Praise God for that, I appreciate that song.
Greetings to you all in the name of
the Lord Jesus.
On a wonderful morning that we can gather
and worship the Lord, I'm very thankful to
have this opportunity again.
I want to be thankful in all things.
I think my family is very thankful to
be here.
It's just a pleasure to see you all.
I'm going to share some thoughts, and they're
going to be relating.
The description is a bit hard, but it
would probably have to do with the end
of Acts chapter 2.
It would probably relate to some of those
things about how they lived in peace one
with another.
I'm just going to read some scriptures concerning
that.
I've been really surprised how much scripture there
is.
If you want to seek that out, how
there are scriptures that speak on the matter
of living in peace one with another, an
easy one would be what Jesus said, Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they will be called
the children of God.
Many things we can find through Psalms.
I didn't really dig into that too much,
but I'm going to talk on that a
little bit.
The first passage will be Luke chapter 10.
This one will have to do with something
that caught my attention when I read that
chapter.
I think that was kind of the beginning
of my thought here a couple of weeks
ago.
What was this man?
Here we have Jesus sending out the 70.
He appointed 70 and sent them out two
by two.
One of the first things we see that
they're supposed to look for is a son
of peace.
If you find that, dwell there, and whatever
he serves, eat it, and so on.
Then that same kind of account, I believe,
in Matthew, it's recorded, where Jesus sent out
his disciples, it says something very similar.
It says, and I'll read this one, And
if the house be worthy, let your peas
come unto it.
But if it be not worthy, let your
peas return to you.
That's what it says in Matthew.
Now that Luke account, I'm going to read
a little bit more of the lengthy.
Well, maybe I'll just read eight verses, but
Luke chapter 10.
I'm going to start in here.
After these things the Lord appointed other 70
also, and sent them two by two before
his face into every city and place, whither
he himself would come.
Therefore he said unto them, The harvest truly
is great, but the labors are few.
Pray ye, therefore, the labor of the harvest,
that he would send forth labors into his
harvest.
Go your ways, behold, I sent you forth
as lambs among sheep, carry neither purse, nor
script, nor shoes, nor salute, no man by
the way.
And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say,
Peas, be to this house.
And if the son of peas be there,
your peas shall rest upon it.
If not, it shall return to you again.
And in the same house remain, eating and
drinking such things as they give.
For the labor is worthy of his hire,
going out from house to house.
So, my thoughts kind of went from there.
I'm not sure how much I'll expound on
that, but what would a man like that
look like?
And then, with that description, what was it
that they went out looking for as they
went from place to place, house to house,
preaching, teaching?
And I don't know how much of a
concept they had of what they were looking
for, but it seemed like it's not too
hard to find some of these examples.
And that's what I want to look at,
is these men that Jesus came upon and
they were just given some, in the beginning
they were given some pretty good recognition that
they were trustworthy, faithful men.
And I think they had this thing that
the disciples were supposed to be looking for.
They had this peace about them that could
be a beginning point of teaching, preaching.
I call it a seat bed.
Like a man of peace has that thing
that would be the seat bed where the
message of the kingdom can now grow in
and prosper.
I'm not talking about a go-with-the
-flow kind of peace that the worldly people
offer and pursue where you just get along
with everyone and therefore you're a peacemaker.
It's something very different than that.
It's a man that is not settled with
how the world operates.
And he sees the dangers and the snares
that the peace of this world wants to
offer.
The comfort, just being very wishy-washy.
What I understand was that they were called
to be on the guard, on the look,
like if you find this son of peace,
if you find him, it's like you'll know
it and then you'll dwell there.
Right, but I think we're talking about something
a bit different here.
Sure, and I wanted to clarify that too.
That I'm not talking about a wishy-washy
peace, let's go on a hike.
No, this is something where it's like our
time here is on, we're on a clock.
We don't know when this thing is going
to time out.
We need to make use of the time
we have and figure out.
Maybe one of the intents for Jesus to
tell his disciples this was just don't get
confused, don't get wrapped up with all kinds
of different theories and ideas.
They're just going to blow your day.
Find this man of peace and dwell there.
So, actually my first kind of note that
I put down was Nathaniel and I'm going
to read that passage.
Nathaniel was one of those disciples that is
recorded in John chapter 1 and it's kind
of an interesting account how that came together
and what was told to Nathaniel.
I am going to read John chapter 1
starting in verse 29.
It'll lead up to the thing about Nathaniel
there towards the end and that's where most
of my thoughts are in, but most of
this, a lot of this still has to
do with just a little glimpse maybe of
how the beginnings were, how the beginnings, some
of these beginnings were.
Jesus finding people and like he just saw
them as the son of peace.
He just saw them as a man that's
fit and ready to be taught and that
will take a hold of the message and
prosper in it.
And of course as we look through this,
we need to remember too that Jesus would
have this something that we don't necessarily have
all the time.
A thorough discernment of like on the moment
he could tell who's who and what's what
better than we can.
Okay, read here, 29.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward
him and said, Look, the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world.
He is the one I was talking about
when I said, A man is coming after
me who is far greater than I am,
for he exists long before me.
I did not recognize him as the Messiah,
but I have been baptizing with water so
that he might be revealed to Israel.
Then John testified, I saw the Spirit descending
like a dove from heaven and resting upon
him.
I didn't know he was the one, but
when God sent me to baptize with water,
he told me, The one on whom you
see the Spirit descend and rest is the
one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
I saw this happen to Jesus, so I
testify that he is the chosen one of
God.
It's a little testimony of John and his
experience, his walk, how he grew there in
knowledge and he came to an understanding of
Jesus being the chosen one.
I'm reading it because I think it's a
beautiful thing how these things come together for
God's people.
I think as we go through it, it's
good to remember how it doesn't work that
way in the world.
It seems like they cannot unite and they
don't even try that much to unite underneath
things.
They don't put in efforts to make this
their focus and that's what makes this such
a shining, glorious thing.
It's because it's precious and we search hard
for it and finally we find it.
I just appreciated Brother Max's message a week
ago the struggle to find some of these
things I'm talking about and then once we
work so hard to obtain it, we have
a great appreciation for it.
Okay, verse 35.
The following day John was again standing with
two of his disciples.
As Jesus walked by, John looked at him
and declared, Look, this is the Lamb of
God.
When John's two disciples heard this, they followed
Jesus.
Okay, so this was two of John's disciples
baptized by John.
They had walked with John for a while
and now here, John encourages them to follow
Jesus.
He says, Look, there is the Lamb of
God.
And the disciples were easy to acknowledge that.
They were quick to see that because they
had started on this right, reasonable, peaceable foundation
of understanding truth and it just made sense
to follow Jesus.
He's the guy.
Jesus looked around and saw them following.
What do you want, he asked them.
They replied, Rabbi, where are you staying?
Come and see, he said.
It was about four o'clock in the
afternoon when they went with him to the
place where he was staying and they remained
with him the rest of the day.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these
men who heard what John had said and
then followed Jesus.
Andrew went to find his brother Simon and
told him, We found the Messiah, which means
Christ.
Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus.
Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, Your name
is Simon, son of John, but you will
be called Cephas, which means Peter or Rock.
The next day Jesus decided to go to
Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him, Come,
follow me.
Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter's hometown.
Philip went to look for Nathanael and told
him, We have found the very person Moses
and the prophets wrote about.
His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph
from Nazareth.
Nazareth, explained Nathanael.
Can anything good come from Nazareth?
It's like he was on the balance of
asking, Is that really the way it is?
And then Philip did this thing, what Jesus
did, when he was asked a question, he
just said, Come and see, figure it out
for yourself.
Come and see and I don't have to
persuade you.
Just come and see.
Philip replied.
As they approached, Jesus said, Now here is
a genuine son of Israel, a man of
complete integrity.
How did you know about me, Nathanael asked.
Jesus replied, I could see you under the
fig tree before Philip found you.
Then Nathanael explained, Rabbi, you are the son
of God, the king of Israel.
Jesus asked him, Do you believe this because
I told you?
I have seen you under the fig tree.
You will see greater things than this.
Then he said, I tell you the truth.
You will see all heaven open and the
angels of God going up and down on
the son of man, the one who is
the stairway between heaven and earth.
So just here, when he acknowledges him as
being a genuine son of Israel, other versions
would say, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile.
It's like saying, behold a true Israelite.
I can't discern for sure whether he's saying
Israel in the flesh or Israel in the
spirit, but maybe even at that time it
was both.
But definitely Nathanael was an Israelite in the
spirit, a true son of Abraham, one that
upon being approached, he easily understood.
He easily was able to be a disciple
and go after Jesus.
I think it was because he was genuine,
because he had this thing about himself that
was not defiled.
I think that's such an important thing.
If people don't have to grow up and
get into the slums of being defiled and
being all out wicked and having to unravel
all that, put it to the side.
It's a blessing.
It sure is a very powerful testimony if
someone does that.
That's a great thing.
Or someone that's in a religious system and
they get caught up in it so far
that it's hard work to get out.
Jesus couldn't hardly say that about them where
they're without guile.
But it's just a blessing when you can
come to a young man and find him
like that and be named a true Israelite,
a true spiritual Israelite with complete integrity.
I think Nathaniel had an understanding.
He either had an understanding or quickly got
an understanding that there's going to be...
Where is that passage?
Oh, what Philip told him.
Philip told him, We have found the very
person Moses and the prophets wrote about.
His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph
from Nazareth.
And Nathaniel didn't...
It's just beautiful how he didn't have all
kinds of questions and reasons why this couldn't
be.
He had one question about it, but he
was quick to overcome that and acknowledge him
as being the true one that was being
spoken of by the prophets and by Moses.
And I think that's good too if we
can remember and if we find a man
like that that can overcome...
So often we find men that are just
so interested in somehow explaining how the law
of Moses still needs to be practiced.
We need to occupy a lot of time
and effort towards these outward worship and rituals
and really kind of idolize the law of
Moses in practice.
But it seemed like Nathaniel understood that there's
a time coming.
And we need to be watching for this
time coming when there's going to be one...
the one that is really talking about is
going to come and then we're going to
believe in him.
Just one of those things that if we
can find a man like that, it's worth
spending a lot of time with him.
We look not for a man that wants
to idolize the law of Moses in practice,
but a man who talks about what the
law of Moses brought and how it was
fulfilled in the man Jesus.
Go ahead.
Well, I was thinking of that same thing
you had just been talking about, like what
made him an Israelite without deceit.
He kind of hid it.
So he was an Israelite, so he was
waiting on this time when this Jesus of
Nazareth would come, right?
So when someone said to him, we have
found this man, I don't know if he
just believed right away, but he was waiting
on that time, obviously, because he was going
to go check it out at least.
So before he even starts talking to the
man, the man is like, oh, there comes
Nathaniel.
And a true Israelite doesn't have this, you
know, he's waiting on the Messiah, someone told
him about him, and here he comes checking
me out.
And Nathaniel, in a way, is like, okay,
this must be the man now.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, I like that.
Come and see for yourself, is what Philip
said after Nathaniel questioned him just a little
bit.
It's like, come and see for yourself.
And he was very ready to do that,
very quick to acknowledge that he was the
Rabbi, the Son of God, King of Israel,
and I'd also be curious whether we can
discern whether what he's talking about, the spiritual
Israel, like, oh, I guess, in the epistles
we can read about spiritual Israel, and then,
and that's what we're supposed to be, like
those that are true, true sons of Abraham,
and true daughters of Sarah, not, you know,
not in the genealogy flesh, but in that
they have faith and in that they practice
what Jesus said.
Some other accounts, this wouldn't be necessary, Jesus
coming and finding someone, but when the apostles
went out and about preaching, I'm very fascinated
at some of the places they got to
and they found these people.
In Acts chapter 16, I'll read a little
account in how Paul and whoever was traveling
with him found a lady named Lydia a
sister, and it, yeah, I'll just read the
account in Acts chapter 16 verse 11.
We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed
straight across to the island of Samothrus and
the next day we landed at Neapolis.
From there we reached Philippi, a major city
of that district of Macedonia in a Roman
colony and we stayed there several days.
On the Sabbath we went a little way
outside the city to a river bank where
we thought people would be meeting for prayer
and we sat down to speak with some
women that gathered there.
One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a
merchant of expensive purple clothes who worshiped God.
As she listened to us, the Lord opened
her heart and she accepted what Paul was
saying.
She was baptized along with other members of
her household and she asked us to be
her guests.
If you agree that I am a true
believer in the Lord, she said, come and
stay at my home and she urged us
until we agreed.
What's nice about Scripture sometimes is when you
see it come together like there's maybe something,
could seem kind of little, like a verse
there, look for a sign of peace.
And then you read through Acts and you
find some of these things coming together that
is kind of encouraging.
It's kind of nice to see the disciples
being asked to look for a certain thing.
They were also asked to watch out for
certain things, watch out for false prophets.
They were specifically told to not just give
heed to everything that they hear, but it's
like when you hear this certain thing, really
give heed to that.
And then we read through some of these
things in Acts and we see some of
these things coming together.
Here was a sister.
She listened to them and the Lord opened
her heart and she accepted what Paul was
saying.
She was baptized and from there she was
hospitable.
She offered them a house and I expect
they ended up fulfilling, not like in a
prophetic way, but fulfilling what Jesus had told
the disciples to look for.
Watch for these kind of people that are
peaceable and sons of peace.
And then I had to think of Cornelius.
I didn't really take time to just really
look over his account, but he would be
another account and there's many more accounts of
people we can probably think of.
It just came together for them and they
just quickly understood and there wasn't much doubt
in Jesus' mind.
He saw the man and there he was
and for Paul as well.
So, I want to now talk about some
things that hinder some of the things that
hinder some of that.
And not just the beginnings of those things,
but being that most of us are what
I would say in phase, whatever number you
want to put on it, phase 2 or
3, like we have done these things.
We have heard this message.
Surely we have been a son of peace
and we have accepted and tried to understand
the way of salvation and the message of
the Lord Jesus.
And we can look back and we can
see in our own testimony some of these
things coming together.
It's a beautiful testimony when I think back
on Brother Aaron and Darren getting together.
You're going out to preach and there he
was, and pick him up and there he
is, a man of peace.
It comes together like that.
That's a beautiful thing.
There's different times when the disciples then, like
they progressed in their life and they walked
with Jesus for a number of years and
I think there were some of these bigger
tests that came along, like these things that
made them doubt that would come along.
I don't really see any different in our
walk today.
I don't see it any different in my
walk.
The temptations don't really get less.
The walk continues just to be a hard
walk.
And surely we've come to a place where
we've put away these bad things that just
so easily beset us, like these weights and
these sins of immorality.
We've even put away bad habits and we've
taken great strides in perfecting our walk with
the Lord as we go day by day.
It just came to me how it seems
like our thoughts have attained to a place
where the old man doesn't rise up as
much anymore and the immoral sins don't really
allure you as much anymore.
There was a time when things really were
alluring still and they're not as much anymore.
And I think it comes down to a
great big thought battle.
The thought is maybe that last thing that
Satan has an open door to it.
He has, because we are man, because we
are given thoughts to exercise them for good,
he seems to somehow have an open door
to those things.
And that could be the final straw to
get someone down, to not continue in that
way.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
We can look to things like this.
We can be encouraged by putting things together
that just make sense.
The disciples starting out with a good foundation
and then by faith they enter into temptations
that they hadn't really known about.
But through faith they make it through and
they become strong men that are able to
carry on the message of the Lord and
a church comes out of that.
That's something to be thankful for.
So I want to read now in Matthew
6.
These would now be some things that if
we are one of those men that have
walked the walk for years and we have
overcome and won lots of victories, I think
some of these verses would still apply on
a daily basis in a daily battle.
Matthew 6.
I'll start reading in verse 24.
No one can serve two masters.
You will hate one and love the other.
You will be devoted to one and despise
the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
That is why I tell you not to
worry about everyday life, whether you have enough
food or drink or enough clothes to wear.
Isn't life more than food and your body
more than clothing?
Look at the birds.
They don't plant or harvest or store food
in the barns for your heavenly Father feeds
them.
And aren't you of more value to them
than they are?
Can all your worries add a single moment
to your life?
And why worry about your clothes?
Look at the lilies of the field and
how they grow.
They don't work or make their clothing.
Yet Solomon in all his glory is not
dressed as beautifully as they are.
And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers
that are here today and thrown into the
fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you.
Why do you have so little faith?
So don't worry about these things, saying, what
will we eat?
What will we drink?
What will we wear?
These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.
But your heavenly Father already knows all your
needs.
Seek first the kingdom of God above all
things and live righteously and He will give
you everything you need.
So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
bring its own worries.
Today's trouble is enough for today.
These were words that the apostles or the
disciples there, they had it already early on.
They had it with them.
They knew about it.
Actually, Matthew was the one recording this.
And it's these things that carry us through.
It's these things that teach us how to
have a good thought structure, how to keep
us being a seeker of peace.
When it says a peacemaker, I wonder if
the same thing could be said about a
peacekeeper, that we're supposed to be a peacekeeper
just as well as a peacemaker.
And these things start in our own hearts,
I believe.
If we can't have peace in our own
hearts and we're always troubled and thrown around,
I don't know how much we'll have peace
with the people around us.
If we're very critical and quick to be
fault-finding and tear others down, it's just
quite obvious that we haven't yet come to
a place where we either maintain this peacemaking
or where we really originally have found it.
Maybe we just haven't really learned that yet.
I don't know.
Maybe it's not this way for everyone or
for you all.
It just comes down to that the walk
with the Lord is more coming clear to
me how the blessings really stand out and
then the trials really stand out.
And it's just really something how that kind
of carries us on.
Philippians 1, verse 27.
It says, Above all, you must live as
citizens of heaven, conducting yourself in a manner
worthy of the good news of Christ.
Then whether I come to see you again
or only hear about you, I will know
that you are standing together with one spirit
and one purpose, fighting together for the faith,
which is the good news.
Don't be intimidated in any way by your
enemies.
That's kind of the punchline of this passage,
is don't be intimidated in any way by
your enemies.
It says, In nothing being terrified by your
adversaries.
This will be a sign to them that
they are going to be destroyed, King James
says, which is to them an evident token
of perdition, but that you are going to
be saved.
Okay, so if I understand that right, basically
what I want to get to is concerning
the pandemic that's confusing a lot of people.
If the world can see in us somehow
that we have something that they don't have,
it's going to be, like if we're not
tossed around and terrified by our adversaries, and
it can be different things, but they could
be bad as well, and they can see
that we're just living day by day, we're
just not taking thought for tomorrow, we're not
involved in all these fights and bickerings about
what's right and what's not.
I would hope that somewhere in the middle
of that, someone would see that we have
something they don't have, and that we can
work together and stand together in ways that
they just don't have it.
That they trust in different things, and they
promote different agendas, that we just don't go
by those, we don't trust in that.
And I would just hope that somehow through
all that, someone in there would be able
to see that the people of God have
something different.
They walk by faith.
Thank you.
Pharaohs chapter 4.
Now I appeal to Iodia and Sanjaya, Sanchi,
please, because you belong to the Lord, settle
your disagreements, and I ask you, my true
partner, to help those two women, for they
worked hard with me in telling others the
good news.
They worked along with Clement and the rest
of my fellow workers, whose names are written
in the Book of Life.
Always be full of the joy of the
Lord.
I say it again, rejoice.
Let everyone see that you are considerate in
all you do.
Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need, and thank Him
for all He has done.
Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds
anything we can understand.
His peace will guard your hearts and minds
as you live in Christ Jesus.
And now, dear brothers, one final thing.
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and
honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and
admirable.
Think about things that are excellent and worthy
of praise.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and
received from me, everything you heard from me
and saw me doing.
Then the peace of God will be with
you.
This is the passage I just made a
little note here.
There is a condition.
If we want this peace that will carry
us through these pandemics, that will carry us
through trials of life, the daily grind of
being a Christian, and I'm not saying this,
there are so many blessings that go with
it that we need to count those and
we need to see those.
But still, it's these kind of things that
our thoughts need to be fixed on.
The things that are honorable, that are pure,
things that are right, lovely, worthy of praise,
these are all things that if we want
this peace that comes from God, not as
the world gives, but the way God gives,
we need to have our thoughts fixed on
that.
And I struggle myself sometimes to know how
much to be involved in news medias and
all the different things that I have easy
access to it.
And I know a lot of us here
have easy access to it.
And I think they're not evil to have,
but they can become very evil if they
get us to where we think about it
too much and we kind of go along
with certain propagandas that are being pushed or
we kind of have an idea about a
certain thing that the world is pushing.
And we get so worried about it, not
that we might want to go with that
flow, but that we think we have to
just think about it so much.
It's something that we can think about and
then surely we can lay it to rest
and we can think about the hereafter.
We can think about the preparation for it
and be thankful for all the things that
God has done for us.
I was surprised.
I spent about a week not working as
much as usual and I was surprised how
much time that I spent just taking care
of myself.
I would think, oh, I can surely now
just really settle in here and read a
lot and do a lot of meditating.
But it just goes to show how the
thing that we see as the most important
is the thing that we're going to give
the most attention to.
And for me it was taking care of
myself.
It seemed pretty important, but here surely we
can convert this to seeing how we just
don't know how much time we have here.
We need to understand that the day of
the Lord is at hand and it could
come.
It could come today yet and we don't
have much time just to be really involved
just figuring out who's right and who's wrong
out there and figuring all those things out.
Those are the thoughts that the Gentiles have,
I believe.
They think about those things.
They try to hold judgments and another thing
I wanted to talk a little bit about
was how there's a development that comes along
with that if that goes too far.
I have an example in mind.
I won't mention the people group I'm thinking,
but we know them well, or we don't
know them well, but we know of them.
Somehow they have put a certain sin, it
starts with the letter A, they have put
it up on a pedestal and they're willing
to go speak against it very boldly.
I appreciate that.
But in their own midst they have lawsuits,
they have fightings, they have biggerings among themselves.
They take no heat to control their own
selves, you might say.
It's just bad.
It's a bad testimony.
I think it's hypocritical.
I'd say that's on the far end of
trying to be out in the world or
trying to figure out what all is going
on in the world, who's right, who's wrong.
I'd say they'd be an extreme case of
how far things can go if we go
too far that way.
Okay.
A man of peace will be quick to
listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry.
It's like James said.
A man of peace will be slow to
spread propaganda.
Like he will hear something, he'll be slow
to speak about it.
He'll weigh it out, see what really is
the matter.
Is it really something that's important enough for
me to really show it around, really say,
yeah, I found this, this is what the
bad guys are doing, and we all need
to know about it.
Is it really that important to do that?
And then the other thing is, well, what
if what is said about what they're doing
isn't even quite accurate, and we're spreading it,
what does that make us?
No, I think a man of peace would
be, he'd be slow to do those things.
He'd be slow to speak, and of course,
slow to get angry, and quick to listen
things out, quick to get a full understanding,
a full scope of what the important things
are.
I think in a pandemic like this that
we're in, I think what should separate us
from the people of God is that we
show that we do not trust in what
they trust in.
We do not trust in vaccines.
We do not trust in, we don't trust
in these things that they put out.
I'm not saying that there's not some good
in vaccines, and there's not some good in
wearing a, whatever, wearing a mask or, I'm
not saying those things.
I'm just saying that our ultimate trust has
to come from God, has to be in
God, and our faith has to be in
God, or we'll come to one of these
extreme, you know, extreme places.
And neither is it our duty to be
overly focused and revealing all the different, you
know, reports that are out, or all the
different things that are out and about that
we think are bad.
But we first need to make judgments within
ourselves and be sure, and, you know, we
try to get the beam out of someone
else's eye, and we have a big log
in our own eye, it won't go too
well.
Jesus told us that, and so it's just
important.
I wanted to boil, kind of boil it
down to a, as I try to make
my points of what a man of peace
would look like and what I believe this
entails if we would be able to do
a little science lesson to explain this a
little better, because I think it's, what I'm
trying to say is a little hard to
really just see all that well sometimes.
But if we would think of the fruit
of the Spirit as all being a content
or a matter that we could take and
we could mix it up into a pot,
we could have a good science lesson that
would have some very spiritual value to it.
And I wanted to leave it at that,
with that in mind, that I think that
would be a good way to describe a
man of peace, that would be full of
love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, long-suffering,
meekness.
Maybe I'm missing one, but like take nine
pieces of good stuff, mix it together, and
it's going to prosper.
That's the encouraging part.
That's the thing that I want to leave
you all with, is that that's what we
need to be doing, is find the virtues
of God and bring them into one pot
and make a good thing out of it.
It's what the Lord wants to do with
us.
And I just wanted to say that, and
hopefully that's an encouragement.
There's some passages in John that relate to
it as well.
I remember now that I missed them, I
skipped them, but they're encouraging too.
It's these same disciples that I expect Nathaniel
was maybe with them that were full of
virtue and a true Israelite were now behind
locked doors.
Ironically, after some time and stuff, after Jesus
was caught and crucified and put in the
grave, they were behind locked doors and Jesus
came in their midst and said, Let peace
be unto you.
I think that was pretty encouraging for them.
From there it seemed like it went better.
It seemed like they really just got out
of that and were bold.
That's for us today.
So I'm going to close this with a
prayer and then you can make your comments.
Maybe we can all stand.
Refresh a little bit.
Stand for prayer.
Oh God in heaven, we pray to you
and just want to commit our life and
everything into your care.
I just want to commit these things that
I spoke about and just pray that they
can be increased and that something was said
that was hindering of your ways that it
would be pointed out.
I want your Spirit to reign in our
lives and be thankful in all things.
Just help us to be stretched and to
be moved in ways that we haven't before.
And just thank you so much for being
a heavenly Father and sending your Son for
salvation.
I just want to acknowledge how worthy you
are of our praise and worship and just
help us through life, give us to victory.
I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Thank you, Brother Adly.
That was very edifying.
I appreciated it.
I just had a couple of thoughts.
One was I just wanted to express appreciation
for how you brought out a healthy kind
of peace, peace that is hospitable, peace that
is open to receiving truth, and then an
unhealthy kind of peace that is being at
peace with the way things are and being
okay with the pleasures that the world has
to offer, I suppose, if I caught your
drift right.
And then...
I had another thought and it escaped me.
If it comes back to me, maybe I'll
share it again.
Anyway, thank you.
God bless you.
Yeah, I too appreciated it, what you brought
out, Adly, and also the scripture that was
read earlier.
I appreciated that as well.
It helped me.
I guess what struck me the most maybe
is something that I think is very important
is our thoughts.
At least it seemed that way in my
life.
If we allow our thought life to go
too rampant or get out of control, then
Satan can stumble us in the natural, if
that makes any sense, in our flesh, I
guess.
I guess I'm seeing it more and more
like our minds, our thoughts, our spiritual, and
they do control our flesh.
They're obedient.
The rest of the body is obedient to
the mind.
What comes out of us is coming out
of the depths of our hearts or mind,
as I would put it.
And so it's very important to...
I think Adly said something like...
something like warfare in the mind.
I forget how he said it now.
The battle is in the heart of our...
in the center of our souls.
And...
also really...
when we come across that...
I forget where it was at, but this
is what I read this morning.
Now, who will harm you if you're eager
to do what is good?
But even if you do suffer for doing
what is right, you're blessed.
Do not fear what they fear, but in
your hearts...
I'm missing...
Do not fear what they fear, and do
not be intimidated, but in your hearts, sanctify
Christ as Lord.
The world is in fear with this pandemic,
and I disagree with Adly.
She shared on that as well.
There's just this fear thing going around, and...
it's like...
when it first came out, somebody had a
little cough, oh, this might be COVID, and
now we're in for it, and maybe we'll
be in for it, I don't know, but...
I had to catch myself not to be
fearing that thing.
It is of no value.
Fear not what they fear, and do not
be intimidated.
I just think that this personal peace is
a man...
is this person that Adly described, this man
that has peace, he's not run by clothing
and food and pandemics in the world and
politics and...
there's a different...
there's just a different...
completely different person as a Christian.
Completely...
completely different understanding of things.
And...
God wants us to fear Him and not
have fear of these things around us.
Anyways, I've been blessed.
God be with us.
Okay, my thoughts came back to me.
One thing that I was thinking about, and
I kind of wrestle with this a little
bit, in that account of the 70, and
Jesus has those instructions for them to seek
out a son of peace, and if there
is one there, to...
to abide.
And then there's another phrase in there that
talks about if you can't find one such
person when you visit a city, to shake
off the dust of your sandals and continue
on.
And it seems like...
and I don't think that it's wrong.
I've heard before people apply that in saying
that we ought not to enter into disputings
and big arguments with people if somebody shuts
us down and doesn't want to receive it,
or if they're...
if they're asking questions really only to the
purpose of picking a fight, if we're evangelizing,
then that's...
maybe not profitable to stay engaged in that
conversation.
So a reason not to try to force...
force the gospel on people who are unwilling
to hear.
And then, on the other hand, throughout the
book of Acts and other places, you have
people, Paul, for one, and Stephen, the first
martyr, who delivered a real hard message to
people who largely didn't want to hear it.
And I...
I struggle sometimes to...
to...
to know how to discern that properly.
When is the right time to...
to share something?
And when is the time to...
to move on?
Also, I guess, just a...
a thought on that...
like, kind of that last frontier foothold of...
of the devil, the enemy of thoughts.
That being kind of the last foothold of
him.
A pretty long time ago, somebody told my
wife that...
Satan can't...
can't see our thoughts or can't...
somehow can't influence them.
And I...
It sounded good.
It sounded kind of spiritual.
It sounded like a right thing.
And I...
I mean, I don't think he has access
into our minds, but, boy, he sure can
plant seeds.
Like, if we talk about when we're out
evangelizing, planting a seed, you know, well, it
wasn't the best conversation, but maybe a seed
was planted or didn't seem like they were
that interested, but maybe a seed was planted.
I don't know why the enemy can't work
with the same principle.
He sure knows how to...
He sure knows how to try to trip
us up by planting the seed of a
thought just from maybe something we experience on
the external.
Anyway, I...
I identified with what you were sharing about
the...
about the thoughts.
Thank you.
That kind of makes me think of the...
Is it a parable that talks about the
man's house that was swept clean?
You know, the house is swept clean, and
then the...
the wandering spirit comes back to that house
and brings six or seven worse.
Well, I don't know why that seed couldn't
be planted, and then internally everything gets destroyed.
Thank you, Brother Apley, and the thought life,
I guess, until our last breath, our last
hour, will always be...
No one's exempt from temptation.
I mean, that's our last breath, I know
Brother Walter was talking about that upstairs earlier,
but let's remember we're in a fight, a
war, and we put on the armor of
God, and one of the weapons is prayer,
and like someone said years ago, we don't
take time from God, I'm sorry, we don't
take time from God, we make time for
God, so what's the first thing we think
about when we wake up in the morning?
It should be prayer, or at least get
our minds, get our minds geared, prayer, Bible
study, someone said just seven minutes a day
for those who go to work, and some
of the brothers you get up at five
thirty or early to go to work, just
seven minutes a day of reading a couple
of Psalms, a chapter from the New Testament,
in prayer, we'll have, we have an advantage
in how we're going to start out our
day, but if we, if we neglect that,
sometimes the whole day we're trying to catch
up, what am I thinking this?
What is this?
And if we, if we don't, at least
for me, in my life, if I don't
have that quiet time with God before I
go to work or something, the whole day
could be, catch up, and it's like a
downhill thing, and so I think our thought
life is so important, and prayer life is
one of the main things.
First, what is the first thing we think
about when we go to bed, and what
should be the last thing we think about
when we go to bed?
And pray unceasingly for you brothers, and I
count my blessings for all your brothers.
The Lord be magnified.
I just wanted to share two verses in
relation to Satan, and our hearts.
I think he can influence our heart.
I think he can get in there and
not just take away the seed.
I think it's one of his tactics.
We're not supposed to be ignorant of his
tactics or his devices.
The first scripture is John 13, 2.
It says, and supper being ended, the devil
having now put into the heart of Judas
Iscariot Simon's son to betray him.
And the second verse is Acts 5, 3.
And there's more too.
These are just two that I found fast.
Acts 5, 3.
But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled
thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost
and to keep back part of the price
of the land?
So Satan is constantly trying to influence our
thoughts and our heart and we have to
be vigilant and resist the devil.
We have to cast down anything that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God immediately or
it can get in there and it can
grow and do a lot of damage.
But I appreciated what you shared.
It brought out a lot of good things.
It actually kind of reminded me of something
I read this morning.
It's not a scripture.
It's just like a quote in relation to
some of the things that you shared about
the fear and the pandemic and all the
information that's being passed around.
One thing that's that I've noticed is that
people just can't really talk about it.
They can't sit down and just have a
civil conversation about it.
It gets so heated and I think that
that really should concern us as Christians.
We should be able to talk about things
and reason with one another in a peaceful
manner.
The quote is, Truth does not mind being
questioned.
A lie does not like being challenged.
I think one of the things I really
appreciate about here is at the end of
the service or the sermon we have that
opportunity to just say call something out or
question something or agree with something.
It's just really important for truth.
It's just really important for anything that you
can converse about it and talk about it
in a peaceful manner and come to conclusions
and reason with one another and in the
multitude of counselors there's safety.
It's just really good to be able to
have that opportunity.
When that opportunity ceases to exist that's when
there's a real danger because if a lie
or something that's not true never can be
challenged then it just will proceed and it
will just be what everybody goes along with.
We shouldn't be afraid to challenge things or
to talk about things.
We should be afraid not to.
Thank you.
Maybe just to add to that we shouldn't
be afraid to talk about things in a
loving charitable way not just it has to
be done in the right spirit and it
has to be edifying and profitable.
We shouldn't be afraid to talk about things
even though they're controversial if we're in the
right spirit I think we could really help
each other to stay on track.
We're the loved ones now and in the
scenes of divine what a joy it will
be to know her out there grateful
and true in the hope I am there
when when the ransom get all what a
joy it will be what a joy it
will be to be gathered together again in
the hope Let us say you're with me
When the parties are gone And we never
more roam In the beautiful land In
the beautiful land When the red sun will
get low And the red sun shall
rise To the glorious place On
the land far away There where I turn
and live What a shout he will sound
Through heavens and earth Through heavens and earth
On the beautiful shore What
joy it will be To be a part
of that Let us say you're with me
When the parties are gone And we never
more roam In the beautiful land
When the red sun get
low When the red sun cross
over To that bright golden place What
a beautiful song What a glorious dream
We'll be walking away Mid the dawns of
the sky When the red sun get high
In the sweet morning light When the red
sun get high When the red sun get
high What a joy it will be To
be a part of that Let us say
you're with me When the parties are
gone And we never more
roam In the beautiful land When
the red sun get low When the red
sun get low I will sing of my
reaper And his wondrous surgery On the
brutal cross he suffered From the curse to
set me free Sing, oh sing of my
reaper With his lovely prayers he'll
hear On the cross he's healed my heart
He'll make my day every day I
will tell a wondrous story How my lost
estate is saved In his boundless love and
mercy He the ransom freely gave Sing, oh
sing of my reaper With his
lovely prayers he'll hear On the
cross he's healed my heart He'll make my
day every day I will praise
my dear reaper His triumphant power I'll
tell I'll know the victory given Over
sin and hell Sing, oh sing
of my reaper With his
lovely prayers he'll hear On the
cross he's healed my heart He'll make my
day every day I will sing
of my reaper And his heavenly love to
me He from death to life has brought
me Sons of God in heaven to thee
Sing, oh sing of my reaper With his
lovely prayers he'll hear On the cross
he's healed my heart He'll make my day
every day