They prayed about where to eat, and a trucker met Jesus

You never know what’s going to happen when you obey God. People might get saved—and for sure you will have a peace that passes all understanding. In Philippians chapter 4, Paul is addressing a church that’s in a major battle with its culture. He is trying to get Christians pulled back from the world. It’s the same today. If we do as God commands, and Paul shows us an incredible set of commands from God, we shall experience some incredible promises.

When God says, “You do these things and my peace shall be with you” it’s not a glib statement—it’s a promise. But you say, “I’m saved, the Holy Spirit dwells in me.” The fact you’ve got the Holy Spirit dwelling in you doesn’t mean you are connected with God.

The command to talk to God

God says,

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (Philippians 4:6)

Be careful for nothing means nothing. None. Zero. The word “care” means worry or distress. Do you realize worry is a sin? Here’s my problem: I know it’s a sin to worry, so I worry about what I’m worrying about. And to make it worse, I’m worried because I’m not supposed to worry about what I’m worrying about. And that makes me worry about it even more!

You say, “That’s not realistic.” Absent the power of God you’re completely right. But whatever God commands, he enables.

The word “worry” or “care” is made up of two words, one meaning “choking the life out of something”—like somebody saying, “This is killing me,” and another word meaning, “tearing something apart,” just as if you put hooks in two sides and ripped them apart—like somebody saying, “this is tearing me up.”

God says, “Stop it! You cannot rejoice in everything and be torn up at the same time.”

The Lord wants us not to worry. But here’s the command: He says, “I want you to start talking to me about everything.” This has been a challenge for me because sometimes I can just run off and forget God. I get busy with my to-do lists and phone calls, and all the documents that need to be read every day, and I don’t talk to God about any of it.

Have you ever spent one day in your life saying, “Lord, I want to stay in touch with you all day today. I want to talk to you about everything.” You say you talk to God about major stuff? That’s not the command. The command in Philippians 4:6 is, “in every thing by prayer and supplication.”

I was traveling with one of our staff members, Jim Coates, a former pilot who has been given every valor award our country gives, twice. He was shot down in combat. He’s one of the bravest men I’ve ever met, a great Christian, and a great soulwinner.

We were traveling through the night, and about 3 a.m. I say, “Brother Jim, let’s eat.” He says, “It’s a great idea,” and adds, “Let’s just pray and ask the Lord where he wants us to stop.” I say, “Jim, we’re in the middle of nowhere, there’s just gas stations and truck stops. Come on, pick a place, it’ll be fine.” He says, “Oh brother Gibbs, you’re such a tease. I know you pray about everything don’t you? Because it’s a sin not to pray about everything isn’t it, brother Gibbs?”

And I look at him and say, “Yeah. I was just testing you, Jim.”

Aren’t we so comfortable on auto pilot—not talking to God about any of it? Sure, when we have a problem, we call out, “Hey, you’re an ever-present help in time of trouble, so here I am, God.” But God says, “I want you to talk to me about every thing.”

So Jim and I prayed that God would put us in the right place. We drove a good number of miles and we pulled into a truck stop, and we’re pumping fuel in, and there’s a light mist coming down. It’s 4 in the morning by now and two semis pull in and the two drivers get out and walk past us, and Jim calls out:

“Hey guys! Just got a question for you tonight. If you weren’t gonna be alive when the sun come up, do you know you’d be in heaven?”

And one of the guys walked over and said, “What?”

And Jim says, “I don’t mean to scare you. But if you weren’t gonna be alive … the sun will come up in about two and a half hours … if this was your last night on earth, are you sure you’d go to heaven?”

And the guy says, “Who are you? We drive this route five nights a week. We drive from where we start, and we go to Indianapolis, and we turn around and come back, and all we do is drive and talk on our CBs. But somehow tonight the two of us got talking about what would happen if we weren’t alive when the sun come up.”

He says, “It creeped me out. I said to my friend, ‘You’ve got me too upset. Let’s get off here. Let’s get coffee here. We don’t ever get off here. I’ve driven this route for 30 years, we’ve never gotten off here.’ So we pull our semis in here. We get out, and there you are, asking me if I know where I’d be if I died.”

You might say, “Well, nothing like that happens to me, brother Gibbs.”

That’s because you’re disconnected. God says in “every thing by prayer and supplication”.

The mist never stopped falling. It wasn’t raining but it wasn’t dry. The mist just kept falling down. And that truck driver knelt right there in the parking lot, and Jim led him to the Lord.

You cannot imagine what God wants to do with you today—if only you start talking to him. That’s the command.

Three other commands in Philippians chapter 4 guarantee that if you do them, the God of peace shall with you.

The command to rejoice in the Lord

Again, God says,

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

This command to rejoice is so noteworthy because God repeats it in the same sentence, for emphasis. What does it take to get the rejoice out of you? You say, “Well I’m rejoicing and it just doesn’t show.” No, you’re lying, and you’re still not rejoicing. You cannot hide rejoicing.

The word “rejoicing” means to take the joy and keep stirring it. Revive it. Every single day you’ve got more to rejoice about than you could get done in a single day. You say, “I’m just not a natural, rejoicing kind of person.” God didn’t say rejoice if you’re just a bubbly kind of person. This is a command to every child of God.

A non-rejoicing Christian is a deep-sinning Christian. We have so much to rejoice in. We have an all-powerful God who has done so much. We all need to remind ourselves: Rejoice! Not based on how we feel, nor on what happens, nor what we have to get done today, nor what we’re encountering. Rejoice!

The command to make God look good

And,

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. (Philippians 4:5)

Do you know what your moderation is? Many people read that and I don’t think they catch what it says. Your “moderation” is what has control of you. God says, “Something’s got control of you.” But let your moderation be made known unto all men.

What has got control of you? How are you letting it be known? What would it take for you to let everybody know that the Son of God has control of you today?

You’ve got one job in life—to make the son of God look good. That little reminder has helped me 10,000 times a year. Am I going to make the Son of God look good today?

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. (Philippians 4:9)

The God of peace will be with you as you “do.” These are not only God’s words. They are your life.