My first year in Bible college,
I met a preacher who was at the time a fairly young pastor who
had graduated from the school I was attending. He had been
known quite well for the work he had done, his faithfulness,
his zeal. And God had just taught him the
gospel of his grace. He'd been in ministry for a while
and this man had just learned the gospel and it was Kind of
shaking things up. When he came on campus, everybody
was talking about him. Everybody. Most folks, because
they were mad at him. It was causing no small stir in Jerusalem. The denomination was being messed
up because of the gospel this man was preaching. He and I,
and after years, on occasion, in different parts of the country,
would preach together. And quite a gifted man. Quite a gifted
man. When he was about 40 years old, maybe a little less, 38,
39, somewhere in there, unexpectedly, he had a heart attack, severe
heart attack. And God brought him through it. But he became convinced that
his work was over and that the Lord would soon take him home.
And he went home. got his Bible, sat down in his
easy chair, and he'd read his Bible a little bit, go take a
nap, get up and read his Bible a little bit, go take a nap,
and just quit, waiting to die. That's been nearly 30 years ago. He'd been waiting to die for
30 years and hadn't done anything in 30 years. What a waste. Why do you tell
us that, Brother Dodd? I tell you that because I want
you to understand how easily and quickly discouraged God's
people often are in this world. And when we are discouraged,
we discourage those around us. When we are disheartened, we
dishearten those who are around us. when we give up what we know
God Almighty has put us here to do. We persuade those around
us to give up what they know God Almighty has sent them here
to do. Discouragement is natural to
us. It grows like a wild, obnoxious
weed in these corrupt, depraved hearts of ours. It needs no help. It's just there. Now, turn with
me to Haggai Chapter 2. Haggai Chapter 2. Again, tonight,
I want to give you my message in four statements. Here's the
first one. I've already given it to you.
God's people are often easily discouraged and disheartened. God forbids it. God forbids it. Number three, Christ is our strength. And number four, the Lord God
who is our strength will perform his work in us and with us. Haggai chapter two. The second chapter of Haggai
contains three sermons. God's prophet was sent to deliver
these sermons to the Jews after their return from Babylonian
captivity. The object of these sermons is
exactly the same as those that are presented in the first chapter
of Haggai. He was sent to revive and encourage
the people of God. Specifically, he was sent to
encourage them to do the work for which God had put them in
the city of Jerusalem and established them again in their land. He
sent them there to rebuild his temple, to rebuild the city of
Jerusalem. He sent them there for the reviving
of his worship, to reestablish his word and his worship in the
earth, to build up his church and his kingdom represented by
Jerusalem and that temple. But as they began to work, they
soon quit. No other way to put it. They
just quit. They just quit. And these messages by Haggai
were designed to lift up the hands that hung down, to strengthen
their feeble knees and make straight paths for their feet. Let's read
Haggai's first message in Chapter 2 together. Now, lest you think
that's a very short sermon, we're just getting the overview of
it. It's kind of like reading the sermon outline, but it's the points
that he gives us that are important. Haggai 2, verse 1. In the seventh
month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word
of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel,
the son of Sheateel, the governor of Judah. Speak to this man,
this great man, this man held before us as such an imminent
type of Christ, but he's still just a man and he needs to hear
God speak by his prophet. And to Joshua, Joshua, the son
of Josedek, Joshua, this high priest in Israel, This one who
again is set before us as an imminent type of the Lord Jesus
Christ, but he's still just a man and he needs to hear God speak
to him by his prophet, to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high
priest, and speak to the residue of the people, all the people
of Israel, saying, who is left among you? that saw this house
in her first glory. Who's still here? Who's still
alive? Who saw Solomon's temple in its
grandeur? Who saw it in all of its rich
ornaments? In all of its rich, luxurious,
splendorous, magnificent appearance? Who's standing around who saw
that temple? And how do you see it now? You
see this temple here being built. How do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it, comparing what you now see with what you saw 70 years
ago? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing? And let me put that in shoe leather.
Some of you are familiar with church history and you like to
read church history. And you read about the Protestant
Reformation and the wondrous works performed by our God through
the men he raised up in that day. How Martin Luther just taking
his 99 theses, his 99 propositions, his 99 statements of faith and
nailing them up to the church door. which in his day was the
local newspaper in Wittenberg. If you wanted to post something,
wanted news, you'd take it to the church door, nail it on the
church door. He just nailed these things up and said, look here
citizens of Wittenberg, read this. And God turned Europe upside
down, turned Europe upside down. John Calvin wrote his Institutes
of Theology when he was 26 years old. They still stand today as
the standard of all of what's called Protestant theological
literature. You read about the Great Awakening,
the ministry of George Whitefield and the thousands who'd hear
him preach. The ministry of Jonathan Edwards,
that brilliant, brilliant theologian
whom God used to perform such great works in New England and
this country. and Spurgeon and others. You read about those
things and you, who was it? Somebody called me, oh, last
night. Pastor Friend called and asked
me about Spurgeon's Tabernacle. I said, if I'm not mistaken,
if memory served me correctly, Sunday mornings he preached to
5,000 people on average and asked his folks to stay at home on
Sunday night. So another 5,000 would come on Sunday night and
maybe 50 here, 40. How does this compare? What's
it look like to you? Nothing. Nothing. That's the question he's asking.
Is it nothing to you? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,
saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedek the
high priest, and be strong, all you people of the land. God the
Father says, be strong, Zerubbabel. God the Son says, be strong,
Joshua. God the Spirit says, be strong.
Three times he says, be strong, all you people. Be strong and
work. Be strong and pick up the trowel
and start laying stones again. Be strong and go back to the
work. And then he gives a reason for. I am with you, saith the Lord. And, Darwin, I love the way he
puts this, of host. I'm with you, says the Lord,
who controls everybody absolutely all the time. I'm with you, says
the Lord, the Lord of hosts, who is in absolute control everywhere
all the time. According to the word, I'm with
you according to the word. that I covenanted with you when
you came out of Egypt. So my spirit remaineth among
you. Fear ye not. Don't be afraid. How come? How
could we? How could we possibly not be?
For thus saith the Lord of hosts. Yet once it is a little while
and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and
the dry land. Did you ever see fellas harvest
fruit from fruit trees in a big way? Take these pitchers, grab
hold of the tree and just shake it and the fruit falls out. That's the picture. God says,
hang on, I'm going to shake heaven and earth and the sea and the
dry land. Verse 7, and I'll shake all nations. I'll shake all nations. The Persians and the Greeks and
the Romans, I'll raise up and I'll shake them to the ground
again. And the desire of all nations shall come. And I will
fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. But Lord,
we're so poor, we don't have any means, we don't have any
ability to build this magnificent structure. What difference does
that make? The silver is mine and the gold
is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts. Now wait, he can't possibly be
talking about the physical house, it's smaller. It's smaller than
things that that second temple never has that were in the first
temple. What's he talking about? He's
talking about what that temple represents. He's talking about
the house of God, the church of the living God, which temple
you are. He says the glory of this house,
of my church and temple, shall be greater than the glory, the
physical glory you saw in Solomon's temple. And in this place, in
Zion, from which the word of the Lord goes out, in this place,
in the church of the living God, in this place, where God meets
with his people wherever they are, even two or three gathered
in his name, in this place, Will I give peace? And again, he says, now you can
bank on it because the one who's speaking this is the Lord of
Hosts. Satan does his utmost to keep
us from fulfilling our mission in this world, to hinder us from
the work to which God has committed us. He succeeded in hindering
these Jews. The Lord had put them there for
the rebuilding of his temple. And Satan got them to quit. And he endeavors to keep you
and I, not just you and me, I'm talking about his people everywhere
in this world. Satan endeavors to keep God's
church from performing the work for which he has put us in this
world. He endeavors to keep us from the work of proclaiming
the gospel. A reader of those Old Testament saints, David,
served his generation by the will of God and was gathered
to his father's. Oh, God, give me grace to serve
my generation by the will of God to my dying breath and do
the same for this assembly, to serve our generation by the spread
of the gospel of God's grace throughout the world. A spiritual
temple is to be built for the Lord. That's our work. But the
Lord Jesus built his church. Yes, he does. But he commits
the building of it to faithful men. The Lord Jesus causes his
kingdom to grow. Yes, he does. But he commits
the work of it to faithful men, men whom he judges faithful,
to whom he entrusts the gospel of his grace. And Satan will
stop at nothing to keep us from the work. Let's look at these people here.
Oh, how discouraged they were. And we tend to pity such discouragement,
don't we? We tend to pity it until you
see through it. You see folks, sometimes you
see folks who are always discouraged. And when you first meet up with
them, oh, so sad. Boy, you see Brother Bob, he's
so down today. Next year, he's discouraged again.
And the next year, he's still discouraged. And the next year,
he's still discouraged. Looks to me like Bob needs to
get some glasses and see how things are. And you start to
see through it. There's no reason for it. For
the believer, it is excuseless. These Jews had been established
by God. Imagine now, preserved by him
from throughout their generations. Preserved by him trial after
trial, captivity after captivity, with this nation and that nation,
taking them into captivity in the days of the judges, and then
bringing them back again. Preserved during the 70 years
of bondage. Preserved miraculously. Delivered
wondrously, exactly according to God's purpose. And they're
brought back here and God gives them one thing to do. Go build
my house. And they came back to Jerusalem
and boy, Just, oh, look what God's done for us. And they get
to work. And then they quit. Discouraged from nothing but
selfishness. That's all. That's all. Read the first chapter. What
discouraged them? What was it that Satan used to
keep them from the work? He set the world in their hearts.
And if God ever allows the world to be set in your heart or mine, we become totally consumed with
the lust of our flesh. I'm not talking about sensual,
sexual things. I'm talking about the lust of
our flesh, covetousness, ambition, greed. And so it was with these
Jews. They decided that it was more
needful for them to look after the cares of this world, the
necessities of life in this world, to build for themselves sealed
houses. Now, you look at that and you
say, well, Brother Don, you can't blame them too much for that.
After all, a man is responsible to provide for the needs of his
families. I'll grant you that. I'll grant you that. They felt that their needs included
more than just having a house. Their needs included more than
just knowing where they're going to get the next meal. Their needs
included more than just food and clothing and raiment and
shelter. Now their needs included having the biggest and the fanciest
and the best. Their needs, those things that
they felt I just had to have were luxuries. And God's house
was a pile of rubbish. God's house overgrown with weeds
and rubbish. When confronted with their sin
and their folly by God's prophet, they recognized
what he said. But they said, now Haggai, You're
right, we ought not be like this. But the time has not come that
the Lord's house should be built. We measured this thing out. We
understand the scriptures as well as you do. We know the days
as well as you do. They were waiting for a more
convenient time, but more convenient time would not come as long as
their hearts were set on themselves. And God's prophet puts his finger
right on the problem. He said, is it time for you,
O ye to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lay in
waste? All right now, you said it's
not time to build the Lord's house, but you find time to devote
yourself to yourself. You find time to devote yourself
to the world. You find a way to buy anything
you want. If you have to work two jobs,
seven days a week, and you do without your sleep, you find
time to do that. You find time to do anything you want to do,
as long as it pleases you, and you ignore what God put you here
to do, and you justify that. You justify that. And his message
didn't fall on deaf ears. God's people accepted the rebuke. And they were roused to renewed
devotion. We read in chapter 1 verse 12.
Then Zerubbabel the son of Sheateel and Joshua the son of Joshadech,
the high priest with all the remnant of the people, obeyed
the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet,
as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people did fear
before the Lord. Now they go back to work. But The revival didn't last long. It didn't last long. They were
soon discouraged again. They soon gave up again. This
time, there was another problem. The older men threw a stumbling
block before their younger brethren. In verse 3 of chapter 2, the
older men, recalling the former days in the first temple, ridiculed
the work as a very small insignificant thing. They compared this temple
they were building to Solomon's Temple and they said, well, that
ain't nothing. That ain't nothing. You think
you're doing God's work? You think you're serving God?
Look at you. That ain't nothing. That ain't
nothing. Isn't it amazing how old people seem always to talk
about how much better things used to be. I try my best to avoid it. I
try my best. Forgive me, I'm getting to the
age I think like that too. But I try my best to avoid it.
Oh, how good things used to be. The problem is not that they
so much long for things to be as they once were. They love
to live in the past. live in the past when they felt
important, live in the past when they felt useful, live in the
past when they thought they were doing something and they can't
stand the thought of doing nothing. So we live in yesterday. I find
it equally amazing that those who do nothing, that I've been
around now for 58 years, And I tell you what I've observed.
I've observed it in every walk of life. I've observed it as
a man loading freight. I've observed it as a man working
on a job with other men doing various things, construction
work. I've observed it as a pastor. I've observed it as a father.
I've observed it in community. I see it everywhere. It is utterly
amazing. How did those who never lift
their hand to do anything for anybody in any purpose except
themselves? Are the sharpest critics of what
other folks do? Man, you're a principal, aren't
you? Folks who do nothing? Man, they
can find fault with everything anybody does. Well, he shouldn't
have done that. He should have done it this way.
Sometimes some of you will come to me and say, well, do you think
anybody object if I do this or if I do that? Man, do it. If
somebody says something about it, tell them to go do it themselves.
Just go do it. Just go do it. And those who
are most quick to speak their minds are always most quickly
offended when somebody else does. Did you hear what he said to
me? Did you hear that? That's what's discouragement.
and being disheartened in the cause of Christ does. Being disheartened
by these old sourpusses, the younger men began to be discouraged
and they again turned aside from the work God had committed to
them, thinking, well, shoot, this ain't never going to amount
to anything. We're never going to measure up. We can't do this
in any way to suit these men, much less suit God. And so they
willingly quit. Now, the old codgers are to blame,
but so are the young fellows. I'll tell you something, Bill
Riley, you won't quit anything if you don't want to. Nobody's going to persuade you
to quit anything unless you want to. It ain't going to happen.
You can find any excuse you want to and blame the fellow who lays
a stumbling block in front of you, but you ain't quitting unless
you want to. They were glad to go back to building their luxurious
houses. They were happy to go back to
doing what they wanted to do and give up the burden of this
work. Now, I've said all that to say
this, things are no different today. To believe God requires constant
divine intervention. To believe God, to walk in this
world by faith, Believe in God. That means to walk in this world,
walking before God Almighty, acting upon His word, cause we
believe Him, requires constant divine intervention. It is a
constant supernatural thing that you continue in the faith and
continue in the cause of Christ and that I do. It's a constant
act of divine intervention and grace. But discouragement, giving
up, throwing it away, shoot. That's as natural to us as breathing
because there is in Lindsay Campbell and in Don Fortner an evil heart
of unbelief that would depart from the living God right now.
That's just the way it is. Sometimes we get disheartened
because the work God trusts to us seems just overwhelming. Just can't do it. Just can't
do it. We focus our thoughts on our
inabilities and in what is a show of humility but nothing but pride,
well, just can't do it. Just can't do it. Sometimes your
preachers will start to preach, well, oh, I just can't preach. I'm sorry, I just can't do it
and sit down. I want to thump him in the head.
I don't. It's my responsibility to be
here and preach to you. I just don't feel the spirit.
What's that got to do with anything? But I just don't feel like I
have the strength. What's that got to do with anything? It's
my responsibility and do it. I must quit pretending to be
God's servant. One of the two. We get discouraged. Oh, I just can't. I can't tell
you how many times. Just now sitting right here. God, I can't do this. I can't. There's nothing in me. The world's empty. But yours
isn't. We get discouraged because we
look at what others have done. And well, shoot, I'm not doing
anything. I may as well quit. John Gill, as you well know,
one of my favorite characters in church history, a man of tremendous
influence. I admire him so much for so many
things, his brilliance, his theology, his devotion. Oh, I admire his
devotion to the cause of Christ. That man, during his ministry,
not only maintained a regular pulpit ministry, preaching to
the church at Horsely Down, which later was pastored many years
later by Spurgeon and John Drip and followed Gil, others, Benjamin
Keats started the church, but Gil pastored that congregation,
preached three or four or five times a week, and I mean literally,
three or four or five times a week, different places, and with a
feather pen, I use a keyboard and a computer, and when I want
to erase a page or change it, I just highlight the whole thing
and move it aside. He used a feather pen. Dip it and make a third
of a letter. Dip it and make another third
of a letter. Merle, he wrote 10,000 pages of commentary and
theology, and the pages were the size of the top of this desk
right here. When I think I'm a I just got
too much to do. Shoot, I hadn't done anything
yet. Hadn't done anything yet. And we get discouraged. Sometimes
discouragements come because we like to live in the past.
Oh, we like to glory in yesterday. Oh, wouldn't you love to have
lived in Jonathan Edwards' day? No, sir. No, sir. I'd heaps I'd
rather live in my day. This is the day God made for
me and the day for which God made me. Never been a better
time. We get discouraged because we
compare ourselves with one another and we see this fellow doing
or this fellow getting or this fellow being blessed. Why not
me? Because we're so stinking self-centered. Such discouragement and the idleness
it brings is so common. Joshua The high priest was infected
with it. Zerubbabel, the man, the Lord
God said Zerubbabel laid the foundation stone and he's going
to lay the finishing topmost stone, the headstone of the stand.
He's going to finish his work. And he knew what God had said.
He got discouraged and he quit. Joshua, the high priest, who
in chapter three of Zechariah was such a beautiful portrayal
of God's grace. He quit. He quit. Now, these
are believers. These are men like me and you.
They quit. They quit. And the residue of
the people quit. It's a very common thing, especially
when the rubber bullet Joshua give up. Everybody else gives
up. Everybody else gives up. It's
so common. Even Elijah. Man, what a prophet
he was. Even Elijah threw a pity party
one day. And he said, Lord, just let me
die. I want to die. Things so bad. You never had that problem, do
you? Yep. Because we're sinful flesh with
an evil heart of unbelief. Faint heartedness, discouragement,
a quitting spirit was the plague of the children of Israel throughout
their days. God brought him out of Egypt
with all the gold and silver they could carry. I mean, they're
carrying all they can possibly carry. He brought him out, spoiling
the Egyptians. And he brought him out after
destroying the firstborn in Egypt that night. And they get to the
Red Sea. Oh, let's go back to Egypt. They
get across the Red Sea and They get to the waters of Mara and
they find no water to drink. Oh, let's go back to Egypt. And
they eat all the bread they brought with them out of Egypt. And they're
out of bed. Oh, God's going to kill us in the desert. Let's
go back to Egypt. Over and over and over and over again. But
then these words come from our God. Nevertheless, he saved them
for his namesake. So it is, Bob Potts, with you
and me. So it is with us. We're so easily
discouraged. But God forbids it. God forbids
it. That's the second thing. And
I won't be but a minute here. The Lord God commands us to be
strong. Look here. He says, be strong. Be strong, three times, be strong,
be strong. Discouragement breeds weakness
and weakness breeds idleness, causing us to neglect our known
responsibilities in this world. And God says, be strong, all
you people of the land. Sayeth the Lord and work. Be
strong. The fact is, God has committed to us a work
to be done. And that work is to uphold the
truth of the gospel. That work is the building of
his church. That work is the saving of his
elect. That work is calling out his
sheep. He sends us into all the world
to preach the gospel. You read it, Matthew 28. Why
are you going? Preach the gospel to every creature.
That's why we are here. That's our business. It's not
our business to build this local church. Our business is to build
God's church. It's not our business to increase
our own name and recognition. Our business is to increase his
name and his recognition. And we see so little sometimes
And we think, well, nothing being accomplished, and we give up. God says be strong and work. I'm like anybody else. I like
to see things happen. Don't you? I like to see things
happen. Man, I like to see folks moved
by the preaching of the gospel. I like to see God working in
the lives of men. I like to see many women converted
by God's grace and confessing Christ and walking with God.
I like to see it. But what I see or don't see should
have absolutely no bearing on what I do. Absolutely not. I have some friends, such faithful
pastors, who've labored for years in places that you wonder, how do they stay there? How do
they stay with that? Because it seems that nothing
seems to make any effect on things. And I thank God for their faithfulness.
But that's how it ought to be. That's just how it ought to be.
God sent us to preach the gospel, to proclaim the good news of
his saving grace to sinners everywhere. And that's all. That's all. That's it. Here these folks were,
they had given up the work. And I'll tell you what happens
when you give up the work. They laid down the trial, and
they argued, and first, about questions the gender strife to
no profit. The old fella said, this thing
ain't as big as the old temple. And this fella over here said,
you know what the problem is? They hired the wrong architect
to design this thing. And this one found fault with
that, and this one found fault with that. And the other said,
the reason we can't do this yet, we've got these dates figured
out here, and the prophecy says it's got to wait till right now
to be done. And so they fuss and argue. It's another sermon, but it's
worth preaching." I got to looking at that and I thought, yeah, I see that all the time. The fellows who do nothing, who
make no contribution to the cause of Christ, fuss and argue, debate
about nothing, questions of strife and no value. They get on the
internet and they have their theological blogs. sloshing through
mud, that's all it is, showing how ignorant they are. And I
hope everybody who does it hears what I just said. Listen, do
their things who like to tear down what everybody else does.
Never contribute anything. Now, God commands us to be strong.
But as I showed you last week, I believe properly. I believe
the Lord enabled me to. Christ is our strength. You don't
need to turn there. Second Corinthians Chapter 12,
the Apostle Paul, he had been through some trouble. Oh, he had been through some trouble.
Don't know exactly when it was, what the circumstances were.
He doesn't tell us. The Spirit of God doesn't tell us. Just
leaves us to guess or not to. He said, I knew a man in Christ. Whether in the spirit or not,
I don't know. I don't know. But this is what
I experienced. He said, I was called up to the
third heaven. And I saw things. Oh, I saw things. I saw things I couldn't. Words
won't describe. Never entered into the heart
of a man to conceive. And I came back down here on this earth. And buddy, I'm going to paraphrase
a little bit. I believe this is what he's saying.
My heart got to thumping real big. Man, Peter and James and John
never saw this, even on the Mount of Transfiguration. I have experienced
things nobody's experienced. And that pride. beating me in the face. Oh, that
horrible pride. That horrible, self-centered,
self-serving pride. A messenger, Satan, constantly
beating me and beating me and beating me. And I asked God,
take it away. And the Lord said, live with
it. Live with it. It's good for you. How could it be good for me? Because now you're gonna learn
my grace is sufficient for you. And you're gonna learn it day
by day by day in your daily experience. And Paul, I said, okay, I reckon I'll live with it. And
now I glory in my infirmities. Because when I am weak, then
I'm strong. And His strength is made perfect
in weakness. It is the glory of Him who is
our rock, our strength, and our salvation. It is His glory to
be our strength when we are utter weakness. And the reality is
That's the only kind of folks God ever uses. The only kind. Samson. Oh, what a mighty man. Do you know what Samson's strength
did for him all his life? It did nothing to get him in
trouble all his life. Until they lost it and his eyes
were put out. and he was about to leave this
world, and now it did something for him. When he turned to the Lord God,
he found strength not in his physical being, but in God his
Savior. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. You read about those people who were shipwrecked with
the Apostle Paul over an axe, and they The ship was busted
up all to pieces, busted all to pieces. And the scripture
says some came to land swimming and others on broken pieces of
the ship. The only kind of pieces from
the shipwreck of humanity that God Almighty ever uses are the
useless broken pieces. The only kind he does. All right,
now look back at our text here. Look at God's promise for just
a minute. The Lord God, who is our strength,
will perform his work with us and in us. Chapter two, verse
six. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I told you to build my house. I told you to be strong. All
right, this is what I'm telling you. I'll build my house. Yet once it is a little while
and I'll shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the
dry land. I'll shake all nations and the
desire of all nations shall come talking clearly about the coming
of our Redeemer. And I will fill this house with
glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. Perhaps as a reference to our
Lord Jesus coming into the temple and there Simeon and Anna waiting
for him when he was to be circumcised. Perhaps even a reference to him
coming into the temple and overturning the money changers tables. But
I don't think that's the reference at all. It's talking about the
Lord Jesus coming into his house, the church, the church of the
living God and the glory of his presence. Even in this place
right here, this hour. exceeds the glory of that former
house indescribably. The silver is mine. The gold
is mine, saith the Lord. How often we prove this. How
often we prove this. I'll tell you what I've never
experienced. I have never yet, I've never yet looked at something
I felt just certain, and the Lord had me to do that. Man, I can't do that. I don't
have this. I don't have that. I don't have
this ability. I don't have that training. I
don't have this credential. I don't have that. No, I can't do that.
And you know what? Every time, sure enough, I couldn't
do it. Couldn't do it. Tell you what else I've never
experienced. I have never in my life since
I was 16 years old the day God first called me by His grace.
I have never in my life seen something and knew God had me
to do it. But what when I put my hand to
it, He made a way for me to do it. I've never experienced it. Have you? If you have, come up
here and take my place. I've never experienced it. The
silver's mine. The gold's mine. What does that
mean? That means I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. That means whatever it is he's put in my hands to do, in
whatever place, with whatever people, whatever it is, he will
perform it. He, after all, is the one who
does the work. We're just instruments. We're
just instruments. Take the hose out of the garden
and water it. The hose hadn't done anything.
No. The fellow who carried it out there had turned the water
hose, the one who did the work. The hose is just the instrument.
And Merle Hart, that's all you and I are, all this congregation
is, just instruments. Oh, may God use us as his instruments. Read on. The glory of this latter
house shall be greater than the glory of the former, saith the
Lord of Hosts. And in this place, right here,
right here, will I give peace. When Christ comes, he gives peace. Peace that passes understanding
to all who find his strength made perfect in their weakness.
Amen.