Transcript: Christian Conference - Finding Hope in Ministry with Pastor Larry Coy

As soon as I'd lead a young person to Christ, I would say now that you're a Christian, there are nine principles God wants to build into your life, and they're not optional. If you really want to be a successful Christian, then if you'll apply these principles in the circumstances God already knew you're going to be faced with, you will end up handling your situation the same way Jesus would if he were in the same situation. And these young people began to grow. They began to handle problems in their life. And then I got nervous. I thought, well, I'm going to try this on adults, but this isn't what I ever learned about follow-up. So in case this wouldn't work with adults, because at that time in my life, I wasn't sure if you had treated adults the same way than teenagers. So I asked the Lord to give me a couple that had no Christian background that got saved. This way, if this didn't work and I messed up their life, I wouldn't tell anybody. now that's not the way to approach it but a deacon in our church led a japanese couple to christ they were buddhists and i got them and i said look now that you're a christian there are nine principles god wants to build into your life and they're not optional and to the degree that you apply these in your life and use them in the circumstances god knows you're going to face you in fact will be handling your situation the same way jesus would if he was in the same situation. And I'll tell you, it was so exciting. You know, I love seeing a brand new believer, especially if they're not all mixed up with our background. I love to let kids pray. Isn't it neat to let kids pray? As soon as I start praying, I mess it all up. I start thinking too much. I wonder if God's really going to do it. You know, the kids just say, you know, Dad, let's just pray. remember when karen was four or five and she's concerned about our neighbors because they were smoking had no religious relationship at all she kept hearing about cancer and stuff on tv and she said you know amy's mom and dad smoking he was a medical doctor i'm going to start praying that they stop smoking so this little girl prays that night you know and i'm saying right honey you don't understand there's a spiritual problem here and i'm going through all this stuff in my mind The next day, Amy's mother comes over and says, look, would you mind babysitting for Amy? My husband and I last night before we went to bed decided we're going to stop smoking and we're going to start jogging instead. No spiritual reasons. I mean, when they just start praying, it happens, right? So I tell this couple, I say, you know what? now that you're a Christian, people are going to wrong you and God wants you to forgive them. In fact, every time you're wronged, it's God's way of using you to show His love to them. Well, do you know how Rose faced every day? She started every day with a prayer to God to please let somebody wrong her so she can show the love of Christ to them and forgive them. That's how she started her day. I said you're going to wrong other people and when you do God wants you to humble yourself and go and ask their forgiveness first people she goes to is her next door neighbor she used to stand out there and cuss them out in Japanese I mean she would just the smoke was coming out her ears and they didn't know what she was saying but they knew what it was these people were so upset with these Japs that moved in this corner house they put this no see through fence on their property. And when Rose goes next door to ask their forgiveness and tells them she's become a Christian, it turns out they're members of our Baptist church. And God rebukes them and the fence comes down. I mean, they really wanted their light to shine, right? If God could perform a miracle and get light through solid substance. They went through trials the first year of their Christian life that would have wiped out the average Christian, and the reason it would is because some of the stuff they went through ticked me off. You might know what my theme was for my New Year's Eve party with about 400 teenagers that year. Japanese. I asked Jim and Rose if they won't make skiyaki for the kids, and two days before the event, they show up at the gym. I had five couples lined up to help them, and I mean they start bringing in crates and crates of vegetable and and uh rose you know jim went out to get the uh meat and uh she says honey he says they won't sell us the meat it's just too much meat nobody wants to handle it and rose said you pray about that and he said no that why you not get meat come on she puts them on his knees and they pray and she goes out and gets the meat well unknown to everyone one by one when they start bringing in all this crate these crates of food all five couples had backed out to help her and she's standing there and we're waiting for the help to show and nobody shows and i'm and i'm we're decorating this gym we had lowered it was a room just about this not quite this size we lowered the ceiling down to eight feet with plastic colored lights we had streams going through the gym with little bridges over the thing we had mount vesuvius on the one wall with no is that is that the one that's the italy isn't it fuji mount fuji with smoke coming out of it i mean this is a big big production and I'm standing there and she needs help and I look at this little Japanese gal and I am so mad and so angry and I'm saying, Lord, they're six months Christians. Wouldn't you know it? Some old-time Christian just let them down. And I'm seeing this gal who's been growing. I just see her getting bitter and it's going to wipe out her life. And I said, Rose, I am so sorry. She says, oh, that's all right, Pastor Coy. When you ask me to cook, I pray, ask God, do you want me to cook? God said yes. I don't know if other couples prayed or not. They take all this stuff to their home. And they've got these roasters. They're blowing fuses for two days. They bring it all back to the church. And at the break in the watch night service, these couples discover what happened, and they all come back and volunteer to serve it. I mean, smoke was coming out my ears. I was so mad. I mean, I would like to have decorated the wall with their bodies. And Rose is saying, praise God. I prayed and asked God I need help serving, and God brought the help. She didn't even see a problem in all of this. I told them that there are going to be people who are going to put them on the spot to compromise their convictions, which I shared last night. And God wants you to turn them down and verbally identify with Christ. Do you know in the first year that they were married, they led 14 of their neighbors to Christ in their own city block? In their own city block. You know why they could handle these things? Because they had the foundation light. They had the foundation light. Do you know what was missing in my Christian life? I knew most of these principles, but they were optional to me. I believed in forgiving most of the time. Except. I believe I really ought to guard what comes into my heart and into my life and into my eyes. Except. Depending on the situation. You know what one of the biggest factors was for me to clean up my act? To just finally have the guts to cut off any garbage? It was my kids. It was deciding what we should watch and shouldn't watch on television. We finally came to a point where the only things we'd watch on television is if all of us agreed on it. and if anything came up on the television that was offensive to anybody, they could walk over and turn it off. Guess who was ticked off all the time? I mean, right in the middle of a good deal. Hey, what are you doing, Dad? You don't need to be watching that junk. I mean, so what's the bedroom scene, huh? Wouldn't it be interesting if I pulled all of you here and you all gave me your favorite programs Monday through Sunday? We'll probably cover pretty much the whole spectrum. And then for a week we record them And then we edit out all the swear words and all the sensual talk and put it all on one tape And then you listen to the garbage that we say doesn't even bother us, and it's one of the problems that doesn't bother us anymore, that we just allow to come into our home, that if one of our kids said some of those words, would belt them across the side of the head or something. Right? But I looked at these things as optional, and you see, when God wants us to forgive someone, He really is wanting to show the love of Christ to someone else. Now, if I refuse to cooperate with God, and I'm not willing to be sensitive to that person and forgive, then I'm either going to become oversensitive and bitter or I'm going to become insensitive and shut them out. And either way, what happens? I start carrying bitterness around in my life. And so when Jesus laid out these principles to the disciples, I believe that after they heard them, the first thing they did is sort of like a brand new babe. The first thing a baby does is he learns how to do things from rote memory. See, most of the time you go around with that new baby, you're telling them, don't do this, no, no, no, no. You know, you stop them from doing all these things. I believe the disciples initially, because they said they were going to follow Jesus, began to do these things by rote memory, kind of legalized it. Now, God doesn't want you to legalize these things. He wants you to internalize these things. And one of the things that tips us off is that this is exactly what they were doing, and this is what gave me the insight that freed me. was when Peter came to Jesus and he was really struggling with one of the things Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. And Peter was looking for some additional input because he says, now, Lord, I mean, I don't want you to misunderstand me. Peter's probably the personality that I identify with the most. He kind of spoke before he thought, aimed for the head and only got the ear. and peter comes to the lord and i'm kind of putting this in my own terms but he he sort of came to the lord and said now look i don't want you to misunderstand me i mean i agree with everything you've been saying as a matter of fact that's that stuff that you taught up there on this on the mount is is the best material i've ever heard in my life but there's one thing that you said and i'm having a little problem with it that you said when somebody wrongs you, you're supposed to forgive them. Now, don't get me wrong. I've been doing that. But I mean, how many times are you supposed to do this? Right? I mean, there's got to be a time when enough's enough, right? Now, I think what Peter was thinking was, you know, if you're sitting up there and listening to this guy talk, it doesn't matter how good he is, you're going to doze. and probably when he hit this bitterness stuff i must have that might have been when he got my mind thinking about somebody i knew that was bitter and i i didn't hear what he exactly said and i didn't know that he said forgive the person uh so maybe i missed some little insight there that i should have caught if that wasn't the case all of us after these solutions don't seem to be working we feel that our situation is unique so that i know that in general terms right you should forgive people but you see my situation is a little different and i just wondered you know under my circumstances uh you know since this doesn't work what should i do what's what's some more insight what's some more information and i think that's what peter was trying to figure out either what did i miss or my situation doesn't apply in in this situation this circumstance So Jesus said, Peter, forgive a person 70 times 7. Now, Peter was an unlearned man, right? Didn't have a calculator. Knew how to count fish. When he gets this figured out 490 times, and I've already forgiven this guy 7 times for the same offense, I might as well not let it bother me. see that was the point the point was Peter I've called you to a way of life it's not optional I made you in such a way that if you don't want to be bitter in life the solution is to forgive them by the way forgiveness is not for the other person's benefit people say well I'll never forgive them well that other person who had the hang up who wronged you has got you a good case of bitterness, but you will be bitter the rest of your life. The purpose of the forgiveness is so this person's hang-up doesn't make you a bitter person or negative in life. It's for our well-being. Do you know what tells us that Peter internalized this? He quit struggling with, well, am I going to do it or am I not? Instead, he started saying, Lord, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to start exchanging my ways of doing things for your ways. Because Peter wrote the book on suffering. And in 1 Peter chapter 2, he says, For this is thankworthy, and the word thankworthy there is the word grace, charis. For this is grace. This is what the supernatural power of God is, to face a circumstance that is happening to you or me that generates just the opposite of God's love. For this is thank word, this is grace, if a man for conscience towards God suffers wrongfully. What is it if when you're buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently? In other words, you get caught for what you did wrong, you had it coming to you, and at least you faced up and you admitted it. You know, what's that? You should have done that. But if when you do well and suffer for it and take it patiently, in other words, you didn't even cause the problem. You're the victim of somebody else's wrong. And you take it patiently. This is thankworthy or the word there, this is grace and acceptable with God, knowing here unto that you were called. and Jesus Christ left us an example that we should follow in his steps. That when he was rebuked, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he was rebuked, he threatened not. But he committed himself to him that judges righteously. What were Jesus' last words on the cross? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. You see, it wasn't optional. What if Jesus had hung up there on the cross and said, look, you bunch of bums, as soon as you apologize, I'm willing to forgive. Isn't that what we do sometimes? Well, anytime they're willing to admit what they did to me, I'll be glad to forgive them. That's not where it's at. Now, when we're violating God's spiritual laws, you look here in page 7 at the bottom. And by the way, these are all tied in. These are just a few symptoms of when we're violating one of the Beatitudes. When I'm violating the first one, and we'll turn the page in a minute and look at those and what those are, you'll see the pride or the rebellion or a critical spirit. When I'm violating the second one, there'll be a lack of purpose and an insensitive spirit. The third one, there'll be anger or anxiety, an anxious spirit. Anger and worry are symptomatic of violating the same principle. you ever notice that most people with tempers hardly ever worry they get mad too soon and most people that worry hardly ever get angry because they'd be worrying about having gotten angry they've just chosen a different way to respond to the same problem if I violate the next there'll be indifference and an apathetic spirit the fifth one there'll be resentment and a bitter spirit The sixth one, there'll be moral impurity and a sensual spirit. The seventh one, there'll be guilt and a condemning spirit. The eighth one, there'll be a lack of conviction and a compromising spirit. And the ninth, there'll be a lack of love and a fearful spirit. Now let's turn the page and look at the definitions of what Jesus was talking about. Because when Jesus said, how happy are the poor in spirit. and by the way this word poor as opposed to like being broken you can pay your bills and I really poor this word for poor is talking about a person who is so destitute like a beggar that they are dependent on somebody else for survival. In other words, God is saying, you know, when you turn that heart over to me and you become totally dependent on me. that poor in spirit is giving Jesus Christ control of my life, giving him the very center of my life through faith and obedience and humility. Blessed are those that mourn. This is being sensitive to the heart of God and the needs of others. It's being concerned about what God is concerned about. Now, we only have God and people and things in the world, right? Does that cover everything? God and people and things. Is that everything? And God wants you and me to be concerned about what he's concerned about. Now, he says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So between things and people, what is God concerned about? People. You know, the only thing that's going to hurt you in this world is people. That's the only thing that's going to hurt you. And if we choose not to get involved with people because they've already hurt me, and I refuse to cooperate with God and being concerned about people, there's going to be a tremendous void in my life. And my very choice to not obey God and be concerned about people, about loving my neighbor as myself, is an act of disobedience to God. and when I'm disobedient to God, I'm not loving Him with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind, and therefore I'm violating His spiritual laws, which affects my attitude, right? You start removing yourself from the Lord, and the first thing that begins to show up is our attitude. And what attitudes are they? The ones on this previous page. And as soon as those attitudes start to become dominant in my life, I find that people are pretty lousy. They don't treat you right. They've got bad personalities. It's their fault, right? Because what are they doing? They're mirroring back to me these attitudes in me they really don't care for. So then I decide I'm only going to have a few friends. I'm going to really be selective. You finally get a little group of friends around you. And guess what? Every relationship has to be moving. It either has to be moving deeper or it keeps moving more superficial. It doesn't matter how dear your friends are. If you've got these attitudes, eventually those few relationships will disintegrate. Right? And when I'm really not too excited about God, and there aren't too many people he did a good job on on this earth, there's only one factor left to get involved in. What's that? Things. God's not against things, he says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. All the things that you and I have in our life have been given to us by God to serve him and to love others. That's all things are good for. And as soon as we take our focus and our commitment off of those two things, my love for him and my love for people, i'll end up shifting my focus in life where my goal in life is things riches a home a reputation all those are things and then my life really begins to deteriorate then that vacuum in the inside that needs to be filled who does it need to be filled with god there's a god shaped vacuum in us that can only be filled by him and if we refuse to fill it with him we'll try to fill it with things. That's all there is to fill it with. The next principle, how happy are the meek. Now this is the principle that is related to your disposition and my disposition about things. And what I believe belongs to me. And when something happens to those things and it isn't clear in my mind that everything in this world belongs to God. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and all they that dwell in. Everybody and everything in this world belongs to God, right? If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, we are a joint heir with God. Does the heir own the property yet? He doesn't own it yet. You're going to get it someday when the Father gives it to you. In the meantime, what you do have in terms of possessions, what you do have in terms of the people in your life. You know that wife of mine is the Lord's? You know those kids of mine are the Lord's? You know I believe when I go to heaven someday and our rewards in heaven are going to be directly related to my responsibility for the things and the people God entrusted me to with. When I get to heaven, one of the first things I'm going to be confronted with is, Larry, I gave you my daughter, Carol. And I asked you to love her. And I asked you to take care of her. What did you do? And I gave you my other three girls, Sharon and Cheryl and Karen, and I gave you that boy of mine, David. And I ask you not to provoke them to anger. I ask you to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I ask you to let that old heart of yours show through to the kids. How does the Old Testament end? I will send my prophet Elijah, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to their children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I smite the earth with a curse. I've asked you to do that. I told you the day will come when your son shall ask you, what meaneth these things? Why do you make us do these things this way? And we're to be available to share with him the principles upon which life really works. What kind of job did you do? and if I have been unfaithful in just those few little things, and then he's going to ask me to account for my money, his money. And all these things we have aren't ours. They've been loaned to us by God. And when we get into finances on Saturday, and we'll talk about how to look at that from God's perspective. You remember the last time you got angry? You remember it a couple years ago? Huh? Do you remember what you got angry about? Well, Saturday morning, you're going to be surprised, I think, as I was, because I just didn't believe it. I mean, of all the principles we're going to talk about, the one that I absolutely did not buy, and I could prove it to you why that wasn't true, was when God says I'm supposed to deal with all my anger. Because I could just get so mad that I couldn't figure out why I was mad. And I always had Jesus throwing the money changers out of the temple as my last justification. And not once in my life have I ever been involved in throwing money changers out of the temple. Furthermore, he wasn't mad then either. We'll prove, we'll talk about that. Let's say you just got a brand new car. And you stop out here at the light and you're ready to make a left-hand turn and somebody comes plowing into the back of your car. And what might be your response? Now, I'll tell you what. If it's my car, and I tell you about my car getting smashed, you will feel totally different about my car than you would if it was yours. Why? Because mine isn't yours. Sorry, Larry. I mean, hope you can get it fixed. But if somebody smashes into the back of that car, it's out of your control. When do we quote Romans 8.28? We know that all things work together for the good, I hope. You know, I assume you had a good reason up there for this because this is the last thing I needed. But do you know if we recognize that what just happened was beyond my control and this car isn mine it God you can honestly go around to the back of that car and look at that thing and say well lord it your car if that the way you want the rear end to look at your business i had two girls college girls leave the seminar and that happened to them one night they were driving their volkswagen and an older man smashed into the rear in and they look at each other. They can't believe it just happened. Neither of them were hurt. And she said, you know, in the past I'd have gotten out of the car. I've been bawling. I'd have been so upset. Instead, we're getting out of the car laughing. We cannot believe this happened. And he said, the old man is all shook up and he's crying. So we had to say, look, sir, that's okay. This is God's car. If that's the way he wants it to look, that's his business. You okay? Now, we'll talk about that because when we understand meekness, which I thought meant weakness, in fact, look at these terms. These are for a bunch of pantyweights, right? Poor in spirit, mourn, real pessimist, meek, hunger and thirst after righteousness, merciful, pure heart, peacemaker. That's one reason why I wasn't real excited about this. Because I really don't picture myself as liking to tiptoe through the tulips. And that's what I kind of, you know what behind this? Do you know what God says about meekness? You can't make it on your job without it. I beseech you as a servant of the Lord to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called with all lowliness of mind and meekness. You want to know God's will? The meek will he guide in judgment. The meek will he teach his ways. You want to handle somebody that disagrees with you? The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle toward all men in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. You've got a brother overtaken in a fault? Ye who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. it gives you the right attitude to deal with somebody who has done something wrong. Otherwise, you'll come off judgmental. And in the syllabus here, we must have about 25 different scriptures under that area of meekness that shows you all of the different blessings of God if we, in fact, will take Him serious about meekness. You've got to have that foundation. Hunger and thirst after righteousness. This is our whole disposition for knowing and learning more and more of God's ways. How to get into the Word. Do you have ways to get into the Word that when you get bored with one way, you can switch gears and get into another so you don't stop feeding? I have a short attention span. I usually can't hang in on one method more than a couple of weeks, and I get tired of it. I've got about a dozen different ways. As soon as I get tired of that one, I just switch gears. I know I'll come back to it. So that I can continue to go on in hunger and thirst after righteousness, the right God's ways. Merciful. How happy are those who will forgive. Those who are wrong. We've said a lot about that. The pure in heart. This is one who will allow the Holy Spirit to control my motives and my thoughts and my desires. That's a major, major area. we're going to talk about the dominant thought problems in a woman's mind. You know they're different than a man's? You say, what are the dominant thought problems in a woman's mind? We all know what the dominant thought problems are in a man's mind. Sex, lust. What's the dominant thought problems in a woman's mind? Beguilement. When Satan wanted to take advantage of the human race, he went after Eve and he beguiled her. and as soon as he beguiles you, everything becomes complicated. Why Paul said, for I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve. You want to take advantage of a woman? You beguile her. You want to take advantage of a woman? You don't tempt her. Any guy that wants to take advantage of a woman, do you know what you do? What do you do? First thing you've got to find out is how spiritual is she. depending on her spirituality determines how slow you have to move. Right? First thing you've got to do. How spiritual is she? If she's not spiritual at all, move quick. If she's got a lot of convictions, how do you break a girl down? You talk to her. You talk to her. you find out what her logic now a guy doesn't think this he does it instinctively you find out what her logic is and then you keep on talking to her and you bring other factors into her life like the way he treats her the right atmosphere the right mood remember satan he gets eve and he asks eve eve what god say she says of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that's in the midst of the garden thou shall not eat because the day you eat it you'll die and he says oh my land i got a bible believer is that what she did she quoted the word of god she's a fundamentalist now if she sticks to that satan has no chance right there's no chance she just flat out said god said no that's it no more conversation but satan lucifer comes and read ezekiel 28 this guy has got a Ferrari. I mean, read the jewels this guy was covered with. I mean, there is no question we're talking about big bucks here. Won't even have to ask for an automatic dishwasher and a maid. And women like those sparkly things for some, just really kind of attract them. Okay? The next thing we're told is that music flows out of him. The tabrets and the timbrels were in thee in the day thou wast created, for thou wast the anointed cherub. What was Satan's bag before he fell? Music. He was the chief musician of heaven before he fell. Music was his bag. So he's got the right FM dial. Your music. None of the harsh stuff, you know. Let's go back into the 40s for me. I'll be loving you always. Till the end of time. You all can't even relate to that. You're a bunch of kids. Right? Some of you. Right station. Now, he also has her in this beautiful garden, the most beautiful place on the earth. The moon is out. A lot of sparkle coming off of him. Got her in the right setting. You won't really die. Eve, you won't die. Look at me. Don't tell anybody, but I already ate the stuff. And look at me. Am I dead? The consequences aren't... Now stop and think about it. What's good and evil, Eve? I don't know what evil is. See? God is trying to keep you from something you have a right to. That's what he's trying to do. You have a right to this. once he got her off of God's words and shifted onto any other alternative and in this case the consequences aren't as bad as you think they are Eve was gone it's over she was willing to shift her mind and let all of these other factors what's one of the biggest struggles women have when now all of a sudden they see themselves so far into the relationship they ought to pull out but now they don't have the nerve to because they don't want to hurt his feelings. Then when people accuse you falsely, have you ever been lied about? Outright lies. It wasn't even true. God says whenever it happens, you ought to leap for joy. Picture a cheerleader, jump for joy, hallelujah. This is the biggest lie ever. It is not even true. You're supposed to get excited about that because how many of the accusations about Jesus were true? None of them. And any time they're not true about you, you and I are privileged to share in the same kind of sufferings Jesus suffered. Let's bow in prayer.