“Be of Good Courage” Conclusion

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 918 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Do you really believe God loves you? That He understands where you’re at right now? With every battle that you face, every enemy that you face, every difficulty, every struggle, can you look at the cross and say God doesn’t love me? That’s the ultimate demonstration of the love of this God that we serve. That He would send His own Son to take the punishment you and I deserve…unworthy sinners…and demonstrate exactly the qualities that we’re talking about this morning.

I’ll tell you there’s one right there who didn’t give up, did He? He was willing to cry out…and he didn’t do it in His own strength, did He? He spent hours in the garden wrestling in prayer, crying out to God for the strength. Oh God, I can’t face this. Is there any way? Oh, God help me. And God helped Him and God gave Him strength. And He was willing to stand right through to the very end--even to the laying down of His life. Did it turn out all right? It sure did. There is no way to lose by trusting God, even to the point of death if it comes to that.

That’s why Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (NIV). In other words, I’ve committed my life into the hands of one where I can’t lose. His plan is going to be worked out and there’s gonna be a day when I’m gonna stand before Him in glory and look back upon this and realize it was nothing compared to what He had given me--what He’s given me, the glory that I’ve entered into and how faithful God was. How many times I didn’t even see or feel or sense. It felt like God was a million miles away…didn’t care about me, but He was right there. He was right there carrying me and strengthening me so that I could stand.

I’ll tell you, we have a great God and God wants us to get the same message that He was so repetitive with, with Joshua. “Be strong and be very courageous.” Don’t let your courage flag. I mean, what is courage? You stop and think about it, in action, courage is simply not giving up. Courage is persisting in the face of opposition. But yet, there’s a…the real…there’s a belief component to it. It’s not just a stubborn, I’m not gonna give up and I don’t care what happens. This is I believe in spite of everything that there will be a good outcome to this battle. This is a battle worth fighting. And I am confident that if I will stand and trust God, God will make this thing turn out the way He wants it to and it will be okay.

Now many times it does not look like that down here. You know, I remember the story…and I don’t remember the details of this, but I do remember the story that Brother Jim Cymbala told about the missionary couple that went…I think this was to Africa, but it doesn’t really matter…many, many years ago. They went there with an infant child or two. Some of you can tell me…get the story straight for me later. But, it looked like…I mean it went from bad to worse. They had a little boy that had just kind of been hired to help them…help the mother with the laundry. You know, more or less be a houseboy or servant and he was the only one that seemed to show any interest in the message they were preaching.

You know, the time came when the children died, the wife died, the husband buried them in Africa and he went home in deep discouragement. I mean that would be pretty discouraging to face that, wouldn’t it? So is that the end of the story? No. Years later…I don’t remember how it all happened, but this man that had been so discouraged was brought into contact with this little boy who had now grown up. And as I recall the story, there was a church that he was the head of--a church network, I guess, of 50,000 Christians that had come as a result of that sacrifice. So was that defeat?

-- Congregation: No.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: That was sowing a seed of someone’s life. That was a sacrifice--just like Christ gave up His life for us. Look at the fruit that has come. Didn’t He say, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (KJV). I’ll tell you, even if God calls us to that ultimate sacrifice, nothing that He has purposed will ever fail to come to pass. That’s the kind of a God we serve. You know, how many times do we quote Brother Jimmy Robbins saying, he’s read the last chapter and it comes out good. Well you know, we need to remind ourselves of that. We need to keep our eye on the fact that there is an end that God has in mind and it will happen.

You know you can see this principle in the life of David. God developed in him the quality of courage. He allowed a bear to come out to attack the sheep that he was keeping. You know, most people, what would they have done? They would have run and said, what’s one sheep more or less. But David had a sense of responsibility in him. God was developing this man’s character, and he looked to God and he rose up and he took a stand and said, you ain’t getting my sheep here. And God gave him the courage to face a bear and he won. Okay, well, let’s send a lion and see how he does with that. Well the same thing happened, didn’t it? He grabbed the lion by the beard. How would you like to do that?

( laughter ).

I mean that’s some courage there. But he did it. God gave him the grace to do it. And so he gained an experience of the faithfulness of God in battle for those who will stand and trust God instead of running from trouble, or moaning, or giving up. He stood his ground. A little while later an army of Philistines came against the people and they sent out a great champion. They said, here’s how the battle is gonna be won. We’re gonna let it be decided by this one battle out here. They sent this great giant out there--a great warrior and they figured, man we’ve got it.

Well, you know, the Israelites kind of agreed with them. The soldiers, every one, their heart was just like water. There’s nothing we can do here. What can we do? We can’t very well back down from this challenge but who in the world is going to go out there and meet him? So it was a stalemate, and the guy just came out day after day after day just mocking their God, mocking them and just--come on, let’s get this over with.

So David arrives and he looks and he listens to that guy and says, what’s the problem? You know, totally different attitude, because David knew something about God. David understood what the real battle was. This was a wicked enemy soldier coming against their God. It wasn’t just a human battle; this was a divine confrontation against the God that they served. And he understood that the battle was not something that they had to have the skill and the strength to fight. This was God’s battle.

Do you know the battles you and I fight are God’s battles? Every one you and I fight, it’s God’s battles. He takes them personally. Even though He allows us to go through them and have to fight and have to rise up and have to maintain this positive expectancy of a good outcome and never give up. God fights with those who take their stand in Him. That’s faith.

And of course, you’re well aware of the story and you know how it comes out, how David eventually goes out and said you’ve come against me with swords and staves and that sort of stuff. I’m come against you in the name of the living God. The battle is the Lord’s. Man, he didn’t sneak into the battle, did he, like he was sort of--I don’t know about this? There was no uncertainty in David. He ran toward that giant. He had five stones but it only took one. God…he threw the stone, like the song says, God did the rest.

But you know, we need to have the courage to throw the stone. We need to have the courage not to give up in the face of the difficulties in our lives and say it’s no use. It is. Boy, the devil is so good at psychological warfare. That’s how he was overcoming the Israelite army--the entire army of the nation that was supposedly serving God was completely defeated and they hadn’t even struck a blow yet.

Oh, God help me. God help every one of us to learn how to take our stand and to say God, you are our God. You have promised us as much as you promised Joshua. You have the right to stand. I have made you my people. I have put away your sins. The devil will condemn and tell us that we don’t deserve victory. Well no, he’s right about that. We don’t, but Jesus does. That’s the merit upon which we stand. I stand because Jesus has already defeated the enemy that I face today. Does He deserve the victory? Has He earned it? Has He done what is necessary to…if you want to look at it from a legalistic standpoint, has he met God’s requirements? Has He earned victory? Yes He has. He didn’t earn just for Himself. He earned it for us. Praise God! Praise God!

I’ll tell you, you can go on and on. The scriptures are full of this and I suspect I will leave this to others to finish. But I’ll tell you what--I sense this in my spirit that there’s people here that are really discouraged right now. I don’t think this thought would have come to me the way it did if there weren’t a real need. And I just want to look you in the eye today and say, listen to the Word of God. You take heart. You get your eyes on Him. You don’t give up.

I’ll finish a thought I started a while ago. I guess I started two or three times and got sidetracked. But, I talked about how the world looks for the reserve in here. We look for the reserve in God. We look for His strength. But you think about the scripture in Galatians. I’ll just turn over there because this is one of our battles. Galatians chapter 4, no it’s 5. And so we have the battle going on here about living for God, overcoming our flesh, overcoming the inward desires that would rule us if we allowed them to. Verse 13 says, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.” (NIV). Many times that’s the battle we’re dealing with. It’s not something out here, it’s in here. “…rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Where’s the resource there? Live by what? Yeah, it’s not us, is it? It’s not our ability. There’s help that comes from God in order to do what God has told us to do. “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” So it’s not an exhaustive list, is it? It just kind of points you in the direction here.

“I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But…” Thank God for the “buts” of the scripture! “…the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Now here we’ve got something that grows naturally because of a different kind of life. A tree grows what it grows because of the life that’s in the tree. It’s simply an expression of what’s there. If you have Christ in your heart and you’ve been born of His Spirit, there is a life in here that’s capable of living differently than men live. That’s the need. But if we have it now we…Paul is writing to people who do have that but, they need to understand and that’s what we all need to do, is to understand more.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…” And patience there is endurance. So you’ve kind of put some of these things together “…kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” You package all these together you have got a foundation for courage, don’t you? If I am at peace, how can I be at peace in the midst of a war? Because I see the hand of God and I understand that I don’t go, I don’t face the enemies that I face—including the ones that are in here—I don’t face them alone. I have surrendered my life into His hands. He’s able to finish what He started.

And so I can enjoy…even in those times where discouragement is screaming in my face, I can actually have a peace on the inside. That peace can possess me. It’s a peace that passes all understanding, isn’t it? In other words, it doesn’t make a bit of sense, but I’ve got it anyway because it comes from God. It’s not something I worked up. There’s a fruit here. There is a work of God in my heart that enables me to have peace in the midst of the storm, and joy. Look at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith “…who for the…”

-- Congregation: …Joy…

-- Brother Phil Enlow: “…joy that was set before Him...” He didn’t have His eyes on what was happening. He had His eyes on this joy. Oh, I just can’t wait. This is worth everything that I’m going through to stand in this battle and to push it through right to the end. I refuse to give in. I refuse to be discouraged. This is a battle that God has given me the victory and He’s pointing to the prize at the end of it, and it’s worth everything to press through. And He drew His strength from God, didn’t He?

Joy and peace and patience, that sense of endurance of never giving up…I’ll tell you, you may be the weakest saint here but God can put that quality in your heart where you will never, ever give in to the whisperings of the devil in your heart. May God just help us and strengthen us and gird us. I don’t believe this is just a pep rally. You know many times you go to a…you go to one of these seminars and that’s what it is. It’s getting everybody all hyped with, you know with testimonies of this and that and the other. Look at what you can do if you just….

I’ll tell you, I am as weak as anybody here. But I have a great God. I have His promises. I have His plans. It’s not mine that are at issue here. It’s His plans. And He has promised never to leave me, never to forsake me just like He did Joshua. Praise God! “…patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…” Again that’s never changing your loyalty. That’s giving…that’s serving God, period. In the darkest hour you’ll look the devil in the eye and say, devil, I don’t care what it looks like or what it feels like, or what you’re screaming in my face, God is on the throne and I’m going through. You’re just gonna have to give way.

“…gentleness and self-control.” Where does all that come from? It comes from God. You know the scripture was read, I think Wednesday night, in Hebrews 12 that I’ve quoted a little bit from, where it spoke of, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” (KJV). Jesus did, didn’t He? The power of sin would have ruined Him, would have controlled Him if He had ever yielded to it. And yet He was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. He never once yielded His vessel to that awful power that holds men captive in this world. And because He was willing to trust God and in God’s strength to go through the cross, He laid down His life.

I’ll tell you, that strength that was in Him is available to us and we need to stand fast. I’ll just read a couple of scriptures here. I mean this is in the Bible from one end to the other. But talking about the end of the story, look at the end of 1st Corinthians 15, because this is talking about the glorious thing that we’re looking forward to. “Listen…” in verse 51, “…I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep…” that is we won’t all die, “…but we will all be changed...” Boy, I’m looking for that. You know we’re talking about all the ills that befall different ones, they’ve got a broken this and a sick that. You know, bless her heart, Mary, looking at a possible shoulder replacement. I’m looking at a whole body replacement, thank you! It just all needs to be changed. It’s all getting older. But thank God for His promise. No matter what it looks like or feels like down here, we can always look past that, if we will.

“…in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound…” That sounds pretty positive to me. “…the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” Those are statements of fact that we can reckon on. “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” And I won’t go through all that verse but when all that happens it says, “…Death...” The saying that’s written will come true. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” It’s screaming in our face right now saying, I’m gonna beat you. But God says no, it’s not.

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore…” in view of the fact that God has given us victory why should we accept defeat? Is what He’s saying. “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Let’s read another scripture that we often read at funerals and it’s true all the time, in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. Here He’s talking about the ultimate enemy that men face--death itself. “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

Man that’s gonna be an awesome sight. Oh, Lord, when it dawns on us that that’s actually happening, how are you gonna feel then? You think you’ll have enough courage and your sense of victory is gonna be there? Oh, wow! We’re gonna look back on our battles and say, why did I doubt God? Why did I give in? Why did I struggle so with it? I needed to lift my heart to God and to know that He was in charge.

“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” Now what does he say after that? “Therefore encourage each other with these words.” Encourage. You know that’s a great privilege that we have. God has not called us to walk alone. We’re called to walk with each other. The Lord is wise enough to know that the best of us struggle. The best of us have times of great discouragement. There’s no condemnation in that. But God wants to lift us out and give us a hope. And so we come together and we lift up the Lord and we encourage each other and we testify to God’s faithfulness.

And the one who’s in that pit of discouragement is able to look up and say, yes, God, you’re still on the throne. I’m trusting in you. You know, like the song we sing, we will cry victory in the face of every foe. Thank God for that! That’s a wonderful song, isn’t it? Praise God! But you know, there’s a little statement there, we will. It’s kind of something that God puts…gives us the privilege of doing but we have to do it. There’s a joining of our will with the purpose and the plan and the faithfulness of our God. And when we stand in that way, God will bring us through. It ain’t gonna feel like it many times. There’s times of pain. There’s times of discouragement. There’s times of seeming hopelessness, hopeless situations, but nothing is hopeless. How would you like to be in the situation the three Hebrew children were in? You’re all tied up and the heat of the furnace is seven times hotter than usual and they’re about to throw you in. That sounds like a pretty dire situation. It kind of turned out okay, didn’t it?

Oh, how God has witnessed to us over and over again. Nothing, there’s no possible way the devil can win against the children of God. Even if they did die, they’d still be okay. You know if we die, we’re with the Lord. If we live we get to live for Him here. Either way we’re the Lord’s. And I’ll tell you, this battle is not gonna be forever, is it?

-- Congregation: No.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: But as long as it is, God will never leave you and He will never forsake you. Don’t you doubt for one second God’s love for you this day. Whatever is going on in your life, you take courage. You look the devil in the eye and say, my God reigns and I’m trusting in Him. He who has never lost a battle will bring me through safely to the end. Praise God!

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