"How To Walk When You Can't Even Stand" - Rev. Ken Gurley

I'm honored to be here this morning I'm on a mission of the Holy Ghost I feel like an arrow headed to the center of the target those superfluous motion no wasted effort I feel in the Holy Ghost I know exactly where I'm supposed to go that I am to minister in this house to someone feeling overwhelmed that life has crashed in on you and you just don't know where to turn I I got on that infamous always reliable source the web Wikipedia and I started looking up the the natural disasters in Canada I noticed shipwrecks and storms and the like we have the same sort of list in the u.s. 125 years ago last month one of one of the greatest natural disasters took place in the US its absence from today's history books but until then it was the greatest tragedy the United States had ever experienced the loss of 2,200 live some people may remember the great San Francisco earthquake some may remember the sinking of the Titanic please do not hum that theme song right now some will remember the attack on Pearl Harbor or a great storm that hit where I live that cost 10,000 people their lives but almost erased from our collective consciousness is an event that was so simple but so tragic in Johnstown Pennsylvania so may 31 1889 the South Fork dam failed in a few days prior there had been a 12-inch rain in the area and the emergency spillway clogged with debris in the dam experienced a phenomena known as over topic that the water started flowing over the top of the dam and one of the dangers of an earthen dam is that when it's over topped the cascading water down the face of the dam can erode the foundation beneath and on that day the dam gave way in 20 million tons of water gushed out of the reservoir bringing death to the valley inhabitants below and I only say that to say this I sense if you will that in the world that we're living in today there is an overtopping taking place that the emergency spillways and the coping mechanisms are no longer capable of keeping up with the difficulties we're facing right now and you may have come in this house and Capitol community this morning feeling overtopped and overwhelmed and the holy ghost has commanded me to minister to you today here's my marching orders it's found in Isaiah 35 I am to strengthen weak hands in this building my role here today is to make firm the feeble knees and I am to say to anyone in this room that's fearful hearted you be strong and don't you be afraid because you're God's only his way he is coming with vengeance with the recompense the reward of God and I love this last line he will come and save you if you allow me to minister just a moment how to walk when you can't even stand would you just place your Bibles down right now let's pray one for another father I thank you for this unique privilege what a tremendous honor to stand in this pulpit today where so many wonderful messages have been delivered God given by your hand to your servant so lord I thank you O Father in this house I pray your blessings on every family represented here right now everyone in the sphere of influence God from each person in this room right now Lord and I pray for each individual God that you are going to strengthen someone in this house you're going to give them the wherewithal and the inner resources and the inner bracing to stand against the last day storm and I'll give you praise and I'll give you glory in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ put your hands together and let's praise Him in the house rock Wow god you are so good you are so good and I will bless the Lord at all times but your praise let your praise be in my mouth in Jesus name it god bless you may be seated and I apologize for this opening reference I deeply apologize to brother Woodward today I deeply apologize but I feel like the manager of a rogue Starbucks shop in Manhattan when the superstorm sandy swept up the Atlantic seaboard in 2012 you may remember it was a bizarre storm it was formed of a hurricane and a northeaster and it was just a devastating Arian hit the major population centers of the US and the havoc that it caused everything started shutting down at that time there were 202 starbucks shops in manhattan island administering to somebody right now that you didn't get your caffeine this morning and and you know the church I pastor it has Keurig coffee pots on every pew I'm teasing I'm teasing but as a storm approached most managers began the shutdown procedures put up the closed signs in the windows and Starbucks that sent out notices from Virginia through Maine asking the stores to close at 2:00 p.m. but one shop that one half of one percent in Manhattan said you know what I just feel like what a rough time comes people need to connect and people need to sense that this too shall pass and so the manager of the Starbucks restaurant adjacent to the Marriott Marquis in Times Square of New York City did the unthinkable he pulled down the closed sign and he opened and soon the caffeine junkies started making their way through the hurricane to the Starbucks one customer said the world is a scary place without Starbucks another one said I ordinarily come to Starbucks four and five times a day and I can't imagine my life without it or here's a picture of a young mother Bethenny Owings who saw on Facebook that this wrote Starbucks had opened she carried her 18 month-old daughter ten blocks walking through Hell's Kitchen to get to that Starbucks shop she said you know there's nothing else in the world I would have gone out the storm for but a cup of coffee it was called the last Starbucks standing well you may scoff and you may ride and you may ridicule but let me just tell you if you've ever been through the storm of your life you know when you're feeling overwhelmed and your world is shaking and you begin to look at you look for anything you can hold on to any rope any anchor any hole any relationship any listening ear any caring heart it's not a very progressive forward theme but sometimes you just want to put on the chart church marquee still standing are still trying to stand or better yet I fell flat on my face but we're trying to get back up again because we live in an overwhelmed world and the avalanches of the last days have begun we are being overtopped and over were overwhelmed by a flood of last day issues and thoughts that are eroding the foundations we are living in a day that what can be shaken is being shaken and it's not only happening on the world stage but in the world at home and we may as well come to the place where we don't look at it and enter into denial but say it's happening and it's happening all around us but there's got to come a place and there's got to come a time when no matter what's going on around you that it's not circumstance that rules your heart but it's the peace of God that rules your heart where you say this world is not my home I'm just passing through and I have a foundation and an anchor within the veil and I have a place that I'm going to can't you say amen to that we live in a world that life can lay is very very low oftentimes I recall some of the statements made by Alvin Toffler in his book it was written and published when I was in junior high school called future shocked he defined future shock is the shattering stress and the disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time and that's the world we're living in right now too much change in too short of time if I was to begin a list of what has happened not just in my lifetime but in the last five years and each of us would begin to gain a sense of being overwhelmed there are changes in our society for the worse there is an increasing decadence and violence witness in our world and we are witnessing the undeniable collapse of institutional foundations we are being overwhelmed we live in a wire 24/7 world where instantaneous responses are demand the sense of privacy has been erased by the digital revolution people share every random thought in real time via social media traditional boundaries have dissolved in gender family marriage church and speaking of the church the persecution of the righteous is on the increase and increasingly to stand for truth and righteousness and godly convictions it's being redefined and cast as hate speech there are four telltale signs of the last days that are around us hyper grace is number one or what the Bible calls licentiousness the second is a spirit of lawlessness the Antichrist is called the lawless one number three is a denial of the truth of God's Word that everything is relative in this postmodern age and finally a de-emphasis of the world to come where people are living for the moment and not living for eternity they are living for here and now and not there and then these days are those days that were prophesied about too much change in too short a time and the Holy Ghost prompted me in prayer this morning he urged me to remember that when I stand up here and speak there are a myriad of needs in these room in this room there are thousands of broken dreams and hundreds of crushed spirits and dozens of messed up lies and marriages and there are always those that on the edge of the abyss looking into that pool ready to cash their chips in going down for the last time it's to you that I speak to take you that are about ready to say I don't know what I'm going to do I need help I was a young pastor when I don't know where I came across I found the letter that was read to appreciate that was sent to a preacher I read it as a very young pastor and I have never forgotten this letter that when I get up and preach that I need to remind myself of this letter the letter reads dear preacher I'm a member of your audience that I sit before you in silent desperation I'm the mother of a good Christian teen girl who just told me that she's expecting a child I'm a husband whose marriage is falling apart and no matter what I do I can't seem to stop yet I'm a child who has tried hard to win the affection of my dad but all I hear from him is how many times I fail I'm a senior citizen who sees that my life is coming to a close and I'm worried and scared not knowing if my life has made a difference or if my future is secure I'm a father of three children and the doctor just told me that my wife can't possibly live for more than a couple of months I'm a widow who sits alone in my home so lonely yet no one seems to care I'm by all accounts a success man who's gotten everything he's wanted in life but it hasn't been enough I'm blue I'm depressed I don't even know why but I can't go on living like this any longer I'm a parent who raised my child in church but now he's so far away from the Lord we can't even talk about church anymore I'm single and I just invested everything I had in a relationship and the person walked away without ever looking back I'm a wife whose husband rarely speaks to me and I can't remember the last time he held me or told me he loved me I feel so lonely abandoned even in my home you can't see my desperation preacher by looking at me I've learned to hide my feelings so deeply that sometimes even I fool myself that the people who sit on either side of me in church would be surprised to know that I walk the floor each night and do nothing but cry so preacher when I sit in front of you on Sunday morning I don't want to hear your thoughts on transactional analysis or theological excerpt ations I don't want to hear the latest joke I don't want you to share a few thoughts with me that you blame from the night before but preacher when I sit before you on Sunday morning would you please remember that I'm hurting and I feel empty and useless with nowhere to go and my question to you preacher is the same the King asked us prophet Jeremiah is there any word from the Lord I hear the same cry that Jeremiah heard thousands of times each week and month I hear the same cry that Ezekiel heard when people asked him and said I've read the newspapers I I see what's going on and would you please tell me what these things have to do with us today I need to tell you something this morning Frederic said though all else fails you there is one who will never fail you the psalmist said hear my cry O God attend to my prayer from the end of the earth I will cry unto you my heart my heart my heart when you feel the waves and the billows have gone over you and no one seems to care when you don't feel like you're capable of standing up let his word take you by the hand and lead you to the rock that is higher than anything else I don't want to be long on description and short on prescription but if you would allow me right now I want to show you that there are ways that you can get up and walk again oh you can't walk again but first you have to know how you fell in the first place sometimes we fall because we're confronted by a stronger force and it puts us flat on her back it seemed to be the case with Jobe he had it all a wonderful wife beautiful children many possessions it's seven thousand sheep three thousand camel five hundred yoke of oxen five hundred donkeys eleven Visa cards and nine American Express cards he was according to scripture the greatest man in all of the east but scripture says now there was a day you never know what a day holds you may be cleaning your fingernails out there right now but can I tell you you don't know what a day is going to hold you don't know what you're gonna face tomorrow you don't know what you're gonna face Wednesday you don't know what's coming to you but if there's anything I've learned being raised in church is whenever there's a blessing going around you better get all you can get and whenever the Spirit of the Lord is moving you better find all the strength that you can get because you never know what a day is gonna that's why we praise even when everything is going okay and we're rocking along is we never know what a day is going to hold and here's that day a series of servants began to bring messages to job each worse than the first the first messenger came and said the sabaeans have raided us and killed the oxen and donkeys and your servants while he was still speaking the Bible says here comes another messenger fire God fell from heaven lightning bolt from the sky put all your sheep on the rotisserie we are having broiled mutton for lunch Joe whether you own it or not before he finished speaking yet another came and said camels gone Chaldeans took him sheep gone camels gone oxen gone donkeys gone and joking may have said well at least I have my family but had that thought entered into his mind it was dissolved when the next servant said a tornado struck the house where your sons and daughter were and Joe they're all dead you're gonna have to come to a place and that day where you can walk in faith when you can't even stand when you are flat on your back you've got to learn how to see the heavens open and have visions of God you may be reduced to nothing but so long as you hold on to your praise then you can walk when you can't stand if you can cling to your hope and Jobe said oh I wish my words were in grave with an iron pen and rock forever I know that my redeemer lives and though my body and my health are destroyed in my flesh I shall see God you see when you're flat on your back you can walk in faith you can walk spiritually if you still got your praise and you still have your hope Allen Gardner was a missionary to the island chain of Tierra del Fuego he died on picton Island and hostile circumstances immense physical difficulties met the missionary there years later his body would be found with his diary laying nearby the diary told the story of his thirst his wounds his loneliness his hunger his hostility but the last entry in shaky hand writing in his diary reads this I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God you will be overwhelmed you choose to be overwhelmed by life are you are overwhelmed by the goodness of the all-mighty God I feel a spirit of Pilate coming over me when I want to say I find no fault in him I laid no charge at his theta foolishly that my god whether I can understand what's happened to me or not he's been good to me would you praise him in this house right now magnify him in this place so sometimes you're overwhelmed by a stronger force and sometimes you fall simply because you're heartbroken that's where we find Hannah Hannah had been cruelly taunted by pnina and she couldn't stand it any longer and she fell flat on her face but where you fall makes all the difference in the world Hannah fell between the porch and the altar and there she cried out to God last night I took a journey to a land across the seas I didn't go by boat or plane I traveled on my knees because when you fall between the porch and the altar you can make a journey that you can never make when you were walking and standing Hannah traveled on her knees that day the moon is a quarter of a million miles from planet earth the Sun 92 million miles nearly 40 years ago NASA's Voyager 1 took off for the edge of the solar system traveling at 38,000 miles per hour it has now traveled billions of miles and we hear that it's finally reached the edge of our solar system it took 40 years to get to the edge of our solar system but we will have to wait another 40,000 years until that little man-made object gets to the nearest star but on that day between the porch and the altar Hannah made a journey instantaneously into the throne room of heaven she made a decision I'm gonna fall somewhere but I choose to fall in the presence of the Almighty God because he can take me places that I can never go by myself well you got nothing left but God you got enough to start all over again if you if you're holding to his hand what is Solomon say who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness leaning on the arm of her beloved if you get out of this situation you're in it's not gonna be through your intellect your ingenuity your character your charisma your gifts your IQ your ability you're gonna get out of it because you learn to fall in the right place and you're leaning on the arm oh we used to sing the song leading arms of God sometimes we fall when we are struck down like the man on the Jericho Road struck down by robbers and thieves like Simon Peter who was brought down by his age old nemesis Simon Peter or like the Apostle Paul who was pierced with a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan sent to buffing him in three times Paul cried out to come like Hannah did but God finally said Paul I may not hate you but I will give you grace to walk on and furthermore through that weakness I will use you and make you a couple hundred years ago a young couple Simon and Monique gave birth to a bundle of joy boy named Lewis a boy who was all boy they lived in a small house near Paris and Simon was a harness maker leather tools were very dangerous and so the boy was always warned don't ever enter into father's shop alone but the boy was irrepressible and at the age of four he slipped into his father's shop and began to play with the leather tools one of the tools was an awl a sharp instrument used to punch holes in leather Lewis was holding the all when he stumbled he fell and he punctured one of his eyes with it at first it looked okay that he was saved the site in that one I but the injured I became infected and the boy kept rubbing his eye and soon the infection went from the damaged eye to the healthy eye and at the age of four Lewis became completely blind he was fortunate in this sense that he studied at the Royal Institute for blind youth in Paris he excelled as a musician and I've learned this that when you struggle in one area God allows you to grow in another area but at the age of 12 Lewis began to ask the question how can the blind read and his mind went back to a tool in his father's leather shop they all and when Lewis returned home for the summer he found me all and he used it to form a series of raised dots for what the French military called night-riding and with the very instrument that had blinded him Louis Braille worked until he created a system of dots where with the blind could read and write what is your own what makes you crawl what umbels you I've lived long enough to know that what brings you down is not your enemy it's your friend in disguise and if you're struggling right now that is not just the enemy you're facing but my Bible says I'm sorry my Bible says this all things work together for the good that anything that's humbling you and caused you to fall that there's something good in the midst of that and if you're struggling right now that there is something that can get a hold of you and help you get back on your feet again that God is going to use that instrument that hurts you to turn around and bless other people Paul said in second Corinthians that the blessing we received when we were afflicted that we give to other people that what you're going through may not be about you and all that God has tried to bless somebody near by you and he's tried to teach you the lesson where you're gonna get a hold of something and you're gonna be a blessing to somebody else Blanchard once said for daily need daily grace sudden need Sun grace but for overwhelming needs there is over whelming grace and so my message this Sunday morning is what Jesus said in Luke 5 and you remember the story when a paralyzed man couldn't even stand and four of his friends walked him to Jesus Christ and they carried him to the roof they lowered him in the presence of Jesus and Jesus said which is easier to say your sins be forgiven you arise and walk that's my message to you right now get up and walk again I'm not talking about willpower pulling yourself up by your bootstraps I'm not talking about norman vincent peale and the power of positive thinking I'm certainly not talking about wishful thinking but dr. Martin Luther King once said if you can't fly then run if you can't run then walk if you can't walk then crawl but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward you say preacher how do I move forward it's a hands and a feet proposition the scripture says strengthen the weak hands hands that have lost their grip hands that are no longer capable of holding on with the strength they once had strengthen the weak hands how did we do that faster we do it this way by believing that even though my grip is weak his grip is strong George Beverly Shea used to sing at the Billy Graham Crusades and an occasion he would ask for he would ask for song requests and one day he wrote this biography he said I I received a song request that was rather unusual this title of the song is poor grammar but great theology God's grip don't slip your grip may slip your hands may grow weak but oh he is powerful to save his arm it's not short oh you don't feel like you can go on any longer he can reach and save to the uttermost that's what my god oh oh praise God brother Gurley how can I rely on the grip of God you need to believe that God is at work in your life he's either healing you are giving you the strength to face what you're going through when you can't hold on to him he's got a hold of you you need to believe that and don't ever let go of that make firm the feeble knees be strong in the Lord and in the power of his mind and when you're not strong in yourself find your strength in him I mentioned I think it was yesterday or the day before about King Saul when he was at Gilboa and you remember he and his three sons perished at Gilboa because of the father's disobedience and the Bible says when when David heard the news the King saw his nemesis and predecessor had perished she did not rejoice he did not dance but he grieved he grieved because he said there on Gil bhojas Hills the field of the mighty was cached away the shield as though it had not been anointed with oil you see back then the shields were not metal in bronze but there were hoops of wood over the witch leather was stretched and to be supple and effective in battle the shield had to be anointed with oil that's why the major prophets said arise princess and anoint your shields that there is something magnetic and powerful I've studied Ephesians six and so of you and we've gone through the believers armor starting with the the helmet of the hope of salvation and we talked about the breastplate of righteousness the belt of truth the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and one hand you have the sword of the Spirit and the other hand you have that mighty shield of faith but that's where we often stop and we don't go on any farther but if you keep reading on it says praying always in the spirit in the spirit and one of the abiding emblems of the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament is that of all that if you are going to stand in the evil day you better make sure your Shield of faith has been on or I feel the Holy Ghost in this right now you better make sure we're brother Gurley I talked in tongues when I was 60 you need to be renewed in the spirit there needs to be when you're facing the evil day you need to make sure it seems that Saul had gone into battle he had couldn't he had consulted the Witch of Endor he had consulted the carnal but he forgot to annoy his shield with oil I I don't know about you but I want to make certain in the day when everybody is being overwhelmed how I have a word for you be filled with the spirit let be an anointing from heaven that comes at Grace is you I was reading a book about warfare while back and in reading the book about warfare they they talked about one of the oldest offensive weapons known to man and I was thinking sword spear Club boot I don't know what's the oldest offensive they said it's the it's the polished shield they said because ancient warriors knew that if they could position themselves correctly to the Sun and hold up their shields that the enemy could be blinded by the and in fact when you read of the story of Jehoshaphat and when it says they arrayed themselves for battle that's one of the instances quoted in this military book they said what they did was they faced the Rising Sun and held up their anointed shields that your faith will fight for you that your faith and the light of another world is so dazzling it's so important in its glory that it will blind the enemy let me tell you what a blind the enemy when you lose your sheep and you lose your donkey sir and you lose your camels and you lose your children and you lose the affection of your wife and you lose your health but you say the Lord gives and the Lord takes away the name ha ha somebody praise him in this house right now somebody praise him oh come on let's blind the enemy in this building right now I don't know what you've been through this week I don't know what you're facing next week can we stand all over the building musicians come I'm almost through oh I didn't preach long because the Holy Ghost has a work to do in this building this morning and the spirit needs me to shut up where the Holy Ghost can start walking up and down every aisle in this building right now and beginning to lift burdens off of people's shoulders and help them walk again when they can't even stand it was those a few years older than I when the polio epidemic swept through I still remember stories of kids being placed in iron lungs to breathe I remember stories of what happened before the vaccination was common in the US I came across one of those old stories Arthur Gordon tells a story about a three-year-old boy struck with polio it was abandoned in a New York City Hospital compassionate foster family took that child in cared for him for several years until until they had heard that a warmer climate would do good for those struck with polio and so they had some family members down south they sent the fam this boy to live with family in the state of Georgia what helped him bill was more than the warmer climate there was an elderly woman who cared for him her name was mama G for six years she daily massage that boys weak legs and atrophied muscles she would take him to a nearby stream and place him on a rock where he could lean back on his hands and let the waters flow around his weak legs she prayed for him daily and every day she encouraged him with stories of how God had answered her prayers night after night mama Jean kept believing and kept praying until until the day came you never know what a day holds for you Africa one morning she woke up the boy and said son I have a surprise for you 12 year old boy later said she led me out into the yard place me with my back against an old gnarled oak tree I can still feel the rough bark today she took away my crutches and she pulled off my leg braces she moved back a dozen paces and said son here's the surprise last night the Lord spoke to me in a dream and he told me this is the day for your prayers to be answered so now son walk to me he said my instant reaction that day was fear I knew I could not walk unaided and I I had tried I shrank back against the solid support of the tree but mama she looked at me with tears flowing down her face in an earnest look and she said son woe to me I burst in tears I begged I pleaded her her voice suddenly was no longer coaxing than gentle but full of power and authority when she said bye you can walk the Lord has spoken to me now walk over here she knelt down and extended her arms and that boy said somehow I felt impelled by a force stronger than anything I had ever felt certainly stronger than my fear I took a faltering step and then another and another until I reached mama Jean and fell into her arms both of us weeping it was two more years before I could walk normally but from that day forward I never used crutches to believe I'm on a mission of the Holy Ghost to tell you if you don't have the faith to believe I do others do in this field because we've been where you're at and we watch God defy impossible odds and put us back on our feet again and we learn to walk not on our power but on the power of the Holy Ghost I'm not speaking so much of physical infirmities I'm speaking of the unseen world of the inner man right now but you may feel over tuft and overwhelmed your world may have crashed it on you can I tell you right now on this day on Sunday morning June 29 in the year of our Lord 2014 this is your day to get up from the ashes of defeats and say I'm not just staying here any longer and I'm not gonna live a life of fear and dread and discouragement and doubts and hurts and misery but I'm stepping into my promise the promise of the Lord and I am gonna walk in the power of the Holy Ghost into the calendar that he has set ha oh he's here on how folks he's here in this building he's nuts it'd be right now said get out of the way get out of the way get out of the way before I step back and let the Lord have his way in this building let me tell you this he can't move until you move we used to sing a song when I was growing up if you take one step he'll take two it starts with you you've got to say Lord I want a blessing more than anything I've wanted in my entire life and you have to bid adieu to your Pew and say I'm out of here and I'm gonna find myself a place around the front and every step I take whoo I'm pulling a Romans 16:20 with every step that I take that the God of my peace shall bruise Satan under my feet sir under my feet I've got a move to get him underneath my feet I may be shaky I may not do it just right sir but I am moving into the realm of the blessing and I'm gonna receive what I needed the Holy Ghost today that God is gonna do it right how I feel the Holy Ghost rat I don't know hardly anybody here I don't have my glasses on so you are just all fuzzy blobs out there right now but here's what I just heard the holy ghost tell me we're gonna start this from the back today I want the back row just emptied out right now would you start moving all over the back row and then the next of the last row just start moving start moving right now start moving right now I feel the Holy Ghost I'm as quick as you can as swiftly as you can start moving those are the balcony come on down I feel the Holy Ghost we're starting for the back today because I just steal this somebody snuck in here today with a great need in your heart and mind and you said I'm just gonna go and see the next row come on and the next row come on and the next row come on and the next row come on I'll just press C and press in as close as you can get it right to the edge right now oh the Holy Ghost altar workers ministers come help me come help me because somebody is gonna be set free somebody is gonna be delivered in this field in a net stroke come on the next row come on hasten hasten to the front rows are waiting on you come ahead come ahead come ahead come ahead just keep pressing in just clear the aisles out keep pressing the Spirit of the Lord is wanting to move in this place right now Oh hallelujah this is beautiful in this beautiful turn around and grab a hand to somebody next to you right now I'm not gonna stop til the Holy Ghost tells me to stop why don't you bring them and say would you come pray with me oh there is an annoyance in at this meal and today there is help in this building today oh I feel the presence of the Lord can you feel him in this field and right now can you feel him in this house right now you're gonna walk again you're gonna get up and start over again my life is

Channel: Capital Community Church

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Keywords: how, to, walk, when, you, can't, even, stand, rev, reverend, ken, gurley, summer, summit, atlantic, district, 2014, fredericton, nb

Id: amwKe7VNADU

Length: 46min 47sec (2807 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 10 2014