John 14:27-31 (The Peace of Christ Part 2)

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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If you wanted to boil down the sermon into something short

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The song we just sang is the sermon that we're gonna be preaching today Excellent excellent song choice there

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Pastor Derek This is part two of a sermon that could have been one part, but it would have been too long

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So this is part two of that and last week we talked about this sort of idea of a river

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That politics are downstream of culture that if you want to change the politics of a nation you have to first change the culture and If you want to change the culture you have to change the commonwealth's or the states you want to change those you have to change the neighborhoods if you want to change those you have to change the

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Families and the marriages and then ultimately the gospel has to come and redeem sinners

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So it instead of a top -down the gospel really is a bottom -up sort of movement the headwater

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Where the river forms is the gospel isn't it Jesus who said I'm the living water

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And that his grace would flow unto us the gospel is the headwater of everything that we know and everything that we

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Believe so that if you want to change this world if you want to make America great again

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We have to return to the gospel and not Politics because politics can't change it.

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It's a duct -tape solution on a broken wing of an airplane We need to start at the beginning go back to the gospel so that marriages can be restored so that children can grow up in the gospel and the fear and the admonition of the

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Lord so that we can stop sending our children to university so that the So that the ideologies of the left capture them and steal them away from the church

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So that we can develop faithful cultures and cities. I don't know what the Lord's plan is

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But if we stay in Chelmsford, I hope we make Chelmsford a Christian City, I mean no apologies about that.

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Why wouldn't we want to? But we don't start with Chelmsford. We start with families.

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We start with people and we build out That's sort of what we talked about last week

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We talked about how top -down doesn't work because you're starting at the wrong end of the river Sort of like trying to paddle up the

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Niagara River You can get to the Falls and then you'll probably drown

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Because we're not meant to go that way. You're meant to actually go the other way Now that sort of large view of things from conversion of the center all the way into the conversion of the culture

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It's a massive topic And I'm not ambitious enough to cover all of it

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But what I'd like for us to do today is I'd like to zoom into one point of the river

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You got the headwater, which is the gospel The very next thing in that is the conversion of the center where they get peace with God.

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I want to look at that And I want to see what happens to the person Who gets the peace of God who gets

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Jesus's peace and I want us to ask a couple questions Intuitively as we go what happens to us after we're converted because conversions not the end of the story

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We don't we don't park our boat on the side of the river and say I'm good

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I'm gonna camp out here for the rest of my life. I'm converted although many in practice live that way

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Conversion is a stopping point on a multi -point journey that will take us from the city of sin to the celestial city

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It's a lifelong process. But today I want to look at what does it mean to have the peace of God?

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Last week we talked about what the peace of God is and we went back into the

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Old Testament We said what is peace? What is Shalom? What does it mean? And it doesn't just mean the cessation of war or the absence of conflict many broken

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Relationships can have seemingly no conflict. It's not just that It's that all the brokenness has been mended all the disintegration has been integrated all of the the lack of wholeness has now come into wholeness so that so that there's this

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Continuity and harmony in the life of the believer True. Peace is from head to toe

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Everything coming into conformity with God's plan Last night we or last week.

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We realized that None of us have that peace That we're broken people

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That there's many places in our life and in our armor and in our and in and in the

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Metaphorically speaking in the in the robes that we wear that define us that is tattered torn broken wholly in the wrong way

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We're physically broken spiritually broken relationally broken mentally emotionally

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Broken our wills are broken. Our decision -making is broken our ability to communicate

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Asked my wife is broken. And the only way that we'll have peace we learned is not from ourselves

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Because if we're this broken We can't fix ourselves It's like trying to pour it's like trying to pour oil into a jar with a thousand holes

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We can't do it So we need something external to ourselves We need something outside of ourselves to fix the problem

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And what we saw last week is that problem is only fixed in Jesus Christ The one who came is the only whole and perfect man who traded in his wholeness and was broken

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So that he could take on our brokenness and make us whole He took upon himself the war and the wrath that we deserved

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So that we could have God's peace he took the ripping apart and the de -shaloming of his body

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So that we could have peace That's what peace is and we talked about it from that sort of perspective last week, but this week

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I don't want us to stop there because conversion doesn't stop there and we can't just look at what peace is

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We have to figure out what peace does because peace does things in the life of the believer Once you have the peace of Christ, it's doing stuff in your life.

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It's producing things in you and there's five things today That I want to talk about That peace is going to do this is not an exhaustive list.

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This is a John 14 list This is coming out of this text Normally, you will see lots of text today.

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We're just in this text But five things that peace does number one

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It's a little Baptist II now. It's all C's God's peace crushes our anxiety

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His peace is a catalyst for joyful worship His peace creates ardent belief

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His peace cultivates patient waiting and his peace causes the world to see

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So if you will turn with me to John 14 as We close out

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John 14 together this morning. Did you know while you're turning there? Giving you a little bit of time here to get yourself settled

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We've preached more sermons in John 14 than in any chapter in the history of the Shepherd's Church I found that out this week before that it was

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Jude. It was 12 sermons in one chapter. I Think it's like 15 or 16 here in John 14

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It's a good chapter, let's read the closing section together Peace I leave with you

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My peace I give to you Not as the world gives do I give to you do not let your heart be troubled

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Nor, let it be fearful You heard that I said to you I go away and I will come to you if you loved me

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You would have received or you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father But for the

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Father is greater than I Now I've told you before it happens so that when it happens you may believe

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I Will not speak much more with you for the ruler the ruler of the world is coming and He has nothing in me

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But so that the world may know that I love the father I do exactly as the father's commanded get up Let us go from here.

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And that's a really interesting way that he ends it. Let's pray Lord Jesus we thank you so much for your peace

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We thank you Lord that your peace did not create holy stasis That it didn't create some sort of Eastern tranquility

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That your peace is doing things Producing things bubbling up things inside of us killing things crushing things catalyzing things

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Lord today, I pray that we would see what a great gift your peace is

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We would see what your peace does and that Lord in the ways that this passage

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Afflicts the brokenness of our heart Lord, I pray boldly and with great faith that we will not walk out as broken as we walked in and That you by your gospel and your grace will mend and stitch and knit together

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The parts of us that are still broken for your glory for your honor for your renown in Christ's name.

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Amen So in the same way that a river flows downstream peace flows into Several different aspects of our life and the first aspect that it flows into is that we have peace with God and That peace with God means that there's no more enmity between us and God There's no more war between us and God God has laid down the bow of his wrath because he plunged the arrow of his anger into Christ and You walk away with peace

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After the peace of God it flows into the fact that it crushes our anxieties and our fears

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Look at what it says peace. I leave with you My peace I give to you not as the world gives do

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I give to you? Do not let your heart be troubled and do not let it be fearful

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God's saying that he's taken the war away from us on the hill of Calvary when he climbed up that hill

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He took away all fear all anxiety all brokenness all anger that God ever had for our sin righteous

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Indignation for the sin that we have perpetrated against him. He took us from enemies to friends from orphans to children

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From people who hated him and the Bible says that he hated not just the sin, but the sinner

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That anger and wrath was poured out on Christ so that now you and I Have peace.

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This is not Folded leg meditation where we hum and and we make funny noises in a yoga studio.

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That's not the piece I'm talking about I'm talking about a deep abiding fact that the war between you and God is over and Because of that his peace crushes all our fears his peace crushes

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Our anxiety now you may be asking why what's because it's his peace that he gives

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He doesn't give a generic sense of peace and he doesn't give a disproportionate sense of peace

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He doesn't give more peace to Paul and less peace to Matt and more peace to Tiago and less peace to Pam He gives his peace his

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Peace the very peace. That's his The peace that belonged to him in Unity and harmony with the

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Father for eternity that peace my friends is yours in Christ What place does fear have with such overwhelming peace a very limited example of this

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My yard is entirely weeds it's green But if I had the time and if I wanted to get rid of those weeds

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I Shouldn't attack the weeds. I should actually try to sow the grass so thick

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That it chokes out everything else so that only grass can grow With Christ's peace being so dense and infinitely holy and good

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What place does anxiety and fear? Have in the heart of the believer it chokes it out

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Now you may be saying you don't know how my mind works You don't know the way that the racing thoughts just did it go inside my head

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You don't know how my heart is crippled with worries and how I'm obsessed with trying to control situations

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I'm stressing over every detail Flabbergasted when I feel like I don't have control Yes, I do

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I know exactly how that feels I can go into specific situations, but we're all broken

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I know what it means to try to grasp that control I know what it means to have my heart messed up and beating a thousand miles a minute worried about something that utterly is foolish

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But I also know what it means to lay myself down I Know what it means to cast my anxiety on the

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Lord. I Know what it means to know that his density of peace can choke out the crippling afflictions of my heart

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So that it crushes my fears We can know that not by how hard we work in our faith

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We can know that by believing the power of the gospel It's the gospel.

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That is the good news. It's not your coping mechanisms. That's the good news It's not your ability to figure out how to still with your heart.

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That's the good news It's that he stills your heart with his grace and his peace

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For instance When you're uncertain about something You can choose to dwell on the uncertainty of that and let your mind go down a million rabbit trails and say

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I don't feel Peace right now because of this uncertainty Speak to yourself and say

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I may not feel very certain right now, but my God is certain He's not surprised by what's happening to me right now.

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He is not confused I Am being held in the palm of his hand speak truth to yourself brother and sister

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You may be worried about your finances Macroeconomics stock markets going down Nasdaq's tanking

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They're talking about recession. You may be worried about that. But isn't he still the God who holds you and knows every hair on your head?

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Isn't he the one who knows every need that you have and he says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness in Everything will be provided to you.

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Isn't he still the same God? That's that owns cattle on a thousand hills and that does not mean that he doesn't own cattle on a thousand and first That means that he owns everything

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It's his and will he not also if he clothes the lilies of the field when he also clothed you

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And if he feeds the birds who are here today and they're gone and just a few years when he also feeds you

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Why do we worry? We can't add an hour to our life Christ is in control.

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We have to speak the truth to ourself What about our health? We're anxious about our health Isn't God sovereign?

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I Can promise you if you're a Christian you're gonna be healed It'll be here or it'll be in heaven.

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I Don't know Pray if you're sick right now if you're dealing with a debilitating disease

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Rheumatoid arthritis, whatever it is. If you're sick in some way pray that God would heal you And he will he'll either answer it now later or in eternity, but as Christians we know the truth

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Paul says to live as Christ Stop living for your disease.

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Stop living for your brokenness. Stop living for your pain and live for Jesus and When you die, whether you die

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Soon, or whether you die long Your death is great gain.

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Maybe you're worried about a relational conflict Who's your greatest relationship with where does your identity come from does your identity come from how well

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You're related to your spouse or does your identity come from how well you're related to Christ? Does your identity come from how well your children obey you?

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I? Hope not If you have

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Jesus, you will never be abandoned. You will never be forsaken You will never be lost.

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You will never be anything less than beloved because that's what he's called you Your identity is not in your circumstances and in your relationships your identities in him

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Maybe you say well, you don't know the stuff I've been through the stuff I've been through is wrong and it's evil and someone's perpetrated wickedness against me.

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I have trauma PTSD something to that effect. I understand. I'm not downplaying that that's hard.

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I Remember watching the television During the Afghanistan invasion,

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I Went to Iraq in 2003 in 2004. I Got out of Iraq and I was a typical

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Macho 20 year old or 21 year old and I'm like, I'm tough. I remember weeping in front of the television watching the

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Afghanistan Debacle and Thinking to myself.

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Why is this happening? I was carrying things from my time in the service that were deep -rooted and that's not even

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What some of you are carrying today? There's trauma and there's hurt and there's pain that goes so deep and so painful down to the depths of who you are that you can't even imagine opening up that box or opening up that room or Looking at it or talking about it because it's so painful.

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How could you possibly open it? I get it, but isn't God good

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Do we believe that do we believe that God is in control? Do we believe that that the things he caused us to walk through or because he loves us and he's called us according to his plan

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And his purpose and he's shaping us through our circumstances. Do we not believe that the trauma has a purpose?

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That in the pain God has a plan Because you can either be identified by your trauma

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Or you can lay your trauma at the foot of the cross and you can say I trust you Not my pain

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I'm not saying that's easy But your identity is not in your pain. Your identity is not in your suffering.

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Your identity is in Christ You think about a master sculptor sculptor?

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He takes out the hammer and he has a large block of unformed Rectangular looking substance and he beats it and he hits it and then he grabs his chisel which is sharp and he scrapes it and Pieces fly and dust falls and then he grabs his his

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Sandpaper or Dremel or whatever it is and then he and then he grinds at it the process of shaping an unformed stone into something beautiful is violence and It's tough and it's hard But something beautiful is coming

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In your life the master sculptor at times has brought out the hammer and has hammered you

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At times he's brought out the chisel and he has cut things out of you. That did not need to be in you at times he's grabbed the sandpaper and he's ground down the ugly and The problem is from the stones perspective.

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We think no. No, no, every parts important. I like me But we're so myopic and we're so nearsighted that we can't see the beautiful Glorious thing that God is trying to do and the dead weight and the brokenness that needs to be cut out of us

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We can't even see at the time That it needs to go in my high school career

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There were things that I was praying for as a kid That did not happen things that broke my heart and At the time

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I was like, how could God do this to me? I was praying to be a professional baseball player

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I Was actually pretty good but not professional level. I was also a little arrogant and didn't know my own skill set.

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But anyway, I Was at a private school and I left the private school to go to a public school because in my situation

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I lived in Davie County and it's as redneck as your is your thinking but I was going to school in Rowan County and I could not play

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American Legion baseball to get looked at by scouts because I went to a different school system than the county that I lived in So I transferred to public school my first year of public school was my senior year in high school and the coach cut me from the team and he said

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I'm almost quoting You're good enough but the guy who's playing first base his dad's the president of the

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PTA and I can't I can't have you supplant him in his senior year.

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I Thought my world was over. I took my $300 $350 baseball bat in in 1999 that was a lot of money

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And I slammed it against the telephone pole and I went to my car and I'm so angry and I said

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God How could you do this to me? I had no idea the blessings that God had for me that a silly metal bat would have gotten in the way of and Would have caused me to miss out on Every one of my children my wife my family this church this season of my life would not exist

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If God didn't afflict me with that pain That was so real to me in the moment that I wanted to throw my hands up and give up We don't have the right vantage point to view our pain

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We just don't So why would we put our identity in it? Why would we put our hope in it?

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Let's put our hope in Christ Maybe you're afraid that some bar performance is being held over you and you just can't make it you can't accomplish it

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Brother, you can't sister. You can't the bar was met by Christ on Calvary's Hill.

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That's the bar the crossbar Maybe you feel like someone else's opinion matters and that it's crushing you.

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No, it doesn't Ultimately, the only opinion that matters is the opinion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And if he's called you to himself you are his beloved He did not die to keep you and I paralyzed and gripped with fears and anxieties he died to make us new creations

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He died to crush our fear of judgment he died to cripple our phobias that are afflicting us to pulverize the dread that's defined us to conquer the catastrophic thinking that is

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Crippling us his peace Reintegrates us according to the vision that he has and I'm telling you 20 years later

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You're gonna look back and you're gonna say I see the purpose Whatever you're going through today has purpose

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And you'll see it if you wait long enough and you hold on long enough to the gospel.

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You'll see it Do not be anxious The text says do not let your heart be troubled.

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Do you know why it says that? Because we are the ones that let it When such a good and holy

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Christ Has done what he's done. Do not let do not allow do not permit

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Don't give permission to your fickle heart to get sideways cling to Christ Cling to his gospel.

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That's the first thing that peace Pulverizes and crushes it crushes our anxieties and it crushes our fear

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With our identity in Christ The second thing is that our peace God's peace the peace that Christ has given us will become a catalyst for joyful Worship doesn't just crush our anxieties and our fears praise

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God. It does that but that's not the end of our story It also flows into worship It says peace.

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I'm gonna start with 27 again. Peace. I leave with you my peace. I give to you and Then verse 28 you heard that I said to you

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I go away and I will come to you if you loved me

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You would have rejoiced because I go to the father For the father is greater than I One of the most profound consequences of peace in our life is that it produces ardent passionate worship

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You're no longer be chasing after idols like Leviticus 26 says and our culture has a lot of them

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Just like in Daniel where it says bow down. Our culture has a lot of knee -bowing Virtue signal idol worshiping going on Jesus saying my peace will cause you not to do that not to run after Idols, but to have joyful worship.

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I'm not talking about just worship. I'm talking about joy filled worship The kind that bubbles out of you and flows out of you and is infectious

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You'll not be filled with dread and glum you'll be focused on the eternal realities that you have in Christ And it will change you and it changed them remember the context

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Jesus is telling this to people who are broken that he's leaving and The reason that they're broken that he's leaving is because they know the reality.

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They're not just gonna miss their friend They're now gonna be public enemy number one Jesus is leading a revolutionary movement, at least in the eyes of the

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Pharisees. They're ready to kill Jesus and anyone who follows him So if Jesus dies if the leader dies, they're coming after Peter.

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They're coming after John They're coming after James and Bartholomew Matthew they're public enemy number one.

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They're gonna be hunted down for this. So they're afraid obviously They're not worshiping in this moment, you remember when

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Christ leaves the upper room and he goes to pray Have you ever been so afraid?

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That you can't stay awake that you're exhausted in your fears, I don't know if that's what happened or not, but Maybe they fell asleep with the heaviness of everything pressing down on them and they just couldn't bear to even be awake

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Jesus is basically looking at these men these men who have real fears fears of death crucifixion being boiled in oil

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Persecution in every town beaten left for dead The most angry violence that could be perpetrated upon a human that's what they're looking at They know the character of the

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Jewish leadership. They know the sadistic nature of their violence Jesus is looking looking right at them and saying so what?

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So what why are you so upset you imagine being there but Jesus don't you understand we're gonna we're gonna die

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He's like, okay Why are you? Forget forgive me. Why are you upset?

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Why are you upset that the world hates you? Didn't I tell you they would? Why are you depressed that society?

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misunderstands you Your identity in that That they're gonna misrepresent you and hate you and turn on you that's the way pagans live

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Because the only heaven That an unbeliever will ever experience is the life that they have here on earth

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So they have to maximize their pleasure and minimize their pain Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow.

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We burn in hell. That is The unspoken anthem of everyone who is apart from Christ But if you're a

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Christian, so what I'm not being flippant. So what? You're not destined for that the only hell that you will ever experience is here

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The eternal conscious torment that everyone apart from Christ will experience forever is not yours you experience night

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Momentary afflictions waiting for the day of Christ The pain you're feeling is real, but it is light the

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Bible says it is momentary The Bible says and it is it is not even worth comparing to the glory that will be fulfilled in the day of Christ Your worst day is not even worth comparing to the to the the lightest day in heaven

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Jesus is saying you were not made to get fat on comfort

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You were made for a purpose and that purpose was to fight and build the kingdom of God for a few years

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They kill you fine if they go tell the gospel to all the nations baptizing them in the name of the

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Father Son and Holy Spirit and If they kill you let them you're gonna be with Christ You see we have messed up in the modern world.

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We're so rich and we're so comfortable That we've made our life about our comfort, that's why we hate pain

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That's why we hate misery. That's why we hate poverty And we forget that our life is not about that.

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Our life is about the kingdom of God It's not just churches jobs.

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It's not just pastors elders deacons. It's not tele preachers Every single one of us is a kingdom of priests.

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We are a holy nation. Our life is hidden in Jesus Christ We are not made to prioritize our comfort

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We are made to prioritize the kingdom Far too often beloved

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We spend our energy and effort building our castles instead of his instead of his kingdom Jesus is saying in in Aramaic quit your bellyaching and Focus on the point.

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I'm going away and That's good news because I'm going to sit on the throne as king

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I'm not leaving you to be abandoned I'm leaving you to go to the command center so that I can rule over the kingdom that I just purchased in my blood and Not just that I'm sending you a great captain the

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Holy Spirit of God who will lead you into Everything that he wants you to go. I'm giving him the orders

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He's giving you the orders and this army is gonna march forward until every creature under heaven has heard the gospel.

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That's our life That's what our life is about It's not about our job.

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Our job is a means to an end. Our job is the gift God gave us to declare the gospel Our marriage is the gift.

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God gave us to declare the gospel Our family is the gift God gave us to declare the gospel Don't make your life about those things make it about this thing and have everything you do point to that Jesus is saying stop worrying about your life your comfort your position your castle your finance your job your status your safety

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And get your eyes off you and get them on to me I'm the point Now, how does that?

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How does that sort of relate to worship because if you get your eyes off you and you get your eyes off him worship becomes really easy

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Worship Takes effort and work when you're focused on you

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But when you see Christ in all his beauty when you see the risen Jesus When you see what he did for you on the cross when you see his glory and his beauty you will effortlessly

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Begin worshiping and you will worship loudly proudly and joyfully the point is

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That when the peace of God comes in you and men's you Stop focusing on you start focusing on him and It will produce a waterfall of worship in you that no one can stop

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That's why Paul was singing in prison That's why the Apostles were walking away from their latest beating saying

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I count it worthy to suffer for the name of Christ Because their life was not about them

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Their life was about him Now this is a great test For every

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Christian for every church What's your life about a? Real simple way to do the litmus test here is if you have great joy in your worship if your life is centered around the worship of Jesus Christ if nothing can get you if Every situation that sideswipes you is just another

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Avenue for glory. You have great peace but if every little thing gets under your skin and every little thing bothers you and At the water fountain you're complaining and in your marriage.

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You're saying you always do this and you never do that What you've done is you've taken your eyes off the

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Lord Jesus Christ and you put them right on to the Savior That you've replaced him with and it's you

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Let us repent of that So that our eyes will behold the beauty of Christ as a church

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There's several different ways that this works itself out in evangelical churches I've been to churches where it was it was so orderly.

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Everything was done according to a purpose that there was no joy It dare you sneeze or if you raise your hand, how dare you

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It was so focused on that there was it stifled the joy so that there was no peace there peace produces joy

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I've also seen churches Where it was filled with so much cacophony and chaos that there was no order and God is not a god of chaos

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Seen videos of churches here in Massachusetts where people were leading Congregants around the sanctuary like dogs and the

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Holy Spirit would cause them to bark One of one of our dear saints who go to church who goes to church here grew up in that church

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They're there They've replaced order with chaos. There is no peace

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Reformed biblical worship is Ordered joy It's both

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The way that we worship if we have the peace of Christ is yes, we have order and shalom

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But we also have joy That's a good litmus test for the health of a church. It's a good litmus test for the health of your life

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The litmus test is not whether you can sing in tune Now if I'm in your car you can go ahead and not sing if you can't sing in tune

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I'm okay If I'm in your house and you belt out like screech from Saved by the

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Bell, I'm okay if you don't do that I'm okay. If you don't go pursue a record deal and I think we're all okay with that, right if you can't sing it's okay

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Not here Not here because this is not a performance The Bible says make a joyful noise and everybody even screech

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Can do that and God is greatly pleased because he's more patient than we and He loves us more than we could ever love even ourselves

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Peace produces joyful ordered ardent thrilling worship

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That's the second thing that it does the third thing is that it produces belief Jesus says

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Peace my peace I leave to you then go to 29 now that I've told you before it happens so that when it happens you may believe

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Peace produces belief He's saying I'm gonna tell you that I'm gonna leave you beforehand

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I'm gonna go to heaven I'm gonna sit down and rain and I'm gonna leave you in the midst of people that hate you and The reason that Jesus is telling them this beforehand is so that when the snags and the road come they'll not be surprised but they will bristle with belief the gospel of John's purpose is these things have been written so that when you read them when you

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Understand them you will believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. He's not trying to leave us surprised

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He's saying you'll have trouble in this world. He's saying that people will hate you in this world because they hate me

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He's telling us beforehand to calibrate our expectations so that we're not living in unbelief

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But that our heart is bristling with belief They hate me because they hate

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Christ all praise you Jesus. I'm you counted me worthy right now to Suffer for your sake

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He did these things so that we would believe not so that we would be discouraged Jesus knew in his sovereignty

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That this nation in 2023 would be embracing insanity He knew that all of us who grew up in the 80s

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Who listened to Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard if that applies to anyone here My son

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Graham raised his hand just gave away who it is that we would look with Confoundment at this society and say where am

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I even living? But Jesus knew in his sovereignty God knew in his sovereignty that we would be here and we're not here to bellyache about it

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And we're not here to gripe and grumble about it You think the Israelites didn't have real problems in the wilderness and God held them responsible for their grumbling?

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Yeah, we have problems, but God is good Yeah, our world is crazy God is not our country is hanging pride flags from the

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Capitol building But guess what? I'm not a citizen of this country.

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I'm a citizen of heaven and I'm waiting for a Savior a good Savior to come and bring me home

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Not the wretched deplorable people who occupy the office we pray for them We honor them, but we admit the truth about them.

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They're immoral and wicked men our hope is not to be found in our country and If it is

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I am sorry for you Our hope is not to be found in our career one performance evaluation

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Or one person who shows up that looks a little shinier on a resume or one macro economic cut

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Your identity shattered if your identities in your career Your career is not robust robust enough to hold your identity

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Your country is not robust enough to hold your identity. Your money is not robust and deep and good enough to hold your identity

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Neither is your marriage. Neither is your kids only Christ is Deep and wide enough to hold our identity safe forever and as we see that We respond to him with great worship with great praise and with ardent belief

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Again, when we see Christ for who he is We see that he was bruised for our iniquities, but I'm be honest with you

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When you get to know me No one should be bruised for me when people get to know you.

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No one should be pierced for you No one should be pricked for you No one should be thumped for you

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No one should give no one should even have a stink eye given to them over us

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We earned nothing The fact that a perfect Savior in all our depths of sin and iniquity and depravity for the good of his own

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Perfection and for the love of his own nature gave everything for us

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It has to change us. It has to elevate us. It has to make us say well gosh if he gave everything to me

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Who deserved nothing? Can't I give everything back to him? And that's sort of the point

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Christ did not die to produce half -hearted believers Christ did not die to produce lukewarm lazy slothful faith

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Because he wasn't lukewarm for you. His affections were hot for you, and he wasn't lazy for you he stood up from the upper room and walked to his death for you and He wasn't half -hearted.

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It says for the joy set before him. He endured Exceptional turmoil and pain for you as a model for how that we are to love him

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He didn't die to buy a piece of you He didn't die to buy a part of you He didn't die to have a slice of you or a portion of you

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He died to have all of you which means all of your joy all of your allegiance all of your passion all of your commitment all of your direction all of your loyalty all of your energy all

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Of your attention he died for it all and you're like gosh, that's really intrusive

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He died for you He gave everything for you and he purchased you for him so that he could have all of you

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That's number number three number four. It cultivates patient waiting his peace

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Cultivates patience in our waiting. He says verse 27 peace. I leave with you my peace I give to you not as the world gives do

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I give down in verse 30? he says I will not speak much more with you for the ruler of this world is coming and He has nothing in me

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Which I think is such a fascinating statement Jesus is saying that the ruler of this world who is the ruler of this world?

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That's Satan Satan swindled the kingdom away from Adam in the Garden of Eden so that he is consistently called the ruler of this world the prince and the power of the air the roaring lion the one who

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Comes to Jesus in the wilderness and says I'll give you all the kingdoms. Why did he say that? Because he had him

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Because they're his and Jesus in his ministry on earth and his death burial and resurrection binds the strong man crushes his head equips and empowers you with the same spirit that rose him from the dead so that you can be a part of the ongoing crushing of the certain serpent to equip you for war

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The reason you were saved is so you could join the army in the invasion. That's what the incarnation is

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We look at the incarnation is sweet baby. Jesus in these and he's fluffy little rags. No, he came as warrior to take the world back

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His birth into the cradle might have been might as well been his birth into the howitzer Charging the gates of hell he came to start the invasion

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He came to bring D -day to a world at war with him That's when the invasion began and he got 12 people around him than 70 people around him than 500 people around him and over the course of the centuries and the generations

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He has organized an army around himself that doesn't fight with weapons of war

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Doesn't fight with swords and guns and everything else, but we fight with the gospel of Christ We declare the gospel of peace to the nation's the gospel that will reintegrate their brokenness

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And for 2 ,000 years you can do this study yourself every hundred year period

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The kingdom has grown we're addicted to defeat today and Yet every hundred years the kingdom has grown

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It's grown from 1 to 12 to 2 billion And as we read earlier to the ends of the earth, it continues and while we work and while we wait

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And while we build We can have patience We don't have to buy into the microwave culture that we live in We can say you know what?

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I'm gonna live my life in such a way that my great great great great grandkids are gonna be blessed out of their mind

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I'm gonna have a marriage that blesses future generations. I'm gonna have a family that creates a legacy in,

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Massachusetts I'm not gonna try to do everything today. I'm gonna have faithful children faithful family

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Faithful church, and I'm gonna do what I can the Cathedral that Jesus is building is too big for any of us to build

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But make sure you grab your corner Make sure you grab your pail make sure you grab your hammer and work and teach your children how to work

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And as a church we need to learn to work so that over time Patiently building

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We'll see this kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven I don't think Jesus prayed prayers that he didn't intend on fulfilling when he told us to pray that his kingdom would come on earth

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As it is in heaven. I think he meant it. I Don't think he was praying Hallmark prayers

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Now a kingdom come on earth. This is in heaven. It's a nice ring to it. I think he thought

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Believed and knew that his kingdom would come on earth As it is in heaven, how is his kingdom in heaven?

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There's no opposition So if his kingdom is gonna come on earth as it already is in heaven one day

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He will have no enemies left. He will have put them all under his feet Psalm 110 1st

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Corinthians 15 so we can wait we can work patiently

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Because of the peace that he's given us in Christ the final thing that we'll look at this morning is that his peace causes the world to see and this is how he ends

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John 14 a beautiful ending My peace

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I give to you verse 27 go down to verse 31 but So that the world may know that I love the

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Father I do exactly as the Father commanded me get up let us Go from here.

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Jesus is not saying that as the world watches me That's the only way that they're gonna know the love of the

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Father He is saying though that as they watch me they're gonna get to know as they watch me abused in a false trial beaten whipped pierced the nails of the of the crown and these are nothing the nails the thorns of the crown pushed down into his

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Skull so that he's bleeding in every way his organs even in his back or possibly exposed the the board

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Grinding because they didn't they didn't sand it So the rough edge is grinding and exposed me and him doing that with joy pain and joy

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Suffering in joy that he's saying is a declaration of how I love

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God that I would put aside my humanity To have joy in torture joy and pain

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Joy in the most grisly Inhumane and disgusting treatment that any society has ever invented the cross is the most barbaric torture of death ever invented in The physical brutality of that he bore with great joy

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So he's saying as I did that the world will see how in the world Could he not love the father in the way that he just loved us greater love is no one

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Then that they would do that, but that's not all he's saying. He's the only he's not only saying that when people look at the

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Extraordinary agony that I went to with with pleasure and joy. They're not just gonna look at that and see the love of God They're gonna see it in you

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He doesn't say I'm gonna go do this now. Let me get up and go do this He says

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I'm gonna do this let us get up You see what he's inviting us into He's saying you're gonna walk with me you're gonna march with me and in your sin, you're gonna be in there and forsake me

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Like sheep, you're gonna scatter. But when I've risen from the dead and When I've called you back and restored you when the

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Spirit of God is poured out on you us will walk the path of the cross and we

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Will show the world Who our Savior is By dealing with great pain with great joy

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Have you ever noticed how someone who's going through the most extraordinary pain?

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can give God glory in a way that That doesn't seem normal sort of transcends the moment our our sister

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Kathy She had a cancer that was aggressively eating her body away and every time

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I spoke to her she said Glory be to Christ. I was at her celebration of life recently and that woman

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Got to speak to hundreds of people even from the grave about who Christ is.

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He's worthy of our joy even in our pain I've seen mothers in school shootings stand up and say

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I forgive you in Jesus Christ because he forgave me You took my child But God's child was lost for me and I forgive you you know how much power there is in that There's a lot of power in forgiving someone who just stole your sandwich

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But think about the power that's there when he's taking your child and you release

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The guilt it's a forgive you Your pain is not yours.

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That's the point your pain doesn't belong to you. It's not yours It was given to you as a megaphone for the glory of God Your pain as a

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Christian is a gift Use it to declare the excellencies of his name and I'm telling you when you show joy in your suffering

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In obedience and an imitation of Christ the world will see the love of God Do not join in with the world in complaining and grumbling and griping

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Take every moment captive and say my God is good My house burned down to praise be the

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Lord My bank account just emptied overnight because of a bad investment praise be to God the

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Lord gives the Lord takes away but blessed be the name of the

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Lord only a Christian can do that and Christians must do that so that the world will see the glory of Christ.

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Amen. Let's pray Jesus thank you for your peace

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The reason Paul could credibly say that it surpasses understanding is because it confounded even the most intelligent

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Pharisee and Maybe one of the most brilliant minds in all the ancient world

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Your peace That flows directly out of the gospel flows into our hearts and our lives so that our fears are crushed

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So that our worship is inflamed So that our belief is made ardent and passionate and So Lord that the world can see you

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Lord, let us remember that our pain is not ours It doesn't belong to us and we can't speak about it in any way other than you have given it to us

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Lord let us speak about our pain in a biblical way and say

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This pain is light This pain is momentary This pain is real

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But my God is bigger. My God is better Blessed be the name of the Lord and Lord as we do that I pray that the nation's would see and fall down and That they would join with us in heavenly chorus singing blessed be the name of the