God, I Need Peace | God, Can You Help Me?

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Join us as Ken Wooten brings us a message about asking, God, I need peace. 

#peace #godcanyouhelpme #thegodwhoseesme #Jesus #fullservice #fullchurchservice #christian #sermon #worship #westside #church #2026sermon #churchonline #kenwooten

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:17

Well, good morning.

unknown 0:18

Good morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Well, it's good to see you. You look really good. I don't know what group looks the best. Yours, this one or the first one?

unknown 0:27

This one.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

But this one, I agree with you. And uh it's always a joy to share God's word with you. And uh it's kind of something I thought about sharing this morning, you know. I'm gonna be in the book of Judges this morning. And it's really neat that I've been studying this book and loving it, reading it daily for 65 years now. I've been a Christian, and I ever I was 19 years old when I came to know the Lord, and it's been a great joy of mine. Well, I'll start with a little story. You know, it has nothing to do with the message, nothing to do with the message, but uh it's a good little story, so I'll give it to you. There was a couple that uh recently got pulled over on the freeway, and uh the state trooper came up by his window and said, uh, I'd like to see your license, your registration, and your proof of in church. The guy said, Okay, but uh, why are you pulling me over? He said, You were going 25 miles an hour over the speed limit. He said, Really? He said, I never go over the speed limit. She said, You do too, all the time. His wife sending by, said, I'm telling you constantly, slow up, honey, you're gonna get a ticket, but you don't slow up, you just keep on going fast. And boy, he got mad and yelled at her and screamed at her, and oh my lens. So said, the other thing is you didn't have a seatbelt on. Oh, really? I always wear my seatbelt. I never moved the car without putting it on. She said, that's not true. She said, you never put that seatbelt on. You say it restrains you and locks you in. You don't like seatbelts. You said you'd never wear them. And I'm always telling you to put your seatbelt on. And boy, he got mad at her and yelled and screamed and uh told her to shut up and all the state trooper walked around the car to her side. Said, ma'am, I'm really sorry the way he yells at you and treats you, mistreats you. Um, does he always do this? Only when he's been drinking too much. Don't mess with that woman. Don't mess with that woman, fella. You may think you're on top of it, but you're not. I want to talk to you about something that's really missing today in our society, and uh and I want to encourage you how we can have it and own it for ourselves. So I'm gonna use a man from the Old Testament as my starting point, and it's found in Judges chapter 6, and uh his name is Gideon. And I love the guy because he's down to earth, he's kind of one of these guys. He was living in the day when the Mennonites, that was the enemy, and uh that was a country, the Mennonites would come into Israel and would uh take over the fields of the ground and would eat all their food, destroy them, hurt them, kill them, and then they'd leave it barren. The Bible says that they had so many camels, it was like the sand of the sea. You couldn't count it. They had camels, and then there were hundred thousand or two hundred thousand of them just come in and destroy and eat everything they had. And that's where Gideon comes into the picture in verse number 11. It says, then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Oprah, and which belongs to Joash of these of the clan of Abonnezer. And Gideon's son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press. Now get the pictures here, to hide the grain from the Mennonites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, Mighty hero, the Lord is with you. Now I always thought that was interesting, just that little part there alone. He says, he comes in, this angel of the Lord comes and says, To get in. Here he's hiding. He's in a wine press, down underneath the ground, and he's grinding wheat, and he's he's afraid, he's scared, he knows what the Mennonites can do to him and his family. And so he's he's really hiding out. But God appears to him and an angel and says, Mighty hero. Now, can I tell you that God doesn't look at you the way you look at you? I know, just let it sink in. It's a deep thought. See, sometimes we we look at ourselves and we see weakness and we see being afraid, but God doesn't look at you. He sees you as a mighty man, a mighty woman, hero. He sees you as a great person. And sometimes we see ourselves not as God sees us. And he looked at Gideon and he said, Gideon, you're a mighty hero. You're gonna do something great. And Gideon liked that, so he said, Wait here, Lord. And he left and he went home. He fixed the lamb and the meat already and bread and brought it back to the Lord, and he set it on a rock. And look at verse number 14. It says, Then the Lord turned to him and said, Go with the strength you have and rescue Ezra from the Midianites. I'm sending you. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and the fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. I want to stop there a second. You know, when God sends us, when God comes and reveals himself to us and says, You're a mighty hero, he says, you know, you have strength that you don't know you have when you know Christ as your Savior, when you know God. He says, You have strength. I want you to go and do a job for me. Fact is, he says, not only am I revealing myself to you, but I'm calling you and sending you. I want you to go. I want you to do a work for me, Gideon. Now, here's a man that that I think had good reason possibly to be afraid. But I love the way God always comes, not always, but he comes to us when we're in the pit. When we're hiding, when we're afraid. And uh I like the way when he brings out that offering to the Lord, that he just touches it and the rock just consumes it. Now watch what happens in the latter part of that. It says, and the angel of the Lord disappeared. And when Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, and watch this, O sovereign Lord, I am doomed. I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. This was none other than Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate, coming to him. And Gideon saw that and said, This is the Lord, this is Jesus, this is God. And I've seen the Lord face to face. I am surely doomed. I like what the Lord says. He says, It is all right, the Lord replied, Do not be afraid, you will not die. And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there, and he named it Yahweh Shalom, which simply means the Lord is peace. And that's what I want to speak to you about this morning is peace. The world is missing it. I mean, we go, you know, we watch the news, and they say there's gonna be peace, and then next news, there's no peace. I'm going to work, this peaceful place to work, and then all of a sudden it's not peaceful. You're home with your wife, with your kids, and there's no peace. And God wants us to have peace. I love it when my sweet wife and I sit on our swing out back, and uh, we have such a peaceful place. We just sit in that swing, we see flowers all around. And uh the peace. It's that peace that calms you, it's hopeful peace. It's uh it's peace that it's peace that will uh secure you. You just I'm with him in peace. Oh, there's nothing like it. I desire you to have that kind of peace. Someone said, Well, it's because you're getting older. Well, that's true. But the older you get in the Lord, the more peace you should have. But you should have peace as a young man too, as a young woman too. Have the peace of God, have it in your home, with your kids, with your spouse. My first wife and I had said we will never raise our voice in each other like our parents did. And we never did. And Louette and I never raised our voice in each other. We just never, never did, never have. I I like the peace. Don't you like peace? I know you do. It's just that peace that subtles you, your heart is subtle. Louette and I love going in the car. We've been married 17 years almost. We love going in the car on what we call a coffee ride. We get a coffee at Dutch Brothers, and then we take Farmington, we go all the way to the end of it. Then we go to Hillsborough, then we go, keep on going, we want to. And we take country road. We just sometimes we get lost. It's really fun. If you've never been lost with your loved one, with your sweetheart, you need to do that. Peace, though. Just to have that peace that God wants you to have. Gideon learned how to have peace. By the way, it was really interesting. Gideon, you know, as he grew. You'll see it in chapters 6, 7, and 8. You need to read all three chapters. You want you want to do reading this week. Read chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Judges. Really, read that. You would enjoy it. Not now, this week. 6, 7, and 8. And see the life of Gideon. What a man he ended up being for God. You know, I like it after this while later he said to the Lord, the Lord said, I'm going to send you to battle now. And I loved it. He said, Well, I want to know that you're going to be with me, God. So here's what I'm going to do. I put a blanket out in the ground, and in the morning, I want the blanket wet, the ground dry. Okay. So he got up, sure enough. Next day he said, I want to see the ground wet, the blanket dry, and sure enough it happened. He said, Okay, God's with me. He left to go to war with the Midianites with 32,000 men. Wow, he was ready. And so God told him to do something he did. He said, All you men that are afraid, frightened, and uh and don't want to go, you can go home. 22,000 went home. I bet he checked himself on that. What are they? Why did I say that for? Good grief. And there goes 22,000. Man leaves me with 10,000. Then he says, go down to the river and drink some water, and I'll tell you how to separate them. And they went down to the river. He said, Everybody that cups water and brings it up to their mouth and drinks it, he said, Set over here. And everybody that reads goes down and drinks from the stream, put them over here. 300 men drunk from their hand. He said, You're going to take them. The others can go home. See. By this time, Gideon had such joy and peace in his heart. He said, I know that the Lord's going to deliver us. I don't know how, but he's going to do it. You should read the rest of it. I'm not going to tell it to you. You should read it. Six, seven, and eight tells you how it all ended out on Gideon's life. So I want to give you four things that I think that will help us have that calmness, that that hope in our lives, you know, that safety. God said, I want you to have those things in your life. Here's the first one. Write it in your note to have that Jehovah Shalom. God of peace, to have it in your heart. He said, first of all, peace is a person. Peace is a person. Now you know, if I go downtown and it's in a dangerous part of the town, boy, I could get fearful. I mean, you know, these it could get scary down there. But then I have Frank with me. Come up, Frank. I have Frank with me. Now I want you to know that all of a sudden I have calmness. Because Frank is with you. Who's gonna mess with Frank? He lives at the gym and didn't take care of me. I feel safe with you, secure, because I have a person with me. Frank. Thank you, Frank.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

And that's who you have in Jesus Christ. You have a person. The book of Hebrews, all thirteen chapters, tells you there's a person, Jesus Christ. In fact, there's a whole book that shares with us a person better than. Jesus is better than the law. He's better than the Old Testament sacrifice. Jesus is better than. He's a person. He's with me. Show you this scripture. It's found in John 14, 26. He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world give I unto you. So let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He just simply said, that's probably one of the first verses I memorized. I thought, that is so good. I just dug into it. I leave that peace with you, Ken. It's not just for the preacher, it's not just for the super Christian, it's for every one of us. Peace. In the midst of a world, we can have peace. When people walk into our home, it feels peaceful. When people are around you, they feel at peace. They're safe. When I'm around Frank, don't mess with me. And I have Jesus Christ, the person of Christ, and he's around me. By the way, where there's peace, there's no fear. Where there's fear, there's no peace. God says, I've replaced fear with peace. The person of Christ Jesus. When you invited Jesus Christ to forgive you your sins and come into your life, he brought with him peace. That passes all understanding. It's peace that sends us forward. And even though the world rocks and rolls, even though that guy is on your bumper going down the road, he brings peace. Now we're talking. See, I needed that more than you did. But it brings that peace to you. See, God's peace is so, so different from what the world gives us, the culture in which we live. It promises peace, but it can't give you peace. But God says, I will give you peace. It just subtles you calms you. You breathe easy. You're not uptight. I like that. Thanks, Ken, for sharing it. You're welcome. Here's the second thing. Peace is a present. His presence. Peace is a presence. I mean how we need to experience and love his presence and know him. See, when I was a younger man, well, I was just kind of afraid of that. But no, no, don't. You you can feel it. Sometimes I get in my car and I bring my Bible and I just sit down in the parking lot here in the back and I just start reading my book, this old book here. I bring this one. This is my big Brent Bible. And I just read it. Sometimes I feel like the car is going to explode with peace, gentleness. I feel so secure. I feel like I'm sitting in the presence of him. And that I am. The verse I give you is John 17, 23. Now, John 17 is Jesus' high priestly prayer. And he prays for three groups in this prayer of John 17. He prays for the world. Then he prays for his own disciples. Then he prays for us, the ones to come. And this first number 23 is to us. He says, I am in, I am in them. And you are in me. Stop that man. Jesus is saying, I'm in you. And you're in me. See, picture that. I'm going to give you something. I didn't give the other two groups. No, no. Just you get it. This is facial. Come up again, Frank. No, no, I want to give you this. This is important because when he says I'm in you, here's what happened. I'm going to let Frank play Jesus Christ because God may kill him for doing it. You just stand facial each other. There he is. But when I invited Jesus to come in my life, I became in Christ. Just like this. I became in Jesus Christ. And he in me. We became one. His presence is right there.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

That's what his presence are. And Jesus said, This is the presence I am to you. I am in you and you're in me. Now look at the rest of that. This is really good. He says, May they experience such perfect unity with Jesus and you that the world will know, K N O W, that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them. Now watch this as much as you love me. Did you ever think sometimes God just says, Come on, dear child of God, I'm going to take you waiting in the It's gonna get up to your neck, but I'm gonna take you waiting. And that's what this verse does. He says, I want you to know as I pray, I want them to know that you love them as much as you love me. Jesus said that. Wow, that blows my mind. I still get a blown mind over it. Don't get ahead of me because I just get blown over it. He says, I pray that they'll know how much I love you wherever you are in life. He says, I want you to know, I want you to know that God loves you just like he loves me. The Son of God, the right hand of the throne of God, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, all that He is. I want, I know, Father, how you love me, and I want them to know that you love them the same. I want them to experience it. Feel the presence. See, when you when you fall in love with this old book, 65 years I've been reading this book. And I just love it. I still feel like I know very little of it. But when you begin to learn God's word, you begin to experience his presence. And sometimes it just sets you back. You have such peace. Jehovah's Salaam has taken up in your heart and your life. The God of peace. I love that 1 John 5, 11, 12, 13. He says, uh, these things have I written on you that these things have I written on you that you may know, K N O W, that you have the Son of God. He wants you to know it. He wants you to experience it. Want you to feel it. Here's the next one. Peace is a perspective. I leave that up there because a lot of people don't know how to spell that word. I didn't know how to spell it for sure. Peace is a perspective. It's what you look forward to. What you expect. See, some people get up morning and say, oh, good God, it's morning. Other people wake up and say, Good morning, God. Good to see you. That's kind of how I wake up. I just like that. See? It's how you go into your day. I like Psalms 118 and verse number 24. It says, This is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it. What a verse to recite every morning as you get out of bed. This is the day the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is his day. You know, the older you get, the more you're just glad to get up. It's a little sore. But this is the day the Lord has made. God gave us this day. God gave us this day. It's his day. Not just because it's Sunday. Tomorrow will be his day too. This is the day the Lord has made, and I will be glad and rejoice in it. God says, I want you. See, you can do a lot of things with, I mean, sometimes to know and to experience the Lord is even like you need to set yourself not only getting upright. First thing you need to do is read your Bible. You say, Oh, really? I don't have time. Make time. Get up early. You'll not be sorry. You know? It's like eating breakfast. You need to eat breakfast. A little something. Get up and I read a chapter in the New Testament. For my devotion, I'll read a chapter in the New Testament and chapter in the Old Testament. I just read it. And then as I read it, I say, God, I need to get something. Give me a verse. Give me a word. Just anything. I have my little yellow pen with me and I marked it. I got it. It may be I read a whole chapter, but I got it. Just to me. Sometimes we need to just uh, you know, it you need just to put a song in your heart. Sometimes just to have a song. Louette and I, I always like all the Louettes over here. We always have a song we sing around the house all the time. We sing lots of little songs. But we we have one we like to sing all the time, and and you know, we learnt it, uh she learned it as a child. And learned it as an adult. I've got peace like a river, I've got peace like a river, I've got peace, like a river in my soul. I've got joy like a fountain, I've got joy like a fountain, I've got joy like a fountain in my soul. That's perspective. You learn to sing around the house, you learn to you learn to say nice things, you learn to compliment, you learn to bless others. Last night my wife fixed me this wonderful meal. Salmon. Eat your heart out. Salmon. And she makes rice with it, but her rice tasted so good. I always tell her, honey, you are the best cook in all the world, and she is. Now, husbands, you should argue with me about that. You'll lose, but you should argue. But it's all that sweet, it just brings peace to you. You know. A touch here and there. I never walk by my sweet wife, though, just touch her. Just touch her. That peace that rules your home. He's the God of peace. He's Jehovah alone. The God of peace. He rules in our hearts. He wants to be there. Calm us. Give us great hope. See, secure us in him. Number four is this peace of the promise. Peace of the promise. Over 7,000 promises in this book. The Word of God, the Bible. And for you and for me. Promise. When I was in the Marine Corps, I never forgot that we were about ready to go to battle. And we just had our little platoon there, just a few of us there. We had the company and battalion and has gone up larger and larger, but we had that little group there. And I said to the men, I said, I promise you, I will never leave you on the battlefield. I will never leave you on the battlefield. I will take you with me. And they said to me, We promise you, we will never leave you on the battlefield. We will take you with us. And we made that promise to each other that we will never leave any one of us on the battlefield. Wounded or in good shape. We all come off together. And God says, I want you to know my promises are as secure and more so than our promises. I promised my sweet wife that I would love her till I die. And that's what I'm going to do.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

See?

SPEAKER_00 31:54

A promise. I love this, Romans 5, 1. It says, Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace. Boy, that's good. We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because Jesus went to Calvary's cross and he died for all my sins and all your sins. The past, the present, the future. He buried him in the deepest sea. He moved him as far as the east is from the west. He's made us as white as snow. This Jesus. And because of him, we have peace. When I was in the Marines, we were ready to go to war the next morning. And I was troubled in my spirit. And I said, Boy, I don't know about this. And God, Holy Spirit, I was in a room by myself. God's Holy Spirit came and said, Ken, you're not ready to die. I thought, I'm really not. And that night I bowed my head. That night I bowed my head and I said, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. I wept like a baby. I could not believe. All my sins were washed away. God said, I'll never remember them again. I wash away your shame. I wash away the times of being afraid of living. I give you peace. And I said, Jesus, would you come into my life? I give you my life for the rest of my life. That's been 65 years ago. Boy, he's never changed. He keeps his promise. He says what he says he'll do. He says, You're my child. I love you just like I do my son Jesus Christ. I love you. And that's how much God loves you. And I think it's wonderful to see God do that in our lives. Have you invited Jesus into your life? Oh. Just like me that night as a 19-year-old kid, you can do it too. Let's have every head bowed and every eye closed. Right there, if you've never done it before, you can do it right now. Now listen carefully. Do it right now. Just say, Jesus, I invite you into my life. I ask you to forgive me of all my sins and make me your child. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. God, today, today, I am coming to you. Jesus, I want to be yours for the rest of my life. Until I see you face to face, eye to eye, I want to be yours. And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, if you prayed that prayer, God bless you. Man, I love you, but God loves you. You say, Pastor, I want you to pray for me. I just asked Jesus in my heart, would you slip up your hand while no one's looking around? Just slip up your hand and say, Pastor, pray for me. Just slip it up now, see it. That's you. Thank you. Then I pray for us Christians, God. Wow, sometimes we get so busy, we get we just kind of leave you out. And we're so hungry for peace. That Jehovah's loan peace. The peace that you can only give God. And God teaches that. Have a time with you, a song with you. That we can have that peace that subtles us, that calms us, gives us great hope. That secures us. Thank you. Thank you for loving us so much. Now we got a new week coming, Lord. Would you touch each one of your children? Would you touch each one of us? And may we walk this week in the peace of God. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen.