And of course who doesn't want peace, will have his peace. Go to Acts 6, go to Acts chapter 6.
I'll read from Colossians 3 it says this,
And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness,
And let the peace of God roll in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful, be ye thankful.
So peace is a big thing, peace is something that people are struggling to have in their lives.
The unsaved is struggling with peace, especially in a time where people don't know what's going on.
Republicans, they don't know what's going to happen, they're freaking out.
All these Trump supporters, they don't know what's going to happen, Trump is gone.
They're happy he didn't get impeached, at least that's what my wife told me.
But in the end, we rely on God, we put confidence in God, not in man.
But when I read Acts 6, this is what reminds me of a great example of having peace.
Let's just look at it, go to verse number 7, this is the story of Stephen.
It says,
And the word of God increased, and a number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly,
and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
And Stephen, here's the great benefit of being a good Christian.
Stephen was full of faith and what? Power, power.
That's what I want for you, that's what I want for everybody in this room.
Men, women, and children, I want you to be full, full of faith, full of power.
And what did he do? He did great wonders, miracles among the people.
Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines,
the Ireneans, the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia,
disputing with Stephen, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Then they, subverted men, which said,
We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God,
and asserteth the people and the elders and the scribes,
and came upon him and caught him, and brought him to the council,
and set up false witnesses, which said,
This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against God, this holy place, and the law.
For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place,
and shall change this customs which Moses delivered us.
I mean, it's not looking good for Stephen. It's looking bad.
False people are rising up, you know, they basically arrested him.
It looks bad for the guy. You know, it doesn't look good.
Put yourself in this situation. All these people are angry at you.
All these people are lying against you.
They all basically brought you before a bunch of individuals,
and I know you pretty much don't have a chance whatsoever,
but look at verse 15.
And all that sat in the council looked steadfastly on him,
and saw his face as they had been the face of an angel.
So these people are angry. They all hate him.
They want to destroy him, and he's just there like,
You guys are done? Can I start now? Can I talk?
You know, is it my turn now?
And if you read chapter 7, boy, did he talk.
Boy, did he talk. But man, he's not scared at all.
He's standing strong. He's standing firm.
They're looking at him, and he doesn't have a fearful face.
He has a face like an angel. I don't know what an angel looks like,
but I'm telling you, it was a positive look.
Well, he's just there, just nice and happy, I'm assuming.
But why is he standing there with no fear?
Because he's full of peace. He's full of peace.
And you already know that he had the fullness of the Holy Ghost,
and he had power. That's what God's going to do to you.
If you continue to live right, if you continue to say to yourself,
You know what? If life gets hard, I'm still going to keep going.
I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to get like these people that we get saved.
Oh, I don't want to go to the Baptist Church. You guys are too strict.
I don't know, but I don't think we're too strict at all.
I don't really think that at all.
You know, we just follow the Bible. There's enough commandments in the Bible.
We don't want to add extra commandments to the Bible as a church,
so we just do our best to follow the Bible, teach the Bible,
and let people live the Bible, and you'll be fine.
And I don't think there's anything in the Bible that I believe is messed up, too strict.
I don't read the Bible, and I'm like, Man, I don't know. This one just seems off.
All the commandments are awesome. All God's law is awesome.
Great peace out there. They love the law, and nothing shall offend them,
meaning that whatever you read, nothing's going to offend you if you love God's law.
Everything you read, you name it, it's going to be like great.
It's going to be phenomenal. It's going to be awesome.
If you have a Bible, you know, go to Acts 16. Go back to Acts 16.
I'll just read a few verses from Philippians 4-6 when it comes to having his peace.
It says, Be careful 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 passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ.
That's what happened to Stephen. He had the peace of God, and he'll give it to you as well.
God will give you his peace.
Psalms 119, 162 says this,
I don't know if I'm a good Christian, brother girl.
Well, do you love God's law? Do you have a poor line?
You know, do you hate wickedness?
He says,
Even times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgment.
Great peace hath they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.
Psalms 4-8,
Now that's not saying that bad things are not going to happen to you.
But it's saying, look, I can sleep like a baby tonight knowing that you have my back, Lord.
And that only happens when you're a good Christian.
If you're a Christian in sin, guess what?
There's no peace to the wicked.
You're not going to have it. God will take it away.
There's no joy to the wicked.
Talk to David when you get to heaven.
So how'd it feel after you committed adultery?
I'll tell you right now, the Bible tells us he had no joy.
He became wicked, prideful, and he murdered a man.
He murdered a man. That's not a good Christian.
You know, but in his eyes, he thought he was doing all right.
And we get like that sometimes.
You know, we're in sin, but then we're doing so great,
and then you read God's word, and you're like,
oh, man, he's like, I need to get this right.
You know, it's like, oh, man, I need to wash my mouth.
Oh, man, I need to wash my thoughts.
Oh, man, you know what? I'm not doing as good as I thought I was
because that's what we need.
We need preachers to remind us, hey, this is sin.
Oh, man, you know, I forgot about that.
God's word to remind you as well.
And that's how you keep your heart clean by taking heed according to God's word.
So the more you hear it, the more you listen to preaching,
you know, you'll be right with the Lord, and he'll give you that peace.
He'll give you that protection.
And also, he'll give you his pleasure.
And who doesn't like joy?
Pleasure, joy, same thing, gladness, same thing.
Oh, you guys are in Acts 16?
You know, I'll just read from Psalms 4 says,
Thou hast put gladness in my heart.
Who put it there?
God.
You're like, I'm a miserable person.
I don't know what to tell you.
Pray for joy.
Pray that God will restore the joy of your salvation.
I'm like, you're saved.
You're coming to church.
I see you're going soul winning.
I guess you just got to either pray,
and God will, he'll answer eventually.
He's there.
You know, but it says,
Thou hast put gladness in my heart,
more than in the time that the corn and the wine increase.
Let's look at Acts 16, 21.
Verse 21 says this,
And teach custom which are not lawful for us to receive,
not to observe, being Romans,
and a multitude rose up together against them.
This is about Paul and Silas.
You know, when they're preaching about Christ, they get arrested.
We're picking up the story, and it says,
The master has ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them.
So Paul and Silas are getting beat.
They're getting a beat down here in Acts 16.
And when they had laid many stripes upon them,
they cast them into prison.
Now they're locked up.
And prison's no joke.
Prison is not fun.
Being locked up in a room for 24 hours,
I mean, you have to have a strong mind to survive that and come out normal.
But these guys did.
How'd they do it?
God gave them, God gave them joy.
We know that because look what it says in verse 24.
Who, having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feast fast in the stocks.
And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God,
and the prisoners heard them.
They were singing praises, they were happy, they were rejoicing,
and they just got a beat down earlier.
I mean, that is some serious power right there.
That is a serious benefit that I want if I ever get locked up.
Because being in a room, I thought about it many times.
I'm like, man, this is going to be horrible.
Right?
You know what I'm talking about.
Because people think, oh, if I get locked up, I'm fine.
As long as I have a Bible.
Did you have a Bible?
They took your Bible.
What did you have?
Nothing, just a wall.
And you were there for what, four or five hours?
Let's just say two hours.
Imagine 24 hours of just staring at the wall.
Oh, man.
I think I could handle it if I had a Bible,
but this is why it's important to hide God's Word in your heart
because when the tribulation generation gets hit,
kids, you may not have a Bible when they lock you up.
In fact, I almost feel like they won't give it to you.
You know, they're just going to take your stuff and lock you up.
And if you're a Christian and you're getting persecuted,
you know that the Antichrist, the devil's going to raise war against us.
And who knows what's going to happen.
But the more Bible you have, the easier it's going to be.
Amen?
Good motivation to memorize scripture, correct?
I don't know if you've ever been in a room,
but when I was quarantined for like 14 days,
I was trying to stay in my son's room the entire time doing work.
And I was just like, man, I need some fresh air.
I'm like, man, this isn't even prison.
And I'm just there working on a computer.
My mind's occupied with different things,
but the thought would eventually creep in.
It's like, man, this is a tiny room.
People in prison, I know where they go crazy.
I know where they're going nuts,
especially if they're not saved and they don't have Bible.
Or even if you are saved with no Bible,
would you be able to sing praises at midnight?
You know, you will.
If you're right with the Lord, he'll give you his joy.
No matter what you're going through, you'll have his pleasure.
Galatians 5.22,
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith.
Psalm 16 and 11,
Thou hast shown me the path of life.
In thy presence is fullness of joy.
Having God on your side, he'll give you the joy to make it.
Now, I'm not saying that the Christian life is full of joy every day,
24, seven, seven days a week.
No, because we know in the Ecclesiastics, I'll just read it.
It says to everything there's a season,
a time to every purpose under the heaven,
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to break down and a time to build up,
and a time to weep.
So there is times where we need to weep.
You know, when bad things happen,
we are supposed to obviously,
if people are going through hard times,
you know, rejoice with them to do rejoice and weep with them to do weep.
But never forget that.
It's never worth it to continue in sin
because there is pleasure in sin.
Hebrews 11 says it,
that Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing to suffer affliction with people of God
and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Because you know what?
The pleasures of sin for a season is not worth it.
God's pleasure is definitely worth it.
All day, 24-7, seven days a week.
So the benefits that I'm talking about,
hey, if you're struggling to stay in church,
if you're struggling to keep up the fight,
hey, just motivate yourself somehow, some way.
Think of these things.
Look, if you stop coming to church,
you're going to lose peace.
If you stop coming to church,
you're going to lose his protection.
If you stop coming to church,
you're going to lose his pleasure.
And if you stop coming to church,
you're going to get a beat down from God
because you're commanded.
If you start going back to the world,
you're not going to have his pleasure.
You're going to have the pleasures of sin.
And it will hit you.
You will be tempted to go back to the world.
But that's why you need to get here.
You need to listen to God's word,
build your faith, and live by faith, amen?
Because that's what God's impressed by more than anything.
The apostles, they believe because they've seen.
But Jesus said,
hey, blessed are they who have not seen,
yet they believe.
That's us.
I wasn't there when Jesus died.
I wasn't there when he arose.
But I believe it.
I was there when he saved my soul.
And so goes the song.