Man of Peace A Seed Bed for Truth

Praise God for that, I appreciate that song. Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus. On a wonderful morning that we can gather and worship the Lord, I'm very thankful to have this opportunity again. I want to be thankful in all things. I think my family is very thankful to be here. It's just a pleasure to see you all. I'm going to share some thoughts, and they're going to be relating. The description is a bit hard, but it would probably have to do with the end of Acts chapter 2. It would probably relate to some of those things about how they lived in peace one with another. I'm just going to read some scriptures concerning that. I've been really surprised how much scripture there is. If you want to seek that out, how there are scriptures that speak on the matter of living in peace one with another, an easy one would be what Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Many things we can find through Psalms. I didn't really dig into that too much, but I'm going to talk on that a little bit. The first passage will be Luke chapter 10. This one will have to do with something that caught my attention when I read that chapter. I think that was kind of the beginning of my thought here a couple of weeks ago. What was this man? Here we have Jesus sending out the 70. He appointed 70 and sent them out two by two. One of the first things we see that they're supposed to look for is a son of peace. If you find that, dwell there, and whatever he serves, eat it, and so on. Then that same kind of account, I believe, in Matthew, it's recorded, where Jesus sent out his disciples, it says something very similar. It says, and I'll read this one, And if the house be worthy, let your peas come unto it. But if it be not worthy, let your peas return to you. That's what it says in Matthew. Now that Luke account, I'm going to read a little bit more of the lengthy. Well, maybe I'll just read eight verses, but Luke chapter 10. I'm going to start in here. After these things the Lord appointed other 70 also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore he said unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labors are few. Pray ye, therefore, the labor of the harvest, that he would send forth labors into his harvest. Go your ways, behold, I sent you forth as lambs among sheep, carry neither purse, nor script, nor shoes, nor salute, no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peas, be to this house. And if the son of peas be there, your peas shall rest upon it. If not, it shall return to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give. For the labor is worthy of his hire, going out from house to house. So, my thoughts kind of went from there. I'm not sure how much I'll expound on that, but what would a man like that look like? And then, with that description, what was it that they went out looking for as they went from place to place, house to house, preaching, teaching? And I don't know how much of a concept they had of what they were looking for, but it seemed like it's not too hard to find some of these examples. And that's what I want to look at, is these men that Jesus came upon and they were just given some, in the beginning they were given some pretty good recognition that they were trustworthy, faithful men. And I think they had this thing that the disciples were supposed to be looking for. They had this peace about them that could be a beginning point of teaching, preaching. I call it a seat bed. Like a man of peace has that thing that would be the seat bed where the message of the kingdom can now grow in and prosper. I'm not talking about a go-with-the-flow kind of peace that the worldly people offer and pursue where you just get along with everyone and therefore you're a peacemaker. It's something very different than that. It's a man that is not settled with how the world operates. And he sees the dangers and the snares that the peace of this world wants to offer. The comfort, just being very wishy-washy. What I understand was that they were called to be on the guard, on the look, like if you find this son of peace, if you find him, it's like you'll know it and then you'll dwell there. Right, but I think we're talking about something a bit different here. Sure, and I wanted to clarify that too. That I'm not talking about a wishy-washy peace, let's go on a hike. No, this is something where it's like our time here is on, we're on a clock. We don't know when this thing is going to time out. We need to make use of the time we have and figure out. Maybe one of the intents for Jesus to tell his disciples this was just don't get confused, don't get wrapped up with all kinds of different theories and ideas. They're just going to blow your day. Find this man of peace and dwell there. So, actually my first kind of note that I put down was Nathaniel and I'm going to read that passage. Nathaniel was one of those disciples that is recorded in John chapter 1 and it's kind of an interesting account how that came together and what was told to Nathaniel. I am going to read John chapter 1 starting in verse 29. It'll lead up to the thing about Nathaniel there towards the end and that's where most of my thoughts are in, but most of this, a lot of this still has to do with just a little glimpse maybe of how the beginnings were, how the beginnings, some of these beginnings were. Jesus finding people and like he just saw them as the son of peace. He just saw them as a man that's fit and ready to be taught and that will take a hold of the message and prosper in it. And of course as we look through this, we need to remember too that Jesus would have this something that we don't necessarily have all the time. A thorough discernment of like on the moment he could tell who's who and what's what better than we can. Okay, read here, 29. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the one I was talking about when I said, A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he exists long before me. I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel. Then John testified, I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn't know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the chosen one of God. It's a little testimony of John and his experience, his walk, how he grew there in knowledge and he came to an understanding of Jesus being the chosen one. I'm reading it because I think it's a beautiful thing how these things come together for God's people. I think as we go through it, it's good to remember how it doesn't work that way in the world. It seems like they cannot unite and they don't even try that much to unite underneath things. They don't put in efforts to make this their focus and that's what makes this such a shining, glorious thing. It's because it's precious and we search hard for it and finally we find it. I just appreciated Brother Max's message a week ago the struggle to find some of these things I'm talking about and then once we work so hard to obtain it, we have a great appreciation for it. Okay, verse 35. The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, Look, this is the Lamb of God. When John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. Okay, so this was two of John's disciples baptized by John. They had walked with John for a while and now here, John encourages them to follow Jesus. He says, Look, there is the Lamb of God. And the disciples were easy to acknowledge that. They were quick to see that because they had started on this right, reasonable, peaceable foundation of understanding truth and it just made sense to follow Jesus. He's the guy. Jesus looked around and saw them following. What do you want, he asked them. They replied, Rabbi, where are you staying? Come and see, he said. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying and they remained with him the rest of the day. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these men who heard what John had said and then followed Jesus. Andrew went to find his brother Simon and told him, We found the Messiah, which means Christ. Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, Your name is Simon, son of John, but you will be called Cephas, which means Peter or Rock. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Come, follow me. Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter's hometown. Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nazareth, explained Nathanael. Can anything good come from Nazareth? It's like he was on the balance of asking, Is that really the way it is? And then Philip did this thing, what Jesus did, when he was asked a question, he just said, Come and see, figure it out for yourself. Come and see and I don't have to persuade you. Just come and see. Philip replied. As they approached, Jesus said, Now here is a genuine son of Israel, a man of complete integrity. How did you know about me, Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you. Then Nathanael explained, Rabbi, you are the son of God, the king of Israel. Jesus asked him, Do you believe this because I told you? I have seen you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than this. Then he said, I tell you the truth. You will see all heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the son of man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth. So just here, when he acknowledges him as being a genuine son of Israel, other versions would say, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. It's like saying, behold a true Israelite. I can't discern for sure whether he's saying Israel in the flesh or Israel in the spirit, but maybe even at that time it was both. But definitely Nathanael was an Israelite in the spirit, a true son of Abraham, one that upon being approached, he easily understood. He easily was able to be a disciple and go after Jesus. I think it was because he was genuine, because he had this thing about himself that was not defiled. I think that's such an important thing. If people don't have to grow up and get into the slums of being defiled and being all out wicked and having to unravel all that, put it to the side. It's a blessing. It sure is a very powerful testimony if someone does that. That's a great thing. Or someone that's in a religious system and they get caught up in it so far that it's hard work to get out. Jesus couldn't hardly say that about them where they're without guile. But it's just a blessing when you can come to a young man and find him like that and be named a true Israelite, a true spiritual Israelite with complete integrity. I think Nathaniel had an understanding. He either had an understanding or quickly got an understanding that there's going to be... Where is that passage? Oh, what Philip told him. Philip told him, We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. And Nathaniel didn't... It's just beautiful how he didn't have all kinds of questions and reasons why this couldn't be. He had one question about it, but he was quick to overcome that and acknowledge him as being the true one that was being spoken of by the prophets and by Moses. And I think that's good too if we can remember and if we find a man like that that can overcome... So often we find men that are just so interested in somehow explaining how the law of Moses still needs to be practiced. We need to occupy a lot of time and effort towards these outward worship and rituals and really kind of idolize the law of Moses in practice. But it seemed like Nathaniel understood that there's a time coming. And we need to be watching for this time coming when there's going to be one... the one that is really talking about is going to come and then we're going to believe in him. Just one of those things that if we can find a man like that, it's worth spending a lot of time with him. We look not for a man that wants to idolize the law of Moses in practice, but a man who talks about what the law of Moses brought and how it was fulfilled in the man Jesus. Go ahead. Well, I was thinking of that same thing you had just been talking about, like what made him an Israelite without deceit. He kind of hid it. So he was an Israelite, so he was waiting on this time when this Jesus of Nazareth would come, right? So when someone said to him, we have found this man, I don't know if he just believed right away, but he was waiting on that time, obviously, because he was going to go check it out at least. So before he even starts talking to the man, the man is like, oh, there comes Nathaniel. And a true Israelite doesn't have this, you know, he's waiting on the Messiah, someone told him about him, and here he comes checking me out. And Nathaniel, in a way, is like, okay, this must be the man now. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I like that. Come and see for yourself, is what Philip said after Nathaniel questioned him just a little bit. It's like, come and see for yourself. And he was very ready to do that, very quick to acknowledge that he was the Rabbi, the Son of God, King of Israel, and I'd also be curious whether we can discern whether what he's talking about, the spiritual Israel, like, oh, I guess, in the epistles we can read about spiritual Israel, and then, and that's what we're supposed to be, like those that are true, true sons of Abraham, and true daughters of Sarah, not, you know, not in the genealogy flesh, but in that they have faith and in that they practice what Jesus said. Some other accounts, this wouldn't be necessary, Jesus coming and finding someone, but when the apostles went out and about preaching, I'm very fascinated at some of the places they got to and they found these people. In Acts chapter 16, I'll read a little account in how Paul and whoever was traveling with him found a lady named Lydia a sister, and it, yeah, I'll just read the account in Acts chapter 16 verse 11. We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed straight across to the island of Samothrus and the next day we landed at Neapolis. From there we reached Philippi, a major city of that district of Macedonia in a Roman colony and we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a river bank where we thought people would be meeting for prayer and we sat down to speak with some women that gathered there. One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple clothes who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying. She was baptized along with other members of her household and she asked us to be her guests. If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my home and she urged us until we agreed. What's nice about Scripture sometimes is when you see it come together like there's maybe something, could seem kind of little, like a verse there, look for a sign of peace. And then you read through Acts and you find some of these things coming together that is kind of encouraging. It's kind of nice to see the disciples being asked to look for a certain thing. They were also asked to watch out for certain things, watch out for false prophets. They were specifically told to not just give heed to everything that they hear, but it's like when you hear this certain thing, really give heed to that. And then we read through some of these things in Acts and we see some of these things coming together. Here was a sister. She listened to them and the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying. She was baptized and from there she was hospitable. She offered them a house and I expect they ended up fulfilling, not like in a prophetic way, but fulfilling what Jesus had told the disciples to look for. Watch for these kind of people that are peaceable and sons of peace. And then I had to think of Cornelius. I didn't really take time to just really look over his account, but he would be another account and there's many more accounts of people we can probably think of. It just came together for them and they just quickly understood and there wasn't much doubt in Jesus' mind. He saw the man and there he was and for Paul as well. So, I want to now talk about some things that hinder some of the things that hinder some of that. And not just the beginnings of those things, but being that most of us are what I would say in phase, whatever number you want to put on it, phase 2 or 3, like we have done these things. We have heard this message. Surely we have been a son of peace and we have accepted and tried to understand the way of salvation and the message of the Lord Jesus. And we can look back and we can see in our own testimony some of these things coming together. It's a beautiful testimony when I think back on Brother Aaron and Darren getting together. You're going out to preach and there he was, and pick him up and there he is, a man of peace. It comes together like that. That's a beautiful thing. There's different times when the disciples then, like they progressed in their life and they walked with Jesus for a number of years and I think there were some of these bigger tests that came along, like these things that made them doubt that would come along. I don't really see any different in our walk today. I don't see it any different in my walk. The temptations don't really get less. The walk continues just to be a hard walk. And surely we've come to a place where we've put away these bad things that just so easily beset us, like these weights and these sins of immorality. We've even put away bad habits and we've taken great strides in perfecting our walk with the Lord as we go day by day. It just came to me how it seems like our thoughts have attained to a place where the old man doesn't rise up as much anymore and the immoral sins don't really allure you as much anymore. There was a time when things really were alluring still and they're not as much anymore. And I think it comes down to a great big thought battle. The thought is maybe that last thing that Satan has an open door to it. He has, because we are man, because we are given thoughts to exercise them for good, he seems to somehow have an open door to those things. And that could be the final straw to get someone down, to not continue in that way. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can look to things like this. We can be encouraged by putting things together that just make sense. The disciples starting out with a good foundation and then by faith they enter into temptations that they hadn't really known about. But through faith they make it through and they become strong men that are able to carry on the message of the Lord and a church comes out of that. That's something to be thankful for. So I want to read now in Matthew 6. These would now be some things that if we are one of those men that have walked the walk for years and we have overcome and won lots of victories, I think some of these verses would still apply on a daily basis in a daily battle. Matthew 6. I'll start reading in verse 24. No one can serve two masters. You will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food or drink or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in the barns for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you of more value to them than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon in all his glory is not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don't worry about these things, saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. But your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek first the kingdom of God above all things and live righteously and He will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. These were words that the apostles or the disciples there, they had it already early on. They had it with them. They knew about it. Actually, Matthew was the one recording this. And it's these things that carry us through. It's these things that teach us how to have a good thought structure, how to keep us being a seeker of peace. When it says a peacemaker, I wonder if the same thing could be said about a peacekeeper, that we're supposed to be a peacekeeper just as well as a peacemaker. And these things start in our own hearts, I believe. If we can't have peace in our own hearts and we're always troubled and thrown around, I don't know how much we'll have peace with the people around us. If we're very critical and quick to be fault-finding and tear others down, it's just quite obvious that we haven't yet come to a place where we either maintain this peacemaking or where we really originally have found it. Maybe we just haven't really learned that yet. I don't know. Maybe it's not this way for everyone or for you all. It just comes down to that the walk with the Lord is more coming clear to me how the blessings really stand out and then the trials really stand out. And it's just really something how that kind of carries us on. Philippians 1, verse 27. It says, Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourself in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ. Then whether I come to see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the good news. Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. That's kind of the punchline of this passage, is don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. It says, In nothing being terrified by your adversaries. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, King James says, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but that you are going to be saved. Okay, so if I understand that right, basically what I want to get to is concerning the pandemic that's confusing a lot of people. If the world can see in us somehow that we have something that they don't have, it's going to be, like if we're not tossed around and terrified by our adversaries, and it can be different things, but they could be bad as well, and they can see that we're just living day by day, we're just not taking thought for tomorrow, we're not involved in all these fights and bickerings about what's right and what's not. I would hope that somewhere in the middle of that, someone would see that we have something they don't have, and that we can work together and stand together in ways that they just don't have it. That they trust in different things, and they promote different agendas, that we just don't go by those, we don't trust in that. And I would just hope that somehow through all that, someone in there would be able to see that the people of God have something different. They walk by faith. Thank you. Pharaohs chapter 4. Now I appeal to Iodia and Sanjaya, Sanchi, please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreements, and I ask you, my true partner, to help those two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the good news. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life. Always be full of the joy of the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the peace of God will be with you. This is the passage I just made a little note here. There is a condition. If we want this peace that will carry us through these pandemics, that will carry us through trials of life, the daily grind of being a Christian, and I'm not saying this, there are so many blessings that go with it that we need to count those and we need to see those. But still, it's these kind of things that our thoughts need to be fixed on. The things that are honorable, that are pure, things that are right, lovely, worthy of praise, these are all things that if we want this peace that comes from God, not as the world gives, but the way God gives, we need to have our thoughts fixed on that. And I struggle myself sometimes to know how much to be involved in news medias and all the different things that I have easy access to it. And I know a lot of us here have easy access to it. And I think they're not evil to have, but they can become very evil if they get us to where we think about it too much and we kind of go along with certain propagandas that are being pushed or we kind of have an idea about a certain thing that the world is pushing. And we get so worried about it, not that we might want to go with that flow, but that we think we have to just think about it so much. It's something that we can think about and then surely we can lay it to rest and we can think about the hereafter. We can think about the preparation for it and be thankful for all the things that God has done for us. I was surprised. I spent about a week not working as much as usual and I was surprised how much time that I spent just taking care of myself. I would think, oh, I can surely now just really settle in here and read a lot and do a lot of meditating. But it just goes to show how the thing that we see as the most important is the thing that we're going to give the most attention to. And for me it was taking care of myself. It seemed pretty important, but here surely we can convert this to seeing how we just don't know how much time we have here. We need to understand that the day of the Lord is at hand and it could come. It could come today yet and we don't have much time just to be really involved just figuring out who's right and who's wrong out there and figuring all those things out. Those are the thoughts that the Gentiles have, I believe. They think about those things. They try to hold judgments and another thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was how there's a development that comes along with that if that goes too far. I have an example in mind. I won't mention the people group I'm thinking, but we know them well, or we don't know them well, but we know of them. Somehow they have put a certain sin, it starts with the letter A, they have put it up on a pedestal and they're willing to go speak against it very boldly. I appreciate that. But in their own midst they have lawsuits, they have fightings, they have biggerings among themselves. They take no heat to control their own selves, you might say. It's just bad. It's a bad testimony. I think it's hypocritical. I'd say that's on the far end of trying to be out in the world or trying to figure out what all is going on in the world, who's right, who's wrong. I'd say they'd be an extreme case of how far things can go if we go too far that way. Okay. A man of peace will be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry. It's like James said. A man of peace will be slow to spread propaganda. Like he will hear something, he'll be slow to speak about it. He'll weigh it out, see what really is the matter. Is it really something that's important enough for me to really show it around, really say, yeah, I found this, this is what the bad guys are doing, and we all need to know about it. Is it really that important to do that? And then the other thing is, well, what if what is said about what they're doing isn't even quite accurate, and we're spreading it, what does that make us? No, I think a man of peace would be, he'd be slow to do those things. He'd be slow to speak, and of course, slow to get angry, and quick to listen things out, quick to get a full understanding, a full scope of what the important things are. I think in a pandemic like this that we're in, I think what should separate us from the people of God is that we show that we do not trust in what they trust in. We do not trust in vaccines. We do not trust in, we don't trust in these things that they put out. I'm not saying that there's not some good in vaccines, and there's not some good in wearing a, whatever, wearing a mask or, I'm not saying those things. I'm just saying that our ultimate trust has to come from God, has to be in God, and our faith has to be in God, or we'll come to one of these extreme, you know, extreme places. And neither is it our duty to be overly focused and revealing all the different, you know, reports that are out, or all the different things that are out and about that we think are bad. But we first need to make judgments within ourselves and be sure, and, you know, we try to get the beam out of someone else's eye, and we have a big log in our own eye, it won't go too well. Jesus told us that, and so it's just important. I wanted to boil, kind of boil it down to a, as I try to make my points of what a man of peace would look like and what I believe this entails if we would be able to do a little science lesson to explain this a little better, because I think it's, what I'm trying to say is a little hard to really just see all that well sometimes. But if we would think of the fruit of the Spirit as all being a content or a matter that we could take and we could mix it up into a pot, we could have a good science lesson that would have some very spiritual value to it. And I wanted to leave it at that, with that in mind, that I think that would be a good way to describe a man of peace, that would be full of love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, long-suffering, meekness. Maybe I'm missing one, but like take nine pieces of good stuff, mix it together, and it's going to prosper. That's the encouraging part. That's the thing that I want to leave you all with, is that that's what we need to be doing, is find the virtues of God and bring them into one pot and make a good thing out of it. It's what the Lord wants to do with us. And I just wanted to say that, and hopefully that's an encouragement. There's some passages in John that relate to it as well. I remember now that I missed them, I skipped them, but they're encouraging too. It's these same disciples that I expect Nathaniel was maybe with them that were full of virtue and a true Israelite were now behind locked doors. Ironically, after some time and stuff, after Jesus was caught and crucified and put in the grave, they were behind locked doors and Jesus came in their midst and said, Let peace be unto you. I think that was pretty encouraging for them. From there it seemed like it went better. It seemed like they really just got out of that and were bold. That's for us today. So I'm going to close this with a prayer and then you can make your comments. Maybe we can all stand. Refresh a little bit. Stand for prayer. Oh God in heaven, we pray to you and just want to commit our life and everything into your care. I just want to commit these things that I spoke about and just pray that they can be increased and that something was said that was hindering of your ways that it would be pointed out. I want your Spirit to reign in our lives and be thankful in all things. Just help us to be stretched and to be moved in ways that we haven't before. And just thank you so much for being a heavenly Father and sending your Son for salvation. I just want to acknowledge how worthy you are of our praise and worship and just help us through life, give us to victory. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you, Brother Adly. That was very edifying. I appreciated it. I just had a couple of thoughts. One was I just wanted to express appreciation for how you brought out a healthy kind of peace, peace that is hospitable, peace that is open to receiving truth, and then an unhealthy kind of peace that is being at peace with the way things are and being okay with the pleasures that the world has to offer, I suppose, if I caught your drift right. And then... I had another thought and it escaped me. If it comes back to me, maybe I'll share it again. Anyway, thank you. God bless you. Yeah, I too appreciated it, what you brought out, Adly, and also the scripture that was read earlier. I appreciated that as well. It helped me. I guess what struck me the most maybe is something that I think is very important is our thoughts. At least it seemed that way in my life. If we allow our thought life to go too rampant or get out of control, then Satan can stumble us in the natural, if that makes any sense, in our flesh, I guess. I guess I'm seeing it more and more like our minds, our thoughts, our spiritual, and they do control our flesh. They're obedient. The rest of the body is obedient to the mind. What comes out of us is coming out of the depths of our hearts or mind, as I would put it. And so it's very important to... I think Adly said something like... something like warfare in the mind. I forget how he said it now. The battle is in the heart of our... in the center of our souls. And... also really... when we come across that... I forget where it was at, but this is what I read this morning. Now, who will harm you if you're eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you're blessed. Do not fear what they fear, but in your hearts... I'm missing... Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts, sanctify Christ as Lord. The world is in fear with this pandemic, and I disagree with Adly. She shared on that as well. There's just this fear thing going around, and... it's like... when it first came out, somebody had a little cough, oh, this might be COVID, and now we're in for it, and maybe we'll be in for it, I don't know, but... I had to catch myself not to be fearing that thing. It is of no value. Fear not what they fear, and do not be intimidated. I just think that this personal peace is a man... is this person that Adly described, this man that has peace, he's not run by clothing and food and pandemics in the world and politics and... there's a different... there's just a different... completely different person as a Christian. Completely... completely different understanding of things. And... God wants us to fear Him and not have fear of these things around us. Anyways, I've been blessed. God be with us. Okay, my thoughts came back to me. One thing that I was thinking about, and I kind of wrestle with this a little bit, in that account of the 70, and Jesus has those instructions for them to seek out a son of peace, and if there is one there, to... to abide. And then there's another phrase in there that talks about if you can't find one such person when you visit a city, to shake off the dust of your sandals and continue on. And it seems like... and I don't think that it's wrong. I've heard before people apply that in saying that we ought not to enter into disputings and big arguments with people if somebody shuts us down and doesn't want to receive it, or if they're... if they're asking questions really only to the purpose of picking a fight, if we're evangelizing, then that's... maybe not profitable to stay engaged in that conversation. So a reason not to try to force... force the gospel on people who are unwilling to hear. And then, on the other hand, throughout the book of Acts and other places, you have people, Paul, for one, and Stephen, the first martyr, who delivered a real hard message to people who largely didn't want to hear it. And I... I struggle sometimes to... to... to know how to discern that properly. When is the right time to... to share something? And when is the time to... to move on? Also, I guess, just a... a thought on that... like, kind of that last frontier foothold of... of the devil, the enemy of thoughts. That being kind of the last foothold of him. A pretty long time ago, somebody told my wife that... Satan can't... can't see our thoughts or can't... somehow can't influence them. And I... It sounded good. It sounded kind of spiritual. It sounded like a right thing. And I... I mean, I don't think he has access into our minds, but, boy, he sure can plant seeds. Like, if we talk about when we're out evangelizing, planting a seed, you know, well, it wasn't the best conversation, but maybe a seed was planted or didn't seem like they were that interested, but maybe a seed was planted. I don't know why the enemy can't work with the same principle. He sure knows how to... He sure knows how to try to trip us up by planting the seed of a thought just from maybe something we experience on the external. Anyway, I... I identified with what you were sharing about the... about the thoughts. Thank you. That kind of makes me think of the... Is it a parable that talks about the man's house that was swept clean? You know, the house is swept clean, and then the... the wandering spirit comes back to that house and brings six or seven worse. Well, I don't know why that seed couldn't be planted, and then internally everything gets destroyed. Thank you, Brother Apley, and the thought life, I guess, until our last breath, our last hour, will always be... No one's exempt from temptation. I mean, that's our last breath, I know Brother Walter was talking about that upstairs earlier, but let's remember we're in a fight, a war, and we put on the armor of God, and one of the weapons is prayer, and like someone said years ago, we don't take time from God, I'm sorry, we don't take time from God, we make time for God, so what's the first thing we think about when we wake up in the morning? It should be prayer, or at least get our minds, get our minds geared, prayer, Bible study, someone said just seven minutes a day for those who go to work, and some of the brothers you get up at five thirty or early to go to work, just seven minutes a day of reading a couple of Psalms, a chapter from the New Testament, in prayer, we'll have, we have an advantage in how we're going to start out our day, but if we, if we neglect that, sometimes the whole day we're trying to catch up, what am I thinking this? What is this? And if we, if we don't, at least for me, in my life, if I don't have that quiet time with God before I go to work or something, the whole day could be, catch up, and it's like a downhill thing, and so I think our thought life is so important, and prayer life is one of the main things. First, what is the first thing we think about when we go to bed, and what should be the last thing we think about when we go to bed? And pray unceasingly for you brothers, and I count my blessings for all your brothers. The Lord be magnified. I just wanted to share two verses in relation to Satan, and our hearts. I think he can influence our heart. I think he can get in there and not just take away the seed. I think it's one of his tactics. We're not supposed to be ignorant of his tactics or his devices. The first scripture is John 13, 2. It says, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. And the second verse is Acts 5, 3. And there's more too. These are just two that I found fast. Acts 5, 3. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? So Satan is constantly trying to influence our thoughts and our heart and we have to be vigilant and resist the devil. We have to cast down anything that exalted itself against the knowledge of God immediately or it can get in there and it can grow and do a lot of damage. But I appreciated what you shared. It brought out a lot of good things. It actually kind of reminded me of something I read this morning. It's not a scripture. It's just like a quote in relation to some of the things that you shared about the fear and the pandemic and all the information that's being passed around. One thing that's that I've noticed is that people just can't really talk about it. They can't sit down and just have a civil conversation about it. It gets so heated and I think that that really should concern us as Christians. We should be able to talk about things and reason with one another in a peaceful manner. The quote is, Truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged. I think one of the things I really appreciate about here is at the end of the service or the sermon we have that opportunity to just say call something out or question something or agree with something. It's just really important for truth. It's just really important for anything that you can converse about it and talk about it in a peaceful manner and come to conclusions and reason with one another and in the multitude of counselors there's safety. It's just really good to be able to have that opportunity. When that opportunity ceases to exist that's when there's a real danger because if a lie or something that's not true never can be challenged then it just will proceed and it will just be what everybody goes along with. We shouldn't be afraid to challenge things or to talk about things. We should be afraid not to. Thank you. Maybe just to add to that we shouldn't be afraid to talk about things in a loving charitable way not just it has to be done in the right spirit and it has to be edifying and profitable. We shouldn't be afraid to talk about things even though they're controversial if we're in the right spirit I think we could really help each other to stay on track. We're the loved ones now and in the scenes of divine what a joy it will be to know her out there grateful and true in the hope I am there when when the ransom get all what a joy it will be what a joy it will be to be gathered together again in the hope Let us say you're with me When the parties are gone And we never more roam In the beautiful land In the beautiful land When the red sun will get low And the red sun shall rise To the glorious place On the land far away There where I turn and live What a shout he will sound Through heavens and earth Through heavens and earth On the beautiful shore What joy it will be To be a part of that Let us say you're with me When the parties are gone And we never more roam In the beautiful land When the red sun get low When the red sun cross over To that bright golden place What a beautiful song What a glorious dream We'll be walking away Mid the dawns of the sky When the red sun get high In the sweet morning light When the red sun get high When the red sun get high What a joy it will be To be a part of that Let us say you're with me When the parties are gone And we never more roam In the beautiful land When the red sun get low When the red sun get low I will sing of my reaper And his wondrous surgery On the brutal cross he suffered From the curse to set me free Sing, oh sing of my reaper With his lovely prayers he'll hear On the cross he's healed my heart He'll make my day every day I will tell a wondrous story How my lost estate is saved In his boundless love and mercy He the ransom freely gave Sing, oh sing of my reaper With his lovely prayers he'll hear On the cross he's healed my heart He'll make my day every day I will praise my dear reaper His triumphant power I'll tell I'll know the victory given Over sin and hell Sing, oh sing of my reaper With his lovely prayers he'll hear On the cross he's healed my heart He'll make my day every day I will sing of my reaper And his heavenly love to me He from death to life has brought me Sons of God in heaven to thee Sing, oh sing of my reaper With his lovely prayers he'll hear On the cross he's healed my heart He'll make my day every day