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Praise the Lord church!

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In today's church service, we are going to be talking about the topic, the antidote to

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stress.

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Our very first description today is John chapter 14 verse 27 in the Easy English Bible.

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And it says, I will go away, but I will give you a gift of peace.

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It is mine to give and yours to keep.

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It is not a gift like the world gives.

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Do not let yourselves be sad.

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Do not be afraid.

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You've probably heard this scripture before in many different versions, but I chose this

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specific version because it says a couple things.

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For example, it says it is mine to give and yours to keep.

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Well, we have to ask ourselves two questions when it comes to this scripture.

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One, will we even receive the gift?

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Will we receive it?

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Because God's peace is a gift.

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Sometimes it's not that we don't have peace.

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The fact is that we just need to activate it by surrendering to Jesus.

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And secondly, which peace will we choose?

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Jesus' peace is fulfilling, but the world's peace is just a high with really low lows.

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And some believers live a lifestyle of hopelessness for so long that they don't remember what

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the peace of God is like.

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And that's what the devil wants.

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He wants us to forget what the peace of God is like.

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So that when we come up in various circumstances in our lives, we don't know who to turn to.

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Our second scripture is Matthew chapter 6 verse 27 in the ESV version and it says,

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And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span of his life.

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Now this scripture makes us very aware of what stress actually does.

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Stress doesn't add anything to our life, but it actually takes away from our life.

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The more time we spend stressing, the less time we actually have to get things done,

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which is the track of Satan.

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He doesn't want us to live a fruitful and productive life, so he wants us to spend our

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time stressing and worrying while God is saying to us,

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My child, I have it all under control.

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Will you choose to trust me?

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The qualities of God's peace are, 1.

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It is everlasting.

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It never goes away.

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2.

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It gives us the ability to rest even in the storm.

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For example, when the disciples were on the boat and the storm was really, really bad,

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but Jesus was sleeping through the storm.

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He had the peace of God, and he wanted his disciples to have his peace as well.

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3.

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It only comes through Jesus.

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He is the source of our peace, and he is the source of our strength.

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If we try to go through anything else, it will be a distraction.

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4.

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Every follower of Christ has the opportunity to experience peace, because when we are

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followers of Christ, we have a secret weapon, the Holy Spirit.

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In verse 5, it shows us the uselessness of stress and worry.

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And our last scripture today is Luke chapter 10, verses 41 through 42 in the NLT version,

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it says, But the Lord said to her, My dear Martha,

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You are worried and upset over all these details.

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There is only one thing worth being concerned about.

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Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken from her.

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We have to look at the qualities of what the world calls peace as well in order to understand

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the scripture.

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Well, what the world calls peace is one, is just the high of being happy with really

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low lows.

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Two, it's just a distraction.

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It doesn't actually help us, it distracts us.

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Three, it pulls us away from Christ instead of pushing us to prayer.

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That's what the devil wants.

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He wants us to be distracted because the more we come away from Christ, the less we know

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how to handle ourselves against the temptation to be stressed.

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And the second thing we need to look at for the scripture is sometimes we get so caught

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up in what we have to do that Christ is not the center of it anymore.

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One of the main reasons people get stressed about their work is because God is no longer

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the center of it.

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Martha was so worried about other things that were important, yes, but she wasn't allowing

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herself to partake in the best part.

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This scripture also says, Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken from her.

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That tells us that when we discover the peace of God, it's not easily taken from us.

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We can't just be swayed by the world, by the devil, or by situations.

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This also tells us not to be super upset about the details, because when we're so upset

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about the details, it takes our minds off of Christ and on all of the imperfect details.

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Our points for today are, one, the peace of God is activated when we are surrendered.

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Two, worry is a distraction from the enemy to get us focused on the storm and off of

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the one who can calm the storm.

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Three, having the peace of God means we can rest in him, even during the circumstances.

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Sometimes God doesn't change our circumstances, but he changes our perspective through the

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circumstances.

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And sometimes when it's difficult to have peace, when we make an effort to smile on

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the inside, we start to smile on the outside.

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And sometimes when we start to smile on the outside, God will help us make that smile

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on the inside.

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So if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then this message will help

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you.

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But if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I invite you to give your

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heart to the Lord today.

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To receive him into your heart, go to Romans 10, 9, gluten.

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It says, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that

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God has raised him from the dead, he will be saved.

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For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto

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salvation.

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If you said this prayer with sincerity, you are saved and now have eternal life with Jesus.

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You are saved from all your sins, past, present, and future sins you may commit.

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This truth is not a free past is in any time.

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Instead, Jesus gives you power over all wrong choices and empowers you to spread the gospel

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to others.

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You are saved forever and your name is written in the book of life.