Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Rest That Remains Pt.1

I'm going to read a couple of paragraphs to you that I know will be a real blessing from Pastor Charles. A lot of great things going on in the ministry. I'll jump into the middle of this; it's a three-page e-mail here. [I'll] pick this paragraph up.

"The Lord has continued to help us in the ministry here. We've been very busy in the shamba." That's the fields where they're planting and doing some different things. They're doing this as part of the vocational training that's twofold. We're teaching the kids how to make a living. They're going to take their own crops, and then we're going to set up some little kiosks and sell them alongside the road. So the kids will be learning how to do this. They'll be getting to learn how to start business, sell them, and it will just be a blessing as we're doing some of these things.

"We prepared the three pieces of rented land for the planting season. We're now weeding the maize [corn] and beans. It took us many hours of hard work, but it all worked character in us and in our children. Then we had this other tough project of cutting and ferrying firewood and timber from the interior, and it turned out to be a real blessing as we shared the Gospel with the people as we worked." Now, what they're doing [is] they're going in, and they're cutting some trees. They're going in and having to cut trees, and then they're dragging these out and back to this land. Then they're going to be cutting this wood, and they're actually milling it themselves, making their own building lumber to build the kiosks. Other becomes firewood, etc. We really have it tough, don't we?

"Lately I've been teaching the flock on faith that overcomes the world, guarding our hearts above all else, laying down our lives for Christ's sake as He laid down His life for us. His willingness to suffer for us humbles us, so we must be willing to suffer for Him. This week I started to teach basic Bible doctrines in Discipleship chapel. There's a total of forty of our older children. These kids, as I listen to them, I hear their gratitude to God for the ministry they have here and for the spiritual care and oversight of their Apostle [you all]. The Lord is truly doing a mighty work of grace in these young people. They have another spirit in them, and should the Lord tarry, they will carry forth this precious truth that we hold into the next generation. It's such a blessing..." They never even thought this way or talked this way, as they're imbibing this spirit; it's foreign to the culture in Africa. What a blessing to see the care of the children, the care of another generation. Families being kept in tact instead of [being] fragmented for education and other ridiculous goals that they have in their society as they've been seduced by our culture here in America.

"It's such a blessing and a joy to watch them grow in their love for God and for one another, their zeal to reach out for souls every week. These to me are worth living for and dying for. Tomorrow, God willing, we'll be sending out our first missions team to Taragwiti." Praise God. Is that cool or what? Kakamega sending a missions team to Taragwiti. That's what we've been working for, praise God. This is just too cool.

"John, Luke, Sarah and Ruth [sounds like Bible] are our first Discipleship graduates. They started asking last year if they will also be allowed to go on a missions trip, as they've seen the youth from Sterling. So Mose, Amos, Robert, Deacon Joseph and his wife will be accompanying them to Taragwiti tomorrow. How blessed my heart was this morning to see them all give back what I had given them as tokens of appreciation of their labor. Every one returned it back to sow it into the ministry, after having paid tithes. I gave them five hundred shillings [six bucks], and they brought it back as their personal contribution toward their bus fare to Taragwiti, after paying their tithe from the same. This is the fruit of the vision, the raising up of a godly seed through the Discipleship ministry. The kids are imbibing the spirit of Jesus... [he keeps saying--referring to ourselves, and it gets kind of ridiculous after awhile]. Now they're ready to go into the whole world and preach the Gospel.

"I count it a very great privilege to be called of God to be a part of what they're doing in this hour and in this place. It is truly supernatural, a miracle by God for His glory. My family is doing well in the Lord. We thank God for the unity of the spirit in what Father is doing in each of our lives. We're grateful to God for the statehouse, which has become the ministry house. Much ministry is going forth there these days. Rachel continues to be my friend, companion and helpmeet, and everyone else a great team for Jesus.

"Yesterday, Sunday, we had a great day in the Lord. My son David amuses me. Every Sunday he will always leave for church before 7 a.m. Services begin at 10:00. The other day he left a note; all of us were still asleep. He said, 'I am gone. It's not too late. I'll be safe,' and I used the saying to challenge those who came late. David goes early to set up the equipment, practice on the keyboard, and even after they practice on Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, these kids seek ways to become better for the Lord. What a passion for God and men! Pastor, thank you for being there for me." Then it goes on, but what a blessing. Amen? It's an exciting thing. Things are just continuing to grow, and the missions team going to Taragwiti, praise God. It's a blessing to be a part of that and what Father is doing.

Continue to pray. There's some property that became available. We haven't heard back from [Pastor] Tony. We got an e-mail; he said it was rushed--"They're having an auction tomorrow. What can we do?" We responded, [and] haven't heard from him. So either they bought the land and he got so excited he was raptured or--we don't know what's going on right now. But anyway, there was a fairly large facility on a three-quarters of an acre plot that's right down in the central area that was going up for auction. So just be prayerful. We need a miracle. We need space in Eldoret, so make it a matter of prayer. Just truly begin to believe God for that. There's one thing I'm believing for. I was so excited. He came back, and the number he gave--I don't know that that's what we're going to get it for, but the number he gave was almost to the dollar of what we just got from the sale of the Ferrari. That was exciting, praise God, because all of that money is either going to Africa or going here into the new auditorium. I think it would be cool, like God, just to have it to the dollar. That would be such a cool thing.

I don't always get my dollars and cents right. I was telling somebody the other day, I don't do much on the Internet-type stuff and eBay. I'm kind of like Mike; I'm never on eBay. I was on eBay, and I saw this baseball card that I was looking for. I have this memorabilia thing that I'm doing. I saw this baseball card, and I thought, I'm going to bid on that thing. I think the bid at that time was like $28. It said, How much are you willing to pay for this? I said the maximum I'd be willing to pay for that thing was like $45. It's worth more than that, but I thought if you can get it--so I put that in. I came back that night and pulled it up, and it says, "Congratulations! You win." Of course I like winning, and so I started to scroll down through the thing, and I saw what it cost. I thought, Well, I didn't put that in there. I thought, Greer saw that I was wanting that thing, so she got it for me. She happened to walk in the room at that time, and I said, "I think I ruined your surprise." She looked very surprised, so I think I--we were both surprised. I found out that she didn't really bid on it either. So I won the bid. I got that baseball card for $137. Got it--won it by a dollar. I thought, Now, how did I do that? So I went back and looked, and I forgot a decimal point. I put forty-five hundred, I guess. I just put in 4500. So what's a period between friends? The Lord does a better job than us, so I'm sure the decimal point will be in the right place for the land in Africa, praise God. So be in prayer. Man, I'm glad they didn't bid any higher than they did! So I've been restricted. I'm not allowed on eBay anymore. I'm back in Special Ed.

Let's turn to the book of Philippians, and we want to look at a couple of different things here, again, for the hour that we're in. If you're catching the general theme of what I've been talking about over these last couple of sessions--and we haven't stayed on any one point for a long time, purposefully. I'm trying to, for the moment, get us to take an overview of our own lives as it pertains to the daily conflict that we're having with the world's system, this spirit of antichrist, and to be able to identify that we can't just analyze our condition by the soundness of our doctrine--what we know or what we speak and share with others--but that we need to really stop and look at our lives and ask where our treasures are. What is it that's motivating me? Because where our treasure is, that's where our heart is. Listen to the words of your mouth when you're not "officially in Christian mode"--around Christians, in church, officially witnessing. What is it that excites you? What is it you talk about? What is it that causes passion to rise up in you? What can you become passionate about? For some people it could be a drapery swatch. Swatch, is that the right term? Swatch. We could get very passionate about that and about our decorating and some of these different things or about sports. Some people--I'll bet some people really got their dander up over the final game in the NCAA tournament. People become passionate about these sporting events, passionate about their politics--all of these different things. What lights your fire? What are you passionate about?

So we're trying to take a survey and look and see whether or not we're walking truly by faith, and to analyze our lives and say, Are we using religious jargon, biblical terminology, but trusting in ourselves? Is our doctrine sound and our lives being lived in fear? Because the greatest way to understand whether you're in faith or not, whether you're walking in the supernatural or not, is whether or not you're walking free from fear, anxiety, which is totally paralyzing the lives of men today. Because of fear, as a nation, we're giving up our rights, our liberties. We would rather have the appearance of safety than the reality of liberty, and it's eroding right before our very eyes. We stand as Christians and we say that we believe in God and we're trusting in God and that we're praying about such and such, and then we're living in fear and making provision for failure. Anxious, uptight, and God has given us a rest for our souls! "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; [the Master said. He's trying to get us to walk into that rest.] for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).

If our soul isn't at rest, we're not yoked with Jesus. If we're anxious for anything, if we're needing to succeed, if we have a passion for the material, if we have a passion for the natural instead of the supernatural, if these things become, as I said, the passion of our lives and the pursuit of our lives, then we're not yoked with Jesus. We can say all that we want. We can quote all of the Scriptures we want. We can come up here to every meeting. We can be here for every prayer session. And we're practicing religion. But if you're yoked with Jesus, you will find rest for your soul. Your mind will be at peace. There won't be any compulsion to have to vaunt self, to become preeminent. There won't be any of that paralysis of fear that's gripping the world today--you know, the fear of the terrorists!

I don't want to get political, but I'll tell you something. I'm not afraid of the ragheads. It's our politicians that scare me. I've got an answer for those other guys. So let's ask ourselves a question. Let's be as truthful as we know how to be tonight as we take a few minutes and ask ourselves a couple of questions. Have you found rest for your soul? Are you worried about your kids? Are you rising up early? Are you staying up late? Are you fearful? Is there an anxiousness? What about the promise of God that says, "Train them up in the way that they should go, and when they're old, they will not depart" (Proverbs 22:6)? Does that guarantee the salvation of all of our children? Of course not. What it says is they will never be able to walk free from the truths that have been sown into their lives if you're living it before them, if you're consistently requiring it of them. And when you cast your bread upon the water, after many days it will return, praise God. But do you have the faith to go up Mount Moriah and offer them before God? Do you have the integrity of heart that if it should be the case that they are rebels and enemies of God--do you realize that some of our children are going to be God-haters? They're not going to follow in our paths. The Word of God speaks toward that, and it gives us a remedy. Under the Old Covenant, we know what the provision was. When a child rebelled what happened? You took them to the elders at the gate, the verdict was rendered, they were stoned, and you as the parent were responsible to cast the first stone. Can I ask you a question? Do you have rest in your souls? Can you do that? Could you do that tonight? You're saying, "Dear God, I'll tell you what. If they wouldn't arrest me, I would have taken them out last week, man!" Wrong spirit. We're not talking about vindictiveness. We're not talking about the fact that we're angry with our children. We're not talking about the fact that we don't love our kids. We're talking about the fact that we're jealous for God--Amen?--that we're trusting God to work in those areas that are most precious to us.

There's nothing more precious than family for us men--our wives and our children. There shouldn't be, anyway. And I had that in proper order, by the way, men: wife and children. Ladies, the proper order: husband and children. The children are not first. You do not love your children more than you love your husband. And because of all of this confusion and because of all of this humanism today--that's a whole other story that we're not going to address tonight, but what I'm asking is, Do you have rest for your souls? Are you able to do the Word of God, to believe that God loves you, loves your children, has a plan for you that's beyond your natural comprehension, that you're going to come into circumstances that are going to press you beyond your own emotional stability? Are you able to stand on the Word of God and say, "Let God be true and every man a liar"? Where are you?

We're living in a society right now that's dictated to by the social sciences, the deifying of children in our society, the deifying of man--the secular humanist. As Christians, we've talked about the fact of all these churches that have swallowed this thing and have made it a doctrine and how this seeker-friendly doctrine is going about today. We look back at that, and we go, "Yeah, man, those guys are really missing it" or whatever, but what are we living? How are we living any differently than them? We say their doctrine is wrong, but we're practicing the same thing. We're preferring our children, we're preferring our friends, we're preferring ourselves over God when we're not able to make that stand for His holiness. As we're yoked to Him--"Take my yoke upon you..." (Matthew 11:29). "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me..."

Now, who is this that's speaking to us? This is the Guy, if you'll remember, that prayed, "If it be possible, let the cup pass, but nevertheless, not My will, Thy will be done" (Matthew 26:39). This is the One that was not in any way--you talk about isolated: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He was forsaken of the godhead, and He was rejected of men--hated, offered up. He vicariously was made sin with our sin. He vicariously paid the price for you and me. He says, "Take the yoke upon yourself and learn of Me. I am meek, and I am lowly. I want to give you rest." He said, "I want to give you some rest. I want to free you from everything that's causing the world to be fearful. Everything that's causing man to believe the initial lie against Me," God says, "when the devil spoke to Eve and said, 'Has God said? He doesn't really care about you. He's holding out on you. You're going to have to take care of yourself. You partake of this. Your eyes will be opened, and you'll have the capacity to discern good and evil. You'll know good; you'll know evil. You will be able to be independent. You will be able to provide for yourself.'"

How are we living? Our doctrine is right. Is anybody here afraid you're not going to have enough for retirement? You want me to give you the solution to fear over the fact that you may not have enough to retire? Don't retire. Just keep working. Fall over. We'll throw you in a ditch. To be absent from the body--present with the Lord. Amen? That took care of that. What are you worried about? "Well, you know, in my old age, somebody has to take care of me." A bullet will take care of that. That'll solve that euthanasia problem, right? The big debate: euthanasia. I don't want to get into that right now. I don't know why everybody was so worked up about all those young Orientals--the youth in Asia. [Pastor's humor.] Okay, just thought I'd give it a shot. The Scripture already speaks toward that for us as Christians. We don't take lives.

So here we are. A people, called to be separate, called to walk by faith. A people that are going to always be in conflict with the world's system, and God is calling us to a walk of faith. Turn to Philippians for just a second, and let me show you. A passage that every one of you are familiar with--Philippians, Chapter 4, verse 6. Some of you know it by the reference. Others of you will know it when we begin to quote it. "Be careful [or anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." "Be [fearful, be anxious, be] careful [those are synonyms] for [say it] nothing; but in every thing [with what?]..." Now, how many times a week do we come up here for prayer? Now, if we're praying and not just coming to prayer--I'll say it again. If we're praying--we gave you a definition years ago. Prayer is practicing--say it--the presence of God. "In My presence is--" [Congregants say the rest of the Scripture:] "fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). So we have joy. His presence is peace, and you'll find care for your souls. Every time you come into the presence of God, He heals your mind, He calms your heart, He builds your faith.

Have you been coming to prayer, or have you been encountering Father? Do you leave here changed? Do you leave this auditorium emboldened? Do you leave here refreshed, renewed, focused? You see, the privilege of prayer--it seems like, and I'm not just talking about us as a fellowship, but there's so much teaching on prayer and there's so much praying. The praying is, "Bless me with this, bless me with that. I take authority over this. I bind that. I loose that. I claim that. I..." How about encountering the presence of God where that coal comes from the altar and is placed upon our lips, and then we realize that we're men of unclean lips? Finally, when we've encountered God and a brokenness, and we begin to lay our self-agendas before Him and just say, "Here am I, Lord. Send me, praise God. I don't need to understand. I don't need to give my stamp of approval. I believe that You care for me, and therefore I cast my care upon You because You care for me." That anxiousness--He said we put our anxiousness over on Him because He cares for us. Do you have something in the cooker right now? Is there a deal going? Are you uptight? Do you have a quiz coming? Are you uptight? You have an evaluation coming at work? Are you uptight? Do you have some type of an encounter going to take place between you and somebody else and it could begin to cause some friction? Are you uptight about that thing, or are you at rest? Do you know that God is ordering your steps?

There's no fear of men's faces to those of us that have the yoke of Jesus upon us. We're not worried about what people think about us or say about us. We've learned humility. "Take it upon yourself and learn of Me. I am meek and I am lowly." What He's saying is, "I don't have a rep [reputation]. I'm not worried, man, about what you think. I'm not worried about how this comes out. It may look like it's a failure to you. All I know is I did what the Lord told me to do. I'm at perfect peace." Amen? What a great life. Don't have anything to prove to anybody. I'm accepted in the Beloved. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee..." (Isaiah 26:3). So when we realize that and that peace of God becomes a reality to us, what rest. What a walk that the Spirit of God has provided for us. We need to start fearing God instead of men.

So the Scripture, as we said, it said be careful or anxious, fearful, about nothing. We asked a question a little bit earlier. Stop for just a moment and ask yourself, Am I uptight about anything? Then begin to analyze it and say, Now, all this stuff that has me stressed, what about any of this is eternal? That's the first place to start. You know, the weights and the sins that do so easily beset us? The weights are much more easily taken care of than the sins. The weights: the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of other things, that enter in and choke the Word of God out of our lives. The weights: all of these things that are noneternal. Stop for just a moment and say, What, that's robbing my energy right now (worry, the fear, the preparation to appease this person and please that guy and "What will they think?" and "I just..."--all of that stuff)--what's it got to do with eternity? If it doesn't, then you just put it where it belongs in the priority list. It may be on the list, it might make the list, but it's obvious that it's in its wrong priority if it's causing anxiousness. Because, see, this anxiousness keeps you from hearing the voice of God. The priority is to hear from God. The priority is to get quiet and hear from God. The priority is to get at peace, to get into faith, to get God-awareness alive in you again, so that you can begin to walk by faith, and nothing will be impossible to you. Success is going to begin to happen in that realm of rest, of peace. As long as you're anxious, as long as you're stressed, you can't be in faith.

So as the Lord is speaking to us and we begin to catch the wisdom that Paul's speaking here to the Philippians--now, you remember, they were being persecuted. They were under a real time of trial when Paul came into their midst and when he's writing this epistle back to them, as were the Thessalonians. So he speaks to them and he says, "Be [anxious or] careful [fearful] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with [say it] thanksgiving..." You think you can be stressed out and be thankful at the same time? How many of you think that's tough? Do you really? It is. It's a tough thing. To be truly thankful--"Praise God! Look what God has done for me! I have the presence of God. I have people that love me. I have a covenant that guarantees me a relationship with my Father. I have a covenant that says I'm going to be raised up and seated with Him in heavenly places! I have a covenant that says He is coming back to receive me unto Himself that where He is, there I will be also, praise God. I'm His lover. I'm His bride. I'm the apple of His eye--me! Can you believe this? God loves me, and He has freely given me all of these things to enjoy!" "Man, I'm bummed." Those two things don't go together! "I'm really stressed out." "What happened?" "Got a scratch on the car." "The kids just shot all my knickknacks off the wall." Have you encountered any of these trivial things that throw this balance of life off? So think about it for just--I mean, you know, "...with thanksgiving..."

So here we are, a people that are called, chosen, gifted, blessed. How much credit, then, and how much worth are we giving to our momentary feelings and letting them rob from the glory of God, because I'm bummed for this moment? I'll say and do hateful things and make stupid decisions, to bring a reproach to the glory of God. How jealous are we in our boast of God's goodness? "Be [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, [will then come and] keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

What are we praying? "Not my will; Thy will be done. I thank You that when I pray You hear me. Father, I thank You for Your goodness. I thank You that You've given me everything that pertains to life and godliness. I thank You that You've promised to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings that I can't contain. I thank You that Your glory is my rear guard. I thank You that You've gone before me and prepared a way. I thank You that You've sent Your angels to encamp round about me, praise God. I thank You, Lord, that Your promises are sure to a thousand generations. I thank You, Lord, that the effectual fervent prayer of righteous men truly does avail much. I thank You, Lord." Just begin to rejoice in the access to God, the provision of God, the privilege of serving in the Kingdom, and all of the fears--the circumstances don't change--all of the fears-- See, fear is giving too much credibility to these circumstances. Too much credibility of their power and too much credibility toward their value. The temporal is just that. It's a vapor. It's here today and gone tomorrow. It's meaningless. It's a blip in life. God is wanting to give you rest for your souls!

So here we are, a people blessed and called and privileged to serve, and our energies are being eaten up on the mundane. It's an interesting thing that, as God speaks to us concerning this rest--look over with me for just a second to Psalm 116. Talking about thankfulness tonight a little bit. [Are] you uptight? [Are] you stressed? [Are] you anxious? Is there some little doodad that you're trying to pursue, and you can't quite get it? You're wheeling and dealing and whatever it is you're wanting, and it's just almost at your reach. You've got to have it, and it looks like you can find your way, and all of these things that are taking place that are robbing you from the thankfulness of what you do have (family, friends, your salvation, the presence of God). Listen to what the psalmist says in 116:7: "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." Do you believe that? Or do you think you're just getting the crumbs? [God has given us] all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). You don't need any more. There's no more to be given.

What have you made priority? What have you appropriated that God has offered you? "Well, God just doesn't do that for me." God is no respecter of persons. Whosoever will, can come. Amen? "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name [they] shall..." (Mark 16:17). Whosoever--don't you put it off on God.

The Lord has dealt bountifully with me. I have so much more than I ever thought I would have. I have immeasurably beyond what I deserve, and I still get caught up in being frustrated because I can't reach everything that I think I'd like to attain. And that doesn't bring glory to God. And as we can come as a people and truly be thankful--and most of the time I'm thankful. Not all the time, but Father is, over the years, working these things in my life, and most of the time I'm thankful. I'm humbled, and what a humbling thing to stand before God's people, His inheritance, and to try to represent His heart to His people. You talk about being humbled. You talk about being thankful. For an opportunity to be used of God? Those are the things that are the treasures in life. An opportunity to train your children up. They're not a--they can be a trial, but they're the heritage of the Lord. This is a privilege. I know you think God has a cruel sense of humor sometimes, but you're not going through anything that everybody before you hasn't gone through. All adolescents are brain-damaged, not just yours. [Pastor's humor.]

The real issues are not the trials that you're experiencing, but whether or not you're going to choose to be jealous for God and be able to look that child in the face and say, "Look, you're exactly where every other young person on the planet has been at this time. You're going to have to make your choice, but as for me and my house, we're serving God. We love you, but not more than God. You are not the exception, so you can choose to be a friend of God or an enemy of God. There's no middle ground. Don't make me choose in your eyes, because I've already chosen in my heart."

Now, that has to do with wives, children, and especially the more mundane things in life: vocations, secular--and when I talk about secular, I don't just mean unregenerate--associations. In a world that's focusing on man, our doctrine is right, but are our choices for God? When you have to choose between yourself (your own temporal pleasure, your own little goals, your family, your feelings), who gets left out? Can we say that we're yoked with Jesus? Can we say that we have truly found rest for our souls? I can lose my job, I can lose my health, I can lose my family, and I can say, "The Judge of all the earth does right. God is good, and I'm so thankful for what He's done to allow me to serve Him."

Are you at rest? Did any of those things I mentioned cause a little bit of a quiver in you? Job said, "The thing that I have feared has come upon me" (Job 3:25). Guess what? God will let you make that decision one of these days. Why not make it now? It's just as real--listen to me, and we're going to finish with this--it's just as real in the spirit realm as it is in the time and space realm, if you'll give Him your heart! It doesn't mean you're not going to still have to experience some kind of a trial, but I want to tell you something. Just as you're ready to draw that knife, He'll say, "Don't hurt the child; now I know." How do we know we're going to be able to do that? Your doctrine is right. What was you last decision when everything around you was in turmoil? Do you have rest in your soul and say, "Praise God! All I know is God is good, praise God. His will is going to be done, and everything works together for his good, to those that love Him and are called according to His commandments"? Let's not just come to prayer. Let's encounter Him, and let's not leave without a yoke on our necks, completely convinced that we've found rest for our souls.

Father, we thank You tonight for Your Word. In this generation of self-serving; in this generation of ease and comfort; in this generation of the glory of man, the excellency of success, of abundance, of ease, of image, are we thankful? Can we say that none of those things move me? The only thing that moves me is to hear, Well done. The only thing that moves me is to know that I'm walking according to the will of God, the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit of God. Any of this other stuff, it's fine. The Lord can make rich and add no sorrow. The blessings of the Lord can overtake you. What are you trying to overtake? Are you trying to overtake God and then let the blessings catch up, or are you trying to overtake blessings? Are you trying to come to some type of peace, some type of satisfaction? You'll never be at peace, but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, that passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. For me to live is Christ. Thank You, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord.

As Gary plays for us for just a moment and we're saying all the right words, we have all the right doctrine, where are your treasures? What are you trying to guard? Where's your passion? We say that we trust God. We say that we believe in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We say that we believe in signs and wonders. We say that we believe in the providence of God. We say that we believe in the power of faith, that nothing's impossible to the believer. We say that we believe in the integrity of the Word of God, the promises that are sure. And we're just as afraid as everybody else in the neighborhood that we won't eat, that thieves are going to break in, that our children are going to go bad, that we're going to lose our spouse, we're going to lose our job. You don't know Him. "Take My yoke." Take up your cross. Lay aside the weights. Count it all dung. Press toward the mark. Labor to enter into the rest. Cease from your own abilities. Hunger and thirst. Be thankful and find rest for your souls. God is good. The victory has been won.

Let's sing it together, and just rejoice in His goodness tonight. "Give thanks..." Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Lord, we do give You thanks, and we just bless Your name. We stand before You, Lord, so many times dumb, unable to speak of Your greatness with true thankfulness of our hearts. We're so unlovely, and yet You loved us and died for us. Every man in here, the chief of sinners in his own eyes that's truly encountered Your presence. There's not a man that's gotten a glimpse of you that doesn't see himself as the chief of sinners, and yet You loved us and You died for us. How soon we forget. How soon we adapt to Your presence. How soon we adapt to Your blessings. How easily we are desensitized by our environment. Lead us into truth, Lord. Give us ears to hear. Put Your Word in our mouth, and let us speak of Your greatness, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Turn to somebody next to you, [and] say, "Be anxious for nothing." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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