Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another day, and Lord, please forgive me of my sins and any sinful thinking that I might do. Lord, please, please be with those on our prayer lists of the past, and please, Lord, forgive me for I am not being very timely with Your messages. Lord, please help me to get caught after and get the messages out on time. Please help me to learn this new computer and help me to get a printer and get it online. Lord, I really need Your help. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, I am still having trouble trying to get back in the swing with the new computer and how often it has gone down since I got it. Most of it has been the fact that I am really computer stupid. Anyway, we need to really be praying for our nation and being the eve of 9/11 the twelfth year since the events of 9/11/2001, and I am sure most of us remember that. Also, tomorrow is Salvation Wednesday on this line, and we really need to be working to get people to come to Jesus. So please now, after my personal prayer to start the message, please join me in prayer. WOW, when I typed in join me in prayer, the power went out, and that took the computer off line. Power came up at 6:10 PM and I just got the computer up and running. As I said, I just ain't all that smart when it comes to computer's. Let's pray.
Dear Father in Heaven, please, please bless our nation and please, please keep us out of a war. Please dump President Obama to his knees, Lord, humble him as we pray he will come to You. Lord, protect our nation, and of course we pray today for worldwide peace. Only You, Lord, can bring peace, and we would appreciate it. Now, Lord, help me with the message and then dispatch it for me. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, off to the message, and it should blend in with last week's Moral Authority.
Monday/Tuesday, September 9/10, 2013, Peace in Turmoil.
Philippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. (NIV)
This evening (Tuesday) our president is going to give another speech. He wants to go to war, I guess. Last week I talked to you all about Moral Authority and told you that the only Moral Authority is our Lord Jesus Christ. And I talked about why we in America are unworthy to act on Moral Authority. Now after looking at all the ways we can mess up and telling all of us, including myself, that we need to clean up our own acts before looking at others as if we are the Moral Authority.
On today's message God is pointing me to scriptures that will give us peace in turmoil, and indeed our nation and the world is in turmoil. What Paul wrote to the Philippians and is recorded starting in Philippians chapter 4 verse 4 seems to fit us as we walk the walk with and for Jesus Christ and will give us some added peace in turmoil that we need in the market place today.
Philippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! (NIV)
This is telling us that we need to rejoice in the Lord always. That means all the time. We should rejoice even when things are not going our way. We should be rejoicing in what is going on in our country only for the good things and God has only given us good things. We should be rejoicing in having food and clothes, etc., but we should NOT rejoice in the way our country is according to our lack of Morals. (If the shoe fits, wear it.) However, I pray you do get new shoes!! We are to be gentle people so all other people see that in us. After all, if we are true followers of Jesus. The Bible tells us also the Lord is near. Now, brothers and sisters, that to me has two meanings. First of all, He is near us always, because if we are indeed BORN AGAIN then He is living in us, and if we are not He is nearby waiting upon us to invite Him in. Of course it also means to me that the Lord is coming back, and I think it will be soon. Do you remember years ago driving through the country and seeing on the side of the barns, "Ye must chew Mail Pouch Tobacco." No, Dan, that is not it, I was seeing if you are awake. While some barn sides did say about Mail Pouch, what I was talking about was the barns which had written on them, "Ye must be Born Again." The scripture also tells us this ...
Philippians 4:6 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the Peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
Here we are being told not to be anxious, in other words do not worry. The Bible also tells us in
Matthew 24:6 - "You will hear of wars and rumors f wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come." (NIV)
Yes, in the words of Jesus, my brothers and sisters, we are being told not to be alarmed, or another word for that is worry or be anxious. That is very hard to do sometimes, it is hard. We worry about lots of things and we are concerned about things for if we truly trust God He will indeed work it out for us. Now hold on, it does not always get worked out according to our will, but He does work it out according to His will. We pray that way, right? In the Lord's Prayer. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Thy will be done, not our will, folks. Just as Jesus prayed the night before He was put to death, as He prayed to His (ours also) Father in Heaven. Thy will, not My will be done. Now the last scripture for today.
Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. (NIV)
Why is Paul telling the Philippians to think about the things in these scriptures? Why, and remember this filters down to us, would Paul be telling us to think about being true, noble, whatever is right, etc.? I think it fits well if we are thinking about these things and praising God for them we will not h ave as much downtime to worry and be anxious about things. In other words, when you are out and about, think good thoughts, think about Jesus because it does not get any better thinking than that. Amen.
Now go forth and share your blessings and if you can, get on your knees and pray for this nation tonight or tomorrow. Love ya. And you can surely pass that on. Pastor Dan.
Once again I cannot find the spell checker.
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