SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_02: We love our students and what's going on in our student ministry.
SPEAKER_02: You guys are doing great.
SPEAKER_02: So thank y'all for standing up with Ryan.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what we're going to talk about today: trusting Jesus in daily life through prayer.
SPEAKER_02: As the choir uh led us in that moment of worship, and they talked about Jesus defeats everything, and through him, he can conquer all of those things, and that's why we come to him in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: That really is the theme of this verse.
SPEAKER_02: It's the truth of this verse.
SPEAKER_02: It is the theme of our message today, and really it is one of the great truths of life for us as believers.
SPEAKER_02: This is the privilege that we have as followers of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That we can daily come to him in prayer, that we can trust him with what is going on in our lives, hand those things to him in prayer, and then he takes care of them, and we can trust him with them.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to read with me in your Bibles this morning in Philippians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read those verses again.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says, Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
SPEAKER_02: And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise, dwell on these things.
SPEAKER_02: Now let's take a minute and let's just look through these scriptures together this morning and see what a promise this is and why I believe it is so encouraging to so many of our folks.
SPEAKER_02: But here's really kind of the whole sermon in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_02: I can actually deliver this sermon in basically one or two sentences.
SPEAKER_02: And you're thinking, well, Pastor Greg, why don't you do that every week?
SPEAKER_02: But here's basically what it says this idea of prayer, when we come to him, it is actually fulfilling just a belief in Romans 8.28.
SPEAKER_02: We looked at Romans 8.28 last week and we saw that promise, how God tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_02: Well, if we believe that, when we hit one of those anxious moments in life, one of those struggles, one of those problems that we have, something that we face, circumstances that seem beyond us, when we hit that moment, the question for us is do I truly believe that God causes all things to work together for my good?
SPEAKER_02: Do I truly believe that God is trustworthy in those moments, as we talked about last week?
SPEAKER_02: If we do, then Paul's instruction to us is this don't worry about what you're facing.
SPEAKER_02: But in prayer, with petitions, and with thanksgiving, you trust Jesus with that thing, and he's going to take care of you.
SPEAKER_02: If you wanted to just put this message, the truth of this scripture, and just maybe a modern translation, how we'd say it, is when you hit that circumstance, Jesus looks down out of heaven and he says, Hey, bro, I got you back.
SPEAKER_02: You just bring it to me.
SPEAKER_02: I got you.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Look at the verse again.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about anything.
SPEAKER_02: But in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all thought.
SPEAKER_02: You see how that works?
SPEAKER_02: When you hit that moment of worry, you just give it to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Do we really truly believe that He's got everything?
SPEAKER_02: If so, if we believe He has a plan, if we believe He is there for us, man, that's what prayer is.
SPEAKER_02: It is simply the active behavior of trusting Jesus with those questions, circumstances, struggles, or things.
SPEAKER_02: It is bringing it to Him.
SPEAKER_02: Now, here's how this occurs in our normal life.
SPEAKER_02: It is great on a Sunday morning in church when we're singing about the victory of prayer, and we're singing about there's joy in the house of the Lord, and we're worshiping, we've got all that together, man.
SPEAKER_02: But then you go out on Monday and you get an email from the boss, I need you to come to my office.
SPEAKER_02: Or you have a doctor's appointment, and the doctor comes in and has that look on his face.
SPEAKER_02: Or even simple circumstances in life, things we normally face.
SPEAKER_02: You're there enjoying your coffee in the morning, and then your wife comes in and says, Does this outfit look good on me?
SPEAKER_02: And suddenly you're faced with stark terror in the circumstances of life, right?
SPEAKER_02: In all of those moments.
SPEAKER_02: Now look, here's sort of the trajectory of how this works.
SPEAKER_02: We're going through life, this is our experience, and then a circumstance hits us, right?
SPEAKER_02: That circumstance grabs a hold of us in life, and then we are tempted to worry.
SPEAKER_02: Stress is not a sin.
SPEAKER_02: Reacting to stress is not even a sin.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible, though, says don't worry about anything.
SPEAKER_02: What is worry?
SPEAKER_02: Well, worry is this reaction that we have where we begin to focus on those circumstances and we invest ourselves in that moment.
SPEAKER_02: Stress is a temptation to worry.
SPEAKER_02: Worry is a choice that we hang on and cling to that.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if we're walking by faith, that truth of all things work together for good, if God is causing those things to happen in our lives as a God who loves us and causing that to work, then in that moment, when I am tempted to worry, my response as a believer walking with Christ should be, oh, wait, this is really bad.
SPEAKER_02: I need Jesus in this moment.
SPEAKER_02: And I take that and I give that to him in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And it is the act of trusting him.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer is the mechanism that we exercise our belief.
SPEAKER_02: It's how we hand that to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's how we trust him with that.
SPEAKER_02: And then what happens is, as we are engaged in that relational moment with the Lord where we are praying and we're handing that to him, then he gives us this incredible gift of peace.
SPEAKER_02: And our spirit, it bears witness with his spirit, he bears witness with our spirit.
SPEAKER_02: He speaks to our heart and he says, I got it.
SPEAKER_02: I got it.
SPEAKER_02: You can trust me with it.
SPEAKER_02: It's mine.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to know I'm with you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna walk through this with you.
SPEAKER_02: And not only am I gonna walk through this with you, but I'm going to cause this to work together for your good.
SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden, I know I'm good because Jesus has got me.
SPEAKER_02: See, that's how this was supposed to work.
SPEAKER_02: That's what this verse is talking about in that moment.
SPEAKER_02: Now let's take a minute and break it down just a little further.
SPEAKER_02: That idea of worry, again, he begins with this thought: don't worry.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry.
SPEAKER_02: What is worry?
SPEAKER_02: Worry is this reaction where we are driven to cling to these circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: It is something that we train ourselves to do.
SPEAKER_02: It is something that if we behave this decision over and over and over again, we create this pattern of focusing on circumstances and we create a habit of reacting in this moment where I cannot trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I've got to worry about this.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Jesus understands what that is.
SPEAKER_02: In Matthew chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount, he says this: don't worry about anything because worry doesn't gain you anything.
SPEAKER_02: Can any of you add to your height by worrying?
SPEAKER_02: Can you make yourself taller?
SPEAKER_02: Can you make yourself stronger?
SPEAKER_02: Can you make yourself smarter?
SPEAKER_02: Can you change the circumstances by worrying about them?
SPEAKER_02: You see, it's not the stress of the moment that is the problem.
SPEAKER_02: It is how we react to it.
SPEAKER_02: And the bigger the stress in the moment, the higher the temptation for us to begin to cling to that circumstance in our minds, begin to create, oh my goodness, this can happen, and oh my goodness, that might happen, and oh that, how could that happen, and how could that happen?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this might happen, and oh, I'm worried about this happening, and oh, this might happen, and oh, this might happen.
SPEAKER_02: And we create this parade of horribles in our mind about all the potential things that might happen, and all of that distracts us from the moment of faith where we go, you know, this is really not good, this situation I'm in.
SPEAKER_02: Praise the Lord, Jesus is there with me.
SPEAKER_02: And he's got this.
SPEAKER_02: And instead of anchoring in that worry, instead of training ourselves to be focused on those circumstances and then embracing that stress and stirring all of that up in our lives, we step back and go, no, I do not have to worry.
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus has got this.
SPEAKER_02: Worry is something that plagues everyone.
SPEAKER_02: It is a natural tendency in these moments.
SPEAKER_02: We see the consequences and the potential consequences, and we begin to fret over those, and that trains our minds and our hearts to grab onto the hold of those.
SPEAKER_02: Now, worry can hit anybody at any time.
SPEAKER_02: But sometimes the longer we live life, if we are not walking by faith and exercising the habit of trusting in Jesus, what happens?
SPEAKER_02: We develop the habit of worry.
SPEAKER_02: My dad used to say about my mom, she's such a worry wart.
SPEAKER_02: If we don't have anything bad going on in life, she's worrying about what she needs to be worrying about that she doesn't know enough to worry about.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that makes her normal.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of folks struggle with that.
SPEAKER_02: And what happens is if we're not careful, we will train ourselves and increase the likelihood of worry by creating the habit of worry.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, worry has all kinds of terrible medical effects on us, spiritual effects on us, physical effects on us.
SPEAKER_02: When you are in this time of stress, our bodies are created miraculously to be able to help us handle these moments.
SPEAKER_02: There are physiological reactions that occur.
SPEAKER_02: Things you've heard like fight or flight, it amps up these chemicals in our body.
SPEAKER_02: It amps up our heightened awareness.
SPEAKER_02: It gives us this burst to try to work through this moment.
SPEAKER_02: But we were not live, designed to live in the midst of the ongoing drawing of those chemicals in that moment.
SPEAKER_02: And so what happens is when we are faced with that moment, we are given some extra physiological ability and focus to kind of grapple with the moment, but the purpose of that is to help us go, I'm not going to get swamped in this moment.
SPEAKER_02: I have some clarity of thought.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to trust Jesus to handle this.
SPEAKER_02: But if we're not trusting in the Lord in that moment, if we are not in our minds walking with him in such a way that we are reminded of his faithfulness and who he is, and we can turn to trust him, we will anchor in the midst of that stress, and it will begin to drive our bodies to do all kinds of weird things.
SPEAKER_02: Our heart rate goes up.
SPEAKER_02: And if we do that often enough, you can create high blood pressure.
SPEAKER_02: You can create all these kinds of stressful reactions that are not the result of stress, but they are the result of how we are handling that stress.
SPEAKER_02: There can be a spiritual effect to worry.
SPEAKER_02: The more you train yourself to just worry about things, the more you are training yourself not to trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: There is literally that spiritual effect.
SPEAKER_02: It creates doubt, it creates a sense of a wall between us, it creates a question in our mind: does God actually answer prayer or not?
SPEAKER_02: Because I'm not taking those things to Him and I'm not trusting Him with those things.
SPEAKER_02: I am training the opposite reaction that draws me away from the Lord or creates doubt in my life when I get in that moment and I do not respond with a spirit of trust that results in prayer where I hand that over to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And you think, well, Pastor, yeah, I get that in a normal deal, but you just really don't know the significance of the moment that I'm in.
SPEAKER_02: Well, no doubt, there are life-altering things that happen to us in life.
SPEAKER_02: But here's what the word of God says.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about anything except a bad medical report.
SPEAKER_02: So it says.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that encompasses the whole definition of life.
SPEAKER_02: There is nothing that exists outside those four walls.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about anything but in everything.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, this is the application of the truth of last week, Romans 8.28.
SPEAKER_02: All things God causes to work together.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, we talked about yet in all things in Romans 8, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said at the end of that chapter, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things that are present, nor things that might come, that parade of horribles that you're worrying about because of your circumstance, nor things that might come, nor any other created thing can ever separate us from the love of God which is found in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's why Paul makes it very clear, don't worry about anything, but in everything.
SPEAKER_02: He has built a fence around the entirety of our lives, and there is nothing inside that that prevents us from trusting the Lord, from handing him to him in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: There is nothing that we cannot have confidence that God will not handle.
SPEAKER_02: It's incredible the power of this.
SPEAKER_02: But when we invest in our reaction to worry, to fret, to grab onto that circumstance, to spend our time focused on what might happen rather than what God might do, we train ourselves to look away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: We train ourselves to have a mindset where we think, well, God's up there and I'm down here, and this is just how it works.
SPEAKER_02: And so we've got to understand what worry is.
SPEAKER_02: It is a reaction that causes us to take our eyes off Jesus, or worse, it is a habit that we have developed that reveals we've got work to do in our relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_02: And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You see, it is in our relationship with him that our trust is built.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer is actually the activity of how we exercise that trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: It is how we bring that moment to him or those issues to him.
SPEAKER_02: And when we go through the spiritual exercise of I am going to give this to Jesus, in my relationship, I am trusting him with that.
SPEAKER_02: And prayer is the mechanism through which we do that.
SPEAKER_02: And I love it here as it describes, it gives us all of the pictures of prayer that are possible.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when I'm teaching prayer, I love to teach it this way.
SPEAKER_02: I love to remind you.
SPEAKER_02: You know how I like my little, you know, acrostic illustrations and all of that.
SPEAKER_02: Well, here is the definition of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: This is what that mechanism where we trust Him, P-R-A-Y.
SPEAKER_02: I love to use that word.
SPEAKER_02: Praise, repent, ask, and yield.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the aspects, sort of the overall aspects of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: A prayer life that is full, that you're working your way through all of those things, that's what you've got.
SPEAKER_02: Pray, or that should be praise, repent, ask, and yield.
SPEAKER_02: Praise, repent, ask and yield, right?
SPEAKER_02: So here's what he gives you.
SPEAKER_02: Look how all of those are in there.
SPEAKER_02: First of all, think about this in your mind.
SPEAKER_02: Praise is when I come to the Lord and I say, Lord, I love you and I love you and I you are awesome.
SPEAKER_02: You are the creator God.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that you have all things.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that nothing can separate me from your love because of what Jesus did for me on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I love you and I thank you for who you are and what you've done.
SPEAKER_02: God, I praise you as the Creator God.
SPEAKER_02: I thank you that you're the God who answers prayer.
SPEAKER_02: So we're praising Him.
SPEAKER_02: Repentance is that moment where I have to recognize, you know, this is sin that I've allowed in my life.
SPEAKER_02: And this is causing a problem, and it's harming my relationship with the Lord because what it's saying is, I don't love you, and I've not surrendered this part of life to you.
SPEAKER_02: I've taken back control of my life and I'm doing what I want to do.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, that is sin, and I am sorry, and I repent of that sin and I turn from that and I turn back to you to walk with you.
SPEAKER_02: Ask is when we ask the Lord, Lord, I'm in this circumstance.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I've got this issue, and Lord, I need you to work.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I want to give this to you, and I need to know you're there.
SPEAKER_02: I need your presence.
SPEAKER_02: I need wisdom in this moment.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I need to know how to handle that.
SPEAKER_02: And then yield is obedience.
SPEAKER_02: If you're going to talk to the Lord, he's going to talk to you, right?
SPEAKER_02: And if you're going to talk to the Lord and He's going to talk to you, He's got some things He's going to want you to do.
SPEAKER_02: He's got wisdom He wants you to trust in and do.
SPEAKER_02: He's got reactions He wants to give you instead of the worry that we create in our minds.
SPEAKER_02: And so it's yielding to Him.
SPEAKER_02: It's obedience.
SPEAKER_02: Now look how it shows up here.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Don't worry about anything, but in everything, let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_02: This is an instruction.
SPEAKER_02: It is an instruction to trust.
SPEAKER_02: Do not worry about that.
SPEAKER_02: You come to me.
SPEAKER_02: I've got to yield that to Him.
SPEAKER_02: I've got to be in obedience to Him.
SPEAKER_02: The lack of prayer is in and of itself sinful disobedience.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: The lack of prayer, in and of itself, is sinful disobedience.
SPEAKER_02: If I am to bring everything to the Lord in prayer, and I'm not doing that, I'm not obeying what God has called me to obey.
SPEAKER_02: If I am finding these circumstances and I am clinging to the fear of these moments, or I am trying to trust them on my own and what I can do to make this work better, and I'm clinging to my own ability to fix it or control this or whatever, and I'm swallowing the stress and carrying it through it, and I'm worried about it, and I'm trying to power through on my own.
SPEAKER_02: I have disobeyed this scripture verse.
SPEAKER_02: I have not yielded in prayer to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And that's literally what he says.
SPEAKER_02: And so you see, yield.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02: And so thanksgiving is a form of praise.
SPEAKER_02: When I come to the Lord, I'm supposed to say, Lord, thank you, because I know you hear this prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, this is stressful and this is beyond me, but I know you're the creative God in the universe and you're stronger than all these things we go through.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, this is terrible.
SPEAKER_02: These people are against me, or this circumstance, or that, or I need this, or I've lost my job.
SPEAKER_02: Will you help me through this or whatever it is?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I know that you're bigger than this.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that you hear me.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that you're here.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that nothing can separate me from your love in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you.
SPEAKER_02: And it reattaches our heart to his.
SPEAKER_02: And it reattaches us relationally to him because we are focusing on him instead of the circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: And we are surrendering ourselves to him because of who he is and what we see of who he is, and that's praise.
SPEAKER_02: And then repentance is that just getting rid of those things that separate us from him.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I am sorry.
SPEAKER_02: I have worried in this.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, please forgive me that I want to come back to you, and I know I don't ever have to worry because you are there and have me in your hand.
SPEAKER_02: And then ask.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer is the word for just overall prayer.
SPEAKER_02: It's just like the word pray.
SPEAKER_02: All aspects of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: That's the general definition of prayer and what all prayer is.
SPEAKER_02: But he goes even beyond that and he says, through prayer and petition, let your requests be made known.
SPEAKER_02: The word petition is the word that we would put in there, a specific prayer.
SPEAKER_02: It means you bring your specific thing to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So he's calling us to prayer in a lifestyle of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, Now you take that specific thing that is causing you to worry and you put that petition in front of me.
SPEAKER_02: It'd be what we would say is on our prayer list.
SPEAKER_02: Or when you talk to someone in your Sunday school group, or you talk to a friend here in the body of Christ, and you say, I have a prayer quest I want to give you.
SPEAKER_02: It is a specific thing that you're asking for prayer.
SPEAKER_02: So he calls us to overall prayer and all aspects of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And then he calls us to take that specific request and give him that very specific thing that we're struggling with.
SPEAKER_02: You see, God doesn't just care about the big stuff, God cares about everything in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about anything, but in everything, let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_02: He asks you to bring all of that to him.
SPEAKER_02: You think, then why don't we do that?
SPEAKER_02: Why don't we ask for that kind of prayer?
SPEAKER_02: Why don't we come to that?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I believe it's because we struggle in our walk with him on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_02: You will trust people that you know.
SPEAKER_02: When you know them well, you will know that you can trust them.
SPEAKER_02: And when we are struggling with our trust in Jesus, it is because we are struggling in our relationship and we have hit a circumstance that is greater than our knowledge of Him.
SPEAKER_02: And what the antidote to that is, in that thanksgiving, in that praise, in that bringing your request to Him, in that walking with Him, it is drawing yourself to Him and trusting Him so you can build a deeper sense of relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_02: Let me get you to think about it this way.
SPEAKER_02: In your relationship with Him, how much do you trust Jesus with on a daily basis?
SPEAKER_02: If you don't trust Him with your tithes and offerings, when you get in a moment of financial question, how are you going to trust Him with that?
SPEAKER_02: You've not been building a life of trust, and you've not invested enough trust in your relationship with Him and seen Him faithful in that relationship, and now you hit a crisis and you think, what am I going to do?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I better make this work.
SPEAKER_02: Because you've not built a relationship of trust with Him on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't trust Him with your earthly relationships, if you're not obedient in what God calls you about, how to do those friendships or parenting or marriage or whatever it is, if you're not doing all the one-another's and if you're not asking him to help me love this person and help me know how to do that, if you're not forgiving people in relationships as he has forgiven you, as we're commanded in Ephesians 4, verse 32, if we're not working through those things, if I've not entrusted him in helping me design these relationships, then when I get in a crisis in a relationship in my life, where have I built the requisite trust that's going to call me to prayer because I know Jesus takes care of things in that area?
SPEAKER_02: If I don't have a design of purpose for my life in what God is doing, if I haven't sought Him out and I'm not obedient and I'm not a part of that mission of the body of Christ and advancing the gospel, if I'm not serving, if I'm not sharing Jesus, if I don't have a purpose, a great commission purpose in my life, I may be good, I may be a good church member, I'm faithful, I'm good to people, I'm a nice guy, I'm just walking through life and everything is good.
SPEAKER_02: If I don't have a sense of purpose, when I get in the middle of a crisis, how am I going to find the wisdom and the way through that?
SPEAKER_02: How am I going to understand what my reaction should be if I've not built in my relationship with Jesus a sense of purpose that guides me through those moments and helps me understand them?
SPEAKER_02: Here's the next issue that we get of that.
SPEAKER_02: And when he says, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, the presumption in that is I've been so grateful and I've worshipped him and I've built this relationship that when I am faced with the temptation to worry, I know that I have a huge God.
SPEAKER_02: I know I have a God who is greater than any circumstance, and I have been walking with him, and I've seen his faithfulness, and I have a pattern of that all behind my life.
SPEAKER_02: So when I get to this moment, God's been faithful in all these things, man.
SPEAKER_02: I've got a big picture of God.
SPEAKER_02: When I was studying this week, I found this quote, and it really kind of, it really kind of just messed with me.
SPEAKER_02: Don't you love it when you find those things that just kind of mess you up?
SPEAKER_02: And so here's what I got.
SPEAKER_02: And I was so messed up about it, I moved around my page and I lost the quote.
SPEAKER_02: This is a quote from A.W.
SPEAKER_02: Tozer, and it is in this passage of Scripture, and as soon as I find it, y'all are going to absolutely love it.
SPEAKER_02: He is a guy that teaches and has taught the church about worship.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times, if you're if you're on social media or somewhere, if you've got people who you follow that are always giving words of encouragement about the Lord or about Scripture, a lot of times you will run across A.W.
SPEAKER_02: Tozer quotes because he is a gifted teacher and he's really challenged us on our picture of worship.
SPEAKER_02: And I promise there really is a quote from here in here.
SPEAKER_02: And I really want to read it to you.
SPEAKER_02: So y'all just be patient.
SPEAKER_02: The worry box, the sin of anxiety.
SPEAKER_02: I'm getting there.
SPEAKER_02: I'm getting close.
SPEAKER_02: I have a moment to worry about y'all right here.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm trusting the Lord that he has not deleted this from my iPad.
SPEAKER_02: You see, I'm just glad I can model these moments for you.
SPEAKER_02: Mind guarding.
SPEAKER_02: It's when I'm making up stuff that my wife gets nervous because she's like, when he's in that mode, he'll say anything.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, come on.
SPEAKER_02: Now I've built it up so big you're gonna go, well, that wasn't really that good after all, Pastor Graden.
SPEAKER_02: So there's another temptation to worry about your reaction.
SPEAKER_02: Here you go.
SPEAKER_02: This is that idea of the picture of God.
SPEAKER_02: What is your picture of God?
SPEAKER_02: Your picture of God determines how much you trust God.
SPEAKER_02: Because it decides whether you realize, okay, I know that God is this big and I have a circumstance this big, I don't know that I can trust him with it.
SPEAKER_02: But if you've spent your life growing your picture of who God is through worship and thanksgiving and trust and following him, whatever circumstance you hit is not going to be as big as the God you know and serve.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what Tozer warns us of.
SPEAKER_02: The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted it for one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking worshiping men.
SPEAKER_02: This the church has not done deliberately, but little by little and without its own knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: And her very unawareness of having reduced the size of God only makes the situation all the more tragic.
SPEAKER_02: The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.
SPEAKER_02: A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, as we have continued to walk through life and we've just said, Lord, I don't need you to take care of this.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to take care of it on my own.
SPEAKER_02: We have reduced the care and concern of God for every detail of our life.
SPEAKER_02: We have reduced the size of God because we've said, I can handle this, and I've put myself in a position as being as wise as God because I know the best way to handle this circumstance.
SPEAKER_02: I am as strong as God because I can do it as well as He can.
SPEAKER_02: And I've reduced the need to trust in God because I can do this on my own.
SPEAKER_02: When I decide that life is good because the circumstances aren't causing me a problem, there's positive money in the bank account.
SPEAKER_02: The kids all have jobs and they're not on the payroll anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Praise the Lord when that happens.
SPEAKER_02: My grandkids are sweet, they'll hug me when I go to the house.
SPEAKER_02: My wife is not mad at me.
SPEAKER_02: My boss is okay with what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_02: Life is pretty smooth.
SPEAKER_02: And we decide that is the definition of what life looks like instead of what Jesus said when he said, I've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly.
SPEAKER_02: We have traded the more abundance of the walk with Christ and all of the blessings that God can create in his omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent mind and power and knowledge to give us all of the blessings of heaven, and I have settled for life is smooth, and I'm in charge.
SPEAKER_01: And we have reduced the magnitude of who God is.
SPEAKER_02: In your life, when you come to Him, are there times you get on your knees and you say, God, I want to know that you're God.
SPEAKER_02: God, will you do something in my life that lets me know and challenges my picture of who you are?
SPEAKER_02: God, do something in this circumstance that will show my kids, that will show my family, that will show the people I work with that you are the creator God of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: God, give me a promise in my life.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to just be a teacher.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to just be a mechanic.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to just be a farmer.
SPEAKER_02: I don't just want to be a coach.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to be just a lawyer.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to be just a doctor or a nurse or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be an instrument for people to get saved around me.
SPEAKER_02: Because you are so powerful in your grace and your movement for us that you stepped out of heaven to conquer death and sin.
SPEAKER_02: You promised me, Jesus, in your word.
SPEAKER_02: You promised us that greater works than you did, you will do in us.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus, I want to participate in one of those things.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Tozer's talking about.
SPEAKER_02: When we hit this circumstance in life and we choose to worry rather than bring that request to Jesus, it says everything about our picture of the magnitude of who God is.
SPEAKER_02: Because prayer is the mechanism that I give that circumstance to the Lord and stop worrying.
SPEAKER_02: Pastor Greg, you're just stretching a point.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_02: Paul wrote this message in prison, a chain to prison guards.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Don't worry about anything.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has got it.
SPEAKER_02: As he continues down to read, if you were traveling on vacation or whatever, when Pastor Matt preached on Philippians 4.13, you need to go back and listen to that message.
SPEAKER_02: It'll be life-changing if you'll go back and grab the truth of that.
SPEAKER_02: Paul wrote that and the truth of, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.
SPEAKER_02: If I don't have anything and it seems like God has left me and nothing there, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
SPEAKER_02: In whatever moment, no matter how much loss there is, no matter how big it seems, no matter how frail I seem to be in light of that, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
SPEAKER_02: That is the context and the chapter in which he writes.
SPEAKER_01: And when you have that picture of Jesus, that he causes all things to work together for good.
SPEAKER_02: Because he loves you and he has a purpose in your life.
SPEAKER_02: When that's your picture of Jesus, man, you can bring that to him.
SPEAKER_01: And you can give it to him and trust that he's got it.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever happens, he's got it.
SPEAKER_02: That's why peace enters into our lives.
SPEAKER_02: But you've got to understand what peace is.
SPEAKER_02: Peace is not a lack of difficult circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: Peace is not calmness.
SPEAKER_02: It's even in the midst of chaos I am peaceful.
SPEAKER_02: It is a gift from Jesus as the result of our relationship.
SPEAKER_02: And it happens from knowing and trusting Him in His person.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, in fact, told His disciples this.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Listen, peace I give to you, not peace as the world gives.
SPEAKER_02: The world gives peace as the absence of conflict or chaos or struggle.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, I'm giving you my peace that nothing can take away from you.
SPEAKER_02: In Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, in our Sunday school class, we're studying the fruits of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And it says, when you are led by the Spirit and He's working in your life, these are the fruits that come out of your love, out of your life.
SPEAKER_02: Love, joy, peace.
SPEAKER_02: It is the result of what God is doing in our lives when we are connected with Him.
SPEAKER_02: And when I hit this circumstance and I refuse to worry, and I take that because I know the person of Jesus, and I give that to Him and say, Lord, I know that I can trust you with this, and I know that you are here in my life.
SPEAKER_02: That's when He says, the peace of God, that gift, it is flowing because of that relational connection with Him.
SPEAKER_02: And He is working that and He is bringing that supernaturally into our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And when that circumstance is so big that it would tempt us to worry, He says, Listen, this peace is guarding our hearts and our minds.
SPEAKER_02: That cannot touch us.
SPEAKER_02: It cannot call us back into worry.
SPEAKER_02: It cannot create doubt in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Because the peace of God keeps us anchored into Him because we have trusted Him and we're in relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_02: And then that next verse says, Finally, brother, whatever things are good and all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_02: If you think back at the beginning of the year, we talked about and did a series on renewing your mind.
SPEAKER_02: And that was one of the activities that we do.
SPEAKER_02: It's that we anchor our minds in these noble thoughts.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: If you're giving thanks to the Lord and you're feeling this peace in the Lord, and you're in the midst of this circumstance, what you want to do is anchor your mind on what God is doing and what he's done and the opportunities that the Lord creates and how much he loves us and the power of who he is.
SPEAKER_02: And you invest your mind continuing to worship and think on those things, and it keeps our relational connection with him, and that peace flows from him into us and it settles all of those things in our lives because we know that he's got it.
SPEAKER_01: And we've left it with him.
SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible verse.
SPEAKER_01: But it speaks to us the question, how well do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, you're going to worry about all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And you're right, they're big, it's horrible.
SPEAKER_02: Things happen in life.
SPEAKER_02: It's a difficult world.
SPEAKER_02: We live in a world with all kinds of circumstances and sin and all of that.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, Jesus stepped out of heaven because he loved you.
SPEAKER_02: He took your sin on the cross and paid the price for your sin.
SPEAKER_02: He took the wrath and punishment of God fully, 100% on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: He paid every price for sin that needed to be paid.
SPEAKER_02: And on the third day, he rose again to conquer death and sin, to offer us life in him.
SPEAKER_02: And to know Jesus, what you need to know is you need to know that Jesus loved you and he died for you on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: And he offered a means of forgiveness and salvation for you.
SPEAKER_02: And your first trusting prayer is to come to Jesus and say, I know I'm a sinner and I know my sin must be punished.
SPEAKER_02: But God, thank you that you love me and sent Jesus and I believe in you.
SPEAKER_02: Repent, Lord, I am sorry for my sin.
SPEAKER_02: Ask, Lord, will you please forgive me?
SPEAKER_02: Yield, Lord, I give you my life.
SPEAKER_02: It is yours.
SPEAKER_02: But you gave your life for me, and so I trust you.
SPEAKER_02: And if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, your first act of trust through prayer is to pray and ask the Lord to be your Lord and Savior in your life.
SPEAKER_02: In just a moment, I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to have an invitation.
SPEAKER_02: If you're watching online or at home, right there where you are, you can pray that prayer on the principles we've just talked about.
SPEAKER_02: It's that simple.
SPEAKER_02: If you need help, you want us to pray with you, walk with you.
SPEAKER_02: If you'll contact us, we will walk that journey with you.
SPEAKER_01: Here in the room, if you are already a believer, but you may be struggling, I want to call you back to that relationship and walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Trust him with what you're going through.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.