God Is Enough — Richard Sipley

You've been sitting a long time and being blessed. Why don't you just stand up just stand up? I don't want you to sleep. Well, I'm Just staying there. I've always had a thing about people sleeping in church.

I say well, you know, it's awful to watch him if you ever watched him you can see him from up here and they start to go to sleep, you know, they go like this, you know, and then they. And it's terrible really.

And they don't get anything out of their nap because he keep trying to wake up and they don't get anything out of the sermon. So I say just go ahead to sleep and get something. Okay. My first pastor it was a small church in New Hampshire about three miles from the Canadian border.

A Healing That Taught God’s Sufficiency

It was a congregational church, but they had had a little old maiden lady with her hair in the back of her head just a perfect picture of a little old maiden lady and she had pastored there for 25 years and preached the gospel and There was no other congregational church in the area that preached the gospel.

They preached everything but so when she left they asked the Christian Missionary Alliance, they'd send someone and I got sent. And So there's a very interesting situation. And of course I preached the gospel there, but I got married and I got bronchitis.

The winters are cold in the mountains of New Hampshire and I got bronchitis very very bad. I don't know if you've ever seen somebody with it bad, but mine was bad. I had to sit up in a chair to sleep at night because I couldn't lay down I was coughing so bad and I couldn't keep anything on my stomach and I was very very ill now.

There was no doctor in the community and if there had been I don't know if he could have done anything that was before Penicillin and all those wonderful things now that tells how old I am but it's a long time ago and Sunday was coming.

There's nobody to fill the pulpit if I didn't preach that was it and You couldn't get anybody the nearest church to preach the gospel was 50 miles north in Sherbrooke, Canada. And so it was me or nothing and I was really sick.

So I asked the board members if they would come and anoint and pray for me now. They'd never ever done that. I don't know if they'd ever even heard of it and I still remember gentlemen That had the little bottle of olive oil to anoint me and his hand was shaking so bad I was afraid he's going to spill it because he he'd never done this.

So I thought well, I've got to get healed before Sunday. I have to I mean We're gonna be in bad trouble so they anointed me and prayed for me and I didn't get any better. I Went to church and one of the men led the service and I'm so I don't know how he did.

I'm sitting there coughing coughing coughing coughing and I said, well Lord, I don't know what's gonna happen now. We'll see. So it was time for me to preach and I took my Bible. I walked up and laid it on there and started in and It was perfect.

Yeah, no cough no problem no weakness no sickness nothing. Wow and I preached the whole sermon and I thought God has healed me isn't that great and I preached the whole sermon and finished and Went and sat down and start coughing like crazy.

What are you doing? God didn't say anything. So I went. I thought I'll surely get well during the next week, I mean, come on. So I go through the week. Not a bit better. Not even a little better. Just terrible.

I just married my poor wife thought I was going to die. And leave her up to her in the mountains of New Hampshire. And I come up to the next Sunday and here I am the same thing and I'm sitting there coughing.

I was right over on this side. So watch out. And Then I went up to preach as soon as I opened the Bible. Bing total freedom. Complete strength preached the whole sermon. No problem. Went and sat down to start coughing again and Then slowly during the next week.

I started to get better. I Said God, what are you doing? I Don't understand this. Why did you make me go through that? Why didn't I mean you did something very special and God started to speak to me and say I want you to understand right up front at the beginning of your ministry that I don't need you.

To be anything. All you need is me. You just need me. I Can use you if you're well, I can use you if you can't speak. I Can do it that began to change my life before I even got started. I said this is something God is enough.

God Builds His Church, Not Human Effort

He is enough and that's what I want to talk about this morning. Is God enough. Is he really enough or do we need this and that besides him? And you know, it's been the experience of over 60 years. That God has done that for me again and again and again.

Why? Because he is able to do it. Amen, you can say man. I it's a Nazarene Church in there. You know, there are some of us folks that still know how to say hey man. How does that you say well, that's fine it's a nice story that happened to you way back there.

How does that affect us today? What does that have to do with us ministering for Christ today? Well, it has everything to do with it. Clergy breakdown in the Western world is now epidemic in North America men and women are leaving the professional ministry at the rate of 1 ,500 a month.

Did you hear what I said they are leaving the ministry at the rate of 1 ,500 a month they are breaking down physically mentally morally and spiritually now why. Well, there are a number of reasons but I Believe there is primarily one reason I want you to really get this this morning whether You don't have to be in the professional ministry to get this.

I Believe it is because they are trying to do what only God can do people in the ministry and people out of the ministry people in the churches are Trying and trying and trying to make the church go to make the church grow to see people come to Christ.

And they're trying to do what only God can do and it will kill you. Now God can God can give up on me. I've always told him he could shut my mouth whenever he got ready so he could do that this morning but I'm 83 years old and I've been in the ministry for 63 years and I want you to know that God can do it and I you know in a way I've tickled you young people are here this morning because if you get this it'll absolutely Transform your life and you'll go all over the world preaching the gospel and bringing people to Christ.

And nothing can stop you. Jesus said I Will build my church. Did you know that was in the Bible? Jesus said I will build my church now. I've lived through all the church fans for years and The church growth was one of them.

It's not in the Bible. Why. Because Jesus said I will build my church, you know, he's never changed that he said I will build my church in that great Jesus will build the church if we just get out of the way and give him a chance.

He can do it and he will do it now. Jeremiah challenged the clergy of his day. With the following statements from Jeremiah 2 if you want to open your Bibles to Jeremiah 2 I'm going to read two verses here eventually verse 8 and verse 13.

I still remember the day this verse really hit me. His challenge begins like this in verse 8. The priest did not say Where is the Lord? Isn't that something? The priest did not say Where is the Lord and those who handle the law did not know me?

The rulers also transgressed against me and The prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit. The spiritual leaders of Jeremiah's day. Were willing to go on with all the religious trappings and rituals without the manifest presence of God.

They did not say where is the Lord? I? Want Say where's the Lord? I'm not gonna do this without God. I can't do this without God. I want to manifest presence of God. I Want to see him work. I want to know his presence.

I want to see hardened sinners get broken and saved. Amen. I want to know that God is With me that he is here. I love what you have up here God with us. Oh. Maybe with us and these leaders of the church of that day.

Did not did not ask where is the Lord? He was not there. He had left their presence. He left the temple. They knew all the right things to do. In fact, they did all the things God said to do. They had church.

They did all their programs all their rituals offered all their sacrifice and did everything that God had said to do. But the manifest presence of God was not there. Wow and nobody asked Where's the Lord and I see that everywhere where today?

I don't mean every church, but in the evangelical church today. We can go on with all the stuff, you know, we know all the right things to do. And we can do it all Without him. How sad. And so there stands the question, where's the Lord.

Then they studied and taught the Word of God without knowing the God of the word. You can do that too, you know, you can teach Sunday school class all your life and not really know God. Not really have him in it.

Jesus said you search the scriptures for in them. You think you have eternal life and They the scriptures are they which testify of me said Jesus, but you will not come to me. That you might have life what's the point of the Word of God is to get to God right is to come to Christ.

It's to know him is to have him filling your heart and life. That's what it's about the real living presence of God. Well, the leaders also were living worldly even sinful lives. I have a sermon on this.

Holiness, Worldliness, and the Sufficiency of Christ

Love not the world. Love not the world Christians today. Now, I know after I say this you're not going to come to the revival conference. Christians today are worldly they love the world. God says love not the world neither the things that are in the world.

If any man loved the world the love of the father Is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride Of life is not of the father, but is of the world and the world is passing away.

But he who does the will of God abides forever. But I want to tell you that God's people today love the world very very much and God has something to say about it. Barna, and I don't know if Barna is always right, but he studies the Church of today.

He says that 40 of our Pastors are into pornography. I don't know if that's true. But if it's any percent it ought not to be true, right? Right, I don't ask questions without wanting it. If I ask a question you can answer me they're never trick questions.

Also, he said they're trying to mix the work of God with the philosophies religious concepts and methods. Drawn from the culture around them. Cultural adaptation has become Overwhelming in the Evangelical Church and the offense of the cross has ceased.

You say people won't like the cross, of course not so as Paul said the offense of the cross has ceased and We brazenly contradict the Word of God which says as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord.

So walk in him rooted and built up in him. Beware lest any cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. According to the tradition of men according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.

For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're complete in him. God is enough. We don't need we don't need what the world thinks. You believe this, don't you? Don't you come on. Wake up.

Do you or don't you do you believe it? Of course you do. Of course you do and I want to say to you this morning that God is enough. And we don't need the things of the world to help the church or To attract people into the church or to get them to come to listen to us.

What we need is a presence of God. And I've been in revival where people came in as soon as he walked in the door. They were totally quiet and they walked up and they filled the front row and then they filled the next row and then they filled The next row and then they filled the next row and there's only room for 250 and there were 900 people there.

And there was nothing. There was nothing to attract them. You say why did they come because God was there? You just get God there. You don't have to put on some Crazy thing to try to attract people to come to the to meet with the people of God.

People are attracted by the presence of God. Absolutely, I. And I did pastor in Canada for 29 years, so I'm basically a Canadian. And I love Canada, yeah, if my foolish son didn't live in the United States I'd be I'd be living in Canada Paul said for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling my message of my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith would not Stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

That comes from the presence of God. Jeremiah sums it up in verse 13 when he says my people have committed two evils. And I think you could take this verse and put it right down over the church today and it may not fit this church.

But I've been around folks and it fits the evangelical church. My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and have hewn out for themselves cisterns. Broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Are You thirsty. You need a drink from Jesus. Well, oh my cisterns that we have created in the church. To try to give people a drink and they're broken and they have mud in them and poly walks their mess.

But the fountain of Christ has never changed it is full of living water and So God wants to call his people back human substitutes for the manifest presence and power of God. The greatest need of the hour is the manifest presence of God himself in my life and my ministry and in the church, I still remember the Sunday morning.

When there was no crusade there was no evangelist and suddenly God Came in to the sanctuary. You say well, you don't know your theology. God is everywhere. No, but I tell you there's a difference and God just filled a place and God wants to do that.

Spiritual Drift and the Need for God’s Presence

He wants to come and make himself known and Be manifest in our midst. Spiritual movements have a tendency to drift. You know spiritual movements. Such as the Nazarene Church and the Christian Missionary Alliance and many others.

They start off with a tremendous Outpouring of the Spirit of God. Amen. I mean they start off with the fullness of God and He is on them and he anoints them and they have power and People are attracted to the presence of God and they come and they get saved and they get cleansed and they get sanctified.

You still believe in sanctification? And they get sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit and they get on fire. What happens. Well, their children have some of it but not as much and then their children have a little less and then finally Slowly as the power and the anointing and the blessing are waning.

We try to start substituting it with something that will keep things going. See I told you after I get through you won't want to come to the rest of the meeting because it's going to get worse. I'm saying to leaders in the Christian Missionary Alliance because now God has Put this on me.

We have got to get back to the presence of God. We need him. We need him in his book preacher and prayer. EM bounds has said We are constantly on a stretch. It's not on a strain to devise and I'm quoting new methods new plans new Organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement efficiency for the gospel.

This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or the woman and Sink the man in the plan. Organization. God's plan is to make much of the man far more of him than of anything else. Men and women are God's method.

Right. Have you read the Bible? Either he never uses an organization or Pardon me. I had committees in my church. Okay, or committees. He uses people. He uses men and women that he can get a hold of and he hadn't changed.

The church is looking for better methods. God is looking for better people. There was a man sent from God. His name was John. That dispensation that heralded the coming of Christ was Thrust into the world with a man.

He was a queer one, too he wore camel's hair a honey and Locusts. I could stand the honey, but locusts. Please I hope he roasted them. I've been in some countries where they eat them, but When God declares that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.

To show himself strong and the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. He declares the necessity of man and his dependence on them. God is looking for people who want him and who love him and who seek him and who pray and Weep and cry out to God.

Oh God come and fill my life. I can't stand to try to do this without you and that's what God's looking for and I tell you I want to stand with Elisha and Take up the mantle of the spiritual giants who have gone before us and cry out to the heavens.

The Holy Spirit, the Cross, and Dying to Self

Where is the Lord God of Elijah. And I want the waters to part in the fire to fall and I'm not going to go On with church without it. Jesus said you will receive power When the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

So I have to ask myself so Is that power upon me? Is that anointing upon me? So it really is self for Christ a Life that's either centered in self or centered in Christ and I have to get there by the way of the cross.

And I want to tell you Somebody says oh my I'd love to be in a revival like they had in the early 70s in Canada. Well, I tell you it'll cost blood sweat and tears. Because there's only one way to get there and that's a cross the death of self and the life of Christ and It's the dying that's hard.

It's the giving up what I want and what I believe and what I have as my ambition and what I'd like to see and Coming to the end of ourselves and that's why Jesus said if any man will come after me he must disown himself.

And take up the cross and follow me and that disowning of self that's giving up all my rights and all my possessions and all my work and everything. Giving it up Totally and laying it on the altar before God that that death and it's very real.

That will bring us into the place Where we believe God is enough. And he will be he will be enough. His power his grace will be enough. Many years ago. It's been so long now I don't have any idea when when they had black-and-white television.

So that was back in Noah's time. You understand that? And I saw this program on television about a cowboy who was the fast gun in the West. And what happened is that he he had a Problem and he went to a doctor of that day and they didn't weren't all that good then and this doctor told him he would Be dead in six months.

Well, he's gonna die in six months so. Since he already had the sentence of death. He acted with great daring and appeared to have nerves of steel. He went out with his six-gun and started catching all the outlaws everybody because he was gonna die anyway shortly and it didn't matter and Then after a while he saw another doctor in a bigger city and he examined him and said no no, no.

No with just a little treatment. You can live into old age. And now that he no longer had the sentence of death on him he hung up his gun. Because he didn't have the sentence of death. Well, you see once you have the sentence of death at the cross of Calvary and you give it up.

It doesn't matter. You're ready to do whatever he says you're ready to give your life away and so God is calling us to that Pastor Ton of Romania. He was pastor of Second Baptist Church in a rate of Romania until he was exiled by the remaining government in 1981.

In pastoral renewal, he writes of his experience. He said years ago I ran away from my country to study theology at Oxford in 1972 when I was ready to go back to Romania. I discussed my plans with some fellow students.

They pointed out that I might be arrested at the border. One student asked Joseph. What chances do you have of successful? Successfully implementing your plans. Tom asked God about it and God brought to mind Matthew 10 16.

I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves and Seem to say Tell me what chance does a sheep surrounded by wolves have of surviving five minutes? Let alone converting the wolves. Joseph that's how I send you.

Totally defenseless and without a reasonable hope of success. If you are willing to go like that go if you are not willing to be in that position. Don't go. Tom writes After our return as I preached uninhibitedly harassment and arrest came.

One day during interrogation an officer threatened to kill me. Then I said I love this. I just I love this. I said sir, your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying. Sir, you know, my sermons are all over the country on tapes.

Now if you kill me, I will be sprinkling them with my blood. Whoever listens to them after that will say I'd better listen. This man sealed it with his blood. They will speak ten times louder than before.

So go on kill me. I win the supreme victory then. The Officer sent me home. That gave me pause for years. I was a Christian who was cautious because I wanted to survive. I Had accepted all the restrictions the authorities put on me because I wanted to live.

Now I wanted to die and they wouldn't oblige. Now I could do whatever I wanted in Romania. For years, I wanted to save my life and I was losing it now that I wanted to lose it. I Was winning it. Amen.

Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 1 8 and 9 for we do not wish you to be ignorant brethren as to our Tribulation which happened to us in Asia that we were excessively pressed beyond our power. So as to despair even of life, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves.

Reaching the End of Self

That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. Amen. I Said amen. Good. I know you're awake. Hmm when I was a young pastor God brought me to a death experience. I got fired. I Had gone to Bible College and I grew up in a pastor's home and I went.

I was saved and called to preach and I went to Bible College and I was pastoring a little church and One day the board called me in and fired me and you say I don't blame them. I don't either but I. You know, it just killed me.

I was just devastated. I Guess I made a mistake. I guess God didn't call me to preach, you know. I guess somehow it was my own idea and I just can't do this. And I went to God and I said I can't do this.

I guess I made a mistake. I just should quit the ministry for good and God said good. This is where I had to get you. I Had to get you to the end of yourself. Huh, I had to bring you to the end of yourself where you could die where you could give it up and decide you couldn't do it and then He could do it all my friends.

God wants to bring us to that end of ourselves and that surrender and that fullness of his spirit where The presence and power of God is in our life. That's what he wants. Dr. AB Simpson the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance said and I quote I look back with unutterable gratitude to the lonely and sorrowful night when mistaken in many things and Imperfect in all and not knowing but that it would be death in the most literal sense before mourning.

My heart's first full consecration was made and with unreserved surrender I first could say Jesus. I my cross have taken all to leave and follow thee destitute despised forsaken. Thou my all from hence shall be Perish every fond ambition all I've thought or hoped to known.

But how rich is my condition. God is mine and heavens my home. Amen. Oh. That's where God wants to bring us. That's what he wants to do for us. Well, hmm, I can only preach one sermon so I've got to Not preach everything.

I Would like to just give you a great sermon on how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I Can't do that. I'll get shot. Not that that would matter particular. It wouldn't be much loss with it. Lord DL Moody's testimony.

It's where I'm giving a very short version. He said I was crying all the time that God would fill me with his spirit. Well one day in the city of New York. Oh, what a day I cannot describe it. I seldom referred to it.

It is almost too sacred and experienced to name. I Can only say that God revealed himself to me and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I Went to preaching again.

The sermons were not different. I did not present any new truths yet hundreds were converted. I Blessed experience. If you should give me all the world it would be as a small dust of the balance. Dr. FB Meyer was a great radio preacher when I was young and he was attending a Keswick conference and These are his words very short testimony.

I left the prayer meeting and crept out into the lane away from town. As I walked I said, oh my god, if there is a man who needs the power of the Holy Ghost to rest upon him. It is I. But I do not know how to receive him.

I am too tired too worn too nervously down to agonize. A Voice said to me as you took forgiveness from the hand of the dying Christ take the Holy Ghost from the hand of the Living Christ. I Turned to Christ and said as I breathe in this whiff of warm night air So I breathe into every part of me thy blessed spirit.

I Felt no hand Upon my head. There was no lambent flame. There was no rushing sound from heaven, but by faith without emotion without Excitement. I took and took for the first time and I've kept on taking ever since I was a young pastor Getting ready for ordination and I knew that within two days I would be My wife and I would be driving to the place where they were gonna have the district conference and I would be examined for ordination.

I Had read all the books and written all the papers and you know done all of that. Now there would be a two-hour oral examination. I Knew one question they would ask was have you been filled? Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?

I knew I was not and that I was not going to lie and I have been praying and crying out to God. I had surrendered everything as far as I knew and We were as in bed my wife was asleep as about 2 in the morning she was sleeping by my side.

I was Desperate deeply disturbed. I said Oh God, you have to do something for me and It seemed to me that Christ said Just reach out by faith and take The fullness of the Holy Spirit just receive him by faith.

And I said is that possible and God said yes. So I never forget it laying there in the dark my wife Breathing quietly beside me and I said Holy Spirit. I receive you and Again, it was no flash of lightning.

There was no thunder from heaven. But I tell you what the Holy Spirit filled me and I knew it and He has filled me many times since and I just want to encourage you this morning That God is enough God is enough.

Prayer, Revival, and God’s Power to Save

Oh My I Could take all day telling you of the power of God. He is enough. He is enough. You say we like to see people constantly saved Pastor at church that for five years. We had an average of two conversions a week.

You say how God God. Just God. I have a friend right now. They started a new church. He and a another friend started a new church and the south of Cleveland first they started in the home and they prayed and then they.

They went to a school and and they prayed and then there was a empty church building and they bought it. They've been in there about six months. He called me on the phone shortly before I came on this trip and he said Dick I'm calling you because I need some advice.

Of course afterwards. I finally didn't but he said I need some advice. I said what's happening. He said old people are getting saved so fast and you know I'm an administrator at heart and I feel like I have to do something and my wife said no and I.

And I called you to see. I Said well tell me about oh he said we are now. After six months, we're running 400 in our morning service and he said this past Sunday We had 80 first-time visitors and people are getting saved so fast.

We don't know what to do with them. I said, what are you doing? He said nothing but pray and Then he told me about the prayer meeting. He said we have white knuckle prayer meetings. Oh, I said tell me what.

About your white knuckle prayer meeting. He said the people are coming together and they're praying and they're crying out to God and they're weeping and they're sobbing before God. Crying out to God to save their family and their neighbors and their friends and they won't let go.

He said recently we had a hundred people at our prayer meeting. I'm talking about a brand new church. He said I feel like I have to do something. I said no keep your sticky fingers off from it. God is at work.

Let him work. Okay, don't get no way. He's a great preacher. That's great preacher. He said I'm just preaching. He said the not no great sermons said I'm just preaching simple gospel sermons. How to get saved and I said that's why I just do that and pray.

He said we're not doing anything else. We're not doing anything to attract the people and they're just swarming in all kinds of people and getting saved and there's only one answer. They are praying they are bleeding.

They are crying out to God. They decided that only God can do this they're desperate only God could do it and he is doing it. Well, I Went to preach in Lima they had church of 170 that grew to 25 ,000 in 20 years and They had some kind of special thing they did of preaching different stuff and and I thought no, that's not it.

So I nosed around. I found an elderly woman missionary who'd been there from the beginning. I said tell me was there any prayer involved in this? Oh, yes. She said of course it was. I said tell me tell me.

Well, she said we started having all-night prayer meetings. Oh Wonderful. So did they pray all night said? Oh, yeah crying out to God for souls. She said we got to where we were having 800 people praying all night.

You think God could stand that? He could stand it 800 people weeping and praying and crying to God. I tell you what I Was there and in those churches if somebody didn't get saved every Sunday, they wouldn't go home.

They sat there and they started weeping and crying and asking God why and Confessing sin and pleading with God for souls. See that's getting God back in the picture. That's getting him back in the picture.

God Is Enough: Closing Exhortation and Prayer

Is God enough? Yes, he is. I'm so I don't know what your problem is this morning. I don't know what your heartache is. I don't know what your burden is. I know God is enough. He can save he can heal he can change he can provide he can do whatever He is he not that is found prayer.

Lord I thank you for this wonderful congregation this morning. This group of people who love you. This dear pastor who loves you and is committed to you. I thank you Lord for this wonderful group of your people and I pray.

That the truth of your word this morning will not be allowed to leave even one heart in.

Jesus name. Amen. Thank You pastor. Simply God spoken to us this morning. God is enough and You need to know that. I Need to know that God is enough. If following the service this morning, you would like to meet here at the front for prayer We'd be happy to to pray with you whatever you're facing in your life to know that God is enough.

We didn't invite you to come and we.