Thanks for choosing this podcast from New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo.
We look forward to reaching New Heights with you today.
In this podcast we'll have a message entitled,
Snooze from Psalm 27 and Philippians 4.
God bless you today.
Lord, God Almighty.
King of the nations.
Alpha, Omega, Z, Anne, and Gamma.
Lord, God Almighty.
Rock of salvation.
Merciful Savior, my friend.
I'm gonna get out of my shoes
He was like the Lord our God
We're glad to have him, so we'll spend it
His dwelling place above the cross
So we'll be with him forever
And I can't compare to his awesome memory
No other name is so righteous and holy
Lord God Almighty, King of the Nation
How well may God be ending and end
Lord God Almighty, Ruler of salvation
Merciful Savior, my prayer
Lord God Almighty
Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come
Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
Lord God Almighty, Lord God Almighty
Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
Lord God Almighty, Lord God Almighty
Worthy of honor and power is all I would ask
Oh, God Almighty, King of the nations, have mercy on the innocent.
Oh, God Almighty, right the salvation, merciful Savior, my God.
Oh, God Almighty, Almighty, you are the Lord, God Almighty.
Oh, God Almighty, you are the Lord.
When the King comes to the nation, bringing forth of the great man of freedom, make it right and make it right. Sing it out, sing the new hallelujah.
Oh, God Almighty, you are the Lord.
When the King comes to the nation, bringing forth of the great man of freedom, make it right and make it right. Sing it out, sing the new hallelujah.
Oh, God, let the church arise.
When the Lord will bring the beauty of the sky, let the sun rise.
Let the church arise.
Let the sun arise.
Let the church arise.
Let the sun arise.
Can you hear? There's a new song breaking out from the children of freedom.
Sing the rises we made upon the Lord.
Our hope to bring forth heaven, our hope to strongly lift the crown.
You are the everlasting God, the everlasting God. You do not break your own promise in every way.
You're the defender of the King, who comes and goes with me. You will find the Father, the King, the King of Kings.
Sing the rises we made upon the Lord.
Our hope to bring forth heaven, our hope to strongly lift the crown.
You are the everlasting God, the everlasting God. You do not break your own promise in every way.
You're the defender of the King, who comes and goes with me. You will find the Father, the King, the King of Kings.
Our love, you wait forever. Our hope, our strong deliver.
You are the everlasting God, the everlasting God. You do not break your own promise in every way.
You're the defender of the King, who comes and goes with me. You will find the Father, the King, the King of Kings.
Alright, we're at that moment in time where we ask ourselves, how has the Lord been speaking to us?
We're roughly almost a month and a half, two months into our study emphasis. So by now, I would hope you've made some kind of a plan on how you're going to study.
It may be as simple as, I'm going to go to Bible study every Tuesday night, and then I'll think about the sermon or think about the Bible study after that time.
I hope you've made some kind of a plan on study. It is part of your spiritual growth to have a plan to study scripture.
It is a spiritual discipline, and that's why we're focused on it. So I encourage you to do that if you haven't already.
Think about it. How might I do it? Where in my day might I put it to make sure that it's happening? Or how often would I do it?
And then maybe you study something this week, and you've come to share it with us now. Alright, what do you got?
So, I've spent a lot more time at home lately. I normally drive to Cleveland multiple times a week.
Michigan, I haven't drove besides picking up Ariana and Kyra from school when I forgot to get them off the bus in three weeks.
So, the struggle has changed. I've been reading more, and as normal as that, it's kind of got me thinking.
So, I'm reading this book, V.I. King, very important purpose. It's a small book, but just in the first few chapters, it's really got me thinking.
So, the first chapter talks about when we remember a person or a person with gravestones.
Everyone has a birthday. It's all a birthday. That's a part of us. It's our birthday. It's our big day on Earth.
And then we have after people have died, they have a death date. And if you look at their gym stuff, they have a date, and a dash, and a date.
And that dash represents our entire life on Earth. And so the question that the book asks is, what does your dash represent?
What is your purpose? What are you doing with that dash? I worked for a company a couple years ago called M.U.A.
And we went through this training, and it was called 1440, and they gave us bracelets, and pins, and cups, and everything of 1440.
Does anyone know what 1440 represents? It's the number of minutes in a day.
There are 1,440 minutes in a day. And so the point of the exercise was, make every minute count.
Give 110 percent, give your best effort, work your best durability, or putting it in difficult terms, have purpose.
And so we have 1,440 minutes of every day.
In the Bible, James 4,14 says,
You don't even know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be, for you are like smoke that appears for a little while, and then vanishes.
Well, that's maybe the positive. When we vanish from Earth, we've been through Heaven, so that's good.
The point you got me thinking is, so the whole point of this book is trying to find your purpose. What does God have you to do? What are you supposed to do during that dash?
And there's a poem in here by someone named Benjamin Mays that really struck me. It says,
I have only just a minute, only 60 seconds in it, forced upon me, can't refuse it, didn't seek it, didn't choose it, but it's up to me to use it.
I must suffer if I lose it, give account if I abuse it, just a tiny little minute, but eternity is it.
I challenge you to make every minute count and find your purpose.
Alright, who else?
This is a song I've heard many, many times, and it's a really good song, but
if you really listen to the lyrics, that's where I pulled the other video, there's so much good in this lyrics, it's insane, and I never really
knew how much it was until I actually read the lyrics to myself, but this is a really good song.
And by the way, if you ever want to see someone that can put on an amazing show, it's this guy.
I don't need respect, I'm the threat.
I've been through this kind of twiddling, they hit me good by hip religion, Jesus, Jesus, I'll admit it.
I just give up influence, you just give up instant snaps, you really need another pose, you want security and you refuse.
On my side, we'll revive God through the wifi, teach all apothec never colonize, run the high fives from the top, God made us dangerous.
Ain't no bus flame, the bus that we're gonna bring to us, games and bus trains, trust the name that's blessed, ain't no bus crank, ain't no bus.
I was running with the shame, running through a chain, world's next to me and that's human, this is what you get.
I don't need respect, I'm the threat, tell them I'm so free, I got no chains on me.
I'm so free, I got no chains on me, let me in, let me in, no shame on me, I'm so free, I got no chains on me.
I'm so free, I got no chains on me, no chains, no chains.
Remember, come get your opinion now, man, money or the face, I took a lot of them.
Ooh, I can see them trying to keep us on the outside now, we full of your whims, got a bag, got a bag.
Running through the hallway, and we got a playlist, I promise that's my favorite basement, faithful of my famous, faithful of my famous.
New rappers, that's your deplor, any drug addicts in the studio, you gotta pop pills on the usual, then that paradise is really cool to you.
If your girl is really that famous, why you go outside trying to escape?
Grandfacts, that's too fake, and them money phones, really money loans, and that real life is you coming home.
In the house, in the hot stone, that shit's super savage, that little bigger bag, she goofing off.
Oh yeah, you make a move, but these folks don't really know, in the street only love to do what they can use, don't get confused.
Interviews are no tip-toes, go and take them out your phone, get glowed with that simple pop, ride around with that tip-off.
That's the mood, that's conservative, that's charismatic and reformed to, a wife happy and Jesus loving, ain't nothing left to conform to.
I'm just like a boss, I'm just like a boss.
Part of the reason why I like that song so much is because, for Warren, the whole thing about, when he says faithful over famous.
I mean, why would someone, like me, I've never dreamed about being famous, I've never wanted that kind of life.
Because, if you look at some of the famous people, and how depressed they are, how many famous rich people commit suicide, it's insane.
And, for me, it's like, why would someone want that kind of lifestyle?
And, when you look at being a Christian, for example, our life is not about making us famous, it's about making God famous.
And then, the other thing is, there's nothing to conform to, unless you're conforming to Christ.
Don't matter what the world says, don't matter what the world does, don't matter what the world thinks about you as a person.
What matters is where you line up with Christ, how you're conforming to what he wants for your life.
And then, everything else doesn't matter.
The lyric was interesting where he said, if your life is so, and I'll get the words wrong, I'm literally horrible with the lyrics.
But, he basically said, if your life is so awesome, why you gotta do drugs to make it better, to get away from it?
And that's actually right, so many famous people in the world, and I think sometimes it's just because they can, because they have so much money, or whatever, but once you get in with your stuff,
it's changed, it'll drag you right down to the grave, that's a cool song, it's got a great message.
Alright, anybody else?
Okay, I'm gonna share real quick, just something that came out of study for myself this week, and it almost became a sermon today,
because I was so kind of like, attracted to it, or excited about it, or whatever, but then it wasn't where the Lord wanted me to go with the sermon,
which, that caused me a lot of extra work, but God, I'm sure, had a plan for that.
And you may be familiar, if you're not, it's okay, I'll give you the basics of the passage of the scripture, where it talks about the armor of God,
in Ephesians 6, and basically, I mentioned it in my sermon last week a little bit, as a being prepared,
so you put your armor of God on, it's the put on the form of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
And I was reading that, and I don't know how many times I've done the armor of God, or this passage of the scripture of Ephesians 6 in general,
I've broken it down so many times, and I thought about it, I thought, you know what, standing firm, I think we've got this wrong.
All this time we've been thinking about it, or at least I have been thinking about it, in kind of an incorrect way.
And so, we take it like, defensive, we think of armor as defensive, like it's gonna keep us in the fight,
or it's gonna keep us going, or we can take more hits because we have armor on.
We play full-web fighting, we haven't done too much of it recently, but we play full-web fighting,
even that, if you're wearing armor, leather armor, it protects you from the first hit.
Chain armor protects you from two hits. Steel armor protects you from three hits, and like that.
And after those hits then, if they hit you, it still counts.
And so we think of armor as protecting us so we can still be there.
And it does say at the end, after the armor of God, there's a phrase where he says,
and having done all to stand. And so there is that. Right?
But then I got to thinking, I think the armor of God in this past scripture is more about the having done all
than it is the still to stand.
If you think about a soldier's armor and what it talks about, it says breastplate, helmet, belt, sword, shield, and shoes.
The truth is, if it was just about being able to take more hits, you don't need a sword.
But Paul equips that with the armor, he includes it.
So it's really about being able to advance, take ground for the Lord.
Standing against evil is not just, aha, I see evil, but if it didn't come over here, I'm still good.
Aha, evil come over here, but I've got my armor on, I'm going to be able to take some hits, so I'll be alright.
That's not what it's about. Standing against evil is, oh, I see evil over there, and you go over there and you stop it.
Now our greatest weapon obviously is the sword, which is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God,
which is applied by telling people about Jesus.
I'm just going to be plain with you, you cannot save a drug addict. You can't do it.
You don't have that kind of power. I can't do it. I don't have that kind of power.
But God does. Right? As people get addicted to drugs, and God brings people out sometimes
of those circumstances, and it can be anything. If your relationship struggles, you can't save somebody
from a broken relationship. You can't save somebody from abuse of spouse, or abuse of boyfriend or girlfriend.
Right? You can do it. But God can do it. So we deliver the gospel, again, sword of the spirit,
word of God, delivers the gospel and the truth. Meanwhile, we have our breastplate, we have our helmet,
we have our shoes. By the way, the shoes are basically purpose. They're the gospel piece, right?
And so, they're the purpose for us to go and take the gospel. And if you could do everything else,
one of those pieces of armor could be missing, and if the sword was missing, you'd probably be okay
to stand your ground for a while until you could get a weapon. And that has probably happened to people.
But I think that where it says, this is what actually says in 10, it says,
finally be strong in the word and in the strength of his might, put on the full armor of God,
and you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
And then he goes on to say, for our struggle, it's not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, and so on.
And that's a, we can advance in the spiritual realm, we can make a difference in the world
if we put on our armor of God. It's not a defense. It is an offense. It is God's offense.
So, that's what came to me this week, as I was studying. Anybody else got one?
We're going to pray, and we'll move on.
Okay, Brother Tony Brister, would you please pray for us as we transition to
tithes and offerings and move forward?
Lord, I here follow the word of you that I thank you for this day, this bright, shiny day.
Lord, I thank you for the opportunities that have passed me. I thank you for the snowstorm.
I thank you for getting out in it and working and doing things. I know I did.
I know other challenges, Lord, that's what I'm thanking you for.
The challenges that you've given us, and we've kind of overcome them.
I thank you for that we can serve them and do for others, and to see their reaction
and their thankfulness is payment enough for it. I thank you for that.
I ask you Lord to give us this today, be of service, be of a passing breeze of message.
Help us, Lord, to focus during that time. Help us to throw away all distractions.
And here we have it to say to us today. Just ask you Lord to bless our time here.
Ask you Lord to bless the tithes and offerings that have taken up.
And give us the rest of the service.
Thank you.
Next song.
Come on.
Okay, so before we get started, we're going to do a little object lesson.
So I'll need somebody to volunteer for us.
Come up here.
All right.
I'll need somebody over on that side as well, which will be off camera.
So if you want to be volunteering off camera, now's your chance.
Over there.
You would.
Grab two chairs and turn off to a face like this.
Okay, so here we're going to set the scene for you, and then I want you to react as if what I'm describing has happened.
Okay, so you're laying on a platform.
You're snoozing.
Take a little nap.
Okay.
And then all of a sudden, that platform begins to rock violently.
What do you do?
You lay on the platform, and all of a sudden, it begins to rock violently.
All right, very good.
So Ty rolls over and falls down.
That's it.
You can have a seat.
Thank you, sir.
All right, Tom, he's going to role play.
All right.
Okay.
Yeah, you barely fit on these chairs.
You probably didn't have three chairs.
All right.
So you're laying on a platform.
Okay.
But this platform is in the back of an airplane.
You know where it's at when you went to sleep.
You knew where you were in the back of an airplane.
Okay.
Yeah, it explains the discomfort.
Okay, yeah.
And this is a very high-tech airplane.
In fact, you know the designer of the airplane.
You know the person who designed the airplane from back in, you know, school days or something.
You knew this guy.
You grew up.
You knew he was good.
He was sharp.
He knew math.
He knew science.
He was an incredible engineer.
He was the guy in the room that everybody looked to and said, man, he's really something.
Okay.
And you know the pilot of the airplane.
You know the guy who's flying the airplane.
You know that he graduated with honors from his school.
He was in the Air Force for 20 years.
He flew jets in combat, everything else.
He's a fabulous, fabulous pilot.
Okay.
You knew that was the situation when you went to sleep.
And then suddenly the platform begins to rock violently.
I can't.
How many times a platform begins to rock violently?
Just hold on.
Yeah.
All right.
Okay.
That's all we can have a seat.
You can leave these here for now.
That's fine.
As you can see, there would be a difference in response.
Now, in the second cat, I give a lot more qualifiers, right?
As a general rule, if I am sleeping anywhere, snoozing, as it were, and suddenly the environment
around me changes, I am an extremely light sleeper.
I can't tell you the number of times that I have been driving in the passenger seat
seat of the car and Sherry was driving the car and all of a sudden it looked like, you
know, maybe she had gone a little bit off center.
She hit that little rumble strip on the side of the road or I felt a little swerve or something
and I'd wake up and go, what?
You know, like I'm going to do anything at all in the passenger seat.
Slam my foot on the floor, you know, grab onto the dash, whatever.
It could be because in the past I have had a couple of, it's been a long time now, but
I had a couple of accidents while I fell asleep at the wheel.
And so when you're asleep at the wheel and you wake up suddenly in an accident, then
that sort of affects you, right?
So I slam the floor and grab the wheel except I'm not the one driving so that's not going
to do any good at all, all right?
But I can be laying at home in my bed and I'll hear a funny noise in the house and I'll
wake up and go, what was that?
And I'll lay there and say, oh, there's a little squeak in the furnace.
It's all good and I'll roll over and go back to sleep, all right?
It's different what you do when you're snoozing or sleeping based on what you knew when you
went to sleep, okay?
I want you to bear that in mind then as we go to the scripture and grab your Bibles if
you would and turn with me to Psalm 27.
Thank you for those of you who participate in that little object lesson.
From here on out, this will be the word of the Lord.
As you get there, you're going to flip in your Bibles, push the buttons, whatever, if
you haven't already done it and get to Psalm 27.
Before I begin to read this, I want to share a story from my life.
Midweek, the kids were in school, about one o'clock in the afternoon.
There's snow on the ground outside.
Sherry called me and she sounded funny on the phone, like she was upset.
She said to me, she said, I've lost my job.
Now at the time, her job was our only source of income.
We already knew that we were in a financially strapped situation and we didn't have any
room to mess around with.
I was in Bible college full-time that semester.
You can look at that circumstance and say, well, you're a Christian, you're a follower
of God, you should know the exact right thing to say, right?
But it isn't that easy when you're living through it.
I mean, you've been there, you know what it's like.
That moment in time at which you're about to say or do something or what's actually
happening is about to potentially blow up your life.
You realize if I get mad or I say something nasty or about whatever, and I'm not thinking
this fast at the time, but if I would have said something bitter or nasty or whatever,
what do you mean or how can that be?
Or if I had responded just some sort of way, it would have blown up our marriage, blown
up our house, blown up our lives.
By the grace of God, I took a half a breath and I felt the Holy Spirit speaking in me
and I said, well, whatever happens, it's going to be okay.
And she basically said, well, how can you say that?
She said, well, no, we don't have any income, we're going to lose our house, we're going
to end up with all these things are going to happen.
And I said, if we lose our house, then what?
If we have no income, then what?
I said, the absolute worst thing that can happen to us, I mean, let's be really realistic,
the worst thing that can happen to us is we'll be homeless, but we'll be together.
And I said, we have each other, we have the kids, we have our family.
I said, and we have God.
First of all, I don't think it's going to happen anyway because I don't think God's
going to let it happen, but even if that did happen, I said the worst thing to happen,
we would be together.
And she's sobbing on the phone.
She was four and a half months pregnant.
So for the ladies in the room who have ever been four and a half months pregnant, you
can imagine what this conversation probably felt like from her side.
I cannot imagine what that conversation felt like from her side, but I do know that we
had the opportunity to potentially lose all of that good stuff that I just listed off
if I had said the wrong thing or if our conversation had gone the wrong way.
We're going to talk about what it's like to be in one of those storm moments.
The Psalm, Psalm 27, which was written by David, and we've looked at it, some of it
before, and we're going to look at part of it again today.
Psalm 27 verse one says this, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the defense of my life.
Whom shall I dread?
When evildoers come upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled
and fell.
Though a host encamp against me, a host is an army, my heart will not fear.
Though war rise against me in spite of this, I shall be confident.
That's a pretty good place to be.
One thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in
his temple.
For in the day of trouble, he will conceal me in his tabernacle.
In the secret place of his tent, he will hide me.
He will lift me up on a rock.
And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in his
tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
And skip down to 13 if you would, not for any particular reason, but just so for expediency.
And he says in 13, I would have despaired.
That word despaired is a powerful word in scripture.
It means I would have felt as if I had no hope.
I would have been lost without strength, wiped out, unuseful to God, unable to move, stuck.
I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord,
hear it, in the land of the living.
In other words, while I'm still alive, I would see the goodness of the Lord.
Wait for the Lord.
Be strong and let your heart take courage.
Yes, wait for the Lord.
Storms of life can be scary.
Really scary.
But at a certain moment of time, your heart might, there's no guy with a knife, you know
what I mean?
There's no gun to your head, whatever.
But there's that moment of time in which you realize this is it.
This is potentially huge.
This could challenge everything that's stable in my life.
And I could lose it right now.
I could lose my wife, I could lose my kids, or my house, or my friends, or my health,
this could be it.
This could be the moment of time I could lose everything if things don't go the way I want.
In fact, it can even get to the point where it's looking like it's not going to go the
way you want.
It's literally falling apart, slipping through your fingers.
Storms can be scary.
They're scary because, number one, they're not prevented.
You know God, right?
You know the kind of power God has.
God could stop that before it starts.
If God can stop the wind and the rain, then He can make the wind and the rain not start.
And we go, oh, but why would the God of heaven allow this?
If He's allowing it, how far is He going to allow it to go?
It's scary because they're not prevented, though we know who God is, we know God's love
for us, we know to trust in God, He does not prevent the storms of this life.
And that makes them very scary.
Also, they can come anywhere at any time.
You're living in tornado country, and every time you hear about a storm, you think, oh,
let's see if this one's going to have funnel clouds.
Let's see if this one's going to have that storm front that can generate tornadoes.
You're living in California and the furnace rumbles a little bit, and you're wondering,
is it an earthquake?
You're living in Florida, and every time the weatherman says there's a storm front down
in the Gulf, you wonder, is it coming up here?
Is it going to send six foot tidal waves through our bedroom and blast our bed out the window?
Real things that happen?
But this is more than that.
This is more than the rumble could be an earthquake, or the winds could be tornadoes, or the storm
in the Gulf could flood.
This is any time, anywhere.
I'm sailing along, things are going great, and all of a sudden I'm taking a bath.
And that's why it's so scary, because there it is.
Out of the darkness, violently, loudly comes the storm, and you're like, I wasn't expecting
a storm.
Not like a forecast where they say it's coming weeks in advance and school's canceled for
three days, even though it's only going to rain one day.
But unforecasted, here it is.
Scary.
I'd like to say to you that there is an easy way out of that situation, the fear that comes
along with those storms, but the reality is there isn't.
Because with life comes risk.
If there's no risk, there's no free will.
If there's no free will, there's no love.
If there's no love, why bother with life?
God made people to love them, and the hope would be that He would love them back.
You have free will, so does the other guy.
And if he has free will, he can do something that you don't like.
He can bring about a storm, a situation can arise.
Half of the things that are going wrong with nature right now are attributed to what mankind
has already done to the planet.
And that, of course, is attributed to the fall.
And the half that is not directly attributed to what mankind has already done to the planet
is directly attributed to the fall, the groanings of creation waiting for the redemption of
Jesus Christ.
If you're going to be alive on the earth, you're going to face risk, and it can all
slip through your fingers in a moment.
Millionaires who lose their entire fortune on the stock market in a single day.
You're driving down the road and everything's fine.
You've got a wife, you've got kids, you've got a house, whatever.
You've got a husband and kids and a house and everything's fine.
And somebody runs out in the middle of the street and you're not paying attention because
you're adjusting the radio, God forbid, or you're doing something else or something on
the side of the road just happened and you're distracted and you hit that person.
Next thing you know, you've got manslaughter charges and you're in court 74 times before
you maybe go to jail and you didn't do anything.
The storms of life can come on you unawares with just when you thought everything was
fine.
That's why you cannot, it's a good wisdom not to take any moment for granted, any valuable
thing that you have for granted because in life we face risk.
If you're in this room and you're older than 20 and you've not had a broken relationship,
a broken employment situation or a broken health situation, I'd be surprised because
everybody faces risks, it's always there.
Storms can be scary partly because God doesn't prevent them, because they can come from anywhere
at any time.
When I was in junior high, my mother started writing me notes to skip my physicals at school.
She had convinced me that I had certain physical ailments that were wrong with me.
Scoliosis, which I do have what's called a priori scoliosis, very minor case of scoliosis
where your hips are not exactly level.
Probably never look at me the same again after I mention that.
But I didn't want to find out what was wrong with me so I was perfectly fine that she's
writing me notes.
But in getting the note to avoid the physicals so I would never find out about the storm
that I was already facing, was I doing myself any favors?
When I was a sophomore in high school, 16 years old, I wanted to get my airplane license.
I didn't pursue it.
You know why?
Because I thought I wouldn't pass the physical.
At 19 years old, I took the ASFAB at the recruiting office for the military.
I think I don't remember what officer gave it to me.
Whatever.
I was going to go in the Marines.
But weighing on my mind the whole time was this thought that I might not pass the physical
and even be able to get in.
And even though my ASFAB test was very high and I could have flown helicopters in the
Marines, which is what I really wanted to do, when they said I had to wait two and a
half years, I was like, eh, two and a half years, I probably won't even be here.
I'd probably be dead.
Now I was lost at the time, not a follower of Jesus.
But that's what I was living under.
I submit to you that out there in the world right now, people who don't know Jesus, there's
a lot of that going on.
The reason that people get into things like drugs or illicit sexual relationships or things
like that is because in the moment, they're living vibrantly or they think they're having
a lot of fun or whatever, but they don't actually think they're going to live to be older.
I really honestly believed I would never live to be 26 years old.
The whole time I was growing up.
When I was a teenager, I thought I would never be 21.
Then once I made 21, I was pretty sure I wouldn't live past 26.
And then I actually got saved at 25, baptized at 26, which means I didn't live past 26.
I became a new creation.
So I was right.
But how many people are out there right now, the guys that are bungee jumping, they're
like, well, you know, if you splat at the bottom, whatever, no one's going to live forever.
But all the good that they can do and everything else that they can do after that, they're
risking.
Because as much as you are alive, you face risk, storms will come on you.
Does it stink?
Yes, but it's a reality.
And if you're afraid of the storms, if you're coward, when it comes to being bold and facing
the difficulties of life, then you might bail out with drugs or sex or whatever.
Storms can be scary.
The second thing I want you to see comes out of a story in the New Testament, really the
rest of this sermon comes out of the story in the New Testament.
We're not going to go there and read it, but you may have heard it.
If you haven't heard it, I'm about to share it with you briefly.
It's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three, three of the four gospels.
And it talks about Jesus being on the boat.
And they hit a storm.
And it's raining.
And the waves are high.
And the winds are blowing like crazy.
And the storm, the boat is tossed to and fro.
And where is Jesus?
Sleeping.
Yep, sleeping.
Where is he sleeping?
It's very specific.
What?
Below deck.
Nope, he's not below deck in this one.
He's sleeping on the back of the boat on a cushion.
It says literally in scripture that he's sleeping on the back of the boat on a cushion.
While the waves are tossed, while the wind is blowing, while the rain is coming down
hard, it says he's in the back of the boat sleeping on a cushion.
Probably means he didn't have anything over his head, by the way.
So not only was he sleeping in tossing waves, but he was sleeping in the rain.
I'm here to tell you that sleeping in the rain, that's not easy for me.
I'm a light sleeper.
So that first raindrop falls on me.
Hey, we've got to get cover.
I'm going to get some cover so I can get back to the nap-in.
But Jesus is asleep on a cushion in the rear of the boat.
He was sleeping peacefully in the middle of all that.
Well, there's a couple of things right away you've got to see.
Number one, Jesus could do that partly because he knew it was not his time.
Didn't Jesus already knew that he was going to die by crucifixion?
That means he's not going to die in a boat in a storm, right?
If he knows he's going to die by crucifixion.
And the scripture tells us that Jesus would die by crucifixion.
So any of the prophets that read, at least the later prophets, could have known he was
going to die by crucifixion.
So they also would have known he wasn't going to die in a boat.
It wasn't his time.
Also, he was about God's business.
And if you, and I was giving you this promise today, it's not from me, it's from God.
But if you will be about God's business, then you will be safe.
You're like, oh, no, that doesn't work because I've been about God's business and things
happen to me that I didn't want to have happen.
That's not what I said.
I didn't say anything about nothing will ever happen to you that you don't want to have
happen.
If that's what you think safety is, then you've never actually been in a dangerous situation.
Because safety is not about nothing bad happens to you.
When three guys come at you with knives, safety is not about not getting cut.
Safety is about surviving this situation, doing the best that you can under a difficult
situation and being able to walk away.
Sometimes safety is about hurting the other guy so that you survive and succeed.
Safety is self-defense.
Safety.
If you can be about God's business, you will be safe.
If you die while about God's business, what happens?
You go straight to heaven.
And this is where I have gotten stuck so many times.
I've made it this far in my logic.
So many times.
In fact, there's a great apologeticist.
There's some videos out there you can watch and I've watched them all now, some of them
twice, but he answers a question that people ask about the Bible or about God or about
Christianity and he answers it in like four minutes.
And so whatever it is, he answers it.
And he answered how God can allow suffering.
One of the questions, how God can allow suffering.
And his answer in part was, even if you suffer during this lifetime, if you suffered for
the whole, let's say you were alive for a hundred years and you suffered for every minute
of a hundred years, that will pale in comparison to an eternity with God in heaven.
And it will.
He's right.
We only think of this moment of suffering, what we're going through, as so bad.
We only see the storm as so terrible because to us, it looms large.
Here it is.
It's all we can see, all we can think about.
It's the most important thing right now.
Everything is on the line here.
So now my heart is racing, my palms are sweating, my mouth is full of cotton because everything
is on the line here.
Except everything's not on the line.
First case scenario, if you die, you go straight to heaven.
Assuming you're in truth a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So everything is not on the line.
But that's the way we feel.
If you be about God's business, you'll be safe.
And you can sleep peacefully as Jesus slept peacefully.
I'm not talking about literal sleep necessarily, although there may be cases in which you can
do that and which someone else might not be able to because you know you're taken care
of.
But I'm talking about resting or having peace in the middle of the storm.
So this is what you do.
This is your simple action plan and then we'll come back to a slightly more complex action
plan later.
This is what Jesus did as our example in the story where he's sleeping on the boat.
We all know the end of the story, right?
He gets up, commands the storm and the wind and the rain to stop and they stop.
And the disciples look at them and they say, whoa, who is this guy that he can even command
the storm to cease?
I submit to you the storm and Jesus' peaceful rest and his commanding it to stop was all
to get us to understand what I'm about to say to you, which is this.
Here's what you do.
Give your best.
We're working for the Lord.
We're doing what we do.
Do everything you do as if you're doing it for God.
Give your best.
If you have a math worksheet at school, you have a problem at work, you have a conversation
with somebody that you weren't expecting, whatever you are, wherever that situation,
give your best.
Side note, your best is better than you think it is.
Always.
As far as you have come, whatever you are capable of in that circumstance, if you just
say, okay, I'm going to do here whatever it is that God wants me to do and I'm going to
do my best.
I'm going to pile in, try hard, self-sacrifice, bleed if necessary, spend my skills, dig into
my experiences, exercise my spiritual gifts, I'm going to do my best.
Your best will always be, wherever you're at, it will always be more than you think
it is.
It's greater than you know.
Because God can bring out of you that which you've totally forgotten you had.
God can make your muscles do what you didn't even know your muscles could do.
So your best will always be greater than you know.
So you give your best.
Do it in your best understanding.
In other words, assess the situation, I've done this much study, meditation, prayer,
got this basics from God, I understand this much about this circumstance, I better do
the best I can, the best I know how.
Side note, the best you know how will always be greater than you know.
So if you assess it in advance, you go, I can do this, I can solve this problem.
For example, in school they say, you can do, here's 100 math problems, we're going to
do as many as we possibly can in 60 seconds.
And you say, well I've taken this test three times before and I always get 48.
So if I take it today, I'm going to get 48.
Could you say that?
With certainty?
No, you couldn't.
Because you take it today and you might get 47 or you might get 49, or it might be slightly
easier than that, or there might be a pattern, you might bump into a pattern and go, oh these
four here in a row are all the same, boom, boom, boom, boom, and now you got 52.
You just don't know what you are capable of and you don't even know what you know.
Give your best, the best you know how, and leave the rest up to God.
Side note, the rest that is left up to God, wait for it, it's more than you'll ever know.
Do we not understand that it is entirely possible that we are only seated in this room or standing
in this room today because God miraculously saved our lives yesterday?
While you were getting frustrated or upset because of some delay, God moved you geographically
in time so that later in the same day, you didn't wind up somewhere and wind up dead.
Cancer cells popped up in your body last week, but God demolished them so that you could
be here and not worried about it, not facing it.
Kidney stones, God can eliminate pain so you can get up and do what you're supposed to
do so you'll be where you're supposed to be doing what you're supposed to do.
Again, by your best knowledge, by your best effort, more than you can even know, leave
the rest up to God.
That is more than you can know.
If God would save your life, I wish there would be a study, there's never been one done
but I have hypothesized about a study that if you add up all the percentage chances,
like they'll say, in any given minute you have this one in so many people or this percentage
chance of dying by this cause, dying by cancer, dying by COVID, dying by car accident, dying
by lightning, if you add all those up, I think what you would find if you add all of them
up is that the chance is over 50% so that in any given moment you have a better than
50% chance of dying if you add up all the causes.
Why are you still here?
Because God has been pouring in on his side, keeping you alive, giving you a plan for your
life, you may be still discovering what it is but giving you a plan, giving you abilities,
giving you capabilities, training your mind to put into practice those capabilities so
that you can do the best you can do to the best of your knowledge and leave the rest
up to him.
If you are doing what he would have you to do, you're safe.
This is the humor of worry, regret and frustration.
You know how worry works, right?
You look and see an outcome that you don't like, you go, oh, I really don't want that
to happen.
You sit and fret about it, think about it, plan about it, plan seven ways to Sunday to
make it not happen.
Plan prepare, go buy bunches of extra insurance or extra vehicles or firearms for your house
or some extra alarms or whatever, all to protect from any possible negative event that can
happen.
There's all kinds of things that you can do and you get worried and you start taking on
these plans and you think, well, I can do that.
Well, that's not going to stop you.
Oh, I can do that.
But remember, all you're asked to do is to give your best, which in that case now you're
not, and then to do what you know to do.
Do it to your best knowledge and now you're not because you're shutting down the part
of your brain that is used to apply what you would be doing.
Instead, you're worrying about what might not even happen.
So you're shutting that down.
And then you're leaving out what God would do and say, well, I'm worried this is going
to happen instead of trusting God the determinant.
So you're literally all three of those steps, you're disrupting them by worrying about what
the future is going to bring or regretting the past.
Can you do anything about what you did six years ago?
No, you can't.
There's nothing to do.
What you know, I didn't eat right for years and so now I'm paying the price for that.
Or I fought too much.
I fought and punched a bunch of stuff in high school and I had for over a decade, I had
pain in my hands every day, aches in my hands.
And then eventually I took glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, which filled the cartilage in my
hand, the pain went away.
But for over 10 years, I had pain in my hands every day from all the stuff I did.
Could I do anything about the fact that I punched lockers and cars and faces when I
was growing up?
No, I couldn't do anything about that.
But I could regret it.
And when you regret it, part of your brain that you're supposed to be applying yourself
with is now wrapped up in regret.
You can't do anything about it because there's no ability to be applied.
You have no ability to do anything about it.
And God, who actually, ironically, probably could do something about it, He's dealing
with the present and the future like you should be.
Worry, regret, frustration, all those things leave out the fact that we just don't know.
We're really just supposed to be applying the best of our ability by the best we know
and leaving the rest up to God and we've decided not to do that.
So we're going to worry and regret or be frustrated or whatever instead.
Remember this before we move on to the next point.
The next time that you're really upset about the way things are going, God may be saving
your life.
The next time that you're threatened or fuming about the car being broken, God literally
may be saving your life in that moment or the life of your spouse or your kids.
You're like, well, I would trade my frustration for my own pain.
How would you for your kid, for your spouse, or your friend, for me?
God could be saving somebody and leaving you with a little bit of frustration because all
you're really supposed to do is your best, the best you know how, and leave the rest
up to Him and you're unwilling to do that.
The third thing I want you to see then in tying these two passages of scripture together
is that the boat that survives for sure is the boat with Jesus in it.
You can invite Jesus in.
You cannot force Jesus to come in, but Jesus promises when He says, whosoever call upon
the name of the Lord, he will be saved.
If you are here today and you have not invited Jesus Christ into your life to be Lord and
master of your life, admit it, realize that you need it, believe that He'll do it, and
call on Him and say, okay, Jesus, you come in and you be in charge of my life.
Forgive my sins.
It's been paid for and lead me from now on.
At that point in time, Jesus will enter the boat, the boat of your life, the person that
you are.
Jesus will get in you and that's what you need.
Every boat struggles, all of them.
If we sat down and passed out pieces of paper in this room with a pen, I said, what'd you
write down?
10 things that happened to you that you don't like.
You're not beating yourself up over it.
10 things that you've been through that you don't like.
You didn't like it when it happened.
You wish it hadn't happened.
10 things.
You're full of regret, guilt, anything like that.
No one would have trouble coming up with 10.
If you do, it wouldn't be because you haven't been through 10.
It's because you haven't embraced or realized the 10 that you've been through.
You don't want to admit it.
Like, man, it was really hard for me when so-and-so died, but I don't want to talk about
that, so I'm going to leave that off the list.
Man, it was really hard for me.
I lost that job back then.
I felt like I was going to die, but I'm going to leave that off the list.
Man, it was hard for me when he or she broke up with me, but I'm going to leave that off
the list.
So I can't come up with 10.
But the truth is, you get all.
We all can come up with 10 because every boat struggles.
Every boat works its way forward slowly through the water.
Every boat pushes past barriers.
It won't be the boat that follows the rules that survives.
It won't.
Take your Bible and go through it and write down all the rules that God has ever given
us.
First of all, you won't find very many.
If you actually know what the Bible is, you realize there's not very many rules.
The 10 Commandments, that's not rules.
It's directives to govern a life and to look different from a people that are not God's
people.
It's teachings.
This is how we can do it.
This is how if you do this, I will do this.
We will make this happen.
It's not just, oh, I can't have.
Oh, I'm not going to be able to do this because God says no.
They're not rules.
They're teachings and direction.
And we observe how the universe works by scripture.
It's not going to be the boat that follows the rules that makes it through, at least
not outside Christ anyway.
It won't be the boat that is near to Jesus.
This one will get you if you're not careful because if you're in this room and you're
taking the time right now and you're listening to me, but you have not truly invited Jesus
Christ into your life.
In other words, if you're hearing it and you're getting it, you say, okay, I get it.
You're saying we're all going to face difficulties, but there is a way to face those difficulties
that I can be more successful.
And I want that.
But you're not willing to say, okay, Jesus, come in and take control of my life.
I want you to understand it is not the boat that has Jesus near the boat that it survives.
It's the boat that has Jesus in the boat.
There are going to be people that don't get to go to heaven.
That talked about Jesus.
In Matthew seven, it says, there will be people who say we prophesied and we healed in your
name.
And he says, get away from me.
I never knew you.
So you can be in this church.
You can work in your ministry team.
You can take care of your responsibilities.
You can give.
You can be the best giver financially of anybody.
You could perform literal miracles.
So and so is hurting.
You walk up with your hand and say, heal my brother or sister in the name of Jesus Christ,
my Lord, the son of God healed.
And then they get healed.
Just like that.
Then whatever goes away and they're healed.
And you're like, I must be good because I healed them.
God healed them through me and I'm giving them all the credit.
And then you get there to that moment in time and he says, get away from me.
I never knew you.
And you're like, but, but we, but I.
It doesn't matter.
The boat that has Jesus in it will survive.
Not the boat that encountered Jesus.
Not the boat that taught about Jesus.
Not the boat that knew who Jesus was.
The demons know who Jesus is.
But the boat that has Jesus in it, that's the boat that survives.
That's the kind of boat that you want to be.
It's not the boat that was near or touched or follows the rules and every boat struggles.
So don't think it's the boat that doesn't struggle.
But it's the boat that has Jesus in it.
It won't be the boat that's better made.
So for all your efforts, planning, investments, rules on how you're going to do things, training.
My dad or my mom taught me really well.
Or I learned about how to do it on YouTube.
Or I read L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics and learned how to be a great individual.
And since then I've made my fortune and my house is finally right.
And my life is all flowing smoothly and everything's going great.
I know there's still storms but I'll be fine because I've always been fine.
I'll let out my feet through all of this.
It's not the boat that's better made.
It's not the boat that's better manned.
In other words, you can have people in your life that are helping you.
Your parents, your friends, your fellow church members, whatever.
And just because they're there to help you, the storms are more easily weathered.
You know what I'm saying?
People are taking care of you.
People are providing for you.
But it's not the boat that's better manned that survives the storm.
It's not the boat that turns back sooner.
If Jesus got on the boat that day, you think Jesus knew it was going to storm?
I think he probably did.
I think Jesus was sleeping on the cushion, going to sleep, full well known it was going
to storm.
That's what I think.
But I can't say that for sure.
But if he had, he wouldn't have said let's not go out.
Because it's not the boat that turns back sooner or that hides from responsibility or
that doesn't take a bullet or that doesn't go to the cross or that doesn't show up, speak
up, stand out, stand in, stand firm and not quit.
No, it's not that boat, not the boat that goes back sooner.
It's the boat that goes through the storm with Jesus in the boat that survives the storm.
It is not the boat that has a better plan that survives the storm.
It's the boat that has Jesus in it that survives the storm.
We come to our conclusion and we're going to go to our other passage of scripture.
So if you would look at Philippians 4 with me and if you're not following along in your
Bibles, it's okay.
I do encourage you to do that because you may see something or God may speak to you
in some way.
Because you read along in your own translation if yours is different than mine.
Also when you read it and take it in through your ears, you're more likely to remember
it.
So not going to read the whole chapter of Philippians 4, but we're going to just read
verses 6 and 7.
It's all kind of the same context.
Philippians 4, 6 says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
So be anxious for nothing is don't worry about it.
But it's so much more than that.
Because again, we're not going to worry about what's coming, but sometimes it's going to
come on us unawares.
All of a sudden it's here and now everything that we have is threatened.
It's all on the line.
We may not even realize it, how far the ramifications are.
But in that moment, he says, don't worry about it.
Back to give your best.
In that moment, give your best, which will be more than you know.
Do it by your best knowledge, which will be more than you know.
And trust the rest up to God and he will do more than you know.
Be anxious for nothing, he says, but in everything by prayer and supplication.
So in other words, everything you're going through, I want to say this simply, it's going
to sound almost dumb in a way, but literally every time your face was something that you
didn't expect, the first thing you should do is pray.
Only way you're going to do that is if you are a regular prayer.
I'll never forget years ago, touched my heart in a powerful way.
It was a young couple, it was part of our church, they took one of their children to
the emergency room and the doctor said that it was bad, very bad, and she might die.
It was very bad.
It was a head injury, it was very serious.
And they called me up from the hospital and they said, will you pray for us?
Will you pray for us?
And I didn't even know.
I'm like, what's going on?
What's going on?
She said, well, we're at the hospital and they said our kid might die.
I'm like, yes, absolutely, I'll pray.
Have you prayed?
And they said, no.
First got quiet.
I said, well, no, we haven't prayed yet.
We called you first.
Who calls their pastor first to pray instead of praying?
The person that's not commonly in the practice of praying.
So get in the practice of praying.
Pray about everything.
Talk to God as if you were standing next to you or walking around inside you.
Get so commonly used to prayer that everything that happens to you when you're taking it
back, you first go to God in prayer.
So what do we do?
Most of the time, what do humans do?
We get anxious.
I mentioned it, right?
And everybody was okay with it when I described it as your heart pounds, your palms sweat,
your mouth gets cottony.
What am I going to do?
When all of a sudden it's in front of you.
We all know that happens.
When that happens, if you're prayer, you go to God in prayer.
Ironically, you watch movies all the time and you hear people say something surprising
will happen.
You know what they say?
They say, oh my God, right?
Which by the way is taking the Lord's name in vain.
Shouldn't do that.
And we watch it all the time.
So if you're watching a show and people are taking the Lord's name in vain, I encourage
you to turn it off.
They're taking the Lord's name in vain.
It's one of the Ten Commandments.
They're doing it right in front of you.
And you're taking it like it's no big deal.
But it is a big deal.
It's not just a saying.
It's taking the Lord's name in vain.
And they're comfortable doing that, which means they're also comfortable doing other
things.
Breaking other Ten Commandments as well.
Now back on top of it.
Say, oh my God.
But actually, this is what's funny.
What we should be doing when something surprises us is saying, Lord, did you see that?
Lord, help me here.
Lord, what am I supposed to do?
Or oh my God, give me wisdom.
Oh my God, give me strength.
Oh my God, help me now.
As in we're actually talking to God.
Instead of saying oh my God all the time, not meaning anything, we should be saying
oh my God, talking.
That's what's ironic about it.
The world that doesn't know God says oh my God when they are startled by something.
But the church that knows God, that walks with God supposedly every day, doesn't say
oh my God, meaning it, mind you, when they're startled.
Be a prayer.
Get used to it.
And when something comes up all of a sudden, pray.
In everything by prayer and supplication.
Supplication is kind of like another word for prayer, but it includes an attitude.
It includes an attitude of humility.
Realizing you may not have what it takes to get through this storm.
Lift it up to God.
Trust that God knows exactly what's going on.
But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, oh boy, when's the last
time something came up that all of a sudden you're dealing with it and you're like oh
man, this could be huge.
This could be the end of my vehicle or my job or my relationship or whatever.
And the first thing you did was thank God for what was happening.
Was it even on the list?
Or did you wait until after it was over and you look back and say oh Lord, I'm sorry I
acted like an idiot there.
I'm sorry I got frustrated.
I'm sorry I was panicking.
I should have known you had it under control all the while.
Thank you Lord for seeing me through that difficult time.
That's what we do most of the time, isn't it?
When actually what you should do is like oh Lord, I'm facing something right now, right
here, I need you right now.
I need a miracle right now.
Please help me and thank you for whatever's about to happen that you're going to take
care of that's going to be in your will.
Trusting the Lord is about prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving.
This is let your requests be made known to God.
Verse seven then says, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The peace of God.
The ability to be asleep on the cushion in the back of the boat, that's the peace of
God.
The ability to not freak out when somebody jumps out at you or something crops up at
you that you weren't expecting, that's the peace of God.
The ability to not get frustrated or angry or act out of impatience when things don't
go the way you want, that's the peace of God.
Why am I explaining it anecdotically?
Why am I explaining it in a way that's got to give you an illustration?
Because this peace of God as is mentioned by scripture we just read, it is not easily
understood.
In fact, this is what it says, and this peace of God which surpasses all comprehension.
You can't get it, I can't get it, but if we can just follow the action plan, we can
have it.
You're not going to understand it when it doesn't make any sense.
When I was at Pizza Hut and I had a boss and they were yelling at me, telling me how they're
going to fire me and whatever and I'm just standing there calmly and you have to know
me who I was before I got saved, I couldn't handle interpersonal conflict at all.
I would cry or melt or just want to run away or hide my head.
Then after I was saved at this time and he's yelling at me and he's like, you don't understand
it, I could fire you right now.
As soon as he said that, I realized I wasn't afraid, I wasn't upset, my heart wasn't racing,
I wasn't sweating, even though my job was just about to be ended.
My $40,000 a year that I was making a pizza was just about to go out the door.
We had debts, a lot of them, because we were still young Christians, hadn't dealt with
any of that yet.
We had a house payment, were we going to be able to pay our, I wasn't thinking about any
of that.
I wasn't afraid.
He said, you know what your problem is?
You're not afraid of me.
And I said, no, I guess I'm not.
I said, I'm really only afraid of God now.
Similar instance, about a year later, I got a new boss who came in, it was actually my
boss's boss and she pulled me to the walk-in corner and she said, she yelling at me and
she said, you know what your problem is?
And I said, well, I know, but you're about to tell me what my problem is.
And I wasn't afraid.
And she said, your problem is, you're not afraid of me.
And I said, I'm only afraid of God.
But in that moment, you know who was most startled that I wasn't afraid?
Me.
I was baffled.
I couldn't believe it.
And that's the way it'll be for you or for me when we're following Jesus, walking with
Jesus, doing what we know to do by the best knowledge that we have, or do what you're
supposed to do by the best knowledge that you have and trust God with the rest.
And the storm is there.
And what do you do?
Repeat, do that.
Do the best you know to do with the best knowledge that you have and let God take care of the
rest and you will have the peace that passes comprehension.
It's beyond what you can fathom.
It doesn't make any sense because that's not who I am, except in Christ, that's who we
are.
You can make a magic trick out of anything.
You can make anything seem mysterious.
Two coins, hide one, suddenly one coin is two.
Ariana was doing magic tricks this week at the house.
They got that paper, flick a little spark on it, it goes burst into flames.
Wands with flowers and handkerchiefs inside.
You get that handkerchief trick where it runs all on your clothes and you pull one, you've
got one handkerchief, show them it's just like this long, right?
And then you pull one out and there it is, it's like 40 long.
Like where does all this handkerchief come from?
You can make a magic trick out of anything.
Some people like that kind of stuff.
This is no magic trick.
This is not actually hard.
If you are here today and you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then
this tells us how to have that peace.
How to be able to sleep on the cushion at the back of the boat in the storm.
I'm not saying you really want to do that, but to be calm, to be okay, to know that what's
going to come next is in the hands of the Lord.
And it is this, it is to get in the habit of doing that which God has given you to do.
So how are you going to do that?
Well, you're going to have to figure out what your spiritual gifts are, figure out what
your personality is, what your experiences are.
You put that together and if you do it like I've done it, you kind of write a statement
for yourself.
You say, this is what I'm going to do and I know this is what I'm going to be doing.
And then you can reasonably say that unless God changes that statement or your understanding
of what you're supposed to be doing, that you can do that until you die.
And if that's a month, it's a month.
And if it's 20 years, it's 20 and if it's another 100, and it could be for some of us
very easily, 100 years, then you're going to be doing that unless God changes the statement.
And then you do the best you can, the best you know how, and leave the rest up to Him.
And when the storm arises, you'll be doing the best you can, the best you know how, leaving
the rest up to Him and you'll be able to say, well, if God wants me to die in this storm,
then I'm going to die in this storm.
End of story.
Can't be letting this interrupt my nap.
And they came to Jesus and they woke Him up and said, Lord, do you not care that we're
dying?
Because they didn't have that.
They didn't practice this.
So they said, do you not care that we're dying?
And Jesus said, oh, ye of little faith.
This what I'm describing to you, it is the basic tenets and practice of faith.
Being able to endure the storm with Jesus and make it through is about essentially three
things.
It's about trust.
It's about today.
And it's about tomorrow.
You're not even in it.
It's not even about you.
Nor is it about the events.
It's about trust.
It's about today.
And it's about tomorrow.
Today I trust.
I am doing what it is that I'm supposed to be doing to the best of my knowledge and trusting
God with the rest of whatever happens today.
And because I'm doing that, I can safely assume that's what I'll be doing tomorrow.
And if you stay the course and that's what you're doing tomorrow today, I trust.
I do what I'm supposed to do to the best of my knowledge and I trust God with the rest.
Tomorrow that's what I'll be doing.
The next day that's what I'll be doing.
Tomorrow today will be tomorrow.
It's backwards.
Tomorrow, tomorrow will be today.
There you go.
How about that?
And then the next day will be tomorrow.
And then when you get to the day after tomorrow, that'll be today.
And all you do, all you really have to do is trust Him.
Trust Him and do what you're supposed to do the best you know how.
Both of those things will be greater than you know.
You're like, well, I know I'm supposed to do this and you'll go and do it and you'll
be doing way more than you expected.
Able to do way more than you expected.
And then God will be doing way more than you expected Him to do.
And when the storm arises, you can reasonably say, I have trusted God with my today.
I have trusted God with my tomorrow when it hadn't come yet.
And now here it is.
And here is the storm.
And it's abrupt and it's scary.
And God didn't stop it.
And it's here now.
What am I going to do?
Oh, I'm going to trust Him.
Because He knows better than I do.
As painful as it is, there may come a day in which it is better for you to die and go
to heaven than it is for you to continue living.
It is not a decision that you can ever make.
You won't have the necessary knowledge.
You could be dying of cancer and horrible pain or lupus or ALS or something like that.
And it would be better that you would just die and go to heaven than continue to endure
that pain because you're not going to have any earthly benefit while you're still here.
But only God could know that, right?
Only God could know what you're going to do tomorrow.
Only God can know what He's going to do.
People have been miraculously healed.
There have been people that have been in comas for 10 years, on life support for 10 years.
And then woke up and lived the rest of their life.
You can't know.
Their variables are outside.
But there could be a moment in time at which it's better for you to die and go to heaven
than it is for you to live another 10 minutes.
And if that happens and you don't learn this, we don't practice this, we don't start to
do this, then when comes the time that it is better for us to die and go to heaven than
it is for us to continue to know what will happen?
We'll be frustrated, angry, full of worry, full of regret.
We won't be doing what it is that we're really supposed to do.
And either A, we will die and go to heaven and get there and go, oh boy, really botched
that one.
Or we won't die, we'll continue to live, getting through that moment by our human efforts
and live the rest of our lives outside the will of God.
Suffering when we shouldn't have to suffer.
In pain or penalty when we shouldn't have to be in pain or penalty.
You don't want to do that.
I don't want to do that.
Can you honestly sit here today and say, I am comfortable with the God of the universe
deciding when I die?
Can you say, I am comfortable with the God of the universe deciding when I suffer?
Can you say, I am comfortable with the God of the universe deciding when I suffer how
much I suffer?
If so, then you can say, I trust the Lord.
If you cannot, then you need to adjust.
You need to repent of your sin.
You need to repent of trying to be in control of your own life.
Repent of turning away from God.
Repent of trying to be a friend with the world.
Repent of trying to manage the resources that God has blessed you with in a way that you
think will turn out better.
And instead, do what it is that God would have you to do with your life.
And then when he takes it, when the time comes and he says, that's it, we're done, you'll
go straight to heaven and you'll be able to look back and go, totally saw that coming.
There was going to be a moment.
I knew there was going to be a moment.
Now you'll recall last week we had a sermon.
I talked about the affliction and this is my final kind of illustration if you will.
We talked about the affliction and I gave you a little list and I said, affliction is
imminent, remember?
For believers, affliction is imminent.
Bible says so, God says so.
And so in order for us to settle down and deal with affliction when it comes, this is
what I said, to prepare for future affliction even while facing the afflictions of today,
this is what you do.
Number one, know what God has called us to.
Number two, build a surplus of strength for defense, spiritual disciplines, armor of God,
acting out what we're supposed to do.
Number three, warn and encourage other believers about the coming affliction.
Number four, consider affliction that has suffered for God as being blessed to suffer
as Jesus did.
And number five, adopt, you're going to have to kill me to stop me when dealing with the
affliction.
Now I'm saying to you that the good of God is imminent.
You understand?
In the middle of the storm, David could say, I would have despaired had I not hoped for
the good of the Lord when?
When I go to heaven, right?
No.
I would have despaired had I not hoped for the good of the Lord in this lifetime.
This is what you can know for sure when you face your next storm.
If you will turn it over to the Lord, do the best you know how to do, the best you know
how to do it and turn the rest over to God, then God will see you through it and he will
do better for you and good for you and bless you on the other side of it in ways that you
cannot right now understand.
The truth is if you have not seen some of the blessings of God that you could have seen,
it's probably because you didn't turn the storms of your life over to him.
Because you're not as good at blessing yourself as God is at blessing you.
Say to the Lord, okay Lord, this looks like everything could go down right here.
This could be the end of, insert whatever it is that's really bothering you.
Lord, please help me.
Thank you for whatever the outcome is.
I trust you with my today.
I trust you with my tomorrow.
And watch if the Lord doesn't bring you out better than ever before.
Every single time in scripture somebody suffered, every time without fail, God always brought
them out better off than before.
God bless you as you seek to submit your life to the Lord.
But if you're here today and you have not accepted Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior
in earnest, you've not trusted Jesus with your today, your tomorrow, and your forever,
then do that right now in this moment.
And then as we have an invitation here in a second, you're going to respond.
You're going to say, that's me.
I'm trusting Jesus with my today, my tomorrow, and my forever.
If you've never done it, you're not saved until you've done it.
And if you've done it in the last few minutes since I've been talking, you're saved now.
Doesn't mean storms won't come.
Just means now you know how to deal with them.
And if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know for a fact He's saved, you
know for a fact God sent His Holy Spirit, you felt the Spirit testifying to you that
you know that you're saved, then already as we've been talking, you know you need to follow
this action plan to deal with the storms of your life.
And in so doing, open up the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension.
It's hard to fathom.
Impossible.
I'm going to pray for you briefly and then we'll have the praise team come forward and
lead us.
Father in heaven, even as I was writing this message, I was thinking about how I have faced
affliction and storms even recently.
You know it's on my heart and I'm very concerned about what's going on with Sherri and her
health.
We've had some scares in other ways in our family, in our church, with health, with relationship
stuff.
It amazes me how sometimes we as believers, when it starts to go wrong and we see this
starting to go wrong, we're basically working on the wrong side.
Somebody tells us that in order to get past this or deal with this, we've got to do this
thing.
We've got to give something up.
We've got to put our nose at the grindstone, get to work.
We've got to practice certain skills, prepare, be strong, overcome.
We just don't want to.
We're mad, complaining, frustrated, in denial, grieving, all the stages thereof.
We just don't want to deal with it.
It's come on us unawares and instead of being prepared, instead of being ready, instead
of being with you, talking to you, serving you, doing what we're supposed to be doing,
the way we're supposed to be doing it, we're unaware.
We act like in that moment we're going to suddenly go, oh I'm going to do what God wants
me to do now.
Now that I see this is going badly, I'm going to start, it doesn't work that way.
You know, better.
It's unreasonable to even think that it works that way.
You know, because of muscle memory and programming, we're in the heat of the moment, we're most
likely to do what we've always done, whatever that is.
And the only way for us to be sure and do these things, to reach the peace that passes
understanding, to reach the good that you have for us and to see it in this lifetime,
the way to do that is to make the thing that we've always done, what we're supposed to
do in you, what you have for us to do, to the best of our knowledge and to trust you
with the rest.
Help us Lord.
Help us do that with the upcoming storms or the storms we're in now.
Forgive us when we've not done it in the past.
Help that one or more person that's in the room right now that's wrestling with themselves
over whether to surrender their life to Jesus in earnest, that they would just do that.
Help that one or more persons that are in the room right now that are saying, I know
this is not the way I've been handling the storms of my life, and I need to repent and
I need to turn to God, and I need to handle the storms of my life this way.
And then when I face them in the future, I will know that nothing less than the peace
that passes understanding and the good that God can do, nothing less than those things
are what's on the line.
Not what I see as a possible outcome, not my money or my time or my relationships or
my feelings, but the peace that passes understanding and the good that God can do, that's what's
on the line.
I can't lose that Lord.
I need that every day.
I can't risk it, not on some dumb gamble that I might be able to make things better in my
own strength.
I want to trust you God.
I want that same trust for anybody that's in this room who earnestly wants eternity
with you, forgiveness from sins, your presence in their life.
Lord let us be united in this, that we trust you with our today, our tomorrow, and our
forever.
And I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I ask the praise team to come forward at this time.
We're going to have our closing hymn and this is your opportunity to respond.
If you are accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior for the first time today, will you
come and let us know that?
I accept that.
Thank you.
And if you are committing yourself to trust Jesus with your today's pattern forever, and
you know you have not been doing that, will you come forward and let us know that she
you've heard that God has brought for you?
Thanks for listening.
I hope you've wrestled with, inside yourself, and with God's help the message today and
you're prepared to trust God with your today, your tomorrow, and your eternity.
I know that God plans good things for you.
I know at times you feel like you might despair if you couldn't hope for the good that God
has planned.
Please, please know that you can hope for the good that God has planned.
He loves you.
He wants what's best for you.
He has a plan for your future.
Trust Him with it and He'll bring it about.
Check us out online at ChurchToledo.com.
There's a special page there called Your Thoughts in which you can enter any thoughts or comments
you might have regarding today's podcast or anything you're studying in the Bible or any
questions or thoughts that you may be having rumbling around in your head.
Your Thoughts on the ChurchToledo.com page.
You can also give there if you choose to, if the Lord so leads.
There's also a page there about becoming a member or a member non-resident.
That is to say someone who believes that God is calling them to be part of the New Heights
Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo, but there are barriers, perhaps geography
or transportation or other barriers that keep you from being involved.
Information is found there on our website ChurchToledo.com.
If you need to mail something to the church building, it's 255 Hefner Street, Toledo,
Ohio 43605.
Perhaps you're close enough and you'd like to come worship with us some Sunday at 1130
or join us in Bible study on Tuesday nights at 630.
May God bless you as you seek to reach new heights in Jesus.
Will you stand with us and sing this song?
Will you respond if the Lord has laid it on your heart to do so?