Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Thankful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you. But I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again wherein you are also careful but ye lack opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of one for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We're going to stop there and have just a couple of verses we're going to share later on in the chapter and I'd like to focus again today on the promises of God. Father, we thank you for your goodness. Bless your word.

It never returns void. So, Lord, we're doing our best to be biblical every time we get behind this pulpit. We're trying to get your word out because we know it will not return void. Lord, I pray you would minister to hearts this morning. In your name we pray.

Amen. Number one, I want you to notice this morning in verse six, if you will, it says be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. First we see this, God has given us prayer to help us. Prayer to help us.

All God's people ought to say amen to that. Let me know what the verse actually means. It says be careful. That word careful means anxious.

Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer. That word supplication means petition. Going to the Lord on behalf of someone else and supplicating and that means that I am asking God, I'm bringing my petition to God and He says this through prayer, supplication with thanksgiving. That word thanksgiving in the Greek here is the word for grateful language. So what we are given here in our journey as we serve God, we're given a promise of Him that He has provided a way for you and I to talk to Him.

Wouldn't it be horrible to have to serve God and not be able to talk to Him? I'll never forget when I was, I guess, it was about the end of my second year working here at Kerwin. I went down, I guess I'd been here not quite two years and I went down to graduation at the college where I had graduated from. Had a couple of friends that were a couple of years behind me that were graduating and Brother Joe allowed me to go down for graduation week and they always had two or three days of preaching and conference and different things and then they had graduation.

I wanted to go down and see some friends and different things and so I'll never forget I went down and ended up eating with, I don't know, 10, 12 friends we had known. Some came in for graduation, some were graduating and a couple of the different individuals were there, them and their wives were working in churches. We had graduated from college together, they were working in churches and one that I'm thinking of, he pastors in Georgia now and his name was David Hudson, a good friend of mine, he and Susan and I preached a revival in their church just before I came back to Kerwin and to work here. We were sitting there and he was working at a church, I believe it was in Texas, I think that's where it is, I'm not sure. I wouldn't give you obviously the preacher's name and it was a good size ministry. It was probably our size and about the same.

I don't know if it was a little bit bigger, a little bit smaller. We were sitting there eating and they began to talk about ministry and what they were doing and where they were serving and different things and I'll never forget I was sitting there and I was kind of quiet, which is rare I know, but I was kind of quiet sitting there and they began to talk about what they liked about their ministry, what they didn't like about, what they liked about working for the preacher they were working for, what they didn't like about working for the preacher they were working for and different things and I was sitting there, David was talking about that he had been there almost two years working for this individual and he was literally the assistant pastor there and he was saying it is so frustrating, he said that I've worked there literally two years, we've never even gone out for a meal together. He said I never see him, he never meets with me, he never talks with me and he said I don't feel like I have a rapport with him. He said I'm working hard trying to do everything at the church I can do and here you are the assistant pastor and he says at church he'll speak to me sometimes, we're on the platform and he said but during the week and different things he said I don't feel like I know him, he's just not very personable and he said we've been working there two years and it's very frustrating and that would be frustrating, wouldn't it? And I was sitting there at the table and I didn't say anything and we got done eating and I got in the car and I was coming back and I remember coming back to Florida, I pulled into this house in the corner where I lived and you know there's just certain things you remember and I was sitting in my car and I pulled in and as I pulled back in I said Lord thank you for letting me work at Kerwin Baptist Church. I said I didn't say anything to them because I didn't want it to look like man I'm just rubbing it in and pouring salt on a wound but I said I get to eat lunch with my pastor just about every day.

We meet and we talk and we talk on the phone, we'll go do enjoyable things together, I'm working for a pastor that's personable and man he'll stand around here forever and talk to you if you want to. By the way I just want to let you know I'm usually always the last person to leave this building. People say I can't ever get with you, well guess what, everybody else can. You want to talk with me, I'm here. Everybody else seem to so if you want to talk, don't say you can't get with me, if you want to get out the door quick, that's your fault but you want to talk to me, I'm here.

I love to talk to you. My brother Joe, I watched for years, he's the last person to leave this building. I mean lights are getting turned off, everybody's at home in bed and he's just loading up the wheelchair in the car out here. Let me tell you something, I pulled in and realized how frustrating would that be to work for an individual, to literally try to serve with an individual that you don't ever get to talk to, that you don't know, that you're not personable with and I say God thank you for putting me here at this church with brother Joe because what a difference it makes when you get to know the person you're serving with and I'm here to tell you that's what prayer can be for you. You are here to serve God, you're here to live for Him but God has made a way possible every second of the day if you want to and if you choose to, you can talk to Him, get to know Him, you can draw close to Him, He'll draw close to you. He has given us prayer to help us.

Thank God for that. How lonely would it be to live a Christian life and not even be able to call on God and talk to Him? When you have questions, when you have frustrations, when you're dealing with things, how horrible would it be without prayer? I notice what he says here, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God. Everything. Dear friends, we ought to be going to God on everything.

So much more to say about that but I've got to try to cover them all. Look at verse 7. It says, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And number one, He not only gave us prayer to help us but second, He gave peace to keep us.

Peace to keep us. Now I want you to look at this verse and I want you to understand this. Look at verse 7. It says, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

Now, I always misunderstood this until I dug in to find out exactly what it meant. Sometimes if you're not careful, you can assume that you understand things and part of meditating and studying God's word is to study everything and get into it and dig into it and find out what it's really saying. That word passeth, I always said that it just means that nobody's going to be able to understand why you have peace but you do. And God is able to give you something that we as humans we can't understand but God gives that peace and that is true. But let me tell you what this word passeth means. This word passeth means to hold oneself above, to excel past, superior, better.

Now listen to me. It means this. That God says my peace passes all understanding.

What that means is this. My peace is superior to your understanding. Do you understand that? He says not only are you not going to be able to understand it but my peace that I'm going to give you, that is going to do a lot more for you than if you understood things. If you could process things in your mind, if it all made sense to you folks, that's not going to do near as much good for you as the peace of God. And God says I'll give it to you even if you don't understand, even if it's not fathomable in your mind, even if you can't write down why, I'm going to give you the peace of God and it is superior, it is far above, it is beyond your understanding. Dear friend, not only is God's peace beyond our understanding, it is better than our understanding.

It's superior. Nothing can do what the peace of God can do. I can't tell you how many times in my life that God's led me to do things and it didn't make sense to me or anybody else around me. But when God gives you a peace to do something, that is better than any understanding you can get. Because you just know if God's given peace, this is what He wants me to do. Dear friend, God gave us His peace to keep us.

What does that word keep mean? You say alright preacher, okay, His understanding, passeth all understanding, it's superior. But notice what it says, that God's peace, not only is it better than your understanding, but it will keep your hearts and minds.

Now what do you mean? Hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That word keep is an interesting word and I wanted to give this to you because I thought this was important. It means to be a watcher in advance.

It means to mount as a guard or a sentinel, to protect as with a garrison. Now, that means this, God says my peace is going to pass your understanding, it's superior, but not only that, it is going to guard, it is going to watch in advance your heart and your mind. That means before your mind and your heart gets messed up, the peace of God can keep you from that if you let it. Do you realize how important the peace of God is? That means in your life don't do anything without the peace of God. Don't make any decision without the peace of God.

Don't pick up roots and move just because you get paid more at a job. You better have the peace of God for that because that peace of God is going to keep you from making a mistake. Do you get it? Does it make sense?

Oh, you're looking at me, but I can tell you're sleeping with your eyes open. Do you get this? The peace of God, you better make sure you have it for whatever you do because that peace that only God gives, that will protect you, that will be like a sentinel up on top of the wall and saying, oh, don't do this, it's not right. Do you know why so many people get out of God's will? Because they did not wait for the peace of God. The peace of God not only is superior than your understanding, but the peace of God will literally guard and protect you if you let it. Don't make an investment, don't make a decision, don't go to a place, don't do anything, don't do anything until God gives you peace about it.

The very day brother Joe met with me in privacy and said, I'm going to retire, I'm going to let the church know, our deacons have prayed for months, I've prayed for months, and we believe that God has led for you to be our next pastor. Would you be willing? Now, every part about Daniel Hartree would say immediately, yes, you would be an idiot to not be willing to come to the greatest place in America. I am not that big of an idiot, though. I know how hard it's going to be. I had no idea how hard it was going to be.

I thought I knew. I thought I knew how difficult it would be to follow brother Joe. I thought I'd already, you know, man, I had never thought it would ever be me. But I told years ago when I was here as the youth pastor, I said, I feel sorry for the next person that's going to take over from Joe Myers. Oh, if I'd kept my mouth shut. I feel sorry for where it's going to be.

They're just setting themselves up to fail. Ain't never going to be another brother Joe. Lord, don't I know that now? I hear it every day.

No, I don't. I'm just picking. But I said, well, Joe, I'll pray about it. You see, Daniel Hartree could have immediately given Daniel Hartree peace because that sounds good.

It sounds like, well, man, a lot of that's the greatest church in America. So I went back. Told my wife.

And then I went up to a little apartment at Gateway Apartments. And my sick mother came out and my dad was sitting there and I said, I got something I talked about. And I said, Brother Joe met with me today. I said what he had said. My mom just began to cry.

Nobody said anything. Just somehow, just immediately, we all bowed heads. My mom began to pray.

She said, God, this is a big decision. Lord, I pray that you would give Daniel peace of what to do. Now, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you there haven't been days I thought, good Lord, get me out of here. These people are wonderful.

But this is too much for Daniel Hartree. It's not because people have been bad. People have been wonderful here. It's my own limitations. It's my own failures. I'm human. Not only am I human, I'm just miserable at ministry and things and I'm trying my hardest. And I'm not going to tell you there haven't been times that I felt like, man, they just need to get somebody better. They need to get somebody more able.

They need to get somebody this, whatever. But it always comes back before you just throw it in and throw in the towel and call it quits and always go back to this point. God, you gave me peace to come here. And God's peace will protect you from making a wrong decision going and it'll keep you from making a wrong decision in leaving.

Some of you work in ministries and Sunday school classes and all these things here. Let me tell you something. Before you ever step out of anything, I don't care how tough and how hard, how people don't appreciate whatever you might go through.

Let me tell you something. You better make sure that you've got the peace of God before you make that decision. Because if you don't have the peace of God, you're going to step into an area where God's will has not taken you.

And that's a dangerous place to be. God has given his peace to keep us. Third, I want you to look at verse 8, if you will, and I'll hurry through. Brethren, whatsoever things are, he begins to list some things. I find third that God gave us here a pattern to show us. This is what he said to do.

He literally gave us step by step instructions. Look at verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtuous, praise. You think on these things. You say, well, I don't understand. Look at the next verse. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. We were given a pattern to show us. Now, so God says your mind ought to be centered on a certain type of thing.

What is it? True? Is it true?

For we start dwelling on something, for we start giving our whole time during the day, thinking a whole thought process, forming an opinion about somebody or something. Is it true? Is it honest? It says just. That word just means innocent or holy. We ought to be thinking on innocent, holy things. He says this, whatsoever things are pure.

We ought to be thinking our mind on pure things. He says this, whatsoever things are lovely. That means friendly towards, acceptable, lovely. He says this, whatsoever things are of good report. That means spoken well of. That means this, we're not supposed to in our mind dwell on the bad we have heard about somebody. That means if a mom and dad or grandma and grandpa have a son or a daughter or a grandson or a granddaughter that absolutely go bonkers and blow it.

They shouldn't think one thought about walking into this church, getting what they need from God, feeling the love and acceptance of their brothers and sisters in Christ. You know why? Because if we've heard a bad report about somebody, we don't even think about it again. Good Lord, we hear something good. We forget it quick, don't we? We hear something bad. It takes months to get that out of our system.

Because we've got to tell it to a hundred people before we can get it out of our system. God has not only given prayer to help us and peace to keep us, but He gave a pattern to show us. Number four.

Get off that one. Look at verse nine. Those things which He had both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace, notice this, shall be with you. Number four, I see He's given His presence to accompany us.

That ought to excite you before you head to Seafood Shack. If it wasn't enough, all that He's done, He said the God of peace, the God of the very peace that we just said is so important in your life. That peace is so superior to your understanding and that peace will guard you and protect you and watch out for you. And the very God of that peace is with you wherever you go. That promise from God, the God of peace shall be with you.

How much is His presence worth? You ever thought about that? I will admit many of you that have lost, and I know this is just what we're going through right now as a family. So you'll hear me talk about things, and I'm sure that that won't talk about as much in the future maybe, but I will say this. Many of you that have lost loved ones, I could not tell you what five minutes with my mom would mean to me now. I've got a list of things I'd love to say to her that I didn't even know I needed to say when she was here. What would it mean just for five minutes? Well you'll get to see her again one day, I know that.

But I'd love to see her now. If my, just the presence of my mom, how much is the presence of a holy God worth to you? The fact that He literally goes almost unnoticed an entire day, sometimes an entire week. Sometimes it's been months since God has even been acknowledged in your life, and He's literally gone with you everywhere you go. What a promise that God said, my presence will be with you wherever I go.

You say, well how is that? Well, that's why the doctrine of the Trinity is so important. We believe that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the three are one. They're all three God. In our minds sometimes we think, okay here's God and then there's Jesus. No, there's God and then Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God, they're all God.

The three are one, but they have different ministries, they have different things that they do. But here's the nice thing, when Jesus died on the cross and purchased our redemption, He said, I will not leave you comfortless. That means this, look at me Christians, those of you that have been saved by the grace of God, look at me, this is what this means. There is not one moment of your life that you have to be comfortless. He has put inside you what you need to find comfort for every situation in every second of every day. It's called the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit indwells you, lives in you, and goes with you everywhere you go. And He is the comforter, and God said, this is the promise I'm going to make you, He's going to go with you everywhere you go. I will not leave you comfortless. My presence, the God of peace, shall go with thee. What a promise. Thank God for that.

Look at verse 11 if you will. Not that I speak in respect of want, Paul said, for I have learned of whatsoever state I am therewith to be what? I find next that he's given us a policy to calm us.

Policy to calm us. Whatever state I'm in, therewith to be content. Now why would he have just said that? Why would Paul just say, I have learned of whatsoever state I am therewith to be content?

Are you listening? Because just a verse and a half before it, he said, there is a promise from God, and it was this, that the God of peace shall go with you. How can Paul be content in whatever state he's in, abound, full, suffer need, suffer loss, enjoy in victories, agonizing of defeat, all these different things that you go through in life. How can Paul be content in every situation?

Here's how. There's a policy God has given to calm us even in the worst situations, and it's this, that the God of peace shall be with you. So that ought to be enough to make you and I content. God's with me. That's why when an individual can go through something, we just don't know how they can go through it, they can say, God's with me.

I mean, we could pick out different people in this audience, been through things. We think of Burtis, we're watching him suffer now. Burtis would be the first one to tell you, man, God's with me. Burtis has got a better attitude about what he's going through than I do about what he's going through. I got a rotten attitude about what he's going through.

Burtis has got a great attitude about it. It breaks my heart. It makes me mad. You know, you get on the news, you see these individuals that are raping women, molesting children, and I think, God, why don't you make them go blind? God, why don't you give them a sickness? Why don't you mess with their lungs?

Why don't you make them go through this? Why do you make a godly servant? We always think about things like that, but how in the midst of all that can we be content? Because God's with us. I want you to notice next, if you would, that in verse 13, he's given power to strengthen us. Verse 13, if you would, I can do all things through Christ which what? Strengtheneth me. That's where my strength comes from, is Christ. If you and I will ever get into our minds that the only strength you and I can get is through Christ. I think I told it here a couple years ago or something like that, but every time I think about this, I think about how often we have services and we go through our little order of service and we've not begged for the power of God.

And we're nothing without the power of God because that's where our strength comes from. And I told you about that one church that I heard about that had an organ like we do and a piano, and they didn't have a pianist, they just had an organist. And they got up to start Sunday school and the janitor had been cleaning the building the week before and he finally is on rotation to pull the organ out a little bit and get behind it.

Dust gets behind there and different things. And so he had done all that. So the guy, the man to open up the Sunday school got up and they had a combined Sunday school that morning. Everybody was there and he said, all right, folks. He said, let's all stand and we're going to sing Amazing Grace. He got up and he said, and we get the key. Well, the organist got up there, turned the organ on.

I mean, dead, dead as a doornail, couldn't get the organ to work. And man said, all right. And we're going to start on the first verse, Amazing Grace. And the organist didn't know what to do. So the man, you know, he had his little order of service.

We're supposed to sing first. And he didn't know what to do. So he said, well, I tell you what, folks, let's just go ahead and pray. So about a second, began to pray. Well, the janitor knew what had happened as soon as it happened, he hadn't plugged it back in. So he scribbled a note and he ran up and he put it there at the pulpit and he ran over there to the organ. When that man got done praying, that little note from the janitor said, after prayer, the power will be on.

Dear friends, that's the way it is in our life. Only after prayer will the power be on. You and I, we can push the keys all we want to.

You can be the best organist in the world. And it's not going to do you any good without power. Listen to me, dear folks, we are nothing without Christ.

He's the one that strengthens us. And what might be nice for you to know, you say, well, I just don't think I can keep doing something. I don't think I can keep on with something.

I don't think I can do it. Let me tell you something, folks, the strength doesn't come through you. If Christ led you to do something and he gave you the peace to do it, he will give you the strength to accomplish it. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.