Peace in the Chaos

Man, what a great service already.

I feel like I don't even need to do anything.

Great job, worship team.

Just church, the worship.

You know, I love a church that worships, you know, true worship.

Now, I want to begin this morning by giving y'all a little update.

So, Lake Church went into Fellowship's home last Sunday evening.

And we came out victorious.

I had nothing to do with this.

I'm just holding the trophy.

And I wanna I wanna do something real quick.

We went into fellowship and we showed them that even though we're the underdog, you know, Little Lake Church against fellowship.

And I give fellowship a hard time.

They know I love them and we love them.

But we went in there and we showed them how to cook, all right?

Uh now, I want the men that were part of it.

We had the Hallelujah hotcakes.

That was the name, right?

I want all the men to stand up.

Y'all just come down here.

The men that were involved last week, it didn't matter.

Our two teams.

Saved in season, all right?

Saved in season and the hallelujah hotcakes.

Man, I want you to hold this for and look, we have one more, one more.

The mastermind behind the boudin pancake that couldn't be here because he's working, Jacob Tomplay.

But we but he's here in spirit in the maple bacon.

He's here in spirit.

So y'all give these fellas a hand.

They did a great job.

Alright, that's it, y'all.

Y'all gonna sit down now.

I'm gonna leave this right here till next year.

Next year, we're gonna take home the rest of them.

The rest of the trophies.

They had the wild game, and you know, but this was the big one, right?

That was the big one.

We won the big one.

So next year we're gonna get even more teams, and we're gonna make uh, you know, we want to get all three of the the jumbalaye pots at Lake Church next year, all right?

But we I'm just kidding around, you know, we had a great time, and we've we felt so welcome being a part of that event with fellowship, and we're just so thankful for them, and just allowing me the opportunity to speak as well.

I got to preach to probably well over 300 men and share uh share something that I want to share with you this morning.

Now, I don't usually do this, but I'm gonna preach to you the same message that I preached to the men last Sunday evening.

So about 10 of you know where we're going already, all right?

But I'm just gonna give you a little glimpse into a pastor's, a bi-vocational pastor's week.

I was working on this message to continue our series in David, and the Holy Spirit just kept telling me that this ain't right.

It ain't right, it ain't right.

And I really feel led by the Lord to share with you the message I preached last Sunday evening for the men.

And when I when I kind of made that decision just in the last few days, I didn't know that the worship aligned perfectly with the message.

And I love it when the Holy Spirit just lines those things out for us.

So we're gonna turn to Mark chapter 4 this morning, but I also want to say that no matter where I'm privileged to have the opportunity to preach, this is my home.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

And I love preaching here at Lake Church.

I love you.

I love this church.

And and I just I would rather, there's no other place I'd rather be right now sharing God's word than here right now at Lake Church to you.

And I'm just so thankful for that.

And uh so we're gonna share a thought this morning that, like I said, goes right in line with the worship, and that thought is peace in the chaos.

Peace in the chaos.

And I want to share this this morning because I believe, I truly believe, there is someone or some people here this morning that really need to hear this truth.

That really need, maybe you're going through something right now.

You're going through some chaos, and you need to know that you can have peace.

Because your peace doesn't come from everything that's going on around you, your peace comes from the one who is with you.

Jesus gives us peace even in the chaos of our life.

Now, we're entering into hunting season, and I want to ask you, and plus the fishing's turning up a little bit.

Do we have any hunters or fishermen in the house today?

Raise your hand high if you're a if you're hunting, you're a hunter and you're proud of it.

Some of you ain't too proud of it.

You're like, ah, you don't have time really.

Used to be, kind of like me.

But I want to ask you this question.

What is the reason that you like to hunt or you like to fish if you're a hunter or fisherman?

Shout it out.

What's the reason?

Peace.

Peace.

Peace.

See, I can't, I'm getting there.

You can't steal my hook, all right?

That's my hook.

What's some other reasons, not so spiritual?

Hungry.

Hungry was a food.

When I see the sun come up in the morning, I say the day break, and the bears start chirping, the fish start moving out of the water, the game and the woods start moving, you know that it's God.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

That is a sermon right there, right?

What else we got?

How I make memories with my my family.

Memories, you know, passing what was passed down to you, passing it down to others, right?

There's so many great reasons, and all those reasons are right.

There's so many great reasons for getting out in God's creation and hunting and you know, providing and all these different ways.

Uh but for me, just like I feel like a lot of you, one reason that I love to hunt or fish or whatever, is I love to just break away from the noise.

Break away from the craziness, the busyness of life, break away from the commotion and the chaos of life and get in uh it's really, it probably ain't even healthy all the time.

It's a way of escaping reality.

You know, and and and just breaking away where you can clear your mind and feel the peace of being with God in His creation, right?

So a few years ago, about three years ago, I decided after a hard season of life and a hard season of ministry, that I needed a new hobby.

I don't have very many hobbies because hobbies are usually expensive and time consuming.

And I don't have either one of those resources very much, time or expenses.

So I needed a hobby, and I decided that, okay, I'm gonna get into.

Now I've always been a fisherman.

I love fishing, I love all kinds of fishing, but I decided I'm gonna get into fly fishing.

Do we have any fly fishermen in here?

Anybody?

I just always very few.

My family was about it.

All right, so it's really no good fly fishing in Louisiana too much.

But I decided I was gonna get into that.

I had a friend of mine who's a pastor in Georgia, and he took me to uh uh Tennessee.

We went into the mountains, went into the streams.

Uh just beautiful.

You know, they don't have that kind of setting here in Louisiana, you know.

It was beautiful, no humidity, nice, crisp in the water, no boats, no commotion, no people, no chaos, no noise, just the sound of the river running with your waders on.

The same waders I baptize in, that's the same waders I fish in, by the way.

And just being in the water, in the water with a fly rod in my hand.

And y'all, I was hooked.

In fact, I have a picture, I think, uh the first fish I caught.

It might be, uh I don't know if I have them in order.

That's it.

The first big nice rainbow trout I caught in the mountain.

Now, look, y'all look at that.

Look at that.

And and and then that from that point forward, I was literally, you know, to play on words, I was literally hooked.

And and I, me and Britney, we we spent all of our time now trying to figure out how we can take our next trip to go fishing somewhere like this.

Uh so I I've caught a few more.

I got a few pictures.

I don't want to, you know, brag too much, but oh, there's a little Britney.

Brittany, Britney said if I didn't show a picture of her, I'd be in trouble with her fish.

You know, I couldn't just share my.

There's mine.

It's a little bit bigger than Britney's.

Uh got a couple more.

There's another one.

Nice brown trout, one more.

That's our whole family.

I got the whole family involved in this.

Y'all, we were literally, I just tell y'all how big I got into this.

I signed my whole family up to take lessons at Orvis in Baton Rouge to learn how to fly fish.

And we were out there on Saturday morning, you know, they were out there learning how to fly, cast the fly rod, and uh, they probably like, what Jared has done lost his mind.

You know, what are we doing?

But they loved it and they got hooked as well.

And uh me and Brittany took a trip a few years ago, and I just wanted you to watch this because it kind of encapsulates the beauty of being in God's creation and experiencing this peace.

So, so watch this video.

Look at that.

We were in Broken Bow fishing in the water.

See the fish jump with a nice buck.

I didn't have a gun, so I couldn't do anything about it.

Uh, but just walking across the river.

I mean, is does that just do something to your soul right there?

I mean, my goodness.

Isn't that better than being behind a computer or being in a plant?

You know, that's my escape.

That's my okay, you can turn it off.

Uh, it's making me not want to be here right now.

Uh but one of the biggest reasons I like to do that, whether it's fish or hunt, is to get away from the fast pace, the busyness, the distraction, the chaos of life.

Now, there's something peaceful about those moments, right?

Uh, and by the way, me and Brittany are planning a trip.

We're actually not gonna be here next Sunday because we're going to Wyoming for our 20-year anniversary.

And we are going, thank you.

And we're going.

Clap for her because she had to put up with me for 20 years.

But she, we're going to Wyoming.

We're going to do some fishing.

We're going to just break away.

Uh, but maybe, you know, maybe you have your thing.

Maybe it's not fishing.

Maybe it's hunting.

You know, maybe it's the first crisp, cold morning of dear season.

You're sitting on the stand and the woods come alive and the sun rises, you know.

Maybe it's not even hunting or fishing.

You're like, I don't like doing all.

Maybe it's just laying on a beach somewhere, listening to the waves.

Maybe it's in a cabin in the mountains, isolated from people.

Maybe it's whatever you're planning a day where you can just do something you love with God and His creation and just breaking away.

But, you know, it's something about those moments where there's no problems in that moment.

There's no commotion, there's no stress.

But there is a problem.

Because eventually you have to return to reality.

Right?

I have not figured out yet how to stay in the river catching trout all day long or all you know full time.

The numbers haven't added up yet.

I'm trying to figure out how we can move Lake Church to Montana.

If y'all want to take up a donation on that, we may could, you know.

But that's not really reality.

Maybe it is for some of you.

Maybe you can leave and you can experience just a life of no stress and no responsibilities and no, you know, no worry.

For most of us, for the majority of us, I think it's safe to say that that is not the case.

We have to return to reality.

We got to return to these pesky things we call jobs and responsibilities.

And if you're retired here, everyone in here is jealous of you right now.

But even you have responsibilities, and you have, you know, we all have bills and we have things we have to tend to.

We can't just live in a state of escape.

In a state of stillness, circumstances that are calm and no chaos.

That's part of life, right?

But here's the good news no matter the circumstances, no matter the chaos, no matter the storm, you can have peace in the chaos.

You don't have to escape the chaos to have peace in the chaos because your peace is not determined by your circumstances, it's determined by your Savior.

It's not about what's going on on the outside, it's about who you have on the inside and who you're trusting in your heart, who you believe, who you belong to.

And you can have peace in the chaos, in the problems, in the struggles, in the storms, in the hard times, in the tragedies.

You can have peace.

But it only comes through Jesus.

I want to share with you this thought this morning, peace and the chaos.

And it brings me to a very familiar story that we all know in Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 4, and I'm going to read it and then we will uh go through it.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 4, verse number 35.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, Jesus saying to his disciples, Let us cross over to the other side.

Now, when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him.

And a great windstorm arose, and waves beat into the boat so that they were already filling, but he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.

And they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, everybody say this word, peace.

Let's do that again.

Be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

But he said to them, Why are you so fearful?

How is it that you have no faith?

And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?

So we see here Jesus told them to get into a boat, and they obeyed Jesus, and in their obedience they encountered a great storm.

And the wind was blowing and the waves were crashing and water was filling the boat, and these experienced fishermen were fearful and terrified for their lives.

Now they've seen storms before, but the Bible says that this was a great windstorm.

It was a great windstorm.

And listen, sometimes the Christian life is not always calm seas.

It's not always easy times.

It's not always perfect weather.

It's not always smooth sailing.

Sometimes it's like this story it's crashing waves.

It's a storm.

It's chaos.

It's commotion.

It's fear.

It's tragedy.

It's storms.

And look, the thing is, is that well, let me give you my first point.

Peace is not the absence of problems.

It's not the absence of problems.

Peace isn't just the result of not of having a problem-free life.

Inactivity is not the same thing as peace.

Calm circumstances in life is not the same thing as peace.

Peace is not the absence of problems.

You know, if that was the case, if we only had peace when there were no problems, we would never have peace.

Right?

Because we always have problems to some degree or another.

Life is full of problems.

And the Christian life is full of problems and storms and trials and hard times.

Don't let anyone lie to you and say, well, if you just had a little more faith, you wouldn't have storms.

You wouldn't have problems.

You wouldn't have health issues.

You know, you will have problems, and sometimes, here's the thing sometimes your problems are a direct result of your actions.

We cause our own storms at times, don't we?

I've caused some pretty bad storms in my own life.

Amen.

I think I'm not the only one.

Look, sometimes it's the direct result of our own actions, sometimes it's just life.

Sometimes the you know, the Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust.

Sometimes, sometimes just life deals you a hard hand.

You know, you go through a hard season.

But here's what I want you to really understand this morning is sometimes you can be in obedience to Jesus and still go through storms.

Jesus said, get in the boat and let's go.

You think Jesus didn't know a storm was coming?

No, Jesus was over the storm.

He was in control of the storm.

He knew that there was a storm.

Being obedient to Christ sometimes leads you into a storm.

And we all go through storms in life.

Some great storms, some small storms.

You know, we all go through struggles through life.

We all go through just the hassle of living, you know.

We all go through, you know, uh things breaking around the house, fellas.

Y'all know what I mean?

You know, financial struggles and different things that we face, maybe little small storms, relational struggles.

Uh but sometimes we go through storms simply for walking in obedience to Jesus.

And y'all, look, I I kind of think about how for the last, you know, we go on two years.

At Lake Church, the first year, it was chaos.

Some of y'all were there.

Most of y'all were there.

And some of you don't even realize how chaotic it was, you know, having a church go from seven people to like 150 to 200 within a few weeks and a month.

You know, it was, I say it like this, it was a beautiful chaos.

I'm thankful, I'm grateful for all that God has done.

But there were so many decisions to make and so many things going on, and just a whirlwind of responsibilities and pressure uh mainly on me on that time, you know, it was a lot to take in, a lot to manage.

But we were in the will of God, going through a storm.

And then, on top of that, being working 70 hours a week at the plant doesn't help anything, right?

It's it's sometimes you go through storms, that doesn't mean you're not walking in the will of God.

That's right.

Sometimes the will of God leads you through storms.

You all have, we all know the little storms, but but then there's also great storms.

The unexpected tragedies of life.

The hard circumstances of life, the the crisis that you that caught you off guard.

Maybe the the marriage struggle or the or the struggles with your children, or or maybe it's you know just events of life that you were not expecting.

Great storms in your life.

And you come here, I believe there's some people, you may come here going through a great storm.

Maybe you're in a storm right now.

Maybe it's a small storm, maybe it's a great storm, but we walk in and we try to pretend like everything is perfect.

Like there's calmness all upon our life whenever when really there's a storm raging in our heart.

And we and we and we do, you know, we put on the good Christian uh performance.

We walk in here and we shake hands and we hug necks and we say, How was you how you doing?

You know, how's everything been going?

And we and we don't get real about the struggles we're facing.

You know what the disciples did?

They did not pretend that they were not going through a storm.

They went to Jesus and they're like, Do you even care?

Look, and by the way, God can handle your questions.

God can handle your misunderstandings and God can handle your fear.

He says, Do you even care?

And maybe you're here right now and you're asking the same question.

I'm going through a storm.

I'm struggling.

I'm going through a hard time.

And where is God?

He seems like he's nowhere to be found.

Jesus was asleep on a pillow.

Anyone got your favorite pillow that you have to sleep with?

Jesus had his favorite pillow.

He just laid up on the stern without a care in the world.

But maybe you're here and you're going through a storm.

Listen, I want to say this very clearly.

You do not have to pretend at lake church.

Because we all go through struggles, and it's a whole lot better when we just decide we're going to go through them together.

Storms come, storms come and go in our life.

You may be going through something right now that if you're real about it, if you're open, if you're honest, then you could help somebody else when they go through their storm.

Now look, I say that with hesitation because some people, you very open about every single detail that you're going through.

Listen, be careful about who you share your storm with, okay?

Alright?

You need trusted people that you can be real with.

You need to be real about your struggles and allow people to help you.

Because we all face storms in life.

But here's the thing: you do not have to escape the storm.

You do not have to escape the chaos to experience peace in the chaos.

Because peace is not only the absence of problems, but peace is a result of the presence of Jesus.

Peace is the presence of Jesus.

And once you think about this scene, it's complete chaos, and you know, there's storm, there's waves crashing, and the boat is filling with water, and the boat is rocking, the disciples are losing their mind, and there was only one presence, calm presence in that chaotic scene.

And he was the master of the sea, laying on a pillow in the storm, in the middle of the storm.

I mean, you picture this scene.

It was complete chaos except for Jesus.

Because Jesus was the one who was in complete control of the storm.

And listen, because he is in complete control of the storm, we can have complete peace whenever thing seems out of control.

Why?

Because Jesus is our source of peace.

And you don't find peace, true peace, real peace, anywhere else.

Jesus is our source of peace.

And because he was in control, because he was at peace, the disciples could have been at peace.

If they were trusting in him.

If you're on an airplane, listen, if you're taking a flight, I probably shouldn't say this because me and Britney's getting on an airplane Thursday.

But if you're on an airplane and the pilot starts getting worried, you might need to worry.

If the pilot comes off the inner com and is like, yeah, we're going through a little turbulence, it's no big deal.

You know, it's it brings a calmness to your heart, right?

But if he gets on there, he's like, we're going down.

Put on your masks, buckle up, it might cause you to worry.

But look, you can have peace because we have someone that's greater than uh you know, a pilot over a plane.

We have the God who is the creator over the storm.

And we place our faith in the one who is not only in the storm with us, but the one who has authority over the storm in our life.

We can place our faith in him, knowing that he is in complete control, that we can trust in him, we can rest in him.

He is gonna protect us from whatever we are facing because Jesus is our peace.

He woke up.

He said, Why are y'all so worried?

Rebuke the wind.

Wouldn't you like to do that?

He rebuked the wind and he said, Peace be still, and there was peace.

And just like he can calm the physical storm, he can calm your storm.

Now listen, he does not always calm the circumstances, the storms in your life.

But here's what he can do: he can give you peace even in the chaos.

Even when the waves are still blowing, still uh crashing, even when the wind is still blowing, even when everything seems out of control, he can bring that calm assurance to your heart that even though things look like they're falling apart, they're really falling into place because my God is the one who is over the storm.

Jesus is the source of peace.

Isaiah 2.14, it says, for he himself, talking about Jesus, for he himself is our peace.

Ephesians 2.14, he himself even is our peace.

Isaiah 9, it says that he is the uh the prince of peace.

John 14, 27, which Olivia said this verse earlier, uh, and we didn't coordinate that.

No, we we didn't.

John 14, 27 says, peace.

Jesus says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Jesus gives you, by the way, the only way you have peace is by God giving it to you.

It's not something the world offers you, it's not something you can manufacture, it's not something that if you have all the perfect situations and circumstances that you can allow to happen in your life.

It's the only peace, that only true peace that you can have comes from God.

He is the giver of peace, true peace.

John 16, 33.

Jesus says, I have said these things to you that in me, not in the world, in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart.

I have overcome the world.

How many are thankful that Jesus is the overcomer, right?

And when we place our faith in him, he overcomes the world.

We become overcomers in Christ.

John 16, 33.

Jesus is our source of peace.

So I gotta ask you this question before we move on to the last thought here.

Where are you searching for peace?

I love being in the mountain streams of Georgia and Tennessee and Wyoming, but that isn't the source of my peace.

Source of my peace is the God that I'm spending time with in that moment.

Where's your source of peace?

Many times we use distractions as a mask for the void of peace in our life.

Many times, you know, and especially men, like I said, I preached this to men last Sunday.

Men, we're probably worse at it.

We jump from one hobby to the next, to the next, to the next, to keep our mind distracted that we are missing true peace.

Jeremiah said multiple times throughout his writing, he says, peace, they proclaim peace, peace when there is no peace.

Where these false teachers are saying, look, you you can have peace if you follow these rules, if you do this.

No, there's only peace through God.

He is the only one that gives true peace.

So where are you looking for peace?

Maybe your hobbies, maybe a relationship.

By the way, no person can give you what only God can give you.

You can't find the peace that you need in a human relationship.

Now, God can work through that, but again, the source, the ultimate source, comes through Christ.

Money, success, entertainment, maybe, maybe a substance.

You're trying to numb the void that you're missing true peace.

Maybe it's even religion.

Or you're trying harder, you're trying to be a good Christian.

If I can just be a good Christian, I can have peace.

Peace doesn't come by religion, it doesn't come by your performance, it doesn't come from you.

It comes from Jesus.

Jesus is not just a way to find peace, Jesus is our peace.

There's a story I heard a while back.

There was a wealthy king, and he wanted to uh host an art contest to find the perfect picture that portrays true peace.

And there was a lot of different paintings entered into this contest, and there was serene lakes, you know, paintings of lakes and calm seas and sunsets and all this stuff.

But the one painting that won the contest was a painting where there was a raging waterfall.

There was a there was jagged rocks that the waterfall was going down, you know, cascading down these rocks.

There was, it was a storm, it was rain, it was wind, it was chaos, it was a chaotic scene.

And they said, How in the world did this win?

Because in a fine detail of that painting, in the crevice of a rock, there was a little bird nest, and there was a little mother bird sitting, hovering over her baby birds.

She was at complete peace, and her babies were at complete peace in the midst of the chaos.

True peace isn't just the absence of problems, it's the presence of Jesus, our refuge from the storm.

Psalms 46:1, it says, Be still and know that I am God.

Psalms 46:1

He is a very present help.

He is our refuge, our strength, a very present help in the time of trouble.

Be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the heathen.

I will be exalted in all the earth.

We can trust in him because he is in complete control.

Peace is not the absence of the storm, it's the presence of Jesus in your storm.

Now, this leaves me to my last thought.

Look, you may be thinking, okay, peace is not the absence of problems, peace is the presence of Christ.

But hold on a second.

The presence of Jesus was in this storm, and there was still no peace in the disciples.

So what's going on, Pastor?

It all comes down to this true peace.

True peace only comes by true faith.

True peace.

This whole scene was ultimately a test of their faith, right?

And Jesus was teaching them something about who he was.

They were gaining a greater understanding of who Jesus was.

In Mark chapter 4, verse 40, he says, Why are you so fearful?

Mark 4:40

How is it that you have no faith?

He says, Why are you so fearful?

How is it that you have no faith?

Then notice the connection.

He's saying, you have no, he says, you have no peace because you have no faith.

He's telling them that the problem isn't the storm that you're in.

The problem is that you're not trusting in me.

And the disciples, they knew who Jesus was, right?

They knew that, I mean, they had been walking with him for a little while now.

They've been hearing his teachings even up to this in this chapter.

They've been they knew about Jesus.

But in this moment, they were thinking that everything depended upon them.

That they had to control everything to have peace when Jesus is putting them to the test, saying, Look, what happened?

Why are you not trusting in me?

Your peace only comes through true faith.

Now, I don't want to get too deep into this, but look, if you fast forward to Peter, whenever in Acts, I think Acts chapter 12, Peter was arrested and he was in prison and he was locked between two guards, in between two guards, chained to two guards.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

Does anybody know what Peter was doing in that moment?

He was sleeping.

He was in a bad situation.

And an angel had to actually come, and the Bible says it, the angel hit him.

Angel had to punch him and wake him up because he was sleeping so hard.

He was like Jesus on the pillow in the boat.

He was like, Y'all don't bother me.

I know everything's gonna be okay.

And Jesus delivered Peter.

What happened?

Peter learned, even from this experience, who Jesus was that he is in control.

And he placed his faith in Jesus, and that's what brought peace.

Maybe you're here this morning and you know about Jesus.

And you even have a relationship with Jesus.

But maybe there's storms in your life right now where you're trusting more in yourself to control the storm instead of trusting the one who is over the storm.

And you're like, I gotta figure this out, I gotta deal with this, I gotta handle this, I gotta control it.

But look, true faith is not control, true faith is surrender.

Amen.

Well, you say, God, I'm not in control of anything really.

So I place this in your hands.

I can't control if I take my next breath.

I can't control if my heart takes another beat.

But God, I place this false sense of control that I have, I place it in your hands because I know that you are in control.

And that is what truly can bring peace in our life.

You may be going through a storm right now.

You can't control the storm, but you can trust the one who is in control of the storm.

And that is what will bring peace in the storm, in the chaos of your life.

I don't want to end with this.

Probably, not probably, most surely, the greatest thing about peace is not that you can experience peace in the circumstances of life.

But the greatest thing about peace is that you can have peace with God through Jesus.

And not just have peace in your life, but also have peace when it comes to death.

Because really, what does it matter?

What does it matter if you have a calm life and then you approach death with no peace?

Your peace will only come through faith in Christ.

Romans 5, 1 says this.

Therefore, have being justified by faith, we have what?

Peace.

So after we are justified by faith, justified, I mean justified, have never sinned, right?

We are no longer condemned, we are no longer under the wrath and the penalty of sin.

We are no longer separated from God, uh, from our sin.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ?

You see, the greatest problem in our life is not bad circumstances, and it's not the storms that we face, and it's not the chaos that we have to be involved in.

Our greatest problem is sin.

Our greatest problem is sin.

Sin separates us from God.

We're all born into sin.

That's why Jesus said, You must be born again, right?

We're born separated from God.

We are born at enmity with God.

We have sinned against the holy God, and there's no peace when you stand condemned by the holy judge of the universe.

Amen.

I mean, you you think about if you're in a courtroom and you're guilty and you know you're guilty and you're about to take the sentence that you deserve, there is no peace in that moment, is it?

Imagine being guilty in the highest court, the supreme court of heaven, where the judge is looking at you and you have sinned against his holy law, and the penalty is death.

There is no peace in a moment like that.

Sin separates us from a relationship with God through Christ, which separates us from true peace.

We cannot have true peace without true faith in Jesus.

But the good news is that Jesus came to reconcile us with God.

He accomplished this on the cross.

I want to read to you Ephesians 2, verse number 12.

I love Ephesians.

We might do a series on Ephesians pretty soon.

But it says that at that time you were without Christ.

Does anybody remember that time?

You were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Anyone remember that time?

Verse 13, but now, everybody say, but now.

But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Verse 14, for he himself is our what?

Peace, who hath made both one, hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man, and from the two, thus making what?

Peace.

And that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

And he came and preached what?

Peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

For through him, through Jesus, we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Jesus is the only way we can experience true peace.

So let me ask you tonight, today.

Are you living in the peace that Jesus gives?

Are you living in that peace?

Are you experiencing that peace?

Do you really have peace in your heart?

And I remember when I was, I think, 21 years old.

The circumstances in my life were not good, but what was going on in my heart was even worse.

I was a young, still a boy who had to be a father and a husband, and I didn't know what I was doing.

And I still don't really, but at least I know that I don't many times.

Circumstances were not good, but even worse was that I did not have a relationship with God.

There was no peace.

There was restlessness, there was hopelessness, there was there was fear, there was worry, there was all these different things going on.

And here's the thing: I did not even realize that I didn't have peace.

Because you don't really realize you don't have peace until you trust in Jesus and have peace.

I just knew that, man, life is miserable.

Life is hard.

And there was stuff going on in my heart that I didn't even understand.

But the the source of it, the what it all came down to is that I didn't have Jesus.

I didn't trust Jesus as my savior.

And maybe some of you are right there.

You're like Ephesians says, strangers, aliens without God, separated from the Father.

But whenever I was 21 years old, I fell on my face with a life falling apart and a heart that was separated from God with sin.

I fell on my face, I cried out to Jesus that he would save me.

And when I rose up, I was a new creation in Christ.

And I said this the other night, and I'll say it again.

Look, when I got up, and Brittany was there, she'll tell you, one of the first things I said was like, I don't feel any different.

I think I said this.

I don't think it worked.

I was now very theologically strong there.

I told my pastor, Or something.

I don't think it worked.

I don't feel any different.

And he took me back to the Word of God.

And he says, the Bible says in Romans 10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

With the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made into salvation from whosoever comes on the name of the Lord will be saved.

He didn't say it's nothing about your feelings, it's about what God's word says.

And the very next day, like I said, it felt like it didn't work at first.

The very next day, I was a pipe fitter at Marathon in 2009, and I was working that job, and I remember, and again, nothing in my life, the circumstances didn't change.

Marriage was still struggling.

You know, I was living in chaos that I created.

But I remember that day, that next day, I remember for the first time I looked up to heaven and I knew that if I died, I wouldn't be there.

And if you know, if you are there, you know what I mean.

If you're not, you have no idea what I'm talking about.

It's something I can't explain.

What it was was I had perfect peace because I had given my life to Jesus.

And he delivered me from sin.

He placed me in the family of God.

He cleansed me.

He forgave me.

He gave me, he made me a new creation.

And I'm like, I don't even know who that was anymore.

I've been we've been married 20 years, and sometimes I go I go back and look at the emails that me and Brittany used to say, like when we're fighting and stuff, I was like, who is that?

That was terrible.

For the first time in my life.

In this life, peace in the life to come.

I love how Simeon said in the Lord.

He says, Now let your servant depart in peace.

For my eyes have seen God's salvation.

David said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel fear no evil, for you are with me.

And as we have a song of it, we can have our worship team come forward.

We're gonna worship our way out of here today.

We're gonna praise God.

But I want you to, I want you to sit with this question.

I want you to let's bow our heads.

Let's let's be honest with God.

From the first part of this service up till now comes down to now.

Listen, what will you do with the truth that you've heard?

What will you do with the truth that you've heard?

Are you living in the peace that Jesus gives?

Or are you just living trying to escape the chaos?

Maybe the greatest question you need to ask is like the disciples, who is this man?

Maybe it's not, do I have peace, but do I have Jesus?

Do I know Jesus?

Have I trusted in Jesus?

He is the only one.

He is the only one in this world, in this life, that can truly give true peace.

I want you to spend some time in prayer.

I want you to bow your heads, close your eyes.

I want you to acknowledge this morning and say, Pastor Jared, this message spoke to me.

I feel like the Holy Spirit put it on your heart for me.

If that's you this morning, you say, I'm going through a storm.

I know I'm a believer, but I'm going through a storm and I need to surrender and just trust God in this storm.

Would you raise your hand up this morning?

Amen.

We're gonna have a time of invitation where you can make a decision today that I'm gonna surrender my fear, surrender my burdens, surrender my control to his perfect control.

But before we do that, there's one more very important question I want you to ask yourself and be honest with yourself.

And that question is this Have I truly placed my faith in Jesus?

Am I truly experiencing true peace?

Not just distractions, not just trying harder, not just being better.

Am I truly experiencing true peace?

If you're here this morning and you're like, I'm not sure if I'm truly a believer.

I'm not sure if I've truly placed my faith in Christ.

I've been in religion all my life, or I've been trying to do this Christian thing, but I'm not sure if I'm truly a believer in Christ.

I'm not sure if I truly have true peace.

If that's you, will you slip your hand up so I can pray for you?

Anyone here?

Amen.

I want to have our prayer team come forward.

If you need prayer, if you need to talk to someone about having a true relationship, placing true faith in Jesus, I want you to come this morning.

I'm gonna pray, and I want you to respond.

We have people that would love to pray with you, that would love to walk with you through whatever God is dealing with in your heart.

So let's pray.

Father, we come to you in Jesus' name.

The name above every name, the name of our Redeemer, the name of our Savior, the name of our Lord, the name of our King, the only name by which we can be saved.

We come to you through the name of Jesus.

And God, first off, I want to pray for that one, maybe few in here this morning, Lord.

You know their hearts.

God, that's they've never truly placed their faith in you.

They're still lost, wandering in darkness, and they need, they need you.

They don't need you to just fix things in their life.

They need you.

They need you on the throne of their heart.

And God, that person, Lord, those that are here right now, Lord, work in their heart.

Give them the unrest in their soul.

Let them know that you have perfect peace that you, Jesus, want to give them, but it only comes through them surrendering, placing their faith in you.

Father, I pray for those that are going through storms this morning, problems, struggles, heartaches, hard times, chaos, commotion, battles.

God, you know every storm, you know every problem.

I pray right now that you would let them in this moment make a decision that they're gonna surrender their control to your perfect control.

And they're gonna decide today to lay it down at your feet, place it in your hands, and God that you would gift them with peace through their surrender.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's stand.

I want you to be obedient this morning.

Let's come and pray.

You need to spend some time just at this altar, laying down your control to Him.

Will you come this morning?

I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind.

As I know there is peace within your presence, I speak Jesus.