Elijahsha: Keep Calm

So we have been in a series over the last couple of weeks called Elijah Shah.

Elijah Sha Shah Shah Shah.

And um and we have been talking about the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

And if you have not had chance to listen to the first couple of messages, I really encourage you to do that.

They're super powerful and awesome.

You can go online, listen to it that way, or on the mobile app, you can listen to it that way.

But we're just gonna actually kind of dive right back into the story.

We're gonna pick up where we left off.

And in case you missed it or you need a refresher, last week we talked about how Elijah had come up to this widow's house and she had nothing, and he asked for her to feed him food, and she had no food.

All she had was a little bit of oil and a little bit of flour, but she gave everything she had to Elijah.

And God blessed them, blessed the widow and Elijah and her son, and gave them enough food, they didn't run out.

Okay, so we're just coming off of this miracle.

And we're gonna start reading about the story continuing today.

This is in chapter 17 of 1 Kings, verse 17.

It says, Sometime later the woman's son became sick.

She he grew worse and worse, and finally he died.

Then she said to Elijah, O man of God, what have you done to me?

Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?

But Elijah replied, Give me your son.

And he took the child's body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the body on his bed.

Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, O Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?

And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, O Lord my God, please let this child's life return to him.

Let me just pause for just a second there because I want to point something out.

In case you're thinking, that's weird.

He just took a dead body to his bed where he sleeps at night, laid it in his bed, and then laid his body over the dead body.

Okay?

If you think that's weird or creepy, you are in good company because the first time I read that, I'm like, well, that's strange.

I don't understand.

What is the purpose in that?

And then I did a little research and I realized, well, of course it seems strange to us because we do not mourn that way for the most part.

For the most part, here in our culture, when when we're grieving, it's it's a somber experience.

It's one that we kind of retreat and maybe go into a place, you know, privately and cry quietly.

But in the Hebrew culture, that was not how they mourned.

They mourned in a demonstrative way.

They would tear their clothes apart, off their body, in mourning and grief.

And a lot of times they would replace them with sackcloth, which was super uncomfortable, it is intended to be uncomfortable.

And they would sit in hot ashes, even pour hot ashes over their heads when they were mourning.

So the fact that Elijah took this dead body to his bed and laid his body over this dead body, it really is not bizarre or weird.

It's just a part of their culture.

So I wanted to point that out.

All right, back to verse 22.

The Lord heard Elijah's prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he revived.

Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother.

Look, he said, your son is alive.

Then the woman told Elijah, Now I know for sure that you are a man of God and that the Lord truly speaks through you.

I get fired up when I read scripture because I I it doesn't matter if I read a story or a verse 15 times.

It's like there are 15 different messages that God can show us when when we are reading it with an open heart and open mind and asking for him to speak to us.

He does.

There are so many different things in this story that we could talk about today that would be really meaningful for us.

We could talk about death and restoration.

We could talk about uh prayer, we could talk about faith, we could talk about God's character, we can talk about obedience, we could talk about the power of witnessing to other people.

I mean, there's so many things that we could talk about, and I'll tell you, I I prayed for weeks about this message before I even started writing anything down because there was so much there that I was kind of overwhelmed.

And I kept asking God, what is it that you want me to know?

What is it that you want all of us to know?

Like tell me what you want.

And it's funny because every single time I read this story, and I read it a lot, no matter what time of day it was, no matter what version of the Bible, what translation I was reading, every single solitary time, he kept pointing out this one detail to me over and over again.

And it's kind of crazy because it is the most subtle detail that it almost feels a little insignificant, but it's not.

And I realized that that one of the reasons it kept sticking out to me is because this message is for me today.

I just want you to know, going into it, this is something God has been working on in my life for my life.

And and thank God He has carried me a long way and helped me to grow.

But this is a message for me too, and I think that's one reason it stuck out, but I'm going with it because I think that you're human too, and maybe it'll help you too.

This is this is it, okay?

This detail is that Elijah didn't freak out.

He didn't freak out.

I mean, think about what's going on right now.

There is this woman, she's a widow, she doesn't have a husband.

She has opened up her door to this man and given him the very little tiny bit of food that she has.

She's given him everything.

He has promised her blessing in return.

And now her son, the only thing she has left, she has died.

And I we need to stop for a second and think about that because it's really easy to read a story and just kind of keep on going.

But she was a human being.

She was a mother, and I am a mother.

And I can't even imagine, and I don't want to spend too much time thinking about it, what that must have been like for her.

Her child has just died.

And I'm sure she just has been overcome with emotion.

She's probably physically mourning, and she is probably crying like so intently that she doesn't even know if she herself is going to survive.

That is how I think I would feel if I were going through what she was going through.

And here is Elijah sitting there in this moment with this woman.

Not only is she mourning the death of her child right then and there, but she blames Elijah.

She pretty much blames him, saying that this is his fault, that it's his fault that her son has died.

And I am blown away at how Elijah responds.

He is so calm.

He just says, give me your son.

He's so calm.

He doesn't melt down, he doesn't lash out, he doesn't lose his temper, he doesn't get defensive, he doesn't get defensive.

It is amazing.

Justin was talking last week about how we have these typically we have these three responses to crisis moments.

You know, it's fight, flight, or freeze.

And how consistently Elijah chose this fourth response, and that is faith.

He chose faith.

Elijah didn't freak out.

Elijah stayed calm.

And every time I read that story, I just thought about us.

I thought about us, like in our life today.

I thought about what it's like to live today.

And honestly, there's so much to freak out about.

There's so much to panic about.

There's so much happening in our world so fast, so out of control.

I mean, just last Monday, all those tragic events in Las Vegas, it's like, what in the heck is going on?

You know, and it's overwhelming and it's scary.

But but even if it's not a tragic loss that we're facing in in you know, other parts of the country or in our own lives, I mean, it's just daily life of being a human being on this earth that can cause us to panic and to freak out.

You know, just unexpected things happening, you know, that you didn't plan for and you don't have time for, and and and conflict in our relationships and and and issues at work and and and problems, problems with our finances, and and traffic.

Traffic! Traffic is enough.

Yes, see, you relate.

Traffic is enough to make us freak out.

You know, for me, just in full transparency, my my freak out, my panic, it very much is about when I feel overwhelmed.

When I feel like I have too much on my plate, even if it's all good stuff and even if it's the right stuff, you know, that God wants me to have, if I don't feel like I have control over it, I I get into panic.

I really, really do.

And you might be sitting there right now thinking, okay, I mean, I hear you saying freak out, and that seems like this very like outward expression.

And it can be.

Freaking out can be lashing out, but not necessarily.

Because we all freak out.

That's the truth.

We're humans.

That's why we need Jesus.

We all freak out and we all panic.

It just looks different sometimes.

For some of us, our freaking out might be lashing out.

For others of us, sometimes when we freak out, we stuff.

Just stuff it right back down.

Just push it in that closet and kick it underneath that that rug, right?

Or we retreat, we withdraw, we close everybody out.

Everything's fine.

No, I'm good, I'm good.

Or we become passive aggressive.

But I I'm telling you, that is freaking out as well.

And I I don't blame any of us because this world, it's it's it's it's crazy.

It's crazy, and it seems like everything is so out of control the time.

And Jesus even promised, one of his promises is that we're gonna face troubles in this life.

It's like, great, well, that's awesome.

Thanks.

What am I supposed to do with that?

But I know that I know that I know that I know that I know.

That I know that we are meant to have a life where we can walk in peace.

I know that.

I know that.

The Bible talks about it all the time.

I know that when I'm really in sync with the Lord, I the Lord, I feel that peace with me.

We are meant to have that peace.

Regardless of what mess is going on around us.

That's what we're meant to have.

That's what Jesus died for.

For us to have, not just the peace in eternity, here too, as well.

That's the good God that He is.

And I want that peace.

I want that peace that says, you know what, Elon, no matter what you've got going on in your life, no matter who said what to you, or who thinks what, or no matter what's not working out, or no matter what expenses come, no matter what, it's gonna be okay.

I want that kind of peace.

The Bible talks so much about it.

One of my favorite verses about that peace and what that feels like, and the results of that comes to us in Proverbs 14, verse 30, and it says, A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body.

Proverbs 14:30

Not just a physically healthy body, although it's that too, but it's mental, emotional, spiritual.

That's what I want.

That, does anybody else want that?

Yeah.

That is what I want.

That is what I want.

I I I truly want that kind of peace.

And and the truth is, is that I did used to freak out a whole lot in my life.

I really did.

Um, a lot.

God has grown me, but um, but just you know, share a story with you about that so you can so you can know for sure that I'm telling you the truth.

Um, see, I I did use to freak out, and then I had this light bulb moment.

So Tab and I, my husband Tab, we've been married for almost 15 years, and we had just gotten married, and if you have ever been married or you're married now, um, that first year of marriage, it can be challenging.

All right.

Then some honest, thank you, Melissa.

Some honest people.

Um, so so that first year of marriage, it can be challenging, and it makes sense.

It makes sense.

You're just learning how to live with someone, how to make big decisions together, how to how to deal with your finances together, how to argue together, how to how to work things out, how to how to just be together, how to live life together.

And and I mean it can get messy, and and we were really young, and on top of all of that, I was not yet a Christian.

I became a Christian kind of toward the second part of that first year.

So you take, you know, a woman who's just like basically now, just for the first time, a woman, and and and learning what it is to be a wife, and she's not a Christian, and it's like it can get a little hairy if I'm being honest.

Um, and so so here we are, tab and me.

Woo-hoo! We just got married, we bought a house, we've been married for like three months, and I wanted to be a good homeowner.

I I wanted to be responsible, and I heard somewhere from someone, you are supposed to have air filters.

Air filters are, I didn't know what they were, but I knew you were supposed to have them.

I didn't know where they went, but I had a husband now, and so that's something that he should know how to do.

So I went and I got two air filters, and I said, Here are these things.

And he said, I know what to do with them, and I will take care of it.

And I was like, Awesome, thank you very much.

Well, I knew I knew that the air filter, you know, went up in the attic.

That's all I knew.

All right, so I gave it to him, and that was that.

So a week goes by, and and I come home and the air filters are still sitting there, you know, and okay, I mean, things happen, people get distracted and they're busy or whatever.

But I mean, I like to get things done right away.

And so I'm like, let me help him out, because he may have forgotten.

So I'm trying to be a good wife, and I and I take the air filters, and I'm like, hmm, I'll put them right by the front door.

So when he first comes in, he's like, before I relax, I'm gonna go and put these air filters up.

Well, I don't know, a week goes by and the air filters are still there.

So I'm like, okay, no problem.

He must have missed it.

So I take the air filters and I put them by his chair at the table.

Because that's two times a day I know he's gonna see it, breakfast and dinner.

Right?

So I put them there at the table, another week goes by.

Now, at this point, I mean, I'm still happy.

I just married the guy.

Like, he's cute, and I'm like, this is fine, but you need to change these air filters.

And I'm trying to figure out this way to not be nagging.

So, but he I don't know what else to do.

So I'm like, I will just keep strategically placing these air filters until he figures it out.

So I take the air filters and I put them on the stairs because Tab always puts his stuff on the stairs before he goes up, and then he takes everything up to his bedroom or our bedroom.

And so I did.

I put it right there with his stuff.

Do you think that they were there the next day?

Yes, they were.

So I pick them up, and at this point, now, you know, I'm I'm I'm irritated.

And so I take them up and I put them in front of the laundry room because the laundry room is where we go into to pull down the thing.

The ladder.

That's what it is.

The ladder, and and that's where it goes.

So I was like, I'll put it there.

And so then when he when he turns the corner, he'll see them there, and oh yeah, that's right, I was supposed to do that thing.

Nope.

Mm-mm.

Now we're like a month or so into this, okay?

And Elon is like, I give grace, I give grace, and then I just blow a gasket.

And I'm just, I'm just like, I can't even deal with this.

I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, and I'm sorry, but I'm just being real with you.

So this day comes and I'm like, oh, I know what I'm gonna do.

I'm putting these air filters right there laying up against the bed.

So he has to literally walk over them to get into our bed at night.

He is gonna change these air filters.

And so a couple days go by, whatever, and I walk in and and there are the air filters.

And there's my husband sitting in bed reading a magazine, just relaxing.

And y'all, I lost it.

I lost my mind.

I lost my mind.

I'm like, Dab, when are you going to replace these air filters?

Well, apparently, all these weeks, he was getting irritated with me.

He took those air filters and he literally started ripping them and twisting them.

And all the time he's looking at me, he's like, I'll tell you when I'm gonna replace those air filters.

Now, what I didn't tell you in the beginning of the story is that the reason I had to come upstairs was because I was changing a light bulb in our room.

So I walk into the room holding this light bulb, and there I see my two air filters, and there I see my smug, albeit very cute, husband looking at me with these shredded air filters.

And then I look down in my hand and I see the light bulb, and I remember I used to be a softball player.

I probably shouldn't laugh because this is really not good.

Okay, but we can laugh for now because Tab and I are still together and we're all and I'm saved, I know Jesus, so we're gonna be fine.

Y'all, I you I should have been a professional athlete.

The velocity at which and accuracy that I threw this light bulb that my husband said, it was incredible.

It was incredible.

I'm not proud of it, except for the fact that I had really, really a strong, accurate aim.

I'm really thankful my husband has such great reflexes because he like literally moved his head forward three inches, maybe, and that thing just shattered behind him.

I mean, there was glass everywhere.

I'm really not proud of it.

There was glass everywhere, all over the place, in our bed, on the floor, in his hair.

There's still, we have a wooden headboard, there's still scratches in the wood from that light bulb.

I'm telling you the truth.

And now we can laugh about it, you know, thank God.

And I and I and I promise you that I have grown so so much.

Later on that year, you know, I did.

I really, Jesus like took a hold of me and my life changed.

And and I am not throwing light bulbs anymore.

Pray, yes, way to go, Elon.

It doesn't mean I don't think about it.

I do think about it, but Jesus gives me a spirit of self-control.

And so I hold on to the light bulbs and I don't throw them.

Um, but but really he has.

He's grown, he's grown me and have so much.

And that's because honestly, God is at the center of our marriage.

He is at the center of our marriage, and everything we do, we do with him at the center, and God just continues to grow us closer to him and closer to each other, and it's awesome.

And life is still challenging.

We still have challenges in our relationship, we have challenges in life.

You know that.

I mean, it's life is hard.

Just earlier this year, we had all of these incredible expenses happen at one time.

We had um a pipe burst in our garage, and the whole ceiling fell down.

We had two trees that died that needed to be taken out, and they were huge trees.

So that was expensive.

We had a broken toilet, we had a broken washing machine, we had a broken air conditioning unit, and we had a broken freezer.

And I'm talking, this all happened pretty much at the same exact time.

It was it was a lot.

But you would be happy to know that I was very calm.

There were no light bulbs, no light bulbs thrown.

And honestly, I'm I'm joking about all of this, but but I am trying to point out something that's really important, and that is the fact that what God can do with us and how he can grow us, because a life with Jesus is one that is a is a continual process.

We're continually growing.

He's continually showing his patience and love and grace on us and growing us, and and it's really amazing how far he can take us.

It it really blows my mind.

And so let's talk about Jesus for just a second.

Because that's what it's all about.

That is who it's all about.

It's all about Jesus.

Everything is about him.

Everything in the Old Testament, everything in the New Testament, everything we're talking about, everything in our life, it's it's all an arrow just pointing directly at him.

And I I love I love him.

And I just I love talking about him, and and I love what who he is and what he represents.

And, you know, one of the things that Jesus, when I think of Jesus, I think about is how calm and controlled he always he always was.

And you might be thinking, well, he wasn't always control in control, was he?

Because I remember he got angry and he flipped over these tables in the temple courts.

I mean, what was that all about?

But the reality there is Jesus did not lose his control.

He he did not react out of emotion.

He was loving, he was he was being loving, he was complete control of his emotions.

That was an act of love.

But really, you see him walking through life and through his ministry, and he was always he was always calm.

Always.

And the other thing about Jesus is he was a man, he was a human being, and it brings me great comfort because I know that he understands me.

He understands me.

When I'm having a bad day, and I just I'm overwhelmed.

Or when there's so many people who need something from me, or or when things aren't going my way, Jesus understands, he understands you.

He understands what you are going through no matter what it is, because he lived on this earth too.

And he had hard days too.

There was one in particular in Matthew 14.

This day was a crazy day.

Crazy day for Jesus, and I love the way he responded to every single moment of it.

In the beginning of this story in Matthew 14, Jesus learns of the death of his dear friend and cousin John the Baptist.

He had been murdered.

I mean, if you've ever lost someone and you hear that news for the first time, it is it's overwhelming.

Jesus was grieving for his family member.

But he was calm.

He didn't lose it.

Look at verse 14, I'm sorry, 13 in chapter 14 of Matthew.

This is how he responds after he hears the news that John the Baptist has been killed.

As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

I just, he's so calmly.

It's not that he wasn't grieving and so sad, but he he didn't freak out.

He just he got in this boat and he went to be alone with the Lord.

And then he sails onto the other side of the water.

And there at the other side of the water, okay, in the same day, he's just gotten this horrible news.

There are thousands of people who are waiting there at the shore for him to do something for them.

They want to be healed, they want their sicknesses to be healed, and they're waiting there for Jesus.

Now, I don't know, but I'm guessing you've probably had an experience like I have where you've had a hard day.

Okay, everybody needs something from you.

You walk in that front door at home, and nobody cares what kind of hard day you've had because now mom is home, or now husband is home, or now dad is home, or mom or wife, and and now there are needs that need to be met.

You know, or you go to work and home life is is stressful, or you've got stuff going on in your personal life, and you go into work and nobody, I mean, they care, but they don't care because they need something from you.

Well, these people are doing the same thing.

They're standing there needing something from Jesus, and I love how he responds.

Just imagine how peaceful and calm this response is.

In verse 14, Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

After all of that, everything he's got going on, he had compassion on them.

He showed love, he gave them what they needed.

Not only did he heal their sick, not only did he give them what they what they asked for, but he also spent hours teaching them.

Hours teaching them.

So then so then a few hours later, it's time for dinner.

Everybody's stomachs are growling.

Did anybody here ever get hangry?

It's a thing.

Like that so perfectly explains that feeling, because I I can get that feeling.

Like, if I'm like, I need something to eat, you know, give me something to eat.

And And God, Jesus, yes, he was God, but he was a human being and he experienced hunger.

And I would have not blanked him if he had been like, I have had a day.

The lesson is over, class dismissed.

Go eat your food.

I'm gonna go eat.

But he didn't.

And then this incredible miracle of feeding 5,000 people happened.

Actually, it was more than 5,000 people.

Actually, he took those loaves and those that that bread and he multiplied it for probably more like 10 to 15,000 people because the 5,000 were just the men, but there were women and children there too.

So then Jesus is feeding all of these people.

And as if that's not enough, he sends them home, he tells his disciples to go get in a boat, and then Jesus himself, he goes, he goes up into the hills and he prays.

And at three o'clock in the morning, I mean, what kind of a day is this?

At three o'clock in the morning, there's a storm, and he sees his friends need help.

And I have never walked on water, but I would imagine it's exhausting.

Thank God I'm not Jesus, because there'll be a bunch of light bulbs all over the water there floating.

But Jesus just walks right out there on the water and he helps his friends, and it just blows my mind.

So we get it, Elon.

We're supposed to be calm when we're going into issues.

That's great.

I know that in my mind, but that doesn't really help me.

Because honestly, that's what I said to God.

When he kept showing me that this is about being calm, I'm like, okay, great, I got you, God, but how?

How?

Because I need to know how.

It does not help me to say I'm supposed to be at peace.

I need to know how.

And he is so amazing how he answers that question.

In these two stories.

See, Elijah and Jesus don't just have one thing in common of how they handle these situations of being calm.

They have something else, and I would even say it's more important that they have in common.

And that is that regardless of what part of the story I'm talking about, every time they went straight to God.

Watch.

1 Kings, back in that first part of that story.

This is this is verse 19.

Okay, this is right after this boy dies.

Right after this woman is blaming Elijah, blaming Elijah for the for her son's death.

And here's what it says.

Listen how calm he is.

But Elijah replied, Give me your son.

And he took the child's body from her arms, carried him up to the up the stairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the body on his bed.

Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, Oh Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?

And then he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord.

Oh Lord my God, please let this child's life return to him.

Oh my gosh, this is so amazing.

I don't know if you caught this.

It took me a minute to catch it.

But do you realize that there in that moment when this son died?

Why didn't he just stop right there and try to help him?

Why didn't he just stop right there and like do CPR or like open the window and call for someone to help?

Or look at the widow and say, What are we supposed to do?

He didn't cry, he didn't do anything.

You know what he did?

He picked up his burden, he picked up his problem, and he took it to the only person who could actually do anything about it.

He took that problem, he took that child straight to the Lord.

Straight to the Lord.

That's what he did.

And it it blew my mind when I realized that.

Because how often do we want to go straight to God, but we don't?

How often do we pick up the phone, you know, call everybody we know?

Well, we can't get a hold of anybody, and then we start panicking.

Who am I gonna talk to?

Who's gonna help me through this?

How often do we do we whine?

You know, do we get into a mode of like, this is not helpful, I'm complaining now, and I'm not feeling grateful, and it's just like this, it just is a spiral down.

How often do we do that?

I do it, I do it all, I do it all the time.

I don't, I hate to admit it, but it's true.

I'm human.

You know, how often do we do we do we post, you know, on Facebook?

And I'm not trying to be negative, but I I do, it is something worth bringing up.

How often do we bring our problems to people who can't do anything about it?

It doesn't mean that we don't have one another for a reason.

We do, we do, and it's important, but God is first.

Bring it straight to God.

But Elijah's not the only one who did this, Jesus himself did it.

Jesus was God.

Jesus didn't need to bring his request to God, because he was God, which tells me that this is an example for us.

He's showing us here in the loving way that he does of what we are to do so that we can have that peace and calm.

Like in the beginning of that story with Jesus, when he finds out about John the Baptist's death, in that verse 13, when I was telling you, when he finds out, what did he do?

He calmly, he went and got in a boat and he went to be alone, alone with God, to be with God.

And then when all these thousands of people are needing to eat, what did Jesus do?

Well, look at verse 19, 18 and 19.

He's saying, Bring them here.

He's talking about the fish and the loaves.

Bring them here.

Then he told the people to sit down on the grass.

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them.

He didn't need to do that.

He didn't need to do that.

Which tells me that he was relying on God the Father.

He went straight to God.

He went straight to God.

But my favorite part of this whole morning, it's what I've been waiting all week to tell you, is what happens next.

When the storm is about to come.

Jesus, he has sent everybody back home.

He has sent his disciples into a boat.

And Jesus goes into the hills and he prays.

I don't have this on the screen, but it's verse 23, and it says, He went up into the hills by himself to pray.

Night fell while he was there alone.

So Jesus left after dinner time and he went and he went alone and he prayed to the Lord until 3 o'clock in the morning.

And I'm sorry, but I do not think that it is a coincidence that God reversed the order in this particular example.

See, before it was stay calm and go straight to God.

But this, Jesus had spent all this time with the Lord, and then the storm came.

I'm blown away by that.

Because, yes, it is helpful to say I'm supposed to stay calm and go straight to God.

But what happens when I'm not thinking about staying calm?

Well, here is, I think, his answer to us, and that is spend time with God.

The more time that we spend with God, the more he fills us and equips us for what's up ahead.

He knows what's up ahead.

We do not.

There are storms.

Jesus promises that we're gonna have trouble in this life.

I'm not trying to be negative, but we know we've lived long enough that there are troubles.

But here's the thing is God will give us everything we need to face everything we're going to face.

And he just wants us to spend time with him because he will equip us for everything that we need.

And it gives me such hope.

It gives me such hope that, like, yeah, okay.

And I see what a difference that makes in my life.

When I start my day off, just focusing on God and asking him, asking him, it's okay to say, God, equip me for what's up ahead today.

I need your help.

I don't know what's up ahead, but you do.

Thank God that you do.

Please give me what I need.

We should start our days off that way, and it's it's powerful.

Elijah and Jesus are wonderful examples for so many different reasons.

They are just as much a wonderful example of peace, of peace and what that looks like.

And listen, I I don't know if I said this, if it was this service or first service or what, but the truth is that this this message, I really feel like God was talking to me first.

He has been really working this over in me.

It's been a hard week.

Just being really honest, I've been really, it's been a hard week.

This is heavy stuff in my life, and I didn't feel like super equipped to tell you this is what we should do when I myself am like, oh, I'm freaking out a little bit.

But he has just spoken to me so much this week, and I just I'm passionate about it, and I want to share it with you because I believe that this is how we have a successful life.

One of the ways, and it's ours.

It's ours.

And so if if we walk away today remembering nothing else, I just think it's so wise for us to literally go into the to the to the week just saying one thing over and over and over again.

Just to remember, keep calm and go straight to God.

Keep calm and go straight to God.

And ask him, God, help me, help me to keep calm and come straight to you.

I've been thinking about Justin's message from last week.

Worship team, you guys can come on out.

We're gonna do something a little bit different here to close out, but um, I have been thinking about Justin's message from last week all week long, and he was talking about um giving everything to God, and he used a verse in Proverbs saying to commit, to commit our actions to the Lord, and that that word commit means to roll away.

It's not like, you know, hunker down and work a little harder, you know, do it for the team.

It's it's not like that.

No, it's it's roll it away, roll it away and give it to God.

And one thing that I one of the main ways that God has grown me in my almost 15 years of being a follower of his is this practice of every morning.

I I do, I try to spend some time, and I do.

I try to to commit, I try to roll all that stuff to him.

You know, just roll it away and give it to him.

And and we're a church.

And and I just I just think we should spend some time doing that in our own hearts right now.

This is a safe place.

God knows what's on your heart, he knows what you're dealing with, and I just I just want to spend some time just in our hearts, just rolling, rolling away, commit, rolling away those things that you're carrying, roll away the worry that you have, roll away your financial struggles, roll away the things that you need to forgive that person who really hurt you.

Roll away your need to want to be approved, to be accepted, roll away the striving, stop, let it go.

Roll away any kind of performance, roll away worry, roll away the anger, roll away holding it in, roll it away and give it to God, give it to the one who actually can do something about it.

In our hearts right now, just roll it away to him, just roll it away to him.

He wants to take it, his hands are open.

So close your eyes if you want.

Just want to spend a few moments just quietly, just give it to him.

Give it to him, and then I'll pray.

And that's me.

It's us.

All around us, that storm, all our problems, everything's all around us, intimidating us, worrying us, filling our thoughts, holding us back from the life you really want us to live.

It's taking away any kind of peace and calm, God, because we're focusing on those waves.

And just help us right now to take our eyes off the waves.

And to look at you.

Because there you are.

You're here with us.

In the midst of it, you have come out to us, you have pursued us, and here you are.

Help us to see you.

Help us to be bold and step out of that boat.

God, when we start to sink, help us not just stay there.

But to keep our focus on you, to reach our hand out to your hand, reached out to us, and just grab a hold, Lord, and trust you.

And to walk on that water with you.

Those are the moments we want, Lord.

We want more of that.

God Jesus, thank you for the example of you and how you handled life.

Thank you for caring enough to live a life that we can relate to and that we can remember that you understand.

And and God, I just pray that this week, as we go into our our week, as we as we face what we're gonna face, as we question what we're gonna question, is all that stuff.

God, I just help us to remember to keep calm and to come straight to you, to just run to you.

Nowhere else, but to you and to trust, to trust you that you've you got the answer.

You got the answer, you got the strength, you've got everything we need.

And I just pray that we'll walk out of here feeling light, hope, love, you.

I love you, God, and I thank you, I thank you, I thank you, I thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen.