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- Many years ago I was preaching at a revival, folks were being saved and we were having a great time.
- There was a lot of praising and amening.
- It was at a church in southern Indiana.
- It is hard sometimes to preach up north.
- People here don't know where to punctuate the sermon and it is hard to know where you are at.
- At the close of the service a young lady came up to me and told me she had a sister who is involved in drugs and a gang.
- She asked me if I would pray for her.
- I said, "why don't you see if she'll come to church"
- She informed me that her sister would never do that.
- I asked her to pray about it and ask her anyway.
- On the closing night, just before I got up to preach a girl come in and sit on the back row and acted very hostile.
- I was somehow just led to believe that was her.
- After I got thru preaching she got in line with all the other people and she came up to me "Now because of my sister I came"
- And I have listen to you now for the last 45 minutes and I want you to know that you said nothing relevant
- You said nothing that would bring deliverance to me or those I know
- I think you are a fraud
- And some of the other folks are trying to shake my hand and give me hugs
- and I said to her, why don't you just stand here to the side until I finish and we can go to the office
- After we had finished with the other people I said to her, why don't we go over to the room here
- And when we had sit down I said to her, I want to ask you -- and she began again to berate me and the church and the church's cause
- I just listened to her and prayed -- and sometimes that's all you can do.
- Then the Lord opened a wide door
- She said, by the way, you tried to get me to accept Christ - you kept pleading for me and asking me to accept Christ
- She said, I saw you and I responded "yes that's right, I had you in mind"
- She said, I want to ask you a question -- I was praying cause I didn't know what kind of a gang member she was
- All of a sudden, the Spirit of the Lord brought it out.
- She said, "If I had accepted Jesus, what would I have now?"
- She said, "If I had gotten up and accepted Christ, been born again, filled with the Spirit, in other words preacher,
- What do you have, when you have Jesus?
- I looked at her and said, "You remember, you asked me, you must let me answer"
- She said, alright, tell me, tell me -- and then she started to help me
- Will I have my bills paid for
- Will I have a new home
- Will I have 2 cars
- I looked at her and said, I don't know too many who have Jesus who have all that.
- We don't have houses and land, silver and gold
- I did hear a guy on the radio the other day
- He said, if you'll just pray if you'll just send for this cloth, if you'll send for this letter, if you'll send for this flower blessings will be yours
- they will abound, you'll have your bills paid
- then he said, now folks, if I don't hear from you we will be forced to go off the air.
- It appears to me that some of those handkerchiefs should be kept at his own house
- and one of the words I want to give today is -- that accepting Jesus Christ is no immunization against the problems of this world in the area of economics, in the area of paying those bills
- other than He gives us wisdom and patience and faith as we struggle with the normal problems of living
- The fact that you do have a new home
- The fact that you do have 2 cars
- The fact that all your bills are paid
- Is no indication that you are closer to the Lord than the one who does not have
- But those who are busy across our nation suggesting that God came into this world to give us this worlds goods,
- Must take another look at the One that came into this world, who had no where to lay His head
- God has something better than houses and land, silver and gold
- God has something infinitely greater in satisfaction than mink stoles and alligator shoes
- He plans to bring something greater than this world's goods
- So I told the young lady, I can't promise all that
- She said, Alright, then is He going to deliver us from our burdens and oppressions.
- I can't promise that -- because He moves in strange and mysterious ways
- Well, tell me what does happen
- Well, there are many but I will give you just 2
- So I began. When you have Jesus, the first thing according to the book of Romans chapter 5,
"Therefore (therefore in the light of what transpired in the other verses) being justified by faith, we have PEACE WITH GOD, thru our Lord Jesus Christ"
- Now that is the first thing
- When you have Jesus you have peace with God
- Therefore (therefore in the light of the fact that He was raised again from the dead)
- (in the light of the fact that He did that)
- ( in the light of the fact that He was buried)
- (in the light of the fact that He was raised again for our justification)
- we have something and that something is (there is therefore now PEACE, ---- with God and those who accept Jesus Christ
- Now that is so mind blowing
- that is so wonderful
- that is so outstanding
- that God and I are alright
- Now there are a whole lot of other places I have peace with.
- When I was young and wanted to buy a house I went to the bank and told them I was a parts man in the local Chevrolet garage.
- It was a garage that had been in business since the 1930's and was very successful
- That I was a promising young worker and had just got a raise to a $1 an hour
- and that I wanted to borrow some money
- and he looked at my credit rating and said, no
- and I had no peace with that bank what so ever
- so I told my dad and he said he knew the banker and that he would speak to him
- the banker called me and told me to come in with my dad
- He told me he didn't realize who I was and that he was happy to make me the loan
- And he had me to sign but, then he turned to my dad and said, sign here Mr. Ferry.
- I had signed my name and had signed it very plain but now he turned to my dad and said, now Mr. Ferry, you sign here.
- I thought my name Arthur G. Ferry Jr. was sufficient
- He said Arthur G. Ferry, Sr., you sign
- and it was the signing of Arthur G. Ferry, Sr. that released unto me the money necessary for the house
- And even now, though I have been gone from that town all these years, I can go back to that bank, I have peace with that bank
- And I can now sign without a second signature
- They say, are you Arthur G. Ferry, Jr.
- Are you the Arthur G. Ferry, Jr. that use to be here?
- and I say yes, and they say sign, what do you want, sign
- I have peace and that's marvelous
- I have peace with my wife
- It is nice to have peace with the one who feeds you.
- wait a minute, wait a minute
- More than with a bank,
- more than with my wife,
- more than the board of deacons
- more than with my secretary
- I HAVE PEACE WITH GOD
- God and I are talking
- God is smiling on me
- Peace with God, peace with God
- There are some here who have economic peace
- You have political peace
- You have all kinds of peace
- but there are some of you under my voice today that do not have the certainty that you have PEACE WITH GOD.
- He's got the whole world in His hands, you ought to get together with Him
- He's got you and me in His hands, you've got to get together with Him
- He's got everything, potential and past
- He's got your voice, your breath, your future, everything in His hands
- You better have PEACE -- WITH -- GOD
- We had a lady in our first church, Berty was her name and Berty had been having a bad time of it.
- I went to visit her and she greeted me very kindly.
- We visited for awhile and when I went to leave I asked if I might pray for her
- She said, just a minute before you pray I would like to say something.
- She said, don't ask the Lord to heal me. No don't ask that.
- And I was somewhat shocked and I said, you mean you don't want me to say that?
- No, she said, don't say that
- Just thank Him, praise Him
- And then I said, explain that to me, every other place I go they ask me to pray for this or that, pray for healing, healing of cancer, healing of this or that, healing from colds
- She said, no, you see pastor, I'm almost there, and I don't want to turn around.
- cause I'm sick of this old world.
- Don't want anymore hospital beds, no more special this or that.
- Then do you know what she said, she said, "God and I are alright, so let me go"
- Peace with God
- And I turned to this hostile young lady and I said, did you get that.
- And she said yes.
- Then I said, Now, really wouldn't you like to have peace with God?
- She said, If I thought there was a God and if I thought that one day I'd meet Him, I really would like to be at peace with Him.
- And I said, put it down and by the way, as you put it down, leave out the if's.
- He is and you will meet Him
- Then I said, not only will you have peace with God, and once you get this transcending peace with God
- Then something comes out of it.
- And in the Book of Philippians it is called the PEACE OF GOD (Philippians 4:7)
- Peace with God, but then, Paul in his letter to the Philippians says, "the peace of God is received once you have PEACE WITH GOD
- That comes down and first of all gets up here (head), gets all in your head and mind, peace of God
- It get all in your understanding and all of a sudden things that were cloudy and difficult and hard to believe and understand, you begin to say YES LORD.
- Because you have received the PEACE OF GOD
- But then the stuff in your head it gets all down in here, (heart)
- Because it says it not only works on your mind, it works on your heart too
- And not only does it get in the heart but it get down all over
- So that -- it passes ALL UNDERSTANDING
- Peace of God
- You can get so peaceful in the midst of a storm
- You can get so peaceful in the midst of conflicts, in the midst of tragedies and trials
- Until folks who don't know God will claim you are nutty
- Peace of God
- My mother, serving navy beans and bread dipped in hot grease, bowing our heads and saying, Father we Thank You for the blessings we are about to receive
- Peace of God
- The Apostle Paul in jail, praying -- peace of God
- Daniel in the lion's den, resting away, peace of God
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, saying "throw us in"
- Peace of God
- The Apostle Paul on a ship sinking - have some food
- Peace of God
- And it passes all understanding, you can't explain it
- You can't write it out
- No psychiatrist knows the answer to it
- No sociologist can understand it
- It is just something that comes in your heart WHEN YOU HAVE JESUS
- Friends, I just want to slip in a testimony -- I HAVE IT
- There are a lot of bad things going on in the world today.
- Kids killing kids, adults killing kids
- Storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, killing people
- The worth of the dollar, housing being expensive
- But thru all this I have PEACE WITH GOD, and because of that I have the PEACE OF GOD
- Now I could go on and on, but I will conclude it with just one question
- Do you have the PEACE OF GOD and are you at PEACE WITH GOD
- If not, now is the time
