In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of the children of Israel and how God took care of them when they had no strength against their enemies. He emphasizes that we all have enemies and no strength against them, even in the flesh. The preacher shares a story about a hungry preacher who cried out to the Lord for food, not realizing that the meal was already prepared for him. He uses this story to illustrate the importance of appropriating and appreciating the fact that Jesus' blood was shed to cleanse us from sin. The preacher encourages listeners to not go hungry spiritually, as the bread of life is set before us and God wants us to enjoy and appropriate Him.

You forced me to think of you some time back when Bill wrote me and my heart was turned toward Omaha and I'm here to pay a little on my debt to you. Tonight I'd like to talk about a subject that I have enjoyed talking about and I haven't worn my enthusiasm out for it and the subject is our appropriation of the Lord. Now if any of the smaller people here tonight don't know what that word means, our appropriation of the Lord, it means our claiming of the Lord, our taking the Lord, our enjoyment of the Lord. Of course the most common use of the word appropriation today is in connection with Congress who sets aside a certain amount of money for this charge or for that service. Now we may appropriate the Lord and we may claim Him and He wants us to do so. He wants us to enjoy the Lord. We ought to be enjoying the Lord. Now before we get into our subject tonight, I'd like to say something about what's on my heart for tomorrow night and the night following. In the will of the Lord, I'd like to speak tomorrow night on the New Tongues Movement. I recently ministered in assemblies and one particular assembly and I've heard of more assemblies where they have lost people from that assembly because of this movement. You're going to face it. You're going to be faced with this thing sooner or later. It has not penetrated to the Middle West, I don't believe, to the extent that it has on the West Coast and up toward Canada and in the southwestern United States of America. But sooner or later it's bound to reach you. We need to be fortified with some truths from the scripture in regard to it, because these people that are taking up with this new movement this time are not the New Roddicks, are not the Pentecostals, are not the second grade Christian denominations as some would refer to them. It's really the intellectuals this time. The old line denomination, by that I mean the Episcopalians and the Lutherans, one Lutheran synod in the state of Montana, every pastor in that state with one exception has received the baptism of the Spirit and is speaking in tongues. This seems impossible, but the arrogancy of Satan himself, I think, is the explanation for all of this. Now, I think the thing to do is to be forewarned and thus be forearmed against such a thing as this. Tomorrow night I want to talk about it. I don't like to talk about it. I'd much rather engage in enjoyment of the Lord, which I trust that by his good hand we shall enjoy him tonight, but it's something that needs to be dealt with. And then Thursday night, in the will of the Lord, I want to talk about our antidote against the tongues movement. The tongues movement has moved into a void in Christian circles, and there is a void. If there were no void, it wouldn't have moved in. But there is a void and I think there is an antidote to the tongues movement, and we want to talk in the will of the Lord on Thursday night about that antidote. Now, tonight, in the appropriation of the Lord, the cleaning of the Lord for our lives, you know, the Lord enjoys his people, and he wants his people to enjoy him. And I think the highest function of our souls is to enjoy the Lord. We ought to be a happy people. I know there is much in this world to make us sad. I know there are the ravages of old age which are brought before us, and we rather feel them at times in small twinges, tinges, if you know what I mean. Perhaps you don't. If some of you young people don't, why wait a while? But we are living in a world where there is sadness. But you know, we can sing, too. It seems to me that James, in his epistle, takes care of this. One time I was reading in the epistle of James, I'm just going to refer that, refer you to that in the last chapter of the fifth chapter. This is rather humorous, but it spoke to my heart. James 5, 13. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. I remember one day I felt very lighthearted. And I reproached myself, and I said, you shouldn't be feeling lighthearted. Not with all the sorrow and the sin that's in this world today. But you know, I couldn't find a thing to worry about on this particular occasion. And this verse came to me, you know, with a good deal of refreshment. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. So I sang. And you know, there are times when the merriment goes, well, then we can pray. But thank God, down here in this earthly journey, there are times when God does give us real periods of enjoyment, periods of relaxation. And I think possibly it gives real meaning to those wonderful words of Paul in the Philippian epistle, rejoice in the Lord. And again I say rejoice. And certainly we can rejoice in the Lord. There are many things in this world which we cannot rejoice in, but there we can rejoice. Now, the Lord takes pleasure in His people. And He enjoys His people. And He wants us to enjoy Him. And I think the highest function of our souls is to enjoy the Lord. We ought to be enjoying Him. We ought to be a happy people. Our hearts should be filled with our Lord. Now, I know there are many distractions in this day and age, especially about this time of year and up to perhaps and through the 15th of April. I know that there are things that keep our minds occupied and keep us earthbound. And in spite of ourselves, as a matter of fact, sometimes I'm wondering who we're working for. I wonder sometimes if I'm working for the Lord. Not that, of course, I have to use an adding machine or anything like that. But I do know this. There are many things to distract us. Many things that make us earthbound. But, you know, I think sometimes we can rise up on equal wings in our enjoyment of the Lord. And the Lord wants us to appropriate Him. He wants us to enjoy Him. He enjoys us. Now, it doesn't seem that the Lord would find His enjoyment in His people. Let's just look at a few scriptures. Proverbs, chapter 8. You wouldn't think that the Lord would find anything in which He could rejoice in us. But He does. Strangely enough. Proverbs, chapter 8, verse 23. This is spoken of wisdom, but it's wisdom personified by our Lord Jesus. In the 8th chapter of Proverbs, and in verse 23, or 22, The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning wherever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no foundations, fountains rather, abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before they found a foundation. Before the hills was brought forth. While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the earth. When He prepared the heavens, I was there. When He set a compass upon the face of the depth. When He established the clouds above. When He strengthened the fountains of the deep. When He gave to the sea His decree that the water should not pass His commandment. When He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him as one brought up with Him. And I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth. And my delights were with the sons of men. And our Lord Jesus came down into this earth, and He moved as a man among men. And there were some that gave to the Lord that which His great heart desired. I'm thinking of John the Apostle. I'm thinking of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Who gave to the Lord that which His heart craved. Oh how much they did for our Lord Jesus Christ. And how much you and I can do for that great heart of love of His. If we only realized it. His delights were with the sons of men. Right back in the book of Psalms. The last of the Psalms. Psalm 149. Verse 4 of Psalm 149. The Lord taketh pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Verse 2 we read, Let Israel rejoice in Him that made Him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. And there's a reason why Israel should rejoice in Him that made Him. Why? Because the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. And He is beautifying His people with salvation. And the Lord is pleased with His people. Now I think probably one of the greatest verses of appropriation in the Bible is Psalm 23.1. When David says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That is a verse of appropriation. David doesn't say simply, The Lord is a shepherd. But that would have been true. The Lord is indeed a shepherd. A wonderful shepherd. A shepherd in the truest sense of the word. And the fact that the Lord is a shepherd, of course, makes you and me the sheep. And the scriptures tell us that we are the sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. And certainly we are the sheep. David didn't say the Lord is a shepherd. He said the Lord is my shepherd. David could have said the Lord is the shepherd. Because the Lord Himself said, I am the good shepherd. The definite article. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But David goes farther than that. He says the Lord is my shepherd. That was appropriation. He claimed the Lord. You know, there are lots of people in the world today. They think of Christ as being a Savior. And they may even go so far as to think of Him as being the Savior. But do they talk about Him as being my Savior? Have I appropriated Him? I think probably the first appropriation that you and I made of the Lord was when God saved us. And indeed we must appropriate the Lord in order to be saved. The Lord Himself tells us that. Shall we turn to John chapter 6? That wonderful chapter on the bread of life. In John 6 and 48 we read the words of the Lord, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Now this was particularly of poor taste as far as the Jews were concerned about the Lord mentioning the fact that we must drink his blood. Because in Jewish law, they were absolutely strictly forbidden to eat blood. And on this occasion, the Lord speaks about drinking his blood and eating his flesh. And if they didn't eat his flesh and drink his blood, they had no life in them. What did the Lord mean? The Jews, of course, being the people they are, immediately took the literal thought, they took the literal aspect of his eating, of eating the flesh and drinking the blood. And they were abhorrent of such a thought. Well, what did the Lord mean? You've got to eat my flesh, you've got to drink my blood, or you have no life in you. Well, he's referring to himself, of course, as under the figure of bread. And he says, I am the bread of life. Now there are those in the world today, the one great system, the name of which I needn't mention, believes in the doctrine of transubstantiation. That as the priest takes the wafer and blesses it, that it actually transforms into the body and blood of the Lord. And that's very necessary. You will recall in the tragic death of our president, that the priest was there and he administered the last rites and he assured Mrs. Kennedy that he felt that the life of the president was still in his body when that little wafer got pushed between his teeth and of course was the last rites. My, I'm glad my salvation doesn't depend upon a man. Suppose that his life wasn't within his body. It was just the natural warmth of life left in his body. Suppose that the priest had gone there too late. Oh, I'm so glad that my salvation depends upon the Lord Jesus. I had a friend, a friend who knew the Lord too, in another denomination. He was a fellow worker of mine when I was in the U.S. Department of Commerce. And a Christian man, a man with whom I could have fellowship with. And the church where he went held a little different doctrine and I never was able to understand it. I've always thought of myself as being at least of average intelligence along spiritual lines. And he tried to explain it to me and it was just double talk as far as I was concerned. I never did figure out what the man meant. And I wondered if he knew in his own mind what he was trying to say. Now, what does the Lord mean? Does he mean the literal partaking of his flesh and of his blood? Of course not. Now, in verse 35 of the 6th chapter of John, we read, And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Now, is he speaking literally? Of course not. He says, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. Now, I came to Christ over 35 years ago. Between 35 and 40 years ago. And I can get just as hungry now as I did in my unfaithful days. I do get hungry physically. The Lord doesn't let me go hungry very long. Never more than about 5 hours. And, but believe me, I get hungry. Now, what does he mean? Certainly nothing literal. It's the hunger of the soul. Christ can satisfy the soul. He's the bread of life. And if we believe on him, we'll never hunger in that respect. Or if we come to him, we'll never hunger. If we believe on him, we'll never thirst. He quenches the thirst of the soul. He satisfies the soul. He is the bread of life. And we can have longings. Hunger, it is a nice figure for describing longings, cravings. And the Lord satisfies the soul when he's the bread of life. But you know, I think the Lord refers to himself under the figure of bread so that we might appropriate what he's done. Now, we've got to appropriate our food every time we eat. Our food is set before us, but at least at my house, they don't feed me. I've got to eat myself. I have to appropriate that food, and we have to appropriate the food ever since our smallest baby days. We were fed when we were tiny babies. But after that, we have to appropriate our food. We have to claim it. Now, it's just as simple as that. I appropriate the Lord's, the truth of the Lord's body, that his body was nailed to a cross. And in that body he bore my sins. And I have to, I have to appropriate the fact, I have to understand the fact, I have to appreciate the fact that his precious blood was shed to take my sins away. And it's the only agent that can cleanse me from my sins. That's what I must take in. That's what I must appropriate. Now, we can have the very finest dinner set before us, and we can still go hungry. As a matter of fact, we frequently read of hunger strikes sometimes in penitentiaries, where the inmates want to get some publicity of one kind or another. They go on a hunger strike, and nobody will eat. And everybody, of course, feels sorry for the poor prisoners because they're hungry, because they won't eat. And, of course, it makes headlines. And they're on a hunger strike. Occasionally people, to get publicity, go on hunger strikes with food sitting right in front of them. They go hungry. Well, you and I don't need to go hungry as far as our souls are concerned because the bread of life is set before us. I think probably all of us that are more than a few years down the pathway of faith have heard the story about the preacher that was invited to the lady's house whom he was trying to win for the Lord. She invited him over for the meal. And she had prepared a sumptuous meal for the preacher, something that she shouldn't do, but she did anyway. But she prepared this meal, and the time came when she called him to the meal. She said, Come, sir, now the dinner is ready. And he fell down upon his knees, and he started crying out to the Lord. Oh, Lord, send me something to eat. I'm starving. I'm starving. Lord, send me something to eat. And this woman looked aghast at this man. She says, What have I got on my hands here? And he kept crying to the Lord. Lord, send me something to eat. I'm starving. Well, pretty soon her amazement turned to anger. She went over and tapped the man on the shoulder, and she said, Sir, I said the food is on the table. Come and eat it. Now, he rose to his full height, and he said to her, Now, I suppose you think I'm crazy. But he says, You're doing with God exactly what I've done with you. God has provided salvation for you for the taking, for the appropriation of it. And you're crying to God and trying to be saved and longing to be saved when all you have to do is appropriate it. Take it. Take it in. And that's exactly how we get saved. It's simply take it in. God has provided it for us. And that was probably our first act of appropriation. And oh, when we appropriated our Lord in that sense as our Savior, what a blessing it brought to our souls. Well, after the Lord saves us, after we have appropriated His body, being nailed to the cross in payment for our sins, His suffering as payment for our sins, when we appropriate His blood as God's cleansing to take my sins away, then, of course, there are other ways in which we find the Lord is truly the satisfying portion of our lives. God wants us to appropriate. He wants every man and woman and boy and girl to appropriate, to take Him to claim what has been done for them on the cross. And it's so foolish to long to be saved. I don't know whether any of the young people in this meeting tonight are longing to be saved, but they don't have to. It's a matter of simply appropriating, and simply claiming what God is offering. Certainly, we ought to believe that He's in earnest when He offers us these things. I think probably the next act of appropriation was the appropriation of the Father's care for our daily needs. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 7, if you please. Matthew 7, verse 7. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. For what man is there of you whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them than ask him? Now, Dane says, ye ask and receive not, because you ask to consume it on your lusts. Ye have not, because you ask not. I repeated that in reverse order. James chapter 4. Let's turn to it, please. James chapter 4, verse 2. Ye lust and have not. Ye kill and desire to have, of course, through your own efforts, and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask mist, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. God wants us to ask him when we have our need. You know, there is so much accomplished by prayer. Now, we couldn't attempt to give any kind of an exhaustive word on the subject of prayer tonight. But certainly, God wants us to pray, and certainly so much is accomplished by prayer. And God wants to show himself strong on the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him. He's looking for opportunity to answer our prayers. He loves to answer our prayers. He encourages us to pray for our needs, and many, many times we go trying to satisfy our needs through our own efforts, and we fail. And James reminds us that we have not, because we ask not. The Lord is not mean. He's not niggerly. He likes to bless his people. And though how he blesses me, there seems to be no end to his blessing. And he blesses you, I'm sure. I'm thankful for the next verse, the third verse of James 4, that sometimes I don't get what I ask for. As a matter of fact, I think I can thank God for just as many things that I don't get as the things that I do get. Because if God gave me all I ask for, I might have a spiritual stomachache before I got through with it. Thank God. He indeed deals with me in wisdom. But here's an encouragement. Ask. And it should be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Not. And it should be opened. Even those three forms of petition there form an acrostic. A-S-K. Ask. Seek. Not. God is just wanting us to appropriate his supply. And oftentimes, we don't get it because we don't ask. He wants to prove himself. He wants to give us the spiritual thrill of asking and receiving. We'll talk more about this, Lord willing, Thursday night. He wants us to have the thrill of having our prayers answered. And he wants us to watch, too, incidentally, and then thank him when we get the answer to our prayers. You know, it's interesting to just ask God for something and then step back out of the way real quickly, give him room for action because sometimes he does answer very quickly, very specifically. I believe God wants us to be specific in our prayers. And he says, ask. That's all, just ask. Just appropriate my fatherly care. I'm so glad that I do have a father. And I'm so glad that he encourages me to ask. He wants me to appropriate his fatherly care. And we're told, we're told in Romans chapter 8, in verse 32 of that wonderful chapter, many of you could quote it without even looking. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? He's not withheld his son. He's certainly given us his best. Is he going to withhold the rest? Of course not. He loves to bless us and he loves to have us ask. And thank God if we ask for too much, then he will say no. But he will say yes to many, many of our requests. I'm so glad that I have a father. And I'm so thrilled sometimes when he proves to me that he indeed is my father. Now, I think he wants us to ask wisdom for our pathway. James chapter 1, another familiar verse. As a matter of fact, I doubt if you learned too many new things tonight from this little study, The Appropriation of the Lord. But maybe our approach will be new and it will come in a measure of freshness. But he wants us to appropriate wisdom for our pathway. His body and his blood for our salvation, the Father's care for our daily needs, and now wisdom for our pathway. James chapter 1, verse 5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. And it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. And God wants us to be sincere in our requests. Now, we do need wisdom in our daily needs. Wisdom, with our wisdom, the natural wisdom that God has given to us, we plot our future course. But we can't always see everything. The Lord can see everything that's ahead of us. And he wants us to ask for wisdom. And there isn't any of us here that are exempt. We have decisions to make. This is a world of decisions and we're making decisions all the time until we get sick and tired of making decisions. We can ask the Lord to help us when we need wisdom. The boys and girls in this room tonight can ask the Lord for wisdom on one occasion. I saw a cartoon recently that struck me. One little fellow was talking to his schoolmate and he said, it may be unconstitutional, but I asked the Lord to help me in my tests at school. And so he knew something of the appropriation of the wisdom of the Lord in asking help in his tests at school. Let me ask you young people here that may know the Lord. Do you ask the Lord to help you in the tests and give you wisdom? Well, I have asked the Lord for help and he has made up my mind for me. On many occasions he has given me thoughts that have occurred to me that I don't believe I recall or are brought into my own consciousness by my own power. I'm sure the Lord did it. As a matter of fact, sometimes I lose something or sometimes I forget somebody's name and I just tell the Lord in childish simplicity, Lord, I suppose that it's hidden back in some recess in my brain by a certain configuration of cells or electronic arrangement. Maybe it's there, but I can't recall it. And Lord, I want to know, will you please recall it to me? And after a while, it will come to me. And then I wonder why I recall it. Then I will wonder why I ever recalled it in the first place. But you know, it's just the power of God. And I believe that God wants us to appropriate his wisdom for our pathway. I know that it pleases him but Jane says, let him ask in faith. You know, God honors, he likes to honor faith. And he likes to give us wisdom. He who is the very treasure of wisdom and knowledge can dispense that wisdom to you and to me. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. And I'm telling you, you and I have a real edge on the whirling around us if we will appropriate. And certainly he has made unto us wisdom, not only wisdom, but righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And the Lord is closer to us than our own memory. And he can recall things to our minds. I'm just amazed at what takes place inside of our heads sometimes. The Lord can get past the, well, the outside chasing. He can get in there. He has access to our minds. He knows our thoughts. And it's amazing to me how that God can suggest things to our minds. Of course, a fortunate part of it is Satan has access to them too. And we're told to be on guard against that. That's another line of thing in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We're to test our thoughts and see where they come from. Would you like to see that Scripture? I hope I can find it. 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. Even now if it hasn't moved. Let's see. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And verse 4. I knew there was a 4 in it some place. 2 Corinthians 10 and 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God through the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We ought to test the things that come into our minds. Because Satan can suggest things. He can. He put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord. But God has access to our minds too. He wouldn't give Satan access to our minds, would he? And not have access to our minds himself? We can ask for wisdom. And we can get it. And I'm sure that God is pleased when we appropriate His wisdom for our pathway. Then we can appropriate His strength with which we may combat our enemies. I'd like to refer you to Exodus chapter 15. In this respect, to the song of Moses. The first time I think that the word song or the act of singing is mentioned in the Scriptures. In Exodus chapter 15, verse 1, we read, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider have he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God. And I will prepare Him in habitation. My Father's God. And I will exalt Him. Now it's all right for him to say, My Father's God. But he says, My strength. My God first. You know, I don't care how young we are in this room tonight. We know the Lord. We've got to know God for ourselves. And we can't know God simply because Mom and Dad knows Him. It's a matter of appropriation. This message is for the youngest Christian in this meeting tonight. The matter of being able to say, My God. My strength. My salvation. You remember the occasion. The children of Israel came up to the Red Sea. And they were trapped between Migdal, Pahiroth, the Red Sea, and the Egyptians behind them. And they had no place to go. And they were afraid that they were going to be annihilated. And they cried to Moses, to cry to the Lord. And the Lord told Moses what to do, to scratch out his staff over the sea, his arm over the sea. And the Lord sent the waters back that night, all through the night by means of a strong east wind. And the waters congealed in the form of a wall. And the children of Israel went through the Red Sea on dry land. The Egyptians said, in effect, If they can do it, we can do it. And they followed them into the sea to their own deaths. And when Moses and the children of Israel came out on the other side of the sea, the Lord told him to stretch out his arm over the sea and the water shall come together. And he stretched out his hand over the sea. He doesn't mention anything about the rod. He stretched his hand out over the sea and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared. Now, God took care of the situation. He told the children of Israel, stand still, or Moses told them, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Now, God undertook for them. They had no strength against their enemies. You and I have enemies. And we have no strength against them. Not even the flesh. We wouldn't presume to boast ourselves against the devil. And we realize that the world is bigger than we are. Sometimes we think we can take care of the flesh. But only Amalek can be conquered as we hold our hands up in prayer. When Moses let his hands down, when they were fighting against Amalek, Amalek prevailed. And they held his hands up. And as you and I hold up our hands in prayer, we may prevail over Amalek. But you know we're no match for our foes and our own strength. We need the strength of God. But they, when they sang, spoke of the Lord as being their strength. God wants us to appropriate our strength. The Lord said to Paul on one occasion, My strength is sufficient for thee. Do we appropriate the strength of the Lord? I have to. Believe me, I'm not equal to the occasion. Many, many times, I, many times, there in Boulder, I sit out and sometimes I'll sit out on my back step. I have a kind of a little patio at the back door. We live at the mouth of Boulder Canyon. And after a particularly warm day, the canyon breeze sweeps down Boulder Canyon at night in the evening. And I sit out there in May and that fragrant incense of pine, perhaps a little oak brush mixed in, comes right down out of the mouth of the canyon. And it makes me so nervous I can hardly sit still. You say, well, that would make you nervous? Yes, it does. Because I always think of a summer of camp work ahead of me. And you follow boys and girls all summer or a good major portion of the summer. And believe me, you'll find your strength taxed. Two, I can wear out any group of any one children in any one week. But when I get a new group the next week, that's something else again. Now, I just can't enjoy sitting out on my own back porch because I smell those pines and it makes me think of the mountains and it makes me think of camp. But now, in September, I can sit out and I can enjoy that canyon breeze. The summer is past. Then I can really enjoy myself. But I must tell you, I have faith many a summer and I've told the Lord, Lord, I can't do it. I haven't got what it takes. I can't get the material together to be fresh with all these boys and girls. And I have to confess to the Lord, Lord, you have to help me. I can't do it. And many a time I have almost faltered during the summer. Lord, how am I going to make it? And I've made it every summer. As a matter of fact, here I stand before you tonight. But many a time, I didn't think I'd ever stand before anybody before the summer was over. I have learned, I hope in a great degree, to appropriate the Lord as my strength. And I'll tell you, He wants us to appropriate His strength. And we can do it. We can bear things that we never thought we could bear. We can do things that we never thought we could do. If we will make the Lord our strength. If we will lean upon Him and say, Lord, take over. I'm not equal to the task. Lord, bring me through. And He'll do it. But He wants us to appropriate His strength. You know, we do a lot of things that we don't have to do. We do a lot of worrying that we don't have to do. And we carry the world around on our back sometimes. Like Atlas, the mythical Atlas of old, who carried the world around on his back. And we're regular Atlases sometimes. I've told you of my experience with my friend, Carol Brown. I know I've told you this to some of you, but at the risk of at least not one, at the risk of one of you not hearing it, I'll tell it again. Mr. Carol Brown was confiding in me one night and he was moaning as only Carol Brown could moan. And he had a big, he had a big responsibility. He had at one time six or seven hundred men in his employ. It takes a lot of work to keep that many men busy. And he was telling me one night as he was besieged by problems, oh, can he says, I just feel low tonight. And he was confiding to me about how low he felt. And I said, Carol, I says, why don't you go to bed and go to sleep and let God run the universe tonight. And he looked at me and he began to laugh. And he laughed and he laughed and he laughed, almost hysterical. But he said, can he says, I guess I'll just do that. And he has, it stuck. He has brought that up, he's with the Lord now. He brought that up to me time and time. Ken, do you remember the time? Do you remember the time he told me to go to sleep and let God run the universe? I says, yes, I remember. And you know, sometimes I've had to take my own medicine and it didn't taste so well either. But you know, it's a matter of appropriation. The strength of the Lord. Or how we need it. Then we need grace for every trial. Hebrews chapter 4, and I want you to notice here the encouragement to appropriate the Lord. This is a, the Hebrews is a book of exhortation, particularly. The words let off are used so many times. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And we need mercy for that which is past. We need grace for that which is to come. But here's the word of of exhortation. Let us. This is children's language almost. They shorten it a little. They say let's, or even sometimes luck. Let's do something. It's an infectious language. It's a suggestion. Let's. Let's. And so the apostle says, let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now we need strength to combat our enemies, but there are times when it takes grace. And grace, I suppose, is another, embraces and enfolds strength within it. I think probably grace is the more inclusive term. But there are times when it just seems that we need the grace for the trial. But there is the encouragement to approach the throne of grace. Aren't you glad it's the throne of grace? It could have been called a throne of judgment. But thank God, for you and for me, it will never be a throne of judgment. We do have the judgment seat of Christ, but the thought is, even in the judgment seat of Christ, is the bima. It was a term used in the Greek olympics. It was the judge's stand. And Paul just took it right out of its apoletic setting and used it in the scriptures. It's the bima. But thank God, we have a throne of grace which we can approach for every trial, that we may find grace to help in time of need. What I refer to the scripture for is the infectious language. Let us, therefore, come boldly into the throne of grace. The real encouragement to come. Let's go. Let's go to his throne. Let's approach his throne that we may find grace to help in time of need. Why should we go it alone? I know sometimes we think we're going it alone. But why should we go it alone? We don't have to go it alone. The Lord will help us. We forget it, don't we? Yes, we do. And he wants us to appropriate him. Now, I'd like to refer you to Genesis chapter 15. Another appropriation made of the Lord. In the 14th chapter of Genesis, Abraham is a warrior. And through his servant's efforts to buy what a household he did have, 318, through his servant's efforts he delivers the king of Sodom and a few other kings and his nephew Lot from the plundering raids of other kings. He rescues the goods. Now Kisadach, the king of Salem, brings forth bread and wine and blesses Abraham in a wonderful way. Gives him a new revelation of the name of God. And the king of Sodom wants to reward Abraham. In the 14th chapter of Genesis, the king of Sodom in verse 21 says to Abraham, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. He appropriates the name that he has so newly learned, that I will not take from thee from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I made Abraham rich, save only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshel, and Mamre. Let them take their portion. Now the next chapter begins with these words. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Now I'm not going to be dogmatic, but I'm wondering, Abraham being as human as he was, and he was a human, even to the point of being able to lie on occasion, Abraham might have had a tinge of regret about the fact that he was so generous. I don't know that that's the case. But the language of it almost seems to suggest it. Because it says, After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. That's better than having Melchizedek tell you that, isn't it? I am thy shield. I am your exceeding great reward. And the Lord would like to have us appropriate him in this respect as well. You know, we could be rich by a simple act of appropriation, and I couldn't be. And rich in the way that the U.S. government couldn't take it away from us. We could be that way tonight. We could enjoy these things tonight. Turn to the 73rd Psalm for a very, very familiar verse. Psalm 73, in which Psalm 86 prays to the Lord and bears his heart to the Lord at the envy that was in his heart at times. He gets into the presence of God and he learns what a portion he has in the Lord. And he says in verse 21 of the 73rd Psalm, Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reign. So foolish was I in ignorance. I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart feeleth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. He had found his riches in God. He had God. Something that the rich didn't have. He learned at last. God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. You and I can appropriate the Lord in these respects. Just as Abraham was encouraged to do so, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. We can appropriate him indeed as Esau did. My strength. The strength of my heart and my portion forever. Now the Lord wants us to appropriate him that way. We have him. We have need for nothing. Because certainly he can supply all our need. And he is our all in all. I think of the words of the Apostle Paul and I'm not going to refer to them in the Philippians. Our time is up. But I think of the words of the Apostle Paul for me to live. The word is, in italics, is just Christ. Just enjoyment of Christ. Just having him before me as the object of my life. As my incentive. As my reward. And I'm sure the Lord wants us to appropriate him in that way. Turn to Hebrews 13. I want to show you just a verse. Just a verse. That's all. Better than anything I could say. Hebrews 13, verse 5. Let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee. Nor forsake thee. You've got me. Therefore be content with such things as ye have. Don't be given to covetousness. Let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee. Nor forsake thee. Isn't that pretty plain? The Lord tells us in so many words, you've got me. Really, you haven't much reason to be covetous. Now this rubs off onto all of us. I frequently, with apologies to Kipling, I have said, breathe the soul of a man so dead, as to himself hath never said, I wish I owned that car. Well, we've got the Lord. And I believe that the Lord wants us to appropriate him. And I think we ought to be a happy people. We ought to be a satisfied people. We ought to be a joyous people. We ought to be enjoying the Lord. The Lord's enjoying us. We ought to be enjoying him. And if we're not, it's simply because we're not appropriating. There is enough in him to meet all our needs. And he himself is best of all, not his graces, but he himself, the portion of our hearts. May God make this a living reality in our lives. That we may indeed be happy Christians, that others may envy us. And not like Asaph, who envied the wealthy around him, but others might envy us. My, I wish I had their peace. I wish I had that man's peace of mind. My, I wish I had his poise. My, I wish I had his cheerful outlet. May God help us to be living testimonies of the satisfying portion that we have in our God. Now do we have a... What do we do to close? Just a matter of prayer, I guess. All right, shall we bow our heads in prayer? Our Father...