Fill my soul, the hour is hastening
on, When we shall be forever with the Lord. In this a point when grief and
fear are gone, Sorrow for God, The purest joys resound Peace
fill my soul When times and tears are past All safe and blessed
We shall meet at last You have a nine-volt battery? You have
a nine-volt battery? No, I don't. It's okay. Is it making noise? Something interesting to consider
when you sing these hymns. Every single author of every
hymn we sing is gone. Dead. You think about that? With the
Lord. This woman, Katharina Von... Von Schlegel, born in 1697. They don't know when she died.
I know who does. It's your favorite song, isn't
it, Brother Stephen? The hour is hastening on, she
said, when we shall forever be with the Lord. She'd been with
Him for 400 years. 300 years. Now she's still completely
at rest. Luke 24. Tell me if this is...
Okay. Luke chapter 24. Read verses... 36-39 again with them. And as they thus spake, Jesus
Himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. But they were terrified and frightened. Suppose that they had seen a
spirit. And He said unto them, Why are you troubled? Why do
thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for spirit
hath not flesh and bones as you see me have." To his disciples
then and now, the Lord asked these questions. Why are you
troubled? Why are you terrified, so frightened, so filled with
trouble, so greatly upset? Why? And he said, why do thoughts
arise in your heart? Why do your imaginations run
wild? That's what he's saying. Why
do you always think the worst? It's me. That's the whole message. It
is I. Whatever it is, the Lord said,
it is I. I hope we can get a hold of this.
The Lord was constantly having to settle His disciples down
like we would our little children, who were just greatly upset over
the least little things, scared and easily troubled by things
they hear and things they see around them. He was always easing
their troubles, not trying, but allaying their fear. And at the
same time, he rebuked them gently, kindly. That's the only way the
Lord does rebuke His children. Gently and kindly rebuke them.
Why are you so faithless? Why don't you trust me? I'm giving
you no reason not to trust me and every reason to do so. And when they finally knew, in
the end, when they finally knew who He was, why He came, what
He did, and where He is now, they quit worrying so much. The
last two verses says they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and
were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Praising
and blessing God. Filled with joy where once they
were filled with fear. Continually praising God in the
temple in public where once they met in private for fear of the
Jews. Now they didn't fear man. Their
fears were not completely gone though. They went through some
fearful things. Their troubles were not over
by any means. But they were not so easily upset
after they found out, after they really believed who He is, why
He came, what He did, and where He is now. Isn't that the gospel,
Brother John? And if we can look to Him and hear the gospel, the
Lord gives us ears to hear and a heart to receive and to believe,
we'll have some comfort too. Alright, look at verse 13. Behold, two of them that same
day went to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem
about three score furlongs, four or five miles. And they talked
together of all these things which had happened and came to
pass while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew
near and went with them. But their eyes were holding that
they should not know Him. It says they were together. Two
of them were together and they were talking of these things.
Talking about Christ's crucifixion. Now, together with a brother
is a good place to be. For two believers to get together
and start talking about Christ, that's a good place to be. You
know why? Because he said it. Where? Anywhere, wherever two
are gathered, two or three, in my name, I'll be there. And he
was. And he is. And we can't see him,
can we? Their eyes were holding him.
He promised, and he can't lie. We're two or three, so it's a
good place. to be together with His people. And He's promised
to be there. And their eyes were holding,
and you know, they were talking about the Lord. They were talking
about these things, but they were mostly sad. Their talk was
sad. They were making each other sad.
Look at verse 17. He said unto them, What manner
of communications are these, that ye have one to another as
ye walk, and are sad? Why are you sad? What are you
talking about that's making you so sad? And they said to him,
one of them, to Leopold, verse 18, answered and said, Are thou
only a stranger in Jerusalem? And he hath not known the things
which are come to pass in these days? And the Lord said, What
thing? They said unto him concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet. A prophet? Mighty indeed and
word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and
our ruler delivered Him to be condemned to death and have crucified
Him, we trusted it had been He that redeemed Israel." He did. He did. They shouldn't be sad. They said to Him, Are You a stranger
here? Don't you know what terrible
things have happened to Jesus of Nazareth? I ask you, who's talking like
a stranger here? They're talking like they're
a stranger to the God who came. Like he said to Philip, have
I been so long time with you and you haven't known me? They're
talking like a stranger, Brother Stephen. And so do we all the
time. Old Brother Jack Shanks one time
said, In that slow Texas drawl, he said, we don't half believe
in the sovereignty of God. We have entirely too many fears
and worries for people who claim to believe God does all things. No, all of us. It's beginning
with me. Beginning with me. I need this
more than anybody here. They said, don't you know what
terrible things have happened? Nothing terrible happened. The
most wonderful thing that could happen on planet earth happened.
Christ died. But he didn't stay dead. He rose,
just like he said he would. They should have been comforting
one another with these words. You know what? When we get together
and talk, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said concerning the things
of God and the things of Christ, this great gospel and so great
salvation and Christ's coming and all that, he said, comfort
one another with these words. As old brother Scott once said,
I haven't heard any bad news since I heard the good news.
And don't you think for a minute he had some trouble. They came one day and
said, your infant daughter is dead. They came one day and said, your
son is in jail. They came one day and said, you've
got cancer. We've got to remove your colon. And yet that old man said, I
haven't heard any really bad news since I've heard the good
news. Thou wilt keep thee in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Their fears and our fears
and their worries and their sadness were mostly due to too low thoughts
of God and too high thoughts of man. They thought God to be
too much like man, and man to be too much like God. When God
said, my thoughts and my ways are as high above you as the
heavens are the earth. That I, all through the scripture,
well, let me stick with my text. Comfort, all our peace, all our
freedom from fear is in believing that Jesus Christ is God. He
actually is God. He's Lord, reigning, ruling. controlling all things. He's
not like us. Gabe preached this Sunday and
we preach it every Sunday and Wednesday, don't we? There's
a man in glory, yes, but he's the God-man and he's reigning
and ruling. He's not like us. He did become
us, but he's not like us. He's infinitely higher than us.
And he's reigning and ruling in wisdom We don't know what
He's doing, everything He's doing, but He does. He's made unto us
wisdom. His power, all power is given
unto Him in heaven and earth. There is no power but of God,
but of Him. None whatsoever. None. None. No disease has any power
but what Jesus Christ is the one that gives it permission
to do what it does. No human, no devil, no anything. All power. And the quicker we
believe that, the more peace we'll have. We're not talking about
a doctrine here. We're talking about an actual person. whose
love is infinitely greater than our own love for our own children
might. Can you believe that? Do you
love that son sitting beside you? You can't put it into words,
can you? His love is greater than that. A lot greater. Would you cast
him out for any reason? Disown him for any reason? You
can't. He's your son. His love is infinite. The sooner
we get a hold of this, the more peace we'll have. The fewer fear. His mercy. Oh my. His tender mercies, the
Scripture says. Like as a father pitied his children.
It's of the Lord's mercies that we're not concerned. His compassions,
they fail not. They're new every morning. I
wake up every morning thinking about my family and you all. We pity one another, don't we?
Have mercy upon one another. How much more? God who is merciful,
full of mercy. His mercy endures. His grace.
And on and on it goes. So all our comfort and peace
is found here. And no men or devils can do anything
except Jesus Christ has purposed and willed for them to do what
they do. They said in verse 21, we trusted
it had been He which would have redeemed Israel. Well, He did
redeem Israel. That's why He came. Scripture
says, maybe He preached from it, Isaiah 42. Maybe He preached
from it. He shall not fail or even be discouraged. Maybe He
went back there and preached that, Brother John. He preached
from Genesis to Malachi on the road to Emmaus. I told you I
would not fail, he told them later. And he did. He did redeem
Israel. But Israel is not seen with the
eye. Spiritual Israel. Read on. They
said, Yea, certain women of our company made us astonished they
were early at the sepulcher. They found not his body. They
came saying that they had seen a vision of angels which said
he was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulcher, found it even so as the women
had said. It's him they saw not. You know, they refused to believe
these women. And you know, the Lord sent these
women with this message for them, didn't He? Go tell them. I'm
alive. They refused to believe these
women. I thought about this. You know, these were women. These
were weaker vessels. They saw the Lord. And you remember
Manoah? Thought he was going to die?
You remember the story of Manoah and Judges? Thought he was going
to die? Oh no, we're going to die. We've seen God. Well, it
was his wife that had to tell him, that laid his spear and
tell him. He wouldn't have told us this
if he was going to kill us. He wouldn't have shown us these
things if he was going to kill us. He wouldn't have accepted the sacrifice.
That woman knew the gospel, didn't she? I thought about this. If we could just get by the flesh,
if we could put aside the flesh, we might hear from God. And we
might hear God's Word. We have such a problem with the
messenger that we can't hear the message so often. You know
that? We have such a problem with the
messenger. He's a man. Look at him. Well, he's stumbling.
He's fumbling. Well, that's who the Lord speaks through. With
them of stammering lips. Sinners. Not angels. Sinners.
Well, he's a sinner. He's nervous. Look at him. Well,
of course he's nervous. You would be too. But if you listen, he's
telling you the truth. There's a blessing in the message
here. All right. Verse 25. Now, then said he unto
them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. O fools. The Lord can call us
fools. He warned us not to call one
another fools, didn't He? It would be a danger of the judgment
to call your brother a fool. One who is deficient in judgment.
One who acts stupidly. That's what fooled me. One who
acts like he doesn't have good sense. Talks like he doesn't
have good sense. The reason we're not to tell that to our brother
is because that's us. And we should not look for a
beam in his eye when we've got a log in ours. When we act stupidly
all the time, like fools. But the Lord can say that, and
I know He said it in such a way as not to humiliate or belittle
them. They still don't even know who
He is right now. They think He's just a man. There's
a lesson in it. They think He's just a preacher.
And they're being rebuked by Him, and they're taking it. And
he acts like he's going to leave. They don't want him to leave.
He's just a man to them right now. But he's got the message
they need. Oh, fools and slow of heart to
believe. All that's spoken. All that's
spoken. We sing that song all the time. Never get tired of
it. What more can he say to you than he has said? All that needs
to be said to us was written in a book. The book. The book. Nothing more needs to be said.
There doesn't need to be a new revelation of Jesus Christ, does
it? Isn't that what the Mormons say
they have? On the cover of the Book of Mormon,
it says that. A new revelation. God said that's about it. Anybody add to or take away?
Well, all that is written is written concerning Christ. And
so Christ began again. Again. For three and a half years,
He'd been preaching, showing them Himself on this rise. Do you remember how he came to
them on this wise and showed himself? And for three and a
half years he kept showing himself on this wise. Lord, Sovereign,
King, Protector, Savior, Leader, Guide, Director, Wisdom, Righteousness,
Sanctification, Redemption, all these things. And he preached
from Moses to Malachi. And once again, through hearing
that, the Word, the gospel concerning Christ, hearing His voice, hearing
the gospel, and breaking bread, the last time they saw Him was
they were met together around the table and the Lord broke
bread and said, Take, eat, this is my body. That was the last
time they saw Him except hanging on a cross dead, they thought. And now He does it again. Breaking
a bread. And when he broke that bread
to them, it says, their eyes were opened. They sing that song
all the time. Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me, as thou didst break the loaves beside the sea.
Show me the truth concealed in thy Word, and so on. The bread
of life. Christ is that bread of life. He revealed Himself through the
Scripture. In verse 31, their eyes were
opened, it said. Their eyes were opened. They
knew Him. And it says, they said, did not our hearts burn? And
they rejoiced and they believed upon hearing Him. They were no
longer sad by hearing Him. They were joyful by hearing Him. That ought to be a lesson to
us, shouldn't it, Gabe? People get glad, and believers do, and
joyful and great peace and comfort. Great peace have they who love
thy law, and nothing shall offend them." Scripture said. Nothing. Thy word. They're no longer sad,
but they're joyful. And they said they went running
back. They went running. That very
same hour, they returned to Jerusalem, and they said, He's alive. He's alive. Good news, glad tidings. That's what the angels said in
the beginning, wasn't it? Good news, glad tidings. Unto
you is born a Savior. He's alive. God is here on planet
Earth. And He came, He lived, He did
that wonderful work of redemption. He died, purged our sins with
His own precious blood, was buried, put away our sins to take them
away from us, to separate them from us as far as the east is
from the west. That pit man went with our sins, the scapegoat,
into the wilderness to deposit them so they would never be found
again. And he rose from the grave like
the high priest coming out of the Holy of Holies. Bells ringing
and pomegranates saying, God accepted the sacrifice. It's
all been done. Tis done, tis done, the great
transaction's done. I am my Lord and He is mine. All things are written concerning
Him. Christ and Him crucified. Well,
look at verse 28. They drew nigh to the village
where they went, And he made it as though he had gone further. Now still, he's just a man to
them. And they thought they were going
to lose him. Oh, please don't go. How would we react if we thought,
well, Brother John tonight prayed in the study, Lord, pray for
this church. Pray that the gospel might continue
here for us and our children. Oh, Lord, please don't pass us
by. The Lord has come and gone, hasn't He? The Lord has come
and gone throughout the years. Lord, don't be done with the
central grace charter. Please. Please. And so they constrained
Him. Love constrained Him. They constrained
Him saying, abide with us. And you know, Paul wrote Whoever
wrote Hebrews wrote this, be not forgetful to entertain strangers. But some have entertained angels
unaware. Some have entertained Christ unaware. Abraham did and looked up and
the whole three men came walking. One of them was Jesus Christ.
Lot looked up and there he was. Manoah and his wife, let us fix
you something to eat. So be not forgetful. Be given
the hospitality as you entertain angels, unaware. Well, they constrained
him. As he came to pass, he opened
their eyes and revealed himself to them. Well, they went running
and told the disciples. Now, here's what I want us to
look at for a few more minutes, okay? Verse 36, while they were
all meeting together once again, As they thus spake, Jesus Himself
stood in the midst of them. Again, where a few were gathered,
the Lord met with them. He was there, right in the middle
of them. And He said unto them, Peace
be unto you. You know, chances are, Chances are, it might not be
your half, that you will find any peace unless you're met together
with His people. There's no promise of that. But
there is a promise. When two or three are gathered,
the Lord will be there. And where He is, there's peace.
Every time He came to them, the first thing He said was what?
Peace. So if you need peace, And go
tell our brethren and sisters. Go tell them like these did.
Go tell them. Come thou with us. There's no
peace to be found. Ask Thomas. He'll tell you. Thomas
was torn in all the pieces for I don't know how long. until
he saw the Lord's hands and sighed, until he gathered together with
the rest of the disciples, and the Lord spoke to him, Be not
faithless, Thomas, but believe him." He had peace. There is
no peace except under the gospel of peace. You can look for it. You won't find it. You won't
find it. You won't find it. Okay. Verse 37, it says, they were
terrified and frightened and supposed that they'd seen a spirit.
And he said, why? Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your heart? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. A spirit. I'm flesh and bones
like you. Half of them at least were sailors. Sailors out to sea too long. Imagine things. Imagine they
see mermaids and monsters. You're looking on the horizon.
I remember being on that boat and looking for land. I was looking
for land. I wanted to see some land. I
remember looking on the horizon, and the captain said, that's
not land, that's a cloud. You know, you're just looking,
you're hoping, you're looking and you see things after a while. Some think they see whales or
sharks. Ask me that story. Me and Todd
both think they were bumped by a shark down the water down there.
Anyway, he took one look at Todd and ran, I guess. Sailors suppose they see things. Sailors are out to sea too long
to imagine things. I thought about this. So do those
who watch too much TV. It's all imaginary. And you'll
find yourself seeing things and believing things that aren't
there. Now, they were troubled and they
were frightened. Now, there are troubles that
are real. There are trials. There is pain
and there is suffering. There are sorrows, there are
worries and fears that are very real. There are things that are
very real that make us frightened. The Lord knows that. because He took part of this
flesh. We have not a high priest who
cannot be touched with the feet of our imperative, but was tempted
in all points like as we are. The Lord had to live by faith
as a man. One of the most comforting thoughts
we can think of, things to dwell on, is that our Lord lived by
faith as a man. He had to totally depend upon
the Heavenly Father for His every meal. In the midst of storms, he went
through everything they did, Hannah. He had peace. He was
asleep while they thought, we're dying. We're going to die. He
was asleep. And I've said this before, what
if they had died? See, it's all over isn't it?
Right? It's all over. No more troubles. Why would we worry about that?
We're going down. No, if you go down, you're going
up. Right, we're going to drown. Peter said, I'm going down, save
me. Well, he saved him temporarily, but now he has to go through
30 more years of trouble. The Scripture says a righteous
perishing man don't take it to heart. He saves him from the
evil days to come. He's merciful. The Lord being
merciful, spared him from days to come. I'm talking to myself here. Why are you troubled? Now, there
are real troubles. There are real troubles. He knows we're
troubled. He knows our frame because he framed us. But he
said of troubles. Here's what he said of troubles. He said, man that is born of
woman is full of trouble. A few days and full of trouble.
But to those who trust him, he said, let not your heart be troubled. Don't be overcome by these troubles.
I sent them. You believe God? Believe also
in me. Believe everything I said. Everything
I did. You look to me like a child looks
to its father. You trust me. Let not your heart
be troubled. Trust me. Like we would tell
our children. Honey, now settle down. Don't be upset. Trust me. You
can't explain things to them, can you? You can't possibly explain
things to them. They wouldn't understand. The
Lord said that. He said, I have many things to
say unto you. You can't bear them now. Trust me. Trust me. Like a child. You know,
a trouble, man's great trouble is with God. This is the source of all our
troubles. Sin against God. Man's in trouble with God. And
so he's got lots of trouble. But if somebody would take care
of that, our troubles are over. Really. And he did. He did. The Lord Jesus Christ
made peace for us by the blood of His cross. God is not angry
with that. God doesn't punish His children.
Do you punish, Kelly? No, you don't punish her. You
teach her. You instruct her. You chasten her. You don't say,
now I'm going to get you now. Do you? It never crosses your
mind. Never crosses your mind. Or does
it? It did with our dad, Steve. And
well, it should have. But not the heavenly Father.
He's infinitely above. It never crosses his mind. He
said, I know my thoughts of you. Thoughts of peace. It's not possible for him to
be mean to or ill-treat or take vengeance upon his children.
Not possible. He said, you might, but not me. Not me, because I'm God, not
man, he said. Aren't you glad? Christ was made
sin and Christ was punished. Christ was punished. He suffered
hell. He suffered the wrath of God. You have His Word on it. God
is not angry with you if you trust Christ. I couldn't say
anything that would give you more peace than that. That's what he said about trouble.
Of sorrows, the Lord said this. He said, you sorrow now, but
your sorrow is going to be turned to joy. He said, it's going to be so
joyful, you're going to forget the sorrow. He said, the former things
will never even come to mind. So far exceeded. The joy will
so far exceed the pain, you won't even remember. Somebody will
say, boy, didn't we go through trouble. Well, I think we did,
but I don't remember. He said, we sorrow. He did not
tell us we should not ever sorrow, but he said this, he wrote this,
We sorrow, but not as those who have no hope. He sorrowed. He sorrowed. He was a man of
sorrows, because we're sorrowful, acquainted
with grief, well acquainted with grief. He cried. He wept. You ever weep over the
sickness of a loved one or the loss of a loved one or the thought
of losing a loved one? Anyone? Everyone in here. He
did too. Lazarus. Lazarus. He wept, didn't he? And I've
heard so many things said about him weeping. But he did weep,
didn't he? They said, behold, how he loved
him. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Loneliness. Anybody experience grief, sorrow,
being lonely? He was forsaken of God. We've never known that. We've
never known he was forsaken of God. What about injustice? Anybody
experience any injustice or ill treatment even at the hands of
your friends? We should behold and see if there's any sorrow
like unto my sorrow. For with the Lord it afflicted me. Wounded
in the house of my friends. My own familiar friend with whom
I ate bread has lifted up his heel against me." All his disciples
forsook him. Denied him. Acted like they didn't
know him. Was he untouched by that? Sorrows. He knows we sorrow.
Terrors. What about terrors? There are
real terrors. Because there are real spirits
alive working in this world. Our Lord said so. He said to
Peter, Satan hath desired thee to sift you like wheat. The world
makes fun of that. Jesus Christ said that. The world
mocks and scoffs not knowing that they are pawns of Satan,
that they are captives at his will. The Lord Jesus Christ knows
it, and He says to His people, Satan hath desired thee to sift
you like wheat. We are not wrestling with flesh
and blood, but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness
and high places, rulers of the darkness of this world. He said
Satan, like a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour. I told you about Martin Luther,
you know, feeling so strongly his adversary after him. What's
our hope? What's our peace? Christ said,
I'm stronger than he. Except a strong man bind him
and spoil his goods. And he did, John. That's what
he did. That's what he did. When Christ went to Calvary's
tree, he led captivity captive. He said, Satan has come. He said,
the prince of this world has come, and he's judged. If the Spirit of God will convince
us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, he'll convince us that
all judgment is committed in his hand, and Satan is on a leash. Our archenemy. Our adversary,
the devil. He said he's come and he's cast
out. Read the Revelation. I forget
which chapter it is. Twelve, I think. Eleven. Talking about Satan being cast
out of heaven. That's what Christ said at Calvary.
He's come and I've bound him and I've cast him out. So this is how he allayed their
fears and settled their troubled hearts. And he went on, and I'm
out of time, but he went on to show them through the Word. And
this is how we get peace, when he opens our understanding two
ways, the written Word and the incarnate Word. Christ's incarnate
Word is revealed through the written Word, the spoken Word,
the preached Word. He told them, showed them, all
things that are written must be fulfilled. If you go back and read, you'll
find that to be true. Everything either has been, is
now, but it shall be fulfilled. Concerning what? It's concerning
Him. It's all about Him. Here's another
message. That's what you preach, Sonny.
They open their understanding about the Scriptures. What's
that? It's Him. It's Him. That He's a real living
man, Lord, reigning, ruling, controlling all things, loving,
merciful, kind Lord who said, I'll never leave you, forsake
you, I'm with you always, I'm working all things together,
I'm doing it all. I did it all, that's why I came,
and I'm alive forevermore. You're in my hands. There's really
nothing to worry about. It's I myself. So, he asks this
question, let me close with it. Why do thoughts arise in your
heart? If you think on things above, where Christ sits, that's
what it said, Colossians 3, where Christ sits. You think about
Him who is above, reigned and ruled, seated, reigned and ruled,
then you won't think crazy things. Thoughts won't arise in your
heart. Bad thoughts. We have mostly bad thoughts of
God. You know that? I do. I think
He's going to get me now. Anybody? He's going to take away
this. He's going to take away that.
We have mostly bad thoughts of God. That's bad, isn't it? He's done us nothing but good
all these days. Mostly bad thoughts of God. Mostly
bad thoughts of each other. Mostly bad thoughts of situation.
I don't know why we, me why we cannot believe the best when
our blessings far outweigh our troubles, and hope for the best. Hope for the best. Our Lord said
it is I. Whatever it is, it is I, the
Lord said. Whatever it is, it's the Lord.
I, the Lord, create good, make peace, I create evil. I kill,
I make alive. I wound, I make sick, I heal. It's I. It is me. It is not this,
it is not that, it is me. In his eyes, that's what he's
saying. And we say, oh no, terrorists. Oh no, look, terrorists. Do you
remember those men on camels that David let go? David went
in and just slew all of his enemies and he let 400 men on camels
go. He said, I'll let them go, there's no threat to anybody. And we're worried about 400 men
on camels. Oh no! Terrorists! Terrorists! Look!
Disasters! Look! It's going to flood us
out! Who says it's going to rain?
It doesn't rain. It doesn't rain. You say, look, it's raining.
No, it is I, the Lord says. He sends it or withholds it.
It is I. You need not fear that. If it
floods, He'll provide an ark. It is I. Look, look, economic
disasters. The banks are failing. Well,
the riches of Christ don't fail. Sickness. Look. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. Whatever it is, it is the Lord. It is the Lord. And I urge all
of you to once again go back and read Psalm 91 for yourself.
It talks about trusting the Lord. You'll not be afraid for the
terror by night. Don't imagine the worst. You know, human beings
are like horses. Horses are real curious animals,
aren't they? Real curious and real nervous
and easily frightened animals, aren't they? All you've got to
do is put a bucket or something they're not familiar with out
in the middle of the field. And Catherine and I all just
snorting. What is that? Or put a car and
open the doors on our parking lot. An abandoned car. Oh no! A serial killer has been here.
Grab our kids. We know, don't we? I heard a man talking about that
very thing, about some church somewhere that didn't lock their
basement door and somebody came in and did something horrible. Let's trust the Lord, okay? We
don't lean on the arm of the flesh. Locks don't protect us.
Guns don't protect us. And Jesus Christ protects us. He really does. Okay, stand with
me. Our Lord, we are so glad that
Thou art Lord, that Thou art God, and beside Thee there is
none else. And we are so glad that You have chosen us, Your
people, to reveal Yourself to us, that Thou art God, and beside
Thee there is none else. We are so grateful, so thankful. And we ask, Lord, though, that
You will continually cause us to look to Thee, to look when
we see things, when we imagine things, when we are worried and
troubled by things, and think the worst and fear the worst.
And we look to our God who has promised all things are working
for good. So, Lord, give us faith, just
a little faith, mustard seed faith, that we might look to
Thee for Thy glory and for our peace May these words come back
to mind throughout this week. Why are you troubled and why
do thoughts arise in your heart? It is I, myself. Cause us to
believe Your Word. And it's in Christ's name we've
met here tonight. Amen.