Beginning Sources — Don Courville

God Uses the Empty and Broken

God has a sense of humor and He loves us and many times he likes to use nobody's to do something and If somebody thinks there's somebody he has ways to break you down and bring you to be a nobody. Nothing like Moses so he can use you.

When when I got saved I didn't know I was lost. All I knew is that my life was empty. I was raised in a Baptist Church down south in Louisiana and Did the thing went forward and prayed? Well, I prayed with the pastor.

I don't even remember praying. But nothing happened. But when I was off in college basically wasting my dad's money and my time. I Came to point where I recognized I was empty. There is no meaning in life.

I'm supposed to be there to get a degree so I can go out and make a lot of money and I thought well. Well, I see some people a lot of people around to have a lot of money pretty wealthy area in some places.

Where I hung out and I said that that's not the answer. But I got really discouraged got depressive and even suicidal. I'd come back from my classes just empty and on July the 10th. Actually before that I I heard from God for the first time and I was reading my Bible had come back to the dorm and I'd cry.

It was just really discouraged. What's the purpose of life and I read a verse. The first verse that God ever spoke to me from and it was Matthew 6 33 Let's seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

And I thought oh, wait a minute I'm supposed to be here to get a degree to make money so I can get things. But you say if I'll put you first you'll take care of me. And so God you're saying you want me and I don't know how long two three weeks.

I wrestled with that and finally I was on the back row of the First Baptist Church in Natchez, Louisiana which is the oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase, by the way, beautiful town with the old ironwork like the fringe quarters and I'm on the back row July 10th, and I just completely gave my life to God.

I Said you can take me you can do whatever you want to with me. I surrender myself to you. I am yours. I Don't think we all get saved the same way, but I was done with myself and I believe at that point Jesus Christ came in.

And it may not be the conventional way what you know, God saves all kinds of different ways. But it took me a long time to figure out I got saved but my life changed. I remember going outside and the stars look so bright.

I'm walking back to my dorm. Past these old grays back in the 1600s and the old oak trees and the moon shining through and everything. I just felt clean and I believe at that point God got some things going in the government and I got this was 1966 the Vietnam War was going and I got a draft notice ten days later, and I didn't like jungles, I Didn't like foxholes.

Mosquitoes got them down in Louisiana. You don't have any up here. Do you? Don't come up in this country a certain time of year. But anyway, God just jerked me out. I got a draft notice and I went into wind round down and saw my Air Force recruiter and he let me finish up my semester and I was jerked off and went to my basic training went through petroleum specialist training.

To work with fuels and the next thing I knew within six months. I'm in Turkey and Where's Turkey. I had to go get a map and God put me over there in the in the Bible lands for a year and a half. I lived amongst the seven churches of Asia Minor for a year and a half.

So I know the travels of Paul emphasis like the back of my hand. I have old Roman coins I'd buy from the kids. They'd come out there and try to trade coins for cigarettes. And and so God took me off into a whole new world little army guy.

He was there and he discipled me and taught me to memorize scripture. He didn't teach me how to remember Memory, we won't keep it all now. But anyway, my whole world changed and I came back to the States and God put me in Omaha Nebraska and near there and there was a Bible College.

And so I just wanted to know God. I just wanted to know God and so I went there to study the Bible and So after I got out of the Air Force two years later, I I Stayed there and I went ahead and went a couple more years.

And when I stayed there my wife came. That first semester matter of fact, I wasn't interested in music. I wasn't interested in anything but just knowing this and knowing God. But I'm sitting in the you know, you go to school.

They waste a lot of your time and they make you take these courses that you don't need and you never will use. Anybody know about that? But music, okay so I'm sitting there and The room is shaped like that and I'm sitting there and this girl walks across the front and honest I'm minding my own business.

I'm not looking for anybody. I'm not looking for a girl I've already told God, you know, I just want to know you and across this room. She walked and God said you see that. And I said, yeah. And she sat down and looked around and saw me and God spoke to her and a couple years later we were married anyway, I We went on I'll get on through it went on out to Western, Nebraska where she's from.

My no, I had to look up and find out where Nebraska was too, you know, we're so far south. Anyway, we ended up going to Bible college out in Colorado and graduating did a bunch of stuff and ended up Passing a church in Wyoming and I loved it.

I got there. There were no church. No pastors in town. Just just demons and cowboys and miners and ranchers and farmers and it was wonderful. And then the devil got in some pastors. There's a lot small town.

We stayed there seven years and it was tough really hard, but I loved it. I probably preached I think to most everybody in the whole area the gospel. Because when we did funerals, that's when the crowds came.

And so seven years there in the next seven years. We spent in her Hometown or close to it. She was raised on a ranch 35 miles from town and We were there seven years in our third year there I Was living a life like this up and down.

Just encouraged if we didn't have many people in church sunny. I was discouraged. It's just up and down. I was not living a victorious life and I was I missed something. I Had got saved but I didn't miss something and what it was.

I had missed the understanding of the cross. Once you begin to understand the cross Then somebody's going to take notice that doesn't like you. Doesn't like God doesn't like Jesus and he's going to take notice of you and God's going to take notice of you, too.

So all sudden there's going to be something maybe you've never experienced before and it's called war. Where the flesh you get the flesh war all the time with that, but the world the flesh and the devil, you know come and so God came along and met with us in revival a little guy a guy from over here in Michigan evangelist minored under Jack Van Impe.

Memorized scripture had hundreds of scriptures. He came there and he was in the area for two years. He went to my buddy's church first time and he stayed there eight days and God came. Deacon got saved the very first meeting guys coming down missionaries coming down off the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

We were close to South Dakota. God is working in missionaries hearts. God is working. It was revival and God was showing up. And then he came down to our church and we were supposed to be one week there one week in our church and one week in his brother-in-law's 90 miles away to the east.

But we went for 18 days and it's almost a month by that time and the evangelist after our 18 days moved his family out and then he went to the next church and that guy was an organizer and jumping up and down because everything was not going away, but Anyway, God met me in that Meeting in our church.

I sat through 12 messages and on the 12th message I was sitting over in this area and the Spirit of God just nailed my hide to the floor, I guess anyway on the victorious Christian life. The evangelist was preaching on that and I was not living it matter of fact there people were coming.

There were a lot of people there and people getting under conviction and and I was I'd be in the back I just direct them to go down and pray. I couldn't even help him. I was such bad shape and God met with me and dealt with me and just ripped me apart dealt with me on bitterness and just.

It's like I said many times. It was like getting ran over by a semi and the guy stops and backs back over you again. It's not a good day, but it was a good day for me because it entered. Yeah, I entered into a different life in Christ that I had not known before and I've said this many times in many places that revival is a gateway.

It's a gateway and actually the cross when we come to Christ. It should be an entrance into a whole new life a Life in Christ and Christ in us, but many times it's just we get saved, but we don't go on to the cross.

But when we do we're going to find out there's somebody that doesn't like that and that's the enemy. Now I didn't know what I was going to do when I got up here when I'm get done. I may not know what I've done even I've Brandon.

Are you crazy? To do nine messages on this subject. I Have done this subject many times. I told him I have enough to probably teach a whole semester in the seminary or college on this subject and maybe Two and so what I'm going to try to do is cram 48 years of learning into nine Hours or however many if we go more than an hour a session and said Lord, how do I do this and Just trust me you never know what you're doing anyway, so just trust me.

So let's just ask God to guide us along. I've got my little briefcase over there. I got these things on here and this outline you got is not even all of it. There's just I've got two more pages. We didn't have time.

We had so many things going on which is one of the things that happens in revival you get a lot of interesting things happening. Get a lot of interesting. It's happening. But we've got to remember to focus on God all the time.

All the time. When we get saved our focus was on Christ, right? All our troubles go from when we take our eyes off from Christ from there on and. So we have to be focused on Christ, let's pray again Heavenly Father.

Thank you for this wonderful bunch of people. Now Lord, I ask you to show up. I ask you to rebuke the enemy. I ask you to clean this place up anybody hanging around outside over us under us or wherever I bring the blood of Christ over this place and over every precious family over every precious soul here and Over anyone that would listen to these tapes later on.

Now father we thank you that you say the joy of the Lord is our strength and you know We need strength. Some of us may be very weary. Some of us may be very tired. Some of us may be beat down. Some of us may be confused and some of us may have pressures and problems.

Like we've never had before in our life. Now father asked that the Spirit of God would fall upon this place these next few Meetings and that you would teach us you would you would help us to understand God.

Help us to understand our authority that we have in Christ. Help us to understand. Why sometimes things are so hard? Thank you now father. I ask in Jesus name for the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Ask for the anointing of the Spirit of God upon our hearts upon our ears upon our eyes.

Spiritual Warfare and the Christian's Armor

Ask you to bless the little children here as this will be way over their heads. Probably most of this. But I thank you now in Jesus name. Amen. You ever heard of a guy by the name of William Grinnell.

Most of you have have you? His ratings would be worth getting. This is a sort of an overview. Somebody took his ratings and put them into it's called the Christian in complete armor, and they just Took took it and Condensed it down and almost every page is bang.

Powerful just powerful thoughts. I'll give you a little introduction. On this read you a little bit and then we'll go from there. C. S. Lewis stated that satan strategy is best served by either personal disbelief in his existence or an exaggerated reverence for his power.

Either extreme serves his purpose of deceiving and dominating the human race. And both extremes are quite prevalent in contemporary culture. Secular humanism has postulated a material universe devoid of spirit on the other hand.

Multiple branches of the new age movement serve satan in his various manifestations. Even the church Today is guilty of this polarity. Many rational christians downplay demonic activity in their spiritual walk while others find a demon behind every bush.

One thing is certain today christians find spiritual growth an uphill battle. We know it's not just our own weaknesses or the culture's anti-christian bias. But also a powerful personal enemy who seeks to defeat us every step of the way.

Thus there is an upsurge of interest in spiritual warfare material. Most of us haven't experienced Have Haven't experienced demonic deliverances. But we know what it is like to be buffeted by satan when our armor is not securely fastened and in use.

True ephesians 6 explains the spiritual armor and its purposes. Yet we still desire to better understand the wiles and tactics of satan and the practical Implications of each piece of armor to resist him.

And I do have a whole notebook on the armor Be guilty of the to resist him. In other words, we don't wish to be guilty of the extremes mentioned above but to Knowledgeably deal with our adversary who is under the power of god.

So that's what we want to have knowledge. Granol in the first chapter january 1st, this is listed says things like this. There are so many who profess christ and so few who are in fact christians. So many who go into the field against satan and so few who come out.

Conquerors all may have a desire to be successful soldiers. But few have the courage and determination to grapple with the difficulties that have cost them on the way to victory. Oh israel followed moses joyfully out of egypt.

But when their stomachs were a little pinched with hunger and their immediate desires deferred they were ready at once to retreat. They preferred the bondage of pharaoh to the promised blessings of the lord.

Men are no different today. How many part with christ at the crossroads of suffering like orpha they go a short distance only ruth 114. They profess the gospel and name themselves heirs to the blessings are of the saints.

But when put to the test they quickly grow sick of the journey and refuse to endure for christ. At the first sign of hardship they kiss and leave the savior reluctant to lose Heaven, but even more unwilling to buy it at so dear a price if they must resist so many enemies on the way.

They will content themselves with their own stagnant cisterns and leave the water of life for others who will venture father. For it who among us has not learned from his own experience that it requires another spirit Than the world can give to follow christ fully.

Let this exhort you then christian to petition god for the holy determination. And bravery, you must have to follow christ without it. You cannot be what you profess the fear for those who march for hell.

Revelation 21 8 and the valiant are those who take heaven by force. Matthew 11 12 Cowards never won heaven. Do not claim that you are begotten of god and have his royal bloody Blood running in your veins unless you can prove your lineage by this heroic spirit to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils.

364 pages to go. And so it's a good book, all right, I think i'm going to attempt to take you From the book of genesis and just Look into some lives there. This is the On your outline if you follow that there's i've got things that i'm probably sure that aren't on this but number two authority series.

Jurisdiction and we'll go back to the beginning sources and Just look at some things there. We will be familiar. I assume Probably a lot of you are familiar with the bible. Familiar with these stories and things like that and so I will probably go pretty fast through some things there um.

Authority, Conflict, and the Kingdom of the Jungle

Give you a quote. I think this came from maybe aw tozer. This subject is indeed the great theme of the bible itself. The bible presents itself to us as an authoritative book. And the bible actually is just a history of war from one end to the other.

And we get saved we get in that war. And you might say well i'm just minding my own business and all of a sudden somebody doesn't like me. And I was walking through brussels one time with some friends and this one guy just started yelling at us.

Screaming he just he had demons. I guess we were christians. He just started yelling at us. Okay, he's got problems. You know these demons know christ Paul. I know cephas. I know and you know Jesus, I know and so they will attack when threatened.

So this subject is a great theme. And the battle amongst the christians many times in our churches had to become so carnal and callous. To the things of god has become. Who's going to be the king of the jungle in the church.

Who's going to be the king of the jungle in the church. I brought something. I didn't know if I'd do it or not. I think I will do it. My wife has something in the bag. And you boys and girls might be interested in this.

I probably left the camera. Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that but Can you focus in? What is this. A gorilla if you get a real good close look at him, he's uglier than he looks from where you're at. He's got little black beady eyes and after i'm done you'll be welcome to come up and look at him.

And he represents let's call him boo. All right. Boo the gorilla. And so we will use him for an illustration. And you'll be welcome to look at him afterwards. He's pretty pretty ugly matter of fact. I was in omaha zoo last July june I think it was.

And if you want to see a picture of some gorillas these guys are big and mean matter of fact. They have these plastic cages and one of them. It was a bubble like thing and these little kids are there and the and I think a mother was there and this gorilla Comes by and then he just turns around blam and they go flying back.

I got a couple pictures of those guys now. Let's say this picture of what what's that? The king right we will say this will represent God and we will say oh boo here will represent the bad guy. Okay, our enemy satan.

So we'll just keep an eye on boo and we'll keep an eye on the king. But here's what happens in our lives many times the struggle is who is going to be king Of our jungle. We're going to boo going to run the show or is god going to run the show.

And what happens in our churches many times. Is boo infiltrates hearts? And boo tries to take control and. Who boo can't control usually he will try to destroy. And that's the way it goes in the king of the jungle matter of fact.

Some of you have probably heard the story because this has been shared many times. Hmm there is a black pastor that loved to share that pastor fields. Who's the king of the jungle? And uh one day the Lion is going around to all the animals.

And he goes up to the monkey who's the king of the jungle and he roar. You are you are mr. Lion. You are and he goes around to the different animals. He says who's the king of the jungle? And they all are scared to death and finally goes over to the elephant.

And he says who's the king of the jungle? And the old elephant just reaches down grabs him and throws him about 50 feet out into the jungle and wow he hits a tree and bounces off in the thorns and. And he comes back over there and he said, okay, okay.

You don't have to get so sore if you don't know the answer now. Boo thinks he's the king of the jungle, but we know that jesus christ is the king. And so this is where the war comes in. Who's going to be the king of the jungle.

Now let's look at sources for a little bit. Uh the claims to authority there's all kinds of claims to authority. The roman catholic church. Claims authority matter of fact i've got a little. Some ratings of aw tozer here.

Uh that I might read to you somewhere along the line. But uh, this is you know, any religion that's going to kill you if you don't convert is of the devil. We know that God doesn't work like that. Jesus didn't kill people off if they wouldn't follow him.

He would just say follow me and turn and walk off. And so we've got all these things this power struggle. Cults and everything out going on down here so we know who's the king of the jungle. He's the god that made the jungle and so boo Has given tremendous power by god.

The enemy has been given tremendous power. But it's only so he can be a tool and his power Really works in our lives in the area of suggestion now god's authority watchman knee said. Represents god himself.

God is authority in all things. All the authorities of the earth are initiated by god. So if he allows something bad to exist. He's over that. And so christ is over all he's the creator. He is god now, um all the wars all the conflicts in the world is over.

Who's going to be the king of the jungle. And it's just the way it goes. The listen to this quote. I think this came from tozer without doubt the power of the roman catholic church lies in this fact that she claims to have authority.

And at times it's been submit or die and I guess we had a president that brought this up lately in the news equating the crusades and the Inquisition with the same with the terrorists out there killing people and raised up a lot of trouble because it's not the same.

True born again believers. They're not going to be going out there. Now. Let's go to uh, let's look at some things on the origins. We'll go into genesis. And we're going to look at the beginning of things and you know a lot about this.

But it's important that I don't take anything for granted on this subject um, and so on your outline here, I have the The beginning sources beginning lessons and concluding statements and i'll cover a few things on that now, um Watchman knee said this.

And then adrian rogers picked up and said a lot but no man is ready to be in authority until he has learned to be under authority. And one of the things i've learned. In traveling around he used to go around the country a lot more than I do now.

Become more happy to stay home but As a result of that revival and what god did people began to hear around the country what was going on? And they wanted this evangelist to come. Well, he wouldn't he got so many invitations.

He wouldn't go. Unless I would go first and so I would go in and start to do Pre-crusade work for him. I would share my testimony gather pastors together in the community or in the town or whatever share my testimony to them.

Matter of fact, I was sharing in harris where I was at harrisburg, pennsylvania. And one pastor we were at a denny's he came up and he had tears flowing down his cheeks. And he said I pastor a church of a thousand people.

Thank you For coming and sharing with us. And what's going on in our in our country is most of the schools. Most of our schools are missing the cross. And men come out of the seminaries and the bible college and whatever without understanding really what the bible's talking about.

We're to preach the gospel. And the gospel includes the crucifixion. Death burial and resurrection of christ die christ dying for your sins, but when we get saved we're to be crucified with him. Buried self-buried we come up.

We're raised to a new life. And you got all kinds of stuff. To go through and so the cross is missed and and so when these guys would hear this it was just like set him free wow. And all kinds of things have happened.

I was in harrisburg. I went there. I think I shared in four places or five. And uh the pastor that got me into that area god met him at the cross. I think he'd went to a canadian revival fellowship anyway, god Got a hold of him and nailed this guy and killed him not literally but He died and christ come out of his life.

He recognized he'd missed the cross and so I went out there. This guy took me around harrisburg. To pastors all over and he had taken his church all the way from 300 to 50 and he took me around and he Would go to this pastor and he would ask the pastor to forgive him for his sins that he'd done against him.

He humbled himself to pastors all over that town. He was a broken man. I thought this is really unusual. And when when it come time to have the meetings there I told the I told the evangelist I said john I think maybe you need to get some neutral turf.

This place has been so destroyed. It's in such bad shape. So we went to another church that pastor by the way, he's both these men have passed away that pastor was just a piece of humble pie. He didn't look like nothing.

He just he was just Crucified in christ. And god was blessing and he had people all over the place in his church and they had meetings down there. And so when the cross is applied to our life. There is freedom.

But also then there is warfare. And so what we want to do is understand some principles. My goal is to get get you through the life of jacob. And so i'll just go to you faint or fall asleep or something.

Or if I faint or fall asleep will be done. But I want to get you through the life of jacob and then we'll go from there and see what? How we go um. So no man is ready to be in authority until he's learned to be under authority.

So this study is designed to help us look for ways to help people. And to help ourselves. Now, let me ask you this if you were to die um. Say in in six weeks or something. And you know you're going to die.

And somebody would ask you this what is the most important lesson in the bible you have ever learned? What would you say or trying to learn. I wrote this out for myself live under god's authority. Live under god's authority years ago.

I went to uh, I went to uh, A conference a basic youth life. Life conflicts and and I had seven things that god showed me. And I went back and I humbled myself to my dad. And and said dad I did this and I did this and ask you to forgive me and then he He said you always were a rebel.

I'm just humbling myself and I get stabbed. You know what he was right. He was right. So if god is going to humble you uh. Enjoy it. I mean, it's not enjoyable, but the process that we go through is not fun.

But the fruit the freedom that comes out is good now. Let's see if I can find where we're supposed to go beginning sources and god said Genesis 1 1 you know, that's in the bible god said Go back. In the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness.

Was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters and god said Let there be light and there was light. Now that's authority. I mean have you ever created anything? I mean you can create a whole universe still creating universes.

Maybe and god said this is he said this how many times. I don't know. He said it many times. And god saw in verse 4 and god said in verse 6 and verse 7 and god made in verse 8 and god called the firmament god said verse 9 and god called the dry land and god said in verse 11 and.

Just goes on. He is authority. If god can create all of this world He can do something in your life. Matter of fact I prayed for a year and a half for a large house to live in like we had how many children we had.

We had seven. Okay, we had seven children. We're living in a little house about 900 square feet. The good thing is it was an old school and there was a big back room, which is a big storage area. But nine of us living in this little 900 square foot house.

So I began praying. And I prayed now in ephesians 3 20 now unto him that's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think. According to the power that works in us and this I prayed that for a year and a half.

And then somebody called up a family that Were in the same homeschooling program with us and they were having to leave their house. And they asked if we would come and live in it take over their natural food store for a year.

We ended up being there nine years. But the thing was 5 000 square feet. It was 95 feet across two stories. And it had cedar siding and arkansas stone. It looked like a lodge. People would call me up from brands and come down to our lodge and say I live in a lot.

But anyway, it scared me to death. I said we could barely get our rent paid on this. How are we going to pay double for this thing? But god said you prayed for it I can take care of that and so we moved in there and our church Began to really grow out of out of that and so god said God is the authority.

And so when god's in control, you don't have you know, let him do the driving. So here's the first command series and then he creates this man and then he creates this woman and uh. You know, we might run into a problem here.

But anyway God command here's this command series. He said be fruitful and multiply in verse 28 He said be fruitful. Is that the same chapter one? God made them in verse 28. Yeah. And god blessed them and god said unto them be fruitful multiply replenish the earth subdue it and have dominion over the fish Of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moved upon the earth.

So here's a command series be fruitful multiply have dominion. Is that replenish subdue this these are commands to man? For god god's telling them to do this. And then he gives the command for for adam to dress and keep it.

And in other words guard the garden. He didn't tell Adam. There may be a snake. He just said guard the garden and so that was the fifth command dress and keep it six command. Uh, he just had these commands and the in 216 216 listen to this and the lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And i'm not real good at hebrew. Praise the lord for the strongs and all these greek these greek and hebrew helps but this word.

From the way I get it it constitutes. Uh the strongest command that you could ever give. Was given to him. That's the strongest command. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.

It was a very strong command you ever do that to your kids, you know, you got a child. You know do not touch that. You know what they're gonna do. They're gonna do what you did. And I they're gonna go touch it.

You know. That's what bothers us. They're just like us, you know. So here we go. They have a duty then and then god wanted them. He wanted them to enjoy all of this and and um He wanted them to reverence him and he wanted them to love him.

And he wanted them to fear him. And so this is the beginning of things and he wants them to obey the motive for obedience. From god's aspect is for him to receive reverence and respect. God wants that.

God deserves that. And he wants us now guess who would like to rob us rob god from that reverence and respect. Right. The one old boo represents y 'all see him boys and girls. He hadn't gone to sleep yet.

He wants to destroy your life. The enemy does the one boo represents here. I'm, glad you're videotaping this. It might sound look funny without it. Said what's this preacher boo? What's this boo stuff?

All right, here we go. When god told abraham i'm skipping on ahead to take his son who had waited what a hundred years for. Who had given he'd been given by a miraculous birth in everything then god says I want you to take your son.

Your only son the one you love the one your whole life was wrapped up in the one i've given you all these promises. I want you to take him to Mount moriah and I want you to take him there and sacrifice him.