John 14:25-27
Philippians 4:7
John 16:33
 
There are people all over this world looking for peace; there are many that desire peace.  There are countries that want to sign peace treaties and agreements - trying to attain peace.  Yet, the peace of this world, the world’s peace, can disappear; in fact the world’s peace can disappear quickly.  The world’s peace is not a lasting peace.   It is a temporary peace.

You may hear it announced “This country has made peace with that country”.  Except even a single action can threaten that peace.   One country can go and fire a shot or drop a bomb or something of that nature and  -boom - that “peace” is gone.

Now the peace that Jesus gives us is a legacy; it is a lasting peace.  It is not a peace that will disappear as the world’s peace will.   

When Jesus was about to go the cross the bible talks about Jesus preparing his disciples for his departure.  In a sense Jesus left a will. It’s pretty common to leave a will.  You find people everywhere around the world that leave a will, people in the community, even people in our own family may leave a will. 

We know that when He was hanging on the cross He committed His soul or He willed His soul to God the Father.  After Jesus died Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, so in a sense we can say that the body of Jesus was willed to Joseph of Arimathea.

Not only that but Jesus had a robe and the bible says the robe was woven from the top to the bottom without seam.  The soldiers said let’s don’t destroy it - let’s cast lots and see whose it will be. In other words His robe fell to the soldiers.

Not only that but when Jesus was hanging on the cross, with His mother Mary there He turned to one of His disciples and told him “Behold thy mother and woman, behold thy son”.  In a sense I would say He willed His mother to John who was one of His disciples.

But what did he leave for the disciples?
His soul went to the Father.
His body went to Joseph of Arimathea.
His clothes went to the soldiers.
His mother went to the disciple John.
But what did His disciples get?  What did He will to them; what did He leave to them?
Did He leave them silver?
Did He leave them gold?
He had none of that. He couldn’t leave them riches.  

But there is one thing as we look in the word of God in the 14th chapter of John. 
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

What did Jesus leave to those disciples?  He left them His peace. That’s what He said. He said “Peace I leave with you”.

He is telling them that He would speak to the Father and the Father would send them a Comforter that would teach them all things and bring all things back to their remembrance.  Then He said “Peace I leave with you” -  I’m going to leave this peace with you.  He says “My peace I give to you”- in other words I’m going to give you something that will keep you.  I’m going to give you something that will sustain you.
We’re talking about a peace that passes all understanding.
We’re talking about a peace that will calm the raging sea.
We’re talking about a peace that is beyond anything that man can attain.

I tell you one thing, you can be going through some things.  You can be experiencing some things. You can be going before the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, and they could say that you deserve the death penalty.  But even though you’re going through, you’re not going by yourself.  You’re going under the power of the Holy Ghost and you can trust that His peace is going to be with you.

Jesus said “My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth…..”. As I said earlier the peace that the world gives you is going to fade away. The peace that the world gives you is a temporary peace.  But the peace that Jesus is talking about is an eternal peace.  It is an everlasting peace.

There are people all over this world - all over this land there are people right now my brothers and sisters – that have chaos in their homes.  There are people wishing that they had peace in their houses right now.   There are people right now, brothers, whose homes are tore up. There’s no structure. Somebody in that house is saying I wish I could come home and have a nice quiet evening. I wish I could come home without all the fussing and all the fighting.  I wish I could come home without all this noise and all this ruckus.

There is somebody looking for peace this morning but a lot of times they look for peace in all the wrong places.  A lot times they just end up going here and there, wandering around, looking for peace.
If you want peace - start with your knees; start going before God on your knees.  Say: God give me that peace - that peace that Jesus talked about.  Give me that peace that will pass all understanding.  Tell God “I need peace”.   And you know what? He will give it to you.

This peace that we are talking about is a deep peace.  It is an everlasting peace.  As Jesus says in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace”.  If you want peace you need to be in Him.

We look over at Israel and see the Israelis and the Palestinians.  There’s all the fighting and bombing and all that stuff going on there.  I’m here to tell you that peace is not going to come to that region until the Prince of Peace establishes it.  They can sign peace treaties or whatever.  In the scriptures it talks about when they shall say peace and safety, (then) certain destruction shall come upon them (I Thessalonians 5:3).   In other words there may be a temporary peace, a worldly peace, but there’s not going to be a permanent peace in the Middle East until the Prince of Peace establishes that peace. There are homes where there’s not going to be peace until somebody gets down on their knees and cries out “Lord bring peace and stability to my home”.  Until then, it’s not going to come.

The second part of John 16:33 says “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  That’s what Jesus said: “I have overcome the world”.  In other words, you can overcome the world, if you abide in the Word and the Word abides in you. I’m here to tell you, brothers, we can have that peace.
​ 
God give us peace. We need that peace; that peace, as You said in Your Word, that passes all understanding.  

Matthew 14:22-33
If I say “Come walk with me”, you’re not going to walk in front of me, nor will you walk behind me.  If I tell you “Brother, come walk out here with me”, you’re going to walk beside me.

In today's passage, Jesus and his disciples were there after Jesus had just performed a miracle.  Jesus had just took two fish and five loaves and fed five thousand people.  The word says in verse 22:  “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.”

Jesus has performed this miracle and fed five thousand.  Then He sent the disciples ahead of him – He said you all go on fellows while I dismiss the church or dismiss the multitude.  He dismissed them and as they went He went up and spent some time praying.  That should let us know that there are some times in our lives when we may need to get away to pray.

Jesus let the disciples go on, and He let the crowd go on.  He let them get on back and in this passage he goes up on this mountain and He is praying.  The bible says that he looked out into the sea. The disciples had gone on and they were rowing.  They were trying but the winds and the waves were beating against the boat and they are just rowing – rowing – rowing.  It says in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them.   The fourth watch of the night is from 3 in the morning until 6 in the morning.

We can see Jesus going to those disciples here.  But at first they looked out there and they see this thing on the water.  They didn’t recognize him.  They thought it was a ghost; they thought it was a spirit and they began to cry out.  They were afraid but Jesus told them be of good cheer.  He said “It is I, be not afraid”.
Now, Peter was one of those well outspoken guys.   Peter says “Lord, if it be you bid me to come to you on the water.  Bid me to come”.   We see one miracle - we see Jesus has already performed one miracle and fed five thousand.  We see another miracle: He is walking on the water, and then he tells Peter, “Come”.

Come walk with me.  Jesus says come on, come out here and walk with me, Peter.  Right now He’s asking somebody -  He’s speaking to somebody this morning, telling them to come.  Jesus is saying “Come walk with me, don’t walk in front of me, come walk with me”.  When we begin to walk with him those things that troubles us,  those things that bog us down, and those things that cause us all kinds of misery: we can find comfort for those things when we begin to walk with Him.  We begin to fellowship with him - that’s the awesome thing about it. We fellowship with Jesus, we walk with him.  He is with us, through all life’s troubles.

In this life, the waves of this life, can be just like those waves that were beating on that ship.  The waves of this life and the things of this life will batter us.  But one thing we are going to have to realize is He’s got it all in His hands.   He’s in control.  He was in control not just of the waves but he’s in control of the wind as we see in the latter part of that verse.

It says that “the wind ceased”.

But Peter steps out of the boat and he began to walk on the water to go to Jesus.  Can you imagine what the other disciples were thinking? Here they see this figure on the water but didn’t recognize him until Jesus says “Be of good cheer, it’s me, be not afraid”.  And then Peter steps out of the boat.

While Peter was walking on the water going to Jesus we know that as long as he had his eyes fixed on the Lord, he was fine.   He was fine, but I can imagine the waves and the wind.  I can imagine Peter looking down, looking around, and when that happened Peter began to sink.  Then what does Peter do? Peter cried out: Lord save me!  Save me.

That’s all we have to do is cry out to Him. He will do it.

And the scripture says that immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand to Peter and caught him and said “O ye of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt?”.  In other words why did you doubt?

Jesus walking on the water, one miracle.
Peter walking on the water, second miracle.
And then when they got back to the ship the wind ceased.  Ceased.

These things here should be a blessing to us letting us know that we should not doubt.  We should trust the Lord; we should lean and depend on Him.

And continue to walk with Him.  When we walk with him, we can surrender all to Him.  When we walk with him we can depend on him.  We can trust in him when we walk with him.  We won’t be afraid to get out of the boat.

We won’t be afraid to get out of the boat when we walk with Him.  Jesus is waiting, saying to you, Come, walk with me.

​~J. T.

Matthew 6:31-34
​
In reading the bible a number of times we see the phrase: “All these things”.

In the book of Romans it tells us that all these things work together for good for them that love God; for those who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

In the book of Luke Mary and Joseph were visited by the shepherds in a lowly stable in Bethlehem.  The shepherds came telling them about an angelic choir that announced Jesus’ birth.  In the 19th verse of the 2nd chapter of Luke it says that Mary kept all these things in her heart.

Matthew 6: 31-34:  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
 
Jesus points it out very clearly that the first thing we need to do is: “seek ye first the kingdom of God”. Then, He says, all these things will be added.

This made me think about 30 years ago I was working here at the University (ya’ll don’t believe that but I was working here at the University 30 years ago, lol). I had a little old Datsun - ya’ll remember the car called Datsun - and I had some car trouble out of this thing.  I was in my kitchen and I said Lord I need another car and the Lord spoke in my spirit and He said pray about it. I went right in and got right down beside the bed and I remember praying for a car.

About an hour later one of my brothers came by and he asked how I was doing.  I said “Man, I got to get another car!  The car I have, it made me late for work one day.” I said “Man, I’ve got to get me another car!”

It hadn’t been too long since he got a car from Jimmy Deloach which was on 15th street at the time and he said for me to come with him and we’d talk to the man.  I told him I can’t afford no car!  I had recently had marital problems, went through a divorce, and a lot of stuff back then.  I wasn’t walking with the Lord like I am now. Praise God I’m walking with him now but back then I was going through some things.

To make a long story short, after I prayed about this car, God is my witness, about 5 or 6 hours later, I had a car!  About 5 or 6 hours after I got up off my knees, I had a car.

All these things.

Jesus says:” Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”  There are all these things that you desire, but first of all you should go to God.  There are people right now that want this or want that but they want to skip over God.  They don’t want to acknowledge Him but they want to skip over God and try to get all these things.

A lot of times when we do that we go out there and get that car or get that house; we go out and get all this stuff and then one day we turn around and we’re struggling. We’re struggling - we can’t make the payments.  We get jammed up in debt and we’re trying to work - we’re talking to Mr. Anderson and Mr. Poole trying to get overtime, trying to get the money we need.

What should we have done before we went out there and got that Cadillac Escalade? Before we got that $300K house? We knew we couldn’t pay for it with our salary but we wanted it so we got it. 

What we should have done was acknowledge God.  We should be saying “Lord I’m going to seek you first”. We should say “I’m going to pray about this thing before I go and get myself in debt”.  But a lot of times we end up getting ourselves in debt.

When a person has pledged their allegiance to the King they must continue to seek the kingdom and its righteousness.  As believers we are to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.  When it comes down to it brothers we should prioritize the things of God in our lives.  He should be number one in our lives.  The Lord should be number 1 in our lives - not the wife, not the job, not the car, and not the truck.  For God I live and for God I’ll die.

I remember I was over to my sister’s house back when my sister lived in a place called Robinson Gardens.  Some of you might know where that is, behind what used to be Winn Dixie down in West End. My sister was living down there - this was 30 years ago and there was this lady.  I’m hitting on her and she invites me in.  She sits me down and we began to talk.  She had a bible on the table and began to share the word of God with me.  But I’m not interesting in listening to the word of God – I ain’t going to lie to you - I had a Budweiser beer in my hand and I got some other things on my mind.  But this sister - she began to share the Word of God with me.  You know what she told me? She said “I want you to make sure that when you preach that first sermon – you make sure you call me and let me know.”  I’m thinking “What, preach?  You’re talking about preaching?”  But here I am, a preacher. 

It just shows you what God can do.  God can take what nobody thinks He would use and use it. God is not looking for a perfect man or woman. He’s looking for that one that’s been battered, that’s been bruised, the one that has been kicked around.  Those are the ones He wants because they can tell somebody else “How I got over”.

When we get ready to make these decisions let’s acknowledge Him because the bible says acknowledge God in all your ways and He will direct your paths.  When our priorities are spiritual, God will take care of all the material things.  For where God guides you, He will provide for you.  Where God leads you, He will provide for you.

He is the God of all these things.  He knows what you need, even all these things.  And if you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, as he says in His Word, all these things will be added.  Let us start by seeking Him.
​~J. T.

John 10:27-29
My godson gave me a set of these things.  At first I didn’t really know what they were.  He told me to figure out what they are for, lol. 
 
One day I saw contractors who had a bunch of cables and cords and stuff.  They had taken these and wrapped them around and they were carrying the cables and cords with them.  I realized then what the thing was for – until I saw them being used I didn’t realize what they were for.  I thought about that when I was looking at this devotion: “In the Grip of God”.
 
We are just out there when we are not in the grip of God; when we have not accepted Christ.  We are open for anything or anybody to get to us or pull us. 
 
When we begin to walk with him and when he begins to grab us and hold us, that grip begins to get tighter and tighter.  You can’t pull this apart and regardless as to what might happen can’t nothing or nobody snatch you out of God’s hand.
 
In our passage Jesus says My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
 
 
Jesus is saying we cannot slip out of the grip of God’s hand.  We can rest assured there is nothing or nobody that can snatch us out of the hand of God. 
 
The devil will try to say “You’re not in the grip of God; God is not holding you.”  But we know for a fact that God is holding us and His love is an everlasting love.  Jesus says “I give unto them eternal life”.  As long as we are in His grip, no one can pluck us out and we can have the assurance of eternal life.
 
Now I think a person can get out of His hand themselves; I think they can get out of his hand by rejecting Him, by turning from him, or by as the bible says blaspheming the Holy Ghost.  We can take ourselves out of His hand by running after some other god. 
 
We are free moral agents - we can accept him or we can reject him.  It is left up to us.  We can stay in His grip if we want to.  He’s not going to make us stay.  As long as we are walking with Him we are in the grip of God and nothing can take us out of His hand.
 
Romans 8:35 says “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” 
 
Now, He’s got us in the palm of his hand, who shall separate us from Him? Not even death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.  In other words we are in the grip of God….
 
Jesus told Peter “Satan desires to have you, to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you….”  In other words, Peter, you are in the grip of God.  I think back to some years ago when that passage used to ring in my ear.  It’s so awesome to know that for me (and for you) it is just as Jesus told Peter: “I have prayed for you that your faith fail not”. It is so awesome that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us so Satan can’t snatch us out of the hand of God.
 
We are in the grip of the hand of God.
 
There are people right now that are struggling in their faith.  They are struggling, maybe even with people talking down to them or looking down on them.  We are all human and we may make mistakes. We are flesh and blood and we are going to stumble along the way.  People shouldn’t criticize or put others down. We can’t say “Ahh man, he ain’t saved or she ain’t saved”.  He’s in the hand of God or she’s in the hand of God so it’s not left up to us.  You can’t look at me or look at that brother or that sister and know their heart.   I can’t say he’s not in the hand of God or God don’t have his hand on him or her. The only person knows that knows is him or her and God.
 
We have to make sure that we are connected to him so that we don’t have to worry about those things.  You can rely on the fact that you are in the hand of God and in His grip.  Regardless, can’t nobody or nothing pluck you out of his hand.
 
This thing may break, but you don’t have to worry His hand breaking - you don’t have to worry about God losing his grip.
 
Prayer
Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for these brothers and my sister that have come.
 
I thank you God that we can realize that we are in your grip.  Thank you for holding on to us even when times seem to be rough.   Even when our faith may be shaken, God we know that you are with us because your Word says that you will neither leave us nor forsake us.
 
We pray that you will continue to keep your hand on us and our families; our wives, our children.
 
And Lord we pray for our coworkers, that you will keep your hand on them as well; watch over them. Lord watch over their families, and bless the head of this department. We thank you for jobs, because so many don’t have jobs; so many are looking for a job and we thank you for this one.
 
We pray and ask your blessing upon this day as we go forth.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.
~J. T.

Proverbs 18:24
John 15:12-17

We all have friends - some folks we call friends, some we call associates.  But everybody needs a friend.  We have some friends that are good friends; someone that if you call them they will get up out of bed and come and see about you.  If you’re fortunate, you have some friends like that.

There was a fellow that used to work out here about 4 or 5 years ago.  He called me early one morning.  He lived in Boligee and he was up here to help his nephew out.  He and his wife left in a hurry and his wife forgot her purse.

They were up here without any money and when he got here he realized he didn’t have enough gas to make it back to Boligee.  So what did he do? He called me.  His wife asked him “Honey what are we going to do?” He was looking through his wallet and found a little card that I gave him, so he said “I’m going to call Mr. Tucker”.   He called me about 2:15 in the morning, on Saturday morning.  I got up out of my bed and went to help him out.  To make a long story short, I was able to bless that brother.  It’s about being able to be a friend - somebody you can turn to, somebody you can call on.

As I said, we all have friends. This is what Solomon is writing about in Proverbs.  He’s talking about a “friend that sticks closer than a brother”.  Some of us may not have brothers.  I have biological brothers and I have friends I would consider my brothers – people that I feel would be there.

But there comes a time in life when you can’t call that person - when you can’t get up with that brother. I don’t care if he is a biological brother or a brother of faith but there is a time when you might not be able to get up with them. But it tells us there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother and we know who that friend is - Jesus.

We can turn to him even when the cell phones don’t work. When we can’t reach our friends any other way we can turn to this friend.

Jesus was talking to his disciples in John 15:12, saying “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  Now there are some stipulations here. Jesus says you are my friends “if you do what I command you”. 

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Why did he make it known unto them – why did he tell them this?  Because they were no longer servants, they were friends.  He wants His friends to know the things that they need to know. 

Look carefully at the scripture: Jesus says “You are my friend if you do what I command, and He says “These things I command you that you love one another”.  The bottom line is if you’re going to be a friend of His; if you’re going to be a friend of mine you’ve got to love me.  And, I’ve got to love you.  I might not love what you do.  I might not like the way you act, but I’ve got to love you.

Jesus laid down His life not just for those 12 disciples that he was ministering to but the bible says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  Not only did he lay down his life for them but he laid it down for the world.  He even laid it down for those guys in the Middle East raising all that hell, ISIS.  He laid his life down so that they can come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ right now.  I don’t care what a person has done or where a person has been.  They can come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. 

You know you have a friend when you see that he really truly loves you.  One that will encourage you.  One that will help you if you are struggling, and we all struggle in life.  We struggle with relationships, our family, our children.  A friend is one that will put an arm around you and say “Hey man, it will be all right, and I’m praying with you.  I’m standing in the gap for you.  I’m just believing God that He will take you through this thing, man. Be encouraged.”

A friend is one that is going to encourage you, will help push you on when others are standing around laughing at you. When others are saying “Ha ha, look at him” a friend will put his arm around you and say “Hey, I know you’re going through some tough times; I know you’re having some problems, but it’s all going to work out. I’m praying for you.”

In Jesus, we have a friend we can call on regardless as to what time of day or night; regardless of what we might be experiencing in this life, my brothers and my sister, we can call on him and He will come and see about you.

I do the bible study at church every Wednesday  and a couple weeks ago I told those that were there to make a circle.  I told them that as we joined hands we would pray for the Pastor and pray for each and every member in this church.  I encouraged them to visualize that those we prayed for were in that circle.  I also led them in prayer for those brothers and sisters that have backslidden and asked them to visualize them in this circle with us; I told them we would plead the blood of Jesus over them as we joined hands and prayed.

Then Sunday I was at church and there was a sister who came and she said that she had been out of church for a while and she was coming back to recommit her life to the lord. It made me felt so good! I even told her, I said I don’t know you but we’ve been praying that God would draw His people back into the fold.  There are a lot of people with “church hurt”. You know what I mean by church hurt? Folks in the church have hurt them or put them down and they strayed away.  But my prayer is that they’ll come back into the fold. Because as the old folks used to say “It’s getting late in the evening and the sun is going down.”  Meaning that time is running out for all of us.

Jesus said, You are my friends.  Jesus stands ready even now, ready to be your friend.  Reach out and take hold of His nail scarred hand.
​
~J. T.

Luke 11:1-4
John 15:17
{This devotion was given in August of 2014, but these words still apply today}

Lord teach us how to love one another.
Lord teach us how to live right.
Lord teach us to hold our tongue.
Lord teach us what to say.
These are things that we can say when we pray, these are things that we can ask for.

Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked him a question.  The disciples did not come to him and say, Lord, teach us how to sing or teach us how to quote scripture or how to play musical instruments, not even teach us how to handle the church business.

They said “Lord, Teach us to pray.”

In answering Jesus said, “When ye pray, say Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name…”
This prayer that Jesus is teaching is not a prayer to be prayed every day.  It is not just to be repeated or to be done in repetition. A lot of people look at this prayer as the Lord’s Prayer, but it’s actually a model for prayer.  Now if what you really want is to look at Jesus praying that is in John 17.  Our scripture passage today from Luke 6 is an example for the disciples - a prayer to show them how to pray. 

Jesus himself was a model.  He taught those men and even teaches us how we should pray.

When we pray, we are to recognize God as “Our Father”.  And this model prayer asks that His will be complete or accomplished. That’s what we should be praying - that his will be accomplished. We are taught that we need to ask him for daily bread, and we need to ask him to forgive us of our sin.  Not only that but we should ask him to deliver us from sin and evil.  As the prayer continues we are taught to say “Hallowed be thy name; holy is thy name”.

We need to ask the Lord to:

• Teach us how to love one another;
• Teach us how we should walk;
• Teach us how we should live;
• Teach me how to be obedient;
• Teach me how to be faithful; and
• Teach me how to acknowledge you in all my ways.

A lot of times people don’t want to ask the Lord these things.  A lot of times we don’t pray those types of prayers.  We pray but we don’t ask him to do those things.

I was thinking this morning about the situation up there in Ferguson, Missouri.  My brothers, our nation, our country needs healing.  In Ferguson, Missouri there are families that are hurting, and not just the family of the young man that lost his life.  The officer that did the shooting, I can imagine what his folks are going through.  Although it is impossible to understand - to shoot an unarmed man five or six times - but that family is hurting.

So you got two families that are destroyed, torn up.  Not only that but you have a city/a nation on the brink of chaos.  It could be right here in this city.  We need to be praying not just for ourselves or praying for our city, but we need to be praying for that city.  We need to pray for the nation in which we live because it needs healing.  And healing is not going to come, peace is not going to come, until people of God get before God, and the Lord establishes that peace in the nation.

We definitely need to be praying for that situation, because it could even be here.

We need to be saying Lord teach me how to love my fellow man; teach me how to live right. Jesus tells us to love one another:  “These things I command you, that ye love one another.”

That means I’ve got to love you!

In order for people to see me as who I proclaim to be I can’t walk around with hate in my heart.  I might not like your ways. I might not like the things you do, but I can’t hate you. I’ve got to love you.  The most powerful weapon that has ever been created lies within man and that’s love.  If you go loving on folks they’ll stop hating.

Jesus taught them the model prayer, and he told them to ask. We certainly need some things, and we have brothers that need some things.  Let’s start by asking/praying for the same thing that Jesus tells us He wants - let’s start by loving one another. 

​~J. T.

Acts 16:16-34
Acts 12:5-16
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Prayer may be spoken or silent.  Prayer may include praise, confession, thanksgiving, repentance, or meditation.  Prayers may be offered on behalf  of one’s self or another person.    From the early times there has been praying for the needy.  Right now, we definitely need to be praying for the needy.  Prayer has always been at the center of worship of God.
 
In this passage Paul was on one of his missionary journeys, along with Silas.  As it says: And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
 
This young lady was demonically possessed - she was being possessed by a demon.
 
This young lady, possessed by a demon, followed Paul and Silas saying: “These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.”
 
Now those things were true but she kept on and on and on and it irritated Paul.   So Paul turned around and rebuked that spirit within her and the spirit of divination (or fortune telling) came out.  The people that were making money off of her fortune telling got mad so they took Paul before the magistrate.
 
They had Paul and Silas stripped of their clothing, beaten and thrown into prison.  The scripture says they were thrust into the inner prison and their feet were fastened into stocks -  in other words they had shackles on them.
 
The 25th verse says And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
 
A Prayer Meeting
 
As Paul and Silas began to sing and began to pray it says the prisoners heard them.  Paul and Silas could have been bitter - they could have been like some of us. But instead they are singing and praying in prison.
 
When we begin to pray and praise God things will happen.  There is evidence in the scriptures.  For example, we can look in the 12th chapter of Acts.  Peter was in jail and prayer was made for him.  While this prayer meeting was going on Peter’s bands fell off.  And the angel touched him in the side and told him to “Get up and gird up yourself”.
 
Peter walked out of jail and didn’t know that it was an angel until he got past the iron gates that lead out of the city.  And then Peter went to the prayer meeting and walked in while they were offering up prayers for him.
 
Prayer is essential to a believer’s life. I mean there is so much technology now that allows us to communicate.  But there is only one way that we can get to God and that is through prayer and praise.  Sometimes if you don’t have the words to pray just begin to lift your hands and praise and magnify God.  Just begin to worship God and just watch and see what happens.  I guarantee you there will begin to be a movement of God’s Spirit upon you.
 
You’ve got prayer and you’ve got praise.
 
Maybe Paul told Silas “You go on and pray, I’m going to sing”.
 
Verse 26 says as they begin to pray there came a great earthquake and everyone’s bands were loosed, even the other prisoners’.  When they heard them singing they probably said “What’s wrong with those guys up there in cell 1, back there in that dungeon part of the cell, why don’t they be quiet man - I’m trying to sleep!”  But when the earthquake came, the doors were opened and everybody’s bands fell off.  Nobody tried to get out – nobody tried to run away.
 
Even the jailer ran in after he was awakened out of sleep.  When he found out what happened he drew his sword and was going to kill himself. He knew that if the prisoners were gone he was going to be executed so he was going to commit suicide -  he was going to thrust his sword probably into his heart and kill himself.   But the scripture tells us Paul said “Do thy self no harm; for we all are here”.  Not only that but then the jailer came to them crying  “What must I do to be saved?”
 
We’re talking about a Roman jailer is crying out; he is wanting to be saved.  There is somebody right now that wants to be saved and that’s all they got to do is cry out. 
 
These men were put in prison and now the jailer is asking them how to be saved.  Paul’s answer is to say “Believe on the Lord...”.  He tells the jailer not only will he be saved but even his household.  This jailer takes them out, washes their wounds, feeds them, and it says that he and his family were baptized straightway.
 
A Prayer Meeting
 
It would be awesome if all of us came together.  If there is a need I believe that if the people of God were to come together on one accord I believe that need would be met.  Things happen when people of God come together.  When the people of God pray and when they are on one accord things will happen.
 
This nation that we live in needs healing.  I believe that the people of God can come together for healing.  I believe it will happen one day regardless of denomination or church or color.
 
I believe the day will come when a united church will come together in this nation and I believe when that happens we’re gonna see the hand of God move in this nation that we live in. Right now, we don’t see it moving like it should move.  We see pockets of folks - little pocket here, little spark over here -  but I believe we will come together.  I believe that one day this nation is going to come together as it says “One nation under God “.
 
May God allow us all to see that great “Prayer Meeting” and watch the move of God.

​~J. T.

Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 22:37-39

We are truly blessed, my brothers.  God truly has blessed us.  We can look around us and we can see the blessings of God.  He blessed us this morning to be able to wake up and to be able to get up.  He even blessed us with a house to live in and clothes on our back.  We are blessed that all is well in our homes. He blessed us even with food and with a mind to acknowledge Him this morning – and God has blessed us with many things that we need and want. The question is - What does God want?

Giving is an act of worship.  God wants us to give Him praise. He wants us to give Him the Glory. Foremost, God wants us to give ourselves wholly to Him.

Paul is writing in Romans 12 and says “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (NIV)

God wants us to be willing to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him, holy. He wants us to be holy and acceptable to Him. He also says be not conformed - God doesn’t want us to take the shape or form of this world.  Instead he wants us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.  God wants us to be transformed, renewed.

I remember a time in my life my mind wasn’t on God or the things of God.  But we thank God for the transformation that He has allowed me to have.  When we give ourselves to God it involves dedicating our lives to Him.  It also involves giving of our time, giving of our talents and finances to help advance the Kingdom on this earth.  God wants us to do all of those things.

When you talk about finances in the church, when you talk about tithes, offerings, or giving sometimes people get a little nervous.  Sometimes people want to start cringing up.  But how do you think the missionaries could do what they do if the people didn’t give?  What about the things that the local church needs? How do you think we could keep the lights on, keep the air on or the heat on?  How do you think we could pay the mortgage if we didn’t give?

So God is interested in us giving of our time, our talents, even our finances to help advance the kingdom.  If we go back and study the early church, we see that the early church did exactly that.  They gave sacrificially to support the mission.

We also need to be willing to give our hearts to God; to give our minds to Him.  I am talking about the renewing of the heart and mind - these are the things He wants from us.

There’s not a man sitting here that has never asked God for something.  If you go and do a survey, you’ll find out that everyone has asked God for something.  Maybe this morning, maybe yesterday, maybe you are sitting there now asking God for something.  But the thing about it is  - what are you willing to give God?  We have all asked Him for something but what are we willing to GIVE Him? And……
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What does God want?

In Matthew 22 Jesus was asked a question, and Jesus answered the question by saying, talking to this man: “Thou shalt love the lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

What does God want? God wants us to love Him with all our heart – not part of it – and with all our soul, and with all our mind.  The bible says “let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”.  In other words He wants us to have the mind of Christ.  Jesus says this is the first and greatest commandment.  Then he goes on in the 39th verse, saying the second is like unto the first.  The question is, who is my neighbor?  That question was asked of Jesus once. 

The answer is: anybody. Some people think their neighbors are the people who live next door or the person living behind them or the person across the street.  You all are my neighbors.  All you brothers are my neighbors, not just the people next door to us. And Jesus tells us “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”.  

Who is going to do hurt themselves? Who would say: I don’t like myself - POW! He slaps himself - just goes to beating up on himself.  Who would do that?  You should treat your neighbor as yourself; with love and respect.  God wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind - that’s what He wants. He wants us to be willing to present our bodies a living sacrifice; to present ourselves holy and acceptable to Him.  He wants us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Let me tell you this brothers, I haven’t always been where I am now.  I was out there doing anything I thought I was big and bad enough to do.  I wasn’t even thinking about God and His word man! My mind was on what I could get into when I got off work, where I’m going - all this stuff, worldly stuff! I was thinking of how much I’m going to drink, how many girls I was gonna be chasing - all this stuff.  But I thank God for the renewing and the transformation of the mind.

Now I wake up with the mind of Christ.  I’m thinking about God and the things of God and the people of God.  I get up I’m thinking about doing the devotion. I’m thinking about the bible study I’ll teach at church.  I’m thinking about the people of God - I’m thinking about those that are sick and I’m thinking about those that are in need.  I used to not think like that and that’s the difference.

That’s what he wants us to do.  He wants us to love each other. Jesus said “love one another” and in this way “men will know that you are my disciples”.   I can’t say I love Him and hate you or dislike you, brother, because of the color of your skin.  I can’t do that and say I love Jesus.  I can’t.

That’s why He talks about a transformation - being transformed by the renewing of the mind.  We as Christians we have a long way to go, brothers.  We have a long way to go as saints of God.  What does He want? Actually, (just like he wrote on the ground with the woman caught in adultery) I wish he would come down and write on a pad right now and let all of us know what he wants.  Some of us would probably be shocked because some of us may have some things He wants us to get rid of - some things that keep us from Him.

Let’s be willing to not just look for Him to bless us.  Let’s be willing to bless Him with our praise, our hearts, minds, and souls.

​~J. T.

Matthew 4:17-22
Matthew 8:19
 
One definition of following is “to go after”.

Let’s take a look at these men following after Jesus.  Jesus was calling his disciples, and they went after Him. In this passage Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee.  He sees Simon Peter and Andrew his brother casting their nets into the sea.  They were fishers - in other words that was their profession.  They were professional fishers.  Jesus is calling these men and He tells them: “Follow me, I will make you fishers of men”.

They gave up their livelihood - they gave up their profession.  Even right now he’s calling people off their jobs.  He’s calling men into the vineyard, into ministry and service to work.
The scripture says “and straightway they left their nets to follow him”. In other words they gave up everything to follow Him. When we decide to follow him there are things we will have to give up. We may not give up jobs or professions.   But there are some things we are going to have to give up; some things we will have to lay aside.

It tells us in the scriptures we must lay aside every sin that so easily besets us.  This is talking about running the course set before us.  Thanks be to God that He allows us to give up those things that probably would hinder us from being the men that God calls us to be, that would keep us from following Him.

In verse 21 He talks about two other brothers, the sons of Zebedee, James and John.  They were in the ship with their father, mending their nets.  Jesus called them and it says immediately they left.  In verse 18 in speaking of Peter and Andrew it says “straightway they left”. As to James and John it says “immediately they left the ship and their father and followed him”.  In one version it says that they left their father with the hired help.  These men were professional fisherman; they fished for a living but they were willing to give it up to follow Christ.

In the Book of Acts Peter and John did some awesome work.  They linked up.  They were before the Sanhedrin council.  They were being persecuted and they were being thrust into jail. Peter and John were diligent. I guarantee you they were diligent as far as fishing and they were diligent when it came down to ministry.  They were serious and that’s what we need to be. We need to be serious when it comes down to following Christ. We have to be willing to sacrifice to follow Him.

Like I was telling my coworker this morning as we rode together – when you look around you see the Latter Day Saints; the little brothers on the bicycles, riding and sharing. You see Jehovah’s witnesses knocking on the door.

We see Islam/Muslims (I know on the west side you see them) standing on the corner, selling the newspaper - selling the Final Call.  But where are the Christians? Where are the saints of God? Why are we not out here? Why are we not visible, especially since we have what we know is the truth.

They followed Him

In our passage from Matthew 8 it doesn’t give a name but it says a certain scribe told Jesus “Master I will follow you whithersoever thou goest.” That is what we should be saying: Lord I’ll follow you forever, wherever.

Mr. Anderson, I love my job, I love this department, but if God calls me I’m going to have to leave ya’ll. I’m not going to just jump up and run off but I’m saying if I know it’s the spirit of God calling me I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.

Jesus tells this man, Jesus says to him “foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Jesus is saying I don’t have a condo, I don’t have a beach house, I don’t have a cabin, I don’t even have a tent boat; I don’t have any of these things. You talking about sacrifice - Jesus gave up his royalty; He gave us His home in heaven. He gave up everything to bridge the gap between you/me and God. That’s what He did! He gave it up- gave up the riches, gave up wealth; He gave up everything.

Jesus gave it all up for us and we should be willing to follow Him.  If we are going to follow him there is a price that we have to be willing to pay. Just think He’s the one who paid the greatest price. He paid by the shedding of His blood out there on the hill called Calvary, on the cross.

In verse 22 of Matthew 8 Jesus said to a disciple “Follow me, and let the dead bury the dead.”  Some would say that was real cold; that was cruel.  It wasn’t cold because Jesus literally had LIFE.

Follow Him because there is a reward - there is a great reward in following Him.

A brother - Joe Kelly – (he died several years ago) gave me that little thing up there that says God’s retirement plan is out of this world.  There is a great reward for us.  If we grab a hold of the plow and follow him, I guarantee you your reward is great. 

Jesus is asking us to follow Him.  It will certainly cost us something, but the rewards are great.  Nothing that you are holding onto now compares with what He has for you in His nail scarred hands.  Put down your nets, and follow Him.
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~J. T.