Praise the Lord church!
In today's church service, we are going to be talking about the topic, the antidote to
stress.
Our very first description today is John chapter 14 verse 27 in the Easy English Bible.
And it says, I will go away, but I will give you a gift of peace.
It is mine to give and yours to keep.
It is not a gift like the world gives.
Do not let yourselves be sad.
Do not be afraid.
You've probably heard this scripture before in many different versions, but I chose this
specific version because it says a couple things.
For example, it says it is mine to give and yours to keep.
Well, we have to ask ourselves two questions when it comes to this scripture.
One, will we even receive the gift?
Will we receive it?
Because God's peace is a gift.
Sometimes it's not that we don't have peace.
The fact is that we just need to activate it by surrendering to Jesus.
And secondly, which peace will we choose?
Jesus' peace is fulfilling, but the world's peace is just a high with really low lows.
And some believers live a lifestyle of hopelessness for so long that they don't remember what
the peace of God is like.
And that's what the devil wants.
He wants us to forget what the peace of God is like.
So that when we come up in various circumstances in our lives, we don't know who to turn to.
Our second scripture is Matthew chapter 6 verse 27 in the ESV version and it says,
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span of his life.
Now this scripture makes us very aware of what stress actually does.
Stress doesn't add anything to our life, but it actually takes away from our life.
The more time we spend stressing, the less time we actually have to get things done,
which is the track of Satan.
He doesn't want us to live a fruitful and productive life, so he wants us to spend our
time stressing and worrying while God is saying to us,
My child, I have it all under control.
Will you choose to trust me?
The qualities of God's peace are, 1.
It is everlasting.
It never goes away.
2.
It gives us the ability to rest even in the storm.
For example, when the disciples were on the boat and the storm was really, really bad,
but Jesus was sleeping through the storm.
He had the peace of God, and he wanted his disciples to have his peace as well.
3.
It only comes through Jesus.
He is the source of our peace, and he is the source of our strength.
If we try to go through anything else, it will be a distraction.
4.
Every follower of Christ has the opportunity to experience peace, because when we are
followers of Christ, we have a secret weapon, the Holy Spirit.
In verse 5, it shows us the uselessness of stress and worry.
And our last scripture today is Luke chapter 10, verses 41 through 42 in the NLT version,
it says, But the Lord said to her, My dear Martha,
You are worried and upset over all these details.
There is only one thing worth being concerned about.
Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken from her.
We have to look at the qualities of what the world calls peace as well in order to understand
the scripture.
Well, what the world calls peace is one, is just the high of being happy with really
low lows.
Two, it's just a distraction.
It doesn't actually help us, it distracts us.
Three, it pulls us away from Christ instead of pushing us to prayer.
That's what the devil wants.
He wants us to be distracted because the more we come away from Christ, the less we know
how to handle ourselves against the temptation to be stressed.
And the second thing we need to look at for the scripture is sometimes we get so caught
up in what we have to do that Christ is not the center of it anymore.
One of the main reasons people get stressed about their work is because God is no longer
the center of it.
Martha was so worried about other things that were important, yes, but she wasn't allowing
herself to partake in the best part.
This scripture also says, Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken from her.
That tells us that when we discover the peace of God, it's not easily taken from us.
We can't just be swayed by the world, by the devil, or by situations.
This also tells us not to be super upset about the details, because when we're so upset
about the details, it takes our minds off of Christ and on all of the imperfect details.
Our points for today are, one, the peace of God is activated when we are surrendered.
Two, worry is a distraction from the enemy to get us focused on the storm and off of
the one who can calm the storm.
Three, having the peace of God means we can rest in him, even during the circumstances.
Sometimes God doesn't change our circumstances, but he changes our perspective through the
circumstances.
And sometimes when it's difficult to have peace, when we make an effort to smile on
the inside, we start to smile on the outside.
And sometimes when we start to smile on the outside, God will help us make that smile
on the inside.
So if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then this message will help
you.
But if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I invite you to give your
heart to the Lord today.
To receive him into your heart, go to Romans 10, 9, gluten.
It says, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that
God has raised him from the dead, he will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
If you said this prayer with sincerity, you are saved and now have eternal life with Jesus.
You are saved from all your sins, past, present, and future sins you may commit.
This truth is not a free past is in any time.
Instead, Jesus gives you power over all wrong choices and empowers you to spread the gospel
to others.
You are saved forever and your name is written in the book of life.