Peter asks this question in 1 Peter 3. He said, Do you want to live the good life? I'm gonna ask y'all that right now. Y'all wanna live a good life? Honestly, well, you just love living.
That's what the Bible says. He who would love life. He said, Well, everybody loves life. New, new, new. I think.
I think most people don't love life. Peter says, You want to live a good life that you're going to love living? Three things. Number one, Keep your tongue from evil. You know what I mean?
Just keep your mouth shut. Y'all know how much trouble I've made for myself in life because I couldn't keep this mouth shut? Peter says: number one, watch your mouth. Number two, stop doing the bad, stupid stuff and just start doing good stuff. And then number three.
Seek Peace and pursue it. And I told you, I used to love stirring it up and riling it up and get everybody mad. I just like peace. I'm becoming a peace addict. I love living in peace.
And Peter says: if you want to live a good life, Seek peace. And pursue it. You know what that means? You just chase after it. You run after it.
And Chatter, what do you mean by peace? Remember, I told you. You can't control what's going on outside. I'm going to tell you something. Moment of my life was that I finally realized I can't control people.
I can't control you. I can't control this church. I can't control politics. I can't control elections. I can pray.
I can do all that, but I can't control that. All I can do is control my heart. And that's why Jesus says in John 14: you have a choice. Don't let your heart be troubled. He didn't say, pray to me and ask me to control your heart.
It's not what he said. He said, you! Don't let your heart be troubled. And you can do that when all the world is falling apart. Remember I told you when I When I want to define peace for you, I'm not going to use words.
I'm going to use a picture. And there's a picture in Mark of Jesus in a boat when a hurricane hits. And this isn't a normal storm. We know it's not a normal storm because it's interesting in the original Greek. You can only see this in the Greek.
When Jesus calms that storm, He uses the same words in Greek as he uses when he confronts a demon-possessed man and tells him to be quiet and for the demons to come out. Same words. That tells me this is a demonic-inspired storm meant to kill Jesus. Seasoned fishermen are losing their mind. And Rembrandt painted a beautiful picture of this, a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
It's interesting, you would expect for there to be 13 people in the boat. Twelve disciples plus Jesus. Shooting this painting, there's 14 people in the boat. Because Rembrandt painted himself in the picture. He's the man holding the ropes.
And he knew what storms are like. Three of his little babies died in childbirth, shortly after childbirth. His wife died. He understood storms of life. And when I talk about peace, I mean the whole world could be falling apart, but there's this calmness that God's in charge, God is in control, it's all gonna work out.
That's peace. That's the peace that Jesus gives us. And so I told you last time we were together. I said, I'm not a counselor and I'm not a doctor, but I'm going to prescribe some pills for you right now. And I said, I got four piece pills.
These are Bible verses. And I told you I want you to do several things. I want you obviously to read them. I want you to memorize these verses. Chad, I'm not good at memorization.
You can memorize these things. Read them. Memorize them, meditate on them. That means you ponder them and let the Spirit of God give you insight. and then practice them.
And so I started some of the peace peels. If you want to know what these are about, look at the sermon for a couple weeks ago. But the first piece peel was 1 Peter 5, 6 through 7. If you were writing this down, 1 Peter 5, 6 through 7. Secondly, Philippians 4, 4 through 7.
Memorize it, practice it. Third one is Isaiah 26:3. Do you remember that verse? Thou wilt keep in what? Perfect peace, not just peace.
Perfect peace, the one whose mind has stayed on thee because he trusts in thee. That tells me. You can live. without anxiety. You can live without being ruffled up and mad all the time.
You can live like that. You said, no, no, there's no way I can live without worrying. Then why did Jesus say this? Jesus says, I tell you, do not worry about anything. Do you know he says that several times in the Gospels?
Now, if he says for you to do something that he knows you can't do, he's setting you up for failure. Jesus says it. Paul says it in Philippians 4. The Bible makes it very clear: you can live in perfect peace. See, a lot of times people hear that and they get mad at me, like, Jad, you don't know what I'm going through.
Man, when I read that, I don't get mad, I get excited. You mean I can live without anxiety? I can live without being ruffled up and mad all the time. And that's the kind of peace that we're talking about.
Now, let me give you our fourth piece peel here, okay? And it's Psalm 131. I want you to memorize an entire Psalm. Would y'all do that? Would you do that?
Good news is, it's the shortest psalm in the whole book, I think.
So, this is going to be a short psalm. It's Psalm 131. Lord.
Now this is David writing. Would y'all say David had some trouble? He had a boy that tried to kill him and overthrow his kingdom. He had this problem, that problem, this challenge, that challenge.
Some of David's problems were of his own making. But David says this: Lord, My heart is not haughty. Nor My eyes. Lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.
Now, I kind of rambled on and on first service, I'm just gonna kind of cut through all this. Here's what David is saying in verse 1: God, I am humble. You're in charge, I'm not. You're in control, I'm not. I'm not trying to impress people, I'm not trying to be number one, top, best.
Don't care about any of that. You're in charge, I'm not. That's what it means to be humble.
So much of our anxiety, y'all, y'all tell me, and again, I love y'all, I'm not being mad, okay. Jennigati. Anxiety problem. You don't have an anxiety problem. You have a pride problem.
You think you know how best life should go. When things don't go your way, you get tore up and you get upset. When the plane doesn't arrive on time, you're at the gate fuming and mad. You don't have an anxiety problem, you have a pride problem. And David says.
God, I'm not in control. You are. In fact, I love this. He says, I don't concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. I'm going to tell you another cause of my problem.
with peace in the past. I thought I was the smartest man in the room. And when you ask me, Chad, oh, should Trump do XYZ? I would say, well, no, obviously Trump should whatever, whatever. Chad, what's going on in Congress?
Well, Congress ought to do this or that. Chad, what's the problem with this staff member?
Well, this staff member ought to behave like that. I'm now to the point in my life where I'm like, you know what? I don't know what's going on in politics. They know stuff that I don't know. I vote biblically.
I do my best. But in the end, that's above my pay grade. I'm just going to follow Jesus, serve Jesus, be faithful to Jesus, and He'll take care of the rest. And when you get to that point in your life, now again. Be good citizens.
Stand for the truth. Do all that stuff. Have you read this before? You know, do all these things, fight against demons. This is in Ephesians.
Fight against demons, fight against darkness, fight against demons, but when you've done all that, Just stand. And so, when y'all ask me my opinion on stuff, I'll give you my opinion. If it's theology, I'll give you what the Bible says. I'm just at the point now in my life, these things are too great for me. I don't care.
I'm not that smart. I'm just going to serve Jesus Christ.
Now, David says, verse 1: I'm not cocky, I'm not proud. What's the result of that? Look at verse 2. Surely I have I love this. Calmed.
And quieted my soul like a winged child with his mother. Like a winged child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.
Okay. Verse 2. Who is calmed and quieted his soul? I have calmed in quiet of my soul. I didn't say, God, would you calm and quiet my soul?
God says, no, no, no, no. I've already given you peace. You have a choice. You can live. Mad and riled up all the time.
Or you can calm and quiet your soul.
Now again, y'all just kind of stare at me. This is a very important point. I have calmed and quieted my soul. You have a choice. You can keep living mad, riled up, worried, frantic, like a chicken with his head cut off, running around all the place.
You can do that, or you can choose to calm and quiet your soul. Which one do you want to do? And it's a beautiful picture of peace. In fact, there are two beautiful word pictures here. That word calmed, do you see that?
From what I can tell, it's only used one other time in the Bible, and that's in Isaiah, where Isaiah uses that word to describe just a calm, smooth plowed field. You ever down eastern North Carolina, and you can see like hundreds, maybe thousands of acres of just straight, calm tobacco fields, straight, calm cornfields. It's calm, it's straight, it's smooth. David says, that's what I've done with my soul. I don't have these ups and downs.
I'm not bipolar, mad one minute, happy the next minute, upset one minute. I'm just calling. That's peace. That's the first word picture. The second, he says, I'm like a winged...
Child with his mama.
Now You gotta understand, in Jewish culture, in those days. Uh mamas would breastfeed their kids and wean them. at age like around four sometimes five If you ask me, it's a little creepy, but whatever. And so. I was with last week two of our grandkids.
One is weaned, one isn't. The grandkid that's not weaned.
Well, she wants milk. You better give her milk right now. I want what I want right now. If I don't get what I want right now, I'm going to scream, shout, and pitch a fit. The other one is winged.
She has some self-control. She knows how to calmly wait for dinner to be served and eat it with a spoon. And David says, I'm not like this. I'm like this. I used to get mad and upset and scream when I didn't get my way, but now that peace has taken over my heart, I just have this calmness about me.
That's the kind of life God is wanting us to live. That peaceful heart.
Now I want you to see this. There is a biblical connection. Between humility And peace. That's what I'm peeing on ya. Your problem is not an anxiety problem.
Your problem is a pride problem. Because you think you know best how life should go. You know, when I was in college, there's a book. I don't know how I got this book, but I read it, and here's what this book said. Books that what you need to do, and I was a college student, wanted to kind of figure out God's will and all this.
The book said, get a bulletin board, okay, put it up in your room. and map out the next 25 years of your life.
So, I'm going to go to college, and then when I get through, I'll go to the graduate school, do this, and I'll get a job here, marry here. At this age, I'll do this. And just map out the next 25 years of your life. You're crazy? I don't know what I'm going to have for breakfast tomorrow, much less the next 25 years of my life.
That's a lot of pride and arrogance. And when you get to the point in your life where you say he's in charge and he's in control, hey, how many of y'all even think the bad stuff that happens to you, while he may not cause it, He does cause it to work together for good. You believe that? When you really realize he is in charge, he is in control, when you're humble, you'll find peace. There's a biblical connection.
Let me give you this isn't the only time you see this Psalm 37, 11 says this. But the meek, the humble, will inherit the earth. And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Do you see that? I am humble.
Therefore, I'm peaceful. Let me give you another one. Jesus says in Matthew 11, 29, hey. Take my yoke upon you. and learn from me because I am gentle.
I am humble. And you will find rest for your souls. Guys, I'm just tell you It's a lot of work to be in control. Have you noticed that? It's a lot of work to try to be in charge, make people.
Do what you want them to do. I've given all that up. I'm not in charge. I'm not in control. He's in charge.
He's in control. And that just brings peace to my life. In fact, Aleister Berg says this. He says, the presence of humility is directly related to the absence of anxiety. The presence of humility is directly related to the absence of anxiety.
Hey! Stop trying to make it happen. Um Stop trying to be in control. Control is an illusion. And that's why the Lordship of Jesus Christ is so wonderful.
When you get saved, yeah, He's Savior, but He's also Lord. You know what Lord means? He's in charge. I'm not. A man's in control.
I'm not. That's the most freeing, peaceful thing in the world.
So those are my peace pills. Memorize them, meditate on them. Practice it.
Now, I want to tell you what happens when you start allowing peace. To develop in your life. And it doesn't, it's not linear, okay? I'll find in my life, I start walking in peace and walking in this calmness, and then something sets me off, and I take a couple steps backwards, okay? I'm in peace.
Things that used to rattle my cage don't rattle my cage anymore, and then somebody will say something or do something, and I go a little bit sideways, and I have to kind of take a little step back.
So, this is not completely linear, but as you begin to learn to walk in peace. Just this calmness. There's so many benefits. Let me give you two. Number one.
Yeah. It's going to make you healthier. Physically healthier. Um I believe this is kind of metaphysical or whatever, but when I'm talking about having a peaceful heart, I'm literally thinking about a peaceful heart. I'll tell you a mistake I made in your.
I may be wrong on this. I'm probably wrong, but I'm going to tell you what has happened to me. For years I equated heart with mind. That when the Bible talks about having a peaceful heart, that's just a euphemism for your mind. And so I was focused up here.
And now I'm letting the word of God speak for itself, and I'm like, no. Maybe there's something to this heart. Jesus, John 14, 27, let not your Heart. Heart be troubled. Um There's something about Focusing on bringing peace down here, not just here.
In fact, we, again, we just think it's a euphemism, but I think there's more to our physical hearts than we realize. Neuropsychologist Paul Pursall Brilliant man, and he has studied. The heart transplant phenomenon. Hey, do y'all still find it amazing? And take a heart out of that human being and put in this human being.
Isn't that amazing? We've gotten so used to medical technology. 100 years ago, that was absolutely crazy. And so he studies the phenomenon of heart transplants. And he said, what we have found is.
When a heart is taken out of that person, And putting this person. A lot of times, this person's personality begins to change and they begin to act like. The donor acted. Their food preferences Start mirroring the food preferences of the donor. In fact, Dr.
Pearsall talks about one man who had a heart transplant, and after he recovered from the heart transplant, he started calling his wife Linda. He was like, my name is Sue. Oh, yeah. Oops, sorry. Oh, God.
And so, Linda, Sue, why do you call me Linda? I'm Sue. He did some research and found out that the wife of the donor was named Linda. And so I think there's more to this heart thing than we realize.
So I'm not just focusing on my mind, I'm literally focusing on keeping my heart, that center, calm. And look at Proverbs 14:30. This is a great verse right here. Proverbs 14:30. Again, I keep giving you verses to memorize, but it's fine.
Proverbs 14:30. Says this, it's the NIV. It says, the heart at... Peace. gives life To the whole body.
But in thee Rots the bones. The heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Now, look at that word peace. You'd think it would be the Hebrew word shalom, but it's not. It's the Hebrew word here. It is marpe, M-A-R-P-E. The MA makes it a noun.
You take off the MA and the root of this word is this word. Rafa. You know what it means, Rafa? It means steel like Jehovah Rapha. Rapha is connected with this Hebrew word rapha, ends with an H.
which means to settle down. or relax. And that's where the NIV gets this word peace. When my heart is settled, and peaceful and relaxed And I'm not in a tizzy all the time. It brings life to the rest of my body.
In fact, I had a doctor.
Now, first service. This happens every now and then, hasn't happened in a while, but as a preacher, I hate to. Admit this. There are times in the past I bore myself while I'm preaching. That's what happened first service.
And so I was still dealing with jet lag, got in two o'clock in the morning, all that kind of stuff.
So I had a doctor that goes to our church, researcher doctor. He texted me all these documents. Really fascinating that shows now a strong correlation between stress. and lots of our diseases. Like dementia is one of them.
We're now seeing a link between neurogenerative diseases. And stress. That's what the verse is saying right there. When I am stressed, it destroys my body. But But my heart's at peace.
It brings life to my physical body. And it's interesting, it says in that verse, Proverbs 14, 30, but... Envy Rots the bones. And that word envy in Hebrew is kina. It can mean envy.
It can also mean passion, zeal, or heat. You know how many of our diseases we're dealing with today deal with inflammation? You can put it this way: when your heart is peaceful and relaxed and calm, your whole body is healthy. But when you're hot and inflamed, it brings cancer and disease and sickness to your bones. And so as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is looking at me, look. How many of y'all believe Jesus wants me not only to be healthy spiritually, he wants to be healthy physically as well? He's come to have life and have it to the full. And so I just believe that when my heart is relaxed and calm, and I'm at peace. It brings physical benefits.
In fact, Okay, remember I told you there's a connection between humility, humble people. are peaceful people. And peaceful people are healthy people. Moses, Numbers 12:3, says he is the most humble man in the world. Do you know what said that?
He was the most humble man on the face of the earth. Numbers 12:3. He's humble. Therefore he's peaceful. You know how old the man lived to be?
120 years of age, and it says, When he died, his eyes were not dimmed, his strength was not abated. I believe it's because he was humble, and because he was humble, he was peaceful, and because he was peaceful, there was life to his bones.
So, walking in peace, I'm just telling you, it's the best way. I wish I learned this 20 years ago. All right, so there's health, number one with peace, and then secondly, All right, I want you to listen to me because this is, what do they call those things? A life hack or whatever? This is a great life hack.
Yeah. Peace brings divine guidance.
Now what I'm about to tell you If you're not born again, this ain't going to work for you. If you're not in the Word of God, this is not going to work for you. You've got to be born again to have the Holy Spirit and the peace of Jesus living in you. And you've got to be in the Word of God. Because I'm going to talk about God speaking through peace, but listen to me.
If you're not in the Word of God, you will fall victim to false impressions. Um Yeah, you look. You learn to recognize the voice of God by being in the Word of God. And so, some of y'all, I had somebody recently say, Man, I'm trying to be in the Bible, and I'm having a hard, hard time. I've just started reading my Bible.
I said, What are you reading? I'm in Numbers chapter. I said, Stop. There's your problem right there.
So here's the whole Bible is inspired, but if you're not used to the Bible, stay in Psalms, stay in Proverbs, and stay in the New Testament, just till you get your feet wet here, okay? But the Word of God helps you to hear the voice of God, and these impressions you get will never contradict the Word of God.
So, ma'am, you come to me and say, God told me to divorce my husband. What? Did he cheat on you? No, but there's this guy at work. And he's hot.
Well yeah, well so's Hill. You can't divorce your husband, okay?
So the word of God will not If it contradicts these impressions, you go with the Word of God. But here's how I'm starting to learn. God speaks through Internal peace. I want to give you a couple verses here. Psalm 85, 8.
I will hear what God the Lord will speak. For he will speak peace. He speaks what? Peace to his people. Colossians 3.15 says this.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Have you read that before? That word rule in the original Greek means to be an umpire. An umpire says, this is inbounds. That is out of bounds.
This is within the rules. That's outside of the rules. And that verse right there, Colossians 3:15 says, The peace of Christ. is like an umpire in my heart.
So if I am a born-again believer I'm in the Word of God. I'm in prayer. And I have to make a decision. That the answer is not specifically found in the Word of God.
Now, that's going to sound heretical to you, but there are some. Decisions you have to make. They're good decisions. I mean, between two good things, the answer is not in the Word of God. I hate to tell you that.
Well, do I go? I got a job offer from here, and I got a job offer from here. They're both great places to work. I don't know which one to go. You can't look up.
Well, let's go to 1 Hesitation 7, verse 13. It's not in the Word of God, okay? In those cases, I let the peace of God decide. If I make this decision, I think I'll go here. And there's a check right here.
That's the Holy Ghost said, oh no, I don't know that I'd do that yet. If I sir I'm gonna go work there. And there's this peace. He will speak peace to his people. Let the peace of Christ help you make a decision.
Actually, that's a better way to put it. Colossians 3:15. Let the peace of Christ help you make a decision. There's a good verse right there. If the peace is there, I go straight forward.
If there's a check in my spirit, I don't. I don't move forward. Paul did this. It's an interesting passage in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 13. Paul is in the town of of Troaz.
And the game plan is: you stay there in Troas because great things are happening in the town of Troas. Titus is going to check on a church. I think it's the church at Ephesus. Paul, wait there till Titus comes back, and then y'all join together, you go on another journey. Paul says, I'm there in Troas.
I know I'm supposed to wait on Titus to come back. But I didn't have a rest in my spirit. Peace of God wasn't there.
So I broke the plan and went with plan B. Why? Because I had no rest in my spirit. You see what I'm saying? The word of God helped Paul make decisions like this.
And I'm just saying somebody here. Just out of curiosity, because this kind of stuff sometimes like to know if I'm on the right track here. How many of y'all here? You are on the verge. You have to make some kind of decision in your life right now about a job, finances, family, relationship.
How many of y'all right now have a decision you have to make? Raise your hand.
Okay. So see, this is going to help you right here. Be born again, because you've got to have the Holy Spirit living in you. Be in the Word of God to help you listen to the voice of God so you won't contradict the Word of God. But when it's time to make a decision, you've got to listen to the peace of Christ.
Hey, Dawn and I did this years ago. We were talking about this coming over to church this morning. We were living, and it was a great church. They were trying their best to support, it's just a teeny, tiny church. They're trying.
to help us dawn i in our twenties But they weren't able to pay us much at all. And we're struggling financially. Our family's growing. I'm going to seminary. And out of the blue.
It's church calls us. I said, were they going to double our salary? She said, no. Dugula. It's going to be a four-fold increase.
They're going to multiply our salary four times over. I'm struggling. I need to provide for my family, and I'm about to get. a quadruple salary boost. Everything looked good on paper.
Church is in a great location. Salary is great. This is the answer to our financial problems, darling. Let's do this. We go down and visit the church.
Great, good people, great church. Both of us. Got this check in our spirit. This isn't the church for you. And I'm thinking, but this is going to get me out of our financial.
God's like, I don't care about your financial, I'm just telling you. This is not for you. And they were really upset when we finally said, I said, This is crazy, and it doesn't make any sense. Holy Ghost is telling us we got to say no. Thank you so much.
They were upset because they said, Remember, they said this: nobody has ever told us no before. I said, well. First time for everything. And so, no. And we found out afterward, that was a messed up, dysfunctional church.
Afterward, we found out, had we jumped into that, our lives would have been miserable. But we listen to that check in our spirit. I felt this first service. And I think this might be for somebody online, TV, whatever. I sit down by here just praying while the The team was out here worshiping.
I felt there was a young lady who's going to be here today. Spirit of God wants me to tell you. That check in your spirit in that relationship is me telling you that's not the guy for you. You would need to shut this thing down. Take it for what it's we have, but Chad, he looks good, and he's got yeah, I get it But if you got that check in your spirit, That might be the Holy Ghost saying, you need to shut this thing down.
Now, I'm talking about a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, and I'm talking about a marriage relationship. But for what it's worth. Look, the peace of Christ Rule in your heart. In fact, there's a preacher that I follow. I like this guy.
He said to them He said, I knew a Christian investor. I made a lot of money. Again, I'm going to say, it is okay to be a Christian to make money. You do realize that, right?
Okay. He said, I asked this investor. As I mean What's your secret? There's a lot of investors out there, but man, you make good money. What is your secret?
Priest that investor said something really interesting. He said, I have never made. A bad investment. He said, if an investment, potential investment opportunity looks good on paper. I still go before the Lord and say, Lord, do you want me to invest my money in this?
He said, There'll be another investment that on paper doesn't look that great, but I'll go to the Lord and say, Lord. And he says, I make my investments solely on the peace of Christ in my heart. I just believe God. operates and speaks through peace. Beloved, become like Pastor.
I am Pastor Chad Harvey. And I am an addict. I'm addicted to the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings health and it brings guidance to your life.
Now The fountain head of all peace. It's peace with God. If you don't have peace with him, you're not going to have any of this peace I'm talking about. That is the source. That is the origin of true peace, that relationship with God.
In fact, Paul says in Romans 5:1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have. Peace. With God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't have that peace with God, you're not going to have any of this peace I've been telling you about.
I was reading about a Japanese soldier. During World War II, he was stationed in the Philippines. And when World War II was over, peace treaty had been signed. That guy didn't get the news, the peace treaty had been signed. That Japanese soldier.
Hung out in the jungles of the Philippines for twenty six years. He thought there's still a war going on. He wasn't going to give up. He wasn't going to surrender for 26 years. He could not sleep well at night because what if the Americans come in while I'm sleeping?
He couldn't enjoy his dinner. He had to eat like this, making sure the Americans weren't coming after him. For 26 years, he lived with no peace. And a college student found out about him, did all this research, went to the guy and said, man, the war is over. He didn't believe the college student.
The Japanese government, to make a long story short, actually had to find his commanding officer in Japan, ship him to the Philippines, find the guy, and tell the guy, stand down, the war is over. And then the guy surrendered. Then he can sleep well at night. Then he could eat without looking over his shoulder. He had peace when he realized the war was over.
Some of y'all are still living. Like this with God. He's mad at me about the abortion. He's out to get me because of the affair. I have not measured up.
I disappointed him. And you need to understand this. If you are a born-again believer through Jesus Christ, I can now tell you: the war is over. You can come out from hiding. There's now peace with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
And when there's no more war with God. Hey, when there's peace with God. Peace can trickle down to every other area of my life.
Some of y'all came to, I need a prophetic word. Here's your prophetic word for today: The war is over. He's not mad at you anymore. Come out from hiding and enjoy peace with God through his Son, Jesus Christ. There's your word for today.
And when you have that... Peace can come to every other area of your life.
So if you're not If you're not sure today. That you're right with God. Listen to me. Because of our sin, we are separated from God. And if we die separated from God, we'll spend eternity separated from God.
2,000 years ago. God loved you so much, he became a man. He sent his son, Jesus Christ. And every sin that would separate you from the Father, Jesus Christ took upon himself at the cross. God poured out his wrath on Jesus.
To put it bluntly, God killed his son so he wouldn't have to kill you. That's how much he loves you. And Jesus, his son, was buried and came back to life three days later. He is alive today. And when I turn from my sins and I turn my life over to Jesus Christ, I am now reconciled with God.
If you have never experienced that before, But you bow your head right now. If you're on TV. We're on the internet. You're watching this. I want you to bow as well.
And I want you to imagine it's just you and Jesus in this room right now. It's not a thousand people in this room. There's two people, you and Jesus. I want you to say this to Jesus, but I want you to mean this with all your heart. Don't just repeat mantras.
Say this to Jesus. Jesus, I am a sinner. I've done some pretty bad things. But Jesus, I believe you died. For my sins.
You were punished. in my place. Say this to him. I believe you were buried. I believe three days later, God raised you from the dead.
In other words, Jesus, you're alive right now. Say this team. Lord, I turn away from my sins. And it turned to you. Please forgive me of all my sins.
Come and take control of my life. And when I die, Take me to heaven. In Jesus' name, amen. If you just prayed that prayer. Jesus said, if you're ashamed to confess me before men, I'll be ashamed to confess you before my Father in heaven.
In other words, you can't keep this to yourself. And your first step of letting it be made known that you now belong to Jesus, a very simple first step, is text cross to that number or scan that code. And if you'll just text, send that on, we're going to send you some material to help you grow in your walk with Jesus. The Bible makes it clear you're now a newborn baby spiritually. You got to grow in Christ, and we're going to send you some materials to help you do that.
And that's why I wanted to end this little series on peace. with communion. Isaiah 53, 5 says this. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement, the beating for our Peace. was on him. Do you know that saying right now? That's saying That man's skin was shredded by whips that were hanging off in shreds. That man was pummeled to within an inch of his life.
He was made to carry his cross. He was stripped naked before the whole world and his mama, and he hung there for six hours, gasping for breath. For me to have the kind of peace I'm enjoying right now. See, my peace is free, but it wasn't cheap, it cost Jesus everything. And Jesus said, don't ever forget.
What this cost me.
So I want you if you would. to take out that bread.
Now, when Darwin and I go to Israel. We take people to a new, kind of a relatively new archaeological spot. It's the spot where Jesus. beaten, bloodied, and torn. was put on trial for the whole world.
Right behind that spot is where he was tied to a post and beaten. In your mind's eye, imagine that. Imagine the broken body of Jesus, and he said, take it in. For this is my body. Which is broken for you.
Yeah. One of the reasons. By some of you cannot enjoy peace is because of guilt. Every time you try to calm down and slow down, Satan reminds you of that failure in the past. Satan reminds you of how messed up you are.
Satan reminds you of all that junk in the past. The next time Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future. You're going to be thrown in the lake of fire one day forever and ever. And I stopped arguing with Satan, I don't argue with him anymore. When he reminds me of how messed up I am and what I did and this and that, I'm like, Satan, you're exactly right.
I'm just as bad as you say I am, but the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son. cleanses me from all unrighteousness. The Bible said, take and drink. For this is his blood which is poured out for you. Uh I thank God for the beautiful piece of Jesus.
I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to start. I'm going to stop the way I started. If you're waiting for the world To be just like you want it to be, and everything fall into place, and all your circumstances to be right before you get peace, you'll never get peace. Your world can be falling apart.
And yet, the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ just guards your heart and mind. There's this calmness about you. The man who wrote the song knows that. He had a little boy. And Dezer That's I think a little five-year-old.
And then one day, all four of his other children. Died. In one day. Yeah. And he didn't shake his fist at God, and he didn't deconstruct his faith, and he didn't say, He didn't do any of that stuff.
He said, I don't understand what's going on, and this doesn't make sense, but he is still in charge, and he is still in control, and because of that, it is well. With my soul. Would you stand with me right now? And as we sing this song, may the peace of Jesus just descend upon this place in a powerful way.
Okay. Peace. Thy glory. Yes. Has he entered my way?
Yeah. And so Like sea big. Ever my light thou hast told me to say it is well it is well with my soul for it is well with my soul It is well It is well with my soul in my sin oh the bliss Of this glory start, my sin not in heart, but the whole Hill's held to the cross and I there no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, my soul for it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul And Lord, haste the day when my face shall decide the house be rock and so scorn Though strong, yet shall we sound of the Lord He shall descend.
He lives all with my soul for it is well with my soul, it is well with my soul, it is well with my soul church. What I'm finding when I have the peace of Jesus Christ. Man, I just have boldness and confidence. Things just don't bother me like they used to. When I understand he's in charge, I'm not.
He's in control, I'm not. This piece we've just been singing about. Man, it gives me boldness and confidence to live for tomorrow. And that's why every Sunday We leave out with the same mandate. Be bold.
I got a text this morning from one of our missionaries on the other side of the earth. She said, My little daughter watches your services every week. She kept thinking you were saying, Be bald, be strong. You can be bold and bald as well, but listen. Yeah, it's a messed up world out there.
Yeah, demons are real. Yeah, Satan is real. Yeah, the Antichrist might be, okay, I get all that kind of stuff. But man, he's in charge. He's in control.
I belong to him. I am my beloved. He is mine. Why should I be scared or afraid?
So I say to you, Hazak Bayamatz. Otto wrote the Orchid. He emecha. I don't know. And the hiccup.
The whole a cheer terra. Which is Hebrew 4. Be bold! Be strong. Y'all don't be afraid and y'all don't be terrified of anything.
Why? Because the Lord your God is gonna be with you. Everywhere you go, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you.
Go change the world for Jesus. Stop by and see Angie. God bless you. Okay.
