Don’t Leave The Fountain

Transcript

Hello radio friends, how in the world are you? You doing alright? Well I’m fine thank you. I tell you I’m so grateful the joy the Lord gives me and good health, and good friends like yourself, and the priceless opportunity of sharing the Word of God with you day by day. It’s wonderful. Would you come with me to the book of Ephesians, we’re talking about the fact that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.

The last time we got together we were talking about the joy of the Lord as being one of those blessings. We mentioned what’s found in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption”, and then we talked about the joy of the Lord. Now over in Romans, Paul says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost”. We talked about joy but He is the God of hope. Now hope is more than a wish, it’s more than a wishful thinking. I could say wistfully, “Well, I wish somebody would die and leave me a million dollars”, now that’s a wish I don’t have much hope however of that coming true, do I?

Well, then if however I have a rich millionaire Uncle who says to me one day, “Robert I’m now 93 years old and I haven’t got much longer on this old world, but I want you to know that when I leave this world I’m going to leave you my entire estate, and that’s going to amount a several millions of dollars”. Now if you have a rich uncle which I don’t have unfortunately, but if a rich uncle says to me, I am going to leave you my entire state, I have hope, don’t I. And every morning when I see him I’ll greet him solicitously and say, “Uncle, how are you feeling?” Now see there, hope has to be rooted in a person. Hope has to be connected with a person.

That’s why Peter says, “God has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. Our Lord Jesus rose from the dead and He is God’s evidence of what He plans to do with you and me. We have a living hope in that there is man and a glory, the Lord Jesus Christ who is alive forevermore, the Bible says, who was dead and he’s alive forevermore. He is God’s evidence of what the Lord plans to do for us, so we have a living hope, He’s the God of hope.

Spiritual blessings we‘re talking about, this is one of them. Now how does this work, well it works every day many times each day because no one can count up the number of frustrating situations that you and I face in any given day. We get to so many dead end streets, don’t we? You try something it doesn’t work, you try to work something in terms of an arrangement with people and it falls flat. You try to motivate a group and they just won’t motivate. You try to mount a sales campaign, if you’re a salesman or a sales manager, and it just doesn’t work, the sales don’t come in.

So many different things happen in any given day that would cause you to say, “Oh, it’s hopeless”, and to complicate the picture when you look at yourself and, you and I when we look at ourselves, we see so much there that we wish we’re different but we just don’t have very much chance of changing it. People don’t change they’d become more obvious as the years go by, isn’t it true? And so, you look in the mirror and you say, “Oh boy, I’m hopeless”. Well now humanly that’s true, and humanly is true when you look at a situation you say, “Oh that situation is hopeless”.

And humanly it’s true when you look at your in-laws for instance, or some close acquaintances or neighbors with whom you had a spat or whatever it may be and you say, “Oh they’re hopeless”. That’s probably true, they’re saying the same things about you, in all probability. You see we — every day, many times a day we reach a dead end street in relationships, and in our efforts, and in our attitudes, and in our appraisal of ourselves. Now, Paul says, “He’s the God of Hope” what does that mean, that means there’s hope for you in your character you can be different, you can be different, “Where withall shall a young man change his way by taking heed thereto according to Thy word” I can guarantee you beloved that if you’ll apply a portion of the Word of God to your life day by day you will be different.

Years ago one of my deacons came to me and said briskly, “Preacher you’re preaching different what has happen to you?” Well I thought, “My land, now what have I done?” You know, I thought maybe something was wrong. Without waiting for me to answer he looked at me again he said, “Whatever it is I like it keep on” and he walked away. And I began to think, now what brought this on, well the answer came to me in the realization that I had been meditating upon several portions of scripture every day for some weeks. And as these portions of scripture began to fasten themselves not only upon my conscious memory but also upon the computer portion of my mind part to recall the unconscious mind.

My actions and my words and even my preaching, mind you, were modified because of the effect the Word of God had upon me. I know that the only way that Cook will ever be changed is through the Word of God and its impact upon me. I would recommend the same procedure to you. You’re not hopeless my friend. Humanly you’ll never be much different but there is a divine possibility of change for the better if you’ll let the Word of God begin to work in your life. You’ll say a verse over once a day for seven weeks you will have it and it will have you, I can guarantee you that.

If you’ll say a verse over, once a day for seven weeks you’ll have the verse and the verse will have you and there’ll be a difference in your thinking and in your unconscious automatic reactions because the word of God will have gotten in to the computer portion of your mind. He’s the God of hope, not only concerning our own character and the things we would like to have different, but He is the God of hope in terms of our relationships with other people. Every time I have tried to patch up a relationship on a human level, I’ve blundered and gotten in deeper as we say. Have you had the same experience? You come to somebody and say, “Why is that you dislike me” well they aren’t going to tell you, you know. So, what are you going to do? You seek the Lord and the God of hope is going to give you, the God of hope is going to give you the answer in terms of being a help and a blessing.

A person to whom you’ve been a help and a blessing is going to find it impossible to dislike you or to oppose you for very long. Paul spoke concerning the ladies that were feuding, he spoke about them in the 4th chapter of Philippians, “Euodia and Syntyche, I almost used Dr. Ironside’s nicknames for them, he called them, “Odious and Soon-touchy”. “Euodia and Syntyche”, he said, “I beseech and let it be of the same mind in the Lord”, said “I beseech the also true yokefellow help those women”. What is the answer to getting people together, help them. There’s always a place at which a person need some help. Don’t make a federal case of it don’t walk up and say, “I’m going to be a blessing to you, brother” don’t do that they’ll give you up for Lent if you do.

No, just if you see a need, help them, and if you see a burden, lift it. If the person has a flat tire help him fix it. If he needs a job help him look for a job. If he needs a pair of shoes, get him a pair of shoes. Whatever it is, meet the need and the individual is going to find it very hard to dislike you and to oppose you. God is the God of hope. He makes you a helper and as source of blessing to people, even in interpersonal relationships. He is the God of hope in terms of your future life and ministry.

I’m talking to some people down now who say, “Well it’s all over I can’t do much anymore”. You’re seated this minute in a wheelchair listening to your radio, or perhaps you’re even bedfast and you can’t get out of bed without somebody helping you, or perhaps a rheumatism or arthritis or heart trouble have slowed you down to the place where you can’t carry the load you used to. You can’t get about as fast as you used to and you can’t stand the strains, and the distresses that you use to. The breaking point is a little closer every time you come up against some of the strains of life and you say, “Well there’s no hope I’m done for — that’s it I may as well give up”. Oh, hey it’s always too soon to quit as Dr. Edmund used to say.

Remember you can pray around the word before breakfast, prayer moves the arm that moves the world. You can pray around the world, you can write a cheerful letter to somebody who’s even worse off that you. You can remember somebody’s birthday, you can be in touch with someone who has not yet brought to Christ and with some thoughtful, loving word you can open a door for a witness for the Savior. There’s so many things that you can do beloved, don’t give up, He is the God of hope. Even if you think you’re at the end of the railroad track, no, no not yet. God is still God and He is still has plans my friend for you.

They told me that Dr. Jeffrey, the missionary pioneer of years ago, was told rather early in his life that because of his heart trouble he couldn’t go back to the field, and if he did he die on the field, he said, “Well if I do that’s alright” and he went on back to the field and labored for many years. He simply said, “Whatever it costs me, I’m going to keep on”. He refused to believe that he was at the end of his youthfulness and you my friend can take the same position. He is the God of Hope, our God is the God of hope, and there is always a new horizon for you, no matter what the circumstances maybe, the God of Hope.

Well, Paul says, “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing”, the peace that passes understanding, we talked about that the other day. The peace that comes from being concentrated on God’s Word, the peace that comes from living according to God’s higher authority, the peace that comes from being focused on God himself, the peace that comes from praying about everything instead of worrying, all joy and peace. The he says that “you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost”, now there is a connection between the blessed person of the Holy Spirit and the spillover of the blessing from your life. It is God’s will I do believe for you and me to minister out of the overflow not out of the scraping.

I used to have a mischievous habit when I was working with the fellows in Youth for Christ I would asked them what they got from the Lord new that morning, and they would clear their throat and choke and try to think up something from their last sermon. Cedric Sears is my good friend about the years who used to work with us he recalling what happen one day when he came into my office in Chicago, on Monroe Street, and we had our offices in a great big loft and the offices were divided by portable dividing walls which we had set up, so that the sound carried rather clearly even though the offices were sectioned off, can you get that in your mind’s eye? And so Cedric had come in one morning and I looked at him and I said, “well, Cedric what did the Lord give you from his word today?” and he didn’t have a thing. He thought and thought, he couldn’t think of anything. Finally went out a little bit embarrassed, and he has a voice like Jehovah, it carries ya know, (he has a built in PA). And so I heard him say to somebody back in the back, “Don’t go into Cook’s office unless you got something fresh from the Word”.

Well, alright, you can abound dear brother, you can spillover, you can have the spillover instead of the scrapings. Something fresh from God’s Word every day, I learned that a long time ago when I was in the midst of a schedule where I would have 7, 8, 9, 10 meetings a day and just be running from one to another. You run dry, I’ll tell you unless you got something fresh from God’s Word to spillover onto people that very day. Try that for yourself before you go to work tomorrow, just linger with your Lord long enough to get it something fresh from His Word and then you can mediate it on it all during the day and you can share it with people as you have opportunity. You may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. If you’ll be a specialist in spilling over God’s Word the Holy Spirit of God will specialize in giving you power to do so.

Dear Father God today, may we abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost in Jesus name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!