Dwelling Place

Al Pittman: And I said, "Lord, they tell me it's a dead church." God said, "It is. It is a dead church." Sometimes when the devil says something and describes the situation, it may be true. But then the Lord said, "But I'm the God who raises the dead, so go."

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman of Al Pittman Ministries. The purpose of this radio program is to encourage you, strengthen your walk with the Lord, and grow.

To support this program financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at AlPittmanMinistries.com. That's AlPittmanMinistries.com. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, here is Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: Well, the theme seems to be troubles in ministry and wanting to quit because that's how I was going to start my message. And that is simply in 1997, when I came up to pastor Calvary Worship Center—our son Nathan is the senior pastor there now—but when we came up to pastor the church, after a few months, I was ready to do just that: quit. I was going to quit.

I remember the Lord speaking to my heart and God taking me to the scriptures in Luke chapter 13, verses six to nine. You remember it's the parable of the fig tree, the barren fig tree. There, Jesus talked about a certain man who planted a fig tree in his vineyard. He went to get fruit from the fig tree at a certain time and there was no fruit on it. He said, "Well, cut it down." And the vinedresser, the keeper of the vineyard, said, "Let's just give it a year. Let me dig around and fertilize it. If it bears fruit, well, but if it doesn't bear fruit, then so be it."

God spoke to my heart. And what I heard the Lord saying to me specifically was, "Give it one more year." He said, "Faithfully dig around." And that is, faithfully teach the word to my people and fertilize them with the Word of God. If it bears fruit, well, but if not, then you're free to leave. A year later—and this may not be your story—but a year later, the church doubled in size. It was just the Word of God. I took God at his promise, at his word, to give it another year.

There may be someone here today and you're feeling like this is it. Maybe God's word to you today is, "Give me one more year. Be faithful to teach my word and to be about my business and watch it bear fruit because God can do things that we can't see at this present time." I learned that very valuable lesson that year, which is to not judge the ministry by the opposition but by the opportunity to be a witness to what the keeper of the vineyard can do.

We're not the keeper of the vineyard; God is. First Corinthians chapter three tells us plainly in verse seven, "So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." He brings the increase alone. Now, some of you may be on the verge of throwing in the towel. I remember some time ago, a good friend of mine, one of our members in the fellowship, came to me when I was talking about throwing in the towel in a message or something.

He used to train boxers. He said, "Al, the reality is that when you talk about throwing in the towel, the only person who can throw in the towel and end a fight is the trainer. The trainer, not the boxer." Sometimes you want to take the towel out of the trainer's hand and throw it in yourself. And sometimes boxers refuse to answer the bell. But to stop a fight, the only person who has authority to do that is the trainer.

The trainer is not ready to throw in the towel on you. He's not ready to throw in the towel on your life and on your ministry. The Holy Spirit is our trainer and he's not ready to give up on you. You may be ready to give up on the ministry right now, but God is not ready to give up on you. We should not even entertain the idea of quitting until he himself has thrown in the towel.

Despite the opposition, God will turn your situation into an opportunity to experience his magnificent power in your life. It's yet to behold what the Lord will do through your ministry and through your life. King Hezekiah, in Second Kings chapter 18, wanted to throw in the towel. Jerusalem was under siege by the Assyrian army, led by the king at the time of the Assyrians, King Sennacherib.

They were surrounded by the Assyrian army. Hezekiah was overwhelmed and discouraged, like maybe many of us may feel right now. We're overwhelmed. We feel discouraged in our minds and within our hearts. He wanted to quit and there seemed to be no way out, but God. No matter what you're facing right now, those two words should restart your heart and your vision. And that is: but God.

If he made a way out of no way for us in our salvation... Let me just say, every time I get up to preach, my nose starts running. I don't know what demon of running noses... I've got to find a scripture on that. I don't know what it is. It's just every time I get up. But we're going to get through this anyway. God made a way for us out of no way. There was no way that we could be saved, but he made a way by sending his son that we indeed might have a way to salvation.

How much more then is God able to make a way when we can see no way? You're looking at a situation right now and you think there is no way. That doesn't mean that God doesn't have a way. He will make a way. The Bible tells us in Romans chapter eight, verse 32, "He who did not spare his own son..." If God didn't spare his own son, what makes you think he's ready to give up on you?

If he did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Give him praise and glory. He's worthy of it. Thank God. Hezekiah, like many of us, probably wondered why this was happening to him. You ever wonder that in ministry? "Why me? I was following God." Just because you're following God doesn't mean that it's always going to go easy.

How many of us have believed that lie? That if I'm following the Lord, everything should just automatically open up and happen and it should be wonderful. But that's not the truth. Hezekiah probably felt like, "Why me? Why is this thing happening to me?" For one thing, Hezekiah, unlike his father King Ahaz—Ahaz was a wicked king. Hezekiah, up to this point at least, had been a pretty good king for Judah.

There was a great reformation that took place under Hezekiah's reign and during his leadership. He reopened the doors of the temple that his wicked father had closed. He also took down the high places throughout the land of Judah and cleansed the land, along with reinstating the role of the priests and the Levites in the service of the temple. He was doing pretty good.

You would think, "Oh, God is blessing me because I'm doing all these wonderful things." How many of us have ever thought that? That I'm doing all these wonderful things for God, but then things start going wrong. In the 14th year of his reign, Hezekiah faced an insurmountable challenge: an invasion. Depression and discouragement can feel like an invasion when you're in the ministry.

All of a sudden, you get up that day and you don't want to go in. It's like that old story of the preacher who got up one morning and didn't want to go to preach. His wife said, "Why don't you want to go down there to those people?" He said, "They're mean and they talk about me." And she said, "Well, you've got to go because you're the pastor." Sometimes we get up and we don't feel like being involved in ministry anymore.

We're just depressed and it feels like something is an invasion. It's a spiritual attack upon your life. We feel like we want to throw in the towel, we want to quit. There's an attack on God's calling on your life. Sometimes God has called you and the devil's there just to mock you. Like Hezekiah, many of you probably have started out great. You've sacrificed, you've served tirelessly, but now you are facing something you never saw coming.

That person that said they loved you and they would always stand with you and they would support you—that friend... I've heard of people having to part ways with some of their best friends, sometimes even family members in the ministry. That person that you thought would love you ends up stabbing you in the back. I know when pastoring, I had a dear sister—still a sister in the Lord—but they'd come up every week and tell me how much they love me.

Sometimes be careful of everybody who comes up to you every week and tells you they love you. Just get ready to duck. "We love our church, we love you. This is so wonderful. Pastor, you okay, Pastor? All right, Pastor? Yeah, we love you." Then they left. You just never know. You didn't see it coming. Some of you may be struggling with and going through that right now. Everything's going wonderful, you're doing great work, people are getting saved—and then all of a sudden, in the 14th year, 14th week, 14th month, whatever, here comes an invasion, a betrayal.

David said, "If I had the wings of a dove, I would fly away. For it wasn't my enemy that betrayed me; it was you, my friend. We walked in the throng of God together to the temple. It's my friend who betrayed me." Second Kings chapter 19. The representative of the king of Assyria sends Hezekiah a written message, basically demanding Judah's unconditional surrender to the Assyrian king. In Second Kings chapter 19, verse 10, here's part of what that letter said.

It said, "Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you.'" Wow. Anybody ever hear that voice? Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. How many times the enemy has come to us and said, "Do not trust. Don't be deceived. Don't deceive yourself. Don't trust in the God that somehow is going to deliver you."

The first thing the enemy comes after is your faith. He wants to nullify your faith in God's trustworthiness. He knows it pleases God. And anything that pleases God, the devil is against. It's an abomination to him. Hezekiah could not refute the truth. The Assyrian king said, "Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you. God is deceiving you."

Hezekiah would be tempted to listen to what the representative for the king of Assyria was saying because of the very fact that he was looking at his circumstances and saying, "Well, everything that they're saying is pretty true. Maybe God has deceived me." Now, that's not true, we know that, but how many of us have been tempted to think that? "Maybe I have been forsaken by the Lord." The facts surrounding your circumstances or your situation may be true.

I know when I came up to pastor the church that I've mentioned several times, before we came up from Albuquerque, some of the folks told me that I shouldn't go up there because the church is a dead church. It had about 80 people in it and they wanted me to come up and be the pastor. It didn't have a great reputation; a lot of things had gone wrong. It was a thriving church at one time and now it was down around 80 people.

I had a neat brother in the Lord, still a friend of mine, but he told me, "I don't think you ought to go up there. I think you'll be going up there presiding over a funeral." His words were, "It's a dead church." And I said, "Lord, they tell me it's a dead church." God said, "It is. It is a dead church." Sometimes when the devil says something and describes the situation, it may be true.

But then the Lord said, "But I'm the God who raises the dead, so go." Amen. Give him praise and glory. Because God did a tremendous work. So the facts surrounding your situation may be true. "Lord, we don't have the money. Lord, we don't have this, we don't have that." All those things are true and the devil's saying, "You don't have this, you don't have that, God has deceived you."

But God is even greater than the facts. Isaiah 46, verse 10, says that he declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure." That's our God. Amen. What God says will stand even when the devil's pointing out the facts to you. You see the facts, but God's counsel will stand.

First Corinthians chapter one, verses 27 and 29, tells us that God has chosen us, the foolish. He's chosen the weak, that's a fact. He's chosen the base, that's a fact. He's chosen the despised, that's a fact. He's chosen the are-nots. Did you know you were a member of the are-nots? You are not fit or worthy of it. You are not strong enough for it. You are not sufficient for it. You are not... but God chose you anyhow.

He chooses us, the Bible says, so that no one will glory in his presence. No flesh shall glory in his presence. That he alone might receive the glory. Just say to yourself, "I'm an are-not." He chose you. And the devil comes along and points out all the things that you are not. I was talking to my wife the other night. I said, "We had everything going against us when we got married. We were too young, we were too dumb, we were too everything."

But now 50 years later, amen, God chooses the are-nots and he still does a mighty work despite our limitations. And so we are not all these things. We are weak and the devil says you're weak. The devil says you're foolish, and I've been foolish. The devil says you're base, and I've been base. I've been despised. And you're not all these things. Yes, but God is everything that we need. God is greater than our circumstances, than our situation.

Jesus is always the prognosis. He's always the remedy and the deliverer. The devil brings the diagnosis. Anybody can diagnose your ministry. Anybody can come in and tell you what you're not doing right and be a critic. Anybody can tell you what the facts are, but Jesus is always the prognosis. Despite the diagnosis, he's the prognosis. Satan has the audacity to demand our unconditional surrender, just as King Sennacherib demanded Hezekiah's surrender.

The apostle John reminds us of this very fact in First John chapter four, verse four: "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Praise his holy name. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in this world. Jesus is our everlasting prognosis. Fear is the devil's weapon against our fruitfulness. The title of the message is *Fruitfulness Beyond Despair*.

Fear causes us to clench in our hands the seeds of faith so that we will not sow them. I'm not talking about this prosperity thing, but the seeds of faith. God is asking you to take a step of faith, to sow seeds, to do things that if we're afraid and we're walking in fear, we'll hold on to that seed. We'll hold on to that and we will not take that step of faith. But God has not given us a spirit of fear, but that of power, love, and a sound mind.

What happens when we hold in our hand, in our fist, clenched tight the seed of faith and refuse to believe that God is able to do something, a work out of our situation? The expectation that we once had in God becomes speculation. Speculation becomes simply a theory. So we sit around and we boast about what we could have done and what God might be able to do, but we never do anything. Of course, the Bible says faith without works is dead.

It's kind of like Uncle Rico. Anybody watch *Napoleon Dynamite*? One of the best movies ever made. If you just want to have a laugh one night, just put it on. I think it's hilarious. But there was Uncle Rico. He was Napoleon's uncle and he was always fantasizing about how great of a football player he could have been, about his high school days. Sometimes we guys do that, fantasize about our high school days.

He was the quarterback and if he could have just been put in the game, he would have won the game and then he could have played in the NFL. He's sitting on the porch there one day and he's talking and he says, "You see the mountains over there? I bet I can throw a football and touch those mountains." It's that kind of guy. I think sometimes we do that with our faith. God has given us a measure of faith, but we're not taking any steps and we're just theorizing about what God might want us to do.

But God wants us to take bold steps of faith in him. The answer is found in our willingness, if we're going to have a faith in the Lord rather than a fantasy in the Lord. It really depends on our willingness to take a step in the Lord, to trust God. The lack of sowing our seeds or lack of trusting God and believing God and taking steps of faith amounts to nothing. I think about this fellowship. Ed probably has forgotten, but he did ask me to come up and speak at Calvary Church many years ago when you were in the school.

I remember going up to speak and they were in the school. Then I look at what God has done here. I remember years ago talking to Ed about them starting a radio station and all this kind of stuff. I've watched how these are all steps of great faith. I see what God has done here and every time I walk in this place, I just give God praise and glory for what he's done here at Calvary Church here in Aurora.

But it took faith. He couldn't just hang on to, "Boy, we could have a radio station. I could do this or that." No, he stepped out and he took steps of faith. But fear would have us hold on to our seed. I love this scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verses four to five. It says, "He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything."

In other words, you have the seed in your hand, but you refuse to sow it because you're looking at the weather. You're looking at your circumstances and things that are going on around you. Fear says that it's too windy to sow or it's too cloudy to reap. We can't reap right now; it might rain. There is a great harvest, I believe, that God has set before us now in America. I believe now is the time.

There's a great harvest for the church. There couldn't be a greater time in America than right now to be a pastor, to be serving the Lord because there's a mighty harvest that is coming. I really believe that.

Guest (Male): Learn more about Pastor Al and his ministry by visiting AlPittmanMinistries.com. Also consider supporting us financially. You can send a check to Al Pittman Ministries at PO Box 50584, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80949, or visit us online. Thank you for your prayers and your support. Your generosity keeps this radio ministry going.

Lastly, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing info@AlPittmanMinistries.com. That's info@AlPittmanMinistries.com, and we look forward to hearing from you. Again, thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time on the Dwelling Place. God bless.

Have you been wanting to hear Pastor Al teach live? Well, now's your chance. "Your sanctification is under the Father's authority. How God's going to provide for you is under his authority. How God is going to strengthen you is under his authority. Faith is trusting God for his part while doing my part." Join Pastor Al at Legacy of Faith Church in Denver, Colorado, on Palm Sunday, March 29th.

There, Pastor Al will be teaching a dynamic Palm Sunday message that you don't want to miss. Doors open at 9:15 AM, service begins at 10:30 AM. Head to LegacyOfFaithChurch.com to get directions or get more information. That's LegacyOfFaithChurch.com. We'll see you there.