P. Schaller

Okay. Hello. Hello? Hey? Hello. Praise God to the world out there! Today is a day of prayer for Greater Grace World Outreach and around the world. Would you take a few minutes and just walk around the room and pray with someone for a moment. After we do that, P. T.J. will lead us in the next song. What are you doing when you go to somebody in prayer? You can collapse in the chair and say I had an amazing day. I’m surprised I’m here right now. You could say, let me hold you up. Let me bless you in prayer. Let’s live by faith. Let’s go for it. Let’s quietly listen and anticipate God in our meeting. Let’s not do this by duty or program. Let’s seek God in our hearts tonight. Amen. So whatever you want to do, sit for a minute or talk to somebody or pray with somebody. Go ahead and do that now.

I was in the barber shop today, can’t you tell? It didn’t work! I talked to the barber just like a believer. He’s so open and he likes to talk. He calls me pastor and what’s going on to share with me. I said did you see the Super Bowl? That was one issue. The half time show he thought was ridiculous. We talk about television and the world and Trump’s speech last night. In our church we try not to be directly political. I said Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. I’ve lived in different countries and I’ve seen a lot of trouble politically, economically. People struggle in their country because of bad government. Our kingdom is not of this world. When we live here, we are in the world and we vote. It’s up to you but I vote. I’m serious about it as a citizen. But this is not the end game. Someone I would not prefer may become the leader. If he is the leader of our country and maybe he’s not my preference, because of being spiritual, I pray for him to succeed and to be blessed. I pray for him to do a good job and for God to help him and put people around him. I don’t hate him.

Our kingdom while we are here it says in Rom. 13. I don’t want to be long tonight. I have another message – this is one and then another one. This is fantastic the way it came out when talking to the barber. He wanted me to stay and just be there.

We are now in Rom 13. The night is far spent. It means we are in the night but we are further in the night. 4 or 5 in the morning. It’s still night but we are the children of the day.

vs. 12. Jesus’s return is at hand. Let us walk honestly as in the day. We when we are living in the night, we are living walking in the day. We have the light of a spiritual kingdom. We are already translated from darkness into light. We are children of light. Whoever my president is, President Obama – what was my attitude but blessing, help him, bless him. I didn’t agree in all things he said but our kingdom is coming. Our world is coming. The world of Christ is coming. We are living for that one and we feel it. We are children of the day as we live in the night. The night means the darkness of this world. We live in this darkness and can see that darkness. I felt it when I was talking to him. Our kingdom is not here. It’s coming. It’s okay and I said whoever is president, my place is with God in love and truth and the Bible says to pray for our leaders. Not to hate them. If I meet a Christian on the street who is hating leaders, I’d say if you are my brother, I love you but we are not called to hate. We are called to love. We are not called to be part of the rebellion and wickedness against our culture. We are people of the light. We can feel that love and wisdom and fellowship. We are not a fellowship of this world but of the light. You can feel the joy and the freedom. I may not agree but my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is of another world and I’m living in the light of that kingdom. It’s the same spirit that is in Jesus Christ who came with a message of truth and love and in humility he died because this world crucified him. That’s that.

That’s Jen from Berlin, Germany [who sang the song]. It’s so good to have her here. She serves in the café and what a beautiful spirit, and the faith to come here and be with us. We feel honored for people to come and go to Bible college. Can you imagine you’re from India and you come here to go to Bible college? Two new students here, Vicky and P. Andres, today first time. Would you stand please? That’s amazing, from Page, Hungary. It means a lot to us you come.

A group of us fly tomorrow to Costa Rica. I heard it’s very warm and comfortable down there. We have a convention. P. Brent Hilenga and Lucy and Dominic put this conference together. Thank you for your – not that you are jealous but you are mature and praying a blessing on us even though you want us to have a terrible time! Isn’t it interesting the human heart? Woe! We overcome our flesh in faith. We do.

Two parts to our message. First is a bit of news. A man jogging in Colorado, maybe you heard or read the story was attacked by a mountain lion. We have the headlines on the screen here just because I know you might not believe me. “Colorado Runner Kills Attacking Mountain Lion with his Bare Hands.” My kind of guy! 62 miles north of Denver jogging in the park. The lion attacked him from behind and he went into a fight with him. He killed it, walked out of the park, drove himself to the emergency room where had serious injuries but he did it. He suffocated the animal. He killed the animal. I just had conference over here and we decided to end the meeting! Ha ha.

We’re going to look at Ps. 42 in a minute but turn to 1 Chron. 11:13. I really believe this about us. I believe the Spirit of God in us is mighty. I mean it. The Holy Spirit in you. I believe this. This is our message tonight. 1 Chron 11:22, this is a snowy day. Why is that important? It means he didn’t accidently run into the lion. On a snowy day there is footprints. He tracked it. If I saw the trail of a lion in the snow and he’s going that way, I would go that way. But he didn’t. He went at it. He went after it. This is very brief message for us.

In Ps 42, Jen sang this in her song about the deer panting after the water brooks. I’ve been reading the Bible many years but this is the first time I saw something in this psalm that links it together. It’s this word “say” or “speak.” There are different directions in the psalm where words are coming from. Words are coming from different directions. I counted five of them. If we do a little pictograph for the sake of simplicity, the first one is to myself. What do I say to myself? I am downcast.

Two Hebrew words that P. Steve looked up for me, “dread not” in 1 Chron 22:11. And the other is “be not dismayed.” This is God speaking. Don’t dread. Dread means to fear, to be afraid. To be fearful, to be caused astonishment and awe. Dread. I have had a little bit of it in the mornings when I wake up. Accumulation of life. You kind of dread. That happens.

I can speak to myself like this psalm is saying in Ps. 42. vs. 5. He’s speaking to himself. Why? Why this dread? My self-speaking to myself. You all know it. We do it all the time. We talked. This is one direction that happens to us. Just like somebody being afraid in the case of a lion attacking me. That’s ridiculous. To use it to illustrate something. The lions we are dealing with may not be the wild animals in the Rockies but they are powerful and they are in us. They are part of life. I dread life somebody could say. I dread myself. I dread my failures, my past. The pain some people could live with. They could live with a lot of disappointment and trouble. This is real and this is what the psalm is about. This part is a whole message. There are five of them.

The other one is my tears speak to me. Tears say. Look at the verse with me. vs. 3. The tears are speaking to me. What kind of tears? I don’t know. It shouldn’t have happened. Broken heart. Tears. These are continually speaking. I know we come in here – I do. I love to come in with a joyful spirit and attitude of worship and praise. Some of our sisters and brothers have tears that speak to them continually and say to them things. It’s a direction. The tear is a source and a direction to me.

Next one is this one: one way, I say to God. vs. 6. Ps 42:6, vs. 7. I have to be honest with you in this regard, I don’t see the direction this way: God speaking to the man. I see the other directions.

I speak to myself, my tears speak to me. There’s another one. There’s a group of people over here and they are my enemies. My enemies speak to me. vs. 10. They are speaking daily. My tears are speaking continually and I’m speaking to myself. And what I speak to God I’m saying why, God?

And there is another one. Here’s a believer and who are these people? The church. The church has a voice. vs. 4-5 the church speaks to me.

My enemies speak to me. My tears speak to me. My soul is speaking to me. He is saying, how long? How long?

It is very simple, Ps. 42:11. Hope. That’s all. Hope in God. I know this is, this message, this is what I want the Lord to minister to us and say to us. I may not be, I might be like this psalmist is saying, but as I hope in God, and I know I have a spirit in me that is greater than anything in this world. That’s all. I just know when I wake up in the morning and have these feelings I can hope in God and praise him for the health of his countenance. I know all the things I’ve learned from the Holy Spirit and this is beautiful in time as it flows together as a mentality. It’s not like you have to remedy it with a piece of duct tape. My tears are speaking continually. My enemy is going at it. I have many voices and I talk to myself and I’m going to get a grip.

1 Sam 30, the Amalekites had taken the camp and they wanted to stone David. They wept all day long until they could weep no more. That’s real trouble. It’s okay to weep all day long until you can weep no more. I’m in a wrestling match with a wild cat. The wild cat is me and the world I live in. This is the point. I can get a grip. People in the world can’t, they don’t have hope in God. They don’t have a word in season. They don’t have the Holy Spirit’s intercession. They don’t have Jesus in heaven praying for us. Not praying general prayers for the church but in heaven saying specific prayers for you. He can do that. He’s God and he can do that. He can pray specific prayers for every believer on the earth. As we say I can wrestle with a wild cat. I can kill a lion in a pit in a snowy day. He’s in the pit. I’m coming at you. You are not controlling me. You are not in charge of my life. You’re not the king. I am the one. The believer has something – I believe the reason why some believers are sad is because they grieve the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is sad. If I make the Holy Spirit sad, then I’m going to be sad if he lives in me. If he lives in me and he is grieved, I’m going to be grieved too. What does God call us to do? He’s called us to live by faith and hope in God in a kind of surrender and trust. God, I’m tangling with a wild cat. I got something going on that is a lot bigger. I’d like to run away from it. You can’t run away from it. You have to deal with it. I will fill you with the H.S. I will anoint you. I will speak to you and be your comforter. I do not need you to quit.

P. Hadley said to me today the devil would like us to think he is in charge of the city of Baltimore. He’s in charge. What do you think? Yeah, I give up. I’m out of here. It’s all going to hell and on and on it goes. What does the H.S. say? What does the H.S. say to me? He is saying the devil is not in charge. You track him down. You’re on his tail. You have the Holy Spirit of God living in you. You have victory. Lift up your voices and shout. The shout of a king is amongst us. How about this. Halleluiah, they sang when Jesus went on the donkey as the Messiah. What did they say? Hosanna. Hosanna to the highest.

The Pharisees said quiet your people down. And he said, If they didn’t do it, the rocks would do it. Like you’re your face. This is the Spirit of God. This is the Spirit of God. This is the mind of Christ. We are not afraid. We are the spiritual mind and heart of Christ.

Yeah, but pastor. We just read it. My tears say continually and my enemies say daily. I live with this cloud of heaviness in my soul. Jesus Christ is saying follow me and trust me. Sing a song and worship me. When you get up in the morning and I feel the dread, I look out the window and say the sun is shining. I go to the refrigerator; that’s a good thing. I make a cup of coffee and that’s a good thing. I kiss my wife good morning and that’s amazing. I lift up my heart and say what a foolish thing for me to live in the dumps when Jesus came into this world to make us mighty people. I’m not saying I’m dancing on the table and singing halleluiah but that maybe would be a good recipe for some of us. Maybe it would be good for us to have a good old-fashioned halleluiah breakdown and talk back to the devil. Hey, tears, there will be a day when there will be no more tears. Back off enemies; you’re not in charge. I talk back to the devil.

How about the empty world I’m in. We fill the world. What about the world I’m in and I don’t like the atmosphere. I change the atmosphere. What about the place where I am and I don’t like the people? I preach the gospel and those that want to stay, halleluiah. We got fellowship and they kick me out, that’s fine. I’ll go down the street and preach down there or have fellowship down there and we’ll see what we got left at end of the day. They are not in charge of my life or spirit or attitude or how I think about this world that is falling apart. Cheer up you saints of God. Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

I read recently or heard they make blankets that are heavy because it is proven people sleep better when there is some weight on them. Put lead or something in the blanket.

I would like to say there is a garment of heaviness that comes on people and they live in it all their life. They are in a spirit of negativity all their life. They have a garment of heaviness all their lives. That cannot be. It must be something beautiful to be like angels. To be the saints of God. To sing at midnight. They can praise God in the church. They can speak to themselves in the morning. They can kill a mountain lion with their bare hands. I understood it he doesn’t want people to know who he is. Let’s move along. I don’t want to be famous. I do that in my spare time. A hobby I do.

We are God’s people and there must be something different about us. People of the world say, why are they happy and pleased no matter what is happening in the country? They go after the enemy and kill it in a pit in a snowy day. They believe the Spirit of God has called them to be and do something in this world that is in a lot of trouble. I know this abortion thing troubles you. It does me deeply. It’s horrifying, terrible, tragic, slaughter, murder. We are fed up. We are speaking. We are after it. We are not accepting it. John the Baptist was a fetus in his mother. He was the first one to respond to Jesus who was a fetus in her mother. Elizabeth said the mother of my Lord.

Ps 22 and Ps 139 much can be said about it. We got something going on. I don’t care about being politically correct. I don’t care about satisfying the world. I don’t care what the world thinks about me.

I’m as frail as anyone like in Psalm 42, but I love it that we have the Spirit of God in the midst of a very troubled world and a troubled self-life. But get over it. Live in the Spirit.

Nobody can solve your problems, only God. Nobody can really make it clear to you, only Jesus Christ. Nobody can sit down and talk to you for hours and solve all your identity problems and psychological problems and psycho-babel stuff and all that crap. You grow up and be a Spirit-filled aggressive Spirit-filled believer in what Jesus Christ has said and done for us. Come on. If that is God on the cross for us he came really into us. He came really into us for a reason. That’s what we are learning.

The Bible college students, we so much pray you would become pastors and leaders and teachers. We so much pray our people would enjoy this walk of faith in whatever capacity God leads you in. We are much after that. We’re not mentioning any names tonight but I’m asking the church to keep praying our Bible college students and everyone who comes here would have an amazing experience and divine focus and relationship with the living God. Amen.