In your Bibles this morning, Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. I want to read to you beginning in verse number 4 through verse number 7 and share with you this message. Today's message is titled this, thankful praying and unbelievable peace. I think it'll make sense as we begin to see this text. I know that this is something that we all need. And God's provided for us. Philippians chapter 4, beginning verse 4, the Bible says, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. 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." Now, when we come to this passage of Scripture, God promises something that only God can promise. He promises us to give us His peace. Look at what the Scripture says in verse 7. The Bible says, the peace of God. which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. God says that you can have my peace. Now there have been times in my life that I've had my peace and I was doing pretty good. But there have been lots of times where what I could provide for myself was not sufficient and I needed God's peace and I found out a long time ago I'd just as soon live with God's peace than my peace because God's peace is perfect. And the Bible promises something that seems a little bit unbelievable but it's possible that you and I can live our lives and have this glorious hope that God's peace dwells on us. Let me ask you a question. What is it that worries God? The answer is nothing. What is it that's got God wringing His hands and concerned that it might not work out? Nothing. And the Bible says that you and I can experience the peace of God. I don't know about you, but I think I'd like to have that. And the scripture says that we can. The Bible says that the peace of God, which passes understanding, shall keep your hearts. I love the word keep. The word keep is this idea of tending to and caring for, and the Bible says that God's peace will keep your heart. It will tend to it. It will protect it. It will nurture it. It will keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. We live in a time, and lots of folks right here in our midst, including myself, have troubled hearts because of a troubled world. But I can tell you today that God promises us that He'll give us peace in the midst of life's storms. He'll give us peace when everything around is falling apart. He'll give us peace when we have to walk through waters we never dreamed we'd have to walk through. And when the worst thing you could ever imagine happens, God says, I'll give you peace. Not only will I give you peace, I'll give you my peace." We come to this passage of Scripture and there are some pretty big words in this passage of Scripture. Not big as in long, but big as in they make pretty bold statements. I want you to look at it with me. Verse 4 of the Bible says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Have you ever heard anybody say, this always happens, and you think, I'm not sure that you're telling the truth there. But the Bible says, always. We're to rejoice in the Lord always. And then in verse number six, the Bible says, be careful for nothing. You see that? Nothing. These are absolute words. Always. Nothing. Nothing ever goes my way. Have you ever said that? You're probably not telling the truth. Always, nothing, look at the next phrase in verse six, but in everything, you see the word everything? Everything is always my fault. Have you ever said that? Everything's always her fault. Everything. And then finally, it talks about the peace of God which passes understanding. When I read this passage of Scripture and I see those words, it's almost like you're having a fight with somebody and you're overstating things. Always, nothing, everything, unbelievable. But in this case, God's going to give us some absolute truth, some things that should be done always, some things that should be done nothing and everything. God's going to help us to be thankful prayers and have unbelievable Let's just begin here, verse 4, and the first point is this. We are to rejoice always. Now look at what the scripture says in verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Now I don't know about you, but there have been moments in my life where rejoicing was not something that was on the top of my list. How many of you could say amen to that? Amen. But I want you to see something that's very important in this scripture. The Bible doesn't say that we are to rejoice in everything. But we are to rejoice in the Lord always. Now that's important. Now I want you to understand that sad things happen in our lives. I won't have you raise your hand because everybody could raise their hand. Because sad things have happened. Disappointing things have happened. Sorrowful things have occurred. And the Bible doesn't tell us that you can't sorrow. You're a Christian. You can't sorrow. You have to rejoice. I'm going to tell you something. When my grandfather died, I didn't rejoice. When I've been with folks who've suffered greatly and great loss, I didn't rejoice in their loss. And the Bible doesn't say rejoice when bad things happen to you. That just makes you look weird. Oh yes, my dog died. This is wonderful. I'm rejoicing. I've got an ingrown toenail. Hallelujah. It doesn't make sense. Let me tell you what does make sense. When all around you seems to be falling apart. When it seems like the situation you're in is hopeless. When it seems like there's just nothing I can do. I don't know where to turn. I don't know what to do. My heart is broken. This is devastating. It does make sense in the moments of great despair to rejoice in the Lord. You know why? Because God is good, and God loves you, and God is sovereign, and God has a purpose that's greater than our imaginations, and God never changes, and you can always rejoice in the Lord. My heart's broken, but I've got hope because God is on the throne. I'm going to tell you, when you begin as a child of God to rejoice in God, rejoicing God's perfect understanding, rejoicing God's goodness, rejoicing God's love, rejoicing God's word. When you rejoice in the Lord, an amazing thing begins to take place. In the midst of the most sorrowful of situations, you're able to find peace. You're able to find hope. You're able to find rest. And God says in His Word that we're to rejoice in the Lord. You see, when we rejoice in the Lord, and we rejoice in the goodness of God, and we rejoice in the fact that God loves me, and God is in control, and I'm going to trust His will even though it hurts, we begin to rejoice in the Lord. God helps us. The Scripture says in verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always. When am I supposed to rejoice? I'm always supposed to rejoice in the Lord. You know what I've watched through the years? I've watched many people suffer great loss. And I've walked with people through some of the saddest of moments. But I've watched folks who say, we are going to trust the Lord in the midst of our trouble. And I've watched time and time again. God give them peace. God give them rest. God do something that is beyond our explanation. God's grace fills the heart of His people. who rejoice in Him even when life is at its worst. The Bible says rejoice in the Lord always. And in case you didn't hear Him, He says again, I say rejoice. What are we rejoicing in? We're rejoicing in the Lord. I'll tell you something that happens when you rejoice in the Lord. When you rejoice in the Lord, You become what the next verse says. Here's what the Bible says in verse 5. Do you know what people who determine they're going to rejoice in the Lord when things are falling apart, do you know what they end up doing? They end up reacting to the circumstances of life the right way. Now how many of you have this proclivity? You're prone to overreact. Don't raise your hand, but you can say under your breath, oh me. So the Bible says that we're to let our moderation be known to all men. Here's the truth. When you rejoice in the Lord and you know God is in control, And God is faithful, and God is good, and I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. Do you know what the byproduct of trusting God is? The byproduct of trusting God is a moderate spirit. The byproduct of trusting God is this ability to see and deal with the most outlandish, wild, crazy, and heartbreaking things with the right attitude and the right spirit without overreacting. I don't necessarily love the word, but it's the best way to describe what a lot of us do when things aren't going our way. We just absolutely freak out. How many of you have ever freaked out? I'm going to tell you something. It's not necessary. It's not necessary. And God has designed us and He has made it possible that we can put our confidence and faith in Him so that there doesn't have to be these absolute, utter explosions of emotion when things are going the wrong way. You see, when we rejoice in the Lord, we know that it's God who is in control and we're going to sit back and we're going to let God do the work that God wants to do and we're going to rest in Him. We're going to trust Him. Let's rejoice in the Lord. You see, when we rejoice in the Lord and we give God His place and we trust Him, we're able to weather the worst of the worst full of the grace of God. Full of the grace of God. Oh, I want to be, I'm not telling you that I do this perfectly because I know that I don't. But I want to be the kind of Christian that experiences the peace of God because I'm rejoicing in the goodness of God. I'm rejoicing in the Lord and I'm rejoicing in the fact that God is in control. And I don't want to be the person that you've got to be afraid to tell something to because he'll lose it. You see when we're trusting in the Lord, we're trusting in the Lord. We have this privilege of a moderate spirit that rests in the goodness of God. So, number one, rejoice always. Rejoice always. Number two, what the Bible says next in verse 6, be careful for nothing. We're to rejoice always. And number two, we're to be careful for nothing. Careful for nothing. What's the word careful mean? The word careful means anxious. Now I want you to know anxiety is something that is overwhelming to lots of people. And God wants us to be careful for nothing. God wants us to give our anxieties to Him. Now I want you to know that's easier for the preacher to say on Sunday morning than it is to do on Monday morning. You understand? I know that. But I want you to know that it's possible. It's possible. As a matter of fact, this is kind of interesting because the scripture is not saying, you know, if you're able this week, let's try a little harder and let's just, let's not be anxious about everything this week. Let's just see if we can, let's just see if we can kind of put some anxieties to the side and let's just, let's just try. But look, I'm going to tell you, this is not a suggestion. This is a command. Do you know that God commands us to be careful for nothing? And you know what my first question is when I read that statement, I say, how? Be careful, how? And the scripture is going to give us some insight. So the Bible says be careful, anxious for nothing. And it leads us to point number three, which really is the brux of the message. How can I rejoice in the Lord? How can I be careful for nothing? Now, look, I want you to know something about God and His Word. God does not give us principles and expect us to be macho Christians or like some super Christian in order to accomplish what He's given us to do. God, when He gives a command, He always gives us the ability to accomplish what He's commanded us to do. Let me ask you a question. ask us to do things that are humanly impossible? The answer actually is yes. I'll give you some examples. I mean, this is how Jesus worked. You just imagine, Lazarus. For four days now, Lazarus has been dead. He's been dead long enough that his sisters, when Jesus comes to his grave, to raise him from the dead, they're scared for Jesus to go into him because he probably stinks by now. But what did Jesus do? Jesus asked Lazarus to do something that was absolutely, totally, humanly impossible. Jesus stands outside of Lazarus' grave and he says, Lazarus, come forth. What happened? Lifers come hopping out of that grave wrapped up in grave clothes, whole and healed and alive. So the answer is for a fact that Jesus does ask people to do things that are humanly impossible. And when the Lord in His Word sends us His Word and says, Hey, look, be careful for nothing. He doesn't give you something to do that He's not going to give you the ability to accomplish. Be careful for nothing. How? How, Lord? How? Here's what the Bible says in verse number 6. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. So the Lord says here, don't be anxious, but instead of the anxiousness, what I want you to do is I want you to pray. I want you to pray. Okay, let's pray. He says, I want you to pray, and I want you to, in everything, I want you to pray, and I want you to give supplication, and I want you to do these two things, prayer and supplication, I want you to do it with thanksgiving. So let's just break this down so it makes sense. What's pray, praying, praying, prayer? I'll get it straight. Prayer is just general communication with God. Now, you and I, we should get in a habit of praying to God. It doesn't have to be some elaborate prayer down on your knees with these and thous. As a matter of fact, the most effective praying that people do is often as they're just living their lives and asking God for direction as we go. We should be praying, and just general praying. And our praying, we should pray, and pray faithfully and fervently. The Bible says we're to pray without ceasing. There shouldn't be an hour go by in our days that we're not, Lord, I need help with this, Lord. Give me some direction, Lord. I don't know exactly what to do here. Can you help me out, Lord? I love you. I mean, we should be praying. And the Bible says we're to pray. Not only are we to pray, which is general communication with God, we're to also offer supplications. Now this is sweet to me. A supplication is when you ask for something. Do you know that God wants you to ask Him for things? Not just a new car, but He wants you to ask Him to help. He wants you to ask Him to provide. He wants you to ask Him. The Lord welcomes requests. Now, here's the key. A lot of our praying, and it's fine, because God is patient with our praying. Just so you know, you're not praying wrong, but I want to help you to pray in such a way that God will give you peace. Here's what the Bible says. We are to pray, we're to offer prayer in everything by prayer and supplication with, what's that next word? 1, 2, 3, thanksgiving. I want you to know. that God used this verse in my heart and life to completely change my prayer life. I'm not saying it's great, I'm not bragging, but God used this verse to completely change my prayer life because so much of our praying, and I want you to know God is patient with your praying so don't feel guilty, but so much of our praying is this desperation, begging, oh God it's so bad, and it may be, But God says we're to pray and make requests with thanksgiving. There is something that God has put in the heart of all of his people. When we begin to give thanks, God begins to give peace. It's just a fact. A long time ago as a teenager, a preacher somewhere along the way encouraged me When you're down, when you're low, when you're struggling, when you have doubts, when you're upset, I was encouraged to begin to do something that will help turn that around. And here's what I was encouraged to do, to take time to just thank God for something. Have you ever gotten a spot where, man, it just seemed like Everybody in the whole world was against you. Everything was going the wrong way. There's no hope. Life as you know it is shattered. I mean, there's moments, but we're not all full of elementary emotion. But there's moments where we just feel like the end of the world is coming, but it's really not. We have these emotional moments and they're just, they're devastating. And we just, we just can't seem to get on top of it. And someone encouraged me to do this. When you think there's no hope, when you're down in the dumps, just stop what you're doing and ask God, Lord, will you show me something to be thankful for? I'm going to tell you something. If you'll just pray, Lord, show me something to be thankful for. You know what the next thing is going to happen? The Holy Spirit is going to put something in your heart to be thankful for. I mean, it may be the most random thing that you may be driving down the road and God will put in your heart that you're thankful that you've got a little over half a tank of gas instead of almost out. I mean, it's going to be the most random thing. And I will tell you, when God gives you something to be thankful for, you say, thank you, Lord, that I got a half a tank of gas. Thank Him. God's going to put something in your heart that may be random and seemingly insignificant to thank Him for. Thank You, Lord, for clean clothes to wear today. Lord, thank You for breakfast. I was able to get up. I mean, if you start asking God to show you things to be thankful for, He's going to show you things. You're going to take a deep breath in and be like, thank you, Lord, for air. I'm just going to tell you, if you ask God to show you things to be thankful for, and when He shows them to you, if you'll just thank God for it, and you just keep doing that, you take 10 or 15 minutes and you thank God for anything that He puts in your heart to thank Him for, do you know what the next thing is going to be happening in your heart? God's going to begin to lift your burden. God's going to be able to lift the load. He's going to begin to show you that you have something to hope in, that you have something to rejoice in. You have more good going than you've got bad, and God is faithful. You know where to pray? Where to pray in thanksgiving? A prayer like this, Lord, My loved one has died and my heart is breaking and I thank you, Lord, for the promise of heaven. I thank you for the peace that you're going to give. I thank you. You take the worst of the worst and you begin to thank God for some part of that. Because I'm going to tell you something, there's always a way and a reason to be thankful. And when we pray in thanksgiving, something amazing happens. As a matter of fact, the scripture says it just like this. It says, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, verse 7, and this is what's going to happen, you see it, verse 7, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Do you know what happens? If we'll get in the habit of of instead of just whining to God, we add some gratitude to our whine. I'm not telling you not to whine to the Lord because He loves to answer the crying and the cries of His children. But I want to remind you, if you'll begin to thank God as you praise God and petition God, if you'll thank Him and you'll be thankful and grateful for what He has given you, the next thing you know, the Holy Spirit of God is going to do a work in your heart that only God can do, and He's going to give you the peace of God which passeth understanding. Don't take my word for it. It's what the Bible says. 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. Let me tell you something. Thankful praying equals unbelievable peace. I beg of you, this week, instead of being immoderate, remember we talked about moderation, instead of freaking out about something, catch yourself just before and pray and thank God for something, ask God to help you. Instead of being down in the dumps all week rejoicing the Lord. And you give your burden to Him and you'll pray thankfully. I want you to know something, God will give you unbelievable peace. Let's pray.