Lord, Strengthen My Hands | David Gibbs Jr

and that so that's what our missionaries series is all about missionary Jesus but we're interrupting this series today because we have a special speaker who means the world to our church the Christian Law Association has saved our church in churches like ours in New York State literally millions of dollars because they represented us for free way back in the 70s and 80s in a lawsuit where the Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation wanted to charge us a commercial rate because we had a school our position was that the school was a ministry of our church in therefore it's part of our church and should be charged the same rate that the church was well anyway that was a long and drawn-out court battle that went to every level of court in New York State and in the end we and the rest of the churches and schools like ourselves won because of if I were to pinpoint one person who was in charge of that and who was responsible for that that is the man who is gonna stand here this morning and he is going to speak to us so I want you to understand David Gibbs has been a tremendous blessing to us not only in his preaching over the years and his concern and help for our ministry in many other ways but we'll never forget the millions of dollars that he has saved churches like ours and schools like ours because he was willing to stand up for the fact that our school is a Ministry of first Bible Baptist Church I want you to welcome this morning dr. David Gibbs would you give him a big round of applause this morning thank you my friend it's a great privilege to be here I love being with your pastor he always puts such wind in my sails how many of you understand what I mean by that he's just an encouraging man thank your pastor would you do that for his great heart I love his spirit I also love to eat with him I don't know how he stays so thin I sometimes think he must have a tapeworm or something because he just I just love being around him and fellowshipping with him in his dear family this morning if you have your Bibles if you turn to the book of Nehemiah Nehemiah chapter 6 Nehemiah chapter 6 Ezra Nehemiah Esther job Psalms proverbs you'll find that book right there sort of in the middle of the Old Testament and this morning I want to ask you an incredible question there is no doubt if you know the Bible that the most important prayer that anybody can ever pray is the prayer by which you ask the Lord Jesus to save you beyond doubt that prayer changes your address for eternity and no one can do that prayer for you but you I know your pastor if he could do it for you he would there's loving people in this church that would do it for you but the only person who can call on Jesus Christ to save you is you now you can't buy it you can't earn it you can never do one thing to deserve it the Bible says it's a free gift but you must ask for that gift the Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved what an incredible thing to know that because of what Jesus did at Calvary your sins have been paid for and when you step into eternity you don't have to pay for your sins because they've been paid for the alternative is you say no to Jesus and unthinkably you step into eternity and God says you will pay for your sins forever not for a long time not for a very long time but forever in a place so bad God calls it hell my friend I get to witness to a lot of people talk to him I like to talk to him on airplanes because once they turn the fasten seat belt sign on nobody can move I mean you're just kind of there and I tell them I don't mean this disrespectful this is a no-brainer God loves you he said his son for you and all you have to do is ask him to save you Wow how many of you have asked the Lord Jesus to save you hold your hand up praise the Lord well that's the most important prayer anybody can pray but if you ever asked yourself what's the second most important prayer what's the second most important prayer that I as a child of God can pray well deal moody a great evangelist yesteryear in America and Charles Haddon Spurgeon a great preacher in London England many called him the Prince of preachers they both agreed on what the second most important prayer was and let me tell you what it is God never meant for you as his child to endeavor to labor to live the Christian life in your power because it is in simple nothing worse than saying I gotta do better how many of y'all have ever said I gotta do better right and then we don't do better and I'm gonna try I'm gonna plug in with more zeal more zest and God says that's not how I want you to do it you see I want to give you a heaven-sent strength that's authored of God no man can produce it in and of themselves no matter how hard you try but as God's child God wants you to have it and the prayer that is found in Nehemiah chapter 6 is simply this God strengthened my hands what a simple prayer why would you want to live your life seeing the best you can do when God says I want to give you a divine enablement I want to strengthen you so that you can be and do what I've empowered you to do now Nehemiah is a captive under a king where he is a servant slave and Nehemiah if you read the first part of the chapter gets a burden for what's happening in that the homeland of Jerusalem the walls are in ruin it's overrun and there is great despicable nough stored God and he gets a burden to rebuild the walls now this burden is ridiculously impossible ridiculously impossible first of all he can't run his own life he's a servant slave there's a man who controls everything he does number two the walls are hung and hundreds of miles away and to get there you gotta cross a desert that is inhabited by hostile vicious people then when you get there you've got to have all of these materials to do it and then the city is occupied by people who are hostile and are determined to not let those walls be built Nehemiah let me help you here nice thought that you had what a tender thing you want to rebuild the walls in possible do you understand the Bible says things are only impossible with man they're never impossible with God I don't know what in your life you're dealing with in you say this is impossible only with man never with God now think again if God wanted the walls built he could have spoken the walls into existence the same way the Bible says he spoke the worlds into existence God could have just said let the walls be there and they'd be there but all through the Bible God rarely spoke something into existence instead what God does is strengthen the hands of his people to do the impossible I saw a plaque in a pastor's office it touched me it said faith makes the impossible possible but not easy because God wants you and me to have our part in it and to have our hands strengthened and this morning I want to ask you a simple question can before God you say my hands have been strengthened by God let's get ready to read Nehemiah 6 and look this great prayer Nehemiah's once again got all of these people formatively coming up against him trying to stop the project and they're making accusations verse 8 then I sent unto him saying these are the people opposing him there are no such things done as thou say us but now famous them out of thine own heart you're just making up lies against us how many of you all have ever seen people lie hold your hand up will ya but look at verse 9 for they all made us afraid saying their hand shall be weakened from the work that it be not done now therefore O God say out loud in unison the next three words strengthen my hands what an incredibly simple three word prayer now drop down to verse 15 so the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month eula in fifty and two days whoa if this wall had been built in fifty two months it would have been a miracle but it wasn't built in fifty two months it was built in fifty two days Nehemiah haven't the world that you build these walls in 52 days I didn't God did it and even our enemies know we didn't do it they know that God did this when is the last time somebody looked at you and said there's no question God did that look at what the enemy had to say read the next verse 16 and it came to pass that when all our enemies heard thereof and all the heathen that were about us saw these things they were much cast down in their own eyes for they perceived that this work was brought of our God Wow why would you want to live with what your hands can produce why would I want to see what David Gibbs can do when by the grace of God God can strengthen our hands and we can see what God can do now this morning I want you to jot three things down quickly because there are three keys I believe in the scripture to having God's strength in our hands key number one God loves to strengthen the weak the weak turn in your Bibles to second Corinthians chapter 12 I'm afraid sometimes we get in our mind that I can handle about 90 95 percent of the Christian life pastor grace and I've got it just kick in and help me with the other 5 or 10% what a dynamic partnership 90 percent me 10 percent God and you look God says you don't understand without me he can do nothing what would it take for you to acknowledge that you're weak not to me but to God who already knows it how many of you here have ever made some serious mistakes hold your hand up yeah if you didn't raise your hand right then you can now because that was a serious mistake how many of you have made mistakes that could only be classified as ridiculously stupid whole jerk yeah how many of you throw everybody doesn't know about them oh listen if you knew David Gibbs like I know me and God knows me if I knew you like God knows you and you know you what to say that we're weak and bumbling is an understatement but the Bible says that God loves to strengthen the weak God before you I acknowledge I can't but you can listen to what he says in Corinthians the Apostle Paul 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 Paul asking the Lord he has a thorn in the flesh some type of a disablement verse 8 for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness please note it doesn't say it's made perfect in talent or diligence or energy now I hope you have a lot of talent but if we're not careful we start trusting our talent I hope you've got a good work ethic and you're diligent but unsaved people can be diligent God's power is made perfect in weakness when's the last time you went to the altar and said Lord I've been trying to do this in my power and I can't I need you to strengthen my hands the only thing that will hinder that is a thing called pride I was just not wanting to admit what we really are weak pastors so very gracious in introducing me and in our ministry at the christian law Association I want to confess to you I get credit for things that not only I didn't do I didn't even know we did people come up and thanked me and I said oh that's wonderful I call him it's like do we do that all these gracious great people who work in our ministry and if I'm not careful I can pretend I did it all I didn't and a number of things I did for our people had to straighten out the wisest thing you can do is get honest with yourself because you'll never get honest with God till you get honest with you and say Lord I'm weak I'm weak look at what he says next love these verses most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches and necessities and persecutions and de-stresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak then am i strong now the world reads that unsaved people and they say that doesn't make a lick of sense oh it does if you're a child of God because you see he wants to strengthen you but once you get comfortable living without that strength we almost get this habit we're gonna fall back and use our strength and then just ask God to bless it at the end and God says I want to strengthen you a pastor called me one day and he said I have a real problem in our community up here in New England I said what's the matter II said well they're they're passing laws to stop us from handing out gospel tracts and witnessing now we've had these laws pop up all over America and they're blatantly unconstitutional I mean we've overturned countless numbers of them and he said they passed this law to stop me and I said no no don't take it personal I said they're doing it everywhere it's not against you he said no no they passed this to stop me I said what makes you think that he said well when they passed the law they turned around and said my name and they said this is to stop him he said now when they say your name it's a little hard not to take it personal and I want to tell you I thought wow I believed them but that's hard to imagine I said let me call the lawyers that were involved and we did and the attorneys for the county in the city and all in the Attorney General we get him all on the phone and I said this preacher thinks that you passed this law to stop him you know what the lawyer said we did I said you can't do that he said I know and you're gonna come up here and get it overturned but we're just trying to slow him down they said do you know this guy I said no they said mr. Gibbs I'll never forget these words they said he is like Superman on steroids I said what do you mean they said you know these little pieces of paper that churches want to give you to tell you how to be you know saved are you familiar with those I said yeah I'm not familiar with those he said do you know how many of those little pieces of paper he hands out every day I said no he said like four hundred I said four hundred he said before he came here we were happy but this is a quote he said we all thought we were going to heaven and this guy's got everybody worried about whether they're going and he said I don't know how to tell you this but the Catholic priest in our town got what you call saved and now it's got everybody like shook up that lawyer said I don't know how to tell you this but he has a power boy I called that pastor s i'ma come up you're right it's personal it is well I went up there on the day of our hearing and man I come out of the airport and I don't know what the church was thinkin they they sent a wonderful guy to pick me up but they should have never sent him the dear man they sent was all bent over and hunched over and crippled and someday I'm gonna write a little book on people the church is sent to pick me up at airports just the stories of it all this dear man is hunched over like this and when he walks he's dragged in this leg and his hands are all gnarled up and he said you go by bags he said he'll take me a while to get there he's got a sign around his neck with my name on it I said no I'll stay with you but he said he said I have to keep stopping I said no no you just take your time finally we get down by the bags and he sounds so sorry I can't help you if further gives I said oh and I said you know when we get to the church you're an amazing heart just amazing and I really appreciate you coming to get me but I'm gonna talk to the preacher and they shouldn't make you do this this is not good for you and that man looked up at me and he said brother Gibbs I am the preacher I said you're Superman what he did in the next five minutes changed my life he said brother Gibbs you can tell I'm very damaged goods I can't dress myself I can't pick up a trap he said to get a tract I haven't put stickum on my hands so I could just touch it he said my whole life nobody wanted me on their team but when I got saved Jesus wanted me and he gives me the power to do what I do he said every day I asked the Lord to strengthen my hands I told him this is the most powerful sermon I think I've ever heard with somebody looking at you say that mom that woman of God has strengthened hands of God he loves to strengthen the weak right the second thing down he's no respecter of persons absolutely none Acts chapter 10 verse 34 you said oh yeah pastor grace God will strengthen his hands oh that lady and maybe no no no God wants to strengthen your hands he is no respecter of persons I don't know who the most talented person here is I don't know who the most gifted is I don't know who the most diligent is it doesn't matter God wants to strengthen your hands you're right he does want to strengthen pastor Grace's hands and has many many times but God wants to strengthen your hands you see yeah but really gives I've made some mistakes I've goofed up listen everybody has and the bottom line is that's ancient history God wants to strengthen your hands starting today today he loves to strengthen the weak he's no respecter of persons and would you write this down he wants you to ask the scripture says you have not because you asked not James chapter for that prayer Lord strengthened my hands was written in the continuum this isn't something you do once this is to be the continuing prayer of your heart God I can't but you can brother Gibbs I've got problems we all do but God wants to strengthen your hands in them and unimaginably the Bible says the power he wants to empower you with is the very power that brought Jesus out of the grave it's not a great power it's not an awesome power it's an unlimited power there are no words that can adequately define it he wants to strengthen you he wants to strengthen me he loves to strengthen the weak he is no respecter of persons but you have to ask you must ask a wonderful preacher that I was listening to on a Christian radio station said every morning before I let my feet touch the ground he said when the alarm goes off he said the first thing I do is thank the Lord for letting me be alive and the second thing I do is ask him to strengthen my hands oh the devil wants you to leave here doing the best you can he wants you to leave here juiced up enough to try to do it in and of yourself God says no no no don't do that let me strengthen you I'm weak and God I sure don't deserve your grace but you're no respecter of persons you would strengthen me every bit as readily as you would our precious pastor and God I'm asking I'm asking for that grace Lord strengthen my hands Nehemiah what a great prayer what you're up against was ridiculously impossible but by the strength of God you did it Lord strengthened my hands father thank you this morning for these dear people what an incredible prayer that we can pray and you didn't tell us about what Nehemiah did just so we could be historically illuminated you want this for us without it it's impossible to be what you've called us to be heads are bowed how many of you say brother Gibbs I know the Lord I'm heaven bound but boy this morning God spoke to my heart and by the grace of God I want strengthened hands if that's true raise your hand right now father you see our hands and more importantly you see our hearts my hand is certainly raised with these dear people God we can't do it without you but by your grace by your love you never meant for us to Lord strengthen our hands and father my prayer right now is by your grace we're gonna leave here changed because we've called on the one who never fails whose promises are sure and what you did for Nehemiah what you did for Paul you delight in doing every person here and father weren't asking here the cry of our heart I pray in Jesus name and all God's children together said a man pastor amen thank you David we started our series missionary Jesus out listing a couple weeks ago all of the excuses why we wouldn't be missionaries all the things that enter into our minds we don't know the Bible well enough were afraid we're afraid of rejection were afraid of failure there's all kinds of reasons why we aren't the missionaries that we ought to be we said in that message that the only ultimate failure is the failure to so remember it's the only ultimate failure as a missionary is failure too so not all of us have the same gifts the same talents the same opportunities but we are all too so or two so wherever whenever last week we talked about why would anybody listen to you why would anybody listen to you we gave you some reasons good reasons why people will take you seriously people will look at you and say you know guys credible least he lives the kind of life that he claims to to represent and he does she does show some kind of love and compassion Lee she told me she seems to be sincere and you know what he seems to nobody's talking about with all of that though there's no question that we can default back to the excuses and say I don't know enough Bible I'm afraid I'm afraid somebody will reject me I'm afraid that I won't do a very very good job strengthen my hands Lord strengthen my hands I don't care God doesn't care who you are where you are if you know the Lord Jesus Christ is Savior you can't use those excuses and say well I can't do it because of this that and the other thing you certainly can't use those excuses if you've never said Lord strengthen my hands let's stand together this morning Lord strengthen my hands I think this is a perfect sermon to follow the first two sermons that we have preached on missionary Jesus now it's time Lord I know I've got to stop using reasons or excuses why I can't be the missionary you've called me to be an Lord I never have prayed that prayer in this context I've never said Lord strengthen my hands you too can be a super man on steroids a super man unsterile not many wise not many mighty God's not looking for arrogant people even necessarily talented people he's looking for people who will lean upon him and say Lord strengthen my hand so the invitation is open this morning for you to come and come to this altar this morning Jen's gonna lead us in song on the piano I want you to come we're gonna take a few minutes right now and say Lord strengthen my hands come on right now if Lord's led you to do that this morning would you come just as you were here the spirit car come he says you so such a simple little prayer isn't it sometimes the simplest things are easily overlooked we are all broken fallen in arrogance it's all a package deal sometimes because of that we miss the simplest things the simplest things the simplest faith things just Lord you know with me with man things like this are impossible with you there's nothing nothing that's impossible let's get rid of our reasons if you think that's even a good word maybe excuses is a better word why we can't reach out to other people and tell them about Jesus Christ people there isn't a plan B the dogs and cats aren't gonna do it okay lost people are not going to reach out in this world to other lost people and tell them they need Jesus as Savior they're not going to do that if anything they're going to fight us this is all that God's got with the power of the Holy Spirit of God working through us that's what we have but we have to say Lord strengthen my hands simple little prayer Wow I like that second most important prayer in the Bible go ahead be seated everybody amen now I got three pieces of business first of all I want you to know this David is going to be speaking tonight here in our auditorium at 6 o'clock so I want to invite you all to come back it's a rare privilege to have this man with us and I want to encourage you may be normally Sunday nights you're doing something else I'm gonna ask you to think right now clear the calendar come on back be here it's 6 o'clock so I want to invite you to do that Jen I want you to this is a critical day for you right now you have a microphone there give Jen the my step out into the light so everybody can see you couple weeks 2 3 4 weeks ago we talked about the recording the Jen's doing I want you to tell everybody what's important about today and what they can do you go ahead everything she says I'm on her team alright ok ok so those of you that were here on March 17th to know that I was working toward raising funds to produce this album the invitation came from Shane and Shane studio to record their a full-length album of the originals that have been sitting in a folder for a while and I have a few things to report the first thing is that it's a contingent fundraiser so if I didn't hit the financial goal it just it wasn't going to happen it wasn't going to be feasible so we've been praying and just stepping out in faith saying Lord if you're leading me in this direction you'll bring the harvest and I had asked pastor if maybe we could get up and just make everyone aware that this is available you can pre-order the CD and that's how we raised the funds and it is contingent and I'm so excited to report that I was weeping last night because we hit and exceeded the goal yeah I got is so good so at this point in the game I'm overwhelmed I don't have words really to express just how God is amazing and working and just all the Ducks are in a row and he's just covering every little detail so I would just say if you would like to we we no longer have the burden of contingency it's going to happen and if you would like to join this ministry if you would like a CD you can come I'm going to be in the South Welcome Center and if you don't get a chance to see me today and you would like something it's in your bulletin the website where you can go that website is only going to be available through tonight at 9 o'clock that's where the fundraiser is happening but I'm here every week so you're more than welcome I'm so excited I'm so excited god bless you all thank you so much God has spoken amen I'm excited because by hook or by crook that was going to happen and I was going to throw in the rest of the money regardless and I'm off the hook boy I'm so appreciative I really am David why don't you come David has a couple things to say we're gonna receive an offering for CLA here this morning I'm gonna turn this over to him then I'll have a couple words before we close our ministry at the Christian law Association we are legal missionaries and this is our 43rd year of doing it now for 43 years we have defended Christians when they're sued or challenged for the faith and we never make a charge and you say no somehow they're charging no I promise you that's we don't we do it by faith and right now we have more I think serious cases than we've ever had and we need your prayers every month we send out a newsletter and it's absolutely free I only ask one thing in return for this newsletter would you give me one minute a month in prayer for these lawsuits not a minute a day not a minute a week would you give me one minute a month there is a prayer checklist right on the front of the newsletter would you pray down that now I hope you read the whole newsletter but what I'm asking is for your prayers I promise you when you're sued you'll want everybody to pray when your names on the paper people come up to me all the time brother Grace and say boy the lawsuits in your newsletter are so interesting so amazing and I always caution them a lawsuits only interesting when it's not your lawsuit when it's your lawsuit it's terrifying and these people need your prayers how many of you seen things in America you didn't think you'd see in your lifetime oh please if you'd listened to our phones today every Sunday we get calls today for the very things you're doing here somebody's opposing please we need your prayers now if you already get our newsletter you don't need to sign up again but if you don't please I beg you would you give me that one minute a month you can help us financially that's great but if you can't give a penny your prayers are invaluable because prayer moves the hand of God rushers come on forward how many of you say brother Gibbs send me that newsletter send me that newsletter have they got the envelopes with them there you go how many of you say send me that newsletter I'll give you one minute a month hold your hand up would you just hold your hand up real high pushers give one to everybody's hand who is up in the air now you don't have to sign up again if you're already getting it but please and the minute you get it fill it out the minute you get it fill it out okay we want to make sure we get them in your hands just the minute you get it fill it out and please print please many of you your handwriting is like mine it's borderline hieroglyphic I write myself notes and I can't read the note I wrote to me please oh I beg you I beg your print somebody's got to be able to read it now in just a moment fill that out in just a moment when they take the offering just put that envelope in the offering plate your pastor has graciously helped and supported our ministry every way imaginable I owe this church a profound debt of thanks but I have no way to repay your pastor has been a treasured friend please pray for these lawsuits I'd love to stand and tell you about all the lawsuits but they get so bizarre people come up to me and say that's just hard to imagine I know I'm there too but the bottom line is prayer moves the hand of God and prayer above everything it is in great lawyer that's gonna win this it's a great God that's gonna win this lawyers where God has strengthened their hands did we miss anybody fill it out and then in just a moment when the offering plate goes by put it right in the offering plate if you would pastor thank you David he says how much he owes us people I can't even begin to think of how much money Christian Law Association has saved our church over the last we're going back to 78 79 80 what's that 33 years ago his work cut our utility bills in half for 33 years how much money would you save if you cut your utility bill in half for 33 years think about that that's what happened as a result of that lawsuit with our G&E back in 1978 or 1981 so we owe you I want you to know that doc we really owe you and I thank you I'm glad you feel that way so you'll keep coming and like you owe us stuff but we really owe you the offerings gonna be taken for sea la normally we take a mission offering on this Sunday so I'm going to ask you to give to the Christian Law Association go ahead and pass the plates guys and while we do that I'll finish up and I think that's all of our business except one thing communication carts take your bulletin out right now look at the communication card on the back and we want to make sure that you fill your name out if you've already filled one out you just have to put your name on there you don't have to put all your information but if some of that information has changed put the piece of information that has changed down there maybe your phone number your email address put your name and only the change on that and then look at the back of the card if you're visiting with us we want you to identify yourself as a visitor we'll be sending you a large check or else maybe not I think we ran out of the money to do that but we will be acknowledging your visit here and thanking you for that and for those of you that are regular tenders there's several boxes there maybe you're looking for information and discipleship life groups whatever it might be maybe you want to be more involved in the ministry in some way working with our young people last week alone we had 14 people to check the box and said I want to do something so this is invaluable to us as a staff to connect with our people and find out what we can do to help you I have three appointments this week with people who want to know what it means to be a Christian and they've responded on communication cards three appointments this week I want to know more about what it means to be a Christian so I know you're looking at that card and saying what up this is a hassle why do we have to do this because it's extremely important and when you leave today take that card and give it to the ushers as you exit let's stand together please father strengthen our hands thank you for this encouraging message here this morning help us to recognize that you are standing by you want us to lean upon you we want you want us to trust you we on us you want us Lord to experience your resurrection power in our lives dismiss us now with your blessings we pray today and thank you for all in Jesus name Amen god bless you have a wonderful Sunday six o'clock we'll be back here tonight dr. David Gibbs don't forget that

Channel: First Bible Baptist Church

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Length: 49min 50sec (2990 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 07 2013