tomorrow he's having his whole
shoulder replaced and that's going to be a difficult recovery
I'm sure. Let's go to Colossians chapter
3. I want to just preach on one verse
and really one point in the verse. We'll read the whole thing here
in a moment, but let's begin here in Colossians 3.15. Colossians
3.15. He says, Let the peace of God
rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body,
and be ye thankful. Now brethren, this is the believer's
rule of life right here. This is the believer's rule of
life. Ruling us in spirit. Ruling us in the new man, in
the new heart. Ruling us by the spirit of our
Lord. He says, let the peace of God rule in your hearts. To the which also you are called
in one body. We know we're under the rule
of faith. We walk by faith. The law's not of faith. We walk
by faith, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. We were justified by
him. We've been called by him. We're
being led by him. We're being taught by him. We
walk by faith, trusting the Lord. We know we're under the rule
of love. Christ's love for us is our motivator. It constrains us in our heart.
so that we're willing to do what we do from that one motive of
Christ's love to us. And we're told right here, the
peace of God rules our heart. He said, let the peace of God
rule your heart. Paul said, in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. It doesn't
matter if you were a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter if you were
brought up under the law or you never had the law. He said, but here's what matters,
faith which worketh by love. And right here, the same spirit
of God tells us, let the peace of God rule your heart. That
word let, it doesn't mean that the saints can defy the Spirit
of our Lord. It doesn't mean that we're letting
peace rule, that we can defy Him. This is the way of grace. He's speaking by the way of grace. It's the gracious way Christ
rules His people. When He gives His commands to
His people, He says things like this, I beseech you. I beseech
you. The motivation that he gives
us when he gives us a precept is always of what Christ has
done for us, what God our Father and our Savior has done for his
people. That's always the motive attached
to his precept. Listen, verse 13, what did he
say there? Even as Christ forgave you, so
also do ye. Verse 15, let the peace of God
rule in your hearts to the which also you're called in one body
and be thankful. We're thankful because he called
us. He created this peace. See, the motivation is always
what he's done for his people. Romans 12, one, he said, I beseech
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. It's always
what the Lord has done for us what our Father has done for
us. It's always the motivator. Even when our Savior gives us
command, he does it in a way to make us remember you're not
under the law, you're under grace. We're not under the law, we're
under grace. You are what you are by the grace
of God. That's what he keeps reminding
us. What do you have that God our Father and His Son didn't
freely give you? That's what He keeps teaching
us. We see right here in this passage. He's reminding us we
are what we are by His grace. We are what we are by Christ's
obedience, by Christ's blood, by the mercies of God to us. Look here, let's read the whole
thing now. Begin in verse 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God. See there? We're elect because
of grace. What God did for his people.
He chose his people freely. Put on as the elect of God. Holy. Holy in Christ. Beloved in Christ. Put on vows of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, on suffering and forbearing one
another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and
let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also
you're called in one body, and be ye thankful. God called you
by his grace, when you were the ungodly, when you were undeserving,
when you had no strength, no power. See, he's keeping us in
mind of why we have peace with God, how we have peace with God,
why we're the elect of God, why we're holy, why we've been beloved. The Lord did all these things
to us. He was long-suffering to us,
forbearing to us, meek toward us. He forgave us, those he everlastingly
loved. Why did he love you? He said,
I didn't choose you because you were more in number or because
there was something special about you, but because I would. That's
God's word. And so, now he tells, let the
peace of God rule in your hearts. This metaphor, the word let and
the word rule are one word in the Greek. and they're from a
word that means to be an umpire. Let me read to you what John
Gill wrote on this. He said, the metaphor is taken
from the judge in the Olympic games who was the umpire, the
moderator, and who determined whose the victory was and to
whom the crown belonged. The apostle would have no other
umpire among the saints than the peace of God. That's the rule determining how
we treat each other, what we do, what will work peace, what
will keep peace, is peace of God. That's the rule, that's
the rule. So this is the believer's rule
of life. Let the peace of God rule your
hearts to the which you're called into one body and be you thankful. See that, I love this too. The
Lord called you to this. He called you to this. He's called
us to peace with God. He called us to peace with one
another. He called us into one body. My brothers and sisters are one
with me, just like the members of your body are one with you. That's how one we are with one
another, because he called us into this oneness. And he said,
let the peace of God rule. Now here's what I want you to
get. This is what I'm gonna try to show us in the message. When
the peace of God rules our heart, when any quarrel arises, or trouble
comes of any kind, The Spirit of our Lord renews us in heart
in the new man. He keeps renewing us so that
he keeps us beholding it was Christ who made peace with God
for us. And it was Christ who made you quit fighting God and be reconciled
to God. He came and worked peace in your
heart. I wasn't able to do that. I wasn't able to do that for
myself. I certainly wasn't able to do it for you. He was able
to do that, and he did that, and the Lord keeps us knowing
Christ is our peace with God, Christ is our peace with each
other, and it's Christ who made us be at peace and will keep
the peace in our heart. It's him. You could read this,
let Christ rule your hearts. He's the one ruling the heart.
He is the peace with God. He is our peace with God, Christ
is. And so, because I know he worked
this for me, and I know he worked this in me, I know he's able
to work it in my brother. When you see a quarrel coming,
or you see a quarrel break out, you know who is able to work
peace. You know Christ is able. And
so, He's gonna make us ask Him to work peace. And He's gonna
make us wait on Him to work peace. And while we do it, He's gonna
make peace rule our heart. That's right, He'll make you
be at peace in your heart. Now before we go any further,
I always have to say this when you look at a word like this,
a precept. Remember this, this is not telling
me that peace should be ruling your heart toward me. That's
not what this is telling me. It's telling me that peace should
be ruling my heart toward you. You get what I'm saying? You're not able to make the peace
of God rule in anyone else's heart. And a lot of times the
way the Lord's gonna show you that he's the only one that can
make peace and he's the only one that can sustain peace, one
of the ways he'll do that is somebody will not be at peace
with you. And you can't do a thing about
it. You can't make them be at peace with you. But here's what
he's telling us, even when that's the case, let peace rule your
heart. Let the peace of God rule your
heart. Even when somebody else is not at peace with you, you
want them to be at peace with you. You just let the peace of
God rule your heart. I'm going to show you what's
involved in that. One aspect of the peace of God
ruling in our own heart is this. One aspect of it is, Because
you've experienced Christ was able to make peace in your heart
by his power, by his wisdom, through his gospel, he makes
you know he's able. And he makes you know he's able
to work that in your brother. You depend entirely on him. You
go to him, and you wait on him, and you speak of him, and you
look to him. This is really the essence of
how the peace of God rules our hearts. It's knowing Christ has
got me in his hand, and he's got my brethren in his hand,
and he's our shepherd ruling us and leading us, and he's able. I know his power. I know his
mercy and his grace. I know he's able, so I know he's
able to work in my brethren. and that's how he keeps peace
in your heart. Now let's look, I'm not gonna
speak a lot, I'm gonna try to read and go to some scripture
and show you. Now first of all, go to Ephesians
2. You know, any time trouble comes, any trouble, you remember
the Lord said, in this world you shall have tribulation. We're
sinners still and you're gonna have trouble in your own flesh,
you're gonna have trouble with brethren, you're gonna have trouble,
especially in the world, We're gonna have trouble in the world.
There ain't been a rose made yet that don't have thorns. You're
gonna have trouble in the world. But he said, be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world. And he said, my peace I give
you, not as the world giveth. It's not the kind of peace the
world gives, and he don't give peace the way the world gives
peace. He gives peace as God gives peace. Now let's see how
he did it. Here we go. Now the first thing
to remember when trouble comes, Who made peace with God for me?
Let us ask ourselves this. You see trouble, you got trouble
with some brethren, you see two other brethren at odds, let us
ask ourselves this. Who made peace with God for me?
I didn't come into this world having peace with God. I came
into this world in my corrupt, depraved mind. I thought he was
my enemy, the true God. I thought the true Lord Jesus
was my enemy, and I treated him like an enemy. I didn't have
peace with God, and I didn't make peace with God. You hear
men say, I made my peace with God. Well, one thing I know is
this, when the Lord brings a man to have the peace of God in his
heart, that man's gonna stop boasting that he made the peace.
He's gonna start glorifying God for making the peace, and glorifying
Christ for being the one that made the peace. And that's what
we need to remember now. Always remember, who made peace
with God for me? Peace in my heart, who made me
be at peace with God? Let's see, look here, Ephesians
2.11. Wherefore remember that you been
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who were called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand. Jew
and Gentile, he's talking about here, the Gentile was the uncircumcision,
the circumcision was the Jew, and they hated, the Jew hated
the Gentile. and it was because of fleshly
reasons. Look, at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. So, that's the first thing to
remember. I didn't make peace with God.
I didn't make my heart beat peace with God. That was my condition
right there. I was without hope. I was without
God. I was a stranger, an alien from
the covenants. I was without God in the world.
So I didn't make peace. Do we think we're going to be
able to make peace today? Do we think we're going to be
able to affect peace in somebody else's heart? If we didn't, we
couldn't make it in our own heart. So first of all, remember that.
Secondly, but now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace,
who hath made both Jew and Gentile one. And how did he do it? He broke down the middle wall
of partition between us, the law. Having abolished in his
flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances. It's saying our Lord came and
fulfilled the law for all God's elect and abolished that law
we were under And that took the enmity away. The enmity was the
Jews just looked at, we have circumcision. We eat this and
don't eat that. We have lambs we offer. We come
in this land. They had all the things God gave
them and they thought that made them better than the Gentiles.
And so they hated the Gentiles for it when they didn't understand
what those things were saying. Those things were all picturing
Christ who is our peace and who made peace. But he came and he
is the fulfillment of it all. And when he turns you to behold,
he is the peace. He's what the high priest, he's
the one the high priest pictured. He's the one the spotless lamp
pictured. He's the one who sanctified his
people. That's what the law of meats
was declaring. If you go back and read that
law, God said, don't eat this meat, don't eat that meat. That's
clean, this is unclean. And God declared, he told Peter,
when he said, you go down there to Cornelius' house, he laid
a net down with all his different meats in it. And he said, arise,
kill and eat, Peter. Peter said, not so, Lord, I've
never eaten anything unclean. And the Lord said, what I have
cleansed, don't you call common. And that's what the law of those
meats was picturing. Christ is the only one who sanctifies
and makes holy. He's the only one that does it.
And he came and did that for his people, so he took out of
the way that law, and it says in verse 15, for to make in himself
of two one new man, so making peace. and that he might reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby." That's what Christ accomplished for his people on
the cross. He justified us, he made us righteous,
he fulfilled the law for us, and he made us to have peace
with God. And because he took that law
out of the way, Then he comes and he preached this peace in
our heart and made us know him. Look here, verse 17. And he came
and he preached peace to you which were far off, and to them
that were nigh, for through him we both have access by one spirit
unto the Father. He worked for us, then he came
and worked peace in us. Now therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints,
and you're of the household of God. And so's that brother that
has a quarrel, or that you have a quarrel with. You're built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in him, in whom all the building
is fitly framed together and grows into a holy temple in the
Lord, in whom you also are built together for a habitation of
God through the Spirit. So this is how he created peace
in us. He came and preached this peace
to us and created this peace in our heart, making us know
He made peace for his people with God, and he makes it personal. He made peace for you with God.
That's what he makes his child know. All right? When he renews
this in us, say you, a quarrel's coming up, or you're feeling
some kind of way against a brother, sister, and he reminds you now,
you didn't make peace, I made peace. And I made peace with
you and that brother. You're of the same household,
the same family. And when he does this, Peace
starts to rule our heart. And He makes you go to the Father
in the name of the Lord Jesus and ask Him for help, ask Him
for mercy and grace and for help. Go with me now to Ephesians 3.
Ephesians 3. I'm just showing you. This is
how the peace of God rules our heart. Right here. He makes you
know through this gospel. He worked it at the cross. He
worked it in your heart. He worked it in your brother's
heart. And so by doing this, he draws you to the one who's
able, and you start pouring out your heart to him. After Paul
declared all this, then look what he said in Ephesians 3.14.
For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that he would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. Christ is the power of God. He's
the strength of God. And when He dwells in the heart,
He's gonna make peace rule in our heart. We still have a sin
nature. We're gonna act in our flesh
at times, but He's gonna keep peace ruling in the heart. And
He's gonna keep you going to him and asking. That's the first
thing he said, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith,
keep you looking only to him. Now, verse 17, that you being
rooted and grounded in love. There's another thing that rules
our heart is love. He settles you, he roots you,
he grounds you, constraining you by his great love for us.
so that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height that I know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with
all the fullness of God. You see, Paul's praying the Father
would make peace rule in their heart, that Christ would be the
strength in their heart, that they'd look to him by faith,
be constrained in their heart by love, and look. He said, now
to him that's able, He's able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in
us. Unto Him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Hold your place right here now. Hold your place right there in
Ephesians. You know, this is how He mortifies our flesh. He
makes us hear this gospel. We hear Christ made peace for
us at the cross. Christ came and preached peace
to us, made peace in our heart. As we're hearing that, he continues
to make you be at peace. And he draws you to his throne
of grace to ask the Father through his name, Father, will you strengthen
my brethren in the heart? Will you come and root them and
ground them in love? Will you give them the faith
to look to you and trust you? Because here's what you know,
by his power working in it, you know he's able to do far more
than you could ever think or ask him to do. And I'll tell
you this, if you've been called by him and you know what a sinner
you are, and you know that he saved you and that he's kept
you all this time, then you can say, yes, I can tell you he's
able to do all that we can think or ask. He saved me, he called
me, he's kept me, I know he's able. And so Paul wanted the
Lord to have the glory. He wanted God the Father to have
the glory for working in his people. So he went and asked
him. He prayed to the Father. You
know why he did that? He'd experienced his power. He'd
experienced the strength of Christ and how Christ made peace rule
his heart. He knew that the Lord did it
through the gospel. He knew the Lord did it through having his
brethren ask him to do it. And he knew that He knew that's
how the Lord works. So he didn't want to constrain
people to do anything in his power. He wanted their faith
to stand in the power and the wisdom of God. He said to the
Corinthians, he said, I preach Christ to you. My speech and
my preaching, I didn't use the enticing words of man's wisdom. Here's why. I wanted your faith
to stand not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
I didn't want you to be to do anything because I made you do
it. I want it to be by the power of the Lord and by Him really
giving you faith and really constraining you in heart by love and really
working peace in your heart. That's not how the world works.
Look just back one or two pages to Galatians 6. We really believe that Christ
works peace. He's the only one that's able.
We really believe that, and we believe he did it for us at the
cross. We believe he does it in the
hearts of his people, and we believe he does it through this
gospel. So we're gonna ask him. He said, he told, in one place,
Ezekiel 36, I believe, he told him what he was going to do,
what he'd already purposed to do, and he said, but you're gonna
ask me to do it. So he's gonna have us pray to
him for these things because we want him to have all the glory.
That's what Paul wanted. That's not how carnal men operate. That's not how carnal religion
operates. Look here, Galatians 6.12. As
many as desire, here's the motive of their heart, desire. That's
the motive of the heart. Here's their motive. They desire
to make a fair show in the flesh. And so they constrain you to
be, and you can just about put anything in the blank. Religions
constrains men to do everything under the sun. They constrain
you to be circumcised, lest they should suffer persecution for
the cross of Christ. If they preach Christ and crucify
it, preach the salvations of the Lord. God the Father chooses
whom he will. Christ laid down his life for
the elect. The spirit must rebirth us and
he does it by his irresistible power. We have to be kept by
the power of God. We're made holy in and by Christ
alone. Righteous in and by Christ alone.
Kept by our Lord alone. Preach the gospel and you're
gonna suffer. and when men are wanting you
to join in with them constraining other people to do something
and you won't join in with that, you're going to suffer from them
because they're going to be upset with you that you won't join
with them trying to constrain others to do something. Paul
said, That's why they don't wanna suffer that persecution. So they
constrain, they join in constraining. Verse 13, for neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have
you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. They may
glory what they made you do. But God forbid that I should
glory, saving the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.
In other words, it's not what you do and don't do that avails.
It's Christ making you a new creature. And as many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon Israel
of God. That's the rule we're under.
That's the rule of faith. We trust Christ is able. That's
the rule of love. We're constrained by the love
of Christ. That's the rule of peace. We know Christ works peace
in the heart, and therefore we have peace knowing he's gonna
work his will. Nobody's gonna frustrate him. So we, now, go with me now to
James 3. But we do have a sin nature,
brethren, and you're going to, you know, whatever your first
inclination is, say trouble surprises you or you hear something or
some quarrel cranks up, whatever your first impulse is, whatever
you first thought is to do, don't do that. Because generally our
first thought is fleshly. It's just a knee-jerk reaction,
something sinful, self-righteous, it's just of us. But you will
do that at times, and you will quarrel. That's why he's telling
us this in our text. But I'll tell you this, the Lord,
for his child, the Lord's gonna keep peace ruling in your heart.
He's gonna keep you looking to him, submitted to him, and waiting
on him. But if you start having that
bitterness, that envy, and that quarreling spirit, that's not
of the Lord, brethren. That's devilish now. Look here,
James 3, 13. Who's a wise man and endured
with knowledge among you? That means Christ then made wisdom
to you by God. He gave you this. Who is it?
He says, let him show out of a good conversation the way he
conducts himself, his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you
have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie
not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. That's what'll
be in the heart, and that's what'll be created when men are trying
to work their works and constrain other people. It's confusion. and every evil work under the
sun. But look at this, but the wisdom that is from above, it's
first pure. It's in the new heart, the holy
heart, worked by Christ, it's pure. Then peaceable, it's peaceable,
gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness,
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Go back with me now
to Ephesians 4. When Christ came to you, He didn't
come in confusion and every evil work. He sowed in peace. He sowed
in peace. So, when He's made you to know
He made peace with God for you, and He's made peace with God
in your heart, and He renewed you to remember this, made peace
between you and your brethren. He draws you to his throne of
grace to ask him for help, to ask him to work. You know what
he's gonna make you do? He's gonna make you wait on him
to work. Because he does not work in our
time. He can work in his time. And as part of the trial, we're
gonna have to wait on the Lord to work. And that's totally contrary
to what our flesh wants to do. We want it now. We're gonna have
to wait on the Lord. That's why he makes you long-suffering. You're gonna have to wait long
till he works, and you're gonna suffer while you wait. Look,
verse one, Ephesians 4.1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech
you, there it is again, I beseech you that you walk worthy, catch
this wording, walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are
called. Wherewith? The vocation wherewith
I was called, listen, these are the things he's going to say
here. These things he's going to list. He worked this in my
pastor. So you know what my pastor did?
He sowed in peace. He preached only Christ to me.
He prayed to Christ for me. He waited on Christ to work in
me. In that sense, this is the vocation
wherewith I was called right here. He made my pastor walk,
verse two, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit and the bond of peace. That's the vocation. He works it, that's what he works
in his people and makes his preachers do and his brethren do that way
and they pray for it and then he works in our heart and creates
peace. And now he says, now you do the
same thing that they did for you. You walk with long lowliness
and meekness, long suffering, forbearing, endeavoring to keep
unity in the bond of peace and he makes you know how he blessed
you so much, look. This is the grace he's given
you. There's one body, one spirit, even as you call him, one hope
when you call him, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of all, who's above all and through all and in you
all. You see how much the Lord has blessed you? He's made you
one with God, one with Christ, one with his people everywhere. Those that are in heaven and
those that are still in this earth, we're all one and this union
will never be broken. because he's going to keep it
united. What a blessing he's given us.
What constraint we have to endeavor for peace. And that's how you
endeavor for peace, with loneliness and meekness, suffering a long
time, waiting on the Lord, forbearing, having to bear the others' burden,
forbearing, in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
and the bond of peace. Now, that's the same thing, look
at Ephesians 4.4, I mean Ephesians 4.2, that's the same thing Paul's
saying in our text. You know why? It's the same spirit
of our Lord that gave him that word to the Ephesians is given
to us in our text. I was gonna read it to you again,
but I'm running longer than I thought, so I'm just gonna close. I want
you to go with me now to Philippians 4. Philippians 4. So peace rules the heart, keeping
you remembering, our Lord keeps you remembering how he was able
to work in you and give you this peace with God, how he was able
to work for you at the cross and give you this peace with
God. And he made you one with your brethren, so he draws you
to ask him and he makes you wait on him with loneliness and meekness
and long-suffering and forbearing. and you're at peace with your
brother while you're waiting because you know Christ is able. And I know he's going to keep
peace between his people because he's using us to preach this
gospel. He's going to do that. So I don't have any reason to
be anything but at peace. I know he's going to work and
His people. You know that. You know it. And
so you wait on it. Now here's the precepts our Lord
has given us for peace. Look here. This is what the Lord
tells you to do so that you'll continue to have peace in your
heart, rule in your heart. Here's what He tells you to do.
Here's the first thing, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice. That's the first thing he says,
to always be looking to Christ, always be hearing Christ in his
gospel, always be looking for Christ in his word, always be
rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, Isaiah, he said, thou
will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusteth in thee. When you trust the Lord to keep
you in peace, he's gonna keep you in peace. and he's gonna
keep your mind stayed on him. That's how you're gonna have
peace. Not looking at the waves, not looking at the trouble, not
focusing all your attention on all these other things. Look
to Christ. That's what Paul said before
he got to our text, remember? If you're risen with him, look
to him. Here's the second thing. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. This don't have a thing to do
with eating and drinking. This is the only place this word's
used, and what it means is, rather than being troubled and impatient
and quick to act and quick to speak and rash and bitter and
filled with strife, it means be patient, be long-suffering,
be forbearing, be forgiving, forgiving any cause. Why? The Lord's at hand. The Lord's
in you, the Lord's in your brother, the Lord's right there, He's
working his will and his good pleasure. You can rest assured
that's what he's doing. So you don't have to be anything
but patient and calm. He's right there. He's at hand. Doesn't that give you peace to
know? He's here. He's at hand. And then here's
the next thing he said. Be careful for nothing. That
means don't be anxious and don't be worrying. Don't be troubled. What do I do instead? But in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request
be made known to God. Just go to Him and pour out your
heart to Him and ask Him whatever need you have, whatever need
your brother have. And look, here's the promise
that He promises will come, verse 7, and the peace of God which
passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Boy, we make it difficult, don't
we? We do everything but that. He says, rejoice in the Lord.
Keep your focus on Christ. He said, just be calm and remember
the Lord is right at hand. He's right there. Reach out your
hand. Just reach out your hand. At hand means just at the end
of them fingertips right there, that's where he's at. He's right
there. He's that close. And he said,
and just go to him and pour out your heart to him. And he will
keep you at peace. He'll keep your mind and your
heart in peace. And I pray the Lord will make
the peace of God rule in your heart and in mine. That's my
prayer. And he will. I believe he will. I know he
will. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, you sent your only
son and you did this for us, you reconciled us to you, made
peace for your people and your dear son. And then you came and
told us and gave us a new heart so that we have peace with you.
Lord, we know you're able, we've experienced this power, and we're
asking you, keep our hearts set on you, Keep our hearts on our
Redeemer. Lord, make us to be long-suffering
and forbearing and forgiving, and make peace rule our heart,
Father. Make us think on good things. Make us think on the
things that You've worked and keep our minds off of trouble. Keep our minds on Christ. And
Lord, we ask you to do this in the hearts of our brethren. We
pray for Brother Cyril. We pray for Sister Lenore. We pray for our sick brethren
everywhere, for Christoph. We pray for Greg and Martha. Lord, you know the needs of your
people. We pray you would provide for
us and make our bodies to be well, even as you've made our
soul to be well. Thank you, Lord, for your grace.
Forgive us for being immoderate. Forgive us for being troubled
and anxious and worrying and up one day and down the next.
Oh, Lord, we don't even know the things that we do that are
sin. Make us be faithful and true,
knowing You're here at hand. In the name of Your dear Son,
Christ Jesus, we ask You. Amen. All right, brethren. Will, you going to sing a closing
hymn? Let's sing a closing hymn. I saw which one you got on that
list. I want to sing it. Let's stand and sing hymn 125,
Jesus Paid it All. Hymn 125.