Peace on Earth

hey this is pastor john ryan Cantu from PNEUMA church in houston texas thank you for listening

to the message today i hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with god bless you

And then finally, I want to recognize Sister Leah. Leah, if you're back there, you can come out.

Because she, last minute, last week, I knew this was going to be a busy week for me.

And I asked her to bring the word this morning. And she said yes.

And I checked in on her yesterday. I said, how's it going?

As I do with many of y'all that I ask to preach, just in case y'all forget, you know, the night before, like, hey, you still got it, right?

and she said, I'm happy to serve.

So that's what it's about

and she's going to bring a fire word this morning.

Sister Leah, thank you.

Amen, amen.

Thank you, Pastor Ryan,

for the honor and the opportunity.

Go ahead and ask you guys to stand

so we can open up the word of God

and stand in reverence.

We're going to be reading out of Philippians 4,

Philippians 4:6–8

verses 6 through 8.

Again, thank you to our pastor

for the opportunity to minister, to speak to you guys.

I've mentioned before, singing, thank God,

is something I've been doing since I was three,

and I can probably sing in my sleep.

I don't know, ask my husband.

When I snore, I think it sounds like I'm singing.

Ah, I'm just kidding.

He says yes.

But preaching is another thing,

so it takes a little more investing into it,

but I know that God has a word for you guys.

Like I say all the time, I pray.

I'm like, God, okay, what do you have for your people today?

And this is what was placed on my heart.

So Philippians 4, 6 through 8, for those of y'all that don't have it, it'll be up there.

Maybe your spouse was rushing you out of the house or your mom or your dad and you left your sword at home.

It's okay, we got you.

Okay, Philippians 4, 6 through 8, and it says,

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,

let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Whatever is true, whatever is noble,

whatever is just, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is of good rapport,

if there are any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy,

meditate on these things.

Let's go ahead and pray.

Father God, at this time we come up to your presence.

We thank you for all that you've done and all that you can do.

Father, we know that you are in this place.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd be on my lips,

that it be you speaking through me

and that this word fall on fertile ground.

I come against all distractions,

any mind-binding spirits that are trying to keep this word

from penetrating into our hearts.

I rebuke it in the name of Jesus,

and I declare that this word bring fruit

in every life and every household represented in this place.

In the name of Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

All right, y'all may be seated.

So the title of my message is Peace on Earth.

And I was listening to Pastor Ryan's message from last week.

We weren't here.

We were out of town visiting family for Thanksgiving.

But I was listening to the podcast, and I was hearing him say that he doesn't like to preach on sermons based on the season.

And so I was like, well, neither do I.

And I reached out to Joel.

Shout out to Joel.

He's the one that does the graphics.

and he was like, okay, this is a Christmas sermon.

And I was like, 70-30.

70% no, but 30% maybe because I love Christmas and it's in there.

And the story of Jesus and our Savior, of course, it ties into everything.

So anyways, Joel, thank you for the graphics.

And thank you to Louis who's going to have the Bible verses for you guys throughout the sermon.

But so these Philippians 4, 6 through 8, what we find here to me is a prerequisite sandwich.

right the word of God is saying Paul here is saying do this and you will obtain this but don't

forget to add this right so he's saying do this pray and seek right and then you will get the

peace that passes all understanding but also include proper thinking right that's where he

speaks about in verse eight and so peace the definition of peace is freedom from disturbance

It is a state of tranquility.

When I was writing this sermon, I was thinking, okay, when's the last time I experienced peace?

Because now we have a two-year-old toddler at home.

And those of y'all that are parents, you know, but Pastor Melissa shifted my mindset today.

Now I get to play with JJ.

I don't have to, but no.

So the last time that I was remembering that I experienced a sense of peace, right?

And I mean, there's been other times since then, but my husband and I just celebrated three years of marriage.

this past Tuesday.

And when we were at our anniversary dinner,

we were going through pictures

and we were looking at the pictures

of when we went on our honeymoon

and how peaceful it was.

And it was even crazier to me

that you know how your phone does those memories

from years ago.

So the one from 2021 of December around this time

was the honeymoon.

And then December 2022, a year later,

we have a two-month-old in our hands.

And I'm like, oh, wait a minute.

This is not what I, when I was walking on that beach on our honeymoon, I was not thinking, I'll be a mother next year.

But that was when I experienced peace, right?

Freedom from disturbance.

I was tranquil.

I was calm.

Nothing could make me be irate.

But the Bible says, explains to us in these verses how to obtain not the peace that the world gives, but the peace of God.

And so verse 6, if we look over it again, it says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

So the word anxiety and worry, so be anxious for nothing.

Some translations say worry for nothing.

So they're used interchangeably in this verse.

So anxiety and worry are used interchangeably.

The opposite of peace is worry, right?

And the Greek word for anxiety is a mind divided.

So it's divided between legitimate thoughts and destructive thoughts.

And so how many of y'all are following me this morning?

There's some times that these destructive thoughts come into our mind and we entertain them.

If we entertain those destructive thoughts, those thoughts will choke out the word of God and will cause us to have a lack of trust.

How many of y'all have been there before, right?

Where that thought comes in, you start to worry, anxiety wants to set in, and instead of us knocking it down like the Bible says, and I'll refer to that Bible verse later, instead of knocking it down and setting it captive, we entertain it.

And then it gets bigger and bigger and has more power.

So it is a mind divided between the word of God, legitimate thoughts, and destructive thoughts.

Let me share with you this morning some facts about worry.

40% of the things we worry about never actually happen.

30 of our worries are related to past events beyond our control 12 of our worries have to do with non health conditions

So, my grandpa died of cancer, oh my gosh, it's in my genes.

My, what, no, non-existent health conditions.

10% of our worries are about our friends and neighbors

and not even based on evidence or fact.

Only 8% of our worries have basis in reality,

which means that over 90% of the things that we worry about, church, never happen.

So this week, my husband, and he asked, was I going to throw him under the bus?

But it's a good throw under the bus.

It's not a bad one.

And I remember when my mom would give class when I was in the youth group,

and I'm like, Mom, you always use me as an example.

Well, now I understand.

I'm sorry.

I apologize in advance.

And to our future children, I apologize to them.

But so this week he had a very stressful, a week full of worry, a week full of anxiety.

And I'll share with you, he's a truck driver.

He works at the port.

And so he has tires that need to be replaced.

And he's an owner-operator, so it's all on him.

He's got to replace it, or all on us, rather.

And so it's been a while that he's like, and these tires, and these tires.

But I also know that his dad created him to be a man that's like on top of everything.

And I'm like, do you really need these tires?

Like, do you really?

Do you really?

Because we can't afford them right now.

And so I'm always pushing it off, pushing it off, pushing it off.

And so he was stressing about his tires earlier in that week.

And then an incident happened.

He made a mistake at work and his job was on the line.

And I remember when he called me, he sounded very frantic.

And he said that he stated this.

He was like, they're going to fire me.

And I was like, well, wait, hold on.

you're giving the enemy an arsenal like you're putting bullets in his in his gun like you're

speaking this you're you're there's power in our tongue when y'all realize that to speak life or

to speak death and so this is this had already happened he's recounting the story by the time

he's telling me and so he's telling a co-worker of him and that co-worker thank you jesus look at

god that co-worker interceded on his behalf spoke to the hr the home human resource person and that

man basically told him, the human research person was like, look, if it wasn't for your friend who

told me all about you, then I would have fired you today. Like you were on my list to get fired.

So I praise God, right? Look at God. Look at how God is in the midst of everything. This would have

been a horrible time to lose his job, but he was faced with worry and anxiety. And when the problem

is anxiety and worry, the prescription is prayer and proper thinking. I'll say that again,

Write it down if you're taking notes.

When the problem is anxiety or worry, the prescription is prayer and proper thinking.

In everything, the Bible verse says, by prayer and supplication.

Some translations say by prayer and asking.

But the word supplication, when you dive into it, it means it's a pleading.

It's a seeking.

It goes beyond just a thoughtless prayer.

It goes beyond just repeating something.

It is a seeking. John 16, 33 says, I have said these things. These are red letters in your Bible.

It's Jesus speaking. I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace in the world.

You will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. So peace is found in Jesus.

How do we get in Jesus?

It is by prayer and seeking.

It's not simply coming to church on Sunday.

You're doing, this is a great start.

I commend you, but we got to take it an extra mile.

Pastor Ryan doesn't go home with you on Monday.

You don't have Pastor Damaris, Pastor Maritza speaking life into you on Tuesday.

You've got to be the one that prays and seeks in the word of God, seeks his presence to

obtain that peace that passes all understanding. Our future here on earth is uncertain, but we have

the certainty of his words that he has overcome. It says, in this world you will have trouble, but

take heart, I have overcome the world. And in Romans chapter 8, he also tells us that in him

Romans 8 · chapter mention

we are more than conquerors. How many of y'all believe that this morning? So verse 7, if we

dissect that one. Verse 7 says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard

your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. See, like I had mentioned earlier, there's a difference

between the peace that the world gives, earthly peace, and the peace of God. The peace of God,

Paul explains, it surpasses all understanding. The peace of God, sometimes it doesn't make sense.

I remember our first year of marriage, and I've shared it time and time again with you guys. My

husband was injured. There was no form of income from him and he was the breadwinner. And so I take

on a job. And so we're struggling to make ends meet. We're living paycheck to paycheck, but thank God

we made it paycheck to paycheck. We made every payment on everything that we owed. We made every

mortgage. We're not behind, but we saw God move in that midst. And I also saw a peace over my husband,

that peace that passes all understanding that peace that doesn't make sense i'll look at him

like are you of course you're not stressed i'm the one that sees all the numbers in the bank account

of course you're not stressed whatever xyz it was probably because he was praying and i was the one

not praying right peace that passes all understanding that's the kind of peace that god gives

John 14 27 says this again red letters peace I leave you my peace I give to you not as the world

gives do I give to you let not your heart be troubled neither let them be afraid you see

Christ's peace the peace that he is speaking about is the antidote to worry to fear to anxiety

full trust that the father the son and the holy spirit are in control and that they are working

on your behalf is how you get to that peace does that mean that all of life's troubles and life's

problems turn out the way we wanted them and change for the better i can't stand here and

tell you yes unfortunately it doesn't mean that but those who put their trust in the lord will

have a peace in the middle of those trials, in the middle of those difficulties. You see here,

Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It's before he's leaving. He knows he's about to die on that

cross. And he's speaking to a room of men that he knows in the future, because they decide to follow

him and proclaim his message, some of them are going to be crucified. Some of them are going to

be beheaded. Some of them are going to be stoned to death. Some of them are even going to be sawn

in half. So he is telling them in this world, he didn't say maybe you'll face trouble, John,

beloved. Maybe you'll face trouble, Peter. No, he's telling him in this world, you are gonna face

trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Take heart, I am giving you this peace,

not like the world gives it. It is peace that flows from me. He was speaking over them because

he knew what they were going to go through. We will have trouble in this world, Pneuma.

We are going to go through hardship We live in a fallen world I remember not my grandma that most of you all know from here I talking about my maternal grandmother I was very close to her We grew up in the valley with

her. She lived across the street from us. I was at her house all the time. And so when she was

diagnosed with cancer, of course, everybody joined in with the fast. Everybody joined in declaring

healing. And when healing didn't come, I had grown up in church. I was like Layla and Ellie and all

the little kids you see here, like little growing up in church, I knew the word of God. I had never

left the things of God. And when healing didn't come, I began to question like, isn't God good?

Did you not hear our plea? Why didn't you bring healing? Like she was the pastor of our church.

She was doing good. She wasn't living a bad life. Why didn't you heal her? But you can heal this

person. Why didn't you heal her? But you bring salvation or healing to this person. I don't

understand. And so I can't stand here and tell you that the Holy Spirit came down and I saw a vision

and God was like, this is why I took your grandmother. That didn't happen. But what I did get

was a peace. I chose to not live in that why, not to live in that bitterness, not to live in that

ugliness. I chose the peace of God. Again, that peace is not going to remove difficulty from your

life. That peace is not going to remove every trial, but it is peace while we pass through those

trials. Are you with me this morning? Notice the distinction that Paul makes between the heart

and the mind. He is careful. Paul is careful to separate the two because our heart, our heart is

known as the seat of will and affection. That is where, um, the seat of will and affection. Like

Yesterday in the SERV conference, a lot of the speakers highlighted Proverbs 4.23 that says,

Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it flows the rest of our lives.

Right?

So guard our hearts.

Our heart is the seat of will and affection.

As we pray, as we seek God, as we put him in the throne of our hearts, we begin to walk differently.

We begin to talk differently.

People start to begin to ask us, why don't you do this anymore?

And why are you doing this now?

We begin to act differently.

We are more receptive to the nudge of the Holy Spirit.

He starts to change our hearts.

He starts to change our minds.

And our minds, our mind is where understanding and reasoning reside.

So Romans 12, 2 says that to not conform to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

right? So when we pray, when we seek God and that peace that passes all understanding abides in us,

it says there in verse seven, that that peace will guard our hearts and our minds. So sometimes

it's not going to make sense. Most of the time, it's not going to make sense, right? Pastors,

a lot of times it's not going to make sense. We are not going to be able to understand it

or reason with it in our carnal mind,

but there will be peace in the midst of it.

Going back to the week that my husband had,

my in-laws are out there in Salvador.

That's where they're from,

and they take a few weeks out of the year

to go back to the motherland.

And they're out there,

and that day that my husband almost got fired,

he said that his dad called him,

and he was just speaking regularly.

They talk every day.

And he was like,

I know my dad knew something was up.

My dad has that discernment.

I know because when I was lost in the, this is my husband speaking, when I was lost in

the things of this world, in the things of the world, my dad used to call me and tell

me, you know, just talk to me.

And then when, whenever something bad happened, he'd be like, I knew it.

The Holy Spirit told me.

And my husband said that he would ask his dad, and why didn't you tell me?

And his dad would tell him, well, why don't you have discernment?

Why aren't you in the things of God?

Why aren't you seeking God?

You see, when we seek God, when we pray, we have that discernment.

We have, like I said, we are more receptive in our hearts and in our minds to the nudge of the Holy Spirit.

It brings peace, but also it brings other things when we seek him and when we pray.

Verse 8 says, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, some translations say right,

Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report.

Some translations say admirable.

Think of such things.

The Greek word for think is to ponder, to value, to put proper weight to.

So it's not just a quick thought that comes and goes.

Right?

It's something that we apply.

Something that we put weight to.

Isaiah 26.3 says,

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on you because he trusts you.

Those whose minds are stayed on you.

See, there's a difference, like I said, between coming on Sunday.

And I'm not dogging you.

I'm glad you came on Sunday.

I'm glad you chose to be here in the house of God.

But it goes so much beyond just listening to a Sunday sermon.

Church.

We live in a fallen world.

even from getting out of our house and praising God in the morning because we got to wake up

to getting on the highway here in Houston. I will mention it again because I'm from the valley. It

is a small town. We've got one highway that gets us from point A to point B and we only have exits

on one side of the highway. I get to Houston. We've got five or seven highways. You can exit on the

left and on the right. People are cutting you off and they don't know how to use your turning signal.

If this is you, my husband, then you need to use your turning signal because I don't know if you

want to come into my lane or not. I appreciate you using your turning signal if you do. But when we

leave our house, we automatically can lose this peace that passes all understanding. We can shift

our thoughts to stuff that aren't true, stuff that aren't noble, stuff that isn't lovely or pure of

good report. And so Isaiah here is telling us, though you will keep in perfect peace those who

put their minds that's put those who those whose minds stay on you we've got to choose to stay in

the word of God we've got to choose to stay in his presence we've got to choose from the morning

to the night to meditate on the things that are true noble right pure lovely and admirable here

Paul is giving us the guidelines to proper thinking. When a thought comes up that isn't true,

like we said previously with worry, it says 10% of our worries about friends and neighbors aren't

even based on evidence or fact. It's not true. 10% of the things we worry about. So if it isn't

true, knock it down. If it isn't noble, knock it down. If it isn't right, which a lot of things

I throw myself out there on Wednesdays.

I get to share with the Wednesday class in Spanish, and I'm always like, I came from a church in our youth group.

When we would have sermon time, it was hashtag real talk.

Okay, I grew up in the hashtag era.

Okay, don't judge me.

But hashtag real talk.

So that's how I am.

I am transparent.

I don't try to be anything that I'm not.

But I'm always transparent with them, and I tell them sometimes I walk into the office at work, and there are some thoughts in my mind that are not right.

I'm thinking about my coworker

and the things she just finished saying or the things that they just speaking about a patient or a patient family and I like what the heck this is not lovely this is not abnormal and this is the stuff

I'm playing in my head but we've got to knock down those thoughts right thinking will win the battle

against worry second Corinthians 10 5 says take captive every thought and make it obedient to

Christ. What are your thought patterns? And I know in psychology there's a phrase for this. I believe

it's, oh geez, we have, like it's our, like the way we're thinking, it's ingrained in us.

They're like thought, I don't know. They're thought patterns. They're things we've been

thinking about or the way we've been thinking since we were little and it's things we've got

to shift. We've got to change. We've got to intentionally, like I was saying earlier,

change those destructive thoughts into the thoughts of truth, proper thinking, the way

that Paul is saying here, proper thinking. Again, right thinking will win the battle against worry

and against anxiety and against stress. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up.

Jason, if you will help me on the keys. So this season, it can be very chaotic. It can be very

stressful. It can cause anxiety. It can cause worry. And as I was mentioning, I'm going to

mention Christmas. Here it goes. Here's the plug. I love Christmas. Christmas is my favorite season.

Of course, that's why I chose a Christmas wedding. Those of y'all that went, you know that it was

Christmas themed, but I love Christmas. And so this year, this year I volunteered, I'm pointing

at my stomach because seven, eight months pregnant, volunteered to host both families

at my house on separate occasions for Christmas. And I'm not saying that because I want to change

it. I love it. I'm still Gen Z, Haley. We're still doing my house. But I underestimated how stressful,

how anxious, how worrisome it was going to be to decorate a home with a toddler there, right? I'm

trying to put stuff up in the tree. He wants to help me. He's putting his cars and his McQueen

and his monster trucks on my tree and he's doing other stuff. And so anyway, I always have Christmas

music in the background while I'm decorating or while I'm doing anything in the month of December.

And when I was there, the Holy Spirit emphasized a phrase in a certain song. It says, peace on earth

and mercy mild. This is a song, hark the herald angels sing. And he emphasized that peace, that

those three words, peace on earth. And he reminded me, you're doing all this and it's beautiful.

Your house is going to look beautiful. The decorations are beautiful. And you, I maintain,

you know, the stable and I have the nativity scene. I don't just put Santa, I don't put Santa

Claus at all. Sorry. Santa Claus is real in your house. We'll pray for you. No, I'm just kidding.

But I don't do any of that. I just, you know, I decorate. And so anyways, the Holy Spirit was

saying, this is beautiful, but don't forget to have peace in the midst of this season. Don't forget

that I came to bring peace. And so I was like, okay, peace on earth. So it's like I said, from

the song, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It was originated as a hymn, believe it or not, written

by Charles Wesley in 1739. The original title was Hymn for Christmas Day. It is based out of Luke

verses 2, 8 through 14.

And for my fellow Charlie Brown lovers,

you're going to know these verses.

It says,

Now there were in the same country shepherds

living in the field by day,

keeping over their flock by night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them,

and the glory of the Lord shone round about them,

and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them,

Do not be afraid,

for behold, I bring you good tidings

of great joy for which will be to all people for there is born this day in the city of David a

savior who is the Christ the Lord and this will be a sign unto you you will find the babe wrapped

in swaddling clothes lying in a manger and suddenly there was with an angel's a multitude

of heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill

towards men. Peace on earth that day was brought because of the birth of Jesus.

To experience peace on earth today, it comes with prayer and right thinking. We've got to work at it

again because we live in a fallen world. To experience the peace that only God could give,

that peace that passes all understanding, that peace that keeps you calm even in the midst of

the chaos that this world can throw against you, the only way that we can experience that peace

is if we do our part. We've got to put in the work. And so this season, I encourage you as you

listen to your favorite Christmas music, may you stop to reflect the true reason why we are singing.

It is the good news of our Savior's birth. It is because he came down, and whether he came down

on January 25th or not is not important.

What we are celebrating is the birth of our Savior,

our Redeemer, who 233 years after that

gave his life on the cross.

And because of that, we have eternal life in heaven.

And as you listen to them,

I invite you to allow his peace to dwell in you.

Go ahead and stand.

I'm gonna ask the prayer team to come up.

and I want to make this altar call

to anybody or anyone

who has felt bombarded with worry.

If you are worried about the future,

if you are worried about a certain diagnosis

that you just fell upon,

if you're worried about the past,

about this Christmas season,

if you are worried about what 2025 is going to bring,

I encourage you to do step one today and pray.

Pray and invite his peace into your life.

That peace that surpasses all understanding,

that it would reign in your heart and in your mind

and that you would go out of this place

not the same that you walked in.

I encourage you to come on up.

The altar is open as the worship team sings the song.

just take the time to give it to God

to surrender it here

and allow his peace to reign

thanks for listening

if you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church

visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org

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Thanks again and God bless.