Philippians chapter four, one of the things that I've been praying about is, Lord, give me something that can hopefully encourage the hearts of those who are here today. And, you know, as a pastor, I enjoy preaching through a book of the Bible. I know where I'm going each week. I know what's coming up. I know what, you know, God wants for me. I can prepare my message that says, long time ahead of time. that when Pastor Andy called me up and said, hey, would you preach for us? I've really been scratching my head thinking, what in the world can I bring that would be an encouragement to the people at Hardin? We consider this our home church, we consider you folks family, even though you don't see much of us, especially during the summer because of the responsibilities we have at our church and Sunday night services During the fall, during the winter, we don't have Sunday night services and you see me more often. But I really wanted to encourage you folks as, you know, just to build you up, just to, you know, And the Lord led me to Philippians chapter four. I'm not gonna read the whole passage. I want to deal with all 19 verses, or most of them, but I want to do one verse at a time, and we'll look at some things and skip a couple verses. But it's interesting that in Philippians chapter four, we find that we are told that there's eight promises that God has made. And in that passage, I'd like to spend tonight, hopefully I have the right buttons here. Okay, I'd like to spend tonight just looking through those 19 verses and pulling out those promises that God has made for our everyday life. You know, it's interesting that the Word of God tells us that we as God's children can count on God no matter what. and we can stand on his promises. His promises never fail. His promises are always there. I tend to believe if God has made a promise to you and to me, God's gonna keep that promise no matter what. It's not based upon what I do, it's based upon what God has said. and we can rely on those promises. And so tonight, as we look at this passage, let's begin with a word of prayer, and then we're going to look at verse one. Let's open with a word of prayer. Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight. Thank you for the privilege of coming, gathering together and studying your word. And Lord, I ask tonight that, Lord, you would just bless us. Lord, give us an understanding of your word, but not just Lord, head knowledge, but also heart knowledge. Help us to take what we learned tonight and apply it to our everyday life. Lord, I do thank you, in Christ Jesus' name, amen. In verse one, we read here in Philippians chapter four, verse one, we read this. It says, therefore, my brethren dearly beloved, and longed for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I think here in verse one, the Apostle Paul is concluding his letter and he's given this challenge and he gives a challenge to the church at Philippi. And so the first thing we need to understand is that God gives us a challenge here to live and to stand fast on his word and on him. God wants us as Christians today to live in a society that is falling apart, and maybe you don't see our society as falling apart. I tend to. I tend to see that sin is running rampant, and I praise the Lord for at least the president who seems to bring some things back into order a little bit. But as a whole, we know that things are gonna get worse and worse until the return of Jesus Christ, and we see that happening. I tend to believe that we're very close to the end times. I'm not going to get into the end times, but I do believe that we're in those latter days just because of some of the things we see. And as a result of that, I really believe God says to us, Christians, my children, stand fast in the Lord. And isn't that exactly what the Apostle Paul says here in verse one? Notice it says this, it says, so stand fast in the Lord. The challenge is for us to stand. And how do we stand? I believe we stand on the promises of God. God wants us to stand on his promises. Now I tend to think, as I think of this challenge, I tend to think that this is something that you and I struggle with on a regular basis. We struggle with taking that stand and living for the Lord on an everyday basis. And you might say, well, Pastor, I do pretty good at walking with the Lord. Well, praise the Lord for that. But we all have the flesh in us and we all have a tendency of wanting to do what the flesh wants instead of what God wants. we want, or what God wants. We want what I want, what makes me happy. And it's interesting, as you study Scripture, there are a lot of Bible verses. For instance, this is very similar to what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15. Here in that verse it says, Therefore, dearly beloved, be ye steadfast, unmovable. When Paul in when Paul in Philippians in chapter four and verse one talks about standing fast, I think right away of this term, and I think the pointer is on here, nope, I just shut, did I just shut that off? There you go, okay. You notice that word that says be steadfast, unmovable, and I really believe that in Philippians when we talk about this idea of standing fast, it carries the idea with it to be stationary, to be strong, and to be where God wants us to be. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul hides a little bit because standing fast in the Lord doesn't mean that I'm gonna sit in my pews and I'm gonna go to church and sit there and do nothing, but it means I'm gonna roll my sleeves up and I'm gonna get active for the Lord and I'm gonna get busy doing what God wants me to do, standing on the principles that God has given me and on the promises that God has made for me. And that's what God wants us to do. But all through church history, we find that people have struggled. Israel struggled with this. Remember in 1 Kings 18 and verse 21, Elijah is what I've called, I've entitled this passage, the battle of the gods. where Elijah goes to the people and says, he came to the people and said, you know, how long will you hawk between, how long will you waver between two opinions? You know, if gods be God, serve him, but if Baal be God, serve Baal, okay? The idea here is when we as children of God have to choose who we're going to stand for and who we're going to believe in and who we're going to follow. And every day there's this battle. We see in other passages of scripture, we see the same thing taking place. Hebrews chapter two warns us and says, be careful lest we drift away. And in Hebrews, there's all these challenges, but in Hebrews two and verse one, it says, therefore, we ought to give a more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. Hold on to is what he says. He says, hold on to these truths. Why? Lest at any time you should slip away. How easy it is for us to slip away. How easy it is for us to turn to what we want instead of what God wants. There's another verse we find in James, if I'm not mistaken, James 1 verse 8, tells us a double-minded man is unstable in his way. You realize a double-minded man can only be a Christian? Not talking about the world here. Okay, the world has only one thought, that's doing what the flesh wants. A double-minded man is a man who is a Christian who says, hey, sometimes I'm gonna do what God wants, sometimes I'm gonna do what I want. And the Apostle Paul challenges us here in Philippians chapter four and verse one, he says, stand fast on the truth, stand fast on me, stand fast in the Lord. And I've asked myself and people have come to me, we have a recovery program at our church and the Lord's been blessing through that recovery program. And on a regular basis, they asked me, they said, Pastor, how do we stand fast? How do we do what God wants us to do? And I always bring them back to this passage in Hebrews chapter 12. in verses one and two. Hebrews chapter 12, verses one and two says, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, every sin, and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, the secret to running this race, I believe, is found in the next verse, because the next verse says what? to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. You know what, what we need to do is we need to spend time with Jesus, looking to Jesus, walking with Jesus, standing on the promises that Jesus has given. Here in Philippians chapter four, we find a challenge that's given to you and to me. It says, listen, stand firm on Stand fast, don't be moved. How does Paul put it? I think it's in, was it in Ephesians or Galatians? He says, don't be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Don't allow yourself, but stand firm on the truth that God has given you. That's what God's challenged each one here tonight. He says it doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how young you are. We're all gonna struggle with it. We're all gonna have problems. Why? Because until God calls us home, the flesh is active in our life. And you might say, well, I've really been, I have a man that I've been ministering to, and he says, you know, I praised the Lord in the last month. I only had to go and ask God forgiveness for three times. All the other times I walked the way I was supposed to walk, and I thought, no, you didn't. You know, because the word of God says if you say you have no sin, You're a liar. That's in that first, that's in that book that you were talking about, brother. Okay, we're all gonna sin. Praise the Lord for 1 John 1.9 that says, if I confess my sins, he is faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. God understands that we are going to sin. There in 1 John chapter two and verse one, it says, I write these things unto you that you sin not. And then he says, but if you do sin, You have an advocate. You have Jesus Christ who stands before the throne of God and says, wait a minute, Randy Friedman, he's my child. He's accepted me and therefore he's been redeemed. He goes before the throne of grace. We all struggle with this. And so it's important. And so Paul goes through in this last chapter of his epistle to the church at Philippi and he gives eight things. I think the first three things he gives are conditional, and what I mean by conditional is I think that they need to be true in your life if you're gonna get the other five. Okay, let's look at that, and I've entitled that on my second point, the conditions of standing faithfully with God. What are the conditions? Let's look at what Paul says in verse, if you will, in verse three. It says this. It says, I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labor with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the Book of Life. As I pondered and thought about this idea of the Book of Life, I thought that what we're talking about here, is that we need to praise God and we need to thank God and we need to stand on the fact that God has what? Pardoned us. I think the first thing is we must be pardoned. We must be forgiven of our sin. See the term pardon, I looked up those terms. I think probably by now most of you know that I grew up in France. My parents were missionaries to France. And I went to French public schools all my life. I started in kindergarten and went all the way up to 10th grade and then I came back and did 12th grade here in the States. And so my wife reminds me all the time that I'm not good in English and I'm not good in French. It doesn't matter. I'm one of those people who's not good in any language. So when I read scripture and I say, okay, what does that word mean? I have to look it up. And the problem is when you look up a word, it gives you two other words that you don't understand. Okay, it usually works that way, doesn't it? And so you have to then do a little bit more study and a little bit more study. But I wanted to make sure that I understood what I was talking about when I thought about the word pardon, what is pardon? And it's this idea, okay, that it's the act of gaining forgiveness or the remission or removal of the penalty due to sin. The word of God tells us that we as God's people are sinners. that there's nothing we can do that is righteous, that we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then we're told, and we'll see these verses, I think I have them on PowerPoint in a little bit, but we're told that the wages or the payment of our sin is death. You and I deserve death because we're sinners. But the good news is Jesus Christ came and he died for us. He was willing to go to the cross, not because he had to, not because man made him, but because he chose to die for us, that we could have eternal life. When we choose to accept him, the word of God tells us that he forgives us our sins. He takes that sin nature and he gives us righteousness. I think it's in, and I didn't put it on PowerPoint, but I think it's in 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 21. We're told that he who knew no sin took our sin that we might be the righteousness of God. And when we accept Christ as our Savior, he looks at us and he says, Bill, you're forgiven. What a wonderful blessing that is. You're pardoned. When we're pardoned, the word of God says that our name then is written in the book of life. That's the promise that he has made. You and I can have that assurance that one day, if something were to happen to this body, we would open our eyes in eternity. Not because of what I did, but because of what Jesus Christ did and because I was willing to accept that payment that he made for me. There's Isaiah 43 verse 25 says, even I, or I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgression for my own sake. God did it for his own sake. And notice what it says, and I will not remember your sin. What a wonderful promise. I've been pardoned. Can you tonight say that you've been pardoned? Can you honestly, without looking into your heart, it doesn't matter if you attend Hardingville Bible Church, it doesn't matter if you are a deacon of the church, it doesn't matter what, my question is, have you been pardoned tonight? And if you can say yes, your name's written in the book of life. And that alone should be a blessing to help us to say, okay, he paid my price for me, therefore I'm gonna stand for him. There's a couple other things I want us to be reminded of. Here's a couple verses. You know, the ABCs of our salvation, you know, I've gone through this real quick, but the ABCs, we all have sin come short of the glory of God. We need to acknowledge our sinners. If you're here tonight, I can't assume that everybody here tonight knows Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But the word of God says we're all sinners. The Word of God tells us that the penalty of sin is death. We need to acknowledge and understand that yes, I'm a sinner and I'm going to, I can't save myself. You know, we need to believe. What do we need to believe? I have people come to me all the time. I had a man this morning who raised his hand during the morning worship service. I had given an altar call. I had given a challenge. If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you're searching, would you raise your hand He raised his hand, and after the service, I had an opportunity to sit down with him and talk with him. He wasn't ready to accept Christ as his Savior. I believe in God. I've been to church all my life. Well, guess what? Satan also believes. not enough that you believe in God. What does it mean that we believe in God? I think what it means is that we understand that he died, that he is who he says he is, and he did what he said he would do. Romans chapter 10, verse 13, and Romans 10, 9, both of those verses describe a little bit of what we need to believe. Here in this verse it says, confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. We need to understand and believe that Jesus Christ died for us and was buried and rose again. You know, the word of God makes that very clear, that that's all part of this process of being pardoned. Okay, so not only do we need to acknowledge our sin, we need to believe that Jesus died for us, but we need to call on his name, and if I'm not mistaken, that's what that verse there tells us about. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You know, I had a man years ago in my ministry when I was over here in Franklinville. And he came to me and he said, you know, Pastor, he says, I believe that a person is saved by walking the aisle and saying the Lord's Prayer. And I looked at him and I said, no, I don't believe that. You know, a prayer doesn't save you. Walking the aisle doesn't save you. You know, this week you're going to have a lot of kids come to Vacation Bible School. I'm assuming you're going to have a counseling area where people, when the kids raise their hand, you're going to sit down and you're going to talk to them and you're going to share the gospel with them. And, you know, we had our Vacation Bible School and the teens, we had teens that were teaching it. And the teen says, does anybody want to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior? One little boy raised their hand. Now, we only had 12 kids. For us, that was a huge number. I know you're laughing. 12 is nothing for you folks. But we had 12, and we were very happy with 12. But one little boy raised his hand, and the teen says, okay, come on, we'll go into our counseling room. We went into the counseling room, and as that one child got up, all the children got up. Why? Because they're gonna follow one another. We need to understand that walking in Iowa or raising your hand or saying the prayer is not necessarily gonna save you. It's a change of heart that has to come. There has to be a willingness to say, I'm gonna, what did Paul say? Create in me a new heart. We need to understand that there has to be this brokenness and this humbleness about us to that willing to say, okay, Lord, I'm going to trust you and I'm going to walk with you and I'm going to surrender to you. And I love this, I put things down and I forget, my wife says I'm starting to get Alzheimer's. You know, this verse here, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. You know, I really believe that first part of that verse is saying, hey, I'm willing to no longer live for self, but I'm willing to live for God. When there's that willingness to do that, God says you're a part of it. And you know, I've told people many times that I'm not the judge. I have people that, that come to our recovery program, come to our food pantry, that, be honest with you, I look at and I say, I don't even want to be around those people. And I have to be very careful, because it's only by the grace of God that I'm not like those people. They're brothers, it could be brothers and sisters, and I don't judge their heart, I don't judge their actions, it's not mine to do, that's God's job. God knows your heart and God knows if you've been pardoned. Bottom line is, Paul tells us there in verse three, that if we have acknowledged Jesus Christ and we have accepted him and we have believed on him and called upon his name, the word of God says that we have been pardoned. What a wonderful first promise that God has made. God has promised to pardon. And guess what? When I sin, God has promised to forgive me and pardon me all over again. This morning I gave a definition of iniquity. And we were looking at, we're studying through Galatian. And it talks about what the law was given because of our transgression. And so I defined what transgression is, and I defined what sin was, and I defined what iniquity was. And I said, iniquity basically is talking about the filthiness that comes as a result of sin in our heart. And I said, we as Christians have a tendency, because of the flat, to allow sin to come into our heart. And God says, wait a minute, with iniquity in your heart, it doesn't mean that we lose becoming a child of God, it doesn't mean God takes our name out of the book of life. But when we sin, there needs to be confession for that sin, and there needs to be a cleansing And my friends, all of us here in this room need that cleansing on a daily basis. God says, I give you pardon. The second promise that we're given, okay, the second promise is we must learn to praise him in all things. Look what it says in verse four. In verse four it says this, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Rejoice, I mean, we're very familiar with that verse, aren't we? We know that verse. We've heard that verse over and over again. We sing songs. There's choruses about that verse. On our way down here, I told my wife tonight, I said, I need to be at Hardingville a little early. I have a PowerPoint. I want to make sure it's running. And she looked at the clock. She said, no, we still have 10 minutes, 15 minutes. She says, it only takes us a few minutes to get over the bridge and down, and then we get over the bridge and it starts pouring. Okay, it slows things down. And then, have you ever noticed that when you're starting to run a little late, you get this driver in front of you that is always wanting to go five miles under the speed limit? Well, we had one of them in front of us. And I thought to myself, oh, this is, you know, I can't believe that. And then I caught myself losing my joy. Losing my joy over what? Over a driver? I thought about passing him, and I thought, you know, I'm gonna pass him, and I'm gonna pull into Hardingville, and they're gonna pull in right behind me. I mean, what a testimony the preacher tonight is. Passed me on a solid line, and you know, and I thought, no, I'm gonna wait upon the Lord, and I'm gonna keep a smile on my face. And I'm going to praise God. But isn't this what this verse is talking about? It's learning to praise the Lord in all things. In all things. Last time you went to the doctor and the doctor gave you a bad report. Did you leave there saying, okay, Lord, thank you. Thank you for that report. You know, last time you went to the mechanic and the mechanic said, you know, I have bad news for you. You know, we tend to lose our joy over things going on in our life. And the reality of it is God says, listen, your joy is not based on circumstance. Your joy is based on the fact that I've pardoned you and I have made you my child and I'm in control of all things. What a wonderful promise that is for you and for me. You and I need to learn to praise God for the good and the bad. For, you know, the things that we like, and it's easy to praise the Lord for the things we like, okay? You know, you open your mailbox and all of a sudden you find that you get this check in the mail and, wow, praise the Lord, this is really great. But when you get this unexpected bill, you scratch your head and say, okay, Lord, I don't understand it. The word of God says praise the Lord in all things. Don't allow Satan to steal your joy. The word of God tells us that we need to learn to praise him. When we learn to praise him, our whole mindset changes. We're no longer looking at things and saying, okay, how's that gonna affect me? But we look at things and we say, okay, God, you're in control and I'm submissive. I'm willing to allow you to have your perfect way in my life. Learn to say thank you. Learn to praise him. You know, I have found as a pastor that it's easy to lose my joy in serving the Lord. You know, the word of God tells us in Galatians chapter six and verse nine, it says this, and let us not be weary in well-doing. or in new season we shall reap. Be faithful. What's it talking about? I think it's talking about not losing our joy. And I find that it's easy, why? Because people, the Word of God describes people as sheep, and the Word of God describes sheep as really stupid animals. And I'm not calling anybody stupid tonight, don't get me wrong here, okay? I'm just saying, I'm pointing fingers at me, and I can say I can be stubborn, I can be hard-headed, I can be, you know, I can want things my way instead of God's way, and you know, you deal with people over and over again, and you know, as pastors, Can I challenge you this way? I would not say this to my church because I don't want to be patting my own back, but I'll say this about your pastor. Will you make sure that your pastors are encouraged every day? Encourage them. You know, it's easy to go to your pastors with problems, with difficulties, with hardship. That carries a burden. Encourage your pastor. Don't allow them to get, I have found that when I get tired, when I get overworked, when I get out of energy, I tend to lose my joy. And it takes somebody like my wife to hit me across the head with a two by four, not literally, even though she wishes she could sometimes. But she tries to get my attention and say, hey, snap out of it. But can I encourage you to really care for your pastor? in a way where they would know that God is taking care of them. You know, that is so needful for pastors. They don't know why because you're constantly under attack and Satan wants to attack. You know, I know Satan has attacked our family through our kids several times. To the point where we thought, I went to my board and I resigned. I went to my board and I said, I'm done. Because of this circumstance, I need to resign. And the board says, no, you're our pastor. We're going to stand with you. But it was a hard time. Pastors aren't immune from the struggles of life. And you as a church need to encourage, why? Because the word of God says that there's this joy that we cannot lose. God wants us to have this joy on a daily basis, every day, every hour, no matter what the circumstance. And you know something? We can think of a lot of things that could happen in our mind. We could think and say, hey, But you know, God, according to Ephesians chapter three, verse 20, God is greater than anything we could ever ask or think. What a wonderful promise. We need to, as God's children, we need to continue to rejoice. There's a third thing we must do. We must develop a mindset of prayer. We must develop a mindset of prayer. Look what it says in verse six. Verse six tells us this. It says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. You know, the word of God tells us here that it's so important that you and I develop this mindset of prayer. This learning to go to the Lord in prayer, no matter what the thing is, no matter what's happening. You know, it's interesting, and if you study prayer in scripture, you find that Jesus Christ, before any big thing that took place in his ministry, Jesus Christ went to the Lord in prayer. Before the cross, Jesus Christ was where? In the Garden of Gethsemane, praying. prayer is important. I don't think here Paul is talking about necessarily this type of prayer. I think Paul is talking about this idea of being careful, this idea of being anxious, this idea of allowing things to really start bothering us and really really start overtaking us and removing the joy from before us. Why? Because the circumstances that are happening. And I think the Apostle Paul is saying, listen, as you're going to praise God on a daily basis, why? Because you are pardoned by God. He says, you need to remember that you need to take those burdens that you have in your heart, take them to the Lord in prayer. Take them to him. Why? Because he will give you a peace that passes all understanding. That's what verse seven tells us. but you and I need to learn to pray and bring those things. I have a friend that is constantly, he calls me five times a day, and he's always worried about something. There's not enough rain, and the grass is going to die, and then he calls me up and says, now there's too much rain, and the grass is going to die, and who cares about the grass? Who really cares? It's grass. Everything is just worried about everything. I keep telling them, give it to God in prayer. Give it to him. Don't allow things. Develop a mindset where you say, okay, Lord, you're in charge. Since you're in charge, I'm gonna give it to you. And I'm gonna see what you can do. because God will do some wonderful things if we learn to give it to him. But we need to be willing to give it to the Lord in prayer. You know, it's interesting, the word of God says that he has not given us a spirit of fear. In 2 Timothy chapter one in verse seven tells us this, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of sound mind. You know, that mind, okay, make sure you think about that. God says, hey, it's not about being anxious over anything, it's about giving it to me. We're told in Ephesians chapter three, this is the verse I was talking about earlier, but it says this, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above. I love that. Think about those words, exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ever ask or think. I know when my wife and I, when we were going through those trials with our kids, it was this verse that helped us through, knowing that God is able to do what God says. So why do we worry about our kids? Give them to the Lord. They're better in God's hands than they are in our own. God can deal with it. And as I tell people on a regular basis, God's got your back. Don't worry about it. God's got you. and how true that is, we need to remember that. Job 5 in verse 7 tells us, just as man is born into trouble, just as sparks fly upward. Listen, we're all gonna have those troubles, we're all gonna have those difficulties, and so learn to develop a mindset of prayer. Lord, I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna pray about it. Lord, I'm gonna give it to you. Lord, here's a problem. Right now our church is going through something that I'm not sure how we're going to deal with it, and most of our people don't know it, and I'm not sharing what the problem is, but I told one man this morning, I said, you know, God's got that. And we don't know where it's going to lead, and we're not sure where it's gonna happen, but you know something? We can't sit around worrying. We need to give it to God. And that's true with whatever problem you're going through right now. And just as this verse tells us, we're all going through problems. We're all going through some kind of circumstance right now that you need to develop a mindset. See, when we do those three things, I believe that there's other promises that God has made. that we see here in this passage. But we need to understand that, number one, we need to be pardoned. Number two, we need to change our mindset both in praising God and in prayer. And when we do that, there's some consequences that take place. And I've used a... I use the word consequence here. We could use the word result. We could use the word blessings for standing however you want to do it. Consequence so often has a negative connotation. I'm using it in a positive sense. Okay, but what are the consequences of walking faithfully with God? Can I give you five of them? I know I'm out of time. Let me give you five of them real quick. Number one, in verse five. God's prepared a place for us. Look what it says in verse five, real quick. In verse five, it says this, let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. The Lord is coming back. The Lord is coming. When we have that relationship with God and we trust him with all things, we also understand that he has a place for us. Okay, and he's preparing a place for us. We're told that in John chapter 14 in verses two and three. You know, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. Jesus told us this. What a promise that is and what a hope that is. Isn't that what Titus says is our blessed hope, the return of Jesus Christ? I'm looking forward to that time when the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise and we're caught up together in the air. I have that hope and it's a blessing that we can have. Why do I have that hope? I have that hope because I've been saved, because Jesus Christ has pardoned me and I know that he is sovereign. I know that he is in control. There's a, There's a second promise we find in this text, and that's in verse 7. Look what it says in verse 7. It says, but what things, sorry, that's chapter 3. In verse 7 of chapter 4, it says, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding shall keep your hearts and your mind through Christ Jesus. When we learn to have a mindset that is set on praising God and giving it to God, God says, I'm going to give you a peace that's going to keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful promise that is of peace. You know, not only do we have a peace that comes as a result of our salvation, we have a peace with God, but we have a peace from God here in this text, okay? We have a peace that God says, listen, you don't have to worry, but you can have, I remember my mom went into a Lady of Lords, this was probably 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 45 years ago, I don't know, it's getting, you know, she has a perfect heart now because she's in heaven. But she was having some heart trouble. And for you folks who remember Dr. Sastek, Dr. Sastek diagnosed her and said she had some clogged arteries and she had to go in for a quadruple bypass. And she was there and the doctors came to her and says, I don't understand, why are you so much at ease? And she was able to share the gospel with the doctors because hey, I'm in God's hand. I'm at peace, I've given it to the Lord and God's given me a peace that surpasses all understanding. That's what you and I need to have. My mom came out of the surgery, she was fine. She actually had five bypasses instead of four bypasses and she went back to the mission field and continued serving the Lord for 20 years after that or 30 years after that. but God gives us a peace that helps us understand. The world doesn't understand it. How can you be such at peace when these things are happening? I've been praying for Texas, for that situation down in Texas with the flood and the camp that got, I think they said, what, 27 girls that died as a result. One of the ladies in our church, her boss, who was a believer, but her boss, her daughter was at that camp and is missing. And you know, that's hard. But you know something? Even in those hard circumstances, you can have a peace of passage. There's a third promise that comes as a consequence and that's the presence of the Lord. Look what it says in verse nine. In verse nine it says, those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen and may do, and the God of peace, what, shall be with you. When we start walking with the Lord the way we need to walk, when we start living the way God wants us to live, when we start standing on the promises that God says we can do, there's a promise that says this, that says I'll be with you all the time. No matter where you go, no matter what you do. I remember when my wife and I first moved to Chester. Every time we got in the car, she rolled the windows up. That was back when we had those little cranks on the window. You young people don't understand what those cranks are, do you? But she'd roll the window up. She'd lock all the doors. Why? Because we're driving through Chester. I kept saying, God's with us, God's with us. I find Chester to be fairly safe as long as you go to certain areas, but I'm not afraid to go into those areas either, why? Because God's with me. And I am confident that God wants me in Chester right now. There was a time where I wasn't sure about that and God gave me a piece and God gave my wife a piece and an understanding that he wants us where we are right now for this time, for this moment. And you know something, if we're walking where God wants us to walk, why would we be afraid? God's with us. God will take care of us. We also find another promise, the promise of power in verse 13. Look what it says in verse 13. Most of us could probably quote this verse, but it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. I can do all things, not some things, it says all things. I had a man in our, we have a Monday night Bible study, and I have a man in our Monday night Bible study, when we're talking about all, he says, you know, I understand that the Greek word for all means all. Not some, not a little, but it means all. I really believe the word of God says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens. That means next week when Wednesday comes and everybody's tired from working with the kids, Wednesday's that hump day. When you get to that Wednesday and you say, I'm just tired, it's been a long week. Listen, God has promised to give you strength to make it through the rest of the week. But you know something, don't lose your joy in doing it. Commit those struggles you have to Him in prayer. That's the promise that God has made. Listen, when you do that and you walk on the promises, God says, I will be with you all the time. There's a final thing, and that's in verse 19. And again, we could probably know this. It's one of those verses I think sometimes we pull out a text. And it says this, but my God shall supply all of your needs. There's the word all again. Notice that. But it says, my God shall supply all of your needs according according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. I'm gonna say this, and maybe I'm wrong at this, but I'm gonna say that not only does God meet our need, but many times when we walk with the Lord, God meets our wants. God provides for us. You know, I wanted a truck. I told my wife, I said, you know, I'm a man, I want a truck. You know, those pickup trucks. I want a truck. And my wife says, no, you don't need a truck. I said, but I want a truck. She says, no, you don't need a truck. If you have a truck, everybody's going to ask you to move. They're going to want you to go and help them move, because you have the truck. And so I prayed about it. I said, OK, Lord, whatever your will is. Somebody in the church said, hey, pastor, I have a truck that I want to give you. So I've been moving everybody since. Okay? But, you know, God meets our needs and our wants when we walk with the Lord. He always does. You know, the secret, though, is are we willing to stand fast in God, understanding that we've been pardoned, having a mindset that says, okay, Lord, you are fully in control of all things. And as I go through those trials of life that you have allowed, Lord, I'm going to commit them to you in prayer. And when we do that, God just opens the floodgates. And I only gave you five here tonight, but we could go on with the promises of God for the next three hours. But the question is, are we walking and standing where God wants us to be walking? I don't know that answer for you. I can only answer for me. But I think it's important for us to take some time and look into our own heart and say, Lord, am I standing fast in Christ Jesus? Remember that challenge, verse one? Go back to verse one, if you will. We started there, we'll end there. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy and my crown. Here's the challenge. So stand fast in the Lord. How is your stand? Let's close with me. Father, Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the promises that you made in this time. And Lord, I pray that we would learn to stand fast. But Lord, the reality of it, as we've seen in the beginning, the reality of it is the flesh wants to do what the flesh wants. So Lord, I pray tonight that Lord, we would come to you in prayer and we would confess those sins We would strive this week, okay, Lord, I'm going to walk where you want me to walk. I'm gonna do what you want me to do. I'm gonna say what you want me to say. I'm gonna be what you want me to be. Lord, and when I fall, when I don't do what you want me to do, Lord, help me to be faithful in coming to you with asking forgiveness. Lord, you minister. I'd like to take a minute before, while all eyes are closed and heads are bowed, I'd like to just take a minute and I want to ask the question. Do you find yourself losing your joy? Do you find yourself not standing where you want or where you need to be? Can I pray for you tonight? Can you just be honest and raise your hand and say, Pastor, I don't find myself standing fast the way that I should all the time. And I want to do better this week. Would you pray for me? Would you just raise your hand? Thank you. Father, thank you for the hands that went on. And Lord, we want to be more like you. We want you to be glorified in and through us. And so Lord, I ask tonight that you just bless our hearts. minister to us, help us to truly stand the way that we want. And those that made those challenges, and those that didn't raise their hand, Lord, help us to be the example you want us to be to a world that is dying, that needs Jesus. Be with this church as they start their vacation Bible school. Help each worker represent you in a way that is honoring and glorifying you. Help them stand on those promises we've seen, realizing that, Lord, you're in control, and you're in charge, and you're gonna give them the strength to get through this week. You minister your perfect will here at Parting. We do thank you in Christ Jesus' name. Thank you so much, Brother Randy. That was exactly what the Lord wanted us to hear tonight. Exactly what we needed. I trust the Lord's ministered to your heart. We've got a big week ahead of us, don't we? Whether or not you're involved in VBS, it's a big week. It's a week when you're going to have opportunities to walk by faith, and you're going to have temptations not to.