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Last Friday, Good Friday, I was invited to preach at the

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Antioch Church in Beaumont where Pastor John Adolph is the pastor. I was preaching in a

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service with several other preachers and pastors. And Pastor Dennis Jones had one of the words from

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the seven last words of Jesus on the cross. I can't remember which now, but Pastor Dennis

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Jones of Gethsemane Church here in Houston was preaching and he said something that made me

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sit up in my seat. I wrote it down because I wanted to use it as a subject to preach this

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morning. I called him last week and told him that I would make this statement and the first time I

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preach this sermon I'm going to give him credit for the topic, but the second time it has been said

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and the third time is mine. But I'm going to give Dennis Jones the credit for having said this in a

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sermon that arrested me and caught my attention that I want to preach about this morning. He said,

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and I want to preach about this, God's sovereignty is my sanity. God's sovereignty is my sanity.

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In a recent issue of Health Magazine, six experts who study joy for a living reveal the simple

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practices that make the biggest difference in life as it relates to human joy. A CEO by the name

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of Natalie Kogan of the learning platform Happier says that happiness is something you do.

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CEO of the happiness research institute says that happiness and money are connected. I almost

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agree with that because when I don't have any money I'm unhappy so I almost agree with that.

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Leadership coach Ellen Petrie says happiness is about relationships, contribution, and mastery

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of life. The founder of the Happy Brain Science Scott Crabtree says that the quality of your

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relationships is the number one factor in happiness. The author Emily Smith says that

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happiness is not something that you have, is something that you look for. Author Courtney

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Hammerstein says to find happiness you have to try being brave. I want to say to all of the aforementioned

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what Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 31, I show you a more excellent

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way. The experts, six of them tell us what happiness is and the word of God has a word to say to us

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about what joy really is. We are about to embark upon a church-wide study from Dr. Charles Swindall's

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book Getting Through the Rough Stuff. We are starting on Tuesday night in a study from Getting

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Through the Rough Stuff and each week I want to highlight what we will be talking about in the

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Tuesday night classes and for those of you who have not yet registered you still have time to do

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so, you still have time to register for the class, we are running out of book materials so we need

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you to register so that we will know how many more to order but this week's topic in the class is

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anxiety and I want to deal with anxiety with worry this morning. God's sovereignty is my sanity.

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The opposite of anxiety indeed its relief is the peace that only God in answer to prayers

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bestows upon his people. Anxiety brothers and sisters arises from a lack of contentment and to

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be anxious literally means in the text to be of a divided mind. In short the presence of anxiety is

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the absence of humility. The late Dr. A. Lewis Patterson of the Mount Corrine Church put it this

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way worry is like filing formal charges against God and accusing him of mismanagement. I wish I

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would have said that. Dr. Patterson said worry is like filing formal charges against God and

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accusing him of mismanagement. Rejoicing is a keynote of this letter to the Philippians. This

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ongoing rejoicing cannot be based upon or grounded in the particular circumstances but rather must

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be independent of circumstances. It is worth remembering brothers and sisters that this letter

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is written by Paul while he was in prison to Christians who are suffering from their commitment

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to Jesus Christ. Clearly Paul does not have in view the kind of superficial happiness that the

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authors talked about earlier that manifests itself only when things are going well. No it is rejoicing

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that can be had because it depends not on changing circumstances but on an unchanging God. Walk with

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me around the text. Look with me again at verse number four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I

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will say rejoice. Brothers and sisters if God's sovereignty is gonna be your sanity you've got

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to number one learn how to praise God. Rejoice. It don't have to be Sunday morning. You don't need

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a choir to get you all juiced up. You don't need a worship leader telling you to clap your hands.

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When you start remembering, when you start thinking about what God has done for you, what God is

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doing for you and what God's word promises that he will do for you, it can be Thursday afternoon.

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You just thought rejoicing in the Lord. Rejoicing in the Lord is a Christians distinguishing mark

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and a characteristic of the kingdom of God because rejoicing in the Lord at all times is so important

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that the apostle Paul emphatically repeats the injunction. Rejoice in the Lord always and again

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I'll say rejoice. This epistle sparkles with joy for its very subject and its occasion called for

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the sweet admonition to rejoice with true joy. In Philippians at chapter 1 verse 18 Paul rejoices

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that Christ is preached even though the motivation is selfish. In Philippians chapter 2 and verse 2

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he encourages the Philippians to make his joy complete by being like-minded. In Philippians 2

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17 and 18 he calls them to rejoice with him in sacrifice and in service. In chapter 2 verse 29

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they were to welcome Epaphroditus with great joy. Chapter 3 of Philippians and verse 1 he encourages

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them to rejoice in the Lord. Now brothers and sisters some wrongly identify joy as a purely

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human emotion but joy is not a feeling. Joy is the deep down conviction that God is in control

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of everything for the believer's good and his glory and at all is well no matter what you're

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going through. If it's a divorce you still have joy. If it's sickness you still have joy. If it's

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a season of grief you still have joy because what is going on outside you cannot disturb what's

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going on inside you because your joy does not depend on outward circumstances. Some folk can

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only shout when they get a raise. Some folk can only shout if the right people are in their life.

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Some people can give God glory only if they have money but some of us whose backs have been up

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against the wall and God has shown up right in the nick of time. We don't need a whole lot of

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stuff to get us to get excited when we start thinking about the goodness of Jesus and all

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that He's done for us and where He's brought us from and what He brought us through. We have real

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joy. When you have real joy you don't have to eat at Vic and Anthony's. You can be satisfied with

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cornbread and milk. When you have real joy if nobody speaks to you you don't care nothing about

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them speaking to you. You just speak and keep it moving. When you have real joy you don't you

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actually think you care what somebody says about what you got on. You ain't dressing for them.

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You don't care what anybody thinks about you or how somebody looks at you because if that's where

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you get your joy from you're gonna lose your mind. But this joy that I have I hope I'm not

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speaking for myself. The world didn't give it and the world can't take it away. That's why what

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you think about me does not bother. Threaten out yourself because of evil do. Neither be envious

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against the workers of iniquity. They shall soon be cut off like grass and God will make them with

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her like the green. Bless is the man. I wish I had a Bible reader that walks not in the council

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of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight

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is in the law of the Lord and in that law does he meditate both day and night and if you do that

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here's what will happen. You'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth

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fruit in its season. Your leaf also shall not wither and whatever you do God will make it prosper.

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No good thing will he withhold from him who walks upright. The Lord is my light and my salvation. I

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wish I had some help right here. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom

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shall I win the wicked? Even my enemies and my foes come upon me to eat up my flesh just before

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they get to me. God trips them. They stumble and they fail. Though a host shouldn't camp against

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me in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord that would I seek after

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that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all my days. Here it is in the time of trouble.

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Have I got a witness? He shall hide me. Has thou not known? Has thou not heard? That the everlasting

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God the father of the creator of the ends of the earth has no searching of his understanding. He

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give his power to the faint and to them that have no might he increases their strength. Even the

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youth shall faint and grow weary and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that await upon

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the Lord shall renew thy strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run

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and not get weary. They shall walk and not faint. The proverb says if you faint in the day of

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adversity your strength is small. Jeremiah says if you run with the footmen and they weary you

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how shall you contend with horses? If you can't make it in the land where peace and prosperity

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abides what are you going to do at the swelling of the Jordan? Rejoice. Just get happy by yourself.

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If there ain't nobody in the car just start hollering. If there ain't nobody in the house just

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start laughing. If there ain't nobody to pat you on the back pat your own self on the back.

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Take yourself to dinner. Take yourself to the movies. I don't need nobody in my life to make

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me happy. I got joy. Verse five if God's sovereignty is my sanity not only need I need to learn to

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praise God but verse five tells me I need some patience. It's right here in the text. Let your

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King James says moderation. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. The word

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moderation is the translation of the Greek word meaning not being unduly rigorous. Being satisfied

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with less than one's due. Sweet reasonableness. Forbearance. Perhaps the best corresponding

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English word is graciousness. The graciousness of humility. The humble graciousness that produces

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the patience to endure injustice, disgrace and mistreatment without retaliation, without bitterness,

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without vengeance. It's a graciousness that results in contentment. Aristotle in his

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Nicomachean ethics describes the gentle person as the one who by choice and by habit does what

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is equitable and who does not stand on his rights unduly but is content to receive a smaller share

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although he has the law on his side. You remember Abraham and Lot came into a territory and Lot

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wanted one portion and Abraham wanted another portion and Lot's herdsmen and Abraham's herdsmen

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got into a conflict because there was not enough room in the land for everybody and Abraham said

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to Lot let's not fall out because we'd be brethren. He says I'll tell you what we're gonna do. You

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take the land you want and what you leave left over I'll take that and Lot chose the highlands

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of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham chose the lowlands of Mamre and God got it over to Abraham that

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he got the land but you got the promise. He has land that has been angelically tagged for demolition.

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He has land that's about to go up in smoke so let him think that he's won. He got the land you

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got the promise and let's folk think they've gotten over on you. God will make a way out of no way.

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Oh brother and sister. An accurate reading of this verse is do not keep this sweet reasonableness in

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your heart. Let it find expression in your conduct so that other people will experience the blessings

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God has given you. If you're a Christian calm yourself down. Stop flying off the handle for

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everything. Stop getting mad over stuff and over people who don't matter because after a while

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people gonna get sick of being around you. If you always got an attitude, if you always got to call

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the manager when you go to Walmart, it's Walmart. It's waste baskets and trash cans. It's paper towels

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and toilet tissue. Calm down. Well maybe you didn't get that you'll get this. Don't you hate to eat

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with people that everything the way to bring they got to send it back? This ain't done right.

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And then you called a manager of the restaurant and then you get the owner of the restaurant to

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come to your table and then you write a review and you talk about how bad it was and you ain't

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never going back and then they call you and give you a special invitation and now you can go eat

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for free which is all you wanted in the first place. It's a hair in my it ain't no hair in your

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food. This steak too tough. I wanted lemons. You brought lime. The fox on the wrong side. Do this

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way they don't speak. You got too much attitude for me. Where's the manager? People ought to ask

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you didn't you just come from church? Must not have because it ain't doing you no good.

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Gentleness, forbearance, graciousness. You don't have to be right all the time. You can take one

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for the team every now and then. You can let people think that they have gotten over on you.

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God was straightening it out tomorrow.

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Patience. Stop being so touchy. Stop being so brittle that everything got to go your way

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and it got to be done just to your specifications or you don't want it.

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Or it's not that's that's what babies do.

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You give them the blue the the blue pacifier. They wanted the pink one.

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They don't care nothing about them toys until another child comes in there and start playing

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with them. That's what children do. Paul says when I was a child I wish I had a Bible reader.

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I spoke like a child. I understood like a child. But when I became a man, when I matured in my faith

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I put away childish fear.

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It's childish to always want your way. It's childish to always think people ought to do what you say

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to do. It's childish to always throw tantrums. Let me see if I can help somebody and I got to

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move on. I got three minutes left. My mama would give me what she called a good whip.

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I need somebody here who was raised like I was raised.

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My mama would give me a good whip. And a good whipping is when they get through with you

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you just go take a nap.

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And then your mama go take a nap.

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Because she tired and you tired.

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But my mama would give me a good whipping and then she'd go sit down and talk to her friends on the phone.

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Like nothing happened. Like she didn't just break my arm in three places.

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And she'd go talk on the phone and I'd go sit by and then she'd hang up. Girl I'm gonna talk to you later.

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Then she'd go cook and I'd go in the kitchen and stand by. She said keep on.

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Somebody know the rest of that. I'm gonna give you something to cry for.

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And God is saying to some complainer in here this morning.

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God is saying to some whiner in here this morning. Keep on. All I've done for you.

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All the blessings I've allowed you to accrue. All the material wealth I've allowed you to gain.

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I've given you your health and strength. You can see. You can talk. You can reason. You can walk.

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And now you're sitting in my church with my clothes on. After sleeping in my house.

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Acting like I didn't bless you. Keep on.

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I'm gonna give you something to cry for.

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Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come?

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Why should my heart be lonely? Long for heaven. When Jesus is my portion.

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A constant friend is he. His eye is on the sparrow. And I'm not guessing about it.

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I know. He watches me. But as I heard to the clothes. Not just praise.

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Will make God's sovereignty my sanity. Not just patience will make God's sovereignty my sanity.

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But prayer will make God's sovereignty my sanity.

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Verse number six. Do not worry about anything. But in everything.

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By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.

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And the peace of God. Which surpasses all understanding. Will guard your heart and your

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minds in Christ Jesus. The way to be anxious about nothing. Is to be prayerful about everything.

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The present tense prohibition. Do not be anxious or do not worry or be careful for nothing.

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Indicates that the Philippians must stop doing what they have already been habitually doing.

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The cure for worry is believing prayer. Anxiety is out of place in the presence of a loving God.

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Brothers and sisters hear me. The strong contrast between worry and faith is seen in the transitional

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adversitive in the text. This transitional adversitive comes after this word. He says do not worry.

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Do not be anxious. Do not be careful for anything. Here is the transitional adversitive. But

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in everything. Give thanks in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

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Make your requests known under God. Now Paul as a hurry uses three synonyms for prayer.

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That line up precisely with what Jesus said in the gospel. Paul says by prayer. Meaning to intercede

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on behalf of another. Supplication means to ask God for something you need directly.

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And request means to not be amorphous and supercilious in your request. But ask God directly.

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God not my brother. Not my sister. It's me. I'm not praying for the sick right now.

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I'm not praying for the people in Africa right now. I'm not praying about violence. I'm not

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praying for the president. Right now I need something God that only you can give. And I'm

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shutting everything else out and asking you specifically for this one thing. Now here is

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how it lines up with what Jesus said in the gospel. Paul says by prayer Jesus said ask.

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Paul says by supplication Jesus said seek.

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Seek. Paul says make your requests known. Jesus said knock.

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Now there are some prayers when I'm just praying pretty on Sunday morning.

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You know something about pretty prayers. Just just praying because you know some big words and

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just praying because you've been asked. But there are some prayers that you pray in your

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private prayer time. That nobody knows what you're going through but you and God.

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Nobody knows what you're up against and what you need right away but you and God. And if you pray

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and you pray with thanksgiving God will come in the room where you're praying. And the answer will

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come sometimes for you get off your knees. Because there are times when God does not want to answer

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a prayer. He wants to change the person praying. And when you pray and pray right.

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He says and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

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The peace of God that surpasses all understanding. I hope I can get through this last little part

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without crying or shouting. That was a couple who came to visit with us last Sunday from Franklin,

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Louisiana. A man and his wife. I have his name written down in my office. I forgot to bring it

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out here with me. But he and his wife came to church last Sunday from Franklin, Louisiana.

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And they came because they wanted to hear their favorite YouTube preacher. The honorable Terry

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Kaye Forkiller Anderson preached the gospel in person. The husband was holding his wife's hand

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and I thought he was just being sweet. But they came together and they got up to where I was

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standing right here. And the husband said to me Reverend, we had to come from Franklin, Louisiana

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because my wife listens to you every night. Before she goes to sleep, she hears your voice.

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And so we wanted to come to personally thank you. He said my wife, she's standing right there.

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He's holding her hand. He says my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.

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He said going through the breast cancer treatment, she was stricken with blindness.

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He said my wife has breast cancer and she's blind. She's standing right there while he's holding

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her hand. He said in the midst of her cancer diagnosis and being stricken with blindness,

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we lost our son. We had to bury our child. He's standing right there holding his wife's hand,

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telling me this story and the wife finally speaks up. She said, Pastor, you mind if I put my hands

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on you? I said no ma'am, I don't mind at all. She said, you mind if I touch your face. She touched

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my face. She put her hand on my eyes. She touched my nose. She said, Pastor, do you mind if I put

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my hands on your mouth? I said no ma'am, I don't mind at all. And she said, I want to touch your

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mouth. I want to touch your lips because I want to touch the lips of the mouth of the man that

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God used to keep me from losing my mind. Breast cancer, blindness. Her son is dead,

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but she has the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. And somebody's in here this morning,

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people don't know why you're still smiling. You got the peace of God. They don't know how you still

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just keep going. You got the peace of God that surpasses

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all understanding. I will keep him

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in perfect peace.

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If you keep your mind,

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stay on me. And the peace of God that surpasses, that exceeds all human understanding,

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all human planning, all human devices, all human schemes, all human weapons of manipulation,

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it will surpass all of that and then keep your heart and your mind. That word keep your heart is a

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military term that means God will put a garrison of soldiers around you. God will put a century of

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soldiers on duty to keep you in perfect peace.