Rick Warren - When It Hurts to Surrender to God's Plan, Do This...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, the truth is, it's really quite easy to lose
your internal peace. I mean, one minute you're all everything's
cool and you're kicked back and you're laid back and
it feels good and you're in serenity, and the next
minute you get a phone call and you're stressed out.
It's very easy to lose your peace. I've written there
on your outline three ways that people most often get

(00:21):
anxious or stressed when their circumstances are uncontrollable. You feel
helpless when people around them are unchangeable. They won't cooperate.
Have you ever tried to change somebody who didn't want
to be changed. That's stressing, isn't it. Have you ever
done a little personal improvement plan on your husband or wife,
are your kids and they won't get with the action
and say, hey, come on, get with the plan. This

(00:42):
is for your own good and fastest way to get
stressed out is try to change somebody. You can't even
change your own self most of the time. And then
the third is when problems are unexplainable. You can't figure
out why something doesn't work. That is stressing that causes anxiety.
Now today we're going to look at what in all
three of those situations, When your circumstances are uncontrollable, when

(01:04):
people around you won't change, they're unchangeable, And when problems
are unexplainable, you need to pray the prayer of surrender.
It's Matthew six, verse ten. Let's read it aloud together.
May your Kingdom come, May your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Now, this may be

(01:25):
the most misunderstood phrase in the Lord's prayer. What does
it mean, your kingdom come? What in the world does
that mean? May your kingdom come, May your will be done?
What is God's kingdom? Well, God's kingdom is his plan
for history. It is the rule and reign of God
in the world. It's all that he wants to do.

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All his purposes are accomplished in the Kingdom of God.
You say, well, where is the kingdom of God? It
is wherever Jesus is allowed to be king. Now, since
Jesus is king in heaven right now, the Kingdom of
God is in he One day, when Christ comes back
on earth, the Kingdom of God will be on earth.
And Jesus said, when I'm king in your heart, the

(02:07):
Kingdom of God is within you. So the kingdom of
God is wherever Jesus is allowed to be king. Actually,
the second phrase, thy will be done explains the first phrase,
Thy Kingdom Come. God's kingdom is wherever God's will is done.
And so if God's will is being done in your life,
guess where the kingdom of God is. It's inside you,

(02:28):
says Jesus. Now, today we're going to look at how
this phrase thy Kingdom, come, Thy will be done, How
that can bring personal peace in your life. It may
be a life changing message for you when you understand
this truth. But first, before we can look at it,
you have to settle one thing. And here it is

(02:49):
God is God and you're not. All right now, I
know that's a little simple, but we forget it very easily.
God is God and you're not. You cannot pray this
prayer and you cannot be at peace until you accept
that fact. And when you learn that, then you're ready

(03:10):
to pray what I call the prayer of surrender. Now,
what does it mean to pray thy Kingdom Come, Thy
will be done? It means three things. Number one, it
means I accept God's plan. I accept God's plan instead
of my own plan for my life. I accept his purpose,

(03:32):
his will for my life. Now, part of this, and
a big part of it, is something that's very difficult,
and that is accepting the things you can't change. And
there are a lot of things in your life. In fact,
most of the major things you didn't choose your birth
or your death. A lot of those things you don't
choose what other people do to you. So you have
to accept the things that can't be changed. Now, of course,

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you change the things you can, But what about all
those things you can't change. How do you have peace
when when you're frustrated by something that is unchangeable, Well,
worrying doesn't work. That certainly doesn't give you peace. Resenting
what you can't change won't give you peace. Feeling guilty
about what you can't change in the past or whatever

(04:17):
won't give you peace. Having a pity party about what
you can't change won't give you peace. All those things
you don't like in your life. I didn't like the
parents I got, I don't like the way I look,
I don't like the talents I've given. All those things
you can't change them. There's only one thing that will

(04:37):
work when you can't change something, and that is this acceptance, acceptance.
I must accept God's will in my life. Thy Kingdom Come,
Thy will be done. Now. Not everything that happens in
your life is God's will. I am not saying that,
but you say, God, I want your will in my
life when there are things that are out of my
control and I can't change them. Paul understood this in

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Philippians chapter four. He says this, I've learned to be
satisfied with the things that I have and with everything
that happens. Wait just a minute, how many of you
could say I've learned to be satisfied with everything that happens.
I couldn't raise my hand on that one, Paul saying,
I have learned to be content, to be satisfied with

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the things I have and everything that happens. I know
how to live when I am poor, and I know
how to live when I have plenty. I've learned the
secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens. Wow.
I can do all things through Christ because He gives
me strength. Now I want you to notice first, you
know the amazing thing about this verse. Paul wrote it

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when he's in prison. He's in Rome, chained to a
guard in a dungeon, and he's saying, I've learned how
to be happy no matter what's going on in my life.
He couldn't change his circumstance, but he says, I've learned
to be content. And I want you to notice three things. First,
this accepting of God's plan is a learned experience. You

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are not, by nature a contented person. Neither am I.
By nature, we are discontented. And God says contentment is
something you learn. You learn to accept the things that
you can't change. And Second, it's a choice. He says,
I choose to be happy in spite of my circumstances.
And third, he says it's possible only through Christ's strength.

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Now you need to learn this first step of the
prayer surrender that I accept God's plan even when I
don't understand it. Why. Because the truth is, most of
the things that happen in your life, God doesn't explain
why they happen. Most of the things in your life,
God's not going to give you an explanation. He's going

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to remain silent when you're going through that problem, through
that trial, through that difficulty, through that circumstance that you
don't like Now. I know this is going to be
hard for some of you, but can you think back
to when you were in grade school. In grade school,
the teacher would pass out the test, you would sit
down and start taking the test, and he or she

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would sit at the front in silence while you took
the test. The teacher is always silent when the test
is being given. Now, that's true in life. It's true
with God. Anytime you're going through a tough time and
God is silent, you're praying, God, why is this happening?

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What's going on in my life? Help? Help? And God
is silent. This is a test, all right. Anytime God
is silent in your life, this is a test. God
is saying, are you gonna trust me even when you
don't feel me? Are you gonna trust me even when
you can't see me, hear me? I feel like I'm

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a million miles away. Will you accept my plan, my wisdom,
my love, my goodness even when there's nothing emotionally feel
any goosebumps, you don't feel anything special in your life?
Will you test trust me when I am silent? God
tests you like that all the time, and he wants

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you to pray When you're in those situations, that's when
you need to pray the prayer of surrender, High Kingdom, Come,
Thy will be done God. I don't know what's going
on in my life. I don't know where you're taking me.
I don't know where I'm going to end up. But
I'm going to say this even in advance, Thy will
be done. That, my friends, is the prayer of surrender,

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and it's the first key to peace, where you say,
I'm going to accept your plan even when I don't
understand it. Now, why does this bring peace of mind? Well,
I'll tell you because the greatest barrier to your peace
of mind is your demand for an explanation. Anytime you

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ask God why, you are setting yourself up to be disappointed,
because God's not going to explain why everything happens in
your life. Whenever you start saying why, why is this
happening to me? Why didn't this happen? Why did he
allow this? Why? Why? Why? Explanations are setting yourself up

(09:14):
are questions like that, you're setting yourself up to be
not at peace, but to be anxious, to be in turmoil.
It always robs your peace. And the truth is you're
probably not going to get an explanation from God. Now,
there are three reasons for that. Number One, God doesn't
owe you an explanation. Remember, God is God and I'm
what not? Yeah, okay, So God doesn't have to explain

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to me why he does everything. He doesn't have to
report it to me and say, by the way, would
this be okay with you? If I do this? Is
it okay? If I make this little change here. He
doesn't report to you. You report to him. God is
God and you're not. So God doesn't owe you an
explanation for why everything happens in your life. He's good,
he's loving, and he knows what's best. Number Two, you

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probably wouldn't understand the explanation even if he gave it
to you. The reason why is God thinks through eternity.
He sees everything that's happened in the past, and he
sees everything that's going to happen in the future, and
he knows what's going on in your life right now.
And God thinks in terms of generations. We only tend
to think of what's happened in my life, not even
in my whole life, but what's happening at this very moment.

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I can't even see what happened a year ago or
what's going to happen to year in the future. I'm
only thinking about my pain right now. God is taking
it all in the in the perspective of the progress
of eternity. And so if God tried to explain to
you why things happen to you, you're just a cog
in the wheel in the huge panorama of history, in

(10:47):
the huge panorama of history, and so God would not
be able to explain to you why why this happens
before this, before this, and how that thing that happened
one hundred years ago is influencing this today, and what
you're doing right now is going to influence one hundred
years from today and on and on. So you probably
wouldn't understand it. But a third reason why God probably
won't give you an explanation is this, Explanations never comfort us.

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Some of you have had pain in your past, and
through reading or therapy or counsel or talking with friends,
you figured out why certain things happen in your life.
Did that comfort you? No, It gave an explanation, It
gave you wisdom, but it didn't relieve the pain. Explanations
rarely comfort us. And that's why when God lets you

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go through a situation, he doesn't always explain it. Instead
of offering an explanation, he offers himself his presence, because
what you need when you're in pain is God's presence,
not an explanation. And God has said I will be
with you always. I am always with you. I care
about you. You will never go through anything on your own.

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And this is the first step to the prayer of
surrender Thy Kingdom, Come be done, God. I want your
plan in my life now. Many people pray the Serenity prayer.
Millions of people pray the Serenity Prayer on a daily basis.
But did you know that the Serenity Prayer has been edited.
It has been shortened, and most people only know the

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first three lines. The actual prayer has eight more lines,
and that's where the power is. I'd like for us
to read the Serenity Prayer aloud together. Let's read it.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I
cannot change, the courage to change the things I can,

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and the wisdom to know the difference living one day
at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting
hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is, not as I would
have it, Trusting that you will make all things right

(13:02):
if I surrender to your will, so that I may
be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with
you forever in the next. Amen. Now, the rest of
that passage explains a whole lot about the first three.
You're not going to have the serenity of the serenity
prayer unless you pray the rest of it. Peace comes

(13:25):
through notice, accepting, trusting, and surrender. Those are the three
things that bring peace. Accepting, trusting, and surrender. When you
face an uncontrollable circumstance, you tend to do one of
two things, and these are the extremes, and most of
us tend to do one or the other. Some of you,

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when you face things are out of your control, you
just redouble your efforts. You try harder, you say, I'm
going to make this thing work. And the more your
life tends to spend out of control, the more controlling
and compulsive you become. When you feel like you're threatened
by I can't control the situation, you start and react

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by trying to control everybody and everything in your life,
and you become compulsive about it, and you want to
control this, you want to control that, and you are
a hyper controller, and you're certainly not at peace because
you're trying to run the whole world out of the
fear of what's uncontrollable in your life. The others of you,

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you do the exact opposite. You throw in the towel,
you give up, You throw your hands up and say
forget it. I'm a victim. I'm gonna roll over and
play dead. I'm a victim of despair. And you play
Mary martyr. You swallow and wallow, You swallow your anger
and you wallow in self pity. Both of those choices,

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trying to control everything and everybody around you and giving
in and saying I'm just a victim, those are stupid,
foolish choices. What you need to do is the alternative.
If what you need to do is pray the prayer
of surrender, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done in
my life. Thy will be done on earth as it

(15:14):
is in heaven. Why do we pray that Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven, Because
in heaven God's will is done perfectly. Is God's will
done perfectly on earth? Absolutely not. In fact, most of
the things that happen on earth are not God's will.
God's will is not always done. That's why we have sin,
That's why people get hurt. But when you pray thy

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will be done, you're saying, first, I accept your plan,
and second you're saying, I surrender to your control. That's
the second part of the prayer of surrender. I surrender
to God's control. I don't just accept a plan. I
say not only am accepting your plan, I accept what
you want to do with me. You're in control now.

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We don't like this word surrender, oh man. We don't
like it because surrender means raising the white flag. Surrender
means giving up. It means forfeiting the game. It's saying
I've lost, you've won. Surrender sounds too much like that
other word. We hate submission, and we don't like either

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of those words. But it's the only pathway to peace.
I surrender to your control. God. You see, every morning
you get up, you make a decision. Who's going to
run your life? You are God? Whose agenda are you
going to follow today? Yours? Or God, who's going to
be calling the shots. You are God. Now, sometimes you

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and I think we know better, and sometimes you say,
you know, I know there's some verses in the Bible,
but I want to ignore those ones because they don't
fit my agenda. And I know what God says here.
But you know what I'm I'm just gonna pretend that
verse isn't in the Bible. I'm going to ignore it
and do what I want to do. I'm going to
make up my own rules. And when we do this,

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we always use the same phrase, here's the excuse, but
God wants me to be happy. Anytime you hear somebody
say that, but God wants me to be happy, it
means they're probably justifying something that this book says don't do.
Almost inevitably, they're going to be justifying. It's trying and

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rationalized in their mind what God says not to do.
And you know what to rationalize is rationalies. Rationalize means
I tell with my head what my heart says is wrong,
but I know in my heart is wrong. But God
wants me to be happy. You're not going to be
happy unless you do what God wants you to do.

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And the truth is This is the real reason you're
under stress. This is the real reason you're in turmoil.
You're at war with God. Anytime you try to play God,
then you're in opposition to the real God. And the
Bible's very clear about the effect of that. Look at
the next verse. Well, first, the Bible says and sal

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I'm thirty seven to seven. Surrender yourself to the Lord
and wait patiently for him. That's the key to peace. Now,
what happens if we don't do it? Look at the
next verse Roman's eighty six. If a person's thinking is
controlled by a sinful self, there is death. But if
his thinking is controlled by the spirit, there is read

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it with me, life and peace. How do you get
life and peace by being controlled by the spirit, by
surrendering yourself to the Lord and waiting for him. Now, obviously,
in a war with God, you're gonna lose. Anybody want
to disagree with that one? Yeah, I didn't think so.

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Your arms are too short to box with God. You're
gonna lose if you get in a war with God.
And so whenever you fight God God and say I'm
going to do what I want to do instead of
what you want me to do. You're going to have anxiety,
you're going to have stress, you're gonna have depression, you're
gonna have worry. You're gonna have everything except peace because

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you're at war with God. Now, if you want personal peace,
the Book of Job, chapter twenty two tells us how
to get it. Stop quarreling with God. If you agree
with him, you will have peace at last, and things
will go well for you. You see, God says, I

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want to bring your bring you peace, but you've got
to accept my plan, and you've got to surrender to
my control because I am God and you're not. Now,
you know what is the greatest barrier to this? What
keeps you from surrendering your life totally to God? Resentment?
Resentment against God. Now you may not want to admit this,

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but there's some things in your life you're mad at
God about. You still blame him for those disappointments. You're
upset with him because life hasn't turned out the way
you wanted it to. And that underlying resentment keeps you
from totally surrendering to God. You're mad at God, you're
blaming him for your unhappiness. Now, let's just get real

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practical What is it in your life that you're still
angry at God about? Can a Christian be angry God
all without a doubt, without a doubt? Some of you
are angry at the way God made you look. You
don't like your appearanceshaf God bade me? Look? Why didn't
God make me more beautiful? Why didn't God make me
like pastor Rick? Then my life would be great? I mean,

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he's a hunk, a hunk of burning love. Yay baby.
And you don't like the way you look? And you
know what, you're still mad at God because God made
you the way you look. Some of you are still resentful.
Why didn't God give me different parents? Why did I

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have to get my dad? My mom? They're looney? Some
of you are disappointed in your marriage. It's not at
all what you expected it to be, and you're blaming
God for it. And some of you are still resentful
about a handicap or a birth defect, or a business

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you started and failed, or a marriage that failed. For
the fact that you're not married and you're still single.
What are you caring resentment at God over? What are
you still angry at God about? That kind of thing
is keeping you in turmoil, keeping you at war with
God and keeping you from experiencing the love and peace

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that He wants to pour out in your life, that
unfulfilled dream, and you're mad at God about it. Don't
blame God. Just relax and say God, Thy will be done,
Thy will be done, Thy Kingdom Come. I accept your plan.

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I surrender to your control, because the war with God
is keeping you from peace. Now. Sometimes you go out
and in all sincerity, you pray, you work, you think
you're doing the right thing, and you go out and
you do what you think God wants you to do,
and it just flat out bombs. What do you do

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with that? Don't worry. It's all a part of God's
plan and he's moving you to where he wants to
take you. The Bible says this in Isaiah twenty six
y three. You Lord, give true peace to those who
depend on you because they trust you. Now, your life

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is never going to be problem free. Ias is a
reality of life. You all know ias. It's always something.
Let's just say that together. It's always something. And if
it's not one thing, it's, oh, you know this, it's

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always something. You see problems. Your life is like a
big aircraft carrier. And the problems are like planes out
there circling lined up waiting to land, and you have
about ten or twelve or twenty or thirty planes waiting
to land on your deck right now. And so just
about the time you get one in and you get

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that plan, that problem solved. Number two plane moves up
to number one position, and number three moves up to
number two. The moment you get number two landed, guess
what number three is now number one. And the rest
of your life, you're going to have one problem after another,
after another after another. You have to have learn You

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have to learn how to have peace in spite of
your problems and in spite of conflict. If you're only
at peace when you're on vacation, you're going to have
peace very little in your life. You have to learn
to trust God's care even when you have problems. By
the way, why do we have so many problems in
the world. There are three reasons why we have problems

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in our lives. Number One, a fallen world in a nutshell.
Adam choked, Adam blew it. He's sinned sin into the world,
and we live in an imperfect world ever since, and
so because sin is in the world. People do things
that are wrong, and you suffer as a result. Other

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people cause problems that you didn't cause, and and that's
that's one of the main causes of problems. The second
reason is you have an enemy and his name is Satan,
and Satan wants to mess your life up. He wants
to destroy you. He wants to make you ineffective as
a child of God. And so you not only got

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the world working after you, got the devil working after
you too. The third reason you have problems is your
own poor decisions. You make a lot of dumb decisions,
dumb choices, and so do I, and so we cause problems.
Most of the problems I bring on myself. Now, if
you got your own poor decision making, and you got

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the devil, and you've got a fallen world, it's no wonder.
That's enough problems to keep you going the rest of
your life. But let me give you fourth. Sometimes problems
are nobody's fault. Sometimes they're not anybody's fault. Sometimes God
just allows them for a different reason. One time Jesus

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was walking down the street and his disciple saw a
man who was born blind, and the disciples said, Lord,
this guy's blind. He must have done something wrong. Who
did something wrong? Was it his parents who did wrong?
Who sinned? Or did he sin? Now that is such
a contemporary approach to problems, because today, when you get
a problem, you always say either it's caused by my
parents or by me. It's either blame your parents or

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blame yourself. And so they said, who caused this problem?
My parents are me and Jesus. You might write this
verse down. John nine three said, quote neither John nine three.
He said this happened so that God's power could be
displayed in this man's life. Now, listen, sometimes you're going

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to have problems that aren't caused by sin of others,
aren't caused by your own sin, and aren't caused by
the devil. You're going to have problems because God let
them in your life so that God's power could be
displayed in your life. Now, there's a great promise that
goes with the prayer surrender Thy Kingdom, Come, Thy will
be done. If I worry that and live that, what

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does God promise Matthew six thirty three. God will give
you all you need from day to day if you
live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your
primary concern. What is the Kingdom of God? His will
in your life and His will in the world. If
you say Thy will be done and you live that,

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he says, I'm going to take care of all your needs.
I accept God's plan for my life. I surrender to
God's control for my life, and I trust God's care
for my life. Then God says, I'm going to take
care of all your needs. So are you really at
peace today? Or really? Is there turmoil going on in

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your heart? Are you experiencing anxiety and turmoil and stress
over some area that has not been yielded to God? Question?
What in your life do you need to surrender? I
don't know what it is, but you do and God does.
Aren't you tired of being at war with God? Aren't

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you tired of being in turmoil? You can have God
promises the peace of God. You can have that, but
first you must make peace with God before you can
have the peace of God. How do you make peace
with God? Last verse in your outline Romans six thirteen.

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Give yourself to God. Surrender your whole being to Him
to be used for his righteous purposes. He wants you
to live a purpose driven life. He wants you to
surrender your whole being to him. Say God, I want
to live for your purposes. Your plan. Thy will be

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done in my life and on earth, as it is
in heaven.