Speaker 1: Wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.
Speaker 1: Let's say this together say, heavenly Father, thank God for the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: Now he's moved here tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad for the gifts of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: I'm glad for the move of the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: I'm open to him all the time, learning your ways, father, the ways of the Spirit, so that I can flow with you.
Speaker 1: I don't have to hear a voice, I don't have to have a dream, I don't have to see a vision.
Speaker 1: I know how to flow with the Holy Ghost In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: Let's turn to Colossians, chapter three, the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you Ephesians, philippians, colossians Well, all the epistles are valuable.
Speaker 1: Verse 15, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body and be you thankful.
Speaker 1: And let me read it to you out of the Amplified.
Speaker 1: The Amplified says it this way let the peace, the soul, harmony which comes from the Christ rule, act as an umpire.
Speaker 1: I thought that's fitting for the Astros.
Speaker 1: They need a really good umpire tonight, one that calls accurately the balls and strikes the fouls and the fairs, calls accurately the safes and the outs.
Speaker 1: Amen, everybody say.
Speaker 1: God bless the Astros, I couldn't resist.
Speaker 1: Let the peace, the soul harmony which comes from the Christ rule, that is, act as an umpire continually in your hearts, deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to just share a message entitled let peace rule.
Speaker 1: Let peace rule.
Speaker 1: You know, jesus, there in John chapter 14, told the disciples, of course, tells us, he said let not your heart be troubled.
Speaker 1: You know they were bummed out, I mean, when they heard he was gonna be crucified, he was leaving them, gonna die.
Speaker 1: I mean they were, you know, not happy.
Speaker 1: And so what did Jesus say?
Speaker 1: Let not your heart be troubled.
Speaker 1: So then we have a choice.
Speaker 1: I mean let not let or let not.
Speaker 1: It's up to them, they can either be troubled or not be troubled.
Speaker 1: Let not your heart be troubled.
Speaker 1: And then you know, he said in verse 27, john 14, he said my peace I leave with you.
Speaker 1: My peace I give to you, not the peace the world gives, give I unto you.
Speaker 1: So he gave them and us this peace.
Speaker 1: And so we, you know, we have a decision we can either take what he gave us and let it rule, let it act as an umpire, continually settling with finality all questions that arise in your mind.
Speaker 1: You know your mind is really good about raising questions.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's always got questions.
Speaker 1: You know what about this, what about that?
Speaker 1: And the peace of God can act as an umpire, can settle with finality every question In Galatians 522, the peace of God is listed there as the fruit of the spirit.
Speaker 1: It's worth just turning back over not very far to the left, galatians 5.
Speaker 1: I want to point something out to you, verse 22,.
Speaker 1: But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering or patience, gentleness, goodness, faith or that really faith.
Speaker 1: The word faith is faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meetness, temperance or self-control.
Speaker 1: Against such there is no law.
Speaker 1: And it says there, the fruit of the capital S spirit.
Speaker 1: But really, yeah, the Holy Ghost has got those.
Speaker 1: But really it's talking about your own spirit.
Speaker 1: It's talking about the recreated human spirit that when you were born again, you receive the fruit of the spirit.
Speaker 1: So peace is a fruit.
Speaker 1: And what do we know about fruits?
Speaker 1: Well, fruit has to be grown.
Speaker 1: When you receive the fruit of the spirit, you receive the smallest portion, the seed portion, and it's up to you to develop the fruit.
Speaker 1: Fruit must be grown.
Speaker 1: Now gifts are given.
Speaker 1: You know we've been given the gift of righteousness.
Speaker 1: Gifts are given, so they must be received.
Speaker 1: Gifts are received and once they're received, you can't grow in a gift.
Speaker 1: The gift is the gift.
Speaker 1: The gift is there, it is In righteousness.
Speaker 1: You don't grow in righteousness.
Speaker 1: Righteousness is a status that you have that God gave you.
Speaker 1: You're just as righteous now as you were when you were first born.
Speaker 1: You're righteous as God is.
Speaker 1: It's the righteousness of God.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because you're in Christ.
Speaker 1: And what is righteousness?
Speaker 1: Well, it's the ability to stand in God's presence without fear, condemnation, guilt, shame.
Speaker 1: We can come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy.
Speaker 1: We don't have to stand outside and wonder if we're worthy.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm worthy.
Speaker 1: Yeah you're worthy because you're the righteousness of God.
Speaker 1: Yes, most Christians are you righteous.
Speaker 1: They don't want to say that.
Speaker 1: They think it's bragging.
Speaker 1: No, it's not ever bragging to say what the Bible says about you you are the righteousness of God in Christ.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: It's not a bragging thing, it's a fact.
Speaker 1: And some of the book of Hebrews, chapter six, he rebuked the Hebrew church because they had not grown.
Speaker 1: They said you know, you guys ought to be teaching others and you haven't.
Speaker 1: You've become those that need milk and not meat.
Speaker 1: You are unskillful.
Speaker 1: In the word of righteousness.
Speaker 1: Now, I know I'm talking about peace, but it's tied to righteousness because a lot of times people have a lack of peace because they're unskillful and their status with God.
Speaker 1: I mean you don't have any fear, you don't have any hesitation to go in His presence.
Speaker 1: I mean he's got the door wide open, the blood made its way behind the veil and you've got.
Speaker 1: You've got access by faith into this grace wherein you stand, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: I know most of you know it, but we just like to remind you.
Speaker 1: So righteousness is not you can't grow.
Speaker 1: It's not something you can grow in, but you can grow in the skill of it.
Speaker 1: You can grow in taking advantage of that, which is a fact, or you follow me so.
Speaker 1: But now peace is a different story.
Speaker 1: Peace has to be developed, it has to grow, and you've got everything to do about whether it grows or whether it stays in the baby stage.
Speaker 1: I mean, how much peace does a baby have?
Speaker 1: A baby has zero peace If things are not going just like the baby wants.
Speaker 1: I mean, I heard one the other day in the restaurant and of course I had to take my hearing aids out of my ears because I mean I couldn't turn them down low enough.
Speaker 1: I got an app on my iPhone.
Speaker 1: I can turn them down.
Speaker 1: Carol makes me turn my earphones down.
Speaker 1: She, her voice.
Speaker 1: Sometimes she can sing so loud that I have to turn her down.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just fooling with it.
Speaker 1: I have to mess with Carol every now and then Praise God, all right, so peace, let the peace, let peace rule, say we can either let it or not let it, and so we need to grow in that, we need to grow in peace.
Speaker 1: I'm still working on peace.
Speaker 1: I'm still working on all the fruits of the Spirit there's.
Speaker 1: All those fruits have to be developed, they have to be, and it's up to us.
Speaker 1: You know we can't pray.
Speaker 1: Oh God, give me peace.
Speaker 1: We already did, gave it to you.
Speaker 1: Whether it's increases is up to you Whether you're gonna exercise in it.
Speaker 1: You know the Bible says in James 1 and 22, don't be a hearer of the word.
Speaker 1: You know, be a doer of the word, not a hearer only seething your own selves.
Speaker 1: A lot of times people hear the word but they don't do it.
Speaker 1: So they get deceived.
Speaker 1: And you know what, when you get deceived about righteousness and the fruit of the Spirit, you're gonna live a real low level of Christianity.
Speaker 1: Your life is gonna be filled with this order, discontent.
Speaker 1: It's a good way to go broke.
Speaker 1: It's a good way for money to leave your control.
Speaker 1: It's just a low level of Christianity that God wants you to develop in all of these things.
Speaker 1: But it's up to us Let.
Speaker 1: Jesus said let not your heart be troubled.
Speaker 1: So no wonder the devil attacks our peace.
Speaker 1: You know, if he can get you fretting, he can get you doubting.
Speaker 1: See, peace is the umpire that settles all the questions.
Speaker 1: And the questions many times are what they're doubts.
Speaker 1: They're doubts.
Speaker 1: You know, like Abraham, hey God, how do I know you're gonna, how do I know You're gonna multiply me?
Speaker 1: He didn't take God at his word.
Speaker 1: Brother Hagin praying that, he was praying through man because he was away from his wife his first year on the field ministry.
Speaker 1: You know, up till then he'd been a pastor and pastors, you know, would have a salary.
Speaker 1: They'd get paid, you know, whatever, once or twice a month.
Speaker 1: Like everybody else, he could depend on a salary.
Speaker 1: He would live within his means.
Speaker 1: But when you get on the field ministry you don't know what.
Speaker 1: You don't know whether you're gonna have an offering that's gonna cover the need or not.
Speaker 1: And when he first started out these were tough times, I mean, for preachers, I mean they didn't, you just never knew.
Speaker 1: So he had to learn how to believe God for his income, to where he could supply all the needs.
Speaker 1: And he was short and he was boy.
Speaker 1: I mean he was what they called the Pentecostals, called praying through.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of that praying through?
Speaker 1: That's just a bunch of unbelief you don't have to pray through.
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's what he was doing and he was just man.
Speaker 1: He was kind of bawling and squalling.
Speaker 1: Oh God, I just felt my bow.
Speaker 1: Oh God, I need this, I need that, I'm doled.
Speaker 1: And finally he kind of just got tired of all that and got quiet and the Holy Ghost said what are you doing?
Speaker 1: He said, well, I'm praying through about my finances.
Speaker 1: I mean, I, we're in real hard, it's really tough.
Speaker 1: He said well, it didn't sound like that to me.
Speaker 1: It sounded like that you are trying to talk me in to keep in the word that I've given you and that I'm a liar, that what I said is not good enough for you.
Speaker 1: And then you want some kind of extra sign that I have heard you Well, you know well, lord.
Speaker 1: He said my, my children are not adequately housed, they're not adequately clothed and they're not adequate.
Speaker 1: And I'm not adequate, and I'm not adequate, and I'm not adequate, and I'm not adequate, and I'm not adequate, and I'm not adequate and I'm not adequate, and they're not adequately fed.
Speaker 1: And I'm 300 miles from home.
Speaker 1: And I just thought maybe I'd be some kind of extra something I'd know where everything was all right.
Speaker 1: He said so my words not good enough for you?
Speaker 1: Huh, oh, man, yeah, Thank God for a preacher that'll tell that on himself.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm when I first heard him say that it was on a cassette series that I was listening to, and I mean he's almost putting tears in my eyes because you know, I mean he teaches you so much out of his, out of the failures and the pressures and the things that he went through.
Speaker 1: I mean we stand on the shoulders of great men and women of God that have gone through all kind of things.
Speaker 1: It's a testimony.
Speaker 1: You have a testimony.
Speaker 1: So so he was.
Speaker 1: He was doubting in his high.
Speaker 1: He just didn't know how to get the peace of God to come up into his and and rise up as a, as an umpire, to settle with finality the questions that arose in his mind.
Speaker 1: And over a period of time, god, the Holy Ghost, began to teach him how to believe for his finances, what to do about it.
Speaker 1: Dispatch the angels, claim a certain amount of money every week.
Speaker 1: You know, nobody's paying you a salary, but I'm paying your salary.
Speaker 1: Claim the money you need.
Speaker 1: It's down there, it's not up here.
Speaker 1: I can't have it.
Speaker 1: I can't rain it down out of heaven, I don't have any money up here.
Speaker 1: I've got some pavement, I've got some gold that we walk on up there, but it I can't get it down to you.
Speaker 1: Everything you need is down there, amen.
Speaker 1: So he had to teach him.
Speaker 1: And so let's look at Philippians talking about let peace rule.
Speaker 1: See, peace will rule, philippians 4-7,.
Speaker 1: And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, the peace of God.
Speaker 1: I like to amplify the peace of God.
Speaker 1: Garrisons and mounts, guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: Garrison, what's a garrison?
Speaker 1: It's a military, it's a military term.
Speaker 1: A garrison is a group of soldiers.
Speaker 1: The peace of God acts like a military unit to mount guard.
Speaker 1: To rise and mount guard.
Speaker 1: Nothing's gonna get past that garrison of soldiers, isn't that awesome?
Speaker 1: Well, garrison and mount guard over your heart and your mind.
Speaker 1: See, your heart is your spirit.
Speaker 1: Your mind is your soul.
Speaker 1: Your soul is where the battleground is, but it starts in the heart.
Speaker 1: Your heart has got a lot to do with it.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Proverbs let's turn over to Proverbs talking about let peace rule.
Speaker 1: Proverbs, chapter 4.
Speaker 1: See, peace is a fruit.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you the amm I'm giving you the food it takes for your peace to get bigger and better.
Speaker 1: More peace, more success, more peace, you can really follow the Holy Ghost better.
Speaker 1: It's real hard to follow the Holy Ghost when your mind is filled with questions and your spirit is, you know, in a flux.
Speaker 1: This is the.
Speaker 1: This is why the devil attacks your peace.
Speaker 1: Keep you out of God's perfect will for your life.
Speaker 1: Keep you from hearing what the next step is.
Speaker 1: Really kind of connects to the first altar call I had tonight.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're not seeing things clearly because there's a lot of turmoil and it clouds the picture.
Speaker 1: Ooh, that's the Holy Ghost right there.
Speaker 1: That was worth coming to church for.
Speaker 1: Alright Proverbs, chapter 4.
Speaker 1: , verse 23.
Speaker 1: Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
Speaker 1: Keep your heart.
Speaker 1: Talking about your spirit, well, I thought my spirit was safe.
Speaker 1: Your spirit is safe, but you, you're a spirit being and you've got something to say about your own spirit.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to get you know more skilled in the word of righteousness.
Speaker 1: Don't let any kind of unworthy words come out of your mouth, like questioning your worthiness.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't feel worthy.
Speaker 1: Yes, you were worthy.
Speaker 1: You're made worthy by the blood.
Speaker 1: You're either worth it or you're not.
Speaker 1: Are you worth it?
Speaker 1: Jesus paid for you.
Speaker 1: Are you saying God got gypped?
Speaker 1: See, if we would really go all the way down to these words and and the implication of our word.
Speaker 1: When we say we're not worthy, you're saying God got gypped and he paid too much for you, do you think?
Speaker 1: Do you think God is foolish enough to pay too much for you?
Speaker 1: He knows what you're worth and he paid it willingly, gladly.
Speaker 1: The Bible says it pleased the Lord to bruise him, not because he took pleasure in Jesus' wounds, but he took pleasure in paying the price for us, and we are worth the price.
Speaker 1: Are you with me now?
Speaker 1: So we have to keep our hearts with all diligence, because out of it are the issues of life.
Speaker 1: One version says it determines the course of your life.
Speaker 1: So we've been talking about the Spirit as a flow, the flow of the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: When we don't really keep our hearts with diligence, we can miss the flow of the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: We've got turbulence, we've got rocks in our stream, we've got foamy.
Speaker 1: You know, you see these white water rafting places.
Speaker 1: People ride these white water rapids, you know, and they've got this raft and they're riding on it.
Speaker 1: I mean it's dangerous as all get out.
Speaker 1: People get a thrill over it.
Speaker 1: But you know that's not.
Speaker 1: The Holy Ghost doesn't want your water looking like that.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want a bunch of boulders in there.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want a bunch of turbulence knocking you around.
Speaker 1: He wants you to be able to flow with him.
Speaker 1: Peace, the peace of God, let peace rule.
Speaker 1: So it goes on to tell you how to keep your heart.
Speaker 1: It goes on to say put away from your a forward mouth and perverse lips.
Speaker 1: Let your eyes look right on Watch, where you you know.
Speaker 1: In other words, watch what you're speaking, watch what you're looking at.
Speaker 1: Ponder the path of your feet.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: But getting back to Philippians, chapter four, that we read just a moment ago, four, seven.
Speaker 1: Let's read the rest of it.
Speaker 1: Let's turn back to Philippians, chapter four, and let's follow what it has to say about the peace of God.
Speaker 1: Four, seven or 4-4, rather.
Speaker 1: Rejoice in the Lord.
Speaker 1: Philippians 4-4.
Speaker 1: Rejoice in the Lord, always and again I say rejoice.
Speaker 1: Let your moderation be known unto all men.
Speaker 1: The Lord is at hand.
Speaker 1: The Lord is at hand, isn't he?
Speaker 1: I mean Jesus is coming soon.
Speaker 1: I mean, if 2000 years ago Paul said the Lord's at hand, how much closer is he now?
Speaker 1: Let your moderation be known to all men.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker 1: Be careful for nothing, or in other words, don't fret, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise.
Speaker 1: Think on these things.
Speaker 1: So let's take these verses, and these are the verses that apply to allowing us to let peace rule, I mean, if you'll be a doer of the word, not a hearer.
Speaker 1: Only, it takes discipline, you've got to buy into it.
Speaker 1: It takes time, it takes a willingness to interrupt a certain habit, a thought pattern, those internal dialogues.
Speaker 1: I talk about those internal dialogues a lot because there are habits, ways of thinking, and the more you think negatively in your mind, just like an eight track tape, your brain has got neuro cells that are like electrical cells and it will trace around the pattern in your mind just like an endless loop.
Speaker 1: It's easy to think wrong.
Speaker 1: In order to interrupt wrong thinking, it takes a lot of effort, it takes a lot of repetition.
Speaker 1: Uh-uh, no, I'm not thinking like that, I'm thinking like this right here.
Speaker 1: So you got to buy into this.
Speaker 1: You got to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer, because if you just hear this and don't do it, you're going to wind up more confused than ever.
Speaker 1: So let peace rule Number one.
Speaker 1: We find in verse four choose to rejoice and not to whine.
Speaker 1: Choose to rejoice.
Speaker 1: Rejoice to the Lord when you feel like it.
Speaker 1: No, always rejoice in the Lord.
Speaker 1: After you see the latest news flash on Israel.
Speaker 1: And we can't lose our joy over Israel, can't lose our joy over all this loss of life out there.
Speaker 1: Does that mean we're not?
Speaker 1: No, we care.
Speaker 1: We care about that, but we're not going to let it steal our joy.
Speaker 1: Our joy, we're going to rejoice all the time.
Speaker 1: Rejoice, you know, I like this phrase.
Speaker 1: I will be glad in the Lord, Psalm 104-34,.
Speaker 1: I will be glad in the Lord, see, you will.
Speaker 1: Who's you your spirit?
Speaker 1: So when you're tempted to be sad, you just say no, I'll be glad.
Speaker 1: No, I will be glad in the Lord.
Speaker 1: Ha, ha, ha.
Speaker 1: I, like Brother Hagin, used to just say ha, ha, ha.
Speaker 1: And so we got Brother Mark comes in here and says ha ha ha.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like real.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem real to go like that when you don't feel like it, well, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: The devil can't tell the difference between a fake laugh and a real laugh.
Speaker 1: So just fake it until you make it.
Speaker 1: Ha ha, ha ha.
Speaker 1: You don't feel, you know, but rejoicing is not a pity party.
Speaker 1: See, you can't have a pity party and rejoice.
Speaker 1: You've got to flip over and just make yourself laugh when you feel like crying.
Speaker 1: Ha ha ha ha.
Speaker 1: Make yourself smile.
Speaker 1: You can do that.
Speaker 1: I know you can.
Speaker 1: Actors do it all the time.
Speaker 1: These actors in Hollywood, man, they look so happy until the camera gets off of them and then you find out the real them.
Speaker 1: I mean, they are hard to deal with.
Speaker 1: Everybody say ha ha ha.
Speaker 1: Psalm 31-7, I'll rejoice in his mercy.
Speaker 1: I'll rejoice and be glad in his mercy.
Speaker 1: Psalm 92, same thing.
Speaker 1: Psalm 40-16, over and over in the Psalms it says I will be glad and rejoice, I'll be glad and rejoice, I will be glad.
Speaker 1: So you have to will it.
Speaker 1: Anybody can have a pity party.
Speaker 1: Anybody can will to give in to emotion.
Speaker 1: But if you want the peace of God to rule, you've got to run counter to your emotion and rejoice always.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: Number two let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord's at hand.
Speaker 1: Well, that's right.
Speaker 1: I'm a moderate drinker.
Speaker 1: I'm down from a fifth of whiskey a day down to a pint.
Speaker 1: Pastor, I'm a moderate drinker.
Speaker 1: No, it's not talking about that kind of moderation.
Speaker 1: Moderation is your unselfish and forbearing spirit in the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament.
Speaker 1: I'm not a Greek scholar, but I got a little book and I look up the word moderation and listen to what it means.
Speaker 1: It means reasonableness and judging.
Speaker 1: It signifies humble, patient, steadfastness, which is able to submit to injustice, disgrace and maltreatment without hatred and malice.
Speaker 1: It's trusting in God in spite of it all.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say it again, boy, I mean that's a mouthful that sounds really hard to do.
Speaker 1: I'm still working on this.
Speaker 1: Peace is a fruit.
Speaker 1: Moderation comes along with peace and you've got to work on it.
Speaker 1: I mean it won't happen just because you want it to.
Speaker 1: You've got to train yourself to have a thick skin to criticism.
Speaker 1: And even I mean listen to what it says.
Speaker 1: It signifies it's reasonableness and judging.
Speaker 1: It signifies humble, patient, steadfastness, which is able to submit to injustice.
Speaker 1: Injustice, disgrace and maltreatment.
Speaker 1: I mean these are three bad things that are happening to you by other people and you suffer them without hatred and malice, trusting in God in spite of it all.
Speaker 1: So and so lied about you so and so, spread rumors about you so and so, treated you like a dog Well, maybe not like a dog, because most dogs are treated pretty well, but anyway but you choose not to hate them, you choose not to flash back at them, you choose to just trust God.
Speaker 1: You know they're saying this about me, but you, you know, you keep the books on me.
Speaker 1: You know about me better than they do.
Speaker 1: They don't know me like you do.
Speaker 1: So, lord, I forgive them, and that's you know.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna keep on moving.
Speaker 1: I'm keep going.
Speaker 1: If there's an element of truth in what they're saying, well, you know, lord, show me, I'll be glad to change.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna be able to change.
Speaker 1: Show me, I'll be glad to change, but I'm not gonna take any of this personal.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna keep on going.
Speaker 1: You think about well, that's, you know you must.
Speaker 1: You must have a character flaw.
Speaker 1: Why would you put up with that kind of bit?
Speaker 1: Why would you put up with that kind of treatment?
Speaker 1: Well, because the Bible says the Lord's at hand.
Speaker 1: And I'm just not gonna respond to a bunch of this stuff, I'm just gonna, you know, ignore it.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna try to get back at it.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna try to enter into it and try to defend myself.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I learned a long time ago.
Speaker 1: You start trying to defend yourself, you're in for a whole lot of unhappy.
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: God can defend you, though.
Speaker 1: God can vindicate you.
Speaker 1: Well, lord, you know they're saying this about me and you know, I know, I'm your chosen servant.
Speaker 1: So, lord, I pray your mercy on them.
Speaker 1: That's what I had to learn to pray God's mercy on people that were lying about me.
Speaker 1: Found out they were lying about me, found out they were betraying me, found out after the fact that had meetings against me, spread all kinds of lies about me.
Speaker 1: After I had done all this good for them, and you know it hurt, I was boo-hooing oh, what am I gonna do about this, lord?
Speaker 1: Well, they said forgive them.
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, lord, I know you know I didn't want to.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing.
Speaker 1: You said forgive them.
Speaker 1: I said, yes, lord, I hear you Forgive them.
Speaker 1: Pray my mercy over them.
Speaker 1: Well, because they're the ones that are doing wrong.
Speaker 1: They're doing wrong.
Speaker 1: I mean this injustice.
Speaker 1: Look at the words injustice, disgrace, maltreatment, maltreatment.
Speaker 1: Someone is putting that on you.
Speaker 1: And what do you do?
Speaker 1: Well, you forgive them, you pray God's mercy on them and in my case, I'm a pastor.
Speaker 1: So the next thing he said to me while I'm boo-hooing them at two o'clock in the morning and my din at home and my face on the floor wet from my tears take your pastoral covering off of them.
Speaker 1: Woo man, I sobered up fast.
Speaker 1: I quit crying because I knew what was gonna happen to them.
Speaker 1: I'm no longer responsible for them.
Speaker 1: I'm no longer gonna supply them with my influence in the spirit realm for their benefit.
Speaker 1: Wow, and you know, I just walked away free as a bird and over the years, god's vindicated me over and over again.
Speaker 1: I didn't ask him to do it, he don't just do it.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because he loves you and you did his word.
Speaker 1: Let your moderation be known unto all men.
Speaker 1: Don't be one of these.
Speaker 1: It's all we're trying to get back and hit back.
Speaker 1: Ooh, it's getting quiet in here.
Speaker 1: I can say the whole thing in a different way.
Speaker 1: Impulse control.
Speaker 1: Huh, you slapped me, I'm gonna slap you back harder.
Speaker 1: You kicked me in the shin, I'm gonna kick you someplace else.
Speaker 1: Impulse control that's what moderation is Impulse control.
Speaker 1: You might, your flesh might wanna rise up your flesh that's not wrong, just because your flesh wants to rise up, but you are not your flesh.
Speaker 1: Your emotions might get all out of sorts, but you are not an emotion and you don't follow your emotion.
Speaker 1: You follow what the word says and you speak it out with your mouth.
Speaker 1: God will bless your socks off.
Speaker 1: He'll give you some orange shoes like mine.
Speaker 1: Celebrate All right, you getting anything out of this.
Speaker 1: Number three be careful for nothing, don't worry.
Speaker 1: Be anxious for nothing, don't worry, see.
Speaker 1: So choose to pray and not to worry.
Speaker 1: Choose to pray, worry.
Speaker 1: You know you start worrying about the IRS since your letter.
Speaker 1: You start worrying about your.
Speaker 1: You know your boss's evaluation.
Speaker 1: He filled out on you and he's got some criticism.
Speaker 1: It looks kind of bad for you.
Speaker 1: See, don't worry about it, just pray about it With you know, pray about it.
Speaker 1: I like the message Don't worry about anything, pray about everything.
Speaker 1: And along with that, see James 513,.
Speaker 1: It says is there any among you afflicted?
Speaker 1: Let him pray, are you afflicted?
Speaker 1: James said let him pray, didn't say let somebody else pray for you.
Speaker 1: It says you pray, you're afflicted, let him pray.
Speaker 1: So you don't call the prayer line and get somebody else to pray, you pray.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you something when you praise God, do you call somebody else to praise God for you?
Speaker 1: I would like you to praise God for me.
Speaker 1: I'm busy at the moment, I don't really know how to praise him and so would you do the praising?
Speaker 1: No, we wouldn't do that stupid.
Speaker 1: Well see, don't be getting people to pray for you when you can do your own.
Speaker 1: If you're afflicted, you pray.
Speaker 1: It's not wrong to get somebody to agree with you, but I mean, God, leave, get busy, do your own praying.
Speaker 1: You know how to pray, pray.
Speaker 1: And then the second part of that, with thanksgiving, I mean we need to have an attitude of gratitude.
Speaker 1: Now, the context of all of this is when we've got things that are troubling us, things that are happening to us, that are causing questions to rise in our minds and rob us of our peace.
Speaker 1: I know none of you have had trouble going to sleep.
Speaker 1: I know none of you have ever woken up, awakened at like two o'clock in the morning, pacing the floor.
Speaker 1: No, nobody's done that, but I've done that.
Speaker 1: So I'll just preach from my standpoint.
Speaker 1: This is the way out of that.
Speaker 1: You do not have to live like that.
Speaker 1: You do not have to live in constant questioning about things that are going on around you and seems like it's affecting you.
Speaker 1: No, as soon as stuff starts happening, just do what we're talking about right here One, two, three, four, five.
Speaker 1: There's five things, and so you know it takes a commitment on your part.
Speaker 1: You've got to do something.
Speaker 1: Someone else can't really do it for you.
Speaker 1: Jesus didn't say you know, oh little darlings, I'm gonna pray my peace over you, you'll be just fine.
Speaker 1: No, he said let not your heart be troubled.
Speaker 1: You're in charge of your heart.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to do something about it.
Speaker 1: You can either let it be troubled or not.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna choose to pray and not to worry, and while we're praying, we're gonna choose an attitude of gratitude.
Speaker 1: We're gonna, when we pray, we're gonna thank Him.
Speaker 1: We're gonna spend time thanking Him.
Speaker 1: Glory to God.
Speaker 1: Colossians 3.15 says and be ye thankful.
Speaker 1: Be continually and habitually thankful.
Speaker 1: Be a thankful person.
Speaker 1: You know, thanksgiving is what you do, but if you are a thankful person, that's who you are.
Speaker 1: You are something.
Speaker 1: You are thankful.
Speaker 1: That is who you are, defines who you are as a person.
Speaker 1: So that's something that we ought to just work on all the time working on being grateful and thankful.
Speaker 1: Not people of entitlement, not people that's always going around saying, well, I deserve a better treatment than that.
Speaker 1: See, you deserve hell.
Speaker 1: Let's just get it over with.
Speaker 1: Get it over, settle the issue about deserve, deserve hell is where you deserve.
Speaker 1: But you're not going there.
Speaker 1: You used to irritate me.
Speaker 1: The guy, that real estate, the financial guy, what's his name on the radio?
Speaker 1: Huh, ramsey, ramsey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you used to irritate me.
Speaker 1: How are you doing?
Speaker 1: I'm better than I deserve.
Speaker 1: I just wanna throw a rock and hit him right inside the head and knock those dumb looking earphones off of his head.
Speaker 1: Why are you wearing those big old hot things?
Speaker 1: Why don't you wear the little things like these?
Speaker 1: These are small, these are easy to work, wear, you know.
Speaker 1: Anyway, better than I deserve.
Speaker 1: Well, that's evident.
Speaker 1: We all have it.
Speaker 1: Better than we deserve.
Speaker 1: We deserve hell.
Speaker 1: That's not a testimony.
Speaker 1: A testimony is I'm blessed beyond measure.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 1: One Glory to God, Choose an attitude of gratitude, continually and habitually thankful, and then finally, in verse eight this is the most important part Choose what you think about.
Speaker 1: You can choose to think about something else when those thoughts come your way, and this takes discipline.
Speaker 1: It's that internal dialogue, it's that way of thinking, it's that way of this victimhood, this woulda, coulda, shoulda, regret, all of that stuff comes on you.
Speaker 1: Here is what it tells you to think about Whatever.
Speaker 1: Things are true, but things can be true, and yet that doesn't meet the test because they're not really pure.
Speaker 1: They're not venerable.
Speaker 1: Well, you know it's true that my father was a deadbeat and left beat, you know, abused me.
Speaker 1: You know that's true.
Speaker 1: But don't be thinking about that.
Speaker 1: That's not worth thinking about.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 1: I bet it doesn't meet all of the qualifications of verse eight.
Speaker 1: Whatsoever things are true.
Speaker 1: Whatever things are honest.
Speaker 1: Well, that word honest means venerable.
Speaker 1: See what he did to you.
Speaker 1: Your father was not venerable, so don't think about it.
Speaker 1: It's over.
Speaker 1: You prayed God mercy on him.
Speaker 1: You forgave him.
Speaker 1: Good, thinking about it.
Speaker 1: Don't be a victim all your life.
Speaker 1: Thinking about how you were raised hard and mean and all that kind of thing, as some of us were.
Speaker 1: Some of us were Whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Things are pure.
Speaker 1: Whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Things are lovely.
Speaker 1: Is it lovely what your father did to you?
Speaker 1: It's not lovely, so don't think about it.
Speaker 1: Just, I'm not thinking about that.
Speaker 1: I, like Scarlet of the Herald, I'm gonna think about that today, I'll think about that tomorrow, but you won't think about it tomorrow.
Speaker 1: You just keep putting it off.
Speaker 1: Don't think about it.
Speaker 1: Whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Things are.
Speaker 1: Of a good report.
Speaker 1: Yeah, think about the praise reports.
Speaker 1: Think about what God has done that's been good to you.
Speaker 1: Has he ever been good to you?
Speaker 1: Think about that.
Speaker 1: Think about the time God broke through upon your enemies.
Speaker 1: Think about the time God delivered you.
Speaker 1: Think about the time God blessed you financially.
Speaker 1: Glory to God, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: We had a little lady that we used to pray for.
Speaker 1: Occasionally she would watch our live stream.
Speaker 1: She was in Austin at the time.
Speaker 1: I think she started watching when we were during COVID and she was from Houston, but she didn't have children and she got sick.
Speaker 1: I think she got COVID and went to the hospital and she had a whole train of physical issues and Rachel, I think, talked to her and Claire called her and talked to her and prayed with her over the telephone because she was so sweet.
Speaker 1: She'd send in some offering from time to time and she'd never been to this church.
Speaker 1: She just watched our live stream and she would message on Facebook during Sunday morning service and sometimes Wednesday night and we would pray for her, oh, pray for me.
Speaker 1: She'd have all kinds of different things and we'd go to the hospital and then we hadn't heard from her in a while and got a letter in the last week in the mail from her attorneys of her estate.
Speaker 1: She went to heaven and she left the church $20,000.
Speaker 1: I mean, man, I'm gonna think about that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna think about that $20,000.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna think about it.
Speaker 1: All the time she was sick.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna think about it.
Speaker 2: She went to heaven and she left us $20,000.
Speaker 2: That's nice, I like that.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Lord Hallelujah.
Speaker 2: That's the proof of the $20,000 offering.
Speaker 2: Isn't that sweet man never even set foot in this church?
Speaker 1: But we did the right thing.
Speaker 1: We reached out to her, we prayed for her.
Speaker 1: Oh, I remember praying for her numbers of times, and glory to God, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Let's think about good reports.
Speaker 1: Let's think about if there be any virtue, if there be any praise.
Speaker 1: Think on these things, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: When you do these things now, you're winning the battle of the mind, because that's where the battle is right.
Speaker 1: Up here, peace is beginning to rule in your heart and all your questions are beginning to be decided and settled with finality.
Speaker 1: Let peace rule.
Speaker 1: Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight.
Speaker 1: Do you get anything out of this?
Speaker 1: Well, let's rejoice, then.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Now you know how to think.
Speaker 1: Let your moderation be known unto all.
Speaker 1: The Lord is at hand and he really is, amen.