10.03.2021 Terry

Good morning church. I will admit to you right now before we get started. I've never worn one of these before. So I hope it's working. Okay, everybody hear me. All right back there. Okay, good deal. Listen, I want to I want to thank you all for letting us have this opportunity of common. Be a part of your worship service and be a part of this worship family. It's always hard whenever you, you go and you meet new people cuz here, I am standing and I see nobody that. I know and typically in context, like, this should get really nervous. But when I tell you something, you guys made this lot easier for our family. I want to thank you for just the warm and loving, welcome, that you all have given us last night. We had a chance to meet with the elders and their wives and just a wonderful experience. You guys have something really really good going on here. I want to take a moment and introduce my family over here to my left as a brother said earlier. I have five children. This is my beautiful wife. Tiffany Brown. You can wave at everybody. So you see who you are and to her left is my oldest, son Colby. And Connor to the right. He shy. Caleb over here. And Chloe is Lamont. Only little girl, and let me tell you what she rules. The roost, when it comes to her brothers. I have another little boy. He's 5 years old. He with his name is Kim and he was the one that was up here. Just a moment ago. I want to start off this morning. Just asking a simple question. And this is one of those pondering questions where you don't have to answer. You don't have to raise your hands. It's just something I want you to think about in your own heart, okay. Here's the question. Do you have peace in your life? Simple question. Let me rephrase the question. I'm asking a different way. If you were to look inside your heart. If you were looking side your life this morning, would you say that your soul is at rest. Would you say that we are experiencing peace in your life. I bring that up this morning because as I was thinking about some of the things that I wanted to talk about on my way down here to Texas, which by the way, first time in Texas first time, west of the Mississippi River I kid you not I was like a little kid in the candy store when we cross that thing out to all the kids are back there on their phones like playing games. I like to look at the buildings and stuff. So I was really cool, but I was thinking about that question on the way down here. And I want you to turn in your Bibles over to Matthew chapter 8, verses 23 through 27. It's a scripture that we read, just a moment ago. I bring that that text at this morning because as I was thinking about what I wanted to speak about this morning, there was a ton of that passage of scripture that just kept going through my mind over and over and over again, and I want to set the stage a little bit as you're turning over there. Jesus has just gone through a day full of ministry. If you go to the very beginning of the Book of Matthew chapter 8, he starts off the day. He has healed the leper. He's killed a Roman Centurion, servant. He's healed, Peter's mother-in-law and then that evening as they were having dinner, that there was all kinds of demon possessed people that were being healed by Jesus. So he had a full day of ministry. And at some point, he tells his disciples. I want you to go and prepare a boat because we're going to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He had some Ministry that he had to do over there. And so real quick, before we read this text. I want to remember who was the very first four disciples that, that Jesus brought into the fold. You remember the names, Peter, Andrew James, and John. Okay, and what was their profession? Fisherman and they fish the Sea of Galilee that was kind of their trade. That's what they knew. That's what they did. So would it make sense to you that that they kind of knew what they were doing? What it came to that body of water, right? They were seasoned fisherman. They were used to all of the the ins-and-outs of that business. They knew what it was like to be on that water. I'm sure that they had been through storms in the past. They knew what to do in situations like that. If if, if they were to use a colloquialism that we would use today. They would say, we know this Lake like the back of her hand.

and so, Read with me, Matthew chapter, 8 23 through 25. It says Benny got into a boat and its disciples followed him and suddenly a furious storm came upon the lake so that the wave swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. End of the siples went and woke him up. And they were saying, Lord, save us, save us. We're going to drown now. Pause stop by there for a second. Think about what? They've their season fisherman. They've been through this before, but all of a sudden, the Bible says that there was a raging storm that was about them and you would think out of all the people that would not be afraid of what's going on. The Bible says specifically, they are terrified even to the point that they're afraid that they're about to lose their lives. The big deal. Now want you to notice what happens next in the text. Look at verse 26. He replied. You of little faith. Why are you so afraid? And then he got up and he rebuked the winds and the waves and it was completely calm and the men were amazed and they ask, what kind of man is this even the winds and the waves obey him. I just stating the obvious the text I think is trying to teach us that Jesus has sovereignty like God because he's got in the class, right? He has the ability to command even the very natural elements themselves, right? He knows how to command the seas in the ways we get that. That's one of the most obvious things in the text, but There's something else here that I think it's really significant and I don't want to point something else out. Here. They are.

The seas are raging. The Bible says that literally gave you, that little detail that the water itself is coming over the boat. The boat is cracking. It sounds like the thing is about to break apart. And and as all of this is going on the season fisherman, who's been experiencing these waters for no telling how many decades they're terrified for the first time in their life. And where's Jesus?

People sleep. Literally, he's laying there in the boat sleeping. Like a baby and not only bad. When Jesus, finally wakes up here. You got these 12 guys who were literally drenched, and I can imagine that they were yelling because with the storm being so loud in the Thunder lineup. They probably couldn't even hear each other, and this is Lord save us. We're going to die.

And Jesus kind of lovingly gets onto his disciples a little bit. Here. He gets up. He sees the stormy seas the Raging all around amazing. What's the big deal? It's just a storm and he looked at them. They kind of tried them just a little bit. He says guys, where's your face here? Why is your faith so small? Turtle me, ask you a question.

Would it be nice to have a face like that? Will it be nice to have that kind of peace in your life? So that no matter what whether we're talkin literal calamities, that might be going on in the world around us. We've been seeing a lot of those lately with a pandemic and with the volcano that's currently going off. In the Canary Islands are their calamities to happen all the time, but not only the storms that may happen in our physical world, but also the storms that happened in our own personal lives. Wouldn't it be nice to kind of have the face that Jesus had to face all of your life struggles and instead of living life, like a roller coaster going up and going down from having faith to having no faith from going from San to freedom and Back Again. Would it be nice if we could experience a piece and have steady Faith Like Jesus had? I know I do. But you know, what happens to me most up most of the night, especially at the end in the last few Decades of my life. I can identify more with those disciples and that text more so that I can done if I would cuz I look at Jesus, Jesus is even Keel, right? He's got that steady Faith. It's just like this right on through, no matter what he's going through. But I often times, I'm more like those, those Apostles where I get, so freaked out by life circumstances. I don't know how to handle things. I don't necessarily trust God fully with him his life. You know, what? Instead of Jesus Take the Wheel, I own it myself and try to drive the bus, you know.

Often times. I felt more like the disciples afraid with little faith and no. Peace. What do you want straight something from you for you from my own life? I want to share three little Snippets from you. And give you a little bit of background about myself, but also kind of use a little bit of my story to kind of illustrate. Something. I want to share with you here in just a moment, because I'm not here for a job interview. I'm not here for a job interview. I'm here to share something that the spirit has put in my heart for this congregation. Okay, I literally was, I was up till 2:30 in the morning last night because Luke, I had something prepared. You know, how we are right weeks ago. I had something prepared written down and the Holy Spirit, sometimes will do this. And he loves to do it at the last minute, which is always on time for him. But on the way down, I knew that I had the wrong message. Okay, so don't get me wrong. I love to be here. But what I have for this morning, I think is what the spirit wants you to hear.

I want to share something with you three little scenes. Two years old. I wasn't raised by my parents. I was raised by my great-grandmother. At the time. My father was a truck driver. He was a drug addict. My mother was a drug addict and also an alcoholic and so the very earliest moments of my life was nothing but chaos, if you want to talk about spiritual storms, that was my household and the Very earliest memory that I have in my heart that I can go back. If I close my eyes and try to remember the very first memory that I have is remembering an argument yelling and screaming that was going on in my house, at 2 years old. I remember running to the bathroom in my dad's house and there was this little stool that was right there by the window and I hopped up on the stool stool, when I looked outside and I remember seeing my mother yelling and screaming and running out and getting into a car with two guys and peeling out. I didn't see my mother again for 5 years. My mother and father divorced, at that point. Mount my dad was a truck driver and he could not take care of me. And so he put me into the care of his grandmother, my great-grandmother and East Nashville at the age of 65 years old. And that's how I began my life. Now. Let me tell you something. That was a God thing. Okay, but that was also where the spiritual warfare in my life. The very war that God would begin in my heart to try to win me over for Christ. That's where it started. Cuz let me tell you two things that happened at the age of two. Number one. I was placed into the care of my great-grandmother. She was the only Christian in my family, only one that she was old and she was unable to go to church. But let me tell you what she did with me. I never will forget sitting down to her lap and she would tell me the stories. She tell me about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. She tell me about Christ and the apostles she told me all the story. So I grew up believing that God was real. I grew up believing that that that God was good. That God was real but then The enemy was also at work at that time in my life because she also had a son that lived there in that house my uncle. Who was a drug addict? Who was an alcoholic, just like my mother and who was a pedophile? So you can imagine not filling in the details what my early life was. Like, I went through a lot of abuse at the hands of my uncle. That's where it started. But the Warfare didn't end there. I'm going to fast for a little bit, a few years on a fast forward to the age of fourteen. When they were two other very significant, things that happened in my life. At that time. We were very poor, my great-grandmother Drew Social Security. We didn't have a whole lot of money and I remember that one of the things that we used to do because we needed money was my grandmother and my great-grandmother. We would have way there was this this old thrift store on Nolensville Road and we would wait until that thrift store was closed and we would go behind the dumpsters and we would dumpster dive now, but I know today, the teenager say that's a cool thing to do. I never knew that. That was a cool thing. To fact. It was a source of Shame for me. Apparently they like to dig and, you know, GameStop or whatever. I don't know. I've heard that on YouTube. Where's the big of a dumpsters? And we would pull stuff out and we would have yard sales on the weekend just so that we can have a little extra money. And that's what we did. And let me tell you at the age of 14. That was a huge source of Shame for me. The fact that I would be digging of the dumpsters till 2 in the morning and then go to school the next day and pray to God that nobody that at that school knew what I was doing.

But then one night. At the age of 14, I was knee-deep in a bunch of trash. And I was digging and pulling stuff around an uncovered this bag and they're laying in that dumpster Was An Old King James Bible.

Now, I don't want to read it. I was not a Christian. I was already had a long and getting involved in stuff that I shouldn't be getting involved in. I didn't have any parents. I didn't have any boundaries. Nobody was telling me anything to do and you can imagine what kind of stuff I was getting into it that age, but God had given me. My great-grandmother had given me just enough love of the Lord and just enough respect for God to know that leaving a Bible in the dumpster is not a good thing to do until I pulled it out and I took it home and I did what most good Christians do. Put it on the shelf and I read it and I'm kidding. But I took it home and I set it on the shelf and I didn't read it again age of 14. But the enemy was also at work. I got my first job at the age of 14. I was given the opportunity to sweep the parking lot of the video store. That was back during the days of b. H s. And I remember that I was given the option. I could get paid a few bucks, like 5 or 10 bucks, or whatever it was, or I can get two free movies. Everytime. I sweat the parking lot, guess. Which one? I picked the movies, man. I love watching movies. And so, I did that for like a whole summer. I guess. I was so excited for my first job and man, those parking lots. They look perfect. Right? And I remember one time I was gathering up on all the trash that I had swept up, and I went around to the dumpster. It's interesting how it happened in a dumpster. And I was throwing the trash in and I noticed a box behind the dumpster. It's already went around to the back and open up the box and it was probably at least a tvhs pornographic tapes. Sitting in a box.

Age, 14, No Boundaries. No parents. Nobody telling me what to do. What do you think I did with that? I took it home. And I didn't know it at the time. But again, now being 43 looking backwards on everything that was happening. The spiritual warfare was continuing. God was placing the seeds of faith in my life in the very beginning through my great-grandmother, but the enemy was right, they're planning his own seat as well playing the seeds of Destruction. He did it first of the abuse of my uncle and later on because I had that background when I found those tapes. Let me tell you something that began the seeds of addiction.

Fast forward.

About the age of 20.

Two other very significant things happen in my life. After the age of 14. My great-grandmother had a stroke. Now you want to talk about your whole world coming crashing down. That was my mom and my dad all in one swoop. And I remember going to the hospital because she was so severely bedridden by The Strokes. She was unable to speak her whole entire. Right side was paralyzed. She was never going to be able to walk again, and she was going to require full-time care. And so the doctor looked at me and he says young man. Again, 14 years old. What comes of age 20, this moment. He said, young man. Your great-grandmother is old and you are just now, starting to begin your life. It would be much better for you to put her in a home. And you go on and live your life.

I said, sir. I don't have a life except for the fact that this woman raised me. And I will not do that because how in the world. Can I take the love in the grace that she gave me all of these years and then go put her and stick her in a home and forget about her until that moment. My mother is his me, my grandmother and myself decided to take my great-grandmother home and from the age of 14, till about the age of 20. I took care of my granny. All the way up until the point to where she died. Let me tell you something to pressure that I felt in light and life at the age of 14 after that event caused me to walk over to that bookshelf. Pull out that Bible that I found in a dumpster and begin reading. The Bible for the first time in my life. Now, that made no sense to me. I remember reading the gospels, and I would read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and literally, no, again. I didn't know nothing. So please forgive me. It sounds a little bit sacrilegious, but I remember putting the Bible down and go on that stupid. They repeat the same story over and over again. I had no idea. I didn't know. But there was something about the Bible, I could not put it down. Every time I read it, I got something from every time I I got it. I felt some Life coming into my soul and I realized it when I was going to that destitute place, even though I didn't have my great-grandmother anymore. When I read the word of God, it was like I could feel the presence of the Lord. With me. I didn't feel alone when I was reading the Bible. I didn't feel alone when I was digging in that dumpster. I didn't feel alone when I was thinking about the shame and the guilt that was happening because I was basically medicating Myself by watching all of those videos. I found behind that dumpster. I didn't feel alone. And I realize that God was at work. Spiritual warfare is real folks.

Password of the age of 22, things happened. Significant in my life that year. I was married to this incredible woman right over here. And that was also the year that I had to come to terms with the fact that I had an addiction. My heart was already sold for the Lord. I wanted to do ministry. I knew that being in this incredible miraculous word of God was something that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But I had to pass that I had to deal with by this point. And I had a wife that was not willing to let me die and and and live in sin. And so it took me about a year for this beautiful lady over here to decide that she's not going to live with me anymore, unless I get help. And it was through her brain that. So, bring back to my attention that I got involved in recovery. And I hear that you will have a CR here, correct. Let me tell you something. Go ahead, give the clap. That's good.

That is so needed in our society today. Not just for poor, not just for drugs, not just for alcohol, but just life issues. In general, you realize that we all have addictions, right? It's called The Flash. We all have been stored something that we need help getting in control of right. That's called The Flash, but at the age of 20 and what I didn't realize at the time, is that not only did my wife love me so much that she was not willing to allow me to continue living in this. This, this, this, this destructive cycle, that I was living in. But also God, loved me enough so much that he allowed her into my life to finally undo the seeds of the enemy that have been planted in me, ever since I was two years old, okay. Now that's just the start of my journey. It's a very long journey from freedom to addiction. There's a lot more to my story and maybe if I have time over the course of this week, I'll share more. But I wanted to to just mention a few things from my past because I think this is what the enemy likes to do. Okay, let me illustrate it like this, because Satan goes to work when he knows that God has a call on your life, when he knows that God is interested in you for his kingdom State and goes to work and he causes pain in our hearts. And then he will manipulate people and circumstances to increase that pain so that he can increase the chaos that you feel in your life. And he does this because he knows how unbearable it is. He does this because he knows that as humans when we suffer enough pain, there is a natural tendency in the flash to try to cover it up with sin. And so because we don't want to feel pain. What are we do? We medicated. And we medicated in all kinds of ways, with Medicaid it through, you know, watching pornography and sex and sexual immorality. We medicated through money and seeking money and power. We medicated through seeking entertainment, the taken the approval of others, through food, overeating, gambling, one, bad relationship. After another, the list goes on and on.

Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 10. He said I have come so that you might have life and life. What? Abundant we focus on that verse, but we tend to forget the second part of that very same verse. He says, but the enemy Satan comes to steal kill and destroy nephew. Keep the context of the whole verse. What is he saying? God says, I've come to author life into you. But I want you to be aware of the truth that the enemy also is going to be at work in your life. And his work is to steal away Abundant Life, kill Abundant Life and Destroy Abundant Life. That's the spiritual warfare. That every single one of us in this room is exposed to

His goal is to cause as much pain fear and doubt as he can in your life. So either you never come to God because you never have faith in him because you don't trust him and you don't believe that he has any good news for you. And you're so mired in your sent that you never wake up to the truth, either. He accomplishes that or He plants so much doubt in you. That, by the time you become a Christian, you struggle with faith in God, and you basically become ineffective because you basically just live in cycles of Shame and guilt and ask you for forgiveness and shame and guilt and asking for forgiveness and only Putt-Putt in your way to the Christian walk. That's not what God came for. That's not what Christ died for and it breaks my heart. Seeing so many Christians going through this life with little to no. Peace. So what's the answer? How can we have? Peace in the midst of the storms of Our Lives? I remember a couple of years ago. I had a particularly encounter a powerful encounter with the Lord. I was in my quiet time with him. I was going through some stuff Minister. Ali that was very hard. And it was really rubbing my piece. It was something that was bothering me every single day and part of my spiritual rule of practice as I get up in the morning. And I spent about 2 hours with the Lord. This is my quiet time. I call it my 95 5 time, you want to call it 95 time, because the way I figure it out, I spend about 5% of my time, talking to God, and I spent about 95% listening cuz I figured he's got a whole lot more to say to me than I do him. Right? And this is the time when I read the scriptures, this is a time when I meditate on the scriptures, this is the time that I journal, and I remember I was in that quiet time with the Lord and I was really struggling with this inner turmoil, and I was just being quiet before him, and I said, Lord, what do I do with this? How do I handle this? I've got this, this this this situation is going on. I have no peace in my heart. I don't know what to do about the circumstances. What should I do? And and the quietness of that moment. I heard a scripture come into my heart. And it was the passage that says my peace. I give to you. Now, let me tell you something. If you have not explored the idea of walking in the Holy Spirit and hearing his voice. Those are cues that he often will give you. So that you have basically a thread to pull. And if you go chase down that thread, he will give you a blessing on the other end of that thread. That's why I remembered my peace. I give to you. I remember that came from the gospel John somewhere. And so I pulled out my Bible and I flipped over to John chapter 14 and I started reading the passage in context and it was then that the spirit started to give me Revelation. And this is the whole reason why I bring all of this up this morning and this is the heart of the message that I want to share with you. If you don't take away anything else, take away this, okay. I want to share with you what? God showed me that day, that helps settle. The storm that I was facing in my life and my prayer is it. If you are facing some type of unsettlement in your heart, I lack of peace in your heart that you'll be able to take this as well and use it for your life. Turner, John, chapter 14.

John chapter 14, this passage comes in the context of literally, the final moments before Jesus is about to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've already eaten The Last Supper. Judas is already left to go out and betray Jesus, and then Jesus begins some final teachings to his disciples. It starts in John 14, goes all the way to John 17. I called this, the holy place of scripture. I've heard it said one time that John 14 15 and 16 is the holy place of scripture and John 17 is the holy of holies. Have you read it like that? You'll see why. But go read it home. You'll see why I say that. Okay. I want to I want to read the scripture to you. John Chapter 14, verse 16. Let's start right there. Jesus says, okay. Now they don't understand that he's about to die, right? They think that he's about the March into Jerusalem takeover. You'll beat the Romans all that but Jesus knows he's about to die and he's about to leave them and he's concerned for them to stop at there and think about that. He's about to be crucified. He's about to have his blood poured out, for our sins. He's about to take the sins of all Humanity upon himself and his only concern is that moment is you and me. If his disciples, it's his followers. And so he says this. I will ask the father. And he will give you another Advocate, another one. I'm the one, the first one, right? I'm the first Advocate. I'm here to help you. I'm your helper, but I'm going to send you another one to help you, and he will be with you forever 17, the spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But, you know, him for he lives with you and will be what in you. And then Jesus Asher's them. In verse 18. I will not leave you as what orphans. I will come to you and I love what it says in verse 20. He says on that day, on that day. When you receive the Holy Spirit on that day, you will realize that I am in the father and you are in me and I am in you. Luka probably knows, John Mark Hicks, don't you? Yeah, we we traveling some of the same circles. I never forget being in his class many, many years ago and it lets him University and he called it, the word was Perico Asus Mutual indwelling. Right? And is this this idea that in heaven exists? What week what we call the Trinity theological speaking, right? The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Let's just take away the fill out the illogical talk for just a second. It's a community, right? It's a community of love that exists and lives in heaven. It's a father-son in the spirit, they mutually and dwell with one another and what is happening on the cross was so incredible, is that God is looking down at humanity and all of its sinfulness of all this corruption, all this depression, and all this non peace and the things that we're going through and through Jesus, by the spirit. He's inviting you into the trinity. Not to become God but so that you might share the relationship so that we might be in him. And so that he might be in assless in church. I am convinced that one of the most desperate things that we need to grass in our modern Western non miraculous belief system. Is that receiving the promise. Holy Spirit. The very presence of God is the whole purpose of the New Covenant itself. That's what makes the difference between the old Covenant and the New Covenant. Where's my Messianic sister? Where you at? Are you? Okay. It's shallow and goes all the way back to the prophets. Folks. Let me read a couple scriptures. You don't have to turn there if you don't want to. But Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 33, says this the days are coming, declares the Lord. When I will make a New Covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah, it will be not like the Covenant that I made with her ancestors when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of Egypt because they broke my Covenant. But though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the Covenant that I will make with the people of Israel. After that time, declares the Lord watch this, I will put my law in their mind and I will write it on their hearts. Now is Ezekiel chapter 36 26, to 27 talks about the very same promise. I want to read that. God says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside of you. I will remove from you the Heart of Stone and give you a heart of Flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. So, go back with me to the Garden of Gethsemane. Now. Jesus is making reference to that. He's drawing upon the prophetic words of the Old Testament and he's basically looking at them. He's saying this and I'm going to leave, but I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I'm not going to leave you alone because what the prophets foretold in the Old Testament, that spirit that presence of God is going to be none other than a spirit of Jesus himself. That's why I said I will be I will be with you even to the very end of the age. How was Jesus going to be with him? When he's about to die because he's going to spits in his Spirit into their hearts. We can continue to dwell with them a man. Okay, hockeyland. Again, that's why Jesus says, in John 14 verse 20 on that day. You will realize that I am in the father and you are in me and I am in you. Okay. So with that background, let's pick up in our text this morning and we're going to go ahead and start wrapping things up, but I want to smoke. So I'm just a small small, small portion of the words that Jesus had for his disciples and John 14:26 to 27. Listen to this. It's just it's incredible. It's 26. But the helper the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name. He will teach you all things. And bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Okay. So, what's having the reality of God's presence in your life, going to look like two things, very simple and other word, when you face all that you go through, when you go through all the ups and downs of your life, when you go through all of your anxieties and all of the pressures and all the decisions that you're going to face, even after I died, Jesus is saying that he's going to send the presence of his spirit inside of us to literally help us navigate all the storms of Our Lives.

Just like the spirit directed my mind that day when I was needing some help. Jesus said I will bring to remembered everything that I've said to you and here I am sitting in that Chapel that they lured how do I deal with this and all the sudden? I hear that Spirit just pipe up and say my peace. I give to you if I had to go back and read it and I want to share with you something incredible, that God shared with me that morning. Verse 27. Here it is. Here. It is. Peace. I leave with you. My peace. I give to you not as the world gives. Do I give to you, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be fearful. So at that point I stopped and I said, okay. God, I know you're trying to tell me something here. Help me to see it. Help me to see what you're trying to say here, because I don't think I'm quite catching it. Lord show me how to have this piece. I know Jesus said, I'm leaving, but I don't know how to get it. Right? I want to get it. I want to live it. I don't know how to make this work. Okay, so please show me how this works. And it was, then I felt convicted to. Look at that verse again. My eyes, then went to the second part of the birth of my peace. I give to you not as the world gives. Do I give to you? I clicked it click. It's a different kind of piece, isn't it? Think about the ways in which the world tries to give us. Peace. Can you think of some, what are some of this is for tenants Bible class? This is where you talk, what are some of the ways of the world, tries to give us. Peace? Financial peace, Dave Ramsey. I love Dave Ramsey, but he does write we we tend to have fun that we want to have Financial Peace. If we can have enough money in our bank account, then I can feel some peace right? What else? What buy more stuff? That's right, man. If I could just get the the bed of the truck that I want, or if I can just get the house that I want or if I can just get this thing or that thing, man, at that point. Then I will have peace. What else? Hell man, that's a person one. Right? Because we all want to be healthy. But but we tend to think, man, if I could just see if I could just sign up for me, manage my weight. Can I be honest with you? I'm a, I'm a recovering that guy, really am. I'm not being joking. But really I struggled with my whole life and there's been so many times in my life. I would have this body image. They'll be like if I could just do enough times and get them biceps big enough, then stay with me. I'll have peace. We look for peace and all kinds of ways. Yes, ma'am. Relationships right. If mama ain't happy. Ain't nobody happy, right? We we tend to sometimes look at people as the source of our spiritual walk, with God, instead of turning to the actual source of our walk with God, which is the father, right? And so sometimes you'll have some people get in bad relationships. And so, they're addicted to relationships. Notice getting one relationship right after another, right? Because if I can find the perfect man or the perfect wife, if I can have the perfect relationship with my children, then I'll have peace. Kindness of ways that the world lies to us and says, if you do and if you get enough, if you have enough, then finally one day at that place, somewhere Yonder, by-and-by, you will arrive at peace. Let me tell you something. Does that work?

It doesn't work. It's a false. Peace. It's not real because peace cannot be based upon anything outside of you. It has to come from your only source, which is the Father in heaven. So, here I am. I come to that realization and now I'm starting to see what God getting out here.

And the reason why Jesus says, do not let your heart be troubled nor Let It Be fearful. I think it's because of this, when you live your life chasing, the illusion of peace. That the world offers. All you have left with is that inner turmoil and fear that you're not quite there yet. You will never find peace in this world. And so here is what the Lord told me this sooner you come to that realization and the sooner you Embrace that truth. The sooner you will be ready to receive the real Pace that your soul is thirsty for the real. Peace, that comes to having an experience. Relationship with the father through Jesus Christ. So how do we receive the Peace of Jesus? How do we receive the peace that he offers? This is so incredible, but the answer is right in front of our noses. I didn't see it that day, but it was one of those times where the spirit just kind of gave me understanding and Revelation. Look at, again. It bursts 27. The answer is. Yes, Jesus said. My peace. I give to you. I'll be honest with you. The first time that I had this encounter with the Lord, I always read that as we need to have a piece like it's, and maybe it was my legalistic upbringing. But whenever I would read a passage like this, I would say, okay. I need to put that on my check, mark of things to do today. I got to go by and piece, right? I got to go make it happen. So here we go again. So come out of your way out of. Let out of out of it, like a left hook, right? And it will rob you of your peace. And here, you are. Once again, going over that roller coaster rolling over again, so, Spirit said to me, look at the passage again. And so I did and then it hit me. My peace. I give to you. In other words. It's not a piece like Jesus's. It's actually his peace. What you hear me again? There's something very credible. What I just said, it's not a piece like his that you go make happen. It is actually his piece or let me say it another way. It's him.

It's him in you. You say Tim. How's that possible? It's possible because you have the spirit of Jesus Christ Living inside of them, asked a question. Are you a Christian? Raise your hand? Do you believe that you have the Holy Spirit of God inside of you? Raise your hand? All three of that. If that's the case, and if you have this presence of Jesus living inside of a, do you think he still has peace today? Yes, he does. And if he's with ruling in your heart, then what you need to tap into is not you trying to manipulate your circumstances to get all of your, your ducks in a row. So that just one day, y'all are buying by, you can somehow make peace happen. What we need to do is surrender. Whatever happens in our lives fall back into the Loving Arms of Jesus Christ and experience, his peace living inside of us through the Holy Spirit.

See, this is why Paul said it's fruit. Its fruit of the Holy Spirit, right? I remember man back of my legalistic guys out here. The first okay, love joy, peace, patience, and I'd love for a little while. And then some I made me mad and I have joy for a little while then something will happen the card breakdown, right? Again. It's nothing you create is something we surrender to it's something we rest in is something we fall back into that makes sense. Think about the for the spirit. What's the third one Lovejoy? Peace, it's a fruit that comes from a relationship with the spirit of God. So, what was it? Here we go. We're going to wrap it up. You say 10. This guy's long-winded. I'll say Amen to that. Sometimes I am.

What is it? That allow Jesus to sleep peacefully in the midst of a raging Storm? Here it is. It was because Jesus's life was settled in the rest of the absolute truth of God's Abiding Love and his real presence in his life, through the spirit of God and what Jesus is doing with us. And those moments in the gospels is he's giving you a pattern by which you and me are to live our lives as well. He's the 4Runner that says here's how it works. Because when he's sleeping in that boat and the storms are, raging, let me tell you, the reason why he didn't freak out. It's because he knew that God loved him. He knew that God had a plan for him. He knew that God was Sovereign. He knew that that he would never leave this world in. Unless. It was his time to go unless God was ready for him to go. That's the same God, that you and I served today.

Let me tell you something church, if you can get your mind and your heart wrapped around that truth. Replace something. You can travel 15 hours to a church. You don't know, and sitting in front of a whole bunch of people when your nerves are rattling, like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking. Chairs. I got that from Steve Hempfield. And not worry about it. I'm not here for a job interview. I'm here because somebody in this room needs to hear this message this morning. I heard about a month ago, maybe 2 months ago that there was a tragedy that happened in this church. How do you walk through that? We say something, you can't walk to that by fixing the circumstances because those put those circumstances are broken. And they hurt and are painful. And it's probably a million other circumstances like that happening right now in your lives. And you might be asking the same question. How do I find that piece? So the way to embrace peace is to embrace him. You find his peace when you learn to live and walk by the Holy Spirit. You say, Tim. How do I do that? How do I embrace the presence of Jesus in my life? How do I experience more of his presence through the Holy Spirit? I want to leave you with something that will help you. In that, I knew that when I was wrapping this up, that I wouldn't have time. To get into all of it, but I want to share with you how my own personal experience, my own personal rule of faith of how I choose to walk in the Holy Spirit, how I choose to follow Voice. Learn more. Police. I gave you a hand out in the back. It's a spiritual exercise. And basically, it shows you how to seek the holy spirit in your life, so that you may experience more of the fruit of that relationship in your life. More of his joy. Peace, patience. Kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It's right back there. It's not hard guys. Listen. Jesus said it like this. He said if a son ask for a fish, will you give him a stone? If if, if a son, if your son asks for bread, would you give him a scorpion? And if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? That's what I wanted to share with you all this morning. I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your love, and your grace and your attention. I look forward to spending the rest of our day with you all, and maybe some questions. It'll come little bit later, but I want to wrap up with a prayers. If you would pray with me. Heavenly father. I thank you so much for this body of people. I thank you that you've allowed my family to come here safely to worship with to worship with them. And I'm so grateful that even though, you know, there in Texas, and I'm from Tennessee, that we serve the same Spirits are all Brothers and Sisters in Christ. There's really no strangers here. Lord. We're all going to spend time with you in eternity in that Kingdom, in that new Heaven and new earth. One day. It's the weather. I pray for this congregation. I pray for the strength of this congregation. I pray that you will start a movement of God In This Very place and that this place will become a beacon of light, a light house for your kingdom. So that people's hand and an even other states will stream to, this place to learn more from you and to learn how to have that experience of your holy spirit. So that peace May rule in the lives of the people of this church. Thank you for your love and grace. Thank you for what you did on the cross. We love you father. In Jesus name. Amen.