SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of White House Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.
SPEAKER_00: White House believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 107.
SPEAKER_01: Let's study something together.
SPEAKER_01: And by that I mean it's it's something that I'm uh still pondering and learning, but I believe this is what the Lord would have for us this morning to study together.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 107 and also 1 Kings chapter 19, please.
SPEAKER_01: So Psalms 107 and 1 Kings chapter number 19, our evening service is tonight at 5:30.
SPEAKER_01: We've uh we put a little something special together for you, and I think you'll enjoy it tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 107, right now, 1 Kings 19.
SPEAKER_01: In Psalms 107, we've visited this scripture at our church uh probably numerous times, but I want to ask you to focus in on one concept in Psalms 107.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Psalms 107, let's start in verse number 23.
SPEAKER_01: Verse number 23.
SPEAKER_01: They that go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's stop there for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't like ships and I don't like boats, I'm not going on a ship, I'm not going on a boat, I get seasick.
SPEAKER_01: Brother, there's more to that than this.
SPEAKER_01: May I say that what he's speaking about is those that get involved with doing something in a greater way.
SPEAKER_01: Those that don't want to just sail in the bay, but those that want to launch outside of the bay and go out into the deeper waters.
SPEAKER_01: Those that want to do something a little bit more for God, those that want to have vision, those that want to be a part of something that God is doing in a miraculous, marvelous way.
SPEAKER_01: And may I say, the salvation of one soul is a miraculous, marvelous way.
SPEAKER_01: So never discount that God is in the in the everything.
SPEAKER_01: And I like the fact that he's in what we would call even the small things, like the hairs of our head.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you pausing?
SPEAKER_01: I lost another one this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But he knew about it.
SPEAKER_01: So he's concerned about the small matters, but even the great matters.
SPEAKER_01: And he talks about going down and doing business in great waters.
SPEAKER_01: These see the works of the Lord and his wanders in the deep.
SPEAKER_01: Now, watch verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: If you launch out and want to do something a little bit more that God's leading us to do, he commandeth.
SPEAKER_01: He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves thereof.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me pause here for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the wind that will get you, it's the waves.
SPEAKER_01: I had the opportunity to uh be uh a part of the uh Navy for a little while.
SPEAKER_01: I was a Marine Corps uh officer, but in the Marine Corps, before you do that, uh in ROTC, I was on the uh aircraft carrier Riskini.
SPEAKER_01: And so for uh about four months I got to see the water from the top of an aircraft carrier, if you would, and a big ship.
SPEAKER_01: And then in the Marine Corps, I was on an amphibious ship called the uh New Orleans at the time, which they've retrofitted.
SPEAKER_01: But then I had the opportunity to uh sail a little 32-foot sailboat in 1980 with another man.
SPEAKER_01: We sailed it out of San Diego over to Samoa, and it took us four and a half months.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to know the waves look different in a 32-foot boat.
SPEAKER_01: When you're on an aircraft carrier, you roll a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I know some of you that's been on there, you've been into heavy seas and hurricanes, and it can roll quite a bit.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been on tin cans, the destroyers, and everything, and I understand that, but I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's nothing like surfing an eight-ton boat off the side of waves when you're in the midst of a storm, and you appreciate the impact and the power and the force of a wave when it comes over the top of you.
SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing you can do.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he says is he commandeth the wind.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, the waves mount up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, these waves are depicted in verse 26, stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: They, those waves, mount up to the heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he say they mount up to the heaven?
SPEAKER_01: They seem like they're so large.
SPEAKER_01: They seem like there's no end to them.
SPEAKER_01: They seem overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01: And then he describes what the waves are.
SPEAKER_01: They go down again to the depths, their soul is melted because of what?
SPEAKER_01: Say it.
SPEAKER_01: Because of what?
SPEAKER_01: Say it one more time.
SPEAKER_01: Say it.
SPEAKER_01: The waves represent trouble.
SPEAKER_01: And once in a while, God allows trouble into our life that looks like a wave.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, God allows it?
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, it's in the book.
SPEAKER_01: God has allowed in this Bible waves of trouble to come over people.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not because God doesn't love us, there's a process that He's taking us through.
SPEAKER_01: Look what He says again.
SPEAKER_01: They, those waves representing trouble, they mount up, they go up to the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: Then it says they go down again to the depths.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tell you, sometimes it seems like trouble is controlling our life.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: Brother, when you're out on the ocean, you may say, Well, we just cut through the waves.
SPEAKER_01: It depends on how big a boat you're on.
SPEAKER_01: In Euroculodon in the book of Acts, they were on a big sailing ship and they said, We let her drive.
SPEAKER_01: And the winds and the waves were controlling that boat.
SPEAKER_01: Once in a while, trouble has an impact on our lives to guide us and direct us to something that's going to teach us something.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says the trials of our faith are more precious than gold and silver.
SPEAKER_01: Because trials teach us something.
SPEAKER_01: Trouble teaches us something.
SPEAKER_01: And God knows what we can handle.
SPEAKER_01: Once in a while, trouble controls our life.
SPEAKER_01: You say, No, God's always in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: God's always in charge of my life.
SPEAKER_01: I know, and sometimes he uses trouble.
SPEAKER_01: He did with Job.
SPEAKER_01: He let trouble mount up in Job's life, and there was a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01: He did in many different places, but stay with me and watch what it says.
SPEAKER_01: So it says in verse 26, they, those waves of trouble mount up to the heaven.
SPEAKER_01: They, those waves of trouble, go down again to the depths and watch.
SPEAKER_01: Their soul is melted because of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to talk to you about the process of melting.
SPEAKER_01: You say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard a Bible process called melting.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the book.
SPEAKER_01: Melting is a process that God puts us through once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can call it the refiner's fire, or you could call it a lot of different things, but the concept of melting, now listen, melt to dissolve.
SPEAKER_01: Melt to soften.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what it says their soul is melted.
SPEAKER_01: You don't dissolve a soul.
SPEAKER_01: You can soften a soul, but it also has a meaning, if you would, to dishearten, to discourage.
SPEAKER_01: And what he's saying here, because those waves mount up, their soul gets, if you would, it a little disheartened.
SPEAKER_01: Health problems can dishearten us, discourage us a bit, uh, soften us a bit.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a purpose for it, if you would, in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Their soul is melted because of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says this they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man.
SPEAKER_01: Why does he put it that way?
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, if you know anything about ocean and you've ever been on a ship for a while, it doesn't matter really the size, although the size does matter a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: When you walk, it's hard to walk sometimes in heavy seas in a straight line.
SPEAKER_01: You stagger.
SPEAKER_01: You go up and down.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, in a little boat, it's constant aerobics.
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't think about that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about you lose weight.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: You're constantly shifting against the motion of the ocean and you're constantly doing aerobics even while you're sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: You say, that's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01: Follow with me for four and a half months on the ocean, and you will come back saying, you're right.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great weight loss program.
SPEAKER_01: So is seasickness.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: But the idea is their soul is melted because of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: They're disheartened a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: They're discouraged a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: They reel to and fro in that disheartenment.
SPEAKER_01: They stagger like a drunk man, and they are at their wit's end.
SPEAKER_01: Wit.
SPEAKER_01: Assembling ideas and thoughts together is the definition of wit.
SPEAKER_01: To gather thoughts and ideas and plans and vision is what wit is.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, wit is something we do to surprise someone.
SPEAKER_01: We gather some thoughts and some information and some plans and we assemble them and we do it in such a way it's called wit.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying there, they came to the end of their wit.
SPEAKER_01: They came to the end, if you would, of their ability to solve the problem.
SPEAKER_01: They came together, if you would, to a place where God brought them to where I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm at the end of ideas.
SPEAKER_01: I'm at the end of assembling thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: I'm at the end of trying to figure out how to how to handle this trouble.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been there?
SPEAKER_01: Even on a small scale?
SPEAKER_01: So here's the concept.
SPEAKER_01: He said, their soul is melted, it's dissembled, it's discouraged a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the waves are bigger than their wit.
SPEAKER_01: I must say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: The waves, the trouble, is bigger than how to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: The wit is the assembling of thoughts and ideas.
SPEAKER_01: And when trouble gets bigger than our current ability to figure out how to do it, then we're at the end of ourself.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't want to be at the end of myself.
SPEAKER_01: We really do, once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: God brings us to the end of what we currently know.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: God will bring us, sometimes through trouble, to the end of what we think we're smart and wise and have all these ideas, and He'll allow something in front of us where He says, Are you at the end of yourself yet?
SPEAKER_01: Do you need me yet?
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to know more?
SPEAKER_01: Yet?
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to ask me for help?
SPEAKER_01: Not just, oh God, help me.
SPEAKER_01: But more like, oh God, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why would God do that?
SPEAKER_01: It's called yoking.
SPEAKER_01: Yoking.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The concept in the New Testament of yoking is where we co-labor with Him.
SPEAKER_01: A yoke is, you see, an oxen.
SPEAKER_01: And a yoke is a wooden piece, if you would, that are put on two oxen to hold them together.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says that we are to yoke with him.
SPEAKER_01: We are to walk beside him.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, he's in the lead.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, is that right?
SPEAKER_01: But we're supposed to yoke with him, we're supposed to co-labor with him.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to abide with him.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to walk along beside him and let him lead.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes we get in the way.
SPEAKER_01: Are you quiet or are you thinking?
SPEAKER_01: I hope you're not being, I hope you don't feel like you're getting scolded.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're studying this together.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Lord, I want to launch out and do more for you.
SPEAKER_01: God, God, give me the ability to do more for you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be just at 30-fold, 60-fold.
SPEAKER_01: I want to reach a hundredfold in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to use the greatest that you can in me on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: Please help me to reach my potential.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, sure, yes.
SPEAKER_01: Let me bring some trouble your way.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, let me mount it up to where it looks like it's bigger than the heaven, and the depths are greater than the deep, to where you can't figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: To where your ideas and your thoughts aren't mature enough yet to figure that one out.
SPEAKER_01: I said yet.
SPEAKER_01: Because one of the ways we get more wisdom in facing is facing things that we can't quite figure out.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're saying, I can figure it all out, you're not out there in deep yet.
SPEAKER_01: You're not out there, you're not out there in the big waters yet.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, you get in the deep waters, you get out there to launch out, to do something, you won't be able to figure it all out.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need him.
SPEAKER_01: And melting, a little disheartening, a little discouragement.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if in your mind right now saying, you're saying, I don't believe that, I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: Get that carnal nature out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: Because that carnal nature says, no, we got it figured out.
SPEAKER_01: Not if you're going to walk with God into the deeper waters.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we walk with God out on the deeper stuff, he says, now, out here, there's some bigger waves.
SPEAKER_01: Out here, you're going to stagger a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Out here, you're going to be disheartened once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: Out here, you're going to need me more.
SPEAKER_01: Out here, you're going to be, yoke is going to get stronger.
SPEAKER_01: That co-laboring, you're going to realize you cannot do it without me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I can.
SPEAKER_01: No, you can't.
SPEAKER_01: No, we can't.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, we need God just for our mental health.
SPEAKER_01: We need God for hope.
SPEAKER_01: The attitude of the day.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you woke up with hope today.
SPEAKER_01: You say, how do you know if you didn't?
SPEAKER_01: If you woke up with some expectations, you woke up with hope.
SPEAKER_01: If you went into the day today saying, I'm looking forward to the day, that's hope.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, we can't coexist together without charity.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about marriages, family, friendships.
SPEAKER_01: Charity is required.
SPEAKER_01: Charity suffers long as and is kind.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, is that right?
SPEAKER_01: Vaunteth not itself.
SPEAKER_01: It's not easily puffed up, it's not easily provoked.
SPEAKER_01: We need God in that.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I have an anger problem.
SPEAKER_01: I need God to take care of that.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know I got some work to do, but I want to rely more on Him.
SPEAKER_01: And brethren, I gotta tell you, without faith, it's impossible to please God.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Faith, hope, and charity are required.
SPEAKER_01: So the concept is we're gonna launch out a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to make this statement to you.
SPEAKER_01: If you know somebody going through some great trouble, don't judge them.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you do, because I tell you this, once you've been out on the seas, once you've been out into the deep, you don't judge somebody at the rail getting seasick.
SPEAKER_01: You don't judge somebody that's that's having a couple of three bad days and can't quite get out of their bunk.
SPEAKER_01: You don't make fun of them.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, you you uh try to encourage them along a little bit, and uh, and I I understand, you know, uh we we have little words and phrases, but I want to tell you something in life, you don't make fun of somebody's disheartened a little bit, you don't make fun of somebody that's melting a little bit, discouraged a little bit, unless you haven't been there.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you've been there, you have a tendency to want to run over and comfort them a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Help them along a little bit, encourage them a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: He says their soul is melted, they're disheartened a little bit because of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: They stagger to and fro.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Can't quite get direction.
SPEAKER_01: They stagger around a little bit, can't walk in a straight line, and and kind of it's hard to find the direction.
SPEAKER_01: And they come to their wit, their assembling of their ideas, their vision, their thoughts, because ideas come from God.
SPEAKER_01: Vision comes from God, problem solving comes from God.
SPEAKER_01: Relationship problem solving, God works in hearts.
SPEAKER_01: You say, No, I can figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: Unless God softens the heart, all the counsel in the world won't help somebody.
SPEAKER_01: God has to do that heart softening.
SPEAKER_01: We can tell somebody about the gospel, but we can't save them.
SPEAKER_01: God prepares the heart of that individual, He prepares the ground, and the seed goes into that heart, that softened heart ground.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's humiliation and repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, is that right?
SPEAKER_01: We don't cause somebody to repent, God does.
SPEAKER_01: It's the softening of a heart, it's the word of God planted, it's the word of God growing, it's God giving the increase, it's God accepting the prayer.
SPEAKER_01: What are we?
SPEAKER_01: Mouthpieces.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord, we get to speak for him.
SPEAKER_01: Speak like write, like communicate, like sign language.
SPEAKER_01: However, the communications is we get to be ambassadors for him, representing him down here.
SPEAKER_01: So the concept is I still am not quite to the concept of the message, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Well, once in a while we need to melt a little bit so we yoke up better.
SPEAKER_01: Yoke.
SPEAKER_01: Walk beside him, stay close to him.
SPEAKER_01: Let him direct us.
SPEAKER_01: Yoke.
SPEAKER_01: Need him.
SPEAKER_01: My yoke is easy.
SPEAKER_01: My burden is light.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tell you, that that yoke is easy when humility comes.
SPEAKER_01: And he's in charge.
SPEAKER_01: Pride doesn't want to quite get in the yoke.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Pride does not want to quite get in the yoke.
SPEAKER_01: Pride says, I can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Have I lost you?
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, pride is the enity against God.
SPEAKER_01: He resisteth the proud, giveth grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_01: And so humility allows us to walk in that yoke, and in that yoke we're much more productive.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I need to give you illustration.
SPEAKER_01: Look at 1 Kings 19.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, by the way, you're in uh you're in uh you're in Psalms 107.
SPEAKER_01: Uh on the way to 1 Kings 19, look over at Psalms 119.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 119.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Say amen so I know you're alive.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 119.
SPEAKER_01: And I understand we don't say amen when we're thinking, but the book wants us to think.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Ghost wants us to think.
SPEAKER_01: You're in uh you're stopping by Psalms 119 over the way on your way to 1 Kings 19.
SPEAKER_01: So it's Psalms 119, it's a long psalm, but I want you to see the vernacular, the wording again.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 119.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: My soul melteth for heaviness.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
SPEAKER_01: My soul melteth uh melt to dissolve or to soften or to dishearten.
SPEAKER_01: My soul melted uh heaviness, heaviness can melt us down a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: The heaviness, the pressures, the heaviness of uh of finances, the heaviness of somebody's health, uh, the heaviness of of uh failure.
SPEAKER_01: The heaviness of grief.
SPEAKER_01: Job had the heaviness of grief.
SPEAKER_01: And it melted him.
SPEAKER_01: It confused him a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Now you say, wait a minute, God's not the author of confusion.
SPEAKER_01: I know that, but he allowed Satan to get at him a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_01: Yes or no?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: He was bettering Job.
SPEAKER_01: The melting process is a bettering process.
SPEAKER_01: The melting process, a little bit of discouragement, is not necessarily a terrible thing.
SPEAKER_01: Now you're looking at me like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to have joy all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_01: But why would he allow the waves to mount up that he commands?
SPEAKER_01: Unless he had a thought in mind for us.
SPEAKER_01: Why would he allow Job?
SPEAKER_01: You talk about huge waves that melted him, the heaviness of the grief of his children dying, his businesses all falling apart, his own health.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, his soul was melted, disheartening.
SPEAKER_01: In Job 3, he wished he had never been born.
SPEAKER_01: But God had a plan to yoke him stronger with him.
SPEAKER_01: Co-laboring.
SPEAKER_01: It can come through grief, which is what's depicted in Psalms 119.
SPEAKER_01: It can come through frustration.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, frustration?
SPEAKER_01: Moses was frustrated when the straw got taken away.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Lord, I thought you sent me here to deliver us.
SPEAKER_01: And you haven't delivered us at all.
SPEAKER_01: The frustration was the timing.
SPEAKER_01: Like I expected this to happen by now.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Moses said to God.
SPEAKER_01: Like you told me to come here, but you haven't delivered us at all, and now the straw's taken away, and they're all blaming me.
SPEAKER_01: The frustration of timing.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been frustrated?
SPEAKER_01: Because it didn't happen yet?
SPEAKER_01: What was planned to happen?
SPEAKER_01: What we expected to happen hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_01: That frustration, brethren, can melt us a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's the melting?
SPEAKER_01: A little disheartening, a little discouragement.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: To make a stronger yoke.
SPEAKER_01: Because when Moses said, Thou hast not delivered us at all.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to have you turn there just for the sake of time, but I'll read it to you.
SPEAKER_01: I got it marked out.
SPEAKER_01: He said this, listen carefully.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses returned to the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that thou hast sent me?
SPEAKER_01: For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he's done evil to the people.
SPEAKER_01: Neither hast thou delivered the people at all.
SPEAKER_01: Moses was frustrated with time and the timing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what God said back.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: Moses, it's not in your timing, it's in my timing.
SPEAKER_01: And when I sent you here, I knew the straw would be taken away.
SPEAKER_01: And I knew you would say these words to me.
SPEAKER_01: Thou hast not delivered us at all.
SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to write that in the book for those who would be reading it in 2017.
SPEAKER_01: 2017.
SPEAKER_01: And 2018.
SPEAKER_01: And 2019.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'll show you what I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_01: And boy, did God get busy.
SPEAKER_01: In God's timing, there's always a plan that's beyond us sometimes, especially if we come to the end of our wit, the end of our assembled ideas.
SPEAKER_01: So it could be the frustration of timing, or it could be, I'll tell you another one.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua had a failure at Ai.
SPEAKER_01: It was the first battle that Joshua was in charge of, if you would, that he was responsible for all those people and his decisions.
SPEAKER_01: I know he battled over in the days of Moses, the Amalekites, but when Joshua was fully in charge and took over for Moses, they they defeated Jericho, and the next battle was Ai.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua thought there's just a few up there, sent some up.
SPEAKER_01: And they came back from Ai defeated.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the power of God was disrupted.
SPEAKER_01: The power of God was disrupted by a man in the camp named Achan.
SPEAKER_01: And Achan had disobeyed.
SPEAKER_01: And the power of God was disrupted.
SPEAKER_01: Is that okay to say it that way?
SPEAKER_01: And when they went up, the power of God wasn't with them.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says when they went to Ai, when they started losing the battle, their souls melted.
SPEAKER_01: In the battle, in the failure, in defeat, we can be disheartened, discouraged a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But brother, God's not done.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, is it wrong for me to say sometimes, once in a while, God might set us up for a failure?
SPEAKER_01: No, God doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to read your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to get to know God better that once in a while, do all you want, do all you can, use all your wit, and it didn't quite work out the way you planned.
SPEAKER_01: And God's still fine with it all.
SPEAKER_01: So in in frustration timing, in in failure, in defeat once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to give you one more.
SPEAKER_01: It's in 1 Kings 19.
SPEAKER_01: And would you turn to 1 Kings 19?
SPEAKER_01: I'm watching your time.
SPEAKER_01: When I hear a stomach growl a couple of times, I'll quit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Kings 19.
SPEAKER_01: Now watch, please.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing well this morning.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Kings 19.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that the Holy Ghost has given us something.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Kings 19.
SPEAKER_01: It's a story about Elijah, and it goes for a while, but please listen.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah had just had a great battle against the prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_01: And we're not going to go into that in 1 Kings 17, 18, or before that, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to go into the battle of the prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_01: But God had just given Elijah a great victory in the prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_01: The woman that was most influential with the prophets of Baal was named Jezebel.
SPEAKER_01: Jezebel, the wife of Ahab.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible calls her a wicked woman.
SPEAKER_01: And she supported the prophets of Baal, those that were false prophets, who made up stuff and dreamed up, if you would, things in their own imagination, calling it God.
SPEAKER_01: And God did not like the prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_01: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: They worshiped false images and caused people to worship false images.
SPEAKER_01: So God set Elijah up and they had this big battle.
SPEAKER_01: And Elisha, by God's power, defeated the prophets of Baal in the eyes of the people.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, it wasn't about defeating the prophets of Baal, just who would win.
SPEAKER_01: It was about who the people would believe.
SPEAKER_01: Were they believed the prophets of Baal or the God of Elijah?
SPEAKER_01: The true God.
SPEAKER_01: And by the end of that they they knew that God was God, and God was in charge.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says this, verse chapter number 19, look at verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.
SPEAKER_01: And withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword, all of uh Jezebel's prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 2, and here's what will melt us.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, Let the little g gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life, Elijah, as the life of one of them by tomorrow, about this time.
SPEAKER_01: What Jezebel sent a messenger to say to Elijah was, I'm gonna kill you.
SPEAKER_01: And please listen to me, fear sat in.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about frustration timing.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about failure.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you another one that can dishearten us.
SPEAKER_01: Fear.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody likes to admit fear.
SPEAKER_01: Fear can manifest itself in insecurity.
SPEAKER_01: Fear.
SPEAKER_01: And in this case, uh Elijah became afraid of the threat that Jezebel had offered him.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the threat came by a messenger, even though God had just done something miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, Elijah was having a day where he heard what was going to happen to him by Jezebel.
SPEAKER_01: And notice what it says in verse number three.
SPEAKER_01: When he saw that, he went, he arose and went for his life.
SPEAKER_01: Fear.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He himself went in a day's journey into the wilderness and came down, and came and sat down under a juniper tree.
SPEAKER_01: The juniper tree is something many Christians refer to.
SPEAKER_01: So here's Elijah sitting under a juniper tree in fear.
SPEAKER_01: And please, I'm not condemning him.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think we ought to judge someone else because we weren't there.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to judge someone else and say, I wouldn't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: You never know what causes fear.
SPEAKER_01: So he sits under that juniper tree, and here's what he does in his fear.
SPEAKER_01: He requests for himself that he might die.
SPEAKER_01: And said, Enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I'm not better than my father's.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you write in your Bible, but what he just did was melted.
SPEAKER_01: His soul melted because of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Disheartened, melting.
SPEAKER_01: Discouraged, melting.
SPEAKER_01: What he basically said that day was, take away my life, I'm no better than my father's.
SPEAKER_01: What he said was, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you ever reached a day where you just said, I'm done with that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about, I tried and tried and tried, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about an attitude in life where you just said, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just done.
SPEAKER_01: Because on that day, he basically said, Lord, just take my life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm finished.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not trying to read into it.
SPEAKER_01: You read the words, you'll see his attitude was very discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: And fear had gripped him.
SPEAKER_01: Would you all agree with that or not?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to interpret, I'm trying to just say, let's read it.
SPEAKER_01: And fear had gripped him a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: It's enough, oh Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Take away my life.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what God did in that melting.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tell you, Elijah was already yoked with God.
SPEAKER_01: God had already used Elijah in such a great way.
SPEAKER_01: But I think, and I'm going to suggest you that God wanted to yoke in a stronger way with Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: Even though we've had a walk with God, sometimes God says, I want to bring you closer.
SPEAKER_01: I got something bigger for you.
SPEAKER_01: I got something bigger for you, I want you to be a part of.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you don't lead it, but you're a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes it's being part of a family or it's being part of a ministry, it's being part of a church.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, I've got something bigger for you, but I've got to prepare you for it.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to be a part of this group, but in order to do and get you where I want you, so you are successful in a greater way, and you don't think it's you, but you know it's me, I'm gonna prepare you.
SPEAKER_01: I might frustrate you a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I might I might cause a little, allow a little failure in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Or I might allow a little fear.
SPEAKER_01: Now, wait a minute, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: God does not give us the spirit of fear, but of love and power and of a sound mind.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's going on here with this prophet?
SPEAKER_01: He's in fear because of a human threat.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to tell you something about this human threat.
SPEAKER_01: Jezebel typically kept her promises.
SPEAKER_01: She had killed many of God's prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And he knew that.
SPEAKER_01: And when he said, when she said, You're next, he knew she had a track record.
SPEAKER_01: And she he went out and sat under that juniper tree and said, Look, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: But God wasn't done with him because the next thing you see in verses 5, 6, 7, God sends an angel, touches him, feeds him.
SPEAKER_01: God sends another angel.
SPEAKER_01: You can read it on your own, touches him, feeds him, and says, I got something bigger for you now, Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: And God allowed Elijah to go in the strength of that meat and the strength of that meal for an extremely supernatural period of time.
SPEAKER_01: And God was getting ready to use Elijah in a greater way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: You may be in frustration right now.
SPEAKER_01: We may be in fear right now.
SPEAKER_01: We might be just coming off of a failure right now.
SPEAKER_01: But if the melting process, where we're a little disheartened, where we cry unto the Lord a little bit more, where we rely to Him a little bit more, if that's what it takes to yoke up with Him more, then it's worth the process.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but uh I still have an old nature in me that thinks He can do something.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what about confidence?
SPEAKER_01: Our confidence is in God.
SPEAKER_01: I am crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, I live.
SPEAKER_01: Yet say it, not I.
SPEAKER_01: And if we can get to the not I, God can do more.
SPEAKER_01: Because when He does more, then we know it's not us.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, I I don't know about you, but I'm excited.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a part of something God still wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: I understand the world is waxing worse and worse, but what a great time for Christians to come forth and do the work.
SPEAKER_01: I understand the world's getting worse and worse.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible said it would.
SPEAKER_01: But brethren, that doesn't mean we roll over and say we're just going to wait till the end.
SPEAKER_01: There's people that can still get saved.
SPEAKER_01: There's missionary work to do.
SPEAKER_01: There's marriages to heal.
SPEAKER_01: There's children to train up.
SPEAKER_01: There's discipleship to do.
SPEAKER_01: There's glory to give God down on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says very carefully that God took Moses through this, and I'll I'll cut a couple scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Stay right with me.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Kings 19:15, we're almost done.
SPEAKER_01: It's lunchtime.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said unto him, Go return on thy way to the wilderness to Damascus.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the first thing I want you to do when you come.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to anoint Haziel to be king over Syria.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting that he gets to anoint a king?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, I've never anointed a king before.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, please listen.
SPEAKER_01: There was no election God chose.
SPEAKER_01: What did the king of Syria do?
SPEAKER_01: The prophet showed up, anointing him, and said, You're it.
SPEAKER_01: What about my campaign?
SPEAKER_01: What about my election?
SPEAKER_01: You've already been chosen.
SPEAKER_01: It was a human, Elijah, being told by God what to do, and told another human, you're king.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty big task.
SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty high honor.
SPEAKER_01: What, to be king?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a high honor to go tell somebody you're the next king.
SPEAKER_01: God told me.
SPEAKER_01: Are you still with me or not?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that wasn't it.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he gets to do, also.
SPEAKER_01: And verse number 16, and Jehu, the son of Nimshe or Nimshai, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go tell Jehu or Jehu that you're the new king over Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, please look.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not against the democratic process, but oftentimes in the Old Testament there was no election.
SPEAKER_01: It was just who God chose.
SPEAKER_01: It was God's election.
SPEAKER_01: Yes or no?
SPEAKER_01: And so he walks up later.
SPEAKER_01: If you read the story, keep going, he says, Yep, you're the new king of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: What a high honor.
SPEAKER_01: Gets to anoint two kings.
SPEAKER_01: And then God says, and I got one more thing.
SPEAKER_01: And Elisha, the son of Shaphet, uh, you're gonna anoint him to be prophet in thy room.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna let you go anoint your successor.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, he didn't tell him, but he was gonna train Elisha also.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to present to you this.
SPEAKER_01: When you launch out into bigger things, once in a while, God command us the waves.
SPEAKER_01: The waves are controlled by the wind.
SPEAKER_01: And the waves are trouble and they mount up.
SPEAKER_01: And when that trouble looks so big and it comes around us, we come to the end of our ideas, our wit.
SPEAKER_01: And our soul gets melted and we stagger, kind of not knowing the direction.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we're frustrated, maybe we're in fear, maybe we come off of failures or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: And what God's doing is bringing us closer because he's not done with this yet.
SPEAKER_01: Can I ask you to read the rest of the Psalms 107 so we can finish?
SPEAKER_01: Would you turn back to Psalms 107?
SPEAKER_01: You say, I thought you were done.
SPEAKER_01: Just one more scripture.
SPEAKER_01: One more scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Because you didn't hit you didn't come here to hear me.
SPEAKER_01: You came here to study the book.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, is that right?
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 107.
SPEAKER_01: Look at it, and let's finish it.
SPEAKER_01: And then you can read it and study it a little bit more on your own.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 107.
SPEAKER_01: So here's where we left it, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: These see the works of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Boy, to be able to see the works of the Lord will build your faith.
SPEAKER_01: He commandeth that wind, that wave, that trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Stagger to and fro like a drunk man, and they're at their winds in.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you pausing?
SPEAKER_01: It's better when you realize that he brought us out.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than saying, I figured it out.
SPEAKER_01: Now he lets us think that we figured it out.
SPEAKER_01: But it's better to realize, no, I didn't know what I was doing.
SPEAKER_01: I was the end of my wit.
SPEAKER_01: I was discouraged, disheartened.
SPEAKER_01: I was just ready to.
SPEAKER_01: And then I cried unto the Lord, and He brought me out of my distress.
SPEAKER_01: He maketh the storm a calm.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had one of those miracle, miracle, miracle, supernatural situations where you know God worked it out?
SPEAKER_01: That'll build your faith.
SPEAKER_01: That'll help us to walk closer.
SPEAKER_01: That'll allow us to co-labor, and that allows us to be used more of Him.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, He bringeth out of our distresses, he makes that storm, that storm, that trouble, a calm.
SPEAKER_01: The waves thereof are still.
SPEAKER_01: Then they are glad because they be quiet.
SPEAKER_01: So he bringeth unto them unto the desired Haben.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, the next verse 31, it said three times in one Psalms 107, oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.
SPEAKER_01: The concept today is about melting.
SPEAKER_01: Melting to yoke in a way that we've never yoked before.
SPEAKER_01: Some people got saved this week.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe someone in here today, you're not yet yoked with our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I want to make this statement to you, and I pray that you just listen for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: It's not always the case that prior to salvation trouble comes.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes, prior to salvation, trouble comes.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, some God has compassion for and uses love, and some it's fear.
SPEAKER_01: I can tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: Just before I got saved, about two months, I had all kind of trouble in my life.
SPEAKER_01: When I reviewed back later, I thought, wow, that had to be God.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: God caused that trouble to soften me.
SPEAKER_01: God allowed that trouble to soften me.
SPEAKER_01: When you see somebody you're praying for for salvation, go through great turmoil.
SPEAKER_01: Keep praying.
SPEAKER_01: They might be getting close.
SPEAKER_01: Because the softening often comes first.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't been involved with many people's salvations, I'm gonna tell you the more you get involved, the more you'll say, and hear, boy, I was looking for a church, we're in so much trouble.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what I needed.
SPEAKER_01: Now I receive Christ as Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Now I understand it.
SPEAKER_01: And now I appreciate what God has brought me through.
SPEAKER_01: Trouble melts, softens, prepares the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe today God's preparing your heart for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tell you, Jesus Christ is alive today, and he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He came to this earth and died, was buried, and raised himself from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says if you'll believe that he is, and you believe that God is able to raise you from the dead, and you'll call upon his name, asking for the forgiveness of sin, that whosoever shall call upon his name shall be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe God is drawing you today for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You can pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.
SPEAKER_00: To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call 619-461-5561.