Timothy in verses 6 through 10 particularly about the danger of people being side-tracked through a love of money and trying to pursue the things of this world. It warns him against that and in verse 11, he says this, "But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (NIV).

And so, obviously there, Paul was recognizing and wanted Timothy to recognize that there is a battle to be fought if we're going to serve God. And that's the thing we need to be occupying ourselves with. And I know that many times in our Christian walk, we get battle weary. Anybody here ever been battle weary?

( congregational amens ).

Yeah. We all have, haven't we? And perhaps you may be feeling that way right now. I know that I've been through some battles this week and sometimes the things...the opposition that we experience in our spirits to trying to do the right thing, to trying to please God and overcome the things that we face in our personal lives and around us. You know we get times when we just...I'm tired. I'm worn out from all of this. And yet God would continually call upon His people to fight the good fight of faith.

And, I believe if we understand some of the basic principles and refresh our minds that...these are not things that we don't know. But they're things where we need to be constantly exhorting one another as the scripture says. It says, don't forsake "...the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is...and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Why? Because we need to be exhorting one another. We need to be constantly encouraging one another to be strong.

And the reason why this is the case, is because there is a need. God knows. Our Savior knows. He's been here. He knows what it's like to be worn out, to be tired, to be in a battle that absolutely just wears your physical frame out and to need strength that we simply don't have in ourselves and to even be discouraged with how relentless the opposition is. But I'll tell you what, God wants us to never get to the point where we give in and we give up and we just lay down and let the devil beat on us.

( congregational amens ).

Or, we forget about the prize that God has set before us in His Kingdom and we say, well this is good enough. This is as far as I can go. As I said last week or the week before, if God expected me to fight or if He expected me to win victories, He'd make it easy. If He expected me to serve Him, He'd remove all the obstacles to serving Him. No. It doesn't work that way. God is calling upon us to have a militant spirit.

You know some of you were here in prayer meeting last night. You know, I kind of said something about that. And it was a reaction...I believe it was the Lord's reaction in me to the way I was feeling, because I was feeling very pressed and beat down. And something on the inside said, this isn't right. God wants us to get up on our hind legs as it were and say, now wait a minute here. Devil, I don't care what you say. I don't care how you make things look and how they feel. God is on His throne and we are a victorious people.

( congregational amens ).

Now, there probably isn't one of us here who knows and loves the Lord, who doesn't love to sing "Victory In Jesus." Oh victory in Jesus, my Lord, my Savior...whatever the words all are. But you know there's something that goes with victory. And I can almost here somebody singing, "O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever" and then pausing and saying, now, you mean I've got to fight?

( laughter ).

Whoa. I love to sing about victory, but fighting...that's against my religion.

( laughter ).

There's no such thing as victory without battle!

( congregational amens ).

We are going to have to be overcomers if we're going to...I mean, in order to be overcomers we're gonna to have to do some overcoming. Now, I'm so thankful that in one sense everything that we possess as Christians is a gift of God's grace. We have not earned it. We do not deserve it. God has extended favor, even as the song we sang this morning, to us that we simply do not deserve. There's not anything, any faithful service we can render that can change the fact that it's grace. Everything is dependent upon God showing us favor. But He has.

( congregational amens ).

He's given us...He's set before us so many wonderful things. But they are prizes of battle, and if we are to possess them, we're going to have to fight. And, you know we've mentioned many times the picture that God has given us of what He set before the children of Israel. He gave them a land flowing with milk and honey, did He not? He gave it to them. They didn't deserve to be set free from Egypt's slavery and to be given this gorgeous, wonderful land where they could settle and just live prosperous, happy lives serving Him. But He gave it to them. But...but, they still had to fight for it, didn't they? God did not simply make the enemy disappear, and say, walk in and possess the land. There was an effort of faith that they had to put forth if they were to possess their possessions.

( congregational amens ).

And sometimes I think that's where we get hung up. Not sometimes, I think many times that's where we get hung up. We can sing and glory in all the wonderful things God has given us but yet we don't actually possess them. Thank you Lord for Your peace. And then we go around, oh my God...wonder what's gonna happen next, and we just don't really enjoy very much actual peace. We have this wonderful righteousness of Christ that's been put to our account but we don't live very righteously sometimes.

Ah, it was real quiet when I said that, wasn't it? But God is looking for a real genuine sense of what He wants us to grow up to accomplish in Him. And there are battles that need to be fought. Now, obviously Paul was exhorting his young friend here, Timothy, to fight a battle, but obviously it was not about earthly things.

What is your life about? Is your life about making a comfortable nest here? Is it about getting yourself situated financially where you've got the money in the bank just to feel at ease and rest like the rich fool that Jesus spoke about? He had much goods laid up for many years...eat drink and be merry. Are we living for earthly things? Do our battles surround things that simply center in us? Obviously that's not what God's talking about here.

What is it that Paul was exhorting Timothy to pursue? There was something that he was not to do. But there were things that he was to pursue. And it says, "...pursue righteousness" Now just think about that for a minute. I can just hear somebody saying, I thought we had perfect righteousness. What do you mean, I have to pursue it? See there's more than just a righteousness where God writes it on a page and says this one is righteous. There is a practical righteousness God desires to bring about in our lives where we are literally...we live what we profess. We're Christians. We don't live like the people of the world. God is wanting us to pursue those things and there is a life long pursuit of being more like Jesus that He wants us to engage in.

( congregational amens ).

How many of you who are parents and who have had children, all you ever wanted was just a little baby to hold and cuddle? And you're completely satisfied to have given that child life, and that's all there is to it? They're alive. They have my life in 'em. They've got everything they need. That's all I want. How many of you would be satisfied with that?

-- Congregation: No.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: No. You understand obviously, that even as human parents we're glad when there's a new life. But there is a purpose that that life needs to fulfill and there's a lot of overcoming, there's a lot of growing up that is needed. Now, yes, everything is there. That full life, the capability of growing up into everything that they're going to be, is there. You might have a football star. They don't look like it. They make a lot of noise...have a lot of irresponsibility at the other end.

( laughter ).

But yet, you're glad. You see the potential and you understand that all that is needed is there in that little infant. And all that's needed is time and exercise and nourishment. But there is a growing up that is needed and, I guarantee you, if that person--if that little baby is going to grow up to be an NFL football star, there are going to be some battles that have to be fought. You cannot take the path of least resistance and accomplish anything in this life, nor can we as a people of God, as a church of Jesus Christ ever get to the place where we sit back and say, I'm tired. Let somebody else fight. God has called every one of us to fight this battle and not to grow weary.

( congregational amens ).

What does the scripture say about getting weary? It says, don't be weary...be not "...weary in well doing." And the picture there is of the farmer...the sowing of the crop where he warns against sowing to the lust of the flesh. Because if that's what you do, you're gonna reap a bad crop. It's gonna be to your own destruction, but rather sow to the Spirit.

Now there's something...that means putting an effort. That means absolutely putting forth an effort to serve God, and putting our interest and our attention on saying, God, I want to grow up in You. I want to have more of You. But then there comes a patience. Then there comes the necessity of a spirit of endurance and perseverance where we never give up. We don't get to the point where we just lay down and say, oh, what's the use. Nothing will ever change. I'll never amount to anything. The devil will always beat me in this area. This situation will never change and a thousand and one things that the enemy whispers in our minds to cause us to begin to think differently.

You know a lot of times we can come to a church service and we can get all excited about the victory that Christ has won for us and the strength that He's given us to fight. And we go forth like we're gonna whip the world, and we come back the next week and we're the ones that have been whipped. I'll tell you that's what...God is wanting to get us to a place where we learn how to fight and learn that it takes fighting.

( congregational amens ).

It takes a willingness on our part to battle. And so there is a pursuit of righteousness. What he's talking about here is not what Christ wrote on the page beside our name in Heaven. I thank God for that. But this is something else. This is growing up to be what He has made us, according to the life that He's put within us, "...godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness." Boy we could use some of all these things, couldn't we? These are the virtues of Christ. He wants us to be like Him in actual practice.

How in the world are people outside going to ever see Jesus, unless they see Him in us? It's not simply the words that we say that will convince anyone. It's what we do that makes all the difference. And God is wanting...like the song we sang this morning, I believe God is wanting to bring this church more and more to a place where the lost and the lonely can come and they can find something that's a help. And they don't find a bunch of people who are having a pity party and laying down and giving up.

I don't believe we're that place, but I'll tell you there's a warning that God would give me and would give all of us that would cause us to say, don't ever forget that there is a battle that I'm wanting you to fight. Don't ever settle for where you're at because if we do we will absolutely just wither up. But I believe God is wanting to encourage just like Paul encouraged Timothy.

Now the fact that Paul would convey this to a servant of God like Timothy...here was a man who was out preaching the Word and laying his life on the line, facing things you and I have never faced. And yet Paul found it necessary to exhort him to fight. That tells me that there is a need for this--that we by our own human constitution, we need to be encouraged. We need to be reminded that we are in the midst of a warfare...that there's not one thing worth having in the Kingdom of God that we will not have the devil with all his guns trained on us trying to hinder us from obtaining.

You know, as we were praying last night, I had a picture in my mind. I was gonna mention hurricanes. I know the folks in Florida don't want to hear anything about hurricanes, but I think most of us know from watching the weather and all of that...the weather channel...how hurricanes are constructed. Now what's it like in the center of a hurricane?

-- Congregation: Calm

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Absolutely dead calm. There is a place of calm, isn't there? Where are the worst winds? There right around that calm. The very worst, most destructive winds are circling in a tight loop--a tight circle right around the calmest place in that storm. So suppose you wanted to get to that calm. Think about it. The closer you get to the place of calm, what's it gonna be like? It will get easier and easier right?

( laughter ).

No. It's gonna get tougher and tougher. How many of you've ever set out to serve God and to say now, by God, I'm tired of being defeated here. I've had enough. I've been defeated in this area all my life, and God has given me the victory. Bless God, I'm gonna go after it. And things got a lot worse. Well what would you expect? Do you expect the devil just to give up? Do you expect the devil not to oppose you and oppose me? Absolutely the devil is gonna challenge everything that we set out to do. That is no sign that we should give up. If anything, that's a sign that we should bear down and say, God help me.

How do you react when things get difficult? I'm talking about when the devil really opposes you in some area? How do you react? Do we just take that as a sign that we ought to back off? I'm going down the wrong road here. Something's wrong. God's punishing me. Things shouldn't be this way...a thousand and one reasonings that come into our head that would cause us to do what? To back off.

If things get difficult in your life and you're going in the right direction and trusting God and things get difficult, what do we do? What does God want us to do? Does He want us to give up and back off, or does He want us to say, God help me? God, give me what it takes to press through here. There is something worth having. The devil would not fight like he's fighting if there weren't something worthwhile that he's trying to keep me from.

( congregational amens ).

I've set out to do something here and the devil is afraid. If you could see what was going on in this place and in our lives from the devil's point of view...I mean what's the devil to do? What would you do if you were on his side and you saw a people that were setting their hearts to pray and to say God lead us to higher ground? God, do this in my life. God, help me to gain victories that I have never been able to gain before in my life. What would you do?

You'd say fellas, we had a church that was sleeping nicely, or a Christian that was just asleep. And we had everything kind of going our way. And yeah, we were sort of making sure that nothing stirred, that nothing caused them to wake up. But now they're getting awake. We'd better marshal our efforts here. We've got to get a conference here. We've got to devise a new strategy. We're gonna have to really get in their face so that they will say, wait a minute, I wasn't counting on this kind of a battle. I thought God was just gonna give me this magical, wonderful victory and everything was just gonna all go away, all of my problems were just simply gonna go away if all I'd say was, yes to Jesus.

Yes to Jesus is the beginning of a warfare that we are called upon to fight. What did Jesus say about the Kingdom of God? It "...suffureth violence, and the violent take it by force."(KJV). I can't quite quote it in the NIV. I looked it up last night. But, it was something like the kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and the forceful...it was something about...used the word forceful, rather than violent. In other words, there was obviously an effort against strong resistance.

If God's work and God's Kingdom and what God would accomplish in you, and you, and you, and me, is gonna be accomplished...it's going to have to be through fighting and there simply isn't any way around it. But that's the objective. Pursue righteousness, godliness. It's not about all the other things that we make it about. Oh God, take away my problems. Oh God, give me this. Give me that. Fill my bank account. Lord, I'm sick. Make me well. Those things can...certainly He can do all those things. He can bless us. But what are we to seek first?

-- Congregation: The Kingdom of God.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: "...The kingdom of God and..."--what?

-- Congregation: His righteousness.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: "...His righteousness" If that's the focus of our heart, God can bless us in many of these other areas. He's not stingy. He could make somebody rich if He wanted to, as long as their heart wasn't in it and they could use it for His glory.

But whether we are rich or poor is not a measure of anything. In fact, I'll just drop back for the sake of anybody who may hear this. I'll go back to what he warned about in verse 9. He says, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap..." (NIV). I'll tell you, think about that. I was watching something on the news the other night, I forget. Maybe it was on the Animal Planet. There was a bunch of animal control people who were out trapping feral cats and they had all these nice little wire cage traps. And they would try to induce the cats to go in and get some food or water and then, boom! The thing would come down, and bop 'em on the behind, and they were trapped. But I'll tell you what. Satan has all kinds of traps and if we are pursuing the things of this life, if that's what our life is about, we are walking into a trap of Satan.

( congregational amens ).

"...Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."(KJV). But here's the warning, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (NIV). That's really the sense. So obviously money's not at the root of every evil, but it's the root of all kinds of evil.

"Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." Now, actually I think the scripture I was particularly thinking about, where Paul was referring to people who were, "...of corrupt mind..."--verse 5--"...who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain."

Boy, that certainly knocks in the head the prosperity gospel, doesn't it? It says that the measure of your spirituality is how much you have in your bank account. If you were really serving God and pleasing God, you'd have plenty of money. And if you don't, something's wrong in your spiritual life. There's people out there preaching that kind of a gospel.

Well I tell you, you can be as poor as Job's proverbial turkey in the will and in the providence of God at a given time in your life, and have perfect fellowship with God. And be exactly in the center of the will of God. God puts His people in every kind of circumstance to see if they can overcome that circumstance, and believe Him, and serve Him anyway.

( congregational amens ).

Did not Paul learn how to have plenty and how to have little? Yes. He learned. That means he was literally in each kind of circumstance. There were times Paul didn't know where his next meal was coming from. Did he stop serving God and make this his focus? Oh my God, I got to get something to eat. I've got to change my course. I've got to work and just do something to fix this problem. It's not a problem, if we don't make it one. What we need to do is to cast our care upon Him. He cares for us, whatever the circumstances, whether we have a lot or whether we have a little. Sometimes it's a lot worse to have a lot.

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