Power in Restraint: Trusting God Instead of Taking Control

Jan. 31, 2025

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Co-host: Pastor Matt Recker

Guest: Reverend Kyle Paisley

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 1/31/25. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:

Welcome to the program, and as we come to the end of a week with so many different things going on last week, president Trump having just taken office, there was so much going on and now this week, so many things coming out of the White House, so many changes and a lot of exciting stuff going on. But then of course, some very sad things. And we’ve seen a lot of sad things with weather both here in our country and then over in Europe. And our guest today has been under some bad weather over there in the United Kingdom, but now we have just Wednesday night late breaking news that this commercial airplane that hasn’t happened in over 15 years on American soil downing of an American airplane due to hitting a military helicopter. So there’s a lot going on, and as we listen to the news and the way that the news cycle often tends to be nowadays, it seems to be a lot of chaos, a lot of anxiety, and even oftentimes, it’s built to kind of turn people against each other and to want to get the upper hand or want to get to revenge.

And as we talk through this with a biblical worldview, we want to see that we can find power and restraint. Even in my family, altar family devotions with my kids, we’ve been learning the book of Proverbs and looking at how we hold back our tongue and we hold back our actions, self-discipline and power through restraint as we trust God instead of taking control With that, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. My co-host today is somebody that you will probably be familiar with because he’s been a guest on our program many times, but today he’s helping co-host it. And that’s Pastor Matt Recker from Heritage Baptist Church in Manhattan, New York City. Matt, thanks for being on. I think this might be your first time as co-host or at least the first time with me. Thanks for doing this.

Matt Recker:

This is a first time Isaac, and so I appreciate this wonderful opportunity to co-host the program with you.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, it’s exciting because our guest then is coming from across the ocean. You’ll recognize an Irish accent because of his growing up in Northern Ireland, but he pastors in England and he’s the pastor at Alton Broad Free Presbyterian Church in Suffolk, England, and a return guest. And that’s the Reverend Kyle Paisley. Kyle, thank you so much for being with us, even though it’s pretty late at night your time, or at least into the evening hours. Thank you for being with us for our program.

Kyle Paisley:

Oh, it’s a pleasure. Lovely to be on with you both.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, Kyle and Matt, you both are pastors. I’m a pastor and our Stand in the Gap program is geared towards all Christians and it’s geared towards having a biblical worldview, but it’s through the American Pastors Network and we have a heart for pastors and for churches of course. I’d just be curious, could you maybe share a little bit of your testimony of how you came to be a pastor?

Kyle Paisley:

Well, I was at the end coming to the end of my education in high school, and I really didn’t know what I was going to do to be quite honest. I hadn’t thought seriously that seriously about any career. I didn’t know what path to take. I was coming up to the end of what they called in those days, the O levels, the next level up in education then would’ve been a levels which university entrance. I never went that far, but so I had to really pray about it. I mean, I didn’t know what direction the Lord was going to take me, and I submitted the best way I suppose, is testing the waters when I submitted them an application to study, at least to study for ministry at our Bible college back in Northern Ireland. Now, not everybody that submits gets a tick in the box.

So when I went into that, when I made my application from my perspective, there was nothing certain about it. But when I did the interview with our church presbytery there in Northern Ireland, the gentleman, one of the gentlemen that asked me questions and examined me in front of the press, but he said to me, well, we believe that if you are called to Christian ministry, God will vindicate your call and he’ll provide you with a congregation in a church. So just cutting a long story short, that is it. That wasn’t what you may call a Damascus road experience, but it sees me where I’m today and I’m very grateful to the good Lord for all he’s done.

Isaac Crockett:

Matt, go ahead. You want to ask a question quickly, Matt?

Matt Recker:

Oh yeah, sure. So Kyle, tell us about what it’s like pastoring there at the Alton Broad Free Presbyterian Church and how the Lord is working there in Suffolk in England.

Kyle Paisley:

Well, the east coast of England, the East Anglia has a great religious history, Puritan history and religious history, affirmation, history, a lot of the best English preachers and puritans came from not necessarily Suffolk, but this side of England for the East Lia and Eastern counties. It is also the place where the last known revival in England has taken place. So some of that still carries down to today. In the time where I live compared to many places in England, there’s a more of a concentrated evangelical witness across a range of a number of churches here than you’d get in many large towns or cities in England. But the problem really here is, and I find that even creeping in perhaps even to Northern Ireland, where you certainly had a more fervent witness for a considerable period of time compared to the British mainland, we babbled a lot of indifference.

And the indifference is not just in unbelievers, which you’d expect. You get a lot of indifference in believers and a lot of unsettledness with them. So you might find people coming for a while and then going on somewhere else and returning to your pastorate. So it requires a lot of patience. Long suffering is may be too strong a word to use, but certainly a lot of patience. And it reminds me of a story of a man who said these days we’re no longer fishers of men, we’re more like keepers of an aquarium. Sometimes I get fish out of your tank, sometimes you get fish out of mine. So it demands a lot of patience, but God gives grace and I mean I wouldn’t swap it for the world. I love the place, I love the people.

Isaac Crockett:

That is so neat, and I would love to, Matt, have you give your input. We have very, very little time, but Matt, you did not grow up in a pastor’s home I don’t think. Could you maybe just mention 30 seconds or so about how the Lord worked to call you into ministry?

Matt Recker:

Yeah, sure. What stirred in my heart when God saved me and called me into ministry was the local church. I felt that the local church was the heart of what God is doing in the world where Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. There are a lot of great ways to serve God and some even parachurch type ministries. I was actually saved through a college campus ministry, but I just believe God wanted me in the heart of the ministry of a local church.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Well, pastor Kyle Paisley, your dad was a well-known preacher and even political figure, but also especially a preacher theologian. My dad got saved out of a rough background, but he became a pastor. And on my mom’s side, my grandfather had been a pastor and a missionary. So kind of seeing it that way. But Matt, you didn’t get saved until college time. And so it’s neat how God uses us and takes us, but calls us into the pulpit ministry and into the pastoral ministry of feeding and keeping the sheep and times change and cultures change. And Kyle, what you’re saying, it’s like an aquarium. So the fishers and men a lot of neat things. So we want to come back and I want to pick your brain. I want to ask a lot of questions to Pastor Paisley and you’ve written a devotional that I really thought was impactful for such a time as this that I want to talk about where Saul is asleep and David has a chance for revenge.

A lot of things going on. We’re going to take a quick time out. We’ll be back right after this on standing after day. We’ll, welcome back to this program and with so many things going on all over the world, and we seem to hear about it now more than ever because of social media and digital news sources as well as cable news and radio and all the different ways we can hear the news, it becomes sometimes hard to manage this and sometimes hard to sleep. Of course, last night with the late news break that this American Airlines, or I guess that was Wednesday night, I’m sorry, Wednesday night when that happened, after nine o’clock that news started coming out. It was hard here I was preparing for this radio program and I found myself having a hard time going to sleep because your thoughts are wondering what could have happened and will there be any survivors?

But in general, we want to look to the Bible and the word of God for this overall ideas of finding trust and rest in God’s sovereign plan of providence for us, how he provides as well as allowing the Lord. The Bible teaches us vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, allowing him to make the supreme plans. And so I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and Pastor Matt Recker is actually co-hosting with me today. He’s been a guest many times and we are talking with Pastor Kyle Paisley, Reverend Kyle Paisley of the Oulton Broad Free Presbyterian church all the way over in England and Suffolk, England. And of course Kyle grew up though in Northern Ireland, so he has the Irish accent. But Kyle, I read a devotional that you had written on one Samuel 26, and this is where David finds the opportunity to get revenge on kings Saul who has unjustly pursued him and tried to kill him.

And he’s in this deep sleep and he has this opportunity for revenge. And there’s so much here and I love how you take this and just ex what God is saying here. It reminds me a lot of your dad’s ministry. I listened to so many of your dad’s sermons and read much of his writings, but before we talk about this human desire for revenge and David’s actions, what can we take away from this? Because this passage specifically says that Saul, the Lord, allowed Saul to have a deep sleep fall upon him and really the men with him. What are some things we could take away from that?

Kyle Paisley:

Well, I think he was in a deep sleep, not only physically, but he was in a deep sleep spiritually as well. And that was his greatest problem. And had he not been away from the Lord and set the Lord to one side as he did, he would never had that other sleep and exposed himself to the danger that he did. It’s a great thing that David wasn’t in the same frame of mind because then he would’ve dispatched saw, not would’ve been it. So I mean it just shows you that the Lord of sovereign evil over the little circumstances of life, even like sleep. And sometimes I think God showed saw in that, okay, here’s a deep sleep. I’m going to expose you to the man that you consider your enemy, and I’m going to show you that he’s not your enemy at all, that he’s more your friend and there’s more respect for your life than you do for his. So it’s a tremendous, God can rebuke people even through things such as deep sleep. So there’s so much in that to that passage, a very powerful, very moving passage of scripture.

Matt Recker:

Yeah, it sure is. And that’s an interesting expression, actually, deep sleep. It speaks in Proverbs that slothfulness casts us into a deep sleep. And it’s like Saul is in a spiritual sloth to say the least, but Isaiah 29 talks about a spirit of deep sleep having closed your eyes. And so Saul was not seeing reality. So it’s almost as if God put him in that deep sleep. And yet David had this opportunity to take revenge on Saul, but he chose grace instead. So Pastor Kyle, how can this response do you think serve as a model for us for how we handle our enemies who might be in a deep sleep of their own spiritually speaking, or how do we handle difficult people in our lives when we may be have an opportunity to take revenge on them, but we know that we shouldn’t?

Kyle Paisley:

Well, yeah. Well, first of all, we remember that we’re all sinners. That’s one thing you should never even a saved sinner is still a sinner by nature. It’s only God’s grace that’s made the difference, left his own devices and left his own devices. David was capable of certain things. I mean he did on Uriah what Saul tried to do in him. So I think we take from that remember that you’re a sinner just like your enemy, no matter how bitter your enemy is, and you’re just as capable by nature of doing as much harm on him as you are as he is on you. And when we remember that we’re all sinners in one way or another, we’re all in need of the same saving grace and keeping grace, then we hesitate before we lift our hand or lift our voice bitterly against anybody

Isaac Crockett:

That humility. And of course, I mean David is showing humility in this by saying, Lord, this is your anointed. I’m not going to take his life. And this wasn’t the only time this happens. He has these opportunities that are recorded for us in scripture and that humility that we need to have in Christ that we have. We are united to God through Christ and sometimes we come all puffed up thinking how great we are. And this passage really reminds us of that humility, and that’s what you and Matt are talking about as we look at this. The psalmist, David very likely wrote Psalm three and he said in verse five, I laid me down and slept. I awake for the Lord sustained me and Kyle, how would you explain to people that when we have a biblical worldview, it really truly, when we understand who God is and we don’t just say it, but we believe it, it can actually provide for us a place of peace and rest even in these what seemed like and feel like uncertain times?

Kyle Paisley:

Yeah. Well, unless we introduce God into the equation, we’ll always have a narrow view of things. And we’ve got to remember that we’re mortal as well, whereas he’s immortal. And the mortal men at their best when they’re at their best emotionally are mentally. And David was comparatively a young man when he wrote that song. When we’re at our best, physically, mentally, emotionally, even when we’re alert or awake to the world around us and not fast asleep at night, we can be every bit as much in dangers if we were asleep. And even when we’re at our best, we still need to keep in power of God. David’s talked about the arrow that flies by day as well as indenture by night. So we’re weak wherever we are where we are, we’re completely exposed to problems and dangers.

Matt Recker:

Sleep does really remind us of that. And I was thinking about sleep too, how they say sleep repairs and rejuvenates your emotions as well as your body and that it increases and improves your patience. And so I was thinking about Saul getting a deep sleep and then seeing what had happened. It’s almost as if he backed off of David at that point too. And I’m not sure after this incident in one Samuel 26, I don’t think he ever tried to go after David again. So maybe that deep sleep actually did improve his patience a little bit, at least in relationship to David. But another person I thought about deep sleep was utic and he fell in such a deep sleep, he fell out the window. So we have to be careful about that. So in Psalm 1 21, we’re reminded that God though neither slumbers or sleeps and how does this truth, do you think Pastor Kyle bring us comfort that God doesn’t slumber, he doesn’t need to slumber or sleep to get more patience or to rejuvenate? How does this truth bring comfort to us during difficult times?

Kyle Paisley:

Well, because God’s energy is never weighing even when we are at our weakest, God will always be the strongest. He’ll always be the strongest. And so we can cast ourselves entirely upon him in the worst of circumstances, and he’ll see us through, and I think we get an even clearer picture of it, of course, when we look at the person of Christ who is God in the flesh. And even when he was asleep in the boat, he was still aware of what was going on. He was still aware of what was going on, and he could bring calm into the situation by saying, why are you so fearful? Because as long as he is in the boat, and as long as you’ve got Christ as a chorus, as long as you’ve got Christ in the vessel, even when it seems you’re going down, you’re not going to go down so long as Jesus is there.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Matt, with this breaking news this week of the plane crash and things, it reminds me of the big disaster in nine 11 when the planes hit the towers. And we only have a moment here, but Matt, how do we approach people and remind them when bad things happen? God is still in control.

Matt Recker:

I always say, look to Christ on the cross that God took the death of Jesus Christ in one sense, the darkest moment of human history and turned it into the greatest glory for God and our salvation. God gave me this verse, Isaiah chapter 45, verse seven at the time of nine 11, and I love this verse where God says through Isaiah, I formed the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. The Lord do all these things. And then he says He creates these things to bring forth salvation. So I thought of those different elements, light, darkness, peace, and evil, and they were all at the cross, the light of the world, the darkness of men, the Prince of peace, Jesus Christ facing the evil of men. And God brings those different elements, some seeming bad and some excellent. He mixes them together to bring forth salvation and righteousness. So he is our hope in these times because this world has darkness and has evil and we have to deal with it, but God can bring light out of the evil.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Amen. That’s our hope and life and death is Christ alone. It’s nothing that we have done. It’s through Jesus Christ, our savior and our redeemer. And I thank you both for bringing us back to that. We’re going to take a quick time out to hear from some of our partners, but when we come back, we want to continue with this idea of finding peace. Even in the midst of all this chaos, it comes back to our worldview. Some people, when bad things happen, they want to deconstruct their faith, but really it should bring us closer to Jesus Christ, see what he did for us on the cross, and we’re going to look at what that means. Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and my co-host today. It’s actually his first time co-hosting, not his first time on the program. It’s Pastor Matt Recker from Heritage Baptist Church in New York City. And so we actually, I think this is also a new thing, we have two pastors co-hosting together from New York. I’m in Corning, New York, Matt’s in New York City. Our producer Tim Schneider is down in our home office outside of the Philadelphia area. And our guest today is all the way over in England, the Suffolk, England area. Pastor Kyle Paisley, Kyle, how close is your church in the area you live in? How close are you to say London, England?

Kyle Paisley:

We’re about 120 miles outside London. Up on the round, I have to go through Essex and then into North Suffolk. We’re just on the border with a kind of Norfolk, but yeah, just around about 120 miles.

Isaac Crockett:

Okay. Wow. So coming all the way across the ocean. And of course your accent is not something we would expect from somebody in that part of England, but it’s from Ireland, the Ulster, Northern Ireland area that you grew up in. So we’re very privileged to have Reverend Kyle Paisley with us from Suffolk, England on the program right now. And as we look at what God is doing, we had no clue when we were even preparing this in the weeks ahead that there would be a plane crash in America in Washington DC of all places shortly before this program airs. And even as we’re talking about it now, I’ve been seeing friends today on Facebook saying that they won’t say the name of who it was, but somebody from my alma mater, Bob Jones University, they believe was on that plane. Other people that I know saying they knew people on that plane or different connections to it.

And there is a temptation in our human frailty to look at things like this and say, oh, a tragedy. Why doesn’t God stop this? Why did God allow this? And sometimes this can cause people to kind of go through a time of deconstruction of their faith or things, but when we truly know Jesus Christ as savior, we have a biblical worldview, not a human worldview, not a humanistic naturalistic view, but a spiritual biblical worldview. And when we look at it that way, as you pointed out Kyle and Matt, you echoed this too. It points us to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and what looked like the ultimate disaster of the Son of God being crucified on the cross was actually what brought us the redemption and the fulfillment of the Old Testament so that Jesus could say, as we say, when we take the Lord’s table and communion, remember that his shed blood is the New Testament that we remember him.

And so we see the New Testament, we see salvation and redemption in Jesus Christ, even through the hardship of his suffering and dying for us. So, so many things to talk about, and we’ve been looking at a devotional actually that you wrote Kyle a while ago, and I thought was appropriate for some of the chaotic times we’re going through in one Samuel 26 where David has the opportunity to seek revenge against Saul. God has given Saul put him into a deep sleep, and we talk about what that meant spiritually, but physically. But it gives David an opportunity to say, aha, let me take revenge on somebody who’s been chasing after me unjustly. And yet even then, David recognizes God’s sovereignty, God’s morality, God’s laws, and David who is no stranger to defending himself, even lethally against Goliath and all sorts of others. He’s not willing to overstep the boundary of going after God’s anointed. And so it’s a very interesting passage that sometimes we just kind of go over it real quickly, but these narratives have so much in them for us. And so Kyle, I appreciate what you’ve done in pulling this out in writing about it, but could you talk to us about how God is always alert and he’s faithful as he guides his children, and how seeing that sovereignty of God, that he’s always alert, he’s always aware of what we’re going through. How can that help true believers when we struggle with fear or anxiety?

Kyle Paisley:

When you brought there mentioned just a moment or two ago about when troubles strike and when tragedies occur such as this terrible plane crash, it reminds me of a passage, I think it’s on Luke’s gospel where Jesus challenges the hearers and he said, do you think that the people upon whom the tariff silo fell that they were sinners above the rest? He said, nay. I say to you, nay, except your all, likewise parish. You draw to that also the lesson that not all tragedies are punishments. And sometimes there’s a mystery in God’s dealing reasons for things happening are Lord allowing things don’t emerge until afterwards, maybe long afterwards, but accidents are not punishments. If we can remember that, that helps us. And when Christian is going through a trouble time again, his brother, Matt just hit the nail on the head on the last part of the interview there where he said The best thing to do is to focus on the cross. We would have the best view of all life, whether it’s tragedies or blessings, the best view of our own life, the best view of life in general, best worldview. If we could always just look at it through the lens of the cross and keep our focus where the Holy Spirit has his focus, I think is the best thing.

Matt Recker:

Yeah, I agree. Thank you for that, pastor Paisley. So Pastor Paisley, I have to tell you that when I was a student at Bob Jones, I had just become saved. And I’ll never forget my first Bible conference, your dad came and preached and I just sensed the power of God in your dad’s life so much. And then each year there was so much anticipation in my heart, and I know the hearts of so many students to hear your dad preach. I mean, he was beloved by the student body, of course, by Dr. Bob Jr. I know they were like friends, like brothers. Your dad was a great man and we appreciate him so much. I just wanted to say that. And I wanted to ask, did you ever hear him preach a sermon called the Five Coats of Joseph?

Kyle Paisley:

No. No, I haven’t. No. I have to say.

Matt Recker:

So that’s one of my favorite sermons. And he preached, and we’re talking about going through struggles and God’s sovereignty through situations, and you just was so well said that just because we go through those trials, it doesn’t mean God’s punishing us. And Joseph went through all kinds of things. So your dad preaches sermons, the five coats of Joseph and talked about the different coats he wore throughout his life, the special code and the prison code and so forth. Anyway, I just wanted to throw that out there, but get them back to David and him not killing Saul when he could have, he respected Saul’s kingship. God had anointed Saul just as much as God anointed David. God had previously anointed Saul, and so he saw that Saul’s responsibility as king was given by the Lord, even though Saul was so flawed, and obviously his time was limited and God knew that. So how can we apply this principle that David lived out in respecting Saul’s leadership in spite of his deep flaws, and I really admired David. He didn’t scheme, he didn’t violently attempt to remove Saul, but how can we apply this principle in respecting authority in our lives today when many times our government leaders are just as flawed as Saul?

Kyle Paisley:

Yeah. Well, the thing about David is he could have thought about two things. He could have thought about his own feelings or three things. There was his feelings involved in this situation. There was Saul’s feelings, but ultimately, of course, David remembered that it’s the Lord’s feelings that have to come first. Even if he had to forego the opportunity to kill Saul, it was the Lord’s feelings that come first. If we remember, we don’t often speak about the Lord having feelings. We think God is impossible, but in Christ we see that he has got feelings, real feelings, and he’s an honor. And if we put the Lord’s honor first in the Lord’s field, how will the Lord feel about this? What would Jesus do in this situation? What would he expect me to do? I know what I would like to do. I’d like to get the spa the guy because he is been on my heels forever. But know, put the Lord’s feelings first and often remember that it says He’s not just a man, but he’s the Lord’s anointed. And when governments go bad, we could overreact and we could try and force the hand, force the issue by one means or another, but don’t do it. God, don’t look for change in your own strength and part God can do it. You keep faith to God, remember his feelings and put his feelings first and then you’ll not take action, which you would later regret.

Isaac Crockett:

We don’t have a whole lot of time and we need to take into the next segment. We could do this. But your own father had a lot of situations, a lot like David, where there were people after him literally seeking his life. Could you maybe just give a brief illustration maybe from his life of how he allowed the Lord to be in control instead of trying to take revenge himself?

Kyle Paisley:

Yes. There was an incident. I recall just as we were all chatting years ago, he always started off each new year with a week of prayer at his church. So they would’ve prayer meetings in the evening, but early morning prayer meetings from seven o’clock to eight before people had to go off to work. Now he had a very busy night on, I think it was on the Thursday, and my dad was very seldom beaten by sleep. I mean he could do with little sleep, but this night he was completely washed out. He had an exceptionally busy night when he had to go to church business, dealing with church business into the early hours of the Friday morning. So he just didn’t have the strength to go out that Friday morning. Anyway, my sister went out, one of my sisters went out to early morning. She left slightly earlier than the rest, and as she was coming out, my dad was in a deep sleep, better kind of sleep. And so he was at home sleeping when he came out. There was a car parked at a certain angle of the church apart four members and couldn’t tell him he wasn’t there.

Isaac Crockett:

Wow. So it’s amazing how the Lord can reach into these things sovereignly and who would’ve thought that just taking a little extra sleep might save his life. We’re going to take our last break here and we’re going to come back, wrap things up, and Pastor Paige, I’d love to have you kind of finish that story in our next segment. Then we’ll be right back to finish that up and to finish things here as we talk about God is in control and that we can trust him rather than turning to ourselves right here and stand in the gap today. Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, my co-host today, pastor Matt Recker from New York City, and we are talking to Pastor Kyle Paisley all the way over in Suffolk, England. And Pastor Paisley, you were talking about your father who, and no, Matt and I knew his ministry.

I was still in high school when I heard your father speak at a World Congress group and I think of fundamentalism or some kind of evangelical group, people from all over the world, and he was well known as a preacher, as a pastor, as a theologian and author. But he also got involved in the community there in Northern Ireland, and he was involved politically at the highest levels there and through different things where he was taking a stand for what was right and what was lawful, people targeted him and even targeted him for assassination and things like that. We were just talking to you because I was asking you for maybe an example even from your father’s life, Dr. Ian Paisley of a time where an example of this situation we’re looking at here where David could have taken revenge but he didn’t feel God wanted him to, but also of God superseding and providentially protecting.

And you were telling us about your dad, a man who a lot like my dad and many men, he didn’t need a lot of sleep, but one day just seemingly out of the blue, but part of God’s plan, he needed some extra sleep instead of going in for an early service that he normally would’ve gone to. And the music kind of rudely interrupted us that we had our break. But could you kind of finish that story for us then where your sister took off and what she saw and what God did and how your dad reacted to that situation?

Kyle Paisley:

Yes. Well, because of the busy night, the night before, he wasn’t able to get to early morning prayer meeting. It was just, it’s very seldom happened with him. She was there. She was out at the early morning prayer meeting, left a little few minutes early and when she was leaving in the church car park, there was a car parked at a certain angle and inside it there were four men in dark clothing. And they asked her, where is Paisley today? Something like that. And she said, he’s not here because he’s a had a busy night the night before, and he is not out this morning. So they took off in their car. Then after that night, she reported it to the police because it was so unusual and the police confirmed, confirmed to her, they’d been watching them, and they were four terrorists who had come to us Saturday on that morning and they weren’t able to do it.

Obviously he wasn’t there. And that was just a partly incidental thing. But as a good friend of mine, rod Bell used to say, the incidental is always providential. And then in later years too, he was off the view, the scripture says, when a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes his enemies to be at peace with him. And of course, that’s exactly what happened. The people that wanted to kill him years ago, they worked together then when all issues were settled, they worked together in government. So a wonderful turnaround of events which only a sovereign God could do.

Matt Recker:

Yes, absolutely. And God can truly make the wrath of man to praise him, and God turns around even the worst of what man could do. We see that David trusted God through difficult times when man so maliciously, when Saul maliciously just went after him time and time again. And yet the sovereign hand of God was at work in such incredible ways. And so that David never did take a revenge upon Saul. And so it leads me to this question, pastor Paisley, is this, how does resting in God’s providence help us then to let go of resentment of bitterness towards those who have wronged us?

Kyle Paisley:

Well, when you see the Lord’s hand at work and understand he’s overall things, it actually keeps you, I think it keeps you sane. It reminds you that issues that you can’t solve or can’t really deal with, you’re to leave. You’re really to leave in his hands. And that brings balance because when you know the Lord has another plan and you know that God is a good God, but his other plan must be good even if you don’t understand it. So you have to have in a sense patience with him recognizing the Lord, and that gives you rest. It gives you rest from yourself. And it’s a good thing just to it. David said, let me fall into the hands of God. He said it in another situation altogether, but just let me fall into God’s hands, let him make the decision. And he knew that Saul, of course, he said one day the Lord might smite them or he might die off natural causes or he might descend and the Bain die. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to turn my hand to dispatching somebody. I just let the Lord deal with the situation, and I think I took the sting out of the whole thing for David.

Isaac Crockett:

That is so good, that trust in God. That is the spiritual discipline of patience, of waiting on the Lord. And how many times throughout the Psalms and even the prophets wait, I say, wait on the Lord, and he shall give these strength and things like that. So that trust brings about that spiritual patience. It’s a spiritual discipline, and that brings about balance. Paul, he was one who before he became a Christian, he was all about persecuting and even killing Christians. But Paul cautions us, Ephesians five, he says, see that you walk circumspectly in balance, not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil and it’s so easy for us to jump to conclusions or to jump to revenge instead of waiting on the Lord and seeing what God is doing. That is so helpful. We’re getting close to the end of our program, but I would just ask Kyle, as we do look at trying to find peace and trusting God, trying to wait on the Lord, it’s not natural, but it can become how we operate as Christians when we know Jesus Christ is savior and we know God’s ways.

But what role does prayer play in helping us surrender our anxieties and prayer, really helping us find peace with God?

Kyle Paisley:

Well, prayer makes the connection between a weak man and an almighty God. That’s the thing. And you could dwell in the doctrine and argue the case for the sovereignty of God and know it backside forward, inside out and roundabout up whatever way. But unless you make a connection with God, you’re never going to know the power of that of sovereignty. It’s never going to become practical to you. Kind of like what John Calvin said, that real faith about real faith, he said, faith is not a distant view. It’s a warm embrace of Christ. And when you can embrace Christ by faith and pray to him, you’re making a direct connection. That’s the amazing thing about prayer. It makes a direct connection between us and heaven. And nothing can break that. No matter the worst enemy like Saul, and you’re in contact with God, it’s like striking a match when the match makes contact with the buck, that’s the spark, and that’s the only way of proving and understanding by experience of God is sovereign.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Amen. Well, we’re so glad to have you on today, and as we close, just have a moment here. But Matt, some of the things that we’ve been talking about, and even Kyle brought up Luke 13, when Jesus talks about not all tragedies are punishments, and you saw this in New York City. I saw it even in New York City years after nine 11, going around trying to hand out tracks and talk to people on the street and even in the Pocono mountains where I lived, that people would point back and say, well, how could this horrible thing have, how could this tragedy happen? When we go through a situation like we get asked about that, and we have just a few moments here, Matt, how can we quickly point people to God’s sovereign control rather than our worrisome and revengeful ideas?

Matt Recker:

I heard last year on one of the most used Bible apps, you version the most sought after verse, the most verse people searched for more than any verse in the Bible was Philippians four, six, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known unto God. And so whatever we’re going through that verse applies not to be anxious, but God is in control and we need to trust in him.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Amen. That’s what it comes back down to. Trusting his word, trusting him, having that personal relationship to God, that union to God through Jesus Christ. Well, pastor Kyle Paisley, thank you so much for calling in all the way from England for being with us today. Pastor Matt, Recker. Thank you, and all of you that are listening, thank you so much for listening. Please pray for us here at the American Pastors Network and stand in the gap for the Lord wherever you are today.