Peace of Mind: Week 1

Welcome again to Church at the Crossing. My name is Andrew. I'm the

associate teaching pastor here and if we haven't met, I'm so glad that you

decided to be here today. I'm glad you chose to be here today.

When you came in, everybody should have received one of these small little puzzle

pieces. If you don't have one, the ushers would be happy to hand

you one, but this is yours. You can hold on to it,

take it home with you if you'd like. I'm curious just here all who's

listening. How many puzzle fans do we have? People who enjoy doing puzzles?

Okay, there's a good good few of us, you know. I

remember in twenty twenty during the pandemic and being at home in quarantine, Lauren

and I didn't have much to do. We don't have cable, so we

were looking for something to do, and we found some puzzles in the closet

and we pulled out the puzzles and we quickly put together all of the puzzles

that we owned. And we were still looking for something to do in the

quarantine, so I got on Amazon, and you know, Amazon has anything

and every thing and I thought for sure they'd have puzzles, but lo and

behold, Amazon was sold out of puzzles. The website that has everything you

need and maybe some things you don't need, had no puzzles because everybody was

doing puzzles in quarantine. So I ventured out to the store. I thought

for sure I could find some puzzles at the store, but again, the

shelves were empty, no puzzles, and no toilet paper could be found during

the quarantine. You know, the pandemic was a major disruption to our lives.

There's a major disruption to school, to work, to families trying to

see each other, trying to travel. And I think the pandemic in many

ways felt like we were left with a lot of puzzle pieces, and we

were trying to make sense of the world around us, trying to put the

pieces together. And I don't know about you, but it seemed like every

time we got some of the pieces connected, there was a whole bunch more

puzzles dumped into our hands that we had to make sense of. One of

the invisible effects of the pandemic was the effect it had on mental and emotional

challenges. Just recently, there was a survey done of American citizens and it

said that those who are surveyed, ninety percent of them agree that today,

right now, there's a mental health crisis in the United States. There was

a study done by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the study found that

one in five US adults experience mental illness each year, one in six US

youth ages six to seventeen experience a mental health disorder each year, and the

same study found that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people

ages ten to fourteen. Now, even if you think you don't struggle with

a mental health challenge, it's likely that you care about somebody who is struggling.

That same study found that at least eight point four million people in the

United States provide care for an adult with a mental or emotional health issue.

Mental health is a real issue. And whether you are fighting for your own

mental health right now or you care about somebody who is struggling, I want

to tell you today that God loves you, that God sees you, and

there is hope in Jesus. There is peace in Jesus, that whatever you're

walking through, whatever you are facing, God sees what is going on.

And there is hope for healing, and there's hope for more peace in Jesus.

And today we're starting this message series called Peace of Mind. And over

this series, we're gonna look at topics and things like depression and worry and

negative thoughts and so many others, and we're gonna look at what the Bible

has to say about these things. Because today's message comes with a little bit

of a disclaimer. I'm not a mental health profession and all. I'm not

a doctor, I'm not a counselor. I'm a pastor, and I'm a

student of God's word. I'm a follower of Jesus. And my hope is

that we can look at God's word, look at God's truth, and we

can receive more of his love and understand that there is peace for us,

a supernatural peace, and that God cares about our mental and emotional well being.

Today, I want to address some of the myths around mental health.

I've had my own journey with mental health, and each person's journey looks different,

but my journey has included some seasons of depression, worries, fears.

I remember in college I was experiencing some troubling nightmares, some dreams that were

really bothering me, and I won't share the details, but they were a

little bit traumatizing. And so thankfully I got connected with a Christian counselor,

and in those counseling sessions, we processed what I was thinking and worked through

what I was feeling, and I learned some tools that are helpful to live

a healthier life. Now fast forward a few years after that, I was

in a season of life where I had some grief going on and some anxiety

I was dealing with. So I went back to counseling and as I was

meeting with that counselor in one of the sessions, the counselor said, I

think you're a little bit depressed. Well, at first, that kind of

offended me. I bristled a little bit when he said that I might be

depressed, because I thought, what do I have to be depressed about.

That's not something I deal with. That's something for other people to struggle with.

You know, I've got a good job, i have good health,

I'm happily married. I'm too blessed to be depressed. And that's a common

myth that Christians should not struggle with. Mental health. It's a common myth

out there that some Christians when they hear mental health or emotional health issues or

topics brought up those Christians, they just roll their eyes and say, well,

that's just immaturity, or that's just the culture. That's not the way

of Christianity. You need to be emotionally more mature than that. Well my

response to that is we just have to look at the Bible to see that

Christians and followers of Jesus do struggle with mental health. Jeremiah was a great

prophet. He wrote two books of the Bible, the Book of Jeremiah and

Lamentations. But do you know what his nickname is. Jeremiah is called the

weeping Prophet because of his emotional struggles. He writes here in Lamentations three,

I have been deprived of peace. I have forgotten what prosperity is. That

sounds like a person who is emotionally troubled. And then there's David King,

David the mighty warrior, the giant killer, the one who is a man

after God's own heart. He repeatedly writes about his mental and emotional struggles.

Just one example, Psalm one forty two, verse four David says, look

and see there is no one at my right hand. No one is concerned

for me. I have no refuge, and no one cares for my life.

This sounds like a person who's in a really, really low point in

their life. Christians do struggle with mental health. Another myth is you can

just pray it away. Some Christians will say, well, you need more

faith. Oh, if you're struggling mentally or emotionally, you need to pray

more. You need to trust God more with that anxiety or that worry,

you know, you need to be a stronger Christian, more Christian things.

Well, what I would say to that is, what about Jesus. What

about Jesus? I mean, Jesus is the son of God, He's the

perfect human, and yet we see him struggling terribly. On the night before

his crucifixion, before he was arrested, he was in the garden and he

was praying, and we read here in Matthew twenty six Jesus said, my

soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He was overwhelmed,

he was in turmoil. He was feeling this pressure, this anxiety. And

then the text goes on him to say that he went away and he prayed,

and then he went away and prayed a second time, and then he'd

returned back a third time and prayed. If there's anybody who could pray it

away, it would be the Son of God. And yet he was still

troubled. Now, I believe that prayer is an essential foundational piece of navigating

struggles, navigating mental and emotional health. But it is insensitive to tell somebody

they just need more faith to get over their troubles. Another myth that we

encounter is that your mental health defines your worth. Some of us will believe

that our value and our worth is determined by our lowest struggle, that our

darkest moments define our value and our worth. And I believe that somebody here

today listening needs to know that God loves you, and he loves you unconditionally,

and that God is with you in the low moments and in the high

moments. I believe that someone today needs to hear the gospel, the good

news of Jesus, that there's a God in heaven who came to our level,

who became a human being, who suffered as we have suffered, and

when he died on the cross. He paid the price for our forgiveness,

for our sins, but he also purchased our healing, He purchased our hope.

He purchased our restoration and our redemption by his blood. There is nothing

more powerful than the death and resurrection of Jesus, because when he rose from

the dead, when he walked out of that grave, he triumphed over death.

So that you can walk in life, so that you can walk in

hope, and you can walk confidently knowing that your value is set by Jesus,

not by any of your struggles. Jesus defines your value. And so

today we're gonna look at a passage of scripture in Philippians chapter four that talks

about teaches us about the peace of God for our minds. Read with me

here Philippian's force, starting in verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near. The Lord is near. He is near to

the one struggling with depression. He's near to the one who is in grief.

He's near to the one who is troubled, who lies awake at night,

who is overwhelmed. He is near to you. The Lord is near.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer

and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace

of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.

In Christ Jesus, it says, the peace of God transcends on understanding.

The peace of God is a supernatural piece that human intellect can't make sense

of it. It's not an earthly peace. It's not a psychological piece.

It's not a human piece. It's a supernatural piece. You can't understand it.

You can't define it, you can't produce it, you can't replicate it.

You can only receive it because it's a gift. The gift of God's

peace comes to us by his grace. And when Jesus died on the cross

and rose from the dead, he's secured the release of God's grace into our

lives, and that includes peace for our minds. Notice that our text says

here, and it says in every situation, do not be anxosed about anything,

but in every situation there is godly, supernatural peace for every situation.

Now you might say, well, Andrew, you don't know what I'm going

through. What about my situation? What about what I'm experiencing? What about

a financial issue, Yes, there's a supernatural peace for that issue. What

about a family issue, Yes, there's peace for that. Well, what

about a medical health issue? What about a legal issue? Yes, there

is supernatural peace. There is a godly supernatural piece for every man, every

woman, every child, and every family. There's a supernatural piece for broken

families, for broken hearts, for broken dreams. There is a supernatural piece

for every situation. It's a godly supernatural piece that we can't understand. It's

straight from Heaven. Notice here what our text says that God's supernatural peace will

protect your mental health. Verse seven says the peace of God, which transcends

all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. He will guard your

mind. A few years ago, I was visiting Washington, DC, and

I got to two Arlington Cemetery, which is a cemetery for military personnel.

And there in the cemetery is the monument the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,

where the remains of those who died in battle are held and protected and they're

lying in peace, resting in peace. And there's a guard that protects the

tomb twenty four seven, seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.

Whether it's raining, whether it's snowing, the blistering heat, or the

coldest blizzards, that guard is out there, marching back and forth, and

every hour it's changed by a new guarden. I got the opportunity to see

the changing of the gardens, this incredible ceremony. But these guards are there

every day and they're marching back and forth. They've marched so long that you

can actually see they've worn out the marble of the floor in front of the

tomb. And they're there to keep the peace of the tomb. These guards

are elite. In more than one hundred years of protect the tomb an unknown

soldier, there are less than seven hundred guards who have had that honor.

Now I've seen some YouTube videos of some tourists who have gotten a little bit

too close and have gone where they should not go. And the guard is

instructed to use any means of force necessary to protect and preserve the tomb.

And so I've seen where the guard will immediately raise their weapon and march toward

that trespasser, barking orders telling them to get behind the barricade because they're protecting

and guarding the peace there. The peace of God guards your mind, The

peace of God guards your heart. God surrounds your mind because God cares about

your well being. He cares about your peace, and he's gonna protect you

from negative thoughts, a troublesome lies that come your way. When you're feeling

overwhelded and you're feeling like you've got all these pieces that you're trying to fit

together, trying to make sense of. He will guard you when you are

feeling self loathing, self contempt, self criticism. He will guard you when

you get a surprise, or you get bad news, or you're just speechless

and you don't know what to do. He's guarding you. And when there's

that intrusive thought that tells you that you are unlovable, that you're not worthy,

that you've been forgotten, and maybe life would be better without you.

God protects your peace of mind and he guards you from those intrusive thoughts because

He loves you and he cares about you. Notice our text in verse six,

it uses the word anxious. Do not be anxious about anything. The

Greek word for anxious is a word that means to be distracted, divided,

or torn apart. It's like being torn to pieces. It's like the broken

pieces of a puzzle in our mind. Anxious thoughts are like these puzzle pieces

we turn over and over that we're trying to piece back together, trying to

make sense of it, trying to fix it. There was one night that

I was really struggling with some mental puzzle pieces. I was facing a challenge

and trying to figure out what to do, and I was turning over all

these puzzle pieces in my mind while I was laying in bed, thinking like,

what should I do with this? Or I said this to that person,

Maybe they misinterpreted it. What if they told somebody else a misrepresentation?

What can I do to change this? Just all these puzzle pieces, I

wasn't solving it lying in bed, So I got out of bed and I

went and watching TV, hoping that would distract me. Right, the word

anxious means to be distracted, Well, that just kept me awake even longer.

Eventually I fell asleep just from pure exhaustion. But when I woke up

the next morning, those puzzle pieces were still there in my mind. Can

anybody else relate to something like this, to lying awake, to spiraling through

all these mental thoughts, all the what ifs, what if this? What

if that? All the stress, all the worry. Have you ever just

been troubled that way? Like all these puzzle pieces, anxiety, worry,

fear, They feel like all these broken pieces that we're trying to put together.

And today you have to answer the question, what are you gonna do

with your puzzle pieces? What are you gonna do with what's bothering you?

Go ahead and hold that puzzle piece in your hand that you have. What

does this represent in your life? And you feel free to if you want

to write on it or mark it, you can. But what does this

mean in your life? Is this a mental health thing? Is it an

emotional challenge? Does this have something to do with a family issue or a

work issue, or is it something about your future, your career or your

education. What is it that represents in your life? Our text says that

the peace of God will guard your mind. The word for peace in Greek

is a piece. Is a word that means peace of mind, join together,

complete and wholeness. So, in other words, the peace of God

puts the pieces together. The peace of God is a whole life, a

complete life without any missing pieces or broken pieces. It's God doing the work

to put your life back together because of the grace of Jesus. So if

you want to receive more of God's supernatural peace of mind, what are you

gonna do with through puzzle pieces? Well, I think there's a few options

we have. We can hide it, we can hold it, and we

can fight it. But I don't think any of these three options are really

going to help us receive peace of mind. You can hide it. You

can hide that puzzle piece. You can hide that worry and fear and that

anxiety. You can ignore it, avoid it, and put on a good

face and act like nothing's going on. One night, Lord and I were

awakened by the sound of rushing water coming through our house. It was spilling

out of our bathroom sink and through the floors and the walls of our house.

Was just flooding the whole house. And immediately I jumped out of bed

and I ran to the basement to check on my most precious possessions, my

books. There's nothing more valuable to a preacher than his theology books. I

didn't care about the furniture. I didn't care about the carpet. I cared

about my books, and I was able to save a few of them.

And the next morning the restoration company came out and they pulled out wet,

soggy pieces of drywall. They pulled back the carpet. They had the fans

and the blowers. My house was not at peace. It was noisy and

a little bit smelly, and so I wanted out of there, and we

went and got a hotel. I couldn't sleep there with all those fans going

on. We got we got out of there. Sometimes our mental struggles,

our emotional challenges, feel like a house that's been flooded. It just comes

rushing in, overwhelming, trying to pick up the pieces. If you hide

it, if you ignore it, if you avoid it, you're gonna have

to come back to it. The mess doesn't go away. Another option we

have is you can hold it, hold onto that struggle. You can hold

on to that anxiety, that negative thought, that mental challenge. You can

hold onto it. You can get consumed by it, you can obsess over

it, and you can even tell everybody about it. This is my thing

that happened to me not too long ago. I have a deep personal insecurity

that says I'm not good enough, and when I'm unhealthy, that insecurity motivates

me to prove that I am good enough. And so one day a friend

of mine said something to me that triggered that insecurity in me. And if

I'm being honest, my friend told me something that somebody else had said that

they overheard, So really it was just gossip, and yet it consumed me

because it triggered that insecurity and I obsessed over it, and for the rest

of that day, my mental health was not in a good place because I

kept thinking about all these pieces, like what if that person thinks less of

me? What should I do to prove that I am good enough? Should

I ignore or act like it didn't happen? Should I engage with it?

Just like all these thoughts that I was obsessing, I couldn't let go of

it. I was consumed by it. The puzzle piece that consumes you will

steal your peace of mind. Consuming and obsessing over that struggle, that difficulty,

it will wear you out, and it will burn you out. Would

you take that puzzle piece in your hand and hold it in both hands like

this, If you consume over this, if you obsess over this, if

you're concentrated on this, then you're distracted from what God wants to do in

your life. We learned the word anxious means to be distracted. And if

I'm holding on to this so tightly, then my hands are not open to

receive what God wants to give me. And God wants to give you more

of his love, more of his grace, and more of his supernatural peace

of mind. You know, we have another option. We can try and

fight it. We can try and push and pool, we can try and

fight it on our own. But usually if we fight against these mental struggles,

it ends up harming us or others. For some, they'll fight against

this and struggle with this on their own until it's an outburst of anger.

For others, they'll be fighting secretly and quietly, privately until they burn out

or even worse, their physical health gets compromised. There's a time that I

was struggling with some thoughts, trying to solve something. I had all these

puzzle pieces coming together, and it was building up. I was getting frustrated.

It was difficult, and I was sharing a meal with some friends and

during the conversation. I lashed out in the conversation as I spoke really harshly,

and a friend of mine later kind of pulled me aside and said,

I'm a little bit concerned about you because you don't seem to be yourself.

And my friend when they said that, it was like it just snapped me,

like back to reality, Like I'm in this mental, mental spiral trying

to figure all this out, like I don't have peace, and it's and

it's coming out. It's it's it's coming out on other people. So what

are we going to do with our puzzle pieces. You can try and hide

it, you can try and hold it, you can try and fight it,

But I don't think any of that's going to give a supernatural peace.

I think what we need to do is we need to release it. We

need to take what's bothering us, what's consuming us, what is hurting our

minds, and we need to release it to the power and the grace of

Jesus. God's supernatural piece is available to us if we will give him these

puzzle pieces. Christian author and counselor Chuck de Groat once said, you may

not be able to control what happened to you or what's happening around you.

But you can engage what's happening with you in experience profound hope. What does

this puzzle piece mean to you? What does this represent to you? Will

you release it? Look again at our texts in verse six. Verse six

says, in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present

your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts in your minds. In Christ Jesus, it says,

in every situation, present your requests to God. When we come to

God in prayer, we are presenting these puzzle pieces. We are presenting the

broken things. We're presenting the things that trouble us, that overwhelm us,

that have consumed us. We're presenting them to God, and we can find

peace of mind. When you open up a new box of a puzzle.

Where's the first place that you start? When you dump out all the pieces?

You know, I flip over all the pieces to get right side up,

and then I look for those four magic pieces, the four pieces that

every puzzle has, the corner pieces. Now, unless you're doing some abstract

puzzle, that doesn't have corners, but every puzzle has a four corner pieces,

and so I find those four precious corner pieces because when I find that

corner, I can build off of it. I can get the next piece,

and then the next piece, and then I start framing out the whole

puzzle. The corner is my starting point. Prayer is the corner piece to

receiving the supernatural piece of God. We come to the Lord in prayer and

we receive more of his power, more of his grace, and more of

his piece because we're presenting to him all of these broken, missing puzzle pieces

that were that we're carrying around. I gotta tell you that recently, I've

been struggling with a personal decision and just want to be clear. This isn't

a decision for our church or our ministry or organization. It's just a private

personal decision that I'm facing, and I haven't had peace. It's kept me

awake, it's bothered me. And there's one puzzle piece that I keep turning

over and over in my mind thinking about this decision, and that one puzzle

piece is this intrusive thought that I might let Jesus down if I don't make

the right decision, I'll let Jesus down. And I gotta tell you,

if you've ever had a thought like that, that is a lie. That's

not true. You cannot let Jesus down. But this is the puzzle piece

I've been turning over in my mind, and so I brought it to the

Lord in prayer. I wanted to release this intrusive thought to the Lord.

And as I was praying, I felt the Lord say to me, Andrew,

trust me, I'm not testing you, I'm leading you. And that

gave me peace. That gave me peace of that intrusive thought, that puzzle

piece, because I released it to the Lord. Now, I gotta tell

you, I still have not made that decision that I need to, and

I don't have total peace about it yet. But I have a little bit

more peace today than I did yesterday, and I'll have a little bit more

peace tomorrow than I do today because peace by peace, I'm releasing those to

God, and he is meeting me piece by piece with his grace and with

his supernatural peace of mind. What are you gonna do with your puzzle pieces?

Will you release it to the grace of Jesus. I want to close

with one more story, and it's a story about an old song. And

you may even know this song, and you may even know the story behind

it. But it was a song written in eighteen seventy three by Horatio Spafford,

who was a successful businessman living in Chicago. But Horatio suffered some tragedy

in his life. In eighteen seventy one, he lost his youngest child to

pneumonia, and then later that same year he lost his business in the Great

Chicago Fire. Now, Horatio Spafford was a friend of the evangelist D.

L. Moody who was there in Chicago, And in eighteen seventy three,

Horatio Spafford and his family wanted to travel to England to help support D.

L. Moody's evangelism and preaching crusades over in Europe. Well, some business

matters came up and Horatio was detained, so he sent his wife and his

four daughters ahead of him to cross the ocean to England and he would follow

them later. And while his family was traveling across the Atlantic, they were

struck by tragedy when another boat collided with their vessel and the passenger vessel sank

in less than twelve minutes and two hundred and twenty six people died that day,

including Horatio's four daughters. His wife survived, and she was picked up

by a rescue vessel and take into Wales, where she sent a telegram back

to Horatio, and it said, saved alone. What should I do?

Immediately Horatio Spafford got on another boat and he sailed to meet his wife.

And as he was traveling across the ocean, he came to the place in

the ocean where they believed his daughters had passed away. And on that voyage

he wrote these words, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when

sorrow like see Billow's role. Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to

say, it is well, It is well with my soul. It's the

beginning of the well known hymn, it is well with my soul. Now.

I wish that I could tell you Horatio's life lived out like a fairy

tale, but that's not the case. After he was reunited with his wife,

they had more children together, but later one of his children passed away

from health issues. Again. Horatius Spafford's life was marked by dark moments,

depressed moments, seasons of grief, loss, disappointment, and he continued to

follow Jesus, and it was the supernatural peace of God that transcends all understanding.

They gave him the ability, in his darkest moment to write those words

that we still sing today, that bring comfort and peace to us today.

Now, your situation, your life may look a lot different than Horatius spaffords.

What you're going through is probably a lot different than what I've been through

and what I've shared about myself today. But no matter how different or diverse

our challenges and struggles are, there's one thing I know, and that is

our only hope is found in Jesus, or only peace can be found in

Jesus. Nothing in this world, nothing human or man made, is going

to bring peace to your mind like Jesus does. And I don't know what

your faith background is or your spiritual journey has been like, but I want

to tell you, I want to be very clear that Jesus is a God

who is not distant from your pain. He's not a god who's in heaven,

not a god who's in some other place ignorant of what you experience.

Jesus is a God who knows what your suffering feels like everything that you've been

through, everything that you've suffered, Jesus has felt it, and he's gone

through it, and he chose to do it because he loves you. And

there's a supernatural peace if you'll bring all of those broken, tattered, and

torn puzzle pieces to him. And so I want to invite us into a

moment of response. You're welcome to bow your head and close your eyes with

me. And first, if you're hearing this today and you realize that your

life is broken, that you are far from God, you are separated from

God, and today you want to be right with God. You want his

supernatural healing. If that is what you want today, then make a decision

to surrunder your life to Jesus. And you can make that decision simply by

praying this prayer after me in your heart, say, Dear God, I

admit that I'm a sinner and I need your forgiveness. I believe Jesus died

on the cross for me, and I believe he rose from the dead to

save me. Today I confess Jesus's lord of my life. I'm releasing all

of my puzzle pieces. May I receive your supernatural peace. And now let

me pray for all of us today, whether we've been following Jesus for a

short time or for many many years. Father, God, would you release

more of your supernatural peace over our hearts and minds. God, you promise

us that there is a peace that transcends understanding. There is a peace that

our co workers can't understand. There's a peace that our family won't understand.

There's a peace that we can't even comprehend. But God, we are seeking

it, we are reaching out for it. God. For the parent who's

troubled over over issues with their child, Bring peace. God. For the

marriage that is struggling, that is in difficulty, that's in term, Bring

peace. God. For the one who is just struggling with needs relief in

their mind, God, bring peace. And most of all, God,

for the one who's in a dark place, who's in a secret place,

who's in a place that they feel all for God, all alone, the

one who has isolated. God, would you bring peace? Would you bring

light into that dark place. All of our hope, all of our hope,

is found in Jesus. And so God, we are thankful and grateful

for the hope and the peace that we have because of Jesus, and it's

in his name. We pray Amen.