[0:00] Okay, if you could please open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4, verse number 6. And like I said before, it's great to be here.
[0:16] I count it an honor to be able to open up God's Word in front of you and hopefully help you. And I'm not saying help you because I need to help you, but because God has helped me and I think this would be of great help to you.
[0:34] And in any of the stories that you hear from this, it might sound that I'm the one that's doing it or that did it right. But I got to say before I start that I am what I am by the grace of God.
[0:50] So anything that you hear of any praise or any honor, any thankfulness, it's all thanks to God. Everything stands thanks to God.
[1:01] So today we'll be learning about the boats of life and the anchors of our soul. I'm just joking, Trent. We're not. I got to admit, I had no idea last Sunday morning.
[1:17] And I would have believed it and I would have preached it somewhere else, you know. But I'm very thankful that I know Trent. I've known Trent for a while.
[1:28] And I love him. And sometimes we've had our discussions here and there. But I love him. He's my brother in Christ and he's my pastor. And I'm very thankful for him. And I'm thankful to know that I can come here and be relaxed.
[1:42] At the same time, very respectful in front of God's Word. Knowing that we're in family and that we can all learn together from God's Word. So in all seriousness, today I would like to remind you about peace.
[1:55] Peace. Not just, not whatever peace, but the peace of God, which is what the Bible shows us. And when we talk about peace, it refers to a state of mind and heart that is free from worry, free from fear, and free from anxiety.
[2:09] And when we talk about peace as Christians, we talk about the peace of God. So Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 through 7. Throughout the years, God has shown me this great peace.
[2:23] It's not a peace that should come and go, but it's a peace that is with us constantly. Right? It's not just, whenever we read the Bible, sometimes I think, okay, I need peace sometimes, but not all the time.
[2:38] But the truth is not that we need it sometimes, we need it all the time. Because we don't know when things are going to happen. We don't know when problems are going to come our way. We need the peace of God.
[2:49] Right? And that's what the Bible shows us. And so throughout the years, God has shown me this great peace. God has kept my heart and my mind even in great difficulty. And like I said, when I say this, I'm not saying I've been perfect, but I've made my mistakes.
[3:04] But when I'm in trouble, God's the one that helps me. And I need to understand that God's the one that gives me peace. Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7. The Bible says this.
[3:18] Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Verse number 7, key part right here.
[3:29] It says, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and mind through Jesus Christ. And so here to give you a bit of a context, we have Paul.
[3:41] And Paul is giving this, God's given this to Paul to write for this church in Philippi. And it's something that God knows we're going to read it today.
[3:52] And we're going to read it as Christians throughout our lives. And we're going to learn from this. And so Paul, right before these verses, he just talked about the joy in the Lord, right? He said, rejoice.
[4:02] And I always rejoice, you know. And he was a very joyful person, even though he was in a horrible situation. And he's been through horrible things. And if you look after this, it talks about think on these things, Philippians 4, 8, which we know that.
[4:16] And it's to help us keep our minds set on God, set on truth, set on what God has taught us. And so we see a person that is focused on God. When we look at Paul, when we see what he writes, we see a person focused on God, a person that, even though he does not understand everything that's going on in his life, he knows that God is in control.
[4:38] He knows that God loves him. He knows that God is there for him. He knows that God is going to help him. He knows it. And because he knows this, in chapter 3, the chapter before, we see Paul saying, you know what?
[4:52] I give it all to God. I give it all to God. I give it all for Christ. Christ is all I know. And chapter 3 is very encouraging. And it shows us how focused Paul is on Christ.
[5:04] He's a person that has been through much injustice but continues to trust in God. Even in the middle of the injustice, his hope has not been heard. His love for God has not been shaken. He is a person who is walking with God.
[5:17] He is a person who is focused on God. And that's why he talks about the peace of God. Because it's in his life. So Paul in these verses tells us about the peace of God.
[5:27] One that should be coming in all of our lives. And I hope one that will help us through the many troubles that maybe we're facing right now. Or we will face in the future.
[5:39] So Philippians chapter 4, verse 7. Point number 1 for this evening is, The peace of God is beyond human understanding. And this is okay. You know, when I went to school, something that, one of my problems, is I had to understand everything that happened and how it happened.
[6:00] But when I came to God, that did not work out. Because I'm not God. Right? And I don't understand everything that's going on around me. And that's okay. Right? And so when the Bible talks about the peace of God, it talks about something that we just don't even understand sometimes.
[6:16] But we know that it's there. We know that God gives it to us. The Bible says in Philippians 4, verse 7, It says, And the peace of God says, Which passeth all understanding. What the Bible is saying here is, It will not make sense to us.
[6:29] It will not make sense to the world. But God will give us peace. God gives us peace. It is not what we normally expect. And I'll explain what this means in a little bit.
[6:40] And I'll explain it with a small story. I remember when I was in the first church plant, I told you it was just my wife and I, and I was going out and passing tracts and passing invitations to our church for people to come.
[6:53] And I remember one time I turned into, if you go to Colombia, where our first church plant is in Caldas, it's filled with little dark alleys and streets that are sometimes alone.
[7:06] There's nobody there. But one time I was turning right on this street, walking, and I was very joyful, you know, and excited about bringing people to church.
[7:17] And you think probably, were you really? I really was that day. I remember I was singing a hymn, and I was just going with my tracks, and all of a sudden I turned on that corner, and there's a young group of men, about 10 of them.
[7:31] And I'm a small guy, even in Colombia, right? So these are young men, stronger than I am, right? Taller than I am, and they are up to no good.
[7:43] They're doing something that they're not supposed to do. I'll leave it at that, right? And at the moment, you know, I thought, I'll just keep going. I have no idea why.
[7:55] And I just kept going. I got to them. I presented myself. My name is so-and-so. I'm a pastor of this church. I would love for you all to come. I give them the gospel, handed a track to every single one of them, and I just went on my way.
[8:07] And after I stepped out of that, I thought to myself, what in the world was I thinking, right? I mean, I clearly saw what they were doing, and I remember thinking in my mind, that just didn't make any sense.
[8:23] It doesn't make any sense what just happened. You know, if I was where I was before, before God, if I would have seen that, what I would have done is I would have just quickly turned around and ran across the road and just straight go on the other way.
[8:41] But that's not what happened. And I remember in that moment, I was just super calm. I wasn't even shaking, and I was just happy, inviting these 10 guys, doing nothing good, to come to church.
[8:53] And so, usually when we think about the peace of God, we think about something that we will not understand sometimes, something that's beyond our understanding, but in that moment, and just like it happens in our lives, God will help us.
[9:09] He will keep our hearts, like the Bible says right here, and we'll keep our minds in Christ, right? We'll guard Him. And so, go with me to John chapter 14, verse 27.
[9:22] The Bible talks about this, and the reason why I told you that story is because it just didn't make sense to me, what I did. And like I told you, it wasn't me. It was all God.
[9:32] God, it was all Him helping me. It was all giving me peace. It was all Him giving me peace that passes all understanding. It was all Him giving me what I needed in that moment, right?
[9:43] So, the Bible tells us something that we must know about the peace of God, and it's that it comes only from God. This is important for us to know. We'll see why this makes sense in a little bit. John chapter 14, verse number 27, the Bible says the following.
[9:56] This is Jesus speaking to His disciples, and He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. It says, Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
[10:06] Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So, when Jesus says these things to His disciples, He is saying something very important that we need to realize is that, number one, He is the giver of peace.
[10:20] He is the giver of peace, and this is important for us to understand. Because usually we think, or the world thinks, you know, peace comes from having a lot of money, a lot of wealth. Peace coming from having power, you know?
[10:33] But the Bible shows us that's not the truth. The truth is that peace comes, true peace, comes from Him, from Christ. Jesus is the only one that can give us the peace, which the Bible talks about, the peace of God, right?
[10:46] And pay attention when He says, He says, Not as the world giveth. The world offers peace, the wrong kind of peace. Right? Peace that is temporary, peace that is false, that is said on the things on this earth, things that will go in the blink of an eye.
[11:03] But God offers us peace that stays, that will be with us forever. Our peace comes from God. This is something that we need to understand. Go with me to Colossians chapter 3, verse 15.
[11:16] We need to understand that our peace comes from God. Right? And remember, the Bible here talked about how it's something that we do not understand, that the world does not understand, right?
[11:28] It's a peace that the world does not understand. And something that we need to notice with these verses is the fact that it says it's linked, this peace is linked with being thankful.
[11:40] You know, when I went around that corner and I saw those young men doing nothing that were up to no good, it doesn't make sense that I would say, thank you God for these young men that are doing nothing good.
[11:54] You know? But the Bible, when we look at the peace of God, when we look at, when it talks about the peace of God, it's usually linked with thankfulness. Look at what the Bible says right here in Colossians chapter 3, verse 15.
[12:06] The Bible says this, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you are called in one body. And it says right there, what does it say? Be ye thankful.
[12:16] Be ye thankful. Right? So it talks about the peace of God needs to rule in our hearts and we need to be thankful. If you look back at Philippians chapter 6, right, it says, with thanksgiving towards the end, Philippians chapter 6, verse 7, the Bible says, with thanksgiving, look at what it says right there.
[12:34] It says, in verse number 6, it says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, it says with, what does it say right there? Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Let your request be made known unto God.
[12:46] And so, whenever we see the peace of God, we talk about the peace of God in the Bible, we see that it's linked with thankfulness. And so, that doesn't make any sense. Right? That we don't understand that the world doesn't understand that.
[12:58] Right? Because usually whenever we talk about peace or when we need peace is when we're in trouble. But when you're in trouble, you don't usually thank God for the trouble, do you? It's not something that comes into our mind and say, hey, let's be thankful to God in this moment.
[13:13] But the Bible says, hey, whenever there's peace of God, there will be thankfulness in your heart. Right? It's linked with thankfulness to God. And so, the Bible shows us very clearly that it doesn't make sense.
[13:28] Passive understanding. Right? Let me tell you another story. Hopefully, this will help us with this. In Caldas, the first church plant, there's this lady, her name is Hafiza. And Hafiza, about three months ago, four months ago, she was in the hospital and she was, I mean, the doctors told us she was dead almost like twice.
[13:48] Like, her heart stopped beating twice. And I would think in that moment, after she was, or before and after, she would be very upset, very worried, very full of fear because of her life was about to go away.
[14:02] But I remember she called me. She called me, the pastor of the church, and he said, hey, I'm just very thankful to God. And I'm praying for you. And I said, that doesn't make any sense, hermana Hafiza.
[14:13] I should be the one praying for you. Right? You in that moment of desperation, that moment of difficulty in your life, you should not be thankful. Right? That's what we usually think. You should be worried. But her response was, hey, I'm very thankful for you.
[14:27] Let me pray for you. And so, when we talk about the peace of God, it's connected with thankfulness. When we experience it, when we see it in our lives, it doesn't make sense.
[14:39] But it's there. That's what God gives us. Right? So number one, it comes from God. Right? Which is very important. Even though we don't understand that it's important in our lives. Number two, it does not depend on the circumstances, the peace of God.
[14:52] Go with me to Philippians chapter 4, verse 6. The Bible here tells us about how the peace of God in our lives does not depend on circumstances.
[15:04] You know, the world usually tells us, thank you so much. I need some water. Appreciate that. You know, the world usually tells us, for you to have peace, you need to go to a place and breathe in and out, you know, count to ten, right?
[15:21] And that's what we usually think about peace. But the Bible shows us you don't need any of that stuff. All you need is to be focused on God. Right? All you need is to be focused on God.
[15:32] Right? The circumstance around you, whatever is happening around you, you don't need, you don't need that to be perfect. You don't need to be in a place where everything's calm, where everything's, there's no problems.
[15:45] You just need to focus on God and you have peace that passeth all understanding. The Bible says, Philippians 4, 6, it says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.
[16:00] So those two first parts, be careful for nothing, but in everything. The Bible here shows us that this peace of God is not dependent of the situation we're in. It's not dependent on the circumstances that we are facing in the moment.
[16:14] It says, don't worry about anything, but in everything. So it's saying, it doesn't matter what's going on around you. If you focus on God, God will help you.
[16:24] God will give you peace that passeth all understanding. It doesn't say only works at home, only works at church, only works if you're with certain people in your life or if you're in a certain situation.
[16:37] It shows us that in anything and in everything, you can have peace because you're focused on God. You know, if you go to God, if you focus on God, John chapter 16, verse 33, go here with me.
[16:52] John chapter 16, verse 33. You know, Jesus has been talking to his disciples and he's been telling them, you know, the time has come, I'm about to go and a lot of things have happened, right?
[17:05] And his disciples are beginning to think about these things, getting worried and God knows they're about to go through something very rough. Jesus knows this. But he tells them this right here.
[17:17] He talks to them and tells them this in verse number 33, John 16, 33. He tells them, these things I have spoken unto you and he says the following, that in me ye might have peace.
[17:28] In the world ye should have tribulation. He says, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. His disciples were about to experience great difficulty. They were about to see Jesus in horrible situation.
[17:41] They have given all to be with Jesus but soon they will see him die on the cross. Soon they will be persecuted. They will be killed unjustly for preaching Christ, for living for Christ, right?
[17:54] But in all this, Jesus tells them, hey, don't worry, right? I'm giving you peace. You guys will be fine. It's okay. Don't worry.
[18:04] No matter what happens, no matter who's persecuting you, you will have peace. And that's what we see in the book of Acts. They go with peace preaching Christ and we think, this doesn't make any sense but that's what they do and so in anything and in everything we can have peace.
[18:22] The peace of God does not depend on what is happening around us but it does depend on one thing. So, it doesn't depend on what's going on around us but one thing it depends on. The peace of God depends on our walk with God, on our focus with God.
[18:36] Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 and we'll finish here in these verses right here. Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 if you could just go back there with me. the Bible here says the following, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
[19:01] So, let me ask you a quick question. What do you do when trouble comes your way? You don't have to answer. Do you usually think of God or do you start running around with your head cut off like, I don't even know how does that go?
[19:18] With a chicken with his head cut off something like that. Do you usually go around trying to solve every problem you have? See, I knew I was going to do this. Do you usually go running around and try to solve your problems and try to put things back together and then at the end of everything do you go and say ah God help me?
[19:35] Or do you first go to God because you're focused on Him and then God fills you with that peace that you need? What do you do? Right? You know, a lot of times that's what I do.
[19:50] I think I need to figure this out right now and I start running around everywhere and at the end of it all I think man all this could have been avoided if I would have just been focused on God.
[20:01] If I would have gone to Him first. All the worry in the world could have been avoided if I could have been focused on God if I would have gone to God first in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving like the Bible says only if I would have been walking with God like I should be I would have been focused on Him.
[20:16] I would have gone to Him in prayer I would have gone to the giver of peace and He would have kept my heart and my thoughts in Christ. That's what He would have done. Right? So the Bible shows us very clearly that we need to be focused on God.
[20:30] One more verse Isaiah 26 3. Isaiah chapter 26 verse number 3. Here Isaiah shows us a truth that we need to know about the peace of God.
[20:47] Right? Isaiah 26 verse number 3. Here it shows us that we need to be focused on God. For you and I to have the peace of God that turns on constantly in our life that is constantly with us we need to be focused on God.
[21:05] The Bible says this talks about just a fact it says thou will keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because He trusted in thee.
[21:19] So this is something that you and I need to think about. If we are focused on God if we are focused on His word if we are focused on His will if we are focused on His kingdom you know what God's going to do?
[21:31] He will give us peace. Peace that passeth all understanding. Peace that keeps our hearts and our thoughts. Right? Peace that helps us through the day.
[21:42] We all want this peace. You know the reason why I came to you this night with peace the peace of God is because I've heard there's so many of you that are going through troubles.
[21:56] Not you only but myself I told you I learned this. this is for me. I've gone through a good bit of things but I'm thankful for the things I went through.
[22:07] I'm thankful because in the moments of difficulty in my life that's when God showed up the most. That's when I realized that God is with me. That's when God gave me showed me this peace that passes all understanding.
[22:22] And maybe today you are in the midst of trouble and you are afraid you don't know what to do you are frustrated and you need peace from God.
[22:35] We need to understand that it only comes from Him that it does not depend on our circumstances. No matter what's going on in your life you can still have peace and that you need to be focused on God.
[22:49] It is very important. I'll finish with the story that's probably a weird story to finish with but I'll finish with this. You know there was one day that I was focusing on getting ready for a service and all of a sudden this man came into our church and he looked a little bit odd.
[23:07] He had been drinking and he didn't just drink whatever he was drinking what's it called alcohol not the drink but like pure alcohol he was destroying his life.
[23:19] But the reason why I noticed this is because I mean his smell was very strong on him. And I remember this man came here came to our church the first church plant I was ready to preach I was excited about what God was going to do that day and he just came to me and he started saying oh I love God and he started hugging me hugs you know he started hugging me he started saying I love God I love God and so I mean it was weird because usually a drunk person would slur his words would walk very strangely and I remember okay I don't know what's happened but all of a sudden I grabbed this guy hugged him I took him downstairs to the office and all of a sudden this guy started changing a little bit I grabbed the Bible I gave him some water he came and sat down with me and I gave him the Bible and I got my Bible and I started preaching to him and he was saying I love God and he was looking to me very intensely and he would say help me help me I said this doesn't make any sense
[24:19] I've never seen a drunk guy like this in my life and after that this guy started changing voices and I realized okay this is not just any drunk guy this guy is possessed after that he changed I started reading Romans with him and all of a sudden another voice came on and this voice started mocking him mocking what I was reading mocking God mocking what was on God's word and then all of a sudden the voice changed again and this deep voice came on and this guy started looking at me and he's saying I'm going to kill you in a very deep voice and I said what in the world I remember I looked at him that moment and I said yeah but God loves you I don't understand why I said that I have no idea but I remember after that I had to go back up to preach and I preached the gospel to him the men went home I'm still looking for him I remember I looked back and I said there's no way I don't understand it but in that moment
[25:22] I had peace that passed all understanding in that moment the circumstance you know I thought about this in my mind because we're we're in near a cemetery and there's a lot of witchcraft going on there and I know this was going to happen but in my mind it was completely different I thought somebody was going to call me to their house and I was going to go in and there would be this person that was possessed but that's not what happened this man came to our church building and I had to deal with him right then and there but not at one moment was I afraid not at one moment was I getting ready to run the other way I don't understand why but God does and God gave me peace in that moment and so tonight I hope that I know I stumbled through words I usually do but I hope that if you leave from here with one thing is this you can also have peace you can also live in peace the peace of God the peace that passeth all understanding the peace that keeps our hearts and our minds in Christ that peace that we all want that we all need you can have it too let you can have a speaks the peaceAR and then let us jump to by