February 16, 2025 • 40 mins
Can true peace be found amidst the storms of grief and uncertainty? Reflecting on personal experiences, we explore this profound question while sharing heartfelt stories and spiritual insights. Join us in a journey through scripture, where we confront the superficial expressions of condolence and strive to convey genuine comfort. By connecting with the biblical narrative of Jesus walking on water, we seek to understand the essence of peace and empathy in times of loss.
We challenge the misconception that financial security is the ultimate stress reliever. Through a personal anecdote involving a medical scare, we discover the profound truth that peace is not dependent on external circumstances. Anchored in Philippians 4:7, the conversation reveals how divine peace surpasses worldly understanding, providing solace and stability when life feels out of control. Our reflections encourage listeners to engage deeply with scripture, cultivating a spiritual foundation that can withstand life's trials.
Our episode concludes with a sincere prayer for spiritual growth and harmony within communities. Emphasizing a commitment to aligning with God's will, we invite you to join us in seeking divine guidance. This heartfelt plea underscores the importance of honoring God not from expectation, but from genuine reverence and gratitude. As we pursue a deeper connection with scripture, we aim to foster a sense of communal peace and steadfast faith, bringing comfort to those who are suffering.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
it was funny.
I was writing this message andit's really weird.
Being out here it soundsdifferent than when I'm like
four steps back.
That way, I was writing thismessage and I got to a point
where I just stopped and I justsaid well, they're either going
to get it or they're not.
That was basically my thought.
Right, they're either going toget it or they're not.
And so I just stopped writingat that point.
(00:22):
And then, while I was standingduring praise and worship, I
thought that I needed to share apassage of scripture with you
that the tech team doesn't have,so you're just going to have to
follow along.
Let me make sure I'm going tochange my translation real quick
.
I am not locked into atranslation in life.
I don't know about any of you,how many of you like one
translation and that's it.
No, I like to jump right.
(00:49):
There's some value in that.
Like sometimes, I love NewLiving Translations, which is
what I typically preach from,but I'll occasionally jump into
New King James King JamesVersion.
I think we have King JamesVersion today, but we'll jump
around a little bit.
But I find that there's valuein that.
But I'm going to read to youfrom the New Living Translations
.
We're going to be in Matthew,chapter 14, and we're going to
start at verse 22.
And it says immediately afterthis Jesus insisted that his
(01:09):
disciples get back in the boatand cross to the other side of
the lake while he sent thepeople home.
After sending them home, he wentup into the hills by himself to
pray.
Night fell.
He was there alone.
Meanwhile the disciples were introuble, far away from land,
for a strong wind had risen andthey were fighting heavy waves.
(01:32):
About three o'clock in themorning, nothing good happens
after midnight, folks, right,nothing good happens after
midnight.
At three, about three o'clockin the morning, jesus came
towards them walking on water.
When the disciples saw himwalking on the water, they were
terrified.
In their fear they cried outit's a ghost.
But Jesus spoke to them at once.
(01:54):
Don't be afraid.
He said, take courage, I amhere.
Then Peter called to him Lord,if it's really you, tell me to
come to you walking on the water.
Yes, come, jesus said.
So Peter went over the side ofthe boat and walked on the water
towards Jesus.
(02:14):
But when he saw the strong windand the waves, he was terrified
and began to sink.
Save me, lord, he shouted.
Jesus immediately reached outand grabbed him.
You have so little faith, jesussaid.
Why did you doubt me?
That's not my message, butyou're going to want to hold on
to that.
Put that under your hat, okay.
(02:35):
If you're taking notes, writeit down.
It's going to be important.
I recently spoke with a friendwho had lost a good friend of
his, and we were on the phone,we exchanged some text messages,
and it was kind of a surrealexperience, because every time I
talk to this friend he talksabout the friend that passed
away.
(02:55):
And I'm talking all the timeLike just loved the man to death
.
He just was always talkingabout him and I'd found out that
he had fallen ill.
And then I found out that hehad passed away, and so I had
reached out to my friend and hadoffered condolences and told
him that I was praying for him.
And he said I knew the daywould come, but I didn't know it
(03:16):
would come this quick.
Now we don't know what quick isright, but sometimes things
happen and it's not reallyunderstandable, and one of the
things that I sent to him wasthis it said may the peace of
the Holy Spirit be with you.
And at a glance that's a prettysolid statement, right, that's
(03:37):
a good statement.
The question is, what did itmean?
Because if I say that to you, alot of you are like, okay,
those are words, but what doesthat mean to me?
Amen, because so many of usdon't really know peace.
We know chaos, we know trouble,we know struggles, we know the
(04:00):
world, we know the flesh, but wedon't really know peace.
Right, there's that fun littleclever saying no God, no peace,
no God, no peace, like K-N-O-Wno God, k-n-o-w peace.
If you know God, you will knowpeace.
If you have no God, you willhave no peace.
Amen, we live that every day.
The question is is do we reallyunderstand and know what that
(04:22):
peace means?
Because, see, after I said it, Ifelt like it was such a cop-out
because it was an easy text tosend, to express condolence,
right To say oh, I'm thinkingabout you, I'm praying for you,
I want you to be whole andcomplete, I want you to feel
good.
So I'm going to say this to youin hopes that you will just do
something with it.
(04:42):
Any of us ever done that tosomebody, right?
Somebody sends you a text andthey just need somebody to
listen, or they want somebody togive them some sort of
confidence in whatever'shappening in their life.
And you say it sucks Guilty,right, it's hard to put yourself
in their situation.
(05:03):
Listen, I look at my life and Itell people this all the time I
have never experienced deathclose to me other than Florence,
and that was hard enough.
I want to be honest with you.
I have both of my paternalgrandparents still alive.
My parents are still alive, allof them in fairly good health,
(05:25):
right?
So I take that for granted.
No, I'm the only one.
Okay, that's fine.
I'm okay with being the onlyone, because I'm willing to
admit that I fall short of theglory of God.
Okay, so I understand thatsometimes I don't understand
what somebody else is goingthrough, so I try to process
that.
Whenever I'm helping somebodygr, somebody else is going
through.
So I try to process that.
(05:46):
Whenever I'm helping somebodygrieve, it's hard, right?
When my mother-in-law passedaway, I had only known her.
For how long had we beenmarried at that point?
10 years, and she didn't likeme 10 of those 10 years.
So it was I mean, it was mymother-in-law, we were close,
but like I didn't spend myentire life with her, right, so
(06:07):
there's a difference and sohaving to watch my wife through
that grieving process and walkbeside her in that.
But sometimes I learned thatthe best thing to do when
somebody else is grieving isjust shut up, because I can't
make it better.
Right, I'm not going to takeaway the pain, but do you know
who can?
Jesus.
But we have to understand it.
(06:29):
Amen, all right.
So grab your Bibles, turn toJohn 14, 26.
I'm hoping that's on my slidesbecause I didn't turn my Bible
there.
Is that John 14, 26?
Okay, john 14, 26,.
Write it down.
We're in King James Versionthis time.
I'm going John 14, 26,.
Write it down.
We're in King James Versionthis time.
We're going to jump around alittle bit today.
It says but the Comforter, whichis the Holy Spirit, whom the
(06:50):
Father will send in my name,shall teach you all things and
bring all things to yourremembrance, whosoever or
whatsoever I have said unto you.
But the Comforter, which is theHoly Ghost, I love that.
I love to say the Holy Ghost,right.
Listen, the Holy Spirit's fine,we can say the Holy Spirit, but
I like the Holy Ghost right,because there's something about
(07:12):
that.
Amen, it's exciting when I talkabout the Holy See, we try to.
We water down the gospel,sometimes because we don't want
to scare people.
Sometimes we need to scarepeople, right, because hell is
real and sometimes people needto know hell is real, amen.
Okay, but the comforter, whichis the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, heshall teach you all things and
bring all things to yourremembrance whatsoever.
(07:34):
I have said unto you that doesnot use the word peace
specifically, but it says thatthe Holy Ghost will be the
comforter, amen.
Now, this is Jesus gettingready to ascend into heaven and
he's telling the disciples thatI'm going to leave bye, see you
later, but the Holy Ghost isgoing to come and bring you
(07:58):
comfort and remind you of all ofthe things.
So I need to, just, we need totalk about peace because we need
to understand that is animportant promise directly from
God that there will be comfortafter Jesus is gone.
Jesus is still gone, right?
Amen.
(08:19):
So what do we need Comfort?
Because we live in a world thatis broken.
We live in relationships thatare broken.
We don't have.
None of us have figured lifeout.
None of us have gone to heavenand come back and told everybody
else the secret formula, right?
Nobody's gotten into Mr CrabSafe and gotten the secret
(08:43):
formula.
Those of us who are youngenough to get a SpongeBob joke,
that's okay.
Not many of us.
The point is, we will never haveall of the answers and, frankly
, the Bible can feel like itcontradicts itself.
But we find peace in the nameof Jesus.
(09:03):
We find peace in the word ofGod, amen.
Okay, I'm going to be honestwith you.
I've got four more paragraphsand I'm done.
This is scary.
All right, what's next?
Is it Philippians 4.7?
Okay, give me Philippians 4.7.
Is it just 4.7?
Okay, give me Philippians 4.7.
Is it just 4.7?
(09:24):
Okay, it's 4.7 through.
Like, oh, 4.4 through 4.8.
All right, we're just going torun with it.
Then Go for it, put it up there, always be full of joy in the
Lord.
I say it again rejoice, yes,amen.
Let's rejoice in the Lord.
Let everyone see that you areconsiderate in all that you do.
(09:49):
Remember the Lord is comingsoon.
What does soon mean?
I don't know, but I know thathe's coming soon.
Right, the Lord could come thisafternoon.
I don't know.
I haven't done the math, Ihaven't figured it out.
Many people who have done themath and thought they figured it
(10:10):
out were wrong.
I'm not interested in figuringit out.
I'm interested.
Can you go back a slide andletting everyone see that I am
considerate in all that I do, toremember that the Lord is
coming soon.
That's what I'm worried about.
(10:31):
Amen, okay, don't worry aboutanything.
Instead, pray about everything.
So what should we worry about?
But what should we pray about?
Well, there's the handbook tolife.
How many of us are doing that?
(10:51):
How many of us are like, when Igo to the gas station and I
swipe my card, I'm like Lord,please let there be money, right
?
Oh, good point, I don't go tothe gas.
That's not true.
That's not true.
Listen, this fool.
Where were we at?
We're coming home.
She's like will you stop at thegas station with me?
I don't want to pump my gas.
I'm driving a Tesla, pullinginto a gas station to pump her
(11:13):
gas.
I park in the parking spot, runover, use my card, pump her gas
, get back in my car and leave.
That doesn't make any sense,does it?
I was going to say?
I was going to say but happywife, happy life, right?
No, I'm just kidding.
I would do those things amillion times over for her.
I'll fight her on it every timeand I'll argue the whole way to
the gas station.
(11:34):
But I'm going to pump that gaswith joy, right, I'm going to
pump that gas with joy.
Pump that gas with joy, allright, then you will experience
God's peace.
You can go to the next one forme, thanks.
Appreciate it, then you willexperience God's peace, which
exceeds anything we canunderstand.
His peace will guide yourhearts and your minds as you
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live in Christ Jesus.
And now, dear brothers andsisters, one final thing Fix
your thoughts on what is trueand honorable and right and pure
and lovely and admirable.
Think about things that areexcellent and worthy of praise,
(12:20):
hallelujah.
And now, dear brothers andsisters, fix your thoughts on
what is true, honorable, right,pure, lovely, admirable, and
think about the things that areexcellent and worthy of praise,
hallelujah.
How I have never, never, beenable to praise stress and
(12:40):
anxiety.
Right, because?
Because, when I pray, you knowwhat this is?
Just stress.
I'm just anxious.
What happens to me?
I become more stressed and moreanxious.
Dave Ramsey said once in a videoI watched.
He said money does not make youhappy.
Money makes you more of whatyou already are.
Right, so money fixeseverything.
(13:03):
So if I'm stressed out, I needmore money.
Most of us think that right.
A lot of us think that rightBecause money fixes it.
So if I have more money, I willbe less stressed.
I promise you, if a dump truckbacked up to your house and
dumped off a truckload of $100bills, you are still going to be
stressed.
You're just going to be filthy,rich and stressed, right.
(13:24):
But in six months you're goingto be broke and stressed because
you ain't going to changeanything.
You're just going to live inthe stress, right, all right.
Now we're going to doPhilippians 4-7 again, but we're
going to do this slowly.
And I brought my Strong'sConcordance and I brought this
and I just wanted to share.
I found this on the inside.
I got this from a group ofAmish ladies who I was driving
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to work every day for I can'tremember how long and they order
their books out of magazines.
They don't go to the bookstoretypically, they get a magazine
and that's how they order all oftheir reading, and it said
thanks for the rides to work.
We appreciate it.
And then there's some personalsentiments in here, and what I
(14:09):
thought was sweet was that thiswas what they felt like I needed
in my life.
How many of you own one ofthese?
Yes, how many of you use thisregularly?
I'm going to tell you if youaren't studying your Bible with
some sort of strong concordanceor some sort of helpful tool.
Listen this if I look up theword peace which is what I did
(14:29):
it will give me every passage ofscripture that uses the word
peace.
It's a lot, it's like a wholepage, okay, but this is
fantastic.
It's a great way to study yourBible.
But what we're going to do isyou're going to go on a journey
with me this morning.
You're going to go on thejourney of how I broke down the
passage of Scripture to figureout what peace actually means in
(14:52):
my life and when I speak peaceinto somebody else's life, what
it should mean to them and to me.
All right, so we're going to doPhilippians just four, seven
again, and we're going to do itone at a time.
Look at this.
Isn't this fun?
It's fancy.
Nobody applauded or anything.
That was pretty embarrassing.
It says we're going to do NewInternational Version and the
(15:13):
peace of God, which transcendsall understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds inChrist Jesus.
Now, on the surface it says thepeace of God which transcends
all understanding.
We can break this down and kindof understand this just talking
about it, but we're going tostudy it.
Okay, we're going to break itdown a little bit at a time.
Give me my next one.
(15:34):
Peace, but it says, and thepeace of God.
Not all peace is the peace ofGod Because Jesus is calling
somebody, because the peace ofGod is different when you have
peace on earth, when you havepeace in a situation.
(15:55):
You're depending oncircumstance.
Right, so you get a call fromyour listen.
This happened to me.
I was in a class it was calledLeadership Tusk and we were
having a two night something orother retreat at Salt Fork.
Okay, bit of a drive.
I get down there and while I'mthere, I had fallen through a
(16:16):
bunk bed.
Does anybody remember thatstory?
Me falling through the bunk bedit was awful, worst experience
of my life.
I was in the house by myself.
It was like Wile E Coyotemoment.
I'm taking the bolts out of thetop of this bunk bed it's an
Ikea bunk bed, if that gives youany understanding and I take
the bolt out.
I'm standing on top of thisthere and then my head comes
(16:45):
afterwards.
I land on my shoulder, messmyself up something fierce.
I didn't realize how bad it wasin the moment I drug myself
across the floor, called my wifeand told her I was pretty sure
I was going to die.
Now, I mean, the drop was onlywhat that high, but when you hit
that hard like you don't really.
My leg got all caught up in thecrossbar and I was in pain.
I thought for sure I was dead.
I did.
I felt like my arm had poppedoff and I left my friend's house
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that night and I drove home andI drove what 40 minutes out of
the way.
I probably had a wickedconcussion, but I had no idea.
I mean, I was lost.
And when I realized I was lost,I was panicked.
I didn't know where I was, Ididn't know how I had gotten
there, I didn't remember leavingmy friend's house and driving
to that point.
That's scary to think about,right.
(17:29):
So at that point then I realizeda day or two, a couple of days
later, I go to the store.
I can't find my car in theparking lot.
I'm sobbing uncontrollablybecause I don't know where my
car is and I'm realizing, like Idon't remember parking my car,
I don't remember going into thestore, like we've got a problem
(17:50):
here, right?
So the next thing I knowthey're making me an appointment
to have a was it a CT scan?
I don't remember.
I know it was miserable, butthey put my head in this cage
and they laid me in this thingand I had to lay there for like
ever.
It was awful, wasn't allowed tomove.
You guys know me, that ain'thappening.
But I laid there and when theydid the scan they call me.
While I'm on this two-dayretreat I can't leave.
And they say, hey, we foundsome spots on your brain.
We need to make you anappointment with a specialist.
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We're concerned.
I can't call my wife because Ican't go home, so I can't tell
her, so I have to just deal withthat.
There's no peace in that moment.
There is no peace in thatmoment.
So I'm hyper fixated on this.
I'm not getting anything fromthe classes.
I'm so stressed about this.
(18:32):
And we went to the specialistappointment and he looks at the
MRI and he says or the CAT scan,whatever it was.
And he said did you used tosmoke?
And I said, yeah, he goes.
Oh well, then everything we'reseeing is absolutely normal for
somebody who has smoked in thepast.
So like two weeks, folks, I amstressed that like something's
(18:56):
wrong with my head, like I'vedone some serious damage.
Yeah, well, we know that thereis some level of, but it's all
normal at this point, right?
So, listen, I find that thatstill bothers me.
Alyssa and I went shopping oneday.
We left the store and she goesdo you remember where we parked?
And I realized I had no ideawhere we parked and it sent this
raging anxiety through my bodyBecause I'm thinking what if I
(19:20):
can't find the car?
The day that I couldn't find mycar, I probably wandered for 20
minutes before I realized youcan hit the panic button on your
.
I'm too Like.
That was not in my mind.
I'm starting to like, reallyfreak out.
So after that one, I skippedthis part.
After that one this was duringwintertime, because they had the
bell ringers out I went toWalmart.
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A few days later.
I came in the door, shopped andI came back out and I realized
I couldn't find my car again.
Now, this time I was a littleless panicked because at this
time I'm probably getting usedto it, starting to realize
something's not right and thebell ringer goes.
I think you're parked downthere.
Had it not been for him, Iwould have been in that panic
again.
(20:04):
So I'm telling you that becauseI need you to understand that
peace in our bodies, peace inthe world, is dependent on that
circumstance.
Right, I need to know where mycar is and I need to know that I
didn't mess up my brain when Ifell, right, it was already
messed up, I just happened tofall, all right.
So the peace of God is not likethe peace of man, because it
(20:28):
does not depend on circumstance.
Amen, give me my next one.
It transcends all understanding.
What that means is it goesbeyond the range of limit, right
?
So when something transcends,when it transcends time, when a
fashion idea transcends time,you guys, if I say Madonna,
(20:48):
everybody thinks of the bra,right?
Because, like, how do you not?
I'm glad at least PastorHolly's on the same page as me,
right, there are some thingsthat you can talk about.
When you think of Elvis, youthink of jumpsuit, right?
Most of us, we think of thingsand those transcend time.
Elvis has been dead for howlong?
People are still listening tohis music?
(21:10):
Young kids still know whoMadonna is.
Like these things, because ittranscends time, it's beyond all
of our single understanding andwill live for just about ever,
amen, okay, next, understanding.
It transcends all understanding.
Now, what that means is this isyour faith, right?
(21:32):
Not your physical understanding.
Your brain cannot understandthe peace of God because it
transcends all understanding,right?
So now we are living in faithfor the peace of God.
We're not trying to wrap ourhead around it, we're not trying
to understand it, we're nottrying to put it in a box and
(21:52):
say, well, peace comes when Ihave this feeling.
Peace comes when so-and-so doesX.
If I'm praying that God willgive me peace, and Pastor
Michael is going to say X thisSunday morning, that will give
me peace, I'm telling you rightnow, that is not the peace of
(22:13):
God.
That is man-made peace and it'sfleeting.
It lasts for a moment and thenit runs away again and you find
yourself back where you were,all right.
Next, we'll guard your hearts.
We'll guard.
It is going to keep you fromthe exposure of evil.
(22:34):
Right, it's going to keep youfrom exposure of evil.
What is evil?
What A lot.
It is a lot of things.
Now you'll notice that when Iwrote that I put too much evil,
(22:56):
there's a reason that I put toomuch.
I can't go to work withoutseeing some level of evil, right
.
You can't even turn on the TVanymore without seeing some
level of evil.
You can't read the news, youcan't talk to a friend,
sometimes, without seeing somelevel of evil, right, but the
peace of God is going to keepyou safe from those things, amen
.
Okay, next, now this is myfavorite one.
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When I study this one out, thisis my favorite Will guard your
hearts, your love for him andhis love for you.
See, the peace of God is goingto protect your love for him and
his love for you.
That's hard to understand,right?
Because my love for God, I liketo think, is unconditional.
(23:40):
Amen.
How many of us feel that way?
I believe that I love godunconditionally until something
bad happens in my life and thenI just don't understand why god
would allow that to happen.
Alissa shared a post the otherday of this uh little girl I
mean she a baby who hasneuroblastoma and it's causing
(24:02):
all.
I mean, she's not long for thisworld, unfortunately.
But the worst part of the storyis that her brother, four years
earlier, had passed away fromthe same disease and these
parents, for the second time,are living with a child with
neuroblastoma.
Can you imagine.
And I was reading that post andI was looking at all of the
(24:24):
comments and there was onecomment that said and this is
why I can't believe that Godexists.
Isn't that amazing?
Rather than saying God is goodall the time, and all the time
God is good, I'm going to blameGod for something bad that's
happening in this world.
Can I tell you something?
That God is the author of allthings good, but we live in a
(24:47):
fallen world that will onlyallow us to comprehend God's
goodness when we want tocomprehend God's goodness Amen.
We can say God is good, we can,it's easy, but we don't always
believe it.
When we see something badhappen in the world, we want to
blame God, but God is not theauthor of all of those things.
See, we live in a world of freewill, right, and sometimes we
(25:10):
make bad choices, sometimespeople around us make bad
choices, and we live in thosechoices every day.
But see, that's why we have toguard our hearts, because we
have to understand that the loveof God is more important than
anything that's happening inthis world.
Every attack that the enemymakes should be far below your
(25:34):
feet, because the love of Godshould be the first thing at the
top of your mind Every time theenemy makes action in your life
.
Listen, we can bless each otherall day long, we can talk about
how good God is, but until weunderstand what the peace of God
means in our lives, we willnever be able to fully
understand God's promise to us.
Amen, okay.
(25:55):
Next, your hearts and your mindUngodly thoughts will be
replaced with praise, amen.
So when you say something to meor you do something to me that I
don't like, rather than go andtelling everybody that you said
or you did and I don't like, I'mgoing to say to God be the
(26:16):
glory, because in all things hewill work together for his good.
And if you tell me that youdon't like me, you know what
that's okay.
I still love you, whether youwant me to or not.
Right?
You might not let me speak intoyour life, you might not let me
lift you up in prayer, youmight not want those things, but
(26:37):
I'm still going to love you andpray for you daily, because I
know that peace for myself comesfrom God and peace for you is
only going to come from thatplace too, because if you think
that hating me is going to takeaway my love for God.
(26:59):
You're wrong, because when Ifocus on loving him first, it
becomes much easier to loveother people around me, and
sometimes people are pretty hardto love.
Right, I'm pretty hard to lovesometimes.
Don't ask my wife.
She would tell you that's a lieand that I am the most lovable
(27:20):
person in the world.
I know that.
I know that we wrap our headsaround what peace looks like,
based on what the world haspromised us.
Peace is going to look likeAmen.
Peace will only be known whenJesus Christ is the center of
(27:47):
your life.
Give me that next slide, Onepassage of scripture, and that's
where we're at right.
How many of us study our Bibleslike this?
Or when we say we study, whatwe mean is we read Right?
Because that's what a lot of usdo.
We pick up our word, we read itand we go okay, god, there it
(28:10):
is.
I've put in my 10 minutes.
See, when I want to know whatpeace is, I'm going to look for
the passage of scripture thattells me what peace is and I'm
going to break it down so that Ican understand it.
So now I know that the peacethat I am seeking is not a peace
(28:31):
from this world.
It is a peace from God.
That peace will be beyondanything that my mind can
possibly understand.
It will be transcended by allthings and that it will guard my
heart and my mind in JesusChrist.
That means that I don't have toworry about what the world has
told me.
I don't have to believe thatthe world is going to be my
downfall.
(28:52):
I believe that I am going tofind peace in my Lord and Savior
, right, amen.
Okay, leave that up there.
The peace of God is not like thepeace that you will experience
in situations.
Sometimes you hear people say,oh, I just have a peace about
this Right Christian cop out.
(29:15):
It's like saying I'm in myseason of rest, I'm in my season
of listen.
This is not true for everybody.
I want to be clear.
But there are some people whosay those things and they say it
because they've heard somebodyelse say it, and it's a great
excuse to not do or act or sayright when I say, oh well, I'm
(29:37):
not in a season of X.
Let me tell you something whenyou are called of God, you are
always in season.
Right, the people around youmay not be in season, and Holly
and I have learned that the hardway, that sometimes we come in
hot and not everybody is inseason with us.
But some people will say, oh,it's not my season, no, you're
(30:01):
defiant, you don't want to dowhat God has called you to do.
You don't want to operate inwhat God has gifted you to
operate in, and sometimes youdon't want to operate in what
God has not gifted you tooperate in.
Amen.
You want to just focus on whatit is that you want and allow
god to work on that, and thenwhat happens?
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He takes it away.
And who's the bad guy?
God, because we don't actuallyfind peace in god.
We find peace in the world.
We find peace and what it isthat we want, rather than what
god would have in our lives.
Amen, amen.
All right, I've got one morepassage of Scripture, and this
is going to button it up.
(30:43):
We are perfect on time.
This is wonderful.
Grab your Bibles.
Open to Genesis 15, 15.
Now, this is God speaking toAbraham.
Abram, soon to be Abraham.
This is God speaking to him.
Go ahead.
As for you, you will die inpeace and be buried at a ripe
old age.
You will die in peace so longas you believe that he is God.
(31:11):
How many of us die, sufferingand miserable because we don't
know who God is?
If you look at the world aroundyou, that's what you see Amen.
You see people who God is.
If you look at the world aroundyou, that's what you see, amen.
You see people who arestruggling and listen.
When I was talking to my friendand I was saying these things, I
never once even thought aboutthe peace of the person who had
passed away.
I was worried about the peaceof the man who was living.
(31:33):
But the guy who passed away isin glory.
He is in real peace because hebelieved that Jesus Christ was
his Lord and Savior.
He knew that he was going toenter into heaven Amen.
And so he died knowing that Godis good and that his heart was
protected and that his mind wasprotected from all of those
things, because he read his word, he studied his word, he knew
(31:56):
who God was in his life.
He never allowed the world totell him that God wasn't real.
How many of us are willing tohear that today?
When somebody says, well, god'snot real and we just go, well,
if you can't beat him, right, weall.
When somebody says something tous, that's besides the word we
(32:18):
argue, the word we.
We try to.
We try to get them tounderstand who jesus is.
No, we don't.
And if you say you do, you're aliar and you're going to hell,
because there is no room inheaven for a liar, as the bible
says it.
I didn't make that up, thebible says it.
I didn't make that up.
The Bible says it.
I do, fib.
But let's be honest with eachother too.
(32:39):
No, you know what?
There's a podcast episode aboutit.
Go back and listen to it.
We covered this in the podcast.
It was a great episode.
You guys should go back andlisten to that one, because
lying is a hard thing.
It's a difficult conversationto have.
Right.
Some things we say to peoplearen't necessarily lies.
Like if I'm going to have asurprise birthday party for my
wife and I tell her I'm going totake her to dinner, but really
(33:00):
we're going somewhere elsebecause we're going to.
That's a lie.
What does that mean?
How do you work that out?
Here's what I'll tell you Workout your own salvation with fear
and trembling.
I'm going to tell you the truth.
I don't understand everythingthat the Bible says.
I've never claimed to and I'venever promised to.
But when I have a question, I'malways going to dig into the
(33:22):
Word, pull that slide back upfor me, that one with all of the
markings on it.
I am always going to go back tothe Word and I'm going to study
and try to figure out what itis that God is saying to me.
And when he said, when he had mesay to my friend, may the peace
of the Holy Spirit be with you.
This is the peace he wasreferring to, not the peace of
the world, that's the peace.
(33:43):
Now, when I said it I didn'tknow that I meant it.
Amen, I sent it.
But then I had to understandwhat it meant and I prayed and I
prayed that Lord, just allowhim to have this peace.
And I prayed and I prayed thatLord, just allow him to have
this peace.
This the real deal, not thepeace that we like to make up.
Amen.
So I want to encourage you thatif you're facing a challenge in
(34:06):
life and you're looking to theword for understanding and
somebody is giving you something, or you've read something that
you don't quite understand andyou're struggling to believe,
maybe, in what it is that you'rereading, I want to tell you
that you should be looking forpeace in Christ.
When you get that peace, why'dyou change it again?
It is hard to find good help.
(34:33):
It's really hard to find goodhelp when you find that peace.
When you find that peace, thenyou know that you've made it to
where you need to be.
But when you're just saying,well, I'm just going to let God
take the wheel, you need to bestill studying.
You need to be understandingwhat it is that God is handling
in your life.
Because if you just say I'mletting God handle it, you still
(35:03):
got to understand what he'shandling.
Is this my fault?
Am I living in sin?
Am I doing something Ishouldn't be doing?
Lord, reveal to me what it isthat you would have me
understand.
And when you pray that and thenhe opens your eyes and he gets
you in the word and you'refinding this stuff, you're like
holy smokes.
The word of God really is alive.
Right that this isn't just abook that I read for a hobby.
How many of you read wellbesides, joe, how many of you
(35:23):
read this as a hobby?
It's hard to have this as ahobby.
Good for you, man, because whenI get to like first and second
Kings Come on, man, we got to dothis again.
But I know that there isknowledge and there's revelation
, knowledge that there issomething that God needs me to
(35:44):
understand Maybe not today, buthaving good understanding To be
able to look at your Bible andgo.
You know where was it that Peterwalked on water?
You know where was it thatPeter walked on water and that
you're able to open your Bibleand go there because you know
that right, you don't have to beable to quote scripture forward
and backward to me.
I don't think that that'snecessarily a sign of salvation,
(36:06):
but I do think it's importantBecause the word lives in you.
When you can do that right Now,there's a lot of scripture I
can give you.
But if you were to say to mehey, well, I don't even want to
use that as an example because Ican use it.
I can't do it, but there aresome that, like you, could ask
me about a particular passage,I'm going to say you're going to
have to give me a little bitand I'm going to have to go find
(36:28):
it.
But what I have learned is whatI used to do was I'd go to
Google.
Hey, dr Google, where in theBible did Peter walk on water
Right Lazy, and I learned thatin that laziness I wouldn't
study, I would go and I wouldread and I would put it down.
(36:49):
I wouldn't break it down, Iwouldn't understand it.
See, when I was reading about,when I read that passage of
scripture this morning, I'mgoing to pull it back up real
quick the particular part thatjumped out at me that I wanted
to share with you again was soPeter went over the side of the
boat and started walking towardsJesus.
He's confident at this pointthat that's Jesus right.
And then, all of a sudden, hesees the wind and the waves and
(37:12):
he becomes nervous.
The peace that he had, thatthat is Jesus has been wiped
away by his own fear of theworld, and so he starts to sink.
He took his eyes off the prize.
He took his eyes off the prizeRather than just saying you know
what Storms may come, but Godis steadfast, he starts to sink
(37:33):
in the water.
Trials will come in your lifeevery day, but the word of God,
the presence of the Holy Spirit,it's not going to go anywhere.
It's at your fingertips everyday.
You just have to choose to beinvested.
(37:54):
Amen, let's pray together.
Father, I thank you and Ipraise you for an anointed word
today, father.
I just thank you for continuingto move in this place, for
giving us revelation, knowledge.
Father, allow us to find peacethat passes all understanding.
(38:16):
Allow us to find that peacethat God would have us have in
our heart.
Father, we know that you arethe author of all good things
and that you would want thatpeace, but so many times we just
get worked up in what the worldwould have for us.
We get trapped in our own minds, in our own emotions, Father,
(38:43):
and I pray that you just removethat from us today.
Burn away all of that excessdross, father.
Just burn it away.
Allow it to be new and realevery day inside of us.
Father, just burn it away.
Allow it to be new and realevery day inside of us.
Father, wake us up with a desireto be in your word, to study
(39:04):
and understand who you are andwhat you want for us.
Father, not that we would.
Just we don't want to takeadvantage of who you are.
We want to give you praise,honor and glory.
We want you to be able to pourout blessings on your people
because you want to Father God,not because we are expecting of
who you are.
We want to give you praise,honor and glory.
We want you to be able to pourout blessings on your people
because you want to, father God,not because we are expecting of
who you are.
Allow us to give you praise,honor and glory in all things.
(39:24):
Father, I just thank you and Ipraise you.
I pray that you continue tomove in our lives, move in this
house, father God, move in ourcommunity and just bring peace
to all of those who aresuffering today.
We give you the praise, thehonor and glory in Jesus' name,
(39:46):
amen.
it was funny.
I was writing this message andit's really weird.
Being out here it soundsdifferent than when I'm like
four steps back.
That way, I was writing thismessage and I got to a point
where I just stopped and I justsaid well, they're either going
to get it or they're not.
That was basically my thought.
Right, they're either going toget it or they're not.
And so I just stopped writingat that point.
(00:22):
And then, while I was standingduring praise and worship, I
thought that I needed to share apassage of scripture with you
that the tech team doesn't have,so you're just going to have to
follow along.
Let me make sure I'm going tochange my translation real quick
.
I am not locked into atranslation in life.
I don't know about any of you,how many of you like one
translation and that's it.
No, I like to jump right.
(00:49):
There's some value in that.
Like sometimes, I love NewLiving Translations, which is
what I typically preach from,but I'll occasionally jump into
New King James King JamesVersion.
I think we have King JamesVersion today, but we'll jump
around a little bit.
But I find that there's valuein that.
But I'm going to read to youfrom the New Living Translations
.
We're going to be in Matthew,chapter 14, and we're going to
start at verse 22.
And it says immediately afterthis Jesus insisted that his
(01:09):
disciples get back in the boatand cross to the other side of
the lake while he sent thepeople home.
After sending them home, he wentup into the hills by himself to
pray.
Night fell.
He was there alone.
Meanwhile the disciples were introuble, far away from land,
for a strong wind had risen andthey were fighting heavy waves.
(01:32):
About three o'clock in themorning, nothing good happens
after midnight, folks, right,nothing good happens after
midnight.
At three, about three o'clockin the morning, jesus came
towards them walking on water.
When the disciples saw himwalking on the water, they were
terrified.
In their fear they cried outit's a ghost.
But Jesus spoke to them at once.
(01:54):
Don't be afraid.
He said, take courage, I amhere.
Then Peter called to him Lord,if it's really you, tell me to
come to you walking on the water.
Yes, come, jesus said.
So Peter went over the side ofthe boat and walked on the water
towards Jesus.
(02:14):
But when he saw the strong windand the waves, he was terrified
and began to sink.
Save me, lord, he shouted.
Jesus immediately reached outand grabbed him.
You have so little faith, jesussaid.
Why did you doubt me?
That's not my message, butyou're going to want to hold on
to that.
Put that under your hat, okay.
(02:35):
If you're taking notes, writeit down.
It's going to be important.
I recently spoke with a friendwho had lost a good friend of
his, and we were on the phone,we exchanged some text messages,
and it was kind of a surrealexperience, because every time I
talk to this friend he talksabout the friend that passed
away.
(02:55):
And I'm talking all the timeLike just loved the man to death
.
He just was always talkingabout him and I'd found out that
he had fallen ill.
And then I found out that hehad passed away, and so I had
reached out to my friend and hadoffered condolences and told
him that I was praying for him.
And he said I knew the daywould come, but I didn't know it
(03:16):
would come this quick.
Now we don't know what quick isright, but sometimes things
happen and it's not reallyunderstandable, and one of the
things that I sent to him wasthis it said may the peace of
the Holy Spirit be with you.
And at a glance that's a prettysolid statement, right, that's
(03:37):
a good statement.
The question is, what did itmean?
Because if I say that to you, alot of you are like, okay,
those are words, but what doesthat mean to me?
Amen, because so many of usdon't really know peace.
We know chaos, we know trouble,we know struggles, we know the
(04:00):
world, we know the flesh, but wedon't really know peace.
Right, there's that fun littleclever saying no God, no peace,
no God, no peace, like K-N-O-Wno God, k-n-o-w peace.
If you know God, you will knowpeace.
If you have no God, you willhave no peace.
Amen, we live that every day.
The question is is do we reallyunderstand and know what that
(04:22):
peace means?
Because, see, after I said it, Ifelt like it was such a cop-out
because it was an easy text tosend, to express condolence,
right To say oh, I'm thinkingabout you, I'm praying for you,
I want you to be whole andcomplete, I want you to feel
good.
So I'm going to say this to youin hopes that you will just do
something with it.
(04:42):
Any of us ever done that tosomebody, right?
Somebody sends you a text andthey just need somebody to
listen, or they want somebody togive them some sort of
confidence in whatever'shappening in their life.
And you say it sucks Guilty,right, it's hard to put yourself
in their situation.
(05:03):
Listen, I look at my life and Itell people this all the time I
have never experienced deathclose to me other than Florence,
and that was hard enough.
I want to be honest with you.
I have both of my paternalgrandparents still alive.
My parents are still alive, allof them in fairly good health,
(05:25):
right?
So I take that for granted.
No, I'm the only one.
Okay, that's fine.
I'm okay with being the onlyone, because I'm willing to
admit that I fall short of theglory of God.
Okay, so I understand thatsometimes I don't understand
what somebody else is goingthrough, so I try to process
that.
Whenever I'm helping somebodygr, somebody else is going
through.
So I try to process that.
(05:46):
Whenever I'm helping somebodygrieve, it's hard, right?
When my mother-in-law passedaway, I had only known her.
For how long had we beenmarried at that point?
10 years, and she didn't likeme 10 of those 10 years.
So it was I mean, it was mymother-in-law, we were close,
but like I didn't spend myentire life with her, right, so
(06:07):
there's a difference and sohaving to watch my wife through
that grieving process and walkbeside her in that.
But sometimes I learned thatthe best thing to do when
somebody else is grieving isjust shut up, because I can't
make it better.
Right, I'm not going to takeaway the pain, but do you know
who can?
Jesus.
But we have to understand it.
(06:29):
Amen, all right.
So grab your Bibles, turn toJohn 14, 26.
I'm hoping that's on my slidesbecause I didn't turn my Bible
there.
Is that John 14, 26?
Okay, john 14, 26,.
Write it down.
We're in King James Versionthis time.
I'm going John 14, 26,.
Write it down.
We're in King James Versionthis time.
We're going to jump around alittle bit today.
It says but the Comforter, whichis the Holy Spirit, whom the
(06:50):
Father will send in my name,shall teach you all things and
bring all things to yourremembrance, whosoever or
whatsoever I have said unto you.
But the Comforter, which is theHoly Ghost, I love that.
I love to say the Holy Ghost,right.
Listen, the Holy Spirit's fine,we can say the Holy Spirit, but
I like the Holy Ghost right,because there's something about
(07:12):
that.
Amen, it's exciting when I talkabout the Holy See, we try to.
We water down the gospel,sometimes because we don't want
to scare people.
Sometimes we need to scarepeople, right, because hell is
real and sometimes people needto know hell is real, amen.
Okay, but the comforter, whichis the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, heshall teach you all things and
bring all things to yourremembrance whatsoever.
(07:34):
I have said unto you that doesnot use the word peace
specifically, but it says thatthe Holy Ghost will be the
comforter, amen.
Now, this is Jesus gettingready to ascend into heaven and
he's telling the disciples thatI'm going to leave bye, see you
later, but the Holy Ghost isgoing to come and bring you
(07:58):
comfort and remind you of all ofthe things.
So I need to, just, we need totalk about peace because we need
to understand that is animportant promise directly from
God that there will be comfortafter Jesus is gone.
Jesus is still gone, right?
Amen.
(08:19):
So what do we need Comfort?
Because we live in a world thatis broken.
We live in relationships thatare broken.
We don't have.
None of us have figured lifeout.
None of us have gone to heavenand come back and told everybody
else the secret formula, right?
Nobody's gotten into Mr CrabSafe and gotten the secret
(08:43):
formula.
Those of us who are youngenough to get a SpongeBob joke,
that's okay.
Not many of us.
The point is, we will never haveall of the answers and, frankly
, the Bible can feel like itcontradicts itself.
But we find peace in the nameof Jesus.
(09:03):
We find peace in the word ofGod, amen.
Okay, I'm going to be honestwith you.
I've got four more paragraphsand I'm done.
This is scary.
All right, what's next?
Is it Philippians 4.7?
Okay, give me Philippians 4.7.
Is it just 4.7?
Okay, give me Philippians 4.7.
Is it just 4.7?
(09:24):
Okay, it's 4.7 through.
Like, oh, 4.4 through 4.8.
All right, we're just going torun with it.
Then Go for it, put it up there, always be full of joy in the
Lord.
I say it again rejoice, yes,amen.
Let's rejoice in the Lord.
Let everyone see that you areconsiderate in all that you do.
(09:49):
Remember the Lord is comingsoon.
What does soon mean?
I don't know, but I know thathe's coming soon.
Right, the Lord could come thisafternoon.
I don't know.
I haven't done the math, Ihaven't figured it out.
Many people who have done themath and thought they figured it
(10:10):
out were wrong.
I'm not interested in figuringit out.
I'm interested.
Can you go back a slide andletting everyone see that I am
considerate in all that I do, toremember that the Lord is
coming soon.
That's what I'm worried about.
(10:31):
Amen, okay, don't worry aboutanything.
Instead, pray about everything.
So what should we worry about?
But what should we pray about?
Well, there's the handbook tolife.
How many of us are doing that?
(10:51):
How many of us are like, when Igo to the gas station and I
swipe my card, I'm like Lord,please let there be money, right
?
Oh, good point, I don't go tothe gas.
That's not true.
That's not true.
Listen, this fool.
Where were we at?
We're coming home.
She's like will you stop at thegas station with me?
I don't want to pump my gas.
I'm driving a Tesla, pullinginto a gas station to pump her
(11:13):
gas.
I park in the parking spot, runover, use my card, pump her gas
, get back in my car and leave.
That doesn't make any sense,does it?
I was going to say?
I was going to say but happywife, happy life, right?
No, I'm just kidding.
I would do those things amillion times over for her.
I'll fight her on it every timeand I'll argue the whole way to
the gas station.
(11:34):
But I'm going to pump that gaswith joy, right, I'm going to
pump that gas with joy.
Pump that gas with joy, allright, then you will experience
God's peace.
You can go to the next one forme, thanks.
Appreciate it, then you willexperience God's peace, which
exceeds anything we canunderstand.
His peace will guide yourhearts and your minds as you
(11:57):
live in Christ Jesus.
And now, dear brothers andsisters, one final thing Fix
your thoughts on what is trueand honorable and right and pure
and lovely and admirable.
Think about things that areexcellent and worthy of praise,
(12:20):
hallelujah.
And now, dear brothers andsisters, fix your thoughts on
what is true, honorable, right,pure, lovely, admirable, and
think about the things that areexcellent and worthy of praise,
hallelujah.
How I have never, never, beenable to praise stress and
(12:40):
anxiety.
Right, because?
Because, when I pray, you knowwhat this is?
Just stress.
I'm just anxious.
What happens to me?
I become more stressed and moreanxious.
Dave Ramsey said once in a videoI watched.
He said money does not make youhappy.
Money makes you more of whatyou already are.
Right, so money fixeseverything.
(13:03):
So if I'm stressed out, I needmore money.
Most of us think that right.
A lot of us think that rightBecause money fixes it.
So if I have more money, I willbe less stressed.
I promise you, if a dump truckbacked up to your house and
dumped off a truckload of $100bills, you are still going to be
stressed.
You're just going to be filthy,rich and stressed, right.
(13:24):
But in six months you're goingto be broke and stressed because
you ain't going to changeanything.
You're just going to live inthe stress, right, all right.
Now we're going to doPhilippians 4-7 again, but we're
going to do this slowly.
And I brought my Strong'sConcordance and I brought this
and I just wanted to share.
I found this on the inside.
I got this from a group ofAmish ladies who I was driving
(13:47):
to work every day for I can'tremember how long and they order
their books out of magazines.
They don't go to the bookstoretypically, they get a magazine
and that's how they order all oftheir reading, and it said
thanks for the rides to work.
We appreciate it.
And then there's some personalsentiments in here, and what I
(14:09):
thought was sweet was that thiswas what they felt like I needed
in my life.
How many of you own one ofthese?
Yes, how many of you use thisregularly?
I'm going to tell you if youaren't studying your Bible with
some sort of strong concordanceor some sort of helpful tool.
Listen this if I look up theword peace which is what I did
(14:29):
it will give me every passage ofscripture that uses the word
peace.
It's a lot, it's like a wholepage, okay, but this is
fantastic.
It's a great way to study yourBible.
But what we're going to do isyou're going to go on a journey
with me this morning.
You're going to go on thejourney of how I broke down the
passage of Scripture to figureout what peace actually means in
(14:52):
my life and when I speak peaceinto somebody else's life, what
it should mean to them and to me.
All right, so we're going to doPhilippians just four, seven
again, and we're going to do itone at a time.
Look at this.
Isn't this fun?
It's fancy.
Nobody applauded or anything.
That was pretty embarrassing.
It says we're going to do NewInternational Version and the
(15:13):
peace of God, which transcendsall understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds inChrist Jesus.
Now, on the surface it says thepeace of God which transcends
all understanding.
We can break this down and kindof understand this just talking
about it, but we're going tostudy it.
Okay, we're going to break itdown a little bit at a time.
Give me my next one.
(15:34):
Peace, but it says, and thepeace of God.
Not all peace is the peace ofGod Because Jesus is calling
somebody, because the peace ofGod is different when you have
peace on earth, when you havepeace in a situation.
(15:55):
You're depending oncircumstance.
Right, so you get a call fromyour listen.
This happened to me.
I was in a class it was calledLeadership Tusk and we were
having a two night something orother retreat at Salt Fork.
Okay, bit of a drive.
I get down there and while I'mthere, I had fallen through a
(16:16):
bunk bed.
Does anybody remember thatstory?
Me falling through the bunk bedit was awful, worst experience
of my life.
I was in the house by myself.
It was like Wile E Coyotemoment.
I'm taking the bolts out of thetop of this bunk bed it's an
Ikea bunk bed, if that gives youany understanding and I take
the bolt out.
I'm standing on top of thisthere and then my head comes
(16:45):
afterwards.
I land on my shoulder, messmyself up something fierce.
I didn't realize how bad it wasin the moment I drug myself
across the floor, called my wifeand told her I was pretty sure
I was going to die.
Now, I mean, the drop was onlywhat that high, but when you hit
that hard like you don't really.
My leg got all caught up in thecrossbar and I was in pain.
I thought for sure I was dead.
I did.
I felt like my arm had poppedoff and I left my friend's house
(17:08):
that night and I drove home andI drove what 40 minutes out of
the way.
I probably had a wickedconcussion, but I had no idea.
I mean, I was lost.
And when I realized I was lost,I was panicked.
I didn't know where I was, Ididn't know how I had gotten
there, I didn't remember leavingmy friend's house and driving
to that point.
That's scary to think about,right.
(17:29):
So at that point then I realizeda day or two, a couple of days
later, I go to the store.
I can't find my car in theparking lot.
I'm sobbing uncontrollablybecause I don't know where my
car is and I'm realizing, like Idon't remember parking my car,
I don't remember going into thestore, like we've got a problem
(17:50):
here, right?
So the next thing I knowthey're making me an appointment
to have a was it a CT scan?
I don't remember.
I know it was miserable, butthey put my head in this cage
and they laid me in this thingand I had to lay there for like
ever.
It was awful, wasn't allowed tomove.
You guys know me, that ain'thappening.
But I laid there and when theydid the scan they call me.
While I'm on this two-dayretreat I can't leave.
And they say, hey, we foundsome spots on your brain.
We need to make you anappointment with a specialist.
(18:11):
We're concerned.
I can't call my wife because Ican't go home, so I can't tell
her, so I have to just deal withthat.
There's no peace in that moment.
There is no peace in thatmoment.
So I'm hyper fixated on this.
I'm not getting anything fromthe classes.
I'm so stressed about this.
(18:32):
And we went to the specialistappointment and he looks at the
MRI and he says or the CAT scan,whatever it was.
And he said did you used tosmoke?
And I said, yeah, he goes.
Oh well, then everything we'reseeing is absolutely normal for
somebody who has smoked in thepast.
So like two weeks, folks, I amstressed that like something's
(18:56):
wrong with my head, like I'vedone some serious damage.
Yeah, well, we know that thereis some level of, but it's all
normal at this point, right?
So, listen, I find that thatstill bothers me.
Alyssa and I went shopping oneday.
We left the store and she goesdo you remember where we parked?
And I realized I had no ideawhere we parked and it sent this
raging anxiety through my bodyBecause I'm thinking what if I
(19:20):
can't find the car?
The day that I couldn't find mycar, I probably wandered for 20
minutes before I realized youcan hit the panic button on your
.
I'm too Like.
That was not in my mind.
I'm starting to like, reallyfreak out.
So after that one, I skippedthis part.
After that one this was duringwintertime, because they had the
bell ringers out I went toWalmart.
(19:43):
A few days later.
I came in the door, shopped andI came back out and I realized
I couldn't find my car again.
Now, this time I was a littleless panicked because at this
time I'm probably getting usedto it, starting to realize
something's not right and thebell ringer goes.
I think you're parked downthere.
Had it not been for him, Iwould have been in that panic
again.
(20:04):
So I'm telling you that becauseI need you to understand that
peace in our bodies, peace inthe world, is dependent on that
circumstance.
Right, I need to know where mycar is and I need to know that I
didn't mess up my brain when Ifell, right, it was already
messed up, I just happened tofall, all right.
So the peace of God is not likethe peace of man, because it
(20:28):
does not depend on circumstance.
Amen, give me my next one.
It transcends all understanding.
What that means is it goesbeyond the range of limit, right
?
So when something transcends,when it transcends time, when a
fashion idea transcends time,you guys, if I say Madonna,
(20:48):
everybody thinks of the bra,right?
Because, like, how do you not?
I'm glad at least PastorHolly's on the same page as me,
right, there are some thingsthat you can talk about.
When you think of Elvis, youthink of jumpsuit, right?
Most of us, we think of thingsand those transcend time.
Elvis has been dead for howlong?
People are still listening tohis music?
(21:10):
Young kids still know whoMadonna is.
Like these things, because ittranscends time, it's beyond all
of our single understanding andwill live for just about ever,
amen, okay, next, understanding.
It transcends all understanding.
Now, what that means is this isyour faith, right?
(21:32):
Not your physical understanding.
Your brain cannot understandthe peace of God because it
transcends all understanding,right?
So now we are living in faithfor the peace of God.
We're not trying to wrap ourhead around it, we're not trying
to understand it, we're nottrying to put it in a box and
(21:52):
say, well, peace comes when Ihave this feeling.
Peace comes when so-and-so doesX.
If I'm praying that God willgive me peace, and Pastor
Michael is going to say X thisSunday morning, that will give
me peace, I'm telling you rightnow, that is not the peace of
(22:13):
God.
That is man-made peace and it'sfleeting.
It lasts for a moment and thenit runs away again and you find
yourself back where you were,all right.
Next, we'll guard your hearts.
We'll guard.
It is going to keep you fromthe exposure of evil.
(22:34):
Right, it's going to keep youfrom exposure of evil.
What is evil?
What A lot.
It is a lot of things.
Now you'll notice that when Iwrote that I put too much evil,
(22:56):
there's a reason that I put toomuch.
I can't go to work withoutseeing some level of evil, right
.
You can't even turn on the TVanymore without seeing some
level of evil.
You can't read the news, youcan't talk to a friend,
sometimes, without seeing somelevel of evil, right, but the
peace of God is going to keepyou safe from those things, amen
.
Okay, next, now this is myfavorite one.
(23:18):
When I study this one out, thisis my favorite Will guard your
hearts, your love for him andhis love for you.
See, the peace of God is goingto protect your love for him and
his love for you.
That's hard to understand,right?
Because my love for God, I liketo think, is unconditional.
(23:40):
Amen.
How many of us feel that way?
I believe that I love godunconditionally until something
bad happens in my life and thenI just don't understand why god
would allow that to happen.
Alissa shared a post the otherday of this uh little girl I
mean she a baby who hasneuroblastoma and it's causing
(24:02):
all.
I mean, she's not long for thisworld, unfortunately.
But the worst part of the storyis that her brother, four years
earlier, had passed away fromthe same disease and these
parents, for the second time,are living with a child with
neuroblastoma.
Can you imagine.
And I was reading that post andI was looking at all of the
(24:24):
comments and there was onecomment that said and this is
why I can't believe that Godexists.
Isn't that amazing?
Rather than saying God is goodall the time, and all the time
God is good, I'm going to blameGod for something bad that's
happening in this world.
Can I tell you something?
That God is the author of allthings good, but we live in a
(24:47):
fallen world that will onlyallow us to comprehend God's
goodness when we want tocomprehend God's goodness Amen.
We can say God is good, we can,it's easy, but we don't always
believe it.
When we see something badhappen in the world, we want to
blame God, but God is not theauthor of all of those things.
See, we live in a world of freewill, right, and sometimes we
(25:10):
make bad choices, sometimespeople around us make bad
choices, and we live in thosechoices every day.
But see, that's why we have toguard our hearts, because we
have to understand that the loveof God is more important than
anything that's happening inthis world.
Every attack that the enemymakes should be far below your
(25:34):
feet, because the love of Godshould be the first thing at the
top of your mind Every time theenemy makes action in your life
.
Listen, we can bless each otherall day long, we can talk about
how good God is, but until weunderstand what the peace of God
means in our lives, we willnever be able to fully
understand God's promise to us.
Amen, okay.
(25:55):
Next, your hearts and your mindUngodly thoughts will be
replaced with praise, amen.
So when you say something to meor you do something to me that I
don't like, rather than go andtelling everybody that you said
or you did and I don't like, I'mgoing to say to God be the
(26:16):
glory, because in all things hewill work together for his good.
And if you tell me that youdon't like me, you know what
that's okay.
I still love you, whether youwant me to or not.
Right?
You might not let me speak intoyour life, you might not let me
lift you up in prayer, youmight not want those things, but
(26:37):
I'm still going to love you andpray for you daily, because I
know that peace for myself comesfrom God and peace for you is
only going to come from thatplace too, because if you think
that hating me is going to takeaway my love for God.
(26:59):
You're wrong, because when Ifocus on loving him first, it
becomes much easier to loveother people around me, and
sometimes people are pretty hardto love.
Right, I'm pretty hard to lovesometimes.
Don't ask my wife.
She would tell you that's a lieand that I am the most lovable
(27:20):
person in the world.
I know that.
I know that we wrap our headsaround what peace looks like,
based on what the world haspromised us.
Peace is going to look likeAmen.
Peace will only be known whenJesus Christ is the center of
(27:47):
your life.
Give me that next slide, Onepassage of scripture, and that's
where we're at right.
How many of us study our Bibleslike this?
Or when we say we study, whatwe mean is we read Right?
Because that's what a lot of usdo.
We pick up our word, we read itand we go okay, god, there it
(28:10):
is.
I've put in my 10 minutes.
See, when I want to know whatpeace is, I'm going to look for
the passage of scripture thattells me what peace is and I'm
going to break it down so that Ican understand it.
So now I know that the peacethat I am seeking is not a peace
(28:31):
from this world.
It is a peace from God.
That peace will be beyondanything that my mind can
possibly understand.
It will be transcended by allthings and that it will guard my
heart and my mind in JesusChrist.
That means that I don't have toworry about what the world has
told me.
I don't have to believe thatthe world is going to be my
downfall.
(28:52):
I believe that I am going tofind peace in my Lord and Savior
, right, amen.
Okay, leave that up there.
The peace of God is not like thepeace that you will experience
in situations.
Sometimes you hear people say,oh, I just have a peace about
this Right Christian cop out.
(29:15):
It's like saying I'm in myseason of rest, I'm in my season
of listen.
This is not true for everybody.
I want to be clear.
But there are some people whosay those things and they say it
because they've heard somebodyelse say it, and it's a great
excuse to not do or act or sayright when I say, oh well, I'm
(29:37):
not in a season of X.
Let me tell you something whenyou are called of God, you are
always in season.
Right, the people around youmay not be in season, and Holly
and I have learned that the hardway, that sometimes we come in
hot and not everybody is inseason with us.
But some people will say, oh,it's not my season, no, you're
(30:01):
defiant, you don't want to dowhat God has called you to do.
You don't want to operate inwhat God has gifted you to
operate in, and sometimes youdon't want to operate in what
God has not gifted you tooperate in.
Amen.
You want to just focus on whatit is that you want and allow
god to work on that, and thenwhat happens?
(30:23):
He takes it away.
And who's the bad guy?
God, because we don't actuallyfind peace in god.
We find peace in the world.
We find peace and what it isthat we want, rather than what
god would have in our lives.
Amen, amen.
All right, I've got one morepassage of Scripture, and this
is going to button it up.
(30:43):
We are perfect on time.
This is wonderful.
Grab your Bibles.
Open to Genesis 15, 15.
Now, this is God speaking toAbraham.
Abram, soon to be Abraham.
This is God speaking to him.
Go ahead.
As for you, you will die inpeace and be buried at a ripe
old age.
You will die in peace so longas you believe that he is God.
(31:11):
How many of us die, sufferingand miserable because we don't
know who God is?
If you look at the world aroundyou, that's what you see Amen.
You see people who God is.
If you look at the world aroundyou, that's what you see, amen.
You see people who arestruggling and listen.
When I was talking to my friendand I was saying these things, I
never once even thought aboutthe peace of the person who had
passed away.
I was worried about the peaceof the man who was living.
(31:33):
But the guy who passed away isin glory.
He is in real peace because hebelieved that Jesus Christ was
his Lord and Savior.
He knew that he was going toenter into heaven Amen.
And so he died knowing that Godis good and that his heart was
protected and that his mind wasprotected from all of those
things, because he read his word, he studied his word, he knew
(31:56):
who God was in his life.
He never allowed the world totell him that God wasn't real.
How many of us are willing tohear that today?
When somebody says, well, god'snot real and we just go, well,
if you can't beat him, right, weall.
When somebody says something tous, that's besides the word we
(32:18):
argue, the word we.
We try to.
We try to get them tounderstand who jesus is.
No, we don't.
And if you say you do, you're aliar and you're going to hell,
because there is no room inheaven for a liar, as the bible
says it.
I didn't make that up, thebible says it.
I didn't make that up.
The Bible says it.
I do, fib.
But let's be honest with eachother too.
(32:39):
No, you know what?
There's a podcast episode aboutit.
Go back and listen to it.
We covered this in the podcast.
It was a great episode.
You guys should go back andlisten to that one, because
lying is a hard thing.
It's a difficult conversationto have.
Right.
Some things we say to peoplearen't necessarily lies.
Like if I'm going to have asurprise birthday party for my
wife and I tell her I'm going totake her to dinner, but really
(33:00):
we're going somewhere elsebecause we're going to.
That's a lie.
What does that mean?
How do you work that out?
Here's what I'll tell you Workout your own salvation with fear
and trembling.
I'm going to tell you the truth.
I don't understand everythingthat the Bible says.
I've never claimed to and I'venever promised to.
But when I have a question, I'malways going to dig into the
(33:22):
Word, pull that slide back upfor me, that one with all of the
markings on it.
I am always going to go back tothe Word and I'm going to study
and try to figure out what itis that God is saying to me.
And when he said, when he had mesay to my friend, may the peace
of the Holy Spirit be with you.
This is the peace he wasreferring to, not the peace of
the world, that's the peace.
(33:43):
Now, when I said it I didn'tknow that I meant it.
Amen, I sent it.
But then I had to understandwhat it meant and I prayed and I
prayed that Lord, just allowhim to have this peace.
And I prayed and I prayed thatLord, just allow him to have
this peace.
This the real deal, not thepeace that we like to make up.
Amen.
So I want to encourage you thatif you're facing a challenge in
(34:06):
life and you're looking to theword for understanding and
somebody is giving you something, or you've read something that
you don't quite understand andyou're struggling to believe,
maybe, in what it is that you'rereading, I want to tell you
that you should be looking forpeace in Christ.
When you get that peace, why'dyou change it again?
It is hard to find good help.
(34:33):
It's really hard to find goodhelp when you find that peace.
When you find that peace, thenyou know that you've made it to
where you need to be.
But when you're just saying,well, I'm just going to let God
take the wheel, you need to bestill studying.
You need to be understandingwhat it is that God is handling
in your life.
Because if you just say I'mletting God handle it, you still
(35:03):
got to understand what he'shandling.
Is this my fault?
Am I living in sin?
Am I doing something Ishouldn't be doing?
Lord, reveal to me what it isthat you would have me
understand.
And when you pray that and thenhe opens your eyes and he gets
you in the word and you'refinding this stuff, you're like
holy smokes.
The word of God really is alive.
Right that this isn't just abook that I read for a hobby.
How many of you read wellbesides, joe, how many of you
(35:23):
read this as a hobby?
It's hard to have this as ahobby.
Good for you, man, because whenI get to like first and second
Kings Come on, man, we got to dothis again.
But I know that there isknowledge and there's revelation
, knowledge that there issomething that God needs me to
(35:44):
understand Maybe not today, buthaving good understanding To be
able to look at your Bible andgo.
You know where was it that Peterwalked on water?
You know where was it thatPeter walked on water and that
you're able to open your Bibleand go there because you know
that right, you don't have to beable to quote scripture forward
and backward to me.
I don't think that that'snecessarily a sign of salvation,
(36:06):
but I do think it's importantBecause the word lives in you.
When you can do that right Now,there's a lot of scripture I
can give you.
But if you were to say to mehey, well, I don't even want to
use that as an example because Ican use it.
I can't do it, but there aresome that, like you, could ask
me about a particular passage,I'm going to say you're going to
have to give me a little bitand I'm going to have to go find
(36:28):
it.
But what I have learned is whatI used to do was I'd go to
Google.
Hey, dr Google, where in theBible did Peter walk on water
Right Lazy, and I learned thatin that laziness I wouldn't
study, I would go and I wouldread and I would put it down.
(36:49):
I wouldn't break it down, Iwouldn't understand it.
See, when I was reading about,when I read that passage of
scripture this morning, I'mgoing to pull it back up real
quick the particular part thatjumped out at me that I wanted
to share with you again was soPeter went over the side of the
boat and started walking towardsJesus.
He's confident at this pointthat that's Jesus right.
And then, all of a sudden, hesees the wind and the waves and
(37:12):
he becomes nervous.
The peace that he had, thatthat is Jesus has been wiped
away by his own fear of theworld, and so he starts to sink.
He took his eyes off the prize.
He took his eyes off the prizeRather than just saying you know
what Storms may come, but Godis steadfast, he starts to sink
(37:33):
in the water.
Trials will come in your lifeevery day, but the word of God,
the presence of the Holy Spirit,it's not going to go anywhere.
It's at your fingertips everyday.
You just have to choose to beinvested.
(37:54):
Amen, let's pray together.
Father, I thank you and Ipraise you for an anointed word
today, father.
I just thank you for continuingto move in this place, for
giving us revelation, knowledge.
Father, allow us to find peacethat passes all understanding.
(38:16):
Allow us to find that peacethat God would have us have in
our heart.
Father, we know that you arethe author of all good things
and that you would want thatpeace, but so many times we just
get worked up in what the worldwould have for us.
We get trapped in our own minds, in our own emotions, Father,
(38:43):
and I pray that you just removethat from us today.
Burn away all of that excessdross, father.
Just burn it away.
Allow it to be new and realevery day inside of us.
Father, just burn it away.
Allow it to be new and realevery day inside of us.
Father, wake us up with a desireto be in your word, to study
(39:04):
and understand who you are andwhat you want for us.
Father, not that we would.
Just we don't want to takeadvantage of who you are.
We want to give you praise,honor and glory.
We want you to be able to pourout blessings on your people
because you want to Father God,not because we are expecting of
who you are.
We want to give you praise,honor and glory.
We want you to be able to pourout blessings on your people
because you want to, father God,not because we are expecting of
who you are.
Allow us to give you praise,honor and glory in all things.
(39:24):
Father, I just thank you and Ipraise you.
I pray that you continue tomove in our lives, move in this
house, father God, move in ourcommunity and just bring peace
to all of those who aresuffering today.
We give you the praise, thehonor and glory in Jesus' name,
(39:46):
amen.
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