September 15, 2013 "The Path to Perfect Peace" Pastor Howard-John Wesley

I came by to free somebody that all you want from God is to send him the gift Lord fix this move this changes heal this bless this when the Lord says when are you gonna grow up to the place where you say God I don't need to get I just need your presence I just need to know you're with me I just need to don't you're in this thing I just need to know you got my back I just need the Lord to be with me would you pray with me God there's not a one of us among this place today we don't know what it's like to have to wait on you to experience the pause between the prayer and the answer what seems to be the delay between our petition and your provision my prayers Lord for someone who's in that waiting cycle today should remind them that if you wait on the Lord and be of good courage God will strengthen your heart pray today O God that you would strengthen our hearts that you would speak to our lives she would shape us according to your word O God that you would allow Christ to be exalted in this moment that somebody's life may be changed and transformed heal what hurts strengthen what is weak comfort oh god what is grieving and help us and we might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in his name we pray amen past few weeks I've been preaching out of a place where I find myself continuously consistently hearing the same message in my life that is kind of undergirded all the messages I share with you trust God in the midst of everything trust God sounds like the simplest message but is probably the hardest thing to do when life gets rough and tough on you but learning how to trust God is key to our Christian development and in that vein of learning to trust God I'm going to invite you to hear some words from the pen of the Apostle Paul as he pins his letter to those Christians in Philippi in the book of the New Testament called Philippians if you were journey with me to the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians when you find verses 6 & 7 you may find some words that are quite familiar to you Philippians chapter 4 beginning in verse number 6 some words there that if you didn't know already my prayer is that you would know them very well by the time the benediction is given Philippians chapter 4 beginning in verse number 6 here Paul says be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and supplication and Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer supplication and with Thanksgiving that your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we continue in this vein of trusting God today I want to talk about the path to perfect peace you may be seated in the presence of the Lord some of you may be aware from my personal testimony I am a proud medical school dropout my first year of medical school when I felt and since the Lord calling me to seminary I was exposed Laura to something in that first year of medical training that confirmed to me the awesome creative omnipotent ability of God is in that first year of learning about healing and I witnessed something that I had never seen before but made me a firm believer and how awesome God is for was in that first year of medicine that I learned that one of the beauties and the mysteries of life is how God has crafted and shaped the human body with the innate and instinctive ability to heal itself when the great wonders of life is how God has made us in such a way that under the right conditions your body will naturally heal itself your body is able to identify foreign matters and waste and promptly and quickly eliminate them when you've been cut proteins and platelets are rushed to the injury site that your blood may coagulate and prevent you from bleeding to death that God has created within you this gift of an immune system that can create specific antibodies without the need of having antibiotics that fight off disease and infection instinctively and by its own desire your body has been created to heal itself as a matter of fact there were some physicians who would argue with you that medicines don't heal anything medicines treat symptoms but only the immune system heals the body and that is a gift from God I'm not a doctor and but I am Reverend doctor and I suggest you that one of the reasons the health and wellness ministry of this church is so critical is to help us get back in that divine creative mode of understanding with John writes and third John to that God's desires that we would prosper and be in good health even as our soul prospers that Jesus declares in John 10 I come that you might have life and have that life more abundantly if you understand and I haven't lost you and understand that your body is creatively made by God to heal itself I'll suggest you that anything that attacks or weakens your body's ability to heal itself must be the result of us allowing into our lives or into our bodies that which is contrary to the plan and the purpose of God pause rewind press play that if you understand God has created us to heal ourselves then anything that weakens your body's ability to heal itself must be the result of us allowing into our bodies or into our lives that which is contrary to the plan and the design of God whether that be bad diets whether that be lethargic lifestyle whether that be drugs and chemicals whether that be lifestyle that leads to disease if it weakens your body's ability to heal itself it cannot be part of the plan of God and I will suggest you that if I still haven't lost you then one of the greatest enemies to your body's ability to heal itself is not simply disease when the greatest enemies to your body's ability to heal itself is not even a fried chicken thigh one of the greatest enemies to your body's ability heal itself is an invisible enemy called stress worry anxiety a troubled spirit yo you would be surprised at the damage stress worry and anxiety does to your body tension and muscle aches stress elevated blood pressure stress heart problems stress headaches migraines stress problems sleeping at night stress no patience phew so short ruining your relationship with other folk stress depression and anxiety stress as a matter of fact it has been proven that stress can not only fertilize but worse in certain conditions and diseases that are already present within your body that stress fertilizes the growth of certain cancers in your life I can prove it to you that's why hospitals have visiting hours because some of y'all stress folk out and after certain hours you got to go cuz you are making things worse what is not shocking is the fact that some of us live under daily stress all the time the American Journal of Psychology suggests that 73% of us have something to worry about before 9 a.m. in the morning that 43% of adverse health conditions are the result of stress that 61% of us fail to get a good night's sleep because we're worried and upset about something and this will get you 82 percent of doctors visits are around stressed related ailments would you know today but tell them you stress too much that our lives are filled with worry and anxiety that plagues us every day sometimes I wonder JT how did we get to this place oftentimes look at my six in my 9 year old playing in life laughing running jumping waking up excited every morning they go to the refrigerator knowing food will be there they turn on the light not worried about whether it's gonna come on or not they get in the car they don't know what insurance is they can't even spell mortgage correctly and they're stressed about nothing I wonder when did we lose that sometimes I look at them I get so jealous I want to sing from my old school Jeffery the giraffe I don't want to grow up now my Toys R Us kid got so many different games that I can play with it from bikes to train so video games the greatest toy store there is I don't want to grow up cuz baby if I did I wouldn't be a Toys R Us kid huh does anybody here just wish you could be like Peter Pan just never grow up never have worry never have stress never have anxiety well the next time worry wakes you up at night the next time stress finds you out early in the morning the next time your heart is racing in your blood pressures going up because you're anxious about what awaits you around the corner I want you to hear these words of the Apostle Paul be anxious for nothing be worried about nothing be stressed out about nothing be upset about nothing let me give you some greek real quick the word nothing that paul uses although that's where your Bible translated it is more frequently translated no one you just Michonne amen be anxious over no one be upset over don't let nobody get underneath your skin let nobody upset your spirit don't let nobody steal your joy don't let nobody put fear in your heart be anxious over nobody I noticed in grammatically correct block can you look at your name time Einstein you I I'm stuck I'm worried about you I'm not upset about you I hear Paul write these words be anxious over know thing or no one and I sometimes wonder what planet did he come from what world did Paul live in cuz you see my world gives me something to worry about every day there's always another bill I didn't expect there's always another issue I've got a handle there's always another threat against me they're always more enemies rising up there's always folk running their mouth and every day I have something to worry about and yet Paul says be anxious for nothing at the heart of Paul's argument is this that there is something fundamentally wrong with a saint who stressed out there is something paradoxical about somebody who says they trust in God and are worried about everything something don't add up to folk who come to church every Sunday carrying Bibles shouting at shouting time giving that given time worshiping at a worshipping time but Monday through Friday their blood pressures up they can't sleep at night they're anxious they're worried their patience is short there's something wrong about you saying you believe in God and you're worried about everything Paul says cause you must not know that there's a quick formula to deal with your anxiety there's something you do to handle this stress there's a path to perfect peace this what he says read up on he says listen listen when when you're worried and anxious and stressed and life's got you in that place says there three things you all do right there in your Bible says be anxious for nothing but in everything wants it prayer pray touch somebody's up you need to pray that Paul says prayer is critical to keeping calm in stressed out situations prayer is critical to finding peace when your heart is filled with worry as matter of fact it's so important that Paul puts it first on the list says whatever you do pray I see you maybe Paul puts it first because it understands that my instinct and my nature is to not always pray first my instinct is to worry about it my instinct is to jump in it and handle it myself my instinct is to pick up the phone and get somebody told since this DC y'all are corporate climbers my instinct is to envision all the damage that could be done and develop a proper strategic plan to help me navigating manipulating my way out of this situation my instinct is to think about all the things that could go wrong my instinct is try to call my friends and get wise counsel my instinct is to add up those who are against me and those who are for me and see which one weighs more in my life my instinct is fight-or-flight but Paul says when you operate in the Lord your instinct ought to be to pause and pray and for five years I've been telling you to read your Bible I'm going to put a comma on that read your Bible and pray read your Bible and talk to the Lord read your Bible and fall on your knees read your Bible and have a little talk with Jesus and tell him all about your troubles he will hear your faintest cry and he will answer by and by you've got to learn how to pray the boys back in school now Cooper's in first grade they had a visitor the first-grade fireman said Cooper wiped the fireman teach you he said daddy taught me and if I'm on fire stop drop and roll I need to give you some good advice when you are stressed out in life stop drop and pray when life gets rough on you stop truck and lift up holy hands when you don't know what to do stop drop and call on the name of the Lord he says pray now before you get this wrong this prayer that Paul uses this first thing it is not a recommendation to go to God and give God the laundry list of everything you want God to do that's not what this word prayer means because some of us the only way we know how to pray is this Lord Here I am fixed us do this move this give me this blessed this change this work this out Amen see you tomorrow Paul the word for prayer that Paul uses here is prose whoo hey it it it it not only refers to praying but prose whoo hey literally Shelley it means to create a place of prayer where there's no synagogue simply through there that's why we come to Alpha Street this in kindergarten so listen pros who hey pray is what Jews did when they found themselves outside of the proximity of a religious establishment where God would dwell but they believed in a God who could show up wherever they created a space and called on his name and so even in the wilderness they would pros who hey even with enemies around they would pros who hey even when they found themselves in worse situations they said I may not be in church it may not be a temple it may not be a synagogue but right here I can create some sacred space where I can call on God and God will dwell with me I will dwell with God that what it means to pray is to draw close to God to call on God to invite God into your situation to believe that God will Tabernacle with you that God is a transcendent in your situation okay okay it's hard preaching at eight o'clock um yesterday yesterday we had a marvelous wedding here at the church between mark Stanford and Sofia Hahn two beautiful people got married and when I was talking to mark about the wedding and we were talking about all the plans he said pastor you know the weddings on Saturday at noon and the reception is afterwards he said are you coming to the reception I said your receptions on Saturday afternoon you say yeah I said mark I got one I typically don't go to receptions because folk don't-don't-don't enjoy themselves when the pastor's around you know you know folk gonna go over there and get that but while I'm here they don't want me to see it right in their hands so they you know they just you know they and they don't have fun when I'm around and and and with your reception meeting afternoon I don't know if I get my mind right dear a go back to church and standing pulpit after being at a reception a couple hours so so I'm not going to come to the reception marklar dejected I said to him I said but but I'll send my gift I mean I saw your registry I picked out a gift I'll send the gift I just won't be there that's what Mark said to me he said pastor we don't want your gift we want your presence that what makes me sad is not anything about a gift it's knowing that you won't be there I can't buy to preach to somebody that all you want from God is to send him the gift Lord fix this move this changes heal this bless this when the Lord says when are you gonna grow up to the place where you say God I don't need the gift I just need your presence I just need to know you're with me I just need to know you're in this thing I just need to know you got my back I just need the Lord to be with me that's how you know you're praying when you're seeking the presence of God and inviting God into the party and demanding that God show his presence god I pray to draw nigh to you but then Paul says listen you want to find peace Solomon should pray he says but all things with prayer and supplication somebody say and supplication that word supplication here's a good part that that word means to ask it's what Paul goes on later to say let your requests be made known unto God this way says pray and ask him for what you need pray and tell him what you want him to do yo yo this is so amazing the Paul says I can supplicate I can make my requests known to God I can share with God the desires of my heart not not that that ought to make you say a man twice the first reason you ought to say man is because you know the majority of people you know in life if you go to them and you start telling them everything that's wrong with you and ask them for everything you want them to do the majority of people you know ago ask you a real good question what does that have to do with me I got known troubles how do your problems become my problems and how do you expect me to help you when I got my own stuff that that's most people Paul says but we serve a God who with everything else he's got going on is a God who says come to me and supplicate I know I'm running the universe I know I'm keeping the stars in their celestial sockets I know that I'm keeping the orbits in their proper perspective I know I'm working on that brother and working in that war and down in that country but I'm so much God that I care about every little detail and situation in your life everything about you I care about that that that's what blew David's mind when he wrote Psalm 8 Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth and God when I consider the heavens you've made and when I consider all that you got to do every day when I consider your glory in the heavens Who am I that you are mindful of me but I'm so glad that I've got a god who's mindful of me a God who cares about my stuff a God who says ask what you need me to do cuz he cares and not only does he care here's the second day man he's able Oh God commander cuz there's some folk you can ask hey neighbor can I help you when you're really stressed out there really are very few things people can do to help you you can encourage me you pray for me but at 3 in the morning when I wake up with this heavy on my mind really ain't nothing you can do you're unable to make this go away you're unable to resolve this issue in my life but the good news is is that when I supplicate to God I'm saying that I believe I can ask and he's able to answer that whatever I petition God can provide ken can I tell you why so many people have a deficient prayer life because they really don't understand how excited God gets when you ask can I help you real quick because you don't ask somebody for something you don't think they can do I'm not gonna ask you for $25,000 cuz you ain't got 25 and I'm only gonna ask you for what I know you got so God said reason yo prayer life so deficient it's cuz you keep asking for getting bitty little stuff and you're offending me by suggesting that that's all I get in my reservoir so when you pray asks for the impossible ask for the unprecedented ask for the healing asked for the deliverance asked me for great things cuz I am a great God is there anybody here who believes that God can do anything he can make any way he can open any door he can fix any problem that my prayer is indicative of my faith in Him that what I'm asking him for is indicative what I believe he's able to do let me give you a side order scripture the Bible says you have not because you ask not you're sitting around sick cuz you ain't asked for healing you're sitting around broke cuz you ain't asked for deliverance you sit around lonely cuz you haven't asked for joy I asked and I can give it god I feel like preaching now says in everything pray draw nigh to me supplicate baby lay it on the line and ask sleep he says and with Thanksgiving Oh says he says Thanksgiving he's gonna make this a whole lot better prayer is good it's better with Thanksgiving supplicating is good but it's better with Thanksgiving you you know what Thanksgiving is like in the life of a believer like hot sauce cuz everything is better with some hot sauce fried chicken it's better with some hot sauce collard greens better with some hot sauce cheese popcorn told y'all I'm from Chicago is is better with some awesome said whatever it is and some Thanksgiving now why does Paul say this because Paul understands then when you're stressed out when you're worried when you're anxious when you're losing sleep you have the ability to have tunnel vision where all you see is what's stressing you out Paul says every now I'm then in the middle of your stressed-out self I need you to take your blinders off and see the grandeur scope of God's glory in your life and know that yes you got something to stress about and yes that's upsetting you and yes that's worrying you but baby that ain't all that God is up to in your world that if you pause and balance out your days you'll see I got some stuff to stress about hope and I got some stuff to shout about I got some stuff to be worried about I got some stuff to be grateful for and when you add up your good days and measure them to your bad days you'll find out that your good days they show about where your bad things and you got a reason to be grateful somebody say with Thanksgiving now yeah let's let's let's take the sanctified mask off for a minute and acknowledge and admit that sometimes given thanks it's hard to do three people on your pute instead I'm a shout already Reverend I get you but sometimes is so rough God knows it hurts so bad that's hard for me to say thank you that I can't see how this is going to turn out well and my inability to envision victory dampens my present capacity to say thank you because of what I can't see I can't say thanks I know I have a reason to be grateful but God I'm so worried about Monday that I can't shout on Sunday that's why God says listen in your present I'm not only giving you the gift of vision but I've given you the gift of memory so that when you can't see it now remember look back at yesterday press rewind for a week turn the page back to last month go back to last year and I promise you there are some things God did yesterday and some things God did last month that you did not accurately thank him for so in your presence give him the Thanksgiving from yesterday that he is due for what he's already done okay um rosette rosette called me in the office lu algo and a few weeks ago back in august and Greg she was laughing she passingly come see this said rosette what is it and she pulled out a birthday card for me is audist my birthday is in April a member sent in a birthday card in August but my birthday is in April rosette now laughing I say you know belated birthday cards at that week two weeks three weeks at most but but babe you five months off you might as well send me an early birthday card for next year it I can't believe somebody send me a birthday card in August and my birthday was in April so I pulled the card out in front he said belated happy birthday open the card up said it's never too late to celebrate and inside was a $50 bill and I said it's never too late to celebrate is there anybody here that's got some belated Thanksgiving and can declare is never too late to celebrate the goodness of the Lord that when I think of what it did last month and what he did last week I know it's bad right now but I thank God for what he's already done somebody just say it's never too late to celebrate I got to go it's time for Sunday school he says pray supplicate and give thanks and watch the end result here's the formula when you add prayer to supplication and Thanksgiving the end result is the peace of God the peace of God the RNA wholesales this peace that is not a man this this is not the peace some zeros in your bank account will give you this is not the peace you find in the arms of a lover this is not the peace that's located at the bottom of a bottle this is the peace that Jesus spoke in the midst of the storm this is the peace they're loud Daniel to lay down and sleep in the lion's den this is the peace that allowed Paul to stand in the courtroom of Agrippa believing that God was already there this is the peace that allowed Esther to go into the king and declare if I perish I perish this is the peace that held job together when life had stripped him of everything he held near and dear to his heart this is the peace that allows me to have courage in my leg and backbone in my back and believing that my God is able to handle all things in my life he says in this piece will guard your heart and mine give you last little homework here guard the word guard it has really two meanings when he says it'll guard your heart in mine one meaning you already understand it literally means to prevent an invasion like that word guard was used for a military barricade there was meant to keep the onslaught of an invader from coming into a land that's what it meant to guard but also you're going to find out Adam the dead word guard was also used for when a city was besieged by an enemy and there were some citizens who wanted to defect and leave so two guard meant that they not only kept the enemy out but they kept the citizens in ok ok um let me see if I can give you a better definition um despite my southside tendencies one of my favorite pastimes is go to the theater I love good plays I'm not a big musical fan but I love drama love going to Broadway reason I like Broadway is because my parents exposed me to theater in the late 80s and exposed me to something that put love in my heart for what I argue is one of the greatest American playwrights of the 20th century a two-time Pulitzer winner by the name of August Wilson August Wilson is most famous for ten plays called the Pittsburgh cycle and in the pittsburgh cycling these ten plays like ma Rainey's black bottom two trains running seven guitars piano lesson he chronicles the comedy and tragedy of african-american life in the 20th century and each play is specific to a particular decade in the 20th century if you ever see an August Wilson play you gotta go if you ever see it out go on the recommendation of your pastor in the late 80s my parents brought me to New York to see an August Wilson play that swept the Tony Awards the play was situated in the 1950s and it starred James Earl Jones the play was called fences if you ever see fences playing anywhere near you go on the recommendation of your pastor it is arguably one of the greatest plays I've ever seen situate 1950s is a story about a beleaguered african-american brother named Troy former baseball player experience great racism in his life he's got a son named cauri wife named Rose best friend named bono the plate really situates around different themes the one hand there's a tension between Troy and his son Cory Cory who receives a full scholarship to play football but his dad is so haunted by his own experience with racism that he's against Cory playing football and there's tension between them part of the play revolves around his lationship with his wife Rose because it is found out in the play Troy has a lover named Alberta who gives birth to a baby girl Alberta dies and that's was the case in the 50s the wife adopted and took in the love child of her husband plays centers around the fact that Rose and Troy had bought a house with money that came from the disability of Troy's younger brother older brother and what Rose wants more than anything is for true to build a fence around the property to delineate what belongs to them in one of the greatest monologues in dramatic history and act 2 scene 1 Troy stands up and gives us long monologue speaking allegorically about the fence and in his mind the fence serves one purpose to keep the Grim Reaper off of his property the Troy is haunted by images of death he believes that this fits will keep death off of his property I don't want to tell you how it all ends at the end of the play the fence is finished Troy is not in the picture and Rose looks at the fence and this is what she says some fences were meant to keep things out other fences were meant keep things in that this fence not only keeps the evil out but it ought to keep the good in that when there's some stuff that wants to get out there is a fence that guards it so that what needs to stay in remains in and what needs to stay out remains out that's what Paul says about the peace of God it guards me it keeps some stuff out and it locks some stuff in it keeps anxiety out but it locks joy in it keeps frustration out but it locks faith in it keeps worry out but it gives my strength to stay within me so that even when the problem doesn't go away and even when the enemies keep raging and even when the situation gets worse there's some stuff locked on the inside of me that allows me to get up every morning with joy in my heart and a hallelujah on my mind and thanking God for this day that the Lord has made that's that's how I can face the day cuz I'm guarded the joy I should have lost I still have the strength I would have lost I still have the faith I would have lost I still have cuz he's guarding me pray supplicate and add Thanksgiving and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus we bow before you Lord knowing that our Bibles and our offerings were not the only thing we brought to church this morning we brought some worry we show enough brought some fears we brought some anxieties so we bow before you in prayer to draw nigh to you desiring first and foremost your presence in our lives in every situation God show yourself strong and we supplicate as a testament of our faith in you I ask you God for the miraculous I ask you for what others believe is impossible I ask you to do what no human hand can do because your God and I know you're able and in the middle of it god I say thank you if not for what I have right now God I'll give you some belated Thanksgiving for everything you've already done and in exchange God all I ask is for your peace to guard my heart and mind as I go into Monday as I face Tuesday is Wednesday comes guard my heart and mind give me the strength to trust in you and allow your peace to have authority over me in Jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

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Length: 47min 45sec (2865 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 17 2013