Open—Phil Barela
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Well, I appreciate so much what our brother brought before us and.
As I was listening to it, my heart was just boiling, you know? I just like, wow.
You know and think of these mighty men of God, Elijah.
King David.
And the list goes on, Daniel.
Peter.
Paul and the list goes on and.
I was just thinking maybe as to a caption of what's been brought before us just now.
Of of a return of confidence, the return of confidence in God.
You know, we the Savior is so long-suffering and patient with us and he sees us along the way and and some of us have been in the assembly for many a year. And I look at the Gray hairs around and I think of my brother in 50-60 years, 70 years in the assembly, so thankful.
And we've been to conferences and we've had the ministry brought before us and we have the books on our shelves and we read them and we know them and we have the knowledge and it's sometimes it's sustaining to us to have that.
It keeps us enlightened, as it were. But as far as walking in it, we we feel our our deficiency. As far as being spotted by the world, we know that we find that sometimes we are. And as far as making provisions, we find that sometimes we're making a provision for the flesh.
And but somehow we kind of roll out of those situations and on we go. And there's another meeting and there's another encouragement. And I'm so thankful for it. Yes, I am.
But what about confidence in God? And as our brother was bringing before us, you know that that that God touches this mighty servant and he rehearses with him and his mind grasps a hold of what's happening and he gives consent to what God wants and he does what what God wants. But he he still is hard in in his spirit. He.
Still.
Not really entering in to.
The heart of God.
So you say, what's the solution?
What does God have to do? Sometimes it's very hard for me to say this, brethren, but.
I do feel that there's only one thing left that God can do.
With us.
And that is, he breaks our hearts.
He brings something into our lives.
That breaks our hearts.
Go annoy Jehu. Go tonight, Hazel.
Elijah couldn't do that.
That broke his heart.
It broke his heart to the point where he realized.
That God must have his way.
That grace must have its way.
And that.
Elijah must take his place.
And he anoints Elijah.
And in a sense, then he's off the scene.
He's carried up in the glory.
But that breaking of the heart, you know, there's a verse I'd like to turn to. Just I know where there's like, like many things in the scriptures, we just don't have enough time in an open meeting. But there's a verse I'd like to turn to. It's in the 90th Psalm. And I hope that I can present this in a way that that maybe it'll touch our hearts and, and, and we'll get a hold of it And our confidence once again will be.
Strengthened in the Lord.
You know, sometimes we think that we can develop our own mind and our own desires and our own ways and we develop that and we say what's wrong with it? And, and we get things to be condoned in a way that it, it suits us.
It suits us and that's fine. We'll go on in that then and.
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But if I was to really get some honest answers, and I'm not making any accusations about dishonesty or anything like that, but to really ask ourselves, are you happy?
As has has what you have allowed in your life made you happy?
Do you feel nearer the Lord?
Because of.
Has it really brought you nearer the Lord?
And so you get in the 90th song, you get the prayer of Moses the man of God in the Psalms.
The prayer of Moses the man of God. And I don't know if there's another one in here by Moses. This is the 4th book.
Where the 4th book of the Psalms begin and if you know, there's five books in the Psalms and we have sort of a Pentateuch.
So that would close Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.
His book is Numbers.
This is where the Book of Numbers starts.
Numbers is God taking account of the people.
And.
He has an account of every single one.
He knows every single soul.
Of his own.
And none are ever out of his sight. But all this Psalm also is a Psalm of death. The next Psalm 91 is a Psalm of life. And if you read this song, you will find that death is brought in.
And really, death is is often the pathway to life, because unless we die to certain things, we never come alive to others.
You know, a lot of times God brings trials into our lives and we're not like the Lord in the sense that.
When God brings a trial into my life, he sees that there's a condition that I'm getting farther away from home. I'm getting away from those things that should govern a Christian, and I'm getting away from the place that I should be living and that is home, heaven in heavenly things. And I'm getting occupied with a lot of other things, and I'm getting away from home. So he brings a severe trial into my life, and what does it do?
We pray, we turn to God.
We're like driven home.
We know that the only resource that we can get now is home, Home heaven.
That's where it's at for us as the Lord's own. But you know when the trials came into the Lord's life?
And he had more trials than any of us. But when trials came into the Lord's life, did they drive him to home? No.
They found him at home.
Isn't that something? They found the Lord at home. The trials that came to him, they found him at home. And so he always did those things that pleased the Father. He never, if I could say to speak a word, He never disappointed the Father because he was home all the time. He lived in the atmosphere of heaven. He never left it.
Why do we sometimes want to leave it? Why do we leave it?
Wandering hearts.
And a lot of times God does bring a lot of trials into our lives, but it seems like until he breaks our hearts. I remember I I know of a very dear brother gathered with us for years. His wife was in the assembly and he just kept resisting the Lord. He didn't want anything to do with the gathered Saints. He didn't want anything to do with the Lord.
It was, yeah, yeah, it's okay, sweetheart. You go to meeting, you can, you can go. I don't mind though. And she went.
Deep down it finally was discovered that he was resisting the Lord.
You know.
God brought a severe tragedy.
So severe into his life.
That it took his only son.
And.
He said. I bowed my head.
And they said OK.
He had to break his heart.
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He had to break.
And so.
When we read, if we were to read this whole Psalm, and I'm not going to, but you read it over sometime and you'll find out how I connect death with this Psalm. But there's a strange verse that here in this Psalm and it says.
In verse nine it says, For all our days are passed away in thy wrath.
We spend our years as a tale that is told.
Verse eight. Let me read verse 8 two. Thou has set our iniquities before thee, and secret sins in the life of thy countenance.
Well, sometimes we have to be brought.
To the place where we realize that we're deserving of the wrath of God.
But the desire of the psalmist is that the Lord would establish.
Their joy.
To match.
The years that the wrath of God has been that they have felt the wrath of God.
Let me just give me a minute here, brother.
OK, here's the verse I was thinking of also.
Verse 15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us.
In the years wherein we have seen evil.
I think the thought in that verse is Lord.
As I think about how thou art toward me, that thou art for me, that are not against me, Thou wouldst preserve me. The days of sorrow are there.
Would you please?
Match those days with the days of joy.
And bring me into an appreciation of thy love, as long as I've been under thy wrath in sorrow.
Bring a match of days of joy to number the same as the days of sorrow.
Confidence in God. You know, sometimes we think the Lord is really being hard on us.
But he's not. We don't think that he loves us. He does. Think of all these ones. I've been mentioning King David. I've often looked at King David and I've, I've said, why did David have to have sorrows all the way to the end of his life?
It seemed like he always had trouble. He'd go from one thing right to the next. And there's a lot of times you find with King David that he silent. He silent in the midst of the most severe and and and devastating trials, the most, the most corrupt circumstances. He's silent. And you all feel like saying, David, why don't you say something? Why don't you do something about it?
Well, that man had learned that only God could.
And sometimes you want to straighten out. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't be exercised about the way that we carry on and seek to turn to the Lord like our brother was bringing before us. But realize this, brethren, that it's got to be the Lord. It's got to be the Lord that's going to do it.
And we've got to have confidence in him Even so that if we go to him and say, you know, Lord, I've had days of wrath on me, I've had days of sorrow, would you please?
Days of joy to match the number of the days of sorrow.
I don't know if I can make that understood, but but it was a it was a real contemplation in my heart to think that there needs to be a confidence that the Lord is for us and he will establish us if we just will recognize that it's him.
And and it's it's, it's got to be, it's got to be. Look at read that Daniel Chapter 9. Read that chapter.
What kind of place does Daniel take? Does he say I'm the man that God says he's that's greatly beloved?
He is.
But he says, we have sinned and we have done wrong, and we have not followed the Lord and our fathers.
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Blessed man that he was.
And when you get to the, to the, is it the 6th chapter of Daniel, he's, he's a, he's a, a soul that has been prophesying concerning others, but then prophecy comes to him personally.
And their prophecies that are given to him at the beginning in the night.
They're not like circumstances and things that are going to come upon the people of God and they're given to Daniel in the night season.
And he has to get before the Lord about it. And he even gets to the point where he says I was much grieved.
Don't be afraid to be much grieved. Don't be afraid to be much grieved.
To hang our heads and see Lord.
Have mercy.
Have mercy.
To have confidence in the hand that has had to discipline us that that very same hand is not unequal.
He indeed wants to bless us.
Very much.
Well, that's all I had on my heart, brother. And it's, it's just something to think of.
What a God we have.
One who sustains this and is going to see us all the way home. We know it's not going to be long. It's not going to be long at all. We'll be home.