Embracing Divine Peace Amidst Life's Chaos
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"But the fruit, so that's the acts of the flesh, but the fruit of the Spirit is this. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." [00:02:42] (31 seconds)
"Anxiety is the uncomfortable feeling we experience when our nervous system detects threat or danger. It is that heightened state that we feel when we detect we are unsafe for some reason. Picture in its intense form the feeling that you would get and the bodily sensations that you would go through if you're walking through the jungle and you spot a tiger in the bush. You become hyper-focused. The blood begins to move into muscles in different places. Your logical thinking decreases as the blood in your brain moves to different certain parts. Adrenaline and cortisol begin to fill your body." [00:09:40] (44 seconds)
"It feels like it's one of the things so close to the heart of God that his children, his image bearers, his people would genuinely live lives where they don't feel constantly under threat, where they feel at peace. I was talking this through with Lynn from All Things Counseling who has committed her life to helping people work through this stuff and walk truly into the freedom that comes in living in peace. And she said something that I've never heard before but I thought was really helpful." [00:13:42] (33 seconds)
"And she says that humans tend to go on this journey. Thoughts become words. Words become actions. Actions become habits. Habits shape character. And character becomes destiny. And that can work for good or it can work for ill. And so I bet that there are some people here, even just statistically there will be people here, who have felt anxious for so long that negative or intrusive thoughts have shaped words and actions, formed habits, led to character, and now you feel like that character is shaping your destiny." [00:14:28] (43 seconds)
"The peace that we are invited into is not our peace. It is a peace that is a gift given by God himself. There is so much being said about how to achieve peace. The bookshelves are full of it. Mindfulness, diet, exercise, healthy boundaries, regular sleep, whatever your thing is, and loads of it is great, really helpful. But ultimately, all of these things become tools that help you to gravitate around a center. Now, the problem with the world is that center becomes you. But within Christianity, that center becomes something else." [00:18:14] (35 seconds)
"Paul didn't come out just this amazing person who was always at peace. But he says, I have learned through all parts of life to be at peace. I want to be a student in that school of peace. I want to learn what it is to be content, to be grounded in every situation, to lay hold of this gift in every single way. Will you encounter situations that is beyond your peace? Absolutely. Will you encounter situations that is beyond God's peace? No, you will not. And there is an invitation to lay hold of that peace. So first thing, peace is a gift." [00:23:19] (41 seconds)
"and if you will do that Paul says there is an invitation to have a peace that makes literally no sense to the world it is to have a heart at equilibrium guarded by the promises of a God who loves and cares for you now yesterday when the sun came out for its rare appearance in February did you notice that happy people tend to be solar powered they all come out with the sun you notice that it was lovely they all finally came out again yesterday but we decided to make the most of it we took the kids rock climbing just around where we live and I was thinking on all of this and thinking on what I was going to say today and I was holding the hand of Noah our three-year-old son as he was trying to make his way over all these sort of ragged rocks and I noticed myself doing something almost like subconsciously whenever he went onto a rock my hand moved from holding like this to holding higher have you noticed that because basically as he's beginning to walk if you hold him here and he trips you can't hold him stable but if you hold his arm up like this then he can fall into it and you can hold his full weight and he won't fall down and as I was thinking about that what I realized was that my three-year-old son was most safe and most stable when he was tethered from above when I was holding him from above and he did trip loads of times but he did not fall on the rocks why because I was fully able to to hold his full weight when the ground was even we're walking along the promenade I don't even need to hold his hand or if I do I can hold it right down here because he will not trip but when the ground got uneven I found myself holding him from above because I knew when held from above even if he does fall he will be okay isn't it the same truth for all of us when the ground becomes uneven make sure you are tethered from above." [00:26:26] (133 seconds)
"what is holding you from above so that even if you fall there is something strong enough that it can hold your full weight what are the promises from heaven that anchor you when you walk on uneven ground here's one of mine psalm 139 says this you saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book great god knows what's going to happen with my life before one of them came to be great he's not making this up on the spot how precious to me are your thoughts god how vast is the sum of them were i to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand hold on a second there's a lot of sand on the beach so either this is a complete lie or god has been thinking about you a lot for a very long time and every single one of those thoughts are precious good thoughts for you sigmund freud and i won't quote him very often but he did say this and it was good how bold one gets when he is sure of being loved how bold one gets when he is sure of being loved now obviously i don't agree with everything that freud said but he is someone who committed his entire life to understanding the human condition and understanding what truly changes people and drives them and after all of that countless hours looking at a human experience he could say this how bold one gets when one is sure of being loved or to put it in the words of jesus perfect love casts out fear are you sure of being loved." [00:30:41] (125 seconds)
"He tells of a moment in which he was sailing from England to America, and the boat encountered three storms, each more severe than the one before. The final and most intense of the three storms was so strong that it ripped the mainsail in half. He says that everyone, including himself on the boat, was fearing for their very lives, except on that same boat was one Moravian missionary. And he says that he watched while everyone else panicked. This Moravian missionary in the middle of the storm sat down and sung hymns of praise. And he was so shaped, despite being a Christian, by the availability of peace of someone who truly trusts in the Lord, that he says that that moment changed his life forever." [00:37:24] (54 seconds)
Ask a question about this sermon
"Anxiety is the uncomfortable feeling we experience when our nervous system detects threat or danger. It is that heightened state that we feel when we detect we are unsafe for some reason. Picture in its intense form the feeling that you would get and the bodily sensations that you would go through if you're walking through the jungle and you spot a tiger in the bush. You become hyper-focused. The blood begins to move into muscles in different places. Your logical thinking decreases as the blood in your brain moves to different certain parts. Adrenaline and cortisol begin to fill your body." [00:09:40] (44 seconds)
"It feels like it's one of the things so close to the heart of God that his children, his image bearers, his people would genuinely live lives where they don't feel constantly under threat, where they feel at peace. I was talking this through with Lynn from All Things Counseling who has committed her life to helping people work through this stuff and walk truly into the freedom that comes in living in peace. And she said something that I've never heard before but I thought was really helpful." [00:13:42] (33 seconds)
"And she says that humans tend to go on this journey. Thoughts become words. Words become actions. Actions become habits. Habits shape character. And character becomes destiny. And that can work for good or it can work for ill. And so I bet that there are some people here, even just statistically there will be people here, who have felt anxious for so long that negative or intrusive thoughts have shaped words and actions, formed habits, led to character, and now you feel like that character is shaping your destiny." [00:14:28] (43 seconds)
"The peace that we are invited into is not our peace. It is a peace that is a gift given by God himself. There is so much being said about how to achieve peace. The bookshelves are full of it. Mindfulness, diet, exercise, healthy boundaries, regular sleep, whatever your thing is, and loads of it is great, really helpful. But ultimately, all of these things become tools that help you to gravitate around a center. Now, the problem with the world is that center becomes you. But within Christianity, that center becomes something else." [00:18:14] (35 seconds)
"Paul didn't come out just this amazing person who was always at peace. But he says, I have learned through all parts of life to be at peace. I want to be a student in that school of peace. I want to learn what it is to be content, to be grounded in every situation, to lay hold of this gift in every single way. Will you encounter situations that is beyond your peace? Absolutely. Will you encounter situations that is beyond God's peace? No, you will not. And there is an invitation to lay hold of that peace. So first thing, peace is a gift." [00:23:19] (41 seconds)
"and if you will do that Paul says there is an invitation to have a peace that makes literally no sense to the world it is to have a heart at equilibrium guarded by the promises of a God who loves and cares for you now yesterday when the sun came out for its rare appearance in February did you notice that happy people tend to be solar powered they all come out with the sun you notice that it was lovely they all finally came out again yesterday but we decided to make the most of it we took the kids rock climbing just around where we live and I was thinking on all of this and thinking on what I was going to say today and I was holding the hand of Noah our three-year-old son as he was trying to make his way over all these sort of ragged rocks and I noticed myself doing something almost like subconsciously whenever he went onto a rock my hand moved from holding like this to holding higher have you noticed that because basically as he's beginning to walk if you hold him here and he trips you can't hold him stable but if you hold his arm up like this then he can fall into it and you can hold his full weight and he won't fall down and as I was thinking about that what I realized was that my three-year-old son was most safe and most stable when he was tethered from above when I was holding him from above and he did trip loads of times but he did not fall on the rocks why because I was fully able to to hold his full weight when the ground was even we're walking along the promenade I don't even need to hold his hand or if I do I can hold it right down here because he will not trip but when the ground got uneven I found myself holding him from above because I knew when held from above even if he does fall he will be okay isn't it the same truth for all of us when the ground becomes uneven make sure you are tethered from above." [00:26:26] (133 seconds)
"what is holding you from above so that even if you fall there is something strong enough that it can hold your full weight what are the promises from heaven that anchor you when you walk on uneven ground here's one of mine psalm 139 says this you saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book great god knows what's going to happen with my life before one of them came to be great he's not making this up on the spot how precious to me are your thoughts god how vast is the sum of them were i to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand hold on a second there's a lot of sand on the beach so either this is a complete lie or god has been thinking about you a lot for a very long time and every single one of those thoughts are precious good thoughts for you sigmund freud and i won't quote him very often but he did say this and it was good how bold one gets when he is sure of being loved how bold one gets when he is sure of being loved now obviously i don't agree with everything that freud said but he is someone who committed his entire life to understanding the human condition and understanding what truly changes people and drives them and after all of that countless hours looking at a human experience he could say this how bold one gets when one is sure of being loved or to put it in the words of jesus perfect love casts out fear are you sure of being loved." [00:30:41] (125 seconds)
"He tells of a moment in which he was sailing from England to America, and the boat encountered three storms, each more severe than the one before. The final and most intense of the three storms was so strong that it ripped the mainsail in half. He says that everyone, including himself on the boat, was fearing for their very lives, except on that same boat was one Moravian missionary. And he says that he watched while everyone else panicked. This Moravian missionary in the middle of the storm sat down and sung hymns of praise. And he was so shaped, despite being a Christian, by the availability of peace of someone who truly trusts in the Lord, that he says that that moment changed his life forever." [00:37:24] (54 seconds)
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Feb 23, 2025. Do you have any questions about it?