Rejoice in the Lord & the peace of God #2

Well, today we have a part two of Philippians 4, 4-7. Can I get someone to read 4-7 from the Bible? I don't have it on the overhead. I just have the last two verses, so if someone would volunteer to read that, that would be great. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful not to worship for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Great, thank you.

Okay, so today we're going to look at the last two verses. Last week Bob covered the first two verses. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. So these two verses, I would dare say that these two verses, everyone, every believer that's spent any time in scripture probably knows these verses. The challenge here is do we really trust the Lord for what he's asking us to do?

He's asking us to do a very simple thing here. And people have phrased it different ways. replace worry with prayer. That's one summary. Macaulay says, worry is self-centered, prayer is God-centered. And that's exactly what we're going to see. He doesn't really want us to go there and worry.

I would say that's the most challenging thing in a Christian life because there are so many things that we deeply care about. And we think somehow that we're going to improve them by worrying. And I'm actually preparing this message. I've been working on this for about the last three weeks. In the midst of these three weeks, I had a kind of a thing that happened with our neighbors. And I hate those kind of things. And it's just where I am worrying right away. I'm saying, what am I doing? Watch, I'm preparing this lesson on worry. I'm doing exactly what I'm what I'm going to tell you not to do.

So don't think I've arrived. And I think the Lord wants us to see, hopefully we'll take some things away here maybe you haven't thought of before, and maybe not. You guys are pretty good. Any other thoughts here before we start? Okay, so we're just going to kind of jump into the first verse. Okay, so the first part of the first verse in my translation is be anxious for nothing.

And who has the King James? Could they read there? I think Doris and... It says be careful for nothing. Okay. Well, we're going to find that this word, be anxious or be careful. Actually, it's meramonano. It's actually, it can be used in a good sense or in a bad sense. And actually Paul's used it He's used it in a good sense.

Back in Philippians 2.20 he said, for I have no one else of kindred spirit who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. So this word in the Greek can be translated in a positive sense. So Paul was commending him for being concerned for the welfare of believers. I think it was in Philippi. But in this case, it's used, I don't want you to be nirmanano. I don't want you to be anxious, troubled, worried. And this isn't just a suggestion. This is what's called imperative. It's a command.

And I think the Lord comes to us here and he says, and we're going to see, we're going to look at the Lord Jesus' teaching in Matthew. He comes to us and he says, you know, it's only logical. for who you are in Christ, what I've done for you, that this should be your mindset. This is how you should think. And I like Verne's logical imperatives. This is how you should think. To think otherwise would make no sense.

You would be denying who you are. So as we go through, we're going to look at the same word, merimonano, and we're going to look at what Christ said about it. And there's a verse here I wanted to look at in 1 Peter. It's sort of like a parallel verse.

1st Peter 5.7. Could someone read that for me? It's a very similar kind of idea. Actually you could read 6 and 7 if you want.

1st Peter 5.6 and 7. Humble yourself therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. So, in verse 7 there, it says, casting all your anxiety, and that's our word.

This is a noun form. No, I'm sorry. This is a verb form, Roger. The other one here, I believe, is a noun form, anxiety. So, it's the same word. So, the idea is that you're transferring your worry or anxiety, you're transferring it from you to God. He doesn't want you to carry that. You know, the picture in Scripture always is that He wants to carry the load. He doesn't want you carrying the load. So that's what we're going to see. And he's going to tell us his game plan here, basically. The last half of this verse is God's game plan. This is how I want you to handle worry or anxiety in the Christian life.

OK. So we're going to look at, and it's probably almost too small to read in your handout. I apologize. But you can look up here. We're going to look through what the Lord Jesus had Matthew 6 25 through 34 and I've underlined the word worried and it's the same word that's translated be anxious in in the Philippians passage in Philippians 4 6 be anxious for nothing so we're just going to go through this so he starts off and actually I would like to have brought in each verse you know in PowerPoint you can My PowerPoint skills fell apart here. It was just too late. You can bring in each verse one at a time so you don't see all the rest of the verses. Anyway, I gave up on that about 9.30 last night, so I can't do it. It's doable.

Anyway, so the first verse, Matthew 6.25. For this reason, and I think he's referring back, if you look in the context of Matthew 6 there, he talks about serving God and serving Mammon. money. He basically says the idea is that you'll serve God and he says for this reason I say to you do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink nor for your body as to what you will put on is life not more than food and the body not more than clothing.

So he's going to start in here and he's going to reason with us. He's going to say Look at my creation. And he says, okay, there's three things in my creation he's going to talk about. First he says your life. He's going to talk about your life. But then he says, that's kind of broken down into three parts. Basically what you eat, what you drink, and what you wear. So he's going to discuss that with us. This is primary to Israel, but I think it speaks to us as well. He's going to discuss with us the logic of that. He says, okay, first example.

He says, look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. And interesting, someone pointed out, is it the bird's Heavenly Father? No, it's our Heavenly Father. And I actually hadn't caught that, but somebody pointed it out. It's your Heavenly Father. He doesn't say that I'm not trying to be heart and animals, but man is created above the animals, and it's our Heavenly Father, so I don't know if that's a thing. He's their creator, but he has a personal relationship with us. Anyway, your Heavenly Father feeds them, are you not much more than they?

So he's kind of reasoning saying well look the birds of the air they don't go out they don't say okay let's see let's go on where can I go do this now they do if you observe the birds they do kind of they fill up their you know they'll bring food to their babies and stuff if you have a little nest in your yard or something like that they go out either there In fact, they actually try to get rid of their nests, and it's a challenge. If they're intent on building a nest in your gutter, you may be out there every day trying to take the nest down because they work right away at it.

But they're not worried. We don't communicate with the birds, and so they're not worried. That's according to the Lord. They're not worried about that. He says, aren't you much more than they? By comparison, my I created you in my likeness, and I've given you my spirit, and there's so many things, you're so much more valuable than they. And then it goes on,

27. And who of you, being worried, can add a single hour to his life? So he wants another set of reasoning.

Is this worrying, how are you dealing with worrying? Is it really helping you out? Is it paying the bills? Is it putting anything in the bank? Is it part of your exercise program? I'll go out and worry for half an hour. Go to the gym or I'll worry. What's my choice? I'll worry. I won't go to the gym. In fact, actually going to the gym sometimes helps you from not worrying, right? That's what I found at least. Then 28. Why are we worried? Knight talks about clothing. Why are we worried about clothing? Observe how the leaves of the field grow.

They do not toil or spin. So he says, you know, I've created a clothing for this earth. I've created that. And he says, it's more specific, in 29, that I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like the ones of these. God's clothing for his creation is magnificent. I mean, it's incredible.

So once again, he's reasoning with us. Think about my creation, what I've done, in verse 30. But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow it is thrown in the furnace, will he not much more clothe you? You of little faith. So he continued on his reasoning about what he's done and how much more important you are by comparison with the rest of his creation in 31. And this is the same word, merimonano, that we've been looking at. Do not worry then, saying, what will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. So here's a really key point, and we're going to see this. We're going to see later on that we come to God in prayer, but He already knows what we're going to pray. He already knows our needs to start with. Before we ever say one thing or ask one thing, He already knows them all. But He wants us to pray.

And you think, well, And your head kind of goes, wait a minute, he knows them all? I was kind of thinking like with your kids. Isn't that wonderful? You know, when they're young especially, you know their needs. They've got to get good sleep, they've got to eat, get to bed on time, study their homework, you know their needs. So when they come to you and ask you something, you already know. Unless it's something awful, you pretty well know what they're going to ask about. Can I stay up later? Is there something I want to know? I don't want to do my homework. I hate homework.

So you know their needs. And so I kind of see a parallel there between our Heavenly Father knows our needs. He knows what we're about. So then in 33, he says, but seek first the kingdom for his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. And the last one, so do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. So he goes through with reasoning about worry, why we shouldn't be in that mode. So any other thoughts?

I mean, I just kind of whizzed through this pretty quickly. Now, this verse occurs maybe 30 times in scripture, and this is the most extensive use of it here in the Gospel of Matthew. So what I want to do now is I want to transition and use the last part. But this is the main word for worry as we've talked about it. It can be used in a positive sense or a negative sense. And most times in scripture, it's used in a negative sense.

So let's go on. So now, he says, be anxious for nothing. And it's this word meden, not at all and no respect. And Wiest has packaged this together. And the idea here of this word is be anxious not at all or be anxious and no respect. And Wiest has brought across quite well.

Stop worrying. even, stop worrying about even one thing. And one thing that I didn't point out, the verb tense, it's a command, but it's in the present tense, which means it's something that's continually going on. So the idea here is that you're already worrying. And God's saying, stop worrying about even one thing. And then after this, he's going to kind of give us, then there's going to be a button here, and after the button, he's going to tell us This is what I want you to do. Stop worrying about even one thing. Which I think is great. So if you want to have it in your head, he doesn't worry about one thing.

You think, well that's an impossibility. And realistically speaking, given that we have a fallen nature and we have two natures, we're going to worry. The question is will we see God's remedy for it and rely upon Him and exercise faith in what He's provided for us. That's kind of the I'm not proposing that after this class you'll never worry again. So anyway, okay. So it's, but stop worrying about even one thing, but Allah, in strong contrast, so here it comes. We now have in the remainder of verse six, the remedy for anxiety and worry. So here he's going to start in and he says, here's what I want you to do. And you're going to say, I already know that. I've tried it. It doesn't work. We'll see. Hopefully we'll see some new things here. OK.

So here's his, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So if you look at this last part, And it really helped me if I rearranged it. Right now it's not in the subject first, then the verb, and then the modifiers. It's arranged differently. So I attempted to do that. So here it is kind of rearranged.

I underlined the plurals just because I thought it was important that we see that it's just not you have a single request and that's it. It's request plural. There's going to be many requests. So in subject, verb, modifier. rearranging form, it would read, your requests, plural, let them be made known in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. So now I'm going to use that rearranged part of this verse here, verse 6, and we're going to kind of go through each part of this. So the subject is your request, and literally it's the things, that which has been asked for. or a thing asked for. I want to look at those couple verses, but first I want you to notice that a form of the word for prayer actually occurs four times in this passage. Request, the word request is a word for prayer. Prayer is prayer, supplication, thanksgiving. They're all This last part of this verse is filled with words that talk about our communication with God. Request, prayer, supplication, thanksgiving. All talking about communications with God.

So part of the answer to be anxious for nothing is to communicate with God. And if you think about it, that's where you want your focus to not be on yourself. Typically your worry is about yourself or your family or there's something about you interacting with something and it focused on God. He wants you focused on him, not upon your circumstances.

So let's look at a couple of these verses here. Could someone read Ephesians 3.20? So this is going to talk, we're going to look at the word for your request or ask.

Ephesians 3.20. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. Great, thank you.

So basically it's translated here, ask. So this is asking God. This is communicating with God and making a request or asking him. And that's the subject. You're asking him And then we're going to see, you're asking him, and then we're going to see what the verb is here in a second. And then the other verse there is just talk, another word, another one for pray for and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. So let's look at the, so how do we make, this is kind of a, how do we make a request of God? I've already kind of given you the answer. We send him an email. We text him. Twitter him, tweet to him. Request is prayer.

I just want to keep us on track here. So the verb here, so the subject is your request, plural, let them be made known to God. And this verb here is the idea that you're making known something already known. So like I said, just like with our children, you know your children, they come to you and they ask something, and you already know, and so our Heavenly Father is so much more than that.

He knows where we're at. He's not surprised. He doesn't say, uh-oh, you did it again. No, He's not going to be that way. He's a loving Heavenly Father. He knows exactly where you're at, and He cares for you, and He wants you to communicate with Him. And He's going to tell you It's not just about a few things.

Just pick your top 10. I want to hear the top 10, you guys out there. Only the top 10. The rest of them, let them, you know. And when the 11th one, you know, you get the top one cleared out, then you move the 11th one up. Now I hear that one. He doesn't operate that way. Not at all. OK. So you request plural, let them be made known. So that's the idea.

And I had some 1 Corinthians 15, I'll just read that. It says, Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I have preached to you which you also received and which you also stand." So Paul was, when he was talking to the Corinthians there, he was saying, I'm going to tell you the gospel but I've already made, you've already received it, you already know about it, I'm going to tell you again. So that's a little bit different context, but the idea is that it's something that the Lord already knows. Your request, let them be made known. Then we're going to find there are four modifiers of the verb. Four things that are to be made known. Let them be made known. Four aspects of that.

The first one is, and this is just what I talked about, in everything, pas in the Greek, all, Nothing excluded. So I was just kind of joshing with you there. Not the top 10. He wants them all. You say, well, but I told you these all before, Lord. I told you every single one of these and I've done it again and again and again.

You know, one thing you notice here, he doesn't address answering prayer in this passage. He only addresses, he wants you not to be focused. He doesn't say, Here's my plan for answering these. He says, let's talk about other places, but he says here I want you to take your focus off yourself and worry and focus on me by prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and request. Take your, you know, stop focusing on yourself, focus on the Lord.

So in the first Peter passage here, could someone read that? This is a very, very familiar passage to very, very much the same idea. First Peter 5, 7. of your faith be much more precious than of gold, that perishance, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I may have got through. That's 1 Peter 5, 7?

Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. I'm going to go. I think the one you want is casting all your tears. Yes, exactly. Amen. Yeah, it's basically 1 Peter 5.7 is casting... Okay, this is cool.

1 Peter 5.7, the all there is the same word, pas, casting some of your prayers, I mean, casting some of your anxieties, a few, the top ten, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. The Lord wants them all. Every single one. Because actually, if you think about it, if you give all to Him, then you have... There's nothing over here. Isn't that cool? You can say, I give them all to you Lord. They're all there. They're in your camp.

Now there's an issue about, we're going to say, well, but Roger, he doesn't answer these prayers. I pray enough day and night. Well, that's, you know, is that your responsibility? Get those prayers answered. I mean, we'd like to have, I mean, there's plenty of prayers I'd love to have answered. And many of them I think are very devout for people's salvation. I mean, many wonderful prayers, but I'm not in control of that.

This is where he wants you to be. You put him on him, and you trust him. You thank him. You interact with him. It's a different focus. So he's not going to address answering the prayer. He's going to address where your focus should be. And it's not to be on worry. OK. So that's the first. So there's the B here.

Here's a method by prayer. and supplication. So, you know, I found these very subtle. If I looked up, when I did, I looked up some verses that use the word, this particular word for prayer in the Greek, and it's the most frequent word for prayer. Sometimes it'll be like, the Lord Jesus prayed, he went off with his disciples and prayed. That might be an example of this word. This other word, supplication, is more one for your need. I couldn't find some really sharp examples.

I did find that this prayer and supplication, that pair, that word pair is used in a variety of places like in Ephesians 6.18 by prayer and petition or prayer and supplication.

In 1 Timothy 5.5 by supplication and prayer is night and day. So that combination is used together. So part one is it's in everything. Part two is by prayer and supplication. And part C is with Thanksgiving and literally it's a giving of thanks.

This is to be a balanced interaction with him. You thank him. You thank him that you're saved. You thank him that you realize this. You thank him that whatever comes into your mind, you're thankful about that. You're not just always, I need this, this. It's hit real hard. You're talking to somebody. You know, be like your kids. If your kids just sit there all the time, wait a minute, you're in this house, you have food, you have clothing, you're going to school. Aren't there things to be thankful about? You would train your children, tell your children those kind of things. with Thanksgiving.

Exactly. It says thank him before you even get the answer. Right. So many times, well let's not thank him until we see what he does. Exactly. I want to see. That takes that worry out of it too. Thanksgiving, you're not going to have to be worried about it. Exactly. Whatever the answer is. Exactly. No, that's cool.

It's with Thanksgiving. It's with Thanksgiving. So is that thanking him for listening to you or thanking him for just anything? Well, go ahead. I kind of see that the same way Wayne was describing. Uh huh. your thanksgiving is for what's about to occur.

Because it's according to his will. It's like we're praying to change God's mind. We're praying to change the outcome. We're praying to be in accordance with his will. And that's thanksgiving. And I think that really sometimes, and I know personally, I'm in the same camp, I worry too much about the answer to prayer rather than just praying to God and saying, OK, Lord, I'm just going to pray to you. You know, I see this, it seems like it's imperative that this be answered. You've just got to answer this one. This is a biggie. You've just got to answer this one. But, you know, you're not God. Go ahead, I'm sorry.

Well, the answer is all part of the conformity process, so regardless of what thinks, I mean, you can be thankful regardless of the outcome because it's all conformity to the image of Christ. I think what Bonnie is saying too is that thanking him for who he is also, I think doesn't have to be for both. With Thanksgiving, we're not only thankful that he's going to answer for everything. It's an attitude in both ways.

Well, I think it's always a good exercise. At different times in our family, we try to say, OK, tonight we have a prayer time. We're going to just try to thank the Lord for all these things. And we try to just say off the, I want this and I want that. Let's just thank him. Let's just thank him for all the things.

And if you're really serious about that, there is just innumerable. You could be there days. It does, it does. The blessings we have in Christ, that we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies, that he's our father, and we're his children, and it just goes on and on and on. I mean, and that we have a destiny secure. I mean, it's not in doubt. It's not dependent upon an election. Sorry, I've been watching too many, doing things.

Let's see, the Colossians, let's see, Colossians 4.2.

Someone read that, Colossians 4.2? I thought that was kind of cool.

Continue in prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving. So basically, you continue in prayer, and in my sense, with the attitude of Thanksgiving. So in your prayer, Thanksgiving is all in there. It's all in there together. Just like you might think that, you know, if your kids are really serious, they say, Mom and Dad, And this has happened a little later on.

Mom and Dad, our home wasn't too bad. It's kind of a mild plus. It was pretty cool at your house. We kind of liked it there. Wow. Usually it's, oh, well, this and that. Here's what you, all the things that we wish were different. It was kind of cool there. We kind of liked it there. You go away with a smile on your face. Thank you, Lord.

And then the Colossians 2.7 is, overflowing with gratitude for Thanksgiving. And then the fourth one is, to God. It doesn't sound like it's much, but it's actually this word pros, so it's reminding yourself that we're in everything, by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, and it's to God, and we're just not throwing those prayers, okay Lord, there it goes, oh it didn't make it, no I guess it didn't make it, You know, it reminds us that we're face to face, or in God's presence, that word pros. And actually, in Romans 5, this is one of Hal's favorite verses, and it became my favorite verse, I have to listen to Hal talk about it, and it uses this word pros.

Romans 5.1 uses this word pros in terms of, it says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with, cross, with God, face-to-face with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have peace with God, face-to-face with God, and he says, I want you to pray recognizing that you're face-to-face with me. I'm not far off. I'm like your children. I'm sitting across. You can't see them, but the proximity, I'm face-to-face. That's not looking off over there. Oh, he's busy now. I can't talk to him now. He's face-to-face with us. Now that was really cool.

So that's the That's the remedy, that's God's plan for not being anxious. But in everything, by prayer, supplication, thanksgiving to God. The verse that follows is going to tell you the wonderful the wonderful benefit that's going to come to you when you follow God's plan.

Worry about what benefit is going to come to you. We saw the Lord Jesus arguing, you know, you're not going to add a hour to your life. Tomorrow is going to be a bunch of more worries. Today had some worries, tomorrow will be some more. So that's not going to help you go in there.

But here, there's going to be a tremendous benefit when you interact with God in those four areas, prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and recognizing this face-to-face with God. there's going to be a tremendous benefit for you. You're going to have a tremendous peace about this situation. And that's verse 7. I read that one already. Okay. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So we're just going to look at the first part. And the peace of God. Okay, peace of God. That's the peace that only God can give. This is that little phraseology, peace of.

I did a search on that and there really were not that many phrases like that. The one that I did find is in Colossians 3.15. Can someone read that?

Colossians 3.15?

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you will call in one body, and be thankful. Okay, that's cool, that's good. So this case is referred to as the peace of Christ. But this is the peace that only God has. Only God is the author of peace. And remember, one of the fruits of the Spirit is peace, right? Love, joy, peace. Only God has true peace. I mean, man can talk all day once, but there's no true peace outside of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. There's none. So, there are other phrases that are used in Philippians that he used before, but they're not this peace of God.

There's a peace from God in Philippians 2.1, and there's the God of Peace, and that's actually like a title. God is called the God of Peace. You can look through scripture, you can find a bunch of examples of that. He's called the God of Peace.

Okay, so here's the cool part. If you notice in this one, this actually is subject, the subject is the peace of God, the verb is will guard, and this which surpasses all things, modifies the peace of God. It tells us how tremendous this peace of God is. It's just not, this is sort of a good thing, this is a super good thing. This is really, which surpasses all comprehension. It says we can't really comprehend the peace of God.

Tells us a magnitude, And, okay, let's look at, actually, I think one of these verses we've actually visited before. Okay, yeah, actually, we came across this word earlier, it's to have over. It doesn't seem like it, sounds like it's not, surpasses, it's over and above.

And in Philippians 3.8, can someone read that? We had that earlier in our study.

Philippians 3.8. Yes.

More than that, I count all things to be lost in you for surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I might gain Christ. So there this word, it's translated surpasses here, it's translated surpassing value. So this peace, the peace of God, is of surpassing value. And that's one part of it, which is surpassing value. And then the other part is comprehension. Surpasses all comprehension.

This talks about our mind. And what we're going to find here, which is really cool, the Lord wants to interact with how we think. And this is kind of a really cool thing. Look here. He talks about our comprehension. That's the first word. Comprehension has to do with our mind, right? the word heart or hearts actually in in the greek actually has to do with our mind as well and your mind so there's like three words he's going to say this my peace the peace of god that only comes from me that's a fruit of the spirit is going to interact with your comprehension your hearts and your mind i mean it's it's really it's cool stuff because he said that's going to get right where you think it's going to impact how you think about the situation that's what he wants he doesn't want us I didn't worry for five minutes. Yay!

Now I'm going to worry for the rest of the day. He wants it to be an attitude. It doesn't make any sense for me over there stirring up that worry pot. I'll stir those things and I'll stir them. They never seem to improve. I come back around that problem and it never improves the next time around or the next time around or the next time around. But what here it says is if I communicate with God The peace of God, which surpasses comprehension, will guard our hearts and our minds. And it's not just, it's in Christ Jesus. And we've said it so many times. It's in that relationship with Him.

Okay, so here's a verb, will guard. So this peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard. And this is a military term, to keep by guarding, to guard. And it basically says, it's a future tense, it's a fact, that that will be the ongoing process. This peace of God will guard your hearts and minds, and this is on into the future. And 1 Peter talks about that. And I'll just read that.

It says, 1 Peter 1.5, who are protected, and that's our word, guarded, by the power of God through the faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So this guarding, his intent is that we place worry with communication with him and in communicating with him we will as a result have his peace that is beyond our comprehension and it will guard our hearts and our minds. Just incredible, incredible stuff.

So now we talk about your hearts and your minds. And those are both plural. And hearts is a familiar word, cardia, with the word cardiac. In some senses in scripture, it talks about the physical organ of the heart. But it also stands for man's entire mental and moral activity. So let's look at a couple of cases here.

Let's look at Colossians 3.15.

Can someone read Colossians 3.15? Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body, as you are thankful. So he's saying he wants the peace of Christ, and this is kind of cool, to rule in your hearts.

And then if you look in Ephesians 6.22, I'll just read that one. The last part says that he may comfort your hearts. So what people have said is, hearts talks more about, points more to our emotions. He wants the peace of Christ to rule in your hearts, to be comforted. That's more the comforting aspect. And now we're going to look at minds, and minds is more the intellect. Let's see if we have some verses here.

Can someone read 2 Corinthians 10.5? We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That word thought is our word for mind. So, as you notice, in some sites translated thought, So here it's more talking about our intellect and reasoning things out.

And then the other verse here is in 2 Corinthians 11.11.3. Could someone read that?

2 Corinthians 11.11.3. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

Great. Thank you. So he wants us to be right thinking. So this peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds. And it's in Christ Jesus. Think about the promises we see that we have from our Lord. We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We have every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. So that's a realm where this has impact. It's in our relationship with Christ Jesus. In Him.

And if we're over here, I almost see this worry and prayer as almost being like walking in the flesh versus walking in the spirit. It almost is that parallel. Worry, we're trying to solve it. The flesh is trying to figure out how I'm going to solve this problem.

Whereas when I'm walking with the Lord, I'm praying, I'm allowing him to, his peace, to guard my heart. I'm more focused on him. I'm abiding with him. It's that same picture. Do I want to spend my time over here worrying, or do I want to spend my time with the Lord in prayer? And the wonderful benefit of prayer.

Do you think the peace is something that we sense, or is this something we just take by faith? I think sometimes we have to take it by faith because things can be pretty bad. Sometimes you can have mild problems in human terms, but sometimes you can have really, really problems that you think, I don't see. I mean, humanly speaking, this is This is just going the wrong way.

And so the Lord wants you to come to Him in prayer, in those four areas, by prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and realizing that you're face to face with Him. And He wants His peace. He wants to be guarding your hearts and your minds. Even in the midst of a difficult time, He wants you to be at peace with Him, and letting His peace interact with your mind, with your comprehension of your mind and your hearts.

So it's funny, there's nothing about, you've got to get an answer here. So if you're looking for an answer to prayer today, these aren't the passages. So the common thread from last week is where rejoicing can't occur unless it's in Christ, the same way that you see God, it can't occur unless it's in Christ.

Exactly. And isn't that, I mean that just makes total sense, really, if you think about it. If we're in the flesh trying to do something, It's just, you know, unfortunately it's very attractive. You know, I can fix this. Oh, I know what I'll do. I can fix this real quick. All I've got to do is do 1, 2, 3. My 1, 2, 3 doesn't work. Maybe it makes the problem a little bit better or maybe it's worse or whatever.

But this is what the Lord wants us. He wants us to allow His peace, which surpasses all comprehension, to guard. I kind of imagine somebody walking around my mind and my heart. Here's this guard walking around my mind and my heart. He's guarding it. I think that's kind of cool. Anyway, this was a great passage to study. Actually, the Lord provided a trial along with it. I'm not saying that I didn't worry about my trial. I did. I worried how I was going to fix it. If I only would say this, or do this, I tried my best to figure out.

Every time I say, Roger, that's not going to change it. It's not going to change. But what can change is my view of it, and my peace about it. Okay Lord, that's happened. I'm sorry that's happened. If there's sin to confess, you confess it. But I'm going to be with you trusting and letting your peace impact my heart and my mind, my comprehension. And that's where he wants us. One of the things too, I don't know if you've mentioned it, I'm sorry. Sure, that's okay.

There is a spiritual warfare going on and I don't think that Satan or his fallen angels can read our But they can hear our voice. And what we say reveals what's in our mind. And God guards what's in our mind. But Satan can hear what we say that's in our mind and use that with outside influences, other people, other things, that can then make us think the wrong things.

But God guards us from that. Isn't that a wonderful promise? that we can count on him doing that. An unbeliever can't. And one of the things we have to do in Canada is actually command in the name of Christ any evil spirits from influencing the unbelievers or us. And claiming this kind of a promise right here. guard our minds from anything we say that might be interpreted the wrong way. We were in the past about bringing all thoughts captive to the B as a price. We went through that a little bit too.

So again, and I like what the thought is here that worry is self-centered, prayer is God-centered. And that's what he's telling us. He says, if you're over there worrying, you're trying to solve it. If you're focused on prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, then my peace, which surpasses all comprehension, can guard your hearts and your minds.

And it's in Christ Jesus. So that's the only place it can be. Great. Thanks. Great passage. All right. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you just for your tremendous blessings that we have in our Savior, Lord, and how you desire to simply communicate with us and to bring everything, all things, not excluding one single thing, Lord, bring it all to you and give it to you so that we can can rest in you and that you will handle these things. And maybe not in the timing that we would like or maybe we'll never see it here on this earth. But we trust you that you're the only wise God and we thank you that your peace is available to us and will guard our hearts and our minds. In Christ's name, amen.