Real Peace

Amen.

You know, if if I haven't said welcome to you, if you're here for the very first time, welcome.

Every single Sunday we get together, we do a few things that are really important to us.

Number one, we worship Jesus.

We just got done doing that.

We worship him because we believe that he is the answer for life, that Jesus has everything that we truly need.

And it's only that it's only by coming to him, and through coming to him, that we get this incredible, life-changing relationship with God.

And so we sing these songs to worship him.

We believe he deserves it.

We we dive into the Bible, we read scripture together, we ask God to speak to us because we want to live life to the fullest.

And we believe that God teaches us how to do that.

And we pray because we believe God answers prayer.

And I know that we're all from different places, and there's many of us that have been following Jesus for 30 years.

There's many of us that aren't even sure about God yet.

But what we hope and what we desire more than anything else is that we would all just be open.

And that God would speak to us and that God would fill us with His love.

Because it's when we encounter the real love of God that everything starts to fall in line.

So that's what we hope happens for you.

And I know we've already prayed a bunch of times, but we we do believe in prayer.

And so I would like to pray one more time and just ask God to speak to us in this moment.

So, God, uh, we need you to speak to us.

We need you to teach us, God.

I don't have the wisdom, I don't have the words, but you do.

And so I just pray that as we talk about who you are and what you offer us and what you do for us, I pray that you would speak directly to people's hearts, that you would give every single person in this room what they need to walk out of here more prepared for the life that you have.

And we pray this in your name of Jesus, amen.

Anyone uh completely and totally devoid of stress this morning?

Anybody have no stress?

You're out, you're good, you came in.

Were you guys whistling when you came in this morning?

Because that's always how I picture when you when you have no stress in your life.

I just I imagine you just whistle as you as you walk around.

Like I don't whistle much, and I think if I had no stress, I would at the very least whistle more.

There'd be more whistling in my life.

It it's it's pretty hard to find someone who has no stress.

Because we live in a pretty stressful world, and there's always something to be worried about, there's always something to be afraid of, there's always something to panic about, there's always some looming disaster, right?

There's always something.

Have you ever been overwhelmed by stress, like consumed by it?

Had a moment in life where stress got the best of you and you turned into someone that you you would rather not be because stress just took over.

That happens to all of us from time to time.

It happens to me as well.

About a year ago, I had this moment where I just I I lost it.

The you know that phrase, the straw that broke the camel's back, like the last straw, that kind of thing.

My mother-in-law was born in Bolivia, so Spanish was her first language.

Sometimes she will say phrases and they just don't come out right.

And so one time she said, Oh, it was that string that killed the camel.

And we were like, What?

String kill.

She's like, you know, you put the little string on the camel and it dies.

We find like later, we were like, oh, the straw that broke the camel's back.

That's what she was trying to say.

Like one of those types of things.

So I was in this season of life about a year ago where I just felt like I could not solve any problem that I was dealing with.

Like all the problems in my life were just too big for me.

I didn't have the wisdom, I didn't have the authority, I didn't have the knowledge, and so there was stuff going on at work, just too much for me.

I couldn't figure out what to do.

There was stuff going on at home, way too much for me, no idea what to do.

I have three children, they're nuts.

And so, like, sometimes, and I'm just being honest, sometimes I will get home from work and I will open the door and I'll just hear the volume in the house, and I'll wonder, do they know I'm here yet?

Because I could totally just shut the door and like traffic's really bad.

I'll be home and I just need a few minutes to prepare for what I'm walking into.

I just I felt like home was crazy, work was crazy.

I had some relationships in my life that are very important to me, and and they were just kind of off, and I didn't know how to progress.

And I felt like no matter what I was trying to do, everything was just too much.

And so I was stressed out, and stress was starting to consume me.

And then there was this one moment where it all came to a head.

This was the straw, this was the the last straw.

My son broke a toy.

Now I did not get mad at my son when he broke this toy.

It was this little$15 toy that I'd gotten him that he was playing with, little piece of plastic, not some rare thing, not some expensive thing, but it broke.

I actually got excited when he broke the toy.

That might make me seem like a terrible parent, but here's why.

Because finally I felt like here's a problem I can solve.

I'm dealing with all this stuff at work and home life, and finally, finally, here is this problem I can solve.

I can be the hero for my son.

All I need is some glue, and I can I can actually check something off a list and feel like I accomplished something.

And so I looked at Liam and I said, dude, no big deal, just bring it to Daddy.

Daddy can fix this.

And I got some glue and I glued it, and I said, Hey, in the morning, it's gonna be as good as new.

And so in the morning, he got up and he played with her for about two seconds and it broke again.

And I was like, no, no, this is okay, because we can bring out the big guns.

There are certain types of glue that you save for special occasions, and so I I brought out, you know, the the good glue, the intense stuff, the stuff that you're supposed to wear like a mask when you use it, and and and we use that, and I'm thinking, man, this surely this is gonna work.

But the next day it broke again.

And and here's this one little dinky problem.

It's such a small thing in this in this sea of huge problems that I feel like I'm dealing with, all this stress.

Here's this one tiny little problem, and I can't even solve this.

I can't even fix this.

And so I became I became consumed with fixing this toy.

Like I'm I'm just being honest.

I took a personal day off of work to research adhesives and to drive around Atlanta looking for a very specific type of glue because I was I was going I was going to fix this stupid toy.

And I know it was crazy.

Megan saw it.

Megan actually talked to me.

She was kind of nervous.

She was like, hey honey, I uh I just you seem pretty invested in fixing this toy.

It was it's like$15.

There's a Walmart right down the street.

You can just go to Walmart, buy a new one, and I like turned and kind of snapped and said, No, no, I'm I'm gonna fix this toy.

Like, don't do not take this away from me.

I need this.

And so I I finally found this shop that had this one crazy specific type of adhesive that works underwater and it was like developed by NASA scientists, and and and I needed a little tube of it, and he said it's$60 for this little tube.

And I was like, sold.

I do not, this was not about my son's toy anymore.

This was completely about me.

This was all about whatever I needed to do.

He could have said$120, I would have, I would have thought twice, but I still probably would have done it.

Because I just need, I needed, I needed to fix something in my life.

I needed to be able to have some sense of victory so that I could have at least a little bit of peace.

And it did fix the toy, by the way.

It's just that two weeks later he lost interest in the toy and hasn't played with it since, because that's what kids do.

But again, this was not about my son, this was about me.

Sometimes we find ourselves dealing with so much, sometimes we're not even aware of all that we're dealing with.

And there will be this moment where it all comes to a head, and we realize in those moments how little peace we actually have, and how stressed out we really are.

Because there are so many stressors in this world, and peace, peace is about as elusive as it gets.

And we our world doesn't even understand peace.

You can't find it.

We have these ideas about peace.

Peace is something you get whenever all your problems are gone.

That's kind of how our world sees peace.

It's kind of like a military peace.

Peace is the absence of conflict.

And so we find ourselves always always imagining some scenario in life where finally all of our problems will be gone.

We'll have great health, our marriage is great, relationships are great, kids are great, work's great, retirement accounts are great, because we all have retirement accounts, right?

All of it's great.

I don't.

But but in our minds, we we're we're like, we're thinking of this moment.

And maybe, just maybe in this moment, when everything is solved and everything's good, then I'll have some peace.

And you may have actually found yourself at some point in time promising the people around you that that moment's coming.

You find yourself saying things like, I know it's been nuts for the last decade, but I I feel like, you know, hey, just after this month, when we finally get over this hurdle, when we finally finish this, work's gonna start to slow down, life's gonna slow down, we're gonna get this solved, and then we'll be able to relax, then we'll be able to breathe.

You ever find yourself trying to convince others and convince yourself that that day is coming when all your problems will be solved?

Because our our minds believe that it's when your problems are gone that you'll finally have peace.

That's what we we believe.

The problem though is it seems like every time you solve one problem, another one pops up, and sometimes it's a two for one.

So, how are you ever supposed to have actual peace when there's no such thing as an absence of conflict?

See, there's a different kind of peace that God gives us.

It's real peace.

We've been talking about all the real things that God has for us for the last month and a half: real love, real purpose, real wisdom, real rest, real hope.

There's this kind of peace that God gives us, and it's it's not like the carrot on the stick, peace that the world offers, this peace that's elusive because you've always got to solve one more problem to get to it.

It's a peace you can actually have in the midst of your problems.

The Bible speaks to this.

This is Psalm 85.8.

The psalmist wrote, I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people.

Psalm 29.11 says, The Lord gives his people strength, the Lord blesses them with peace.

Galatians 5.22 talks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, these are the things that grow in your life when you're connected to God.

The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives love, joy, peace, and then a variety of other amazing things.

But notice that peace makes the top three.

The Bible says elsewhere that the peace of Jesus is meant to rule in our hearts.

And Jesus actually promised us difficulties.

Terrible salesman Jesus was.

He promised us that if we would follow him, that we would actually have many troubles.

Jesus said, on my account, because of me, you will have many troubles, and yet we're having peace.

So obviously, the peace that Jesus is talking about, the peace the Bible is speaking of, is not a peace you have in the absence of problems.

Because God makes it clear to us that following Him does not mean the problems go away.

Yet there's a peace.

Real peace.

God's peace is a peace in the process.

It's not a peace that you win when you cross the finish line, it's a peace that you can have while you run your race.

And we're all running our race.

How can you have peace in the process?

I don't know where you're at this morning.

I'm sure that many of you are carrying all kinds of stress.

There's probably situations in your life you wish you could actually be working on right now, but you have to be here.

And you're kind of thinking, man, can you hurry up so we can get to the stuff I need to solve?

How can you leave today with peace?

Even if your problems persist.

Peace in the process.

That's what we're after today.

I can tell you stories from my life experiences that I have had personally where God has given me peace in the process.

But the beautiful thing about a church like this is that we're not limited to my stories.

I love hearing the stories that you guys have.

The times that God has done things in your life that are amazing and incredible and strengthen my faith and the faith of all of us.

There are some amazing stories here.

That's why, by the way, share your stories.

We actually have cards at the back on the four columns that you can really quickly jot down your story and we get to share those with the people.

And sometimes we get a chance to sit down with people and hear their story in detail.

And so this last week, two weeks ago, we sat down with a couple at our church, Darren and Monica McFarlane.

I've known them for years.

Amazing, amazing people.

And we got to hear their story.

And it's the story of intense trouble.

Like serious trouble.

And yet they have peace in their process.

I've known them for years.

They've come to church Sunday after Sunday.

I've talked to them and they've always seemed so at ease and joyful, even.

And I had no idea what was actually going on behind the scenes.

And it blows my mind because they're not faking it.

They have actual peace.

God is daily giving them peace in their process.

And so I want to share their story.

Now, just to set this up a little bit, Darren is an incredible man, an incredible father and husband.

He is he's like a rock.

He's steady.

He's just there for his family, for his wife, for Monica, and they're incredible people.

Monica is something else.

Monica has more heart than most people I've ever met with, but an interesting fact about Monica is that she actually doesn't have a pulse.

That's odd, right?

And and as you watch her story, you'll understand why.

So this is Darren and Monica McFarlane's story.

It's a story about peace in the process.

And um, I went out to run with a couple people, and I just kept falling behind.

And I thought, what am I doing?

You know, what is wrong with me?

I couldn't get enough air going through my lungs, and so I just said, you know, this is not for me anymore.

I had already done a marathon, and I um had run multiple, multiple 10Ks, and um I said, okay, I'm just getting too old for this.

I've got my two boys, they keep me busy enough.

I'm just gonna retire, hang up the running sheets.

So that was in October, and in January of 2011, I started coughing.

And one morning I woke up with a nosebleed, which I had never in my entire life had a nosebleed, and I was walking around coughing and rattling, my chest rattling, and my mother said, You have pneumonia.

Later that night I ended up in the ER with my best friend, and Darren stayed home with the boys, and she called him at 5:30 in the morning and said, Monica's been diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

I'm not even sure at that point.

I knew when I was told that she had congestive heart failure, I was like, Well, what does that mean?

You know, what what is that?

Um, you know, went to the hospital and you know, after talking to the doctors, it was um certainly more serious than we thought, I guess.

I mean, I kind of like, well, she's got conjective congestive heart failure, but we'll we'll work through this, she'll get over this, whatever, and didn't realize, you know, this is life-threatening.

I was in the hospital and one of the doctors came in and said, You have one option.

You're not a candidate for a heart transplant.

So we need to get you an LVAD as soon as possible.

An LVAD is a left ventricular assist device, and it is an actual machine about this big that is attached internally to my heart, and I have a tube that runs through my body, attached to my muscles internally, and then comes out and attaches to the equipment which I carry in my backpack that is powered by batteries.

It's it's my motor that pumps the blood.

Your your heart squeezes and pumps the blood throughout your body.

My heart won't squeeze, it's just run by a motor.

And so that's why I don't have a pulse.

I wear my heart on my sleeve.

Literally.

I was overwhelmed.

Um, I remember when she was in the hospital, I'd come home to do some errand and sitting in our basement floor just crying.

Not knowing, because I'd had so many doctors say, we don't know if she's gonna make it.

Um, you know, that's when you really turn to God, it's just, you know, give it up to Him.

They told me when I had the surgery, they said, You are a perfect candidate for getting an L VAD and having it ex-planted.

Well, I lit up like a Christmas tree because I said that is gonna be me.

I start searching for backpacks that I can wear, you know, and run in or run with.

And um I had I started slowly, but I started again.

So and then February.

I was in New York on business, and I get a phone call from my mom.

She had been with Monica staying with the boys while I was out of town, and she said Monica's had a fall.

I felt like her heart had improved, um, where it was functioning more and it conflicted with the LVAD and caused one of her valves to shut off, and she just lost consciousness briefly.

But unfortunately, when she fell, she hit her head on the door frame, and being on a blood thinner, she had a bleed on top of her brain.

And so they took her to Emery and um were running tests, they would do a CAT scan every day, and that bleeding was not getting any bigger when they said that's a good sign, and they had stopped her blood thinner so it would stop bleeding.

And after about four days, the doctors were the cardiologists were telling the neurosurgeons, you've got to start her back on this um blood thinner, or she'll get a clot in her LVAD, and it'll be you know, she'll have to have surgery to have that removed.

And so they started her back on the blood thinner, and it made that spot grow, and they had to rush her back for emergency surgery to relieve pressure on her brain, and basically took off a piece of skull that was this big on the side of her head to relieve that pressure.

Um, and they did the surgery, came out and talked to me and said, you know, we've got the pressure relieved, everything's okay, she should be back in recovery in like an hour.

So sat in the waiting room for several hours, and finally another surgeon comes in and he said while we were closing, we found another bleed inside the brain, um, and uh had to you know go back in and and wait before we finish the surgery, but had surgeons come talk to me and say, you know, she has damage there now, and she's paralyzed on her left side, and it's a it's a permanent thing.

She you know won't get over that.

It's one of those things where you keep hearing from these doctors, you know, this is gonna happen, this is gonna happen, and um you know, they don't know the power of prayer, they don't know God's power of healing.

Um that night I was in the hospital obviously very nervous and anxious, and found a hallway and sat down on a chair.

I hadn't slept in, I don't know, a couple days, it seemed like, and I just sat down and prayed.

And um, you know, it was this calmness and relief that washed over me, saying, you know, everything's gonna be alright.

Um I'll take your worry.

And I just gave it to him.

I was like, I can't do it anymore.

I just I have to give this away, and I just felt at peace, at least for that night.

I was like, you know, she's gonna be fine.

They had me in an induced coma for two weeks, two weeks, three weeks, and but I was I felt like I could hear everything.

I and his brother had come into town to see me, and he said, I just wanna, I just wanna pray with you.

And I remember that.

I remember him saying a prayer for me and the kids and Darren, and and I did, I felt peaceful, and and I felt like after.

After that, my tube came out and I said, okay, well, let's go eat.

I just said, let's go eat.

She just hooked up all these wires.

I mean, there's wires everywhere.

That was her first um kind of steps towards recovery.

I spent nine months explanted, no backpack, nowhere in my heart on my sleeve.

Just me with my boys swimming, going down water slides, swimming in the lakes, and doing what we do as a family.

Swim, go to the pool.

And then I had a heart attack.

After all that, um, I had a heart attack in October of 2014.

I had another open heart surgery and was re-implanted with an LVAD.

So I felt robbed.

I felt all these different emotions.

I was angry, I was confused, I was why what who goes through all this and what is my purpose?

What is my purpose here on this earth after being had had all this done to me or given to me and handled it very well, I thought.

And then something else happens, traumatic, and I went into a really deep dark place.

Depression hit.

And it is real and it hurts.

And honestly, I don't know that I'm at peace still with it.

I'm not angry, I'm hurt, and I'm confused.

And I know that I'm not supposed to question what his plans are for me and for us, and I don't.

I'm at peace with that because I know that God doesn't wear a watch.

And God doesn't, it's his time, and it's all for him and for his glory, and that's what I keep telling myself.

It is for him, it is because of him.

And I keep pictures on my nightstand of me laying in a hospital bed with tubes, countless tubes coming out of my mouth, and my head shaved, my half-head looking like a punk rocker with hair going out everywhere.

But that reminds me that God has me in his hands, has us in his hands, and it is just about his time.

Peace will come, but I have to have patience.

But it's hard sometimes.

And I try to pick pick myself up and put my big girl pants on and put a smile on my face and say, suck it up, buttercup.

We're gonna be okay.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

And I've done pretty well with that.

And I know that, I know that it's all gonna be okay.

And I know that peace is coming.

I know, I know.

I've all I've already thanked him for it.

I've already said thank you, God, for giving us peace and giving me peace.

I had never experienced the power of prayer before all of this.

I mean, I've always had God in my life and but I really never had felt the power of prayer and that just amazing comfort when you know that there are so many people all over the world praying for someone that they don't know, and that it helps and it works, and it, you know, it's I am here today because there were so many people praying.

I tell my boys all the time wait for God, he'll answer you, wait for him, pray to him, ask him, and thank him.

Darren and Monica are truly amazing people.

And I'm so grateful that they were able to share their story, and and so grateful that they were able to just be real and honest and raw and open that up for us.

Because, man, two open heart surgeries, you know, brain surgery, I mean, and even parts that didn't make you know our cut for time, it was like crazy the number of things that happened.

Whenever they they took part of her skull off, they had to put it back on, and they had to take it off a second time and put it back on because of other things going on.

It was just one thing after another.

And to sit there and listen to all that they've been through, and to hear Darren and Monica talk about getting peace from God.

A calmness coming over them, feeling peaceful.

Even Monica saying there at the end, I'm I'm not sure if I'm at peace yet, but I know it's coming.

I've already thanked God for it.

It just blows me away.

In fact, as I was watching them as we were filming the God story, I was just reminded of Jesus.

Especially when Monica was really sharing her heart in that moment where she's talking about how you know sometimes she wonders why this has happened to her and what's the purpose of all this, and why has she had to go through all of these things and she's doing her best, but it just doesn't seem like it's it's getting better.

And so she's sort of, in a way, questioning God, but at the same time reaffirming her faith by saying, God, I trust you and I'll do whatever you say.

I know your timing is what's most important.

I give that to you.

She's kind of in this back and forth moment.

It reminded me of Jesus in this specific moment in Jesus' life.

It's the night that Jesus was arrested.

And if you don't know that story, Jesus goes to this garden called Gethsemane to pray.

And he knows what's coming, he knows what's about to happen.

Jesus was well aware of the cross, and that's one of the things that's so amazing about him that he kept walking toward the cross in his journey.

He knew what would happen to him once he got to Jerusalem, but he just kept going because he loved us so much.

He was pursuing us.

But in the garden, the night of his arrest, he he has a moment where he seems kind of stressed.

And sometimes when we talk about Jesus, we have a hard time remembering that he is a person.

Yes, he is God.

Yes, he has he has power and authority.

And yes, he lived a life without sin.

But but feeling stressed and worried and anxious is not a sin.

And it's easy for us sometime to diminish the humanity of Jesus.

But Jesus felt stressed.

And that night that stress came to a head.

We see it in Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

It says, Then Jesus went with them, talking about his disciples to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, Sit here while I go over there to pray.

He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed.

And there you have it.

If you ever wonder whether or not Jesus felt stressed, he was anguished and distressed.

He told them, My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.

And he went on a little further, and he he bowed his face to the ground, praying, My father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

And then he returned to the disciples and he found them asleep, and he said to Peter, Couldn't you watch with me even one hour?

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

And then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, My Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.

And when he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn't keep their eyes open.

So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again.

So three times Jesus goes to God, he's saying, God, is this how it has to be?

Is this the only way?

Because I'm just not, I'm not sure, God.

If there's another way, let me know.

And then he says, But God, I surrender to your will, your will, not mine.

And it's not like he just needs to do that once and then he's good and it's smooth sailing, and he's like, Whoo, got that out of my system.

He goes a second time and he does the same thing.

God, I'm not sure if this is, is this how it has to be?

I mean, is there any other way?

But God, again, your will, not mine, I surrender to you, and he has peace, and then he has to go a third time.

I just think that's a beautiful reminder to us that when we're stressed out, when we're dealing with all the worry and anxiety that we deal with on a day-to-day basis, that it's actually okay.

You have permission to freak out a little bit.

Because Jesus freaked out a little bit.

So you have permission.

You're not doing anything wrong when you have these moments where you're you're just not sure.

But those moments are very important.

How you handle those moments, how we all handle those moments determines a lot.

Because in every one of those moments where the stress kind of builds and it all comes to a head, we have a choice.

Where are we going to go with that stress?

And where we decide to go and how we decide to get there will determine if the stress gets the best of us or if we can actually have peace in the process.

And notice that Darren and Monica and Jesus all share one thing in common that in their stress, in their worry, in their fear, in their anxiety, they go to God and they pray.

There's a very, very deep connection between prayer and peace.

A deep connection.

You'll notice if if you go back and watch their story again, and we'll post it online and on our mobile app so you can take a look at it later if you if you want to.

You know, Darren, pretty early on, talked about how he just had to give it to God.

This moment where life sort of punched him in the face, and he has to deal with all this.

And his wife is healthy and young and heart failure.

What do you mean?

And she runs half marathons, full marathons.

I have never and will never run a marathon.

I'll make that promise to you right now.

I do not see the point.

I have a car.

I just have a car.

I want to do that.

You know.

I mean, she's so healthy, and he's having to deal with this.

And he said, hey, it's in those moments that you just have to go to God.

And later, Darren talked about the fact that he hadn't slept for days.

And the doctors have just told him that, hey, now you're gonna have to deal with paralysis, and this is gonna be a whole other thing.

And but he said, in that moment, I just went to God.

And he said, I felt like God was saying, Give me your worry.

And it's amazing moments where God speaks to us how he will speak scripture, and we don't even know it.

Because in 1 Peter 5, verse 7, the Bible says, Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:7

So Darren heard from the Lord, and God said, Give me your worry.

And he gave it to him.

That was prayer.

And Darren said, In that moment at least, I had peace.

And then Monica is sitting there talking about how she's still struggling to have peace, but at the same time, she knows it's coming.

She's already thanked God for the peace that he will give her.

She's experiencing peace, experiencing peace in her process through prayer.

There's a deep connection between prayer and peace.

And I know we're in church and we're talking about prayer, which is real outside the box, right?

Didn't see that coming.

But see, there's this thing with prayer that I think we have a tendency to do.

It's such a common thing that we tend to underestimate.

At least I do, how powerful it actually is.

And I know that in my life because sometimes I'll go to someone with a problem and they'll say, I'll pray for you, and I'm like, seriously?

That's all you're gonna like, that's all you're gonna do is you're just gonna pray for me.

I can do that myself.

I think we all have a tendency to do that.

I know in my life, I I I can pray and sometimes just go into autopilot.

And I just pray these these very rote prayers.

It's just, you know, hey God, thank you for the day, and you know, thank you for all your blessings, and you know, I pray that you just bless me, and it's just one of those things.

When I pray, I say the word just all the time.

Anyone else do that?

It's a thing a lot of people do.

God just and help me and just do this, and just God, and and God just and just just.

I just say it, I go into these like automatic prayers.

But there's a difference between praying and praying.

And so if you're here this morning and you're dealing with stress and you're dealing with worry and anxiety and all this stuff that you can't control and you feel like it's about to come to a head, or maybe it has come to a head, or maybe it's about to, I just want to ask you a question.

Have have you prayed about it?

And I mean, have you have you prayed about it?

Like, have you have you taken what you have and just laid it at God's feet exactly as it is, and said, Here, God, deal with this.

Because you can do that.

I don't know what your your background has been, but sometimes religion teaches us, oh, hey, pray, you better pray politely.

Right?

Because let's not forget that you're approaching God, and I agree with that.

God is God, He's very powerful.

And so, if I pray, shouldn't I pray very politely?

Shouldn't I go in and be like, oh, you know, Lord, and just fall on my knees and say, hey, if if it's your will, and if you don't want to do this, I totally get it.

Obviously, you're God, you're not obligated, but you know, hey, if there's any way you could possibly help me out, of course, if it's your will, um, and if it's what you want, you know, then it'd be great.

But obviously, if it's only your will, just pray really politely, sort of tiptoe backwards as you ask, you know.

Just say the thing you want right before you leave, right?

So I can so all that say, I'd really like your help, and then just walk away.

Because he's God and you're just a person.

So if you're gonna pray to God, you you better pray politely.

That is a lie.

Because you're not just a person.

You're God's creation.

You didn't get here by accident, he made you.

So, in a lot of ways, you're you're kind of on him.

Like he created you, he thought you up, he wired you the way that you're wired.

So he's responsible for you, he's claimed responsibility for you.

You're not just a person, you're his creation.

More than that, you're his child.

He's adopted you.

The Bible says that if you give your life to Jesus, if you commit your life to him and say, Lord, have all of me, that God the Father adopts you into the family of God, now you're not just his creation, you're his child.

My children are not polite to me.

I see on my son's report card all the great scores he gets for the way he addresses his teacher and his peers and how respectful he is.

And I'm like, Where's this?

At home, right?

Because I get eye rolls and talk back and all that kind of stuff.

But you know what?

Even though I've got to teach him to be a good man in a weird way, he can kind of get away with that because I'm his dad.

And I love him.

You don't have to pray polite prayers.

If you need something to happen in your life, if you need peace, pray and and pray where you're at.

The people in the Bible, the men and women who God used to do amazing, wonderful things, the the men and women who saw God show up, they had this tendency not to pray very polite prayers.

Abraham questioned God, basically looked at God and said, You're doing it wrong.

You haven't thought about some things.

Moses argued with God and said, Whoa, God, it seems like you're losing your temper.

Let me calm you down.

Let me remind you.

This happened.

You can read about this.

Let me remind you, God, of some of the things you've said in the past.

Don't you want to like follow through on those things, God?

I mean, Moses, that's not very polite to correct God and remind God of things he said.

I think God can remember.

David prayed angry prayers.

David prayed, this is in the Bible.

God slap my enemies in the face.

It's one of my favorite things in the Bible.

Gives me permission to pray things like that.

And God knows it's just a suggestion.

But if he doesn't, I'm like, did that?

No, no, we prayed.

God slapped my enemies in the face because he was angry and he prayed angry.

You can pray as you are.

And if you want to see peace come into your life and take over and override the stress, you just need to go to God and you need to pray.

If you're hurt, pray hurt.

If you're frustrated, pray frustrated.

If you have a doubt, pray your doubts.

But pray.

Because when you pray, something transformative begins to happen.

I mean, the Bible talks about it.

In Philippians 4, chapter 4, verses 6 and 7.

It's like one of my least favorite things in the Bible, this first part.

Don't worry about anything.

Whatever.

Right?

Okay.

Don't worry about anything.

And if it ended there, it's of no help.

You know that song, Don't Worry, Be Happy?

What a stupid song.

Like it's positive, and I smile, but like, if that worked, everyone would be happy.

Like if you're worried, someone goes, I'm so worried, and someone goes, You should just be happy.

Okay.

But notice what follows this.

Don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray.

Pray.

And don't, don't, don't pray.

Pray.

Pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done.

Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

The message version puts it this way: I love it.

Don't fret or worry.

Instead of worrying, pray.

Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns, and before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good will come and settle you down.

It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

If you need peace, pray.

Just pray.

We're a church, we're a family.

So we can we can pray together.

Guys, that's why we have a prayer team.

And raise your hand if you've ever been in the prayer room praying with a prayer team real quick.

Like those people pray.

So if you walk in there, be prepared to pray.

Your definition of prayer might change for the better.

But when you pray and you go to God, peace displaces worry.

And it's real peace.

It's not peace because everything's finished and done.

It's peace in the process.

Pray.

Pray big.

Pray bold.

Pray crazy.

Like if you're losing it, pray crazy.

There's a story in the Bible of a woman named Hannah.

Her son would be a young man named Samuel.

Incredible man.

Samuel was a prophet.

And we don't have time to dig into the story and look at it in detail.

You can find it in the book of 1 Samuel.

But she goes to the synagogue to pray.

And she does not have the ability to have children at this point in time, but she really wants a child.

Samuel hasn't come into her life yet.

And so she prays, and she prays so intensely in the synagogue, so just insanely crazy intense that Eli, the priest in the temple, thinks she's drunk.

And he walks up to her and says, Get out of here and take your wine with you.

And she's like, No, no, no, I'm not drunk.

She actually says, I haven't had wine or anything stronger.

She says, I'm just, I'm overwhelmed, and I'm just praying where I'm at.

And then Eli says, Oh, okay.

Well, then go in peace.

God's going to give you what you ask for.

Go in peace.

I I pray that we all leave here in peace.

Not because our problems are solved, not because our worries are gone, not because everything is going to go incredibly smoothly this week, because it probably won't.

But you're stronger than your circumstances.

You're way more powerful than you think.

You do not require everything to work out for you to have peace.

You can have peace in your process.

A peace that will displace the worry from your life.

A peace like Monica's that will remind you that even though it's not finished, it is coming.

That God is working everything together for your good because he loves you.

That all of the power of God is available to you to meet the needs in your life.

So pray.

Let's be a church that prays.

And let's see what happens.

Pray with me.

Jesus, thank you so much for being real.

Thank you so much for allowing us to share in Darren and Monica's story.

To hear what you've done in their lives, what you're still doing in their lives, Lord.

We want to lift them up to you and their entire family, their boys.

We want to ask God that you would bless them incredibly in the months to come, God.

We we pray that Monica's heart is completely healed.

We pray that you continue to do miracles in her life.

Miracles even greater than the ones you've already done, Lord, because obviously you've done many.

And we thank you, Lord, in advance for what you're gonna do.

We believe you.

We believe in you.

And we're asking, God, as your children, as your created children, we're asking for peace.

And we're coming to you, Lord, and we're saying that we're not gonna pretend like everything's okay.

We're not gonna be people who act like we've got it all together.

We don't, but we need peace to displace the worry in our lives, God, and we can't manufacture peace.

We just can't conjure it up.

We can't just tell ourselves we're fine over and over again and pretend like that's reality.

We need real peace to defeat the worry and the anxiety and the fear and the stress in our lives, Lord, and we're coming to you for it, and we're trusting you for it.

And it's in your name that we pray, Jesus.

Amen.