Finding Peace in Your Thoughts

before we start today I want to ask you a question and we'll consider this kind of like your public service reminder fair enough everybody needs a little help every now and then uh how many of you have a will prepared for when you die raise your hand raise your hand amazing that's more than I expected good job good job if you don't you need to do it you really do because if no one's told you you're going to die Welcome To Life Church where we're here to make you feel good about yourself a fun friendly message for your entire family when you think about it Jesus kind of had a will and he named you in his will I'll tell you more about that in a minute that was your public service reminder this is the introduction to the message today I want to talk to you about peace because I just reminded you that you're going to die and so you need some peace how many of you have ever said I give anything for a moment of Peace raise your hand type online you can say I need peace right now give me a moment of peace piece cuz I know your life is a lot like mine you got crazy schedules you've got bills to pay house to clean food to cook dishes to do kids to drive everywhere should have stopped at two but you had three emails to return texts to make difficult people to deal with how many of you have difficult people to deal with raise your hand raise your hand if your hands not up right now you are the one right and all of us have so much going we need a little bit of peace I want to remind you that before Jesus died he named you in his will Romans 8 tells us we're actually Heirs of God and Jesus mentioned three different things that he willed what did he will let me show you on the cross Jesus willed his mother to John remember that he's dying and he said basically hey Behold thy son Behold thy mother John take care of my mom I'm trusting her to you the second thing Jesus willed was his Spirit to his father he said it's finished I've done everything that you sent me to do father into your hands I commit my spirit he willed his Spirit to the father and to you Jesus willed his peace he willed his mom to John he willed his Spirit to his father and Jesus willed his peace to you and he shows this in John chapter 14 when he was telling disciples hey I'm going to have to go away but I'm going to come back to you and he said this when I go away I want you to know peace I leave with you and then he said my peace I give you and he's going to explain to them this is unlike any peace you've ever tried to find in this world he said I do not give you the peace that the world gives so do not let your hearts be troubled he said and do not be afraid five words in that verse that has the potential to change your life Jesus said my peace I give you and the peace that he gives is a different kind of Peace because Jesus said he doesn't give the peace that the world gives but there's a different kind of Peace you see there there is kind of what we might call a worldly peace and a Godly peace and there's a big difference uh worldly piece is kind of like a pseudo piece it's it's temporary um it helps you cope it's kind of like uh uh the the the drug will promise you if you smoke the funny weed you'll feel that peaceful easy feeling right the drug promises to get you high you feel good for a little while and then you screw up your life nobody said amen none of you ever smoked a funny weed wow praise the lord we got holy people here uh the drink tells you you can drown your sorrows in the drink vacations tell you hey if you're just on the beach if you're in the mountains uh you could have that you can have that relief in vacations help for a little while but then you come back and you're still you it's hard right uh you think if I have a little more money I'll finally have some peace and you get a little more money it actually helps you pay the bills and you can be nice and generous to people but there's not enough money in the world to fill the void that you have on the inside it's a worldly peace is different than a Heavenly peace or a godly peace and what is Godly peace you can actually find it described in Isaiah chapter 26 I want to give you the context Isaiah was prophesying into a culture that is much like ours you could almost say it was the equivalent then of um a complicated economy with high interest rates with a difficult election coming up can I say that I mean I just kind of call it what it is uh with wars and rumors of wars and Isaiah prophesies into a culture with great uncertainty and everybody was afraid and he says in the middle of this you're going to break out into real worship and you're going to have this heavenly peace here's what he said he prophesied in that day everyone in the land of Judah will sing this song our city is strong we are surrounded by the walls of God's Salvation open the gates to all who are righteous and allow the faithful to enter and then the prophet declares these words you will keep in say with me you will keep in perfect peace let's try it again I need you in I need you in all of our life church you will keep in what you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you God all whose thoughts are fixed on you men how many of you want some of that perfect peace perfect peace uh the the word peace actually comes from a Hebrew word it was the Jewish greeting like you walk up to someone and they say shalom it's kind of like what's up like yo dog like God bless you shalom it's way you say hello Shalom and it means wholeness it means completeness it means fullness of Peace if I came up to you and said Shalom I'm saying may you have the fullness of the peace of God may you be at peace with other people may you be at peace with yourself may you be at peace with your circumstances even if they are not what you would want nor what you would choose but because God is good and because Jesus is the Prince of Peace may you be at perfect peace because in the original text when Isaiah said may you be kept in Shalom he didn't just say shalom he actually said shalom shalom the same word two times back to back he's saying may God give you a double portion may God give you your peace and even more than your peace and the translators translate it as perfect peace Jesus says my peace I give you and some of you might say okay thanks Jesus if you're giving me your peace why am I still so anxious anybody relate why do I still feel overwhelmed and let me just kind of ask some question question here can I really have your peace when I'm married to Mr Butthead do not elbow the person sitting next to you look straight ahead and pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about right c c can I have real peace when my kid is hanging out with the wrong crowd and I'm pretty certain they're doing some things that are dangerous can I be peaceful then can I be peaceful when I recognize that there is porn being viewed in my home can I really have a peace from heaven when my best friend not only let me down but betrayed me and lied about me can I have peace when the doctor gives me some news that I never wanted to hear can I have peace when there's a lot more month left than there is money can I have peace when my heart is beating and I can't even catch my breath and I feel so anxious how do I find this peace the prophet tells us and scripture says this you will keep in perfect peace now notice what it doesn't say you will keep in perfect peace all those who obsess about the news doesn't say that right it doesn't say you'll be kept in perfect peace all all those who look at everything that ticks you off on social media and you send it to all your friends so they can get mad with you oh you know I'm talking to somebody here you're a guest from another church because our people would never do that here scripture says you'll be kept in perfect peace help me out all whose thoughts are fixed on God you'll be kept in the the Heavenly kind of Peace the peace that this world would not understand when your minds when your thoughts are fixed on God this verse shows us that the Battle For Peace begins in our mind the Battle For Peace begins in your mind how many of you would say sometimes you have a war going on in your mind online just type it in there and be honest I got a war in my mind it's ridiculous like I'm preacher guy right I've been doing this for a long time and so I should have it down and I can tell you all day long the promises of God and believe they're true for you and then often times I have a hard time believing they're true for me it's a war in my mind you'll be kept in perfect peace all whose thoughts are fixed on God the word fixed is a cool word in Hebrew is the word smach it makes me think like don't make me smach you not really that's not what it makes me think but it not at all it it it means it means to lean on completely this is what this mean it means to lean on completely to fully rest oneself that's what the word means think of it this way you'll be kept in perfect peace when your mind is leaning on God's truth you you'll be kept in perfect peace when your thoughts are resting on God's unfailing promises you'll be kept at perfect peace when your mind is fixed on the truth the power of God's goodness his promises for you and so I just want to ask you and I want you to be dead honest what's your mind fixed on what's your mind fixed on because often times mind gets fixed on the worst case scenario I don't know what's wrong with me I can have dreams in the middle of the night and I get caught in a bad dream I I literally wake up and I go back to sleep and I'm still stuck on that bad dream it's like my mind gets stuck on these repetitive lies and and fears and and I I get anxious from it what is your mind fixed on and why does it matter because what consumes your mind controls your life and maybe that's why the Apostle Paul said this in in Philippians 48 he said this he said fix your thoughts on what is true what does God say is true about you what does God's word say is true about the situation that you face right now fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable and almost everything you read and almost everything you hear is the opposite fix your mind on what you should be afraid of and fix your mind on what could go wrong and fix your mind on what he said and she said and why they they should be canceled and why that's wrong and why this is bad and why our country is going to hell and a hand basket and why that person's wrong and that preacher did this and scripture says fix your mind on what is pure and admirable think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise and then when you fix your mind on the things of God then the God of Peace will be with you five words that could change your life Jesus says my peace I give you he said my peace Jesus isn't just giving you a peace he's giving you his peace it is a peace that this world doesn't understand my peace I give you last week Pastor Sam preached a good message Pastor Sam where are you Pastor Sam Pastor Sam where are you Pastor Sam Pastor Sam Pastor Sam where are you good message last week great job preach the word Pastor Sam uh talked about the disciples that were in a boat remember and a big storm blows up and what the disciples do same thing we do freak freak freak freak out scary scary scary scary scary Jesus is in the boat and we're still scared okay what's funny about that is there's two storms that day there's like the visible storm on the outside and there's the invisible storm on the inside I don't know about you but it's the storm on the inside that hits me the hardest two storms that day the storm on the inside the disciples like going Jesus don't you even care do you even know what we're going through that's where we get sometimes like Jesus do you even know what all I've done for you and you're leaving me out here in this mess Jes where are you and Jesus gets up and what does he do what does he say what word does he say to the storm he says what he says peace peace be still now I'm going to ask you an easy question this is not a trick question when did Jesus say peace what was going on during the storm during the storm and that just shows us that perfect peace does not mean you won't have bad days perfect peace doesn't mean that Jesus is not still with you when things get tough it doesn't mean you won't have troubles it doesn't mean you it doesn't mean your heart's not going to get broken it doesn't going be there going to be days where you feel like you just don't have the physical strength to go on but this is a different kind of Peace you see this kind of Peace isn't found in the absence of problems but true peace is found in the presence of God it's a different kind of Peace this is not a peace that the world gives this is a peace that comes from our father you will be kept in shalom shalom in perfect peace when your mind is fixed on him okay confession time so I'm preaching this I even raised my voice sometimes and I might even do hand motions because I believe it in here but I don't always live it here I hope that doesn't disappoint you I'm gonna just I'm going to be real honest with you I don't want you to freak out this is nothing new I've been dealing with this my whole life but sometimes I have anxiety and it's a real it's a different kind of anxiety it's not worse than yours not different than yours this just the kind I have and I call it is I call it severe content anxiety meaning week after week year after year decade after decade I go to God's word and say God what do you want me to say to your people and it'd be really cool if you like type it out or say it audibly but I've yet to get him to do that so as easy as you think it would be the weight of trying to get it right is difficult um in 28 years of we're in a six- week message Series this is a series this is one series six messages on the Promises of Jesus I have done over 400 different message series over the years that a lot of work and every year I go back to the Bible David always beats Goliath same thing every year I'm going back okay and and here's here's what is like I I don't want I don't want to whine too much just coming up with the topic the theme of the text can be really difficult really really difficult coming up with a serious idea and then studying the text and getting deep into it and learning 100 times more than I'm going to share with you and then illustrating it like why do you illustrate it because you're really hard to keep paying attention like you guys are so easily distracted if I don't do something every now and then you're like I'm just saying I'm not if there being silly cuz I'm silly I'm doing it for you I'm trying to keep you in this thing and so Jesus says my peace I give you I don't always feel it so I illustrate what happens um my flying buddy Jim is here with me I started taking flying lessons a few years ago I'll tell you the secret behind my becoming a pilot I actually never wanted to be a pilot my son Steven was graduating and I wasn't get enough time with him I said hey is there anything in the world you'd like to try he said I'd like to try to fly a plane like is there anything else you'd like to try cuz I was like I don't want to be wussy but I was afraid of little planes like you ever been in one like they're bouncy and you know the one I was flying was almost as old as I was we get in this little plane and he's flying he's loving it and it starting to grow on me but I'm I'm still really afraid so I'm going to introduce you to my one of my first instructors this was uh this was TJ tjj flew pipelines and he has he has more hours than most Pilots you'll ever meet he has 21,000 hours of flying time he is one of the um most experienced Pilots I've ever met and so he's my instructor so we're up there one day in this 49y old plane and I'm nervous and I said are you nervous he goes no I said what if this engine died right now he said no big deal I said what do you you mean no big deal he said we just put it down in a field like like what's our percentage 50/50 75% he goes no 100% like you're kidding me uh he said out here where we're flying 100 times out of 100 I put it down the field like you're you're serious no 100 times out of 100 I put it down the field so okay TJ what could I do that would scare you and he said well at this altitude nothing I going what do you mean like I'm like he goes no you couldn't scare me and then then he saw it for me he goes okay let me just be real honest he said you're considerably bigger and stronger than I am so if you like locked your arms on the Yoke and pushed it down and flew as fast as you could toward the ground I don't know if I'm big enough to break your grip that would probably scare me and I said that's the only thing he said that's the only thing and I thought I'm not scared anymore cuz I am never ever ever going to do that and his 21,000 hours of experience telling me he's not afraid I did not have a piece he gave me his peace he gave me his pieace like I'm not afraid anymore we can f we can figure this out and back to the content stuff it's a weight that never goes away sometimes I can't wait to go to heaven like Jesus You Preach for the rest of Eternity and so what do I do what do I do I do the only thing I know to do which is I actually am working a little less and I'm praying a little more and I'm fixing my mind on God and I'm trusting God and I'm fixing my thoughts on him and I'm trusting him and he is giving me his peace but it's not magic it's not like it just doesn't just happen it's like oh no sermon oh oh oh oh oh yeah oh yeah this about Jesus oh yeah Jesus I'm fixing my mind on you oh you're like you you your word is powerful and your Holy Spirit does the work and I actually still have to show up and he seems to work better when I study and so I'm going to study and I'm going to trust him and I'm going to study I'm going to trust him even more and you're going to discover the same thing I'm learning is that when we put our problems in Jesus's hands he puts his peace in our hearts he puts his peace in our hearts I don't know who it is but there's someone here you are tired of pseudo peace you're tired of the Peace of this world that does not last and you're ready for a different kind of Peace it is shalom shalom it is the perfect peace of God and Paul described this from a Roman prison awaiting possible execution when it couldn't get any worse than it was this is what he said don't be anxious about anything we can just stop there whatever it is that's Weighing on you God's word says don't don't be anxious about that if it's big enough to worry about it's big enough to pray about so that's what we're going to do don't be be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God and the what the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus when you take what's on your heart and you give it to God there is a peace from heaven listen to me if you are not a follower of Jesus you don't know this piece because it is a piece from Heaven which the world will not cannot understand somebody here it's time to fix your thoughts on what's true to tell the Devil he's a liar to believe the truth of God that my God is with me and my God is for me and my God is working in every situation to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose that no weapon formed against me will prosper that my God is always good his word is always true his word never ever fails he will never leave me he will never forsake me no in all these things whatever you face we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor demons nor any powers nor height nor depth nor anything in all of creation will separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord somebody is going to put their problems in his hands and Jesus will put his peace in your heart he will you something Jesus willed you something he could have willed you anything Jesus could have said my purpose I give to you he could have said my passion I give to you he could have said my perseverance I give to you but he said five words my peace I give you it is the peace of God not the world's peace the world can't give it and the world can't take it away it is the peace of God and he gives it to you it's not a pieace it's his Peace So father we need that shalom shalom we need your peace today um Around the World online those of you at all of our life church locations I I wonder how many of you have a burden that's weighing you down has something that's making you anxious have a has a a weight that that just won't go away you're worried about someone you're worried about something you're worried about your health the health of someone you love bad diagnosis you're worried about finances you're worried about your kids you're worried about your marriage you're worried about your job you're worried about the economy there's something that's Weighing on you if you want to give that to God today in prayer would you just lift up your hands right now all around the room just Lift It Up Lift Your Hands Up leave them up for just a moment online just uh you may even be specific you might say God I'm trusting you with my child I'm trusting you with my marriage whatever it is you might just type it in the comment section just with your hands up um God we're lifting our hands up in need and we're turning our hands up to you as praise we praise you God we praise you God we we present our request to you with prayer and petition and Thanksgiving because you're good you're faithful your word is always true and God we ask that even when we can't find a peace in this world that there is a peace from Heaven that would guard our hearts and our minds and our souls in Christ Jesus we look to you we put our trust in you we surrender to you and we receive peace from you Holy Spirit just do a work do a work work in a way that only you can work God we put our trust in you as you keep praying today without looking around there are some of you that going like yeah I'm not I don't think I know that peace and I I just want to tell you right now you haven't done anything wrong not to know it you just don't know the one who gives it yet you just don't um if we sit down and I kind of ask you like do you know where you stand with God if you hesitate for a moment if you say I'm not really sure let me just tell you right now that the the the diagnosis is probably not good because when you TR when you truly know him you know who he is his character his goodness when you know his grace when you know how much he loves you and you know what he's done for you and you've received that gift your only reasonable response is you give me your whole life and you recognize I belong to him I I actually he Jesus did Will something to me he willed me his peace and he gave me eternal life why is it that we wonder about where we stand with God why is it that we we worry the reason is because we've all done stuff wrong we're ashamed of it we're embarrassed by it the word that's used in the Bible is the Bible calls it sin just it's a word that means missing the Mark you didn't hit God's standard and we've all sinned scripture says we feel bad about it why do we feel bad because we've done something that we know in our hearts is against God so what do we do a lot of times we try to make it up try to do better and not be bad but we continue to do wrong the problem is we can never be good enough on our own and this is where the goodness of God comes in scripture says for God so loved the world God so loved you that he sent his one and only son Jesus the son of God who gave his life God raised him from the dead whoever believes in him whoever trust him your sins would be forgiven and you would be made brand new today there are those of you you're watching you're here and it is not an accident you're here because God brought you here and because he loves you and because he wants to forgive you and he wants you to know him and he wants to give you a peace that this world could never even explain some of you you know that's you you know it's you you're a little bit nervous right now that's you your heart's beating fast that's you if you're wondering where you stand that's you and the great news is you're here because God loves you and it's your day to say yes to Jesus what are we going to do we're we're going to step away from our old life we're going to step away from our sin we're going to say yes if someone loves us that much to give his only son the perfect one died in our place so we could be forgiven hey we're following that guy we're giving our life to him from now on we want to be like him those of you today wherever you are you say I know I'm I'm broken I know I've sinned I know I've fallen short I want to get out of that I want his peace I want his forgiveness today by faith I trust in him I'm giving my life to Jesus that's your prayer lift your hands high right now all over the place say yes God bless both of you here and right here praise God for you others in your day say yes right back over here right over here Jesus I surrender to you right oh come on Church let's give God some praise right back over here say yes Jesus I surrender to you I trust you I give you my life others of you today say Yes I Surrender online just type in the comment section I am surrendering my life to Jesus just type that in the comment section then what we're going to do is we're all going to pray aloud would you pray together nobody prays alone pray Heavenly Father Heavenly Father please forgive me please forgive me all of my sins all of my sins and thank you for Jesus his grace his forgiveness his perfect work I trust him to save me fill me with your spirit so I could know you and serve you for the rest of my life my life is not my own I give it to you in Jesus name I pray can somebody celebrate somebody worship welcome those born into God's family do this message on God's promises speak to you we've got more videos ready from a series called ever wonder why we're tackling questions like why why didn't God answer my prayer and why does a loving God send people to Hell click here to keep watching

Channel: Life.Church

Views: 102,561

Keywords: Craig Groeschel, Sermon, Life.Church, Lifechurch, life church, life church sermons, craig rochelle, groeschel craig, church sermons 2024, promises of god, the promises of god, peace, finding peace, peace of mind, peace of god, god's peace, god's peace in the storm, peace in your thoughts, lasting peace, anxiety, god's peace in anxiety

Id: 13Xgv204Q3I

Length: 33min 7sec (1987 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024