The Warrior Fights Only for Peace | The Way of the Warrior | Mosaic - Erwin McManus

are you guys doing the night you guys have just crushed it tonight thank you for leading us can we thank the band come on guys [Applause] [Music] we're letting more people in just squeeze a man we don't care about the fire codes don't look around but if there's an empty seat next to you you're being greedy so give that seat up get someone get a human being in there and it's so exciting so exciting to pray and then we're gonna dive in to this new journey for the way of the warrior and I am so excited about what God's gonna do in your life and in my life because I wanted to something in me too if you are a gasps we're so glad you're here I always know there's someone here who doesn't know why they're here but you know why you're trying to get a date with her and she asked you to come to Mosaic and that's why you're here I know why you're here so we all know it so it's all right and now you're trapped in the middle of a row and you're thinking is she worse worth it and and she is all right so so we're glad you're here and if you're here and you don't even know if God exists you're not sure about this whole Jesus thing we want you know you're in the right place because this is a place for people who are on an honest search search for meaning a search for love a search for for intention and somewhere along the way as you're searching for all those things that seem to matter so much maybe just maybe you might crash into the God who created you and so we're gonna pray that maybe something unique and unexpected will happen in your life father thank you so much for this beautiful night okay thank you had you created us for love and for friendship created us for laughter and for joy you created us God with intention and significance and there isn't a single person on this planet that does not matter to you so grateful that you see us but you know us and somehow astonishingly you you know us completely and want us without reservation as I ask you Lord God to do what but my words cannot do I pray God that you would have a conversation with each person here where they would know that they've had an encounter of the creator of the universe and God just whispered to their soul an intimate voice of yours that you are God and that Jesus is your name we thank you and Jesus I I just can't get over how you would choose to die for us so that we could love we are arrested by that truth are the possibility we could be worth so much so we pray in your name amen hey can we thank God one more time for tonight you can have a seat it's still such a surreal thing for me to be a part of this beautiful process of writing books I I love writing because in the writing process I discover so much about myself about my own journey about my own questions and in each book along the way has come from a different place a different part of my own journey and and not just my journey but the journey of the people whose lives I'm impacted by and who I come across along the way this book came in sort of an unusual way at least it's beginning my wife Kim and I were driving through Hollywood going down vine and and if you've been married for 35 years there's a lot of times you're driving and neither one of you are talking you're just both thinking about different things but you're together and as we're driving together in a moment of reflection I cannot explain it any other way but I heard this voice inside of my soul and you might think that's a little odd but I know you hear voices - you just don't admit it I heard this voice and it said these exact words the warrior is not ready for battle until he has come to no peace this is the way of the warrior in the moment I heard that I interrupted Kim and her thoughts and I and I said I know a man X book is it's the way of the warrior and I knew the first line I had no idea what the second line would be or anything else in the book would become but I knew the first line is the book and what I've come to realize over the years that is that inspiration is is that moment where seemingly disconnected experiences and thoughts and insights crash together and allow you to see something new something fresh and so I can look back and realize what created that moment one I I love Asian films my one of my favorite films of all time is Seven Samurai III have seen that movie so many times I don't even know if I can remember how many times and and of course I've also seen that magnificent 7 was just to take off of the Seven Samurai but not only do I love the Seven Samurai I also love Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon I was there at the premiere I think I was the only person who did not speak Chinese so I knew when to laugh and went to oh and ah because I just went with everyone there and and one of my prized possession is a signed poster of Crouching Tiger by angling and I also well-loved hero one of my favorite movies of all time the cinematography the imagery the story is so powerful and so compelling and I realized that one of the things that always inspires me is that in these particular stories the hero has always been a person of peace in a world filled with war that this was never a person that was prone toward violence or aggression not a person who needed to prove themself or or to demonstrate their strength this was always a person that somehow found how to be centered how to live a life of peace until they realized that they would never know if they would not fight for it we just where we're going to start we're gonna start with code one the warrior fights only for peace because I noticed you've noticed but human beings are pretty extraordinary I mean we've pulled off some pretty incredible things we learned how to how to capture fire which is no small thing and then later we figured out how to control electricity which is phenomenal we are the species that created radio and television that found a way to communicate through invisible waves and spread our message across the world how to translate images house to house home to home person to person we are the people who learned how to control nuclear power and capture solar power that's what our species did we're also the species that ferret out how to land on the moon and now we can have domestic flights out to space where the species that invented the internet and the iPhone what other species can say that isn't it odd that we're the species that could event so much and yet we've never been able to bring world peace how is it possible that something that's so much more essential so much more critical to the human story seems to elude us and we keep innovating and inventing we keep creating and discovering but somehow this thing called peace that we need both as a species and as individuals and yet it keeps eluding us that we have thousands of years of human history to prove that we're incapable of creating peace why is that well one thing that has become clear to me is that the world is at war because we are at war war rages all around us because there's a war that rages within us and the only way we're ever going to have world peace is if we can find inner peace because you cannot bring to the world what you do not have so all those thoughts were intersecting in that moment and and not just those but but just the reality of the people that we interact with all the time la is an amazing city you guys are amazing and people come from all over the world to be a part of the city and and it's almost as if we glean the best of the best from all over the world from Tulsa to Tokyo from Birmingham to Berlin the whole world comes here the most talented the most gifted the most attractive the world doesn't look like you the most passionate the most educated the most extraordinary people on the planet come to this city and in fact the number one export of Los Angeles is creativity but the number one import is brokenness the same humanity that looks so extraordinary on the outside is so devastated on the inside if we have an unusual amount of creativity in the city we have a disproportionate amount of depression and anxiety and stress this is the city that is in panic not because of the violence in the world they're panicked because of the violence in their souls or some of you here they've been paralyzed by panic attacks or some of you here right now but you haven't even broken 30 yet and you're on medication fighting your depression fighting your despair dealing with your stress dealing with your anxiety and your internal world is in turmoil and it gets worse some of you you believe in God completely you believe in Jesus completely you've trusted him with your life and you're supposed to be better but you're not so you don't know what to do you don't want to say it out loud because it feels as if it's a violation of your faith so where do you go when you've gone to God and you've trusted in Jesus and you're still a mess where you go where your inner world is still in turmoil and everything you believe has not carried you through and when every time you take a risk and you open yourself up just a little bit when you when you take the risk of letting someone see inside of the pain and all the brokenness inside of you they give you cliched responses telling you just trust God or they gave you a verse that you've known since you were a child and it it helps you just as much as it did before but they don't tell you is that even though Jesus is the Prince of Peace the peace never comes without a battle it never comes without a struggle so we're gonna talk about the war that ends all wars here's the war that will end all wars is the war that rages within us so I want to go to a particular place in the scriptures because I want us to look at one of those individuals that we consider a hero I love the fact that that the Scriptures have all these heroes from Esther and Deborah and Ruth to David and Joshua and Moses but I think sometimes you ever pretend you've read the Bible but you really never have you know you know about some of the characters but you've never really read about them so you keep thinking I wish I could be like them I wish I could live like David or like they have a life like Joshua I wish I could have a life like Esther Oh Ruth I'm telling you you don't see the reason you think you want a life like them is because you only know the highlights and you try to compare their highlights to your life but in between their highlights was their life and I want you to know that in between those spectacular extraordinary moments was real struggle and real pain so I want to look at a an individual named Elijah because I love Elijah guess before Marvel and DC and before Stanley and before x-men there was Elijah and if you don't know much about Elijah Elijah is a guy whose stories preached ordinary and he says he was he was a person just like us they want you to know that because he was a person just like us they live the life that was very different than us he was a person just like us they pride it did that ring for three and a half years that's pretty epic try to speak to the heavens and say stop you will not go well for you and so for three and a half years it did not rain then when he prayed again it rained in between you prayed about other things and I just a guy that that had to go against 950 false prophets because the people of Israel being pulled to worship false gods and so he said look when you put a stop to this so we're gonna do this that's to build two altars you build an altar I will build an altar you pray to your gods I'll pray to my god who's ever got is the real God they will send fire down from heaven and all the people this thing said that's a great idea that would kind of epic right that's next week and so those 950 prophets they built their altar and they cried out to their God all day long but nothing happened it's really hard to move a god that does not exist so they prayed they pray and they prayed nothing happened and and then they they slashed their bodies because they're their religion was so dark and it told them their gods demanded their relation their pain and their suffering don't let anyone tell you that all religions are the same and Elijah's over here watching them and I just not really the most compassionate person in the Bible he's sort of a jaded stand-up comic and the whole time while they're praying to their gods he's like well where is your God he's not he's non-responsive maybe you need to pray louder is he maybe he's like not hearing I love one and it's translated so delicately in the Bible but at one point Elijah says I think your God may be constipated as he says he said I think your God is sort of like indisposed and I'm having a moment so you might have to wait a little while before he's free and it's this beautiful moment they just and they're just going more frantic in there and their attempt to move their God you cannot move a god it was not moved by you and and then when they were finished it was Elijah's turn then he had to make it more dramatic so he said just pour some water on the Psalter let's just drench the altern no more water just do it again and again and again and again it was just drenched in water and then he prays a very very simple prayer it's more like God you got this he prays and fire comes down from heaven and consumes not only his altar but their altar and a few people that's just how the story goes I'm just telling ya man this is the moment right before the moment that we're going to step into so in first Kings 19 beginning in verse 1 after this epic moment and Elijah's life it says now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done now in case you don't know the characters 1/2 and Jezebel were two of the most malevolent leaders in history evil malicious violence in one of the ways you can know that is that no one names their daughter Jezebel if you just happen to be here and your name is Jezebel I am so sorry and Ahab's not that popular for name either and so a hat tells Jezebel the king tells the Queen everything Elijah had done then he called down fire from heaven and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword he had a legend already so Jezebel sent a message to Elijah to say may the gods deal with me be it ever so severely if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like one of them summarize I'm going to kill you you know what allowed you to do right if you just brought fire down from heaven you said woman against a thousand and you came out as the only one walking if you just saw fire come by your command and now this this woman named Jezebel sends a message I'm going to kill you how would you respond I go bring it on woman my middle name is firepower you come it's gonna be scorched earth when you get over here but he doesn't in fact it says Elijah was afraid and ran for his life what we do that but we don't expect him to do that have you ever thought to yourself if I could just have one miracle I'd be good here we thought that like if God could just show up one time then I would believe and there's some of you you actually believe but but you don't have enough faith to step into the life God calls you into you're like God just give me one one spectacular moment and I'll never doubt you again except you would because the lie just cease fire could never him from heaven and the next moment he's running for his life because Jezebel said I'm gonna kill you now I know women are powerful but there's more going on that I wonder how many of us are running for our lives not because of the reality of what's about to happen but because of the fear of what might happen have your notice that you can find a lot of courage to face things that no one expects you to step up for I've seen you I've seen some of you live the most courageous lives I've seen some of you step up in the middle of incredible hardship and obstacles i seed you find a level of courage that surprised everyone around you even probably surprised you the strength thing about it is that the house can be on fire and you'll run in and save seven people and then when your car runs out of gas you're going why god I can't do this anymore isn't it odd that what usually paralyzes us what you equals us is something we can't actually define as that significant he faced his enemies and then when the rumor comes he runs I think this is the way fear and anxiety work sometimes you can identify the cause of your fear but once it becomes anxiety it's connected to nothing that's real see most of the time what we fear is not anything that's actually real we fear the possibility of something becoming real and what you think is interesting because I meet a lot of people who say I'm beyond faith I am too developed I'm too intelligent I'm too educated I'm too sophisticated to have faith but they're not beyond fear now how odd that you're beyond faith but you're not beyond fear because all fear is is a negative faith in the future so if you are living with fear you were actually living with faith it's just the dark side of faith so if you can't seem to escape fear then you might as well accept the fact that you're already living by faith so if you're being affected by the dark side of why don't you step into the light sight of faith his fear is is a projection of the worst possibility for the future and faith is the projection of the most beautiful possibility of the future but he is afraid and so he runs for his life and then it tells us that that when he came to Bathsheba in Judah he left a servant there and while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and he came to a broom bush set under it and prayed that he might die now I want you to notice that something is happening here in in Elijah's most epic moment he finds his moment of greatest fragility have you ever noticed that success and failure don't come back to back they happen at the same time see what I want you to realize is that success will not make you immune from feeling like a failure it's an odd thing see a lot of us we're driven to succeed because we're trying to overpower this deep sense of our own failure our own insignificance our own unworthiness we're trying to prove that we matter we trying to prove that were worth something we're trying to prove that we're not an accident we're trying to prove that we're significant but no matter how much we succeed this this internal emptiness keeps gnawing at us and if you haven't gotten there yet I want you to realize that that you can be at the height of your success and at the depths of your despair and they are not mutually exclusive we are by emotional I felt it I I thought those moments of epic success would free me from fear and anxiety and worry so oftentimes that great success craves more room for it not less and then what happens is so often times we actually materialize our greatest fears Elijah believed he was alone so he made sure he was alone he believed he was living in a desert so he ran into the desert he believed that God had abandoned him so he abandoned God he believed that his life is over so he prayed that his life would be over how odd it is that so often times our fears actually become the material from which we create our futures the wonder we're afraid of tomorrow you have the power within you to create and if your life is filled with fear you will actually create a life you're afraid of so be careful what you're running from because it may be what you need to be running to because Elijah ran for his life but he was actually running from his life and it says he went a day's journey he left to serve it behind cuz he he felt alone so he had to make sure he was alone there some of you here you've created your greatest nightmare and you've blamed it on God or blamed it on others and then he falls under this broom bush he sits down to pray we're just kind of odd but he prays that he might die now there is some humor here I know it's dark humor but it is funny Elijah runs for his life and then has one prayer kill me this is the guy that just prayed fire down from heaven this is the guy that prayed and stopped rain for three and a half years and he can only think of one thing to ask from God kill me now that should never be your planet I'm just saying what about God could you take care of Jezebel how my god could you raise up an army how about God any other option when you get to the kill me god you pretty much went out of your own personal creativity and by the way some of you should be so grateful that God did not say yes to your prayers see God will never say yes when you are praying to give up he will never say yes when you are settling for less he will never say yes when you're accepting insignificance he will never say yes when you surrendered your life away and some of you think that gods have more with you but God is not fighting with you he is fighting for you so here here's the comedy god kill me oh what a Jezebel side I'm going to kill you so if this is really what you want I think if I were God I go I ready secure that just go back I've already answered that prayer you left it and in this moment he comes to the end of himself and I think that we should pause you for a moment because he um he wants to commit suicide I can't think of one reason to live he says god I've had enough he says I've had enough Lord take my life I have no better than my ancestors and I I don't know how but it seems that the 2000 years have passed by without anyone dealing honestly with the people in the scriptures who have wanted to end their lives that people who have experienced the pinnacle of what it means to be alive fell so quickly to the bests of ultimate despair and I am so tired of losing people I love to suicide I have known too many people have loved I've loved too many people who did not love themselves as much as I love with him I've seen since gifted talented brilliant beautiful people who couldn't find one reason to live one more day and there's some of you here that are fighting that battle and I want you to know you're not alone hey I have known so many people even now who who have not have not tried to take their lives but they have these voices in their head that keep telling them your mouth just end it there are more of us than would ever care to admit who have had this inner struggle why don't you just end it now there's no reason for you to live there's no reason for you to go on you do not matter the best thing you can do for everyone else is just to end it there's some of you here you don't even have the internal strength to believe that your life matters but I'd like for you to do right now is that I'd like for you to trust us let's you matter see if you can't believe in yourself would you let us believe in you if you can't love yourself would you let us love you right now as if peace will not come without a fight I refuse to give up one more person without a fight and we are here to fight for each other we are here to believe for each other we are here to pick each other up why don't we just stop pointing out every time someone messes up why don't we stop pointing out every time someone falls down I get them up it's time to end this culture of hate it's time to stop being neutral against a culture of hate we need to fight for peace we need to fight for each other we need to fight for people I want to know that even though success they seem so attractive it will never make you immune from your feeling like a failure but but I want you to realize also that your feelings of emptiness do not mean that God is not present I think this is where sometimes we've gotten confused in our faith conversation that well you know if you have God you should never feel empty if you believe in Jesus you should never be depressed right how in the world can you have faith and still have panic attacks these things seem usually exclusive I want you to know something if you're dealing with with deep issues in your life it doesn't mean you don't have faith it means that you're human you're being honest with your humanity and you cannot win a battle that she will not acknowledge that you're in I am done losing people to a battle they didn't even know they were fighting Elijah thought he was alone but he wasn't God was there the whole time and I think the beauty says god I've had enough you ever said that even if you don't believe in God is it an interesting how we'll still say it to the universe I've had enough I can't take this anymore will you Elijah what are you talking about your life is epic a rich woman whining complaining there life is better than yours I'm trying to empathize but those are like rich people problems what are you talking about Liza has had enough of going a mouth I've never had fire come down from heaven here's what you see when you're filled with despair when you're losing the war within you you lose the capacity to see the beauty and wonder all around you you need to be careful when all you see is everything that leaves you broken when all you see is bitterness and hatred when all you see is violence and anger or all you sees is fear and anxiety you are losing sight of life and once you lose sight of life you may believe that there's no reason to live hell I J had so much to celebrate but he couldn't think of a reason to live I've had enough God he says I'm no better than my ancestors what an interesting thing for Elijah to say I'm no better than my ancestors it was actually sight I thought I could be different I thought I could break through and be different than than my past life I thought I could leave the worst of me behind how many of you are carrying baggage that was given to you by your parents how many are carrying bags it was given to you when you were growing up on your innocent when you were fragile when you were vulnerable and it's not your fault but you're carrying it and it weighs you down and all I just saying I thought I could leave that behind but I'm no better than my past I want you to know that that your past will be your future if you don't have the courage to create a new one and then we get to the to the God part then he laid down out of the bush and fell asleep which lets you know he was depressed come how many of you when you're depressed you just sleep a lot of you it's odd when I'm depressed I can't go to sleep and I can't wake up it's bad on both ends there's some people when they're depressed they can't eat and other people when they're depressed they can only eat I go back and forth I'm not consistent sometimes when I'm down when I'm anxious when I'm stressed out and by the way this is the other intersecting reality is I'm not talking to you as a person who doesn't know this struggle I wish I could talk to you as the person that the longer struggles for inner peace but I am not that person and there's some of you that well at least tell me it's going to get easier it's not it's not going to get easier you're going to get stronger a couple of weeks ago I was so stressed out before my wife Kim left for Malawi that I said hey let's go get pizza which I don't usually do but I love pizza especially when I am stressed so we went and got pizza I ate almost the whole pizza and then after we ate pizza I said let's go get ice cream which I never do but it was a high level stress day and if I had time I would have gone and gotten donuts because I was thinking Donuts I was thinking that pink box and you might think well urban why don't you just trust in God but I want you to see what God did next then he laid down under the bush and fell asleep all at once an angel touched him oh this is beautiful see if I were God I wouldn't have touched him I'd slap him around I would said get your lazy butt off that ground and get up you whiter I just brought fire down from heaven and you're running like up coward what do I have to do Alijah to get you to step up and be a man or at least a woman or someone who has guts and girge is by the way someone said oh the way of the warrior it's for men it's not for men some of the greatest warriors I know are women [Applause] but you should be grateful that I'm not God because God just caressed him he says all at once an angel touched him and said get up and eat that doesn't seem very spiritual right get up and eat that's what God wants him to do get up and eat I want you to realize something you are a complex creature designed in the image of God and if your soul isn't not healthy your emotions will not be healthy and your relationships will not be healthy and your brain will not be healthy and your body will not be a healthy have you ever noticed how when your emotions are shipwrecked your physical health goes to pot and some of you were actually trying to get physically healthy to hide that you're emotionally unhealthy and you're trying to look emotionally healthy to hide that you're spiritually unhealthy so the most spiritual thing you might do is to get up and eat see God wants to take care of you he wants to make sure you get healthy and he looked around because he didn't bring any food with them because he was gonna starve and die he looked around and there by his head was some baked bread over hot coals and a jar of water now go with me baked bread over hot coals little marinara little cheese mushrooms pizza and then you take that big Brad over hot calls little cinnamon put a little hole in the middle doughnuts so don't tell me not to eat carbs when I'm stressed out herbs are part of God's process there better to heal us and a jar of water sparkling with a twist of lime and he ate and drank and then lay down again because he did not want to live which is what happens a lot of you get up just long enough to eat badly and go back to sleep and the angel came back a second time and touched him and said get up and eat for the journey is too much for you I love how he both is caring and corrective at the same moment I said you need to get up and eat because this is not the end of your story this is the beginning of your new story and yes you're right the journey is harder than you'd hoped so get up as the journey is too much for you and some of you are mad at God because the journey has been too much for you but why would God ever call you on a journey that's too little for you I mean why would God ever call you to a life that's too small for the greatness he has placed inside of you why would God ever call you on a quest that requires less of you and leave no room for God so of course he calls you to a journey that's more than you can bear so that you can actually open yourself to the God who'll take you where you cannot go along so he got up and ate and drank and strengthened by that food he travelled 40 days and 40 nights I love this running from God he had the strength to run one day but walking with God he could walk 40 days some of you are exhausted because you've been trying to do life without the God who created you and he walks 40 days and 40 nights to Orab the mountain of God how far are you willing to travel to find the God who created you to find the God who knows you to find the God who loves zero he goes to the mountain of God and there he went into a cave and spent the night now if the story ended here it's where many of us would end our stories I think a lot of us are hiding in a cave running from life some of you your cave looks like a job you hate some of you your cave looks like a relationship you should not be on because you're in that job you hate because you do not believe that you have the power to step into the job you love you're in a relationship should not be because you do not believe you're worthy of the love that you need some of you were hiding in the cave and you haven't stepped out you had he went into the cave and spent the night and then the word of the Lord came to him which is I think is the question that God is asking us all what are you doing here Elijah by the way this question is very similar to the question he asked Adam and Eve where are you see he knows where you are and he knows how you got there he wants to ask you a question why have you chosen to stay where you are see maybe you're here and you're overwhelmed by life you're just filled with fear and worry and stress and anxiety maybe you're depressed or even to a moment of of the despair in your life how you got there that's a long story that may be complicated but I want you to know you do not have to stay where you are and God's question for you is what are you doing here because you're created for more so if you're here and you're full of fear you were created for faith if you're here and you're fill with doubt you are created to live a life of courage if you're here and you're filled with hate you are created to live a life of love what are you doing here and this is great I think that was a rhetorical question have you ever asked him what a rhetorical question and then they answered it God asked Elijah a rhetorical question what are you doing here Elijah and he answers I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty the Israelites have rejected your covenant tore down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword and I am the only one left and now they were trying to kill me too that's what I'm doing here summary of my life God have you not been paying attention this got gold now I understand why you're here some of you keep telling God over and over again God it's not my fault it was my parents yours my family it was it was my circumstances it was this moment god it's my pain it's my brokenness you can't give it God all the excuses for why you're staying where you are instead of asking God to take you from where you are so you cannot go alone so then God says go outside and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord and so he goes to the lip of the cave on the edge of cliff and the Lord was that he says go outside and stand the mountain in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by now once you realize that this is significant says the Lord is about to pass by because a lot of us one God to stop and stay where we are but God is never going to stay where you are because that would keep you where you are God is going to move in front of you and call you to himself and movie to the life that you've always longed for he there notice that when you're depressed you get rid of all your undepressed friends it's true if you're depressed you only want to have depressed friends because when you're when you hate the world you just hate that person who loves the world when you hate your life you just hate that person who loves their life isn't the most irritating person in the world the person who will not salt with you ever notice bitter people are only around bitter people people who gossip are only around people who gossip see God will not stay with you if you want to stay in your despair he's gonna keep pulling you out of it he's not gonna just sit in your fear he's gonna pull you into your faith he's I could just sit in your darkness he's gonna pull you towards the light and there's some of you here you need to exchange who you're hanging out with because they're just commiserating with your brokenness to justify their own and then God says this said go out and stand on the mountain the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by then a great and powerful wind toward the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind after the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake came a fire but the Lord was not in the fire I don't think this was incidental because Elijah had seen the fire before and then it says this and after the fire came a gentle whisper where as one ancient text translates it there came a still small voice when Elijah heard it he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave and then a voice said to him what are you doing here Elijah why this God take Elijah through this process why does he allow him to see the wind tear the mountains apart and shatter the rocks and why does he allow him to feel the earthquake shaking the ground and why does he allow him to see a fire come to consume everything that's around him and say but I am NOT in those so the some of you you keep missing God because you keep looking for God in the spectacular and God wants to meet you in the stillness see God is not impressed with miracles that's just us God isn't trying to impress you he's trying to press against you and God wants to come in such intimacy into your life that you hear him with this inner voice where he lets you know that you matter that he loves you he's not forgotten you as though you've run so far away that he's just a breath away and there's some of you here right now you're saying how do I find this inner peace how do I find the peace my soul is desperately searching for it is not in the spectacular it's not in the miraculous the peace your soul longs for comes through intimacy with the God who created you and that's why the Scriptures tell us that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and Jesus said I've come to give you peace not as the world gives us but as I give and then he said but I don't come to bring peace I come to bring a sword now Jesus which one is it and what Jesus is actually saying is I've come to give you peace but I'm gonna fight for it and how did Jesus fight for our peace he allowed himself to be beaten and brutalized he allowed himself to be spat upon and mocked he allowed himself to be tortured he took all of our violence all of our rage all of our anger all of our darkness that allowed it to be focused on him and then he allowed himself to be crucified on a cross so that our rage and violence would have a place to go and he absorbed it all and he became our peace you ever wonder why people are out of control ever seeing people just get so violent so angry so out of control with rage I want you understand that that violence is not an act of power it's an act of powerlessness when people are out of control with anger and rage it's not because they're more powerful than you it's because they feel so powerless they're angry at the universe at God and everyone at themselves the warrior fights only for peace and this is why Jesus came to fight for your peace to fight for your peace yes he will not give up on you he will not allow you to give up on yourself if my heart is tormented by how many people have lost the fight for their souls he'll must have break at God's heart to see us drowning in our emptiness struggling in our despair paralyzed by our fears when he knows if we would just trust him we would know his peace and he will not come in an instant because that peace is a battle that you fight every day of your life at that peace at peace you longed for it's worth the fight so don't give up don't surrender choose the way of the warrior and find the peace that your soul longs for we just bow your heads with me just for a moment and just close your eyes I know there's some of you here your souls at war your inner world is raging you've been fighting for peace but you've been fighting alone see no one can get into your inner world except you and God no one else can help you there it's a battle only you and God can fight and there's some of you here you've been fighting this battle and you've been losing it over and over and over again because you've been fighting it alone and the reason Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead is so that you would never have to fight this battle alone because he wants to fight the battle for you so I want to invite you right now if your soul longs for that peace if you're ready to trust Jesus with their life I'm gonna invite you to cross the line of faith to open up your life to Jesus and if you'll give him your life he will give you his life he's been waiting for you all so I want to lead you in a simple prayer where you can invite Jesus to change your life it's not everything you and God need to talk about it's just the beginning of the conversation it's just one simple sentence but if you're here and you're ready to know that peace that only Jesus brings would you pray this prayer with me right now Jesus I give you my life that's that's where it starts Jesus I give you my life just tell him it doesn't need to be spectacular does that have to be any fireworks it's just an intimate moment with you and God he speaks to you in a whisper he hears you in a whisper right now I just tell him Jesus I give you my life just tell him Jesus I give you my life if this is your prayer if you've made this choice to cross the line of faith and to give Jesus your life I want to pray for you right now so in this moment I want you to muster up all the courage you have to not worry about anyone else to not be ashamed or hesitant because I want to pray for you but I want you to make your first act of faith just declaring yes I've given my life to Jesus yes I just prayed this prayer Jesus I give you my life which wants you to do right now it says I want you to hold ring up high if that was you right now this moment right now if you just prayed this prayer if you just invited Jesus into your life just cross the line of faith right now just hold your hand up I want to see you I know it's terrifying but if you can't find the courage in this moment you're not gonna face real life tomorrow so right now just find the courage and say yes Jesus I give you my life yes I choose you yes I give you me father I thank you for all the women and men who in this moment have opened up their lives to you who have crossed that line of faith and if stepped into your peace I pray God that at in the same way you spoke to the wind of the ways Jesus and said peace be still I pray God that you would speak to the storms and the turmoil inside of them and speak the same peace that same stillness that seen calm and Jesus I pray that in this moment you would wrap them up in your love and let them know they belong to you that you'll never leave them or abandon them that this is the beginning of a new life of a new future the past is in the past the future is waiting for them I thank you Father we pray in Jesus name Amen can we just thank God for all those who respond there right now so so God so good so good the band's gonna lead us in one more song and then one of our pastors are gonna come give you some closing instructions but if I could just share with you just personally it's always an odd thing to to talk about the content of a book that I've written and when I've written over the years these 10 different books they've always had a very specific intention and purpose but this book I just have a sense it is the book for this moment it cost me a lot to write it to be honest with you it has cost me a lot of internal turmoil and pain and it's almost as if I've had to go into the deepest part of my own darkness and and fight for the light of my own soul and I just want you to know that I'm convinced that there's so many people right now who are on a very fragile ground they're just holding on for life and I just hope that we become a part of helping them find hope in the future and so the reason I'm taking you through this process is I have people I love and I've spent my life pouring into them and I wrote this book very differently than any other book I really like an old samurai writing to a young samurai and I wrote it as if I was writing to someone I loved with every fiber of my being and I was determined not to lose them to the war that raged within them so if you're here and there's an internal battle that's raging inside of you if you're here and and you resonate with this struggle and this message that's won encourage you to invest in yourself and dive deep into the material of this book because if I could mentor you one-on-one and you wondered what would orwen say to me right now it's written right there and so I'm gonna ask you guys to join me join me in getting the message out join me in helping people and to believe that there are people who today will be forever changed because you cared about them you love them you took time for them you invested in them and you know if I wrote a book on how to deal with all your hurts and pain no guy would be carrying that book around let's be honest like so I call it the way of the warrior and if I ever wrote a book that said I'm about to fall apart could you hold me together no one's gonna buy that book well actually what they just don't let anybody see that they're reading at I wanted you to know that if you are honest about your own internal pain and eternal weakness and internal struggles that doesn't make you a coward it does not make you weak it makes you a warrior because you are fighting humanity's most important battle so for the next eight weeks I just want you to be sensitive to people if you hear them if there's an openness to to hope even if there's no openness to God if they're if there's a longing to find some peace or to find a way to make sense of life or just to be able to find the strength to live life well take the risk and invite people to come I don't care what we have to do if you have to put people on the floor put people on the stage it'll be awkward for you but it'll be okay because I don't want us to be limited by the size of this room and that people are afraid to come tell them watch on the livestream pick it up on the podcast meet people where they are help them where they are this is not about them coming to mosaic this is about them discovering that there's a God who loves them and there's significance and meaning for their life all right let's all stay together [Applause]

Channel: Mosaic

Views: 32,996

Rating: 4.9006624 out of 5

Keywords: Worship, ErwinMcManus, MosaicMSC, Church, LosAngeles, Faith, Mosaic, Mosaic Church, hillsong, elevationchurch, hillsongunited, lakewoodchurch, citychurch, judahsmith, bethelchurch

Id: VslXXOX_4aA

Length: 58min 47sec (3527 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2019