Past that this evening, but we should make it through verse 8. I have to say that this is probably one of my favorite sections. of all the book of Philippians. And so I enjoy resorting to this particular passage of scripture time and time again. And I'm sure that if you've been saved for a year or two and you've encountered some situations in your life, if you haven't already been introduced to this passage, this would be a good one to learn and to commit to memory. As you know, verse 4 says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, and that is the key verse to this entire book, and one that I think we ought to always constantly remind ourselves of, because we are to rejoice, not in ourselves, but in the Lord. Amen? The Bible goes on to say and says, Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. When you look in verse 5, I want us to see first of all when it says, let your moderation be known unto all men. That word moderation is multifaceted. In other words, there are a lot of applications to it. Usually today when we think of the word moderate, we usually think of a politician who's a fence straddler. We think of someone that could go either way in a decision that needs to be made. Well, that's not exactly what's meant here, even though in its root form, moderation is a good word. It really means balance. It means to be gentle and to be kind and nice and so on. And so I think moderation is a good thing for we believers. Balanced is another definition for that. If you look at verse 5, it says, let your moderation be known unto all men. And you know, it says the Lord is at hand. That means Jesus is coming. And so in light of the fact that we're having to deal with the battle for the mind in chapter 4, and the flesh in chapter 3, others in chapter 2, and circumstances in chapter 1, it's good for us to keep in mind that Jesus is coming. So the admonition from the Apostle Paul to this church is, be calm. Be calm. Let your moderation, let your stability, in other words, be known unto all men because you don't need to be swinging to extremes. You don't need to lose perspective in the face of adversity because Jesus is coming. Amen? Now, I want to look at some powerful truths from this word moderation. And I mentioned that it means gentle. And when it says gentle here, it means kind. It means mild-mannered. James 3, verse 17, that passage of Scripture that deals with the tongue says this, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruit, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And then in 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, the Bible says, And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, and patient. Titus chapter 3 and verse 2 says, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. One of the hallmarks of fundamentalism has always been known as the fighting fundamentalists. There is a time where you have to stand up and earnestly contend for the faith. And let me just say that right now. We have that petition that I mentioned Sunday morning in my message. It's on the back table if you'd like to go by and sign that. There's a copy of the article that we made reference to as well as the cover letter that I'm sending to the president of the seminary there. And so, if you'd be interested in signing that petition, feel free to do so. But here, there's a time to stand, but there's also a nice way to stand. You don't have to be obnoxious, you don't have to be crude, you don't have to be rude, because we find even the Lord Jesus In the midst of taking a principled stand, he was nice about it. He was firm, but at the same time, he wasn't rude. Even the Apostle Paul, in one particular passage of Scripture, he made a real quip to the high priest, and one of the soldiers said, slap him. You don't speak to God's high priest that way. And even though they were at opposing sides as far as the belief system was concerned, Paul said, Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize for that because it's true. I should not be disrespectful of those in authority. And so we see that God's people can take a principled stand but do it in a right way. And here I find in the book of Philippians Here the admonition is to each and every one of us, let your moderation be known unto all men. And then not only does moderation mean gentle, it means to be nice. Ephesians 4.32 says, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted. forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake have forgiven you. I mentioned in my Sunday school class on Sunday morning that Dr. Veach has been promoted in his line of work and I don't know all the positions he holds now at the top of my head but at the same time when I was talking to him the other day on the phone he said that his job is to mentor other emergency room doctors there in the state of Arkansas. He just travels from hospital to hospital as he also retains the directorship of scheduling for all the doctors in the Little Rock Hospital where he's based out of. But he says, Mike, my job is to teach these doctors how to be nice. And I tried to lead him into some other areas. You mean also in this? Does that mean you have to be on the cutting edge of all technology? He says, no, Mike. He said, what you and I take for granted, because we are saved people and God places His love in our hearts, he says, I have to teach that to the doctors in the various hospitals. So he's trying to teach them to be nice, which ought to be a natural attribute for each and every one of us. But because we fight the flesh, and because sometimes our mind isn't always in gear and always thinking right, and we're having an attitude problem, we're battling the battle in the mind, then he's saying, let your moderation be known unto all men, because the Lord is at hand. You see, we need to learn to be nice. Amen? I mean, you can be nice. Some people glory in the fact that they're gruff and mean and ornery and and just, you know, give quips here and there, and cut somebody off, and they think that sometimes a guy thinks, oh, that's being manly, or boy, I've showed him, or I've told her off, and things of that nature. We need to learn to be nice. In Ephesians chapter 4, the Bible says this in verse 2, "...with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love." And then in verse 15 and 16 of Ephesians chapter 4, it says, but speaking the truth, notice this, in love. Some people say, well, I just told them the truth. I just laid it out there like it was. Well, the fact of the matter is, it says, speak the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying," that's the building up, of itself, in love. So we need to be nice and we need to show God's love. Not only does moderation mean gentle and nice, it also means to be humble. And humility is the absence of self and a sincere desire coupled with action to lift up others. So what does it mean? It means not that we slink around letting other people have their way and using ourselves as a doormat, so to speak. No, in the course of us making ourselves low in the fear of the Lord, in a spirit of humility, it's also lifting up others. letting them have the glory, pushing them to the forefront, helping meet their needs and so on. That's humility. James 4.10 says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord And He shall lift you up. Once again, we see where promotion comes from. Amen? And then we see gentleness and nice and humility. And then number four, as far as the multifaceted outreach of the word moderation, it means graciousness. Graciousness. This has to do with being kind and nice even to those who do not deserve it in the flesh. Jesus was kind and gracious throughout his earthly ministry, and I put in the notes two examples of that. One is taken from John 18, and the other from Mark chapter 16. And the first one was the healing of Malchus's ear. Remember, Judas came to the Garden of Gethsemane and planted the kiss of betrayal on his cheek. And then the soldiers came to take Jesus by force. Oh, Peter, he stood up and he said, boy, you're not going to take my Savior, and he swiped with his sword, and there went the ear of Malchus. I've tried to figure out how he could do that, and I'm still to this day unsure how he could swipe somebody's ear off and yet not take part of his shoulder, too. But at the same time, he took his ear, and the ear fell to the ground. And what did Jesus do? Jesus, rather than say, Way to go, Peter! Man, get him! Stab him! Go at him! Come on, guys! Hey, what did he do? He says, Put your sword away, Peter. And he reaches down, and he picks up the ear, and he heals Malchus. And so, did Malchus deserve that? No. No, he didn't. He deserved everything he had going, that he was getting. But at the same time, Jesus was gracious to him. Also, I find that, here's Peter, he denies the Lord three times. And after that third denial, the cock crowed and we find that Peter went out and he went bitterly. It was interesting that in Mark chapter 16, that when Jesus made himself known, He told Mary, he says, you go tell the disciples and Peter that I want to see him. And you see, I can imagine as Jesus turned and their eyes locked after that third betrayal and after that cockroach, I can imagine the conviction that came upon Peter. I can imagine how he must have felt. He probably said, you know what? I've blown it. There's no more hope for me. I'm sorry. I'm a no good. There's just no way Jesus would ever take me back. And then we find Jesus After he's resurrected, he says, you go tell the disciples and tell Peter too. That's being gracious. Amen? That's being gracious. And that's what it says here about the word moderation. Let your moderation be known unto all men because God is at hand or the Lord is at hand. And then number five, we have an expectancy here in verse five. The Lord is at hand. In light of Christ's coming, We ought to remain calm and balanced, knowing of whom we have believed. Amen? So we ought to be the most put-together people on the face of God's earth. Amen? That's really what the verse of Scripture is saying. And here we have nestled in this particular passage really the way to be able to rejoice in the Lord all way. And again, rejoice. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12, the second part of the verse says, For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Here's the point of meditation for us to think on. Do people see a Christian who is nice and calm in the midst of life situations? When they look at your life, when they look at my life, we know that we're not going to be trouble-free. Our days are going to be full of trouble. But at the same time, when people look at us, do they see us being nice? Do they see us in a state of calm in the midst of those situations? Something to think about. Not only does it say for us to rejoice in verse 4, not only does it say for us to be calm and not have our feathers ruffled, so to speak, but look what it says here in verses 6 and 7. It says, be careful for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." That means not to worry. That word careful, we think of careful being real deliberate. and monitoring or really analyzing each stage or each step we take or each thing we do. And what careful means here, it means full of care. In other words, we should not be concerned. I believe it's in Matthew 6, verses 25 and 34. We read that on Sunday night. And it talked about take no thought. Take no thought. take no thought. In other words, don't worry about things. Okay? And the interesting thing to me here in verse 6 where it says be careful for nothing, well, it prefaces that by saying rejoice in the Lord. Okay? So in other words, when you and I, in the face of trouble, rejoice in the Lord, it actually is a confidence builder. Because we're getting our eyes off of our problem. We're getting our eyes off of ourselves We're getting our eyes off of our adversary and we're putting them on the Lord Amen, and so it says rejoice in the Lord all way and again I say rejoice and then it says as you rejoice in the Lord You're going to have a stability about your life that people are going to wonder about and you can focus that Jesus is coming For you, and then it says don't worry about a thing. Amen So, don't be full of care. 2 Timothy 1, verse 7 says, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love I like this, and a sound mind. Okay, so he says you can tell people are losing it, so to speak, because of their circumstances or because of the battle for the mind or what others may be doing or just the old depravity of the flesh. If they're losing it like that, you know that that spirit is not of the Lord. because he's not given us the spirit of fear, but of what power love and a sound mind. Amen. And then we see we need to understand that fear is a is an awful intimidator for us. The Bible says the fear of man bringeth a snare. You know, it's a lot of times people are afraid to do things where they said, boy, I better not do that because so-and-so is going to get mad at me. You see, and so they don't do some things and many times they don't do what's right because they're afraid of the ramifications from someone else. Fear is an intimidator. And it's one of the greatest tools that Satan uses in the believer's life. Fear. You stop and think. You know, just passing out a gospel tract, the fear that comes on you possibly. When you go knocking on a door, the fear that comes on you as you begin to maybe engage someone in the conversation, knowing that you're going to end up asking them about their soul's condition. When you have to take a righteous stand, maybe someone has taken the Lord's name in vain in your presence and you've had it about up to here and you're going to have to say something about, hey, you're smearing the name of my God. And sometimes you say, well, I better not say anything because I'm going to make people mad. So fear is an intimidator. Now, if you'll take your Bibles and go with me to 1 Peter chapter 5, I want you to read verses 7 through 11, and then I want to just give us some pointers on how to keep from worry. How to keep from worry. The Bible here says 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 7, It says, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. I like that. That's probably one of the most comforting little verses in all the Word of God that we can cast. I love the word cast. Cast all your care. It means to throw. It means just to toss it on. You see? Casting all your worry. You take that worry and you take it off your shoulders and you cast it on the Lord. I mean, you throw it His way. He can catch the ball. Amen? Casting all your care upon Him because He cares for you. Then it goes right on. It says, Be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us into His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you." Notice the stability there, amen? It says, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You see, don't lose sight of the wording here. Don't lose sight of how everything is placed. You notice he talks about the problem. He talks about how, hey, he starts off with the Lord, and then he talks about the devil, and then he talks right back about our God. Amen. And how glorious he is. And so how to keep from worry? Number one is found in verse 7, and I wrote this, to take your concerns to Jesus. You know, the older I get, that seems so trite. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there. Leave it there, leave it there. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt, He will surely lead you out. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there. But you know what? It may seem trite, and we may sing about it, and we may talk a lot about it, but you know it's the truth. We need to take our concerns to Jesus. Because ultimately, he's the only one that can do anything about it. Is anything too hard for the Lord? With God, the Bible says nothing is impossible with Him. Amen? And so when you think about those worries, those concerns, take your concerns to Jesus. Then I see this. Meditate and count your blessings. Meditate and count your blessings. Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. So right away, you think about your worries, your concerns, the pressures of life, the situations you're going through, the problems that must be solved. And what do you do? You take those and you throw them on the Lord, realizing that, hey, you know, last year He did this. Five years ago He did this. Oh, a long time ago He did this, casting all your... My God cares for me. And you begin to meditate. You dwell on who God is. And you think about His attributes. Brother Hellman in his prayer was talking about our God being such a great God. And He is a great God. And I think sometimes in the face of our problems, we're focused so much on our problems that we don't focus enough on our God. and our God can handle any problem. Amen? And so you need to meditate and count your blessings like the song says. Name them one by one and it will surprise you to see what the Lord has done. So take your concerns to the Lord. Meditate and count your blessings. And when you're doing that, I know sometimes it seems like it comes in on you like a big wave. And you almost seem overwhelmed at times with the situations of life. And that's why you need to just stop and take your burdens to the Lord and say, Lord, help me. Lord, intervene at this time. You go to the book of Psalms and you read where it seemed like David was overwhelmed. And it's that time that the Lord would step in and reveal Himself. And that's what the Lord would do for you if you lean on Him. And you may come to Him and say, God, I can't think of a good thing to say right now. I can't think of anything good that's happened in my life or anything good to look forward to or anything that's happened in my life good in the past. It seems like my life is just totally worthless." And you pour your heart out to God and you know what? He'll begin to say, well, how about this? How about this? Because our God is all-knowing. He's omniscient. Amen? And He'll begin to bring things to you. You might say, boy, I didn't think about that. Oh, yes, and that too. Yes, God, You did meet those needs. And so all of a sudden this big, huge mountain of a problem begins to take on a whole different perspective. Before long, He's taken that mountain and made it into a molehill. Amen? Praise the Lord. And so we see here that you're to meditate and count your blessings. But then it says this in verse 8, be sober, be vigilant, and that tells me that we have to be on guard. We've got to be on guard realizing our context in Philippians chapter 4 is the mind. We have to have the right attitude. We have to think right concerning what's going on in our mind. Amen? because the battlefield for the believer is our mind. There's so much that happens here that if we don't think right, then it affects our reality. It affects our perception. It affects the way we see things. You talk about people seeing things through rose-colored glasses. In other words, they see things from only one perspective. And what we need as we look at life is we need a godly perspective. Amen? And so he says, you be on guard because as you begin to implement praise in your life and you begin to think about God and His goodness and His greatness, Then understand the devil's going to come along and he's going to try to distort that. He's going to try to tell you that no, God doesn't love you or he wouldn't let these things happen to your life. And that's why it says be sober, be vigilant. And it says because your adversary the devil has a roaring lion and we need to know our enemy. The Bible says let's not be ignorant of his devices. Let's not be ignorant, let's not be uninformed as to how He's working in our hearts and lives, and how He's affecting our mind, and the minds of our loved ones, and those around us, and how that every brother and sister in Christ is under attack. Every single one of us, he'd like to sidetrack. And if he can't get to one, he'll try another. And he'll try us all, time and time and time and time again. And so we need to be sober. We need to be serious about this. We need to be vigilant. We need to be on guard, recognizing that we have an enemy. You're not just going to float through life. You're not just going to just waltz through life saying, oh, you know, we'll just be able to handle whatever comes our way. We've got an enemy and you better watch out for him. And so know your enemy. And then when you engage him, resist him. Don't capitulate. Don't cave in. Don't give up. Resist the devil, James 4, 7 says, and he will flee from you. And you find that happening over and over and over again. Amen? Look what it says here. It says in verse 9, "...whom resists steadfast in the faith." What's in the faith? When you see that phrase, in the faith, sometimes people just say, oh, that's just a belief. In the faith is in the body of belief, meaning the Word of God. And so just as Jesus used Scripture to resist the devil, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, then that is where our strength lies as believers. It's not in and of ourselves. It's not because I go to church and read my Bible and I'm faithful in my giving and I go tell people about souls that I'm a super saint and I can handle what the devil throws my way. No, I need the Word of God. I've got to have it become a part of me and I've got to rely on it and I've got to use it. The sword is no good if it's still in the sheath when the enemy's there. You've got to pull the sword out. You've got to wield it. You've got to put it to work. And it's our responsibility, amen, in the strength and power of the might of the Lord. And it says here, trust in God. Now, I know when it says, up at the first part, it said, take your concerns to Jesus. And then I put here, trust in God. And that's where when you have utilized the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, the only offensive weapon we have as believers, then we trust Him to have that work accomplished in our lives and in the situation in which we're using the Word of God. Is not my word like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Amen. I mean it will melt that heart of ice. that cold heart, amen? And so the Word of God, we can trust Him that when He says that there's no temptation taking us but such as is common to man, that He is faithful, that He will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it. You can mark it down, even though it seems like the circumstances are going every which way, but the right way Folks, God can be trusted and His Word is true. We may not know how He's going to do it, but He will do it because He said He would. And time and time again, you go to Hebrews chapter 11, and if you're weak in faith, hey, go to that chapter. Read that. As well as faith cometh by hearing, and hearing how? By the Word of God. Amen? So if you're weak in faith, hear more Bible. Amen? Hear more Bible. Can't go wrong. Just get in the book more. You say more? Yes, more. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. As you trust God, what I like about verse 9 here in 1 Peter 5, it says in essence, as you trust God, you will continue to mature in Christ. And this will bring about spiritual maturity in your life. You know, there's things that little children, as they are growing up, they may fear. But as they get older, they no longer fear those things. And as you and I begin to encounter those situations in life and take those baby steps, and God begins to answer prayer and show and reveal Himself to us, we get stronger and we get more stable and then that's how we can handle the big things. Sometimes we look at someone and they're going through a real deep valley and we say I wonder how they're making it I just don't see how they they can handle that situation Folks God didn't just put him in that He prepares the servants for that He's not gonna just throw you to the dogs He's not just gonna say hey sink or swim. He's right there with you. Don't you know when Peter got out on that water? Oh There he is walking on the water. Then all of a sudden he got his eyes on the storm, on the waves and the wind and everything. He began to sink. Who was right there? Jesus was. Reached down and got him. Lord save me! I mean, if he had been a hundred yards away or already into the ship, he wouldn't have been able to reach down and pick him up, but he was right there. And so when you and I get out on the water, sometimes we lose perspective. just call out to Him and He'll be right there. Amen? He's right there. Praise the Lord. So, and then verse 11 it says, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And I just say that, hey, when you get through taking your concerns to Jesus, and trusting God, and resisting the devil, and using the Word of God. Then just praise God. And that's essentially what he's saying here in Philippians 4. He says in verse 6, Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. So in the midst of not worrying, in the midst of praying in a general sense, In the midst of taking your particular needs to the Father, He says, you do it with thanksgiving. Why? Because God hears and He answers prayer. You can have absolute confidence that God will hear and answer your prayers. Let's look at these passages of scripture real quick, like James chapter 1, if you would. James chapter 1. In verse 5, verse 5 says, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways." Well, it's almost like picking petals off of a flower. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. And we say, well, he'll answer my prayer, I hope. Maybe, yeah, he will. And you know, we don't really believe, and so there's no real faith, no real trust that God will meet our needs. Remember that quote from John R. Rice, all of our failures are prayer failures. That's quite telling, isn't it? Quite telling. So here he says, a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways, because what that is exposing is a, you know, I'm going to pray, but I'm going to work on this too. just in case God doesn't come through. And that's why we find ourselves torn all the time in the decisions of life. It's because we're not really wholly trusting in Him, you see. Let's go to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Great prayer passages. Once again, we're coming towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 7, it says, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? You sort of get the idea that he wants us to pray. And there are a lot of benefits to prayer. Amen? Try it. You say, well, I've tried it a long time. Try it some more. Don't give up. Because you have to understand, you say, but I find prayer so difficult, Pastor. Yes, you know why it's difficult? It's not because God makes it difficult. It's the devil begins to pressure you in the midst of prayer because he knows that's where the help is. And He doesn't want you tapped into the source of power because we can have no confidence in the flesh. Our flesh will let us down. Our mind is weak. How many times we get caught up in evil surmisings and thinking and all this kind of stuff. Oh my! It would just take our cares and our anxious moments and our worries to the Lord in prayer. Ask, and it shall be given you. You think He wants us to worry? You think He wants us to have a lot of fear? No, He doesn't. It's not of Him. And so He wants to answer our prayer. So you keep praying, as the song says, till the light breaks through. As the old timers would say in the old camp meetings when people would walk forward, hey brother, hey sister, pray it through. Pray it through. In other words, just stay on your knees until you've got the answer. For our last passage of Scripture tonight, 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. We like verse 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Verse 14 and 15 are the ones I want to highlight, though. It says, And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us, And if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. How do you know if you're praying in the will of God, if you're praying according to the Word of God? Well, how do you know if what you're praying is according to the Word of God? Study to show yourself approved unto God. See, the problem is we're ignorant of the mind of Christ. But if we already know, it's like children. They say, you know, dad's in a bad mood today, let's go ask mama. We know who to go to for what we need, right? You know it's true when you're growing up. Hey folks, he knows, he wants to give us some things. He wants to answer our prayer. He wants to meet our needs. So we go to Him. And if we already know how He's bent, and we say, hey, if I ask Dad or Mom for this, they'll give it to me. The child says, I want a glass of water. Go to bed. Stay in bed. Water. Water. I know if I keep this up, I'm going to get my water. You know? Ask. And ask and ask and ask and ask. And you know what? How many times have you said, OK, here's your water? Folks, I say it in jest, but it's so true. You just ask, Daniel prayed. And when Daniel prayed, the Lord heard. And right at that moment, he sent an angel with the answer. But then there was a war that was going on. And there was a battle raging in the heavens. You know, sometimes when we give up on praying, I think we take the power right out of that answer that's coming. That angel that's coming with the answer, so to speak. Why? Because we lose sight of it. We go on. We've maybe worked it out by human means. We've determined to go another way. We've figured another way besides God's way. And what happens at that juncture? There's disappointment, disillusionment. My friend, keep praying. Keep praying. Keep trusting God, because the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let me say this as a point of meditation, and we're done. Stop worrying and focusing on your problems. Start praying and focusing on our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's all stand with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. I'm going to read that again as you're standing. Stop worrying and focusing on your problems. Start praying and focusing on our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, if you know Jesus as Savior, you're heaven-bound. And there's not a problem, there's not a worry, there's not a care that can rob you of your place in heaven. No one can disenfranchise you from your heavenly and your family position in Christ. He's your Father and He loves you.