HELP

We live our lives in a daily struggle having to make decisions about various things and age is no factor.

Children as well as some adults struggle with decisions about - Homework – do I do my homework or take the zero and the ramifications that go with it.

Do I go to college right after high school or wait until the planets align and everything is just right?

Do I go to the military because people say it’s good for you and you’ll get training? What they don’t tell you is the military is a war fighting organization that can separate you from your family for days, weeks, or months at a time and those can add up to years.

Dinner – do I cook at home or do I eat out and if I cook at home, then what do I cook?

Work – do I stay on the job I’m on, even though I hate it or do I leave and try to find another one.

Finances – how do I manage my finances; do I operate from a budget or just wing it.

Am I going to tithe or just give what I want or decide I can afford to give - God will understand.

Do I buy a new car or a used car? Or do I continue taking the bus?

Do I buy a house or rent?

Am I going to wait to have sex until I’m married or am I going to try it before I buy it.

Do I even want to get married or stay single and if I do marry, there is an endless pool of decisions you have to make within that union?

Children – do I want any,

if so how many,

how will I raise them?

how will I discipline them

Do I sign a DNR or ask for heroic life saving measures and costly life support if I am severely injured?

Do I prepare a living will or leave it to someone else to make that decision if I become incapacitated?

These are just a few of the decisions we deal with, some on a daily basis, some occasionally and some once in a lifetime. Some of them would appear to be easy choices – unless you’re the one having to make them every day. For example – what to fix for dinner. To you it may seem easy but what really goes into making dinner? If you were trained anything like I was growing up – a good, and by good I mean healthy, dinner consists of a meat, a starch and a vegetable, it includes different textures and it has a variety of colors so that it looks pleasing to the eye.

Now for the one who is sitting down to eat the dinner, these things may never have crossed your mind. But for the cook, it can be an exhausting, daily exercise and sometimes the best our tired bodies and brains can come up with is hamburgers and French fries or hot dogs and pork and beans with some kool aid. Anybody ever been there?

Then we have the really tough decisions like do I sign a DNR or do not resuscitate order and have I created a living will so my family does not have to make this all-important decision for me at what is undoubtedly going to be a very emotional time for them. This is something we don’t typically think about, let alone talk about, but it’s important. We can get so super spiritual sometimes that we make things hard for our loved ones whether it’s emotionally, financially, or both.

Yes, pray about it, but stop saying “when it’s my time nothing you do will keep me here or if the Lord wants me to stay here, He’ll heal me. Yes, He can certainly do that, He has all power, but there are some things we need to discuss with our loved ones, because when it comes to death we can sometimes get irrational – Amen? We tend to think with our hearts and not our heads. We don’t want to lose our loved one. But they may be in unbearable pain, they may have come to a place where their quality of life has declined so much they get depressed and now have to deal with the mental on top of the physical things going on, but because we love and will miss them we don’t want to let them to go, so we try to do things to extend their lives. But saints can I tell you something, we have to pray about it, let go and let God do what God does. We must recognize He knows all, but not only that, He also knows best.

If you don’t have a living will and you are of legal age, you need to get one so your family will know what you want. And if you don’t at best have life insurance and at a minimum burial insurance, please, please, please get some. Don’t leave your family struggling, scraping, scrimping, and Go-Fund-Meing trying to bury you.

Decisions. We all have to make them from the youngest to the oldest. We can get overwhelmed with having to make decisions. Some of our decisions not only affect our lives but they can affect the lives of others.

From the extreme, the disgruntled person who walks into a workplace, school, massage establishment, restaurant, supermarket or church and shoots a bunch of people then kills themselves or not; to the person who chooses to drink and drive and kills a family; to the bully on the playground, the decisions we make can have a lasting effect on the lives of others.

You matter and what you do matters. With all this decision-making we have to do, we can get pretty stressed about it. So how many would like some help with the decisions you have to make? Say help. Say it again. Help! Now say it like you mean it. Help. Now in our message today, we’re going to look two champions of the Bible, King David and the Apostle Paul.

In the Old Testament we’re going to look at Psalm 61:1-4 and in the New Testament Philippians 4:6-7.

Psalm 5:1-3 NLT– 1 O Lord, hear me as I pray; pay attention to my groaning. 2 Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I pray to no one but you. 3 Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.

Now turn to

Phil 4:6-7 KJV – Be careful for nothing; but in every thing 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 Jesus.

The NLT says it this way;

Phil 4:6-7 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Let us pray.

In this Psalm of David’s, he is crying out to God to hear him as he prays. He is in distress at a time when yet again his enemies are showing malice against him. He knows who he belongs to and where his help comes from and so, he prays.

We should be no different today, when we are in trouble, when our enemies come against us, when we have a decision to make, we should first remember whose we are and second, we should know how to call on him. We should know to pray, and when we pray, we want God to answer.

We want Him to pay attention to our groaning, our moaning and sometimes our whining. When we pray for help, we want and expect that someone is going to answer, we hope God will be there when we cry out.

In reality though, we aren’t always looking to God, sometimes we’re looking for somebody, anybody to help us. When you get overwhelmed, do you ever feel like you have no one to turn to? I would venture to say we’ve all been there at some point in our lives.

There are times when we feel lost and disconnected; we feel like no one could ever understand what we’re going through. And King David was no different.

In this Psalm David begins pleading for God to hear him as he prays. O Lord, hear me as I pray. David wanted to make sure God was listening as he prayed. David was a man after God’s own heart, yet even he had times when he pleaded with the Lord to hear his prayer.

David goes on to say pay attention to my groaning. So David didn’t want God to just hear him, he wanted him to pay attention. When David is having to deal with his enemies, he doesn’t retreat to wallow in self-pity, he talks to God about it. David knows where his help comes from so that’s the place he goes, to get what he needs. Do you know where to turn when your enemies come against you?

David pleads for God to listen to his cry for help and calls him my King and my God, it’s important that you know who you’re talking to, that you recognize his power and that you put him in proper perspective in your life. David says, I pray to no one but you. All too often we ask people for help, when we should be going to the One who has all the answers, all the provisions and knows exactly what you need. All to often we go to God as a last resort, when nothing and no one else can help.

So, when your loved one is laying at heaven’s door and you’re the one who has to make the decision to unplug the machine, do you have a relationship that will allow you to cry out HELP and know that God will answer?

You see Isaiah tells us the problem when we look to man for answers, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” So it’s not that the person you go to will give you bad advice, their advice just may not be the best advice.

When you know that God is your rock, your shelter, and your shield, you know that He is the one you should turn to

not just when times are rough,

not just in the midst of the storm,

not just when things aren’t going your way,

not just when you have no other options

The time to ask God to listen to your voice is in the morning. David says, “Each morning I bring my requests to you,” and here is the key, this is what so many miss, David continues saying, “…and wait expectantly.”

First, are you talking to God each morning? If you were talking to Him each morning, you might have better days and even when something does happen that wasn’t in your plan, you may be able to more quickly recognize that while it wasn’t in your plan, it was in God’s plan; and the faster you can recognize God’s plan for your life, the less time you’ll spend complaining.

Then, when you talk to God, are you expecting Him to answer? Or do you pray, not wait for him to answer, go on your way, and do what you want anyway? If you find yourself doing all the talking and none of the listening when you pray, that is failed communication.

But you’re praying for help.

God patiently waits for us to come to Him, to lay our problems at His feet, to trust him with every aspect of our lives, not just what we consider the big things. Anybody ever tried to handle a situation on your own because you thought, oh this is so petty, I got this, and then that little thing turns into a major problem. Now you want to run to God, you’re wondering where he’s been and why he hasn’t helped you. Well, the answer is, you thought you had it, handled and God will not insert himself into your life without your permission. It is true, that there’s nothing too big for God, but what you must understand is there’s nothing too small for him either. Pray and expect him to answer.

He said He would perfect that which concerns us, so why wouldn’t we trust him. God is not a man, He does not lie, he changes not, and He loves us with a love that is unexplainable. We are rotten to the core and he loves us anyway. Tasha Cobbs—Leonard has a new song called In Spite of Me, it talks about all the ways we miss the mark, but it says you still love me, in spite of me, you still chose me how can be, every scar, every flaw, you see it all, you see it all, and you still love me, in spite of me. Now who wouldn’t love a God like that? He’s not looking for perfection, just show up with all your mistakes, missteps and misspoken words and he’ll take you in, clean you up and bless you.

Just call on him and he will answer. There’s a scene in the movie “The Best Man Holiday” where Taye Digg’s character is talking to Morris Chestnut’s character and he makes the statement, “God listens to you when you pray.” If you’ve professed Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, don’t ever let yourself get to the place where you belief that God doesn’t hear you when you pray.

Be like David, meet him in the morning and pray, then wait expectantly for him to answer. Purpose to be like Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus. Study and meditate on God’s Word daily so that you can hide it in your heart and be able to draw on it

when you get in a bind

or when you get angry

or when you get sad

or when you get confused

or when you’re uncertain about what you should do in any given situation.

You stay at the feet of Jesus; you talk to him every morning and see won’t He fight your battle. Then you can be like David in the latter portion of that same chapter of Scripture and begin to rejoice and sing praises to God for his protection, for your joy and for his blessings.

In our New Testament Scripture, Paul tells the Philippian church, Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. When you’re on Jesus’ side you have reason to rejoice because you know you win.

The church at Philippi had a special place in Paul’s heart, he was instrumental in planting this church so it was like one of his babies and he wanted to nurture it and see it grow. So in this book of Philippians Paul encourages them, he tells them to beware of false teachers, he gives thanks and prays for them. We are similar to this church at Philippi because it was also born out of a dream and we like they have a very small beginning.

But their size didn’t discourage Paul and neither will we be discouraged. The Matthew Henry Commentary shares these words, “If good be not done at first, it may be done afterwards, and the last works may be more abundant.” In other words, our latter will be greater than the past. So don’t be discouraged by small beginnings, which we aren’t, but we are, like the Philippian church, looking to grow into a flourishing church. Amen? Even as we remain online.

You see the church, is not the building, it’s each and every one of you who are under the sound of my voice. We are the church that Christ is returning for, he has plenty of buildings, buildings not made by man’s hands. He’s coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle, that church is you. Did you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? So don’t worry about the building, share the message, join us online for Sunday school, for the message, for Bible study and for Intercessory prayer each week.

If you are a member of Love Christian Center, continue to send your tithes, because the work of the ministry continues. If you’re not currently a member and would like to be I will give you that opportunity soon.

When we look at the letter to the Philippian church, it is unique, in that, it has no scorns or criticisms in it, and it is the only one of Paul’s letters which has that distinction.

And as we come to the last chapter in the book of Philippians, Paul says to be careful for nothing, some translations say be anxious for nothing and still another says don’t worry about anything, instead pray about

some things? No

Just the really important things? No

The things you can’t figure out! No

The things you can’t afford? No!

Paul said to pray about everything. There’s nothing so big that God can’t handle it, but there is also nothing so small God won’t think it unworthy of His time if we ask. Ask God for what you need, for my God shall all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. But, it’s important to know the difference between a want and a need. And guess what, sometimes He’ll even give you some of what you want.

Now here’s where we again drop the ball, the same way we don’t wait and listen for God to speak, there’s something else we sometimes forget, Paul said to thank him for all he’s done. You have to remember to say thank you, two small words that mean so much. It’s one of the core manners we teach our children growing up, to say please and thank you, so if we teach our children to say thank you, don’t you think the creator of the universe deserves some thank you’s?

Just the fact that God sent His one and only Son to die, to pay the penalty for your sin, for my sin, is enough to thank him all day every day, but we don’t. We need to practice living a life of gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

He didn’t have to do it but He loved us so much, he was willing to lay his life down for our sins and for our sakes. But here’s the best news, he got up. Not only did he get up, he got up with all power in his hands.

What better friend to have, what better Father to have, who better to walk you through the perils of life than someone who’s been there, done that and come out on the other side victorious. When you have Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you are victorious, you are an overcomer, and you have the peace of God. It’s not just any peace, this is a peace that surpasses all understanding.

All hell is breaking loose in your life and you’re still smiling, you still have joy—that’s when you truly know that you have the peace of God in your life.

When you can smile through your adversity,

When you can break through that wall someone put in front of you to stop you from being who God called you to be.

When you can tear down that barrier that was built with the sole purpose of boxing you in

When you can walk in your destiny even when someone tells you no

that’s when you know you have the peace of God. And when you have the peace of God, you have supernatural power. And Love Christian Center, when we have the peace of God, we become a supernatural church, composed of supernatural people, doing supernatural things for the Kingdom of God.

That’s a power that even when your heart is breaking because God calls your loved one home, allows you to not lose your mind.

It’s a power that keeps you from getting discouraged when the church isn’t growing the way you’d like it to.

It’s a power that keeps you moving forward when everything in you wants to give up.

Do you have that power? If not, there’s no better day than today to get it. The only way to get that power is to invite Jesus into your heart. You do that by simply praying,

Lord, I’m a sinner, I need your help. Please come into my heart and be Lord of my life. I believe you are the Son of God and that you died for my sins. Thank you for dying for me, but I thank you even more for rising up, ascending back to the Father where you now pray for me. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

If you prayed that prayer for the first time congratulations, welcome to the Kingdom of God. Now, if you’d like to join the ministry of Love Christian Center, we’d love to invite you into our family. You can simply reply to this message or send us an email at [e-mail] and we will contact you, pray with you and send you some information. For a complete list of our services and the zoom id’s to join us or to find out more information about us see our website at www.lovechristianctr.org.

Our goal is to reach the nation for Christ, so please hit the share button on whatever platform you may be watching.

Decisions, decisions; we have to make them every day and there are times we all need help. Where will you look to find your help? Are you looking horizontally or are you looking vertically? You want some real help, some lasting help, some loving help—LOOK UP. Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, the way maker, the heart fixer and mind regulator, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first and the last. JESUS HELP.