Serenity in Christ: Faith Over Fear and Doubt

Do not lean on your own understanding, but acknowledge God so that God will direct our paths. This is what serenity means this morning. We are called to constantly see ourselves in the light of who Jesus is. We see ourself as a person of faith, as a child of God. We look to our faith before we look to our certainty. We look to our faith before we look to our doubts. We look to our faith before we look to the evidence that we might find that tries to convince us to doubt even more. The way we find this true peace, this true serenity is by being in relationship with Jesus, the prince of peace. [00:32:42] (48 seconds)  #FaithOverUnderstanding

We live in serenity as a way to practice our relationship, to practice being in love with God and being in love with others. So that when one of us is going through fears and anxiety, that the rest of us may come alongside of them and accompany them on the way and remind them of the sweetness of the mangoes. Remind them of the peace that Christ gives that surpasses all understanding. And so today, I encourage you to see yourself as who God calls you, a child of God. And may you know that that truth about you is where your peace comes from. So may you experience the peace and serenity that Paul calls us to this day and every day. Amen. [00:41:18] (67 seconds)  #SerenityInCommunity

He says, if anyone has anything to brag about, it's me. Very braggadocious, like I said. Yet it is his own accomplishments that he uses as an illustration to the Philippians, teaching them what serenity might really mean. Paul says, yes. I may have a lot to boast about, and I have a lot to be proud of. I've done a lot of cool things in my life. But he says, none of those things that I've done are worth anything. In fact, he calls them sewer trash. Says, I compare those things to sewer trash. Those things are nothing compared to the hope that I have in who Jesus is to me. [00:29:46] (37 seconds)  #BoastInChristNotSelf

We pray for serenity to accept the things we cannot change, but we also pray for courage to change what we can. When there's things in our world that we can that we see that are troubling us, that we have a chance to make a difference, we are called to step into those things. We are called to serve our community. We are called to grow in our faith. And the difference between the parrot and us is that the parrot is alone, but we have each other. We have a community, and we have a church that is here to support us. We can't live in serenity on our own, but we live in serenity in connection to one another. [00:40:19] (59 seconds)  #CourageAndSerenity