The Path to Peace; the Man Whose Heart Stays on Him

[Speaker 1] Churchisms and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God weekly desires a godly home-front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May ye be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. My savior is Hallelujah. We thank God again for this time in His presence, the first Monday in the month of December, the last month of the year 2021. We give God all the glory, we give Him honor, we give Him adoration. Our Father we are grateful. It has been you, it is still you, it will yet be you. Blessed be your name oh Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord unto you again we gather this evening to fellowship with one another, to fellowship with scriptures, to fellowship in scriptures, and to fellowship with your spirit. Lord we pray, as we fellowship with one another, let your spirit work within us in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord meet us where we need you most. Thank you eternal Father, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. [Speaker 3] We thank God again as we consider scriptures on this matter we had been considering all the while. My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives. My peace I give unto you. Honestly we have come a very long way considering this topic Monday after Monday, Mondays after Mondays, looking at this matter of my peace I give unto you, why could Jesus say it, the pathway to this peace, and biblical examples of this pathway to the peace that Jesus gives. We have been considering the matter of casting your cares upon the Lord, understanding that your life don't exist in isolation. Your life is part of a bigger picture. And that even when it looks as if there are trials, you can be sure that your life cannot fail, because you are part of a bigger picture. So when we come before the Lord, we come before Him understanding that He is a faithful God. He is there, and we can cast our cares upon Him and be sure that God is going to handle that thing that we are telling Him. Whatever we commit into His hands, we can be sure that they will be properly handled. Now we want to move on. Don't forget the matter that we have been discussing, the pathway to this peace. We said Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and then learn from me." When you do that, you will surely find rest for your soul, because the matter is finding rest for our soul. We want to look at a very important thing this evening on this matter of my peace I give unto you. I want us to see that scripture we have looked at some of the issues earlier. We want to consider the other issues now. Psalm 37. Let's go to that Psalm. Psalm 37. I'll be taking my reading from verse 1 and we will stop the reading at verse 15. Psalm 37:1-15. What we want to discuss today is something very crucial about this matter of peace. Some people have become so restless. Many marriages have scattered because they don't understand this type of peace we want to discuss this evening. As it says in Isaiah 26:3, "Thou wilt keep in perfect peace the man whose heart is stayed on you." Thou wilt keep in perfect peace the man whose heart is stayed on you. We are seeing something very strong again, that God is able to keep us in peace if our heart is stayed on Him. I want us to look at something very practical today that makes people to be restless, that makes marriages to be restless, that makes relationships to be restless, that makes people not to be able to live peacefully with their neighbors, colleagues, fellow believers. Look at this scripture. Let's go together. Psalm 37:1-15. 1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 2. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. 3. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 6. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. 7. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 8. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. 9. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. 10. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. [It shall be so for us in Jesus name.] 11. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. [abundance of peace!] 12. The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 13. The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. 14. The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. 15. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. In the next about 40, 45 minutes, I want to expand what we have just read, particularly as it relates to my peace I give unto you. I want to show you something that is so crucial about our walk with God that if you don't understand it, many times because wickedness and the provocation of the wicked is abounding today, and abounding in every quarter, if you are not careful, you will discover that you will not be able to delight yourself in abundance of peace. Now if you look at this scripture very closely, you will notice that in relation to evildoers, one thing that makes us not to be at peace today, that gives people mental stress, and sometimes even mental disorder—I don't want to say mental illness, because there's a difference between disorder and illness. Disorder relates more to emotion, illness relates more to disease. One thing today that is giving so much mental disorder—stress, hypertension, restlessness, striving in the heart, sometimes wishing evil, hoping that calamity will befall some people—is because of the prosperity of the wicked. People wonder, why should the wicked prosper? When I'm talking about prosperity of the wicked, I'm talking about people doing things that are not right and they seem to be getting away with it. People doing things that are wrong, and yet they seem to be having their way. People doing things that are not just, people doing things that are not fair. When justice is thrown away and fairness is cast to the dustbin, and yet people doing such are having their way and they're prospering, and when they do it against the righteous, they do it against a child of God, the child of God many times becomes restless. And sometimes that's why you see some kind of desire in our heart—God, I wish this person is just going now, let him just have accident and die. And later you tell yourself, ah, why am I wishing evil? Why am I thinking evil in my heart? Why? Because of the prosperity of the wicked. If you look at it from the point of our relationship, even close relationship, why do our kin, our siblings, our brothers or sisters, our spouses, why do they do wrong and still get away with it? And it looks like "No, I should avenge myself of this thing that they're doing." We want to survey something about the faithfulness of God. I raised something last week and I concluded it—what was it? The faithfulness of God. That God is faithful, with every trial there's a way of escape. You remember? I want to show you another dimension of God's faithfulness that talks about God's justice and judgment. It is an aspect of God's faithfulness that we don't understand today. And so many times, because we don't understand it, we don't understand why the scripture is telling us, "Do not fret yourself because of the wicked." God is telling you, "Don't disturb yourself when injustice prospers." God is telling us, "Don't fret when wicked men seem to have their way." Now the next thing you will notice in verse 2 is the Bible says, "For they shall soon be cut down like the grass." What do you notice about grass? I want to talk about this dimension of God's judgment and justice. You see the way God handled judgment, the way God maintained justice is so different from the way we understand it, except you will learn what is in the verse 3. What do you see in verse 3? It says, "Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness." or prosper. Why is He asking us to trust God and do good? Looking at it, number one, He say don't disturb yourself. Number two, He say trust me and do good. Don't do evil. Just trust me and do good. Don't do evil. Why is God raising these things? I want to speak to you today on the man whose heart will stay on God is the man who understands the way God maintains judgment and justice. It's not the way we think. And that is what we want to explore this evening. Except you understand how God maintained justice and judgment, your heart cannot stay on God. And so God will not be able to keep you in perfect peace. Because Isaiah 26:3 says, "Thou wilt keep in perfect peace the man whose heart is stayed on you." Now the Bible say number one, don't disturb yourself when it looks as if injustice prospers. Number two, trust in the Lord and do good. But in verse 2, He tells you something about the wicked. What did He say? "For they shall soon be cut down like grass." I want to ask you, what do you understand about grass? One categorical statement of Jesus about grass and flower—can you remember that scripture? Matthew chapter 6. Look at Matthew 6, look at verse 30. What does it say? "For now, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven..." So when the Bible says the wicked prosper like grass, don't disturb yourself because of the wicked. People will bring injustice, people will do wrong, people will deliberately try to frustrate you, people will practice injustice. When it looks as if injustice are going on, God says number one, don't disturb yourself. Just trust me and do good. Trust me and do good. Don't do evil. It's because God is telling you that wickedness prosper only as grass. But the question is this: why can't God make wickedness not to prosper at all? So that we can just be at peace. Which one sounds better? Why should they prosper a while? What God is trying to make you see, brethren, you must understand as a child of God that in the way God maintained justice, in the way God sustained judgment, the wicked must prosper for a while. It's a thing you must understand. If you're not hoping that anybody will cheat you, anybody will have their way, anybody will do that—that the wicked will not prosper—no, that's not the way God does it. And I will soon make reference to scripture to make you understand this. Why God said don't fret yourself. You can be sure that God is faithful to maintain judgment and justice, but it is not in the way you understand it. I want to show you a picture of understanding God's judgment and justice. God's judgment guarantees that God will not abandon—God—God's judgment guarantees that God will not abandon those who fear Him. He will not abandon them. God's justice is that eventually, God will make sure that everybody reap what they sow. God's judgment guarantees that God will not abandon those who fear Him. He will not abandon them. And His justice is that eventually everybody will reap what they sow. Now judgment. I will use a very simple example to illustrate it for you, and I'll first use God Himself to show it to you so that it will be clearer. You will notice that God's judgment and justice between Himself and humanity—humanity sinned against God. God's judgment in that matter is that humanity sinned against me, yet I would make sure that I redeem humanity. Are you seeing something? Are you seeing the judgment of God? Ordinarily what do you think should be the judgment? They sinned against me, in dying they have died, let them die, get another human beings. But do you see God's judgment? Does it look like the way it should go? And in carrying out that judgment, humanity cannot redeem themselves, I must die for them. Is that how to do the judgment? Does that look like judgment? But that was the judgment. But does that look like the way the judgment should be judged? Are you seeing judgment? But do you see that in that judgment, it's not as if God abandoned Himself? He did it joyfully. He did it out of His joy. He did it out of His will. And that was the judgment. And at the end of the day, will God lose out? Did He lose out? Having come to die for man, everything turn and turn and turn and turn. At the end of the day, did God lose anything? Even when it looks as if He suffered and died, it looks as if He went through very serious things, the wicked prospered, they had a field day, they did all they wanted to do. At the end of the day, was Jesus abandoned? He was not abandoned. The people who were mashing him down, they are the one that are now glorifying him. I want you to understand it. Wait for the Lord. The meek will delight themselves in abundance of peace. Who is the meek? From all that we have said, who is the meek? It means to be meek is not to be revengeful. Once you are somebody who is revengeful, you will never have peace during the provocation of the wicked. Once you are revengeful, I want you to pray. Check your heart. Are you somebody who is revengeful? You always want revenge. You always want "Ah, he did me I will give him back. He did me I will give him." Are you somebody like that? You will never be able to have peace. When you drive on the road, somebody drive somehow, before you know "Ah, omo iya e!" You will say something. You will, because you are revengeful. You will find that you will not delight yourself in the abundance of peace. That is why your marriage is not peaceful, that is why your relationship is not peaceful, that is why you're not at peace with your colleague, that is why you're not at peace with your neighbor, that is why you're not at peace with your children, with your brothers and your sisters, your siblings, because you are revengeful. If you are meek, you will delight yourself in abundance of peace. [Speaker 4] Father and our God, we want to thank you again for yet another mystery of your word. For your word said it has been given unto us to know the mystery of the kingdom. Thank you for this mystery again that you have revealed unto us. Lord, take all the glory in the name of Jesus Christ. This word for the past four weeks now has been a matter, and you have revealed to us again that we should not be frightened. Oh, Lord we thank you. And help us to look up unto you. We pray for grace not to fight any man in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask for grace to do good in the name of Jesus Christ. To do good after the order of Jesus, going about doing good. Lord, we pray for this grace. That as we leave here, as we depart, that grace to begin to do good to our neighbor, to our coworkers, to everywhere we find ourselves, Lord we receive in the name of Jesus Christ. Father we receive grace to be patient. We receive grace to be meek in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we receive grace, grace to stay, grace to do all these things, and we look up unto you. The Bible said we should commit our way unto you. Lord, we are committing our way unto you. Lord, we pray that you will help us in the name of Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for your son that you have used again. Again and again you are using him for us to be blessed. Lord, you will continue to bless him. You will continue to fill him. You will continue to uphold him. You will continue to move him forward in the name of Jesus Christ. In depth, in understanding, in knowledge, in mystery, you continue to move him forward in the name of Jesus Christ. That as we depart, as we go, Lord you will go with us. Next week you will bring us back with testimony to share in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray for your church, you continue to move this church forward. You continue to move us forward, you continue to add to us in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you precious Father, in Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Let's together share the grace. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. [Speaker 1] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission hints. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Family life seminars, regular school outreaches and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp, by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy filling station, along Ije-Are Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.