Confidence in Chaos

This whole area that we are in has been totally landscaped by ice and where did the ice go? Well, there was a climate change bingo and so I just think that it’s a political move and it’s an endeavor to somehow or another control us and to put us, I think into some kind of bondage.  We’re all aware of terrorism and it’s just getting louder and louder and louder, and just about the time when it looked to me like Israel was getting the upper hand, some terrorists scooped across the border again just hours ago, but they were trapped and they were caught and they paid the price and we just don’t know what’s going to go on there. Then someone called me last night we were chatting on the phone and this person has friends on the other side of the world and apparently the Minister of Defense of Sweden has sounded the alarm to all of Sweden that we’re preparing for war.

He outright, blatantly said we in Sweden are preparing for war, and there they really believe that Russia is on its way towards them and that’s hard to even conceive when the Russians aren’t doing so well against the Ukrainians, but the whole world is just kind of gone nutty. Then we’ve got the health crisis and this church was nearly put out of business because of our governmental response to the virus which is becoming more and more obvious all the time that it was invented and so we’re just constantly being deluged with challenges and the talk in Europe is that, well what we need to do to solve the problem is have a one world government. Isn’t it interesting that everything’s just kind of working its way out toward that? Even Canada now the Bank of Canada is going after digital currency and while I see that could have some positive effects upon it it really means that the government will even know exactly what you ordered on your pizza. 

It’s really really getting challenging in so many ways with digital currency and then our freedom of speech is being challenged and and a journalist this week was arrested for endeavoring to interview a minister who didn’t have time he was arrested and almost thrown in jail for asking a politician a question about where our worlds going and then religious expression some religions are allowed to say anything they want but the Christians according to the prime minister we are the bigger threat to Canada than even terrorist organizations and we’re losing our freedom and you know that there are things I am not allowed to say in this pulpit that in fact are biblical but I’m not allowed to say those things our freedoms are being challenged how do you sleep at night with all of this stuff going on we are really challenged with churches now as pressing

themselves with what I call liberal theology. Where it used to be wrong, now it’s right and everything that was right is now wrong and whole churches are moving that way in fact I was in the middle of a conversation just this week. I just listened with great interest as two young men who attend churches not very far from here were discussing how their churches totally changed about certain things that I consider to be, well the Bible speaks to them very very specifically so churches are now declaring themselves. Basically we don’t care what the Bible says this is our standard because we’ve got to be inclusive we’ve got to be inclusive and so that’s very very challenging because some of our kids are starting to go to those churches and I’ve had some parents discuss this with me and said I’m concerned about where our kids are going to church what is the church going to be teaching our kids?

Going forward and then we all have concern for loved ones and this has got to cause some of us to lose sleep it’s got to have some of us hopefully even more so on our knees and then there’s terrorism and we worry about our own personal safety with weird things that are going on and then there’s our personal health concerns and these things can really trouble us these things put us into crisis we have people in our church that have been dealing in the last 24 months with cancer cells and praise God it seems like that that tsunami has abated and everything is working out nicely but these kind of things can put you into crisis these things can kind of curb your enthusiasm these things can cause you to lose sleep at night and so but we’re all in crisis every one of us in in just so many ways it’s a very troubling time everything that can be shaken is being shaken.

So individually we find ourselves falling into the snare of worry some people get to the point of despair even some people have turned to to suicide because they just can’t cope anymore the suicide rate among teenagers in Canada is absolutely frightening the things that are going on and how come these young people have lost their way when I was a teenager I was never going to die I lived on the edge I was I was a nutcase I did things that were actually dangerous to me I should have known better and but I was I just was an inventor I did some nutty things because I did not fear to harm whatever but we have young people that don’t value their own lives but should we be wondering about that when their mother and dad I suppose had the option of getting rid of them before they’re ever born because abortion is the way of the world and so many of the United States just within the last few months had big elections and abortion was the biggest thing on the ticket.

If the politician was for abortion they got elected so the United States has really put its foot down with a very heavy foot we don’t value little children and of course that goes very much with what Hamas is doing because they put children into the war and they’re nothing but cowards putting little children in the way of Israel trying to stop what they’re doing and so it causes us with disappointments and crisis it causes us at times to be desperately disappointed and I believe that at times we even lose focus. Pastor Dave, do you know who you’re talking to? I’m talking to me about times I have in my life come into such crises that I felt useless even as a pastor I was so disappointed. I was so overcome with hurt and disappointment.

Then had nothing to do with what was going on in the church but it was what the world was doing to my family I just felt like a ship without a rudder and I became disappointed to the point where a deacon took me for a long drive one day and he said pastor you’re a very angry man and it’s coming out in your pulpit he devastated me I had enough trouble but he came and he said you’re not doing well pastor and so I had to repent of that and I started showing up the church at five o’clock every morning laying on the floor in my office begging God help me out of this darkness and this abyss so you see I’m speaking from experience depression I could write the book for you I have suffered from depression that there was one point where I was pastoring one of the largest churches in Canada and they called my doctor and I said well you meet me at the hospital right now.

I’m going to tell you exactly what I said to him … well you meet me at the hospital doc I’m desperate I’m in trouble he said “David what do you want why would I come to the hospital”? I said I want you to put a needle in my bum and put me out of my misery, put me into a deep sleep for 30 days, sir I can’t handle the pressure anymore I was going through great struggles because of all the pressures upon me. When I had my heart attack and it’s this is in my tenth year of survival now. I had to go to the hospital in Welland and then the hospital in Niagara Falls following the recovery from the attack and then I was put into a rehab process with some nurses and with tears at one point I said to a nurse who was overseeing my journey of getting my strength back because you see I’d lost part of my heart muscle, and

why did I lose my heart muscle? Men listened to me this morning. I self-diagnosed and it pretty near killed me. I’m one of those car drivers that I don’t look at a map until I’m totally lost. I can do this! So I had all this pain in my chest and I decided it was the leftover from the pepperoni you know what I’m talking about I’ve got gas and it wasn’t diesel, and that’s what it was … gas. I was having a heart attack and so here I was trying to recover from a heart attack my whole life was like I was flown into a crisis. I wasn’t worrying about terrorism I wasn’t worrying about the economy. I had a nurse say to me, with tears running down her cheeks, I’ve never had a patient like you! I didn’t know if she meant that I was a handsome fellow or if I was the worst idiot she’d ever dealt with.

 I said what do you mean by that? She said you are a miracle sir, I can’t believe that you’re a live the doctors cannot believe that you survived, that you were on their most critical list. I was a survivor but I had I had problems with my heart going forward, so I had nurses at the YMCA in Niagara Falls helping me to get my strength back. The first time I went there to meet with them they said just walk quietly around a track and we’ll catch up to you I did about three laps of walking in slow motion and I went to her and my eyes teared up and I said I’m sorry I going home. I didn’t have the strength to go the fourth lap walking slowly around the track. I was in crisis! I was in trouble, and the day came when I wept, and I said, you saved my life to these nurses. They wouldn’t give up on me they helped me. So I believe that medical people are of absolute intrinsic value to us and we as Christians need to keep a balance in our lives.

Yes, we believe in divine healing yes we believe that Jesus answers prayer but don’t set the doctors apart don’t drink the snake oil you don’t need a doctor and you don’t need help because I haven’t got time for your funeral for those of you on the internet three people actually left so because of the crest of the crisis that we get into. We actually don’t do well with relationships, and so marriages fail, because of heart attacks, marriages fail because of diabolical illness, marriages, and all kinds of relationships between father and son between mother and daughter. 

We live in a rock-crushing time in Canadian history. I think the days of buggies and horses must have been a great day. Now I’m being told I’ve got to get an EV ca. Yet, did you hear the word that went out clear across Canada if you’re driving one of those EV cars, please leave it parked you’re not going to make it. Somebody, it’s actually on record, somebody went to an EV station and sat freezing to death he needed to charge his car, and the store was closed. He couldn’t get any and he sat in his car and he kept the heaters running in the car it took him over a hundred dollars to get his car charged and something like three hours the message out there was don’t do it funky and so here we are being told you have to have one of these to drive.

Hertz car rentals, had a whole pile of them and now they’re going to sell them for any price you want to pay for them because nobody wants to rent one, but we’re told you have to. You have to, you have to, you have to, you have to. It brings us into anxiety what are they going to tell me to do now? They’re telling me that I eat too much meat. They want I got you they us to eat crickets. Are you nuts? Anxiety … but they’re telling us there’s going to be food shortage and yet the farmers in Holland are being told get off your farms we don’t want you to grow food. The government of Holland is taking over farms and telling the farmers you’re retired we’ll put you on social assistance. Is that coming to our country? I don’t know anxiety, anxiety. Crisis is

my world coming to an end? Then on the campuses, we understand that Islamic forces are taking over and that’s how come that the streets are crowded with people within the last few hours a whole bunch of Islamic radical people charged the White House. The White House staff have gone to some kind of seclusion to find some safety. These people are taking over and immorality runs ramped. Where do we go with this one? it’s absolutely endless inner turmoil can ruin you inner turmoil can just crush you and those nurses told me David you now have a serious heart condition and you need to know this you cannot handle any longer tension pressure and whatever puts you under pressure get out of it I’m glad my marriage is solid otherwise they’ve been telling me to leave home they said. So I went to a seminar and they said, you know don’t even if you got a heart problem, don’t adopt a new puppy in your house, because just training it could give you tension.

We’ve been there they said something as simple as that well if training a little dog in the house to go outside, our dog went outside this morning. She was so cold she stood there on three legs she refused to put down her fourth foot on the ground. it’s hard to train a dog when it looks out our dog is so smart she knows the weather better than we do she says I got to go outside and when you open the big door and she’s looking through the storm she says but not now and so training a dog can bring pressure. But what about all these crises that are going on all around our world?

How are you doing with all of this stuff how are you doing with this? Are you worried about your grandkids? I am, about what kind of a world are they going to inherit. Incredible debt that our government incurs on the federal side, we’re not, they’re not, going to be able to pay it off. With it they’re suggesting to the young couples now you know what we’re going to make sure you can get a mortgage for 100 years that sounds intelligent. So this gives us inner turmoil it is kind of you’re going to have a bad day aren’t you? Tension and stress, but there’s a confidence that can come in the middle of chaos. I’m going to ask my wonderful, helper the reader to come. Bernice would you come? You said you would do this for me again she said is this going to be a habit now I said I don’t know. 

But it certainly is today so we’re going to read out of Philippians 4 and I had several people as of last Sunday say we like that I think they like the fact that I was calming down not shouting and Bernice’s voice is much nicer so would you stand with us just now and we’re going to do what we even did again last week and that is we’re going to read the word of God and it says in James. We’re going to read first of all the King James and I will read the first verse which is in white and then Bernice will lead you in reading out loud the verse that’s in yellow so this is Philippians chapter 4 and This is what it says I’ll read the first verse rejoice in the Lord can I pause for a moment there? thank you, it doesn’t say if everything’s going well. It doesn’t say if CNN Lord help you if Fox you still need help if that’s your source of news you’re going to feel troubled. Rejoice anyway, rejoice in the Lord the Apostle said, and then he said and again I will say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men the Lord is at hand be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally brethren whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good report if there’s any virtue, and if there’s anything praiseworthy meditate on these things..

Now we’re going to go to the same passage but we’re going to read it from the NIV version so we’ll begin with you reading the verse For Rejoice in the Lord always I will say it again rejoice let your gentleness be evident to everyone the Lord is near, do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus finally brothers and sisters whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things you’ll notice that I underlined all the very special descriptive words. 

Is it pure, is it noble, is it right, is it lovely, is it admirable, is it excellent, is it worthy of praise then you can think about that may the Lord add his richest blessing to the reading and the digesting of his word turn to somebody and say he’s doing okay so far oh nobody said that to Cheryl she’s right he’s doing okay oh please be seated thank you so I want to take a couple of minutes then and just go over those words because I spent enough time on telling you how challenging the world is but it’s really not all that bad if you look at it through the lenses of the Lord it’s really important to keep our eyes upon Jesus there’s an old song we used to sing would you like to sing it with me right now turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. 

So we’re first of all admonished to think about what’s troubling you now and how much time you’re going to give what’s coming at you right now and if is it even something that you’ll pass on to someone else because remember when we pass on a conclusion that we’ve made it affects someone if we say something happy it has the potential of making someone happy I had a sermon some years ago that I preached and I put it this way what you say does it bring light or does it bring darkness does it breed life or what you’re about to say is going to breed death song that we used to sing his little kids be careful little mouth what you say be careful little mouth what you say. There’s a Father up above looking down with tender love, be careful little mouth what you say. 

So what you think is liable to be what you say out of the abundance of your heart your mouth will speak, as a man thinketh the word says so is he, and if I think negativity I will become a negative person and I will my negativity I’ll drive people away but if I’m a happy guy I see the bottle half full not half empty I can say it’s freezing today I’m so glad I’m a Canadian because I know how to handle it I heard about a fellow I thought it was rather humorous I want to believe it’s a true story a fellow who was such a buoyant happy Christian fellow he worked in some kind of a factory a foundry of sorts and the men he was getting on their nerves because no matter what negative thing came along he would praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. He’s always praising the Lord so these guys got together and said how come we shut this guy up well we can do it for once maybe we can’t we can’t fix him but let’s just let him know that we’re a little unhappy with a price alert praise the Lord so they concoct an idea and this morning when he arrived they saw where he put his lunch box and they were thinking oh he loves his lunch we’ll steal his lunch so they when he wasn’t looking they ran off with this little metal lunch box and they took out the sandwiches and whatever else was delectable in there because when he ate his lunch he he’d be praying over saying praise the Lord all my wife made my favorites well praise the Lord.

So they wanted to fix him, so they filled his lunch bucket with material from the foundry like some rocks or some bolts or whatever and put the lunch box back, and then when they all gathered in the lunch room everybody’s eyes were upon Joe and they said this will fix him, and their story is that when Joe opened up his box and he saw it was all bolts and nuts he sat back and said well praise God I still have my appetite. You know people like that can grate.  I guess unbelievers but there are certain people and I mentioned a couple of you to somebody else just recently and I said have you ever noticed I’ve never seen that person frown. I’ve never seen them down in the mouth I don’t know if they know what depression is you could step on their

toes I believe they I believe they giggle that person always has a smile and you know what I like to be around people like that. Smile I like to be around happy people the world’s going to hell in a handbasket, yeah but Jesus is coming soon I like the second part of it yes the world is in trouble but this did not catch God unawares and if you read the book of Ezekiel and Daniel and then polish it off with the book of Revelation you will never despair because you know at the end of the day we win we win so first of all if you’re going to spend any time on this see at the end of this reading that we had whatever is good da da da da da think on meditate on these things so if you’re going to spend some time thinking on these things first of all way it up is it true, 

Well I looked it up in Miriam Webster’s dictionary I don’t think she cares about anything these days she’s been around a lot longer than most of us but her thoughts are still with us and so I looked up the Miriam Webster dictionary what is called true the definition so you have to do some fact-finding to find out is something’s true and that’s what the reporters claim that they’re doing by times when Trump will make a statement or somebody else will make a statement and they’ll come on to fact let’s do factual checking let’s check it out so before you spend any time and before you ever pass it on to somebody else make sure it’s true okay is it true are you sure it’s true but is that the only acid test I could tell you something

from this propo this morning that is true and if I were to say it from the pulpit you’d be horrified think about it not everything that is true is it worthy thing to throw on a tossed salad just because it’s true doesn’t mean you should work on it Russia is killing Ukrainians don’t focus on that forever it’s true but it’s not uplifting and it’s not encouraging we’re all troubled by all of it but don’t let that be your breakfast your lunch and your supper you’ve got to rise above that turn your eyes upon Jesus and look at his face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim whatever’s true and then Paul says true but is it noble now that is a unique word that we seldom use anymore it’s in our English dictionary and it should be part of our language.

But you don’t hear very many times you don’t hear that word used very often well what does that word mean well it means possessing outstanding qualities if someone is always doing excellent deeds we would go we would do well to call that person a noble person be careful now you don’t know what they’re doing when you’re not looking but you know you know the concept here what you’re going to spend your time on and what you’re going to pass on to somebody else is it true but is it noble if it’s not noble don’t waste your time on it okay whatever is true whatever is noble but is it right, is it the right thing, it’s factual and it has some noble things to it but is it the right thing to do I gotta I got a notion to go back to that Tim Horton’s place and give them a piece of my mind. Well yeah, your coffee was cold I got a cold coffee this week. I didn’t know what to do about it I did go back but I was very nice I was sweet I didn’t want to give them a rough time so I tried to be noble and it would have been the wrong thing to go in there carrying my 45 pound King James Bible and giving them a piece of my mind be careful little mouth what you say as a Christian you’ve lost your rights to be angry with everybody as a Christian you’ve lost a lot of your rights to speak your mind because speaking your mind could put you in bad light you could make up your mind and pronounce this thing and in short order, you just might have to eat your words you just might have to eat your word because you were wrong in your assessment.

So make sure it’s true what you’re going to think about. Make sure it’s noble and make sure what you’re thinking about doing in your anger you’re disappointed well I’m going to get my piece of I’m going to tell them what I think to make sure it’s the right thing to do and if it does not stop thinking about it right according to Miriam means it she uses this word in her dictionary if it’s right it’s righteous what would Jesus do it’s upright it’s in accordance with what is just. It’s in accordance with what is good it’s the proper thing to think about and as you think you will speak and as you think you will act so be careful what you think about and be extra careful what you speak of but is it pure is it pure yes it’s true I believe it would be noble to say so I believe it would be the right thing to do. 

I have that right I think Jesus went into the temple and in righteous dignity he tossed over the tables and he can you imagine somebody coming into our church today keeping over the communion table and knocking over the piano because they don’t believe in that kind they don’t believe it and so that’s what Jesus did that was called righteous indignation righteous anger but the Bible says it’s okay to be angry but don’t sin in other words don’t take that anger to another level where you’re not only thinking about it but you find yourself muttering and saying something about it and then what you’re gonna do is liable to hurt somebody pretty bad so is it true is it noble, is it right, is it pure, is it pure what you’re thinking about what you spend your idle time.

With this is it spotless, is it stainless? Remember the story that we’ve been rehearsing again and again from this pulpit about we are the bride of Christ Jesus is the groom he proposed to us and invited us to accept our place in the bride of Christ now he’s gone back to prepare as the groom a house for us and what is our role as though the awaiting soon to be bride to maintain our purity because he’s looking for a church that’s without spot and wrinkle I was invited some years ago to go into downtown Toronto and carry a placard and come against the abortion clinic I chose not to do it I had some people that thought as a pastor that’s sure you got to do that but I was watching on TV what was going on and I didn’t want to be a part of such a ruckus the yes I’m against abortion. I’m so troubled, I’m angry about it, I’m disturbed about it, I’m really troubled about it, but what should be my response to it waving a placard they wave the placards, and what’s going on today was it a good idea and what did it accomplish well we had our say yeah you did how did it go how did it work out how did it work out I need to be spotless and I need to be stainless and every corridor of my life and it all begins up here with the mind finally brothers and sisters whatever’s true whatever’s noble whatever’s right whatever’s pure whatever’s lovely whatever’s admirable if it’s excellent and it’s worthy of praise then yes spend time thinking about it think about it meditates on it and let it be part of your life that’s true think about it.

Yes spending time on it is a noble thing yes well then is it the right thing is it pure is it lovely so as I kind of worked through this I thought hey Dave like I’m a news junkie and I have noticed my lovely dear that when I turn on I listen to I T N I think that’s it it’s coming out of Israel it’s not been laundered by news media on this side of the world it’s and they do their laundering I’m sure but at least I’m seeing pictures and I can determine for myself so then I get all riled up about about about these people that are carrying on like they are and it messes me up is what those tyrants doing in Gaza is it true sure it is but is it noble no is it right it’s not is it pure dear God no is it lovely are you serious is it admirable what they’re doing they believe that what they’re doing is admirable but their sense of noble and pure and right we live on a different planet we just don’t share the same concepts but I’m feeling a check in my spirit David how much time are you thinking about that because the more you think about the tragedies the right things little children their little bodies were on bay and that says those Hamas people ran to the street and and and something like 80% of the Palestinians were celebrating and carrying on and when they went absolutely berserk and then there was an echo all over the United States I was so troubled by that but I’ve got to get it out of my vision lying because it’s not noble it’s not worthy of a whole lot of my time.

I’ve got to set that aside I deal and I struggle with anger like so many people do I guess I don’t like a lot of things that are going on in my country I don’t like the two-sided thing that comes out of sometimes parliamentary situations,  I’m angry about that and I think it’s unfair it’s unfair it’s just not right I’m hearing lies I’m hearing all kinds of things that just they just grate me but I’ve got to find a way to deal with that and how shall I do so I need to think about true things I need to think about things that are noble things that are right things that are pure I need to meditate I need to focus I need to internalize things that lift my spirit I’m realizing that being a news junkie could actually be harmful to my heart health. David, if it puts you under stress, get rid of it okay but by the way I can’t live in a cocoon, somebody says did you hear what’s going on oh no I live above that now that’s kind of arrogant I need to be aware of what’s going I need to be conversant but I must not become focused I must not internalize that I must not let anger be my business card I’m hearing things about what was in the Pfizer in the Moderna and all that stuff I’m furious I’m listening to I’m listening to medical people out of Britain the stuff they put into our veins it’s not right.

Shut your mouth David it’s done it’s finished and you’ve got to trust God all the way don’t trash the government it’ll get you nowhere and by the way when you trash the government if you do it in public you’ve got some enemies right there that are listening to you who believe the very opposite as you do so what have you accomplished meditate focus is it okay if I’m talking like this today is it lovely is it attractive is it beautiful is it admirable is it excellent if anything’s excellent if anything’s praiseworthy then yes focus on these things and you’ll be an attractive person I have a friend hope he’s not listening I don’t think he would be listening doesn’t matter why and this fellow has his own concepts about the end times and he’s absolutely absolutely sure that that the end times are going to be very injurious to the church we’re all going to go through the tribulation we’re all going to be decapitated and on and on and on and I’ve said I can’t go there. Well, what do you believe Dave? I said you know what smarter people than you and I, have debated this for centuries we’re not going to get into it and I walked away but then I met his neighbor he lives in one of these duplexes. She lives on the other side she said oh you know I’m gonna call him Steve that’s not oh you know Steve boy he’s he’s such a negative fellow isn’t he, she said I just avoid him if he’s shoveling the snow on his side of the driveway I wait till he goes in she said I don’t want to hear that stuff here’s this fellow believing that it’s his responsibility to speak into this unsaved woman’s life about the end times and how the devil’s gonna take over blah blah blah and she’s had it up to here and I want to say to him so you’ve been telling your neighbor about that how’s it going because I know from his neighbor, it’s not going well.

Whatever’s excellent superb wonderful terrific great awesome that’s what excellent means I mean fabulous it’s fabulous if it’s fabulous think about it it’ll change your mind Bunkie No there’s a little bit of snow on the ground but kids love the snow it’s kind of cold out there don’t you love your nice warm coat don’t you like to sit beside a fire and roast chestnuts I don’t know anybody that rose chestnuts but anyway that’s what the song says somebody raise your hand I’m not gonna go down the list look what I put out there this is all the stuff that’s going on the world immorality, radical Islam, and he said Muslimism, cancel culture, give me a break, woke is them I’ve had it with all of this stuff.

I like the way my granny and grandpa lived they didn’t even have electricity and the outhouse was really out there but life was simple, but life was simple. It’s getting a little too complicated for me whatever’s praiseworthy, whatever’s wonderful, whatever’s commendable, whatever’s laudable, whatever is worthy of merit, that’s where you need to park your train you need to be right there I want us to conclude this morning would you do so with me I want us to sing a couple of songs and these are the old hymns and if you don’t know them I bet you do and the first one I’d like us to sing it’s on a piece of paper I made sure you got this morning and it’s called love it lifted me thinking negative thoughts didn’t help me at all but the love of Jesus, it lifted me up and it changed my life would you stand with me because I’d like us to sing I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore singing its words His love lifted me, love lifted me. When nothing else could help, Father lives that we. Oh, my heart to him I give, ever to him I cling. In his blessed presence live, ever his praises sing. Love so white and so true, ever to the best. They fall for glory, service to thee. He is love left in me, is love left in me. When nothing else could help, His love lifted me, His love lifted me, and nothing else could help, Father lives that we. Somebody said,  Amen. Now we’ll sing one more. That’s not quite so jubilant, but it’s very deep, it’s very moving. I’m sure this song has brought such tender comfort and love, and soulless, not thousands, but millions. 

When peace like a river, attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul

It is well

With my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come

Let this blest assurance control

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate

And hath shed His own blood for my soul

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

Think about it now. If he could take care of the sin problem, the sin was the greatest challenge you had in your life. And he obliterated it with his blood. He took care of the biggest problem in your life. So everything else is just little peanuts, little irritations. He’s your king, he’s your master, and no amount of bad news, no amount of tribulation, no physical infirmity can rob the hope and the joy that’s in your heart. Nothing can rob you of the foundational steadfast hope that you have 

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul.

which is your mind, connected to your emotions, and controls your will. That’s the soul. Your mind needs to filter and it allows you to inflict upon your emotions, because when your emotions go down the wrong trail, it messes up your will, and you become in bondage. The mind, literally by what it functions with, controls your emotions, and then your emotions, smother your will. And then you cannot say like Mary, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices. Your spirit can’t rejoice when your soul is in bondage. So David said to his soul, his mind, emotions, come on soul, come on soul. I, yes, come on soul, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and don’t forget all of his benefits. Come on soul, get up out of bed, get up, wash your face, and face the world, because the world’s waiting for your message. Shine up your face, and dry your tears, because you are a bearer of wonderful news. So sing to your soul, and say, come on soul, it is well, come on now,

it is well. With my soul, it is well, it is well, with my soul. 

Heavenly Father, I am praying for me right now. In this prayer, I was just spreading upon all of these people. Help me to guard my soul. Dear Jesus, help me to guard my soul. Help me not to be a negative person. Help me not to be an angry person. When people think about David, dear God, I want them to think, I like that fellow. I like what comes out of his mouth. I like his attitude. I’d like to be just like him. I wonder what motivates him. Dear Jesus, I want to be that guy. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news. I don’t want to be the guy that always wants to talk about that, that government. What are they doing to it? I don’t want to be the guy that always talks about Hamas. I don’t want my whole lifestyle to be all about those bad Muslim people. I don’t want to be, because they’re not all bad. Dear Jesus, help me to be faithful to the text I preached today. Help me to live the message I preached. Help me and help my dear friends here today. Help them to fall in love with whatever’s true, whatever’s noble, whatever’s of good report, whatever’s genuine, whatever lifts up, whatever brings life, whatever brings life, Lord, help us to love every bit of that.

In Jesus’ name.