Cultivate | Peace | Josh Wright

You've come at the right time When I least expected, you'd never been So why would I be surprised When you deliver every time On mountain tops, you stay the same In valleys low, you never change And I believe that I will see The goodness of the Lord And I'm confident as seasons change Your faithfulness remains You go, you go before me To prepare a blessing, you made a way It's more than I could imagine More than I could fathom or comprehend On mountain tops, you stay the same In valleys low, you never change And I believe that I will see The goodness of the Lord And I'm confident as seasons change Your faithfulness remains God of my present, God of my future You write my story, you hold it all together God of my present, God of my future You write my story, you hold it all together God of my present, God of my future You write my story, you hold it all together God of my present, God of my future You write my story, you hold it all together And I believe that I will see The goodness of the Lord And I'm confident as seasons change Your faithfulness remains Your faithfulness remains Your faithfulness remains Come on, are you thankful for His faithfulness this morning? Amen. Come on, let's sing this together. One there. There was no way until you made one Grace upon grace, hallelujah And even though I don't deserve it, you did it And even though I couldn't earn it You give it, come on, can we sing this together? Who am I? Who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. All my life you've been right here by my side, God. I'm just grateful for you.

God, I'm just grateful for you. It's only holy, there's only one. I give you glory for all that you've done. Even though I don't deserve it, you did it. Yes, you did, Lord. And even though I couldn't earn it, you give it, come on, let's sing it together. Who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. All my life you've been right here by my side, God. I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Come on, sing it again. Who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. All my life you've been right here by my side, God. I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Yes, I'm grateful. Oh, we're so thankful, Lord, for your love and mercy, for your grace. And I, I'm lifting both of my hands because you gave me chance after chance after chance. And I, I'm giving all that I am because you gave me chance after chance after chance. And I, I'm lifting both of my hands because you gave me chance after chance after chance. And I, I'm giving all that I am

because you gave me chance after chance after chance. Who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. And all my life you've been right here by my side, God. I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Come on, sing it again. Who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. And all my life you've been right here by my side, God. I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. And I survive and I'm here to testify, God. I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm all right if they say I'm out of my mind, God. I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Come on, can you just praise Him today? I remember how you provided, how you held me through the night. And I remember how you sustained me when you stepped in to save my life. And if I knew then what I know now, what I know now, I will be still, and I'll let you work it out Jesus, I was tossed in the water

But I never went under You were always on time Jesus, when I went through the fire You were right there beside me You were always on time You were always, always, always on time You were always, always, always on time And I'll remember how you carried me When I couldn't take a step And I'll remember how you loved me When I couldn't love myself Jesus, I was tossed in the water But I never went under You were always on time Jesus, when I went through the fire You were right there beside me You were always on time You were always, always, always on time You were always, always, always on time You were always, always, always on time You were always, always, always on time Come on, if the Lord has been faithful to you, if he's put a song on your heart, we sing it back to him today We declare this today, every voice in this place, we sing There's never been a day, never been a minute, never been a moment that you weren't in it There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God So I worship you There's never been a day, never been a minute, never been a moment that you weren't in it There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God So I worship you There's never been a day, never been a minute, never been a moment that you weren't in it

There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God So I worship you There's never been a day, never been a minute, never been a moment that you weren't in it There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God So I worship you Jesus, I was tossed in the water But I never went under You were always on time And Jesus, when I went through the fire You were right there beside me You were always on time You were always, always Come on, we sing you are Oh, you were always, always, always on time You were always, always, always on time You were always, always, always on time Oh, Jesus, I was tossed in the water But I never went under You were always on time And Jesus, when I went through the fire You were right there beside me You were always on time Come on, can we give Him praise? He's a faithful God. He walks with you. Amen. You may be seated. Before the sweetness, before the color, the ground gets tended to,

the soil gets ready, seeds go in, and then we wait. In the same way, God is cultivating something within us, transformation. The Holy Spirit is producing fruit in our lives. It's different, real, sweet, and it lasts. Jesus said, Abide in me, because, apart from Him, we can only do so much. But when we remain rooted in Him, real growth happens. This season, prepare the soil and watch what God grows. Well, hello, Compass Roanoke. Good to be back with you guys. Hey, happy summer. I had a chance to go speak at our high school camp, spoke all four nights, and I realized something at the end, that that is much easier to do when you're 26 than it is to do when you're 46, but God showed up. It was an amazing time. In fact, all of our camps this summer have been incredible, so thank you for sending your kids.

We're one church in many locations, so hi, everybody, joining us online. We're going to jump into our Cultivate series. We're studying the fruit of the Spirit this summer. Before we do that, I want to pray, though. I want to pray for our neighbors in East Texas who are facing these floods and storms. I want you to know, one of the things that I'm proud about our church is we say we're for others, we pray like we're for others, but then we go like we're for others. I want y'all to know that because of your generosity, we've already sent money to Convoy of Hope who've already got people on the ground in East Texas ready to help people rebuild from these floods. We're a generous church. We're a praying church, but we're also a going church. We're a doing church, an acting church. Amen? Amen. Isn't that good? Let's pray. Father, we love you. I pray right now for our neighbors in East Texas who are many waking up today to flooded homes or schools or workplaces and

trying to build their lives back. I pray you'd be with them. I pray you'd help government officials and churches, help organizations, companies like Servpro who help people go in and clean messes up. I pray you'd be with counselors and teachers as they're trying to figure out how to start school back in a few weeks. God, there's just so much going on down there. I pray that you'd be with those folks. Be near the brokenhearted. Give them wisdom and guidance. God, I pray in Jesus' name you'd use the church in East Texas to help rebuild. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, can I start today and ask a question I maybe shouldn't ask in church? Is that okay? What's the difference between Satan and your mother-in-law? The guy in the last service said, nothing. Now, before you email me, before you send a message to my wife, let me be real clear. I'm talking about your mother-in-law, not mine. I love my mother-in-law. She's awesome. Satan believes

all the right things. Satan believes in God, believes in Jesus, believes in the cross, believes in the resurrection, power of the scripture. Satan has better theology than you, I promise. Satan would destroy you in a Bible quiz, but Satan would always fail miserably at a fruit inspection. Here's what I mean. No ability to transform. All of the ability to agree with truth and conceive about truth, but no ability to love, have joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, meekness, long-suffering. All of those things, because we serve a God who can do anything, all of those things are things that the Spirit can yet do in your mother-in-law. She can still love. She can still have joy, peace, patience. I know, I know it looks like that is impossible for some of you, but our God can do all things. Why do I tell you that? Here's why I tell you that. Right belief matters deeply. It does. You have to have truth. Truth matters.

We live in an era where people try to tell you truth doesn't matter. Truth matters. But in the New Testament, the evidence of the Spirit was not just the facts that the first century Christians affirmed. The evidence of the Spirit was what was being formed in their life, in their soul, in their hearts. So when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit, I don't even have to put a list up here, because you already know what should be on that list. Like, even if you're not a believer, even if you're not a Christian, even if you're not a Bible person, the fruit of the Spirit, when we talk about the Spirit, Talk about those things. That's what you hope your spouse would be like. the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God, The fruit of the Spirit is what you pray the Spirit of God, your kids would marry. The fruit of the Spirit is the type of person that you wanna hire to work at your company if you own a business.

And so let me just kinda like dip our toes into the water with a few of these in this list because Paul in the New Testament, these people started changing. When they confess with their mouth that Jesus was Lord and believed in their heart, God raised them from the dead, yeah, that was punching their ticket to heaven in a relationship with God, but they started changing. They weren't like they used to be. And so Paul wrote down to a letter in a church in a town called Galatia, what not an exhaustive list, but kind of, hey, this is what it's gonna look like if you're walking with the Spirit. And he said things like this. You're gonna be more patient. You're gonna be more patient. Somebody already is like, I'm out. I'm done. I'm not good at that. That's why you need the Spirit. Let me just say this. That's why you need more than just spirituality. You need the Spirit in your life. You know what patience is? Patience is me saying I care more about you than I do my own progress. Patience is me saying I choose to walk at your pace because I care more about where you're going than how fast we get there.

This is Jesus all throughout the Gospels. Jesus would be going to a town on the other side of the lake and someone would come up with a question and he would stop and he would talk to them. Jesus would be going to preach or going to teach or going to meet someone over here and somebody would come up and say, hey, my daughter over here is sick. Can you come pray? And he would turn and walk with them where they were going because to Jesus, that person mattered more than where he was going. This is all throughout the Gospels. You know what the fruit of the Spirit is? The fruit of the Spirit is kindness. You know what kindness is? Kindness is loaning somebody else your strength instead of reminding them of their weakness. Like I could remind you that you need me. I could remind you that you're not strong enough. I could remind you how many times you've messed this up. I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna give you my strength. That's kindness. Self-control, that's a fruit of the Spirit. Self-control is when I give the Spirit the ability to work within me. Hey, I'm gonna say no to me and yes to God more. That's what self-control is.

Now that one right there would change some of our lives. So Paul gets to the end of the list and he says something very unique. He doesn't say anything like this in all the New Testament. He says, against these things, there is no law. What does he mean? You can only be so self-centered and not self-controlled that eventually they'll take you to jail. You can only be so unkind to other people that eventually they'll lock you up. But Paul says, you can never be too kind. You can max that out, man. You can max out patience. You can max out love. You can max out joy. There's no law against these things. You can't overdo them. So here's the whole list. Galatians chapter five, verse 22 and 23. It says, the fruit the Holy Spirit produces in your life is gonna be love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. Against these things, there's no law. Now I want you to imagine a family where this was the goal. I want you to imagine a company where the owners of the company said, before I want you to crush it next quarter and before I want us to acquire more businesses, I want this to show up in your house.

This is my real goal for you. I wanna do all those other things, but it'd be so much better if we did all those other things and you were a better person as we did it. Imagine a country where this is what the people in office wanted for their people. This is what the world wants. This is what the world needs. This is what will change the world. And when I see this list, I think to myself, why wouldn't anybody follow Jesus? Why wouldn't anybody wanna follow Jesus? Because this is the outcome. The outcome of following Jesus is what you already want in your life anyways. You want more love, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more goodness. You already are striving on your own to be these things. This is, Paul says, this is gonna be the outcome of actually walking with the Spirit in your life. Now, let's be honest. I've watched y'all drive out on 114. Nobody here's an all-star at patience. No, you are not, all right? I am. This is why you're following me. But, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. My wife would be like, liar! No. This is why we need the Spirit,

because we're not naturally good at this stuff. Like the fruit of Josh is not patience. It's get out of my way. The fruit of Josh is not kindness. It's dude, come on man, how many more times are you gonna mess that up? The fruit of Josh is not joy. The fruit of Josh is, let me tell you everything that's wrong with the world. Right? This is why we need the Spirit. You may not be a first ballot hall of famer at patience, but I bet you wanna be. You may not have the most joy of anybody you know, but I bet you want to. Right? This is why we need the Spirit. And let me just say this, this list Paul gave, it's not a to-do list. It's not like you can go home tomorrow and just say, I wanna be this. I'm gonna be this. This is something the Spirit produces in you. It's not something you just decide you're gonna start doing. Willpower is not the pathway to becoming more like Jesus. It's the result of relationship. Let me give you a practical example. So I grew up in Alabama,

and where I grew up, when you're born, if you're a boy, they put a baseball, a basketball, a football, or a rifle in your hand. And that is your future. Right? So I picked basketball, because I love basketball, and it was always my thing. Well, we didn't have soccer where I grew up. It just wasn't very popular. And so we didn't have a soccer team in my high school until I was a senior, and by then that ship had sailed for me. So I never grew up around soccer. But then I had boys. And my boys are nine and 11, and they love soccer. They love it so much. They really got into it about five or six years ago. I don't love soccer, but guess who I do love? I love Liam and Beckett. So I started watching soccer, and I started going to soccer matches with them. I started taking them to soccer practice. I even took my son to see a goat a couple weeks ago. Messy. Some of y'all sinners believe Ronaldo, but it's messy.

Now, why do I tell you that? When you share a life with someone, their rhythms start to shape you. Their habits become your habits. Their tone becomes your tone. Their pace becomes your pace. You start to love the things that they love so much so that you start to look like them. Now, it's unbelievable. This past fall, way before the World Cup, it's Saturday evening in my house. I'm a blue-blooded Southern American young man. I say young liberally. And I'm flipping through the channels on Saturday nights past college football to find Messy playing soccer. I would have never done that 10 years ago. What is that the result of? It's the result of a relationship. It changed me. It changed. This is what Paul means when he says, the Spirit will change you and produce something different in you. And so he concludes that, and he tells us what that actually looks like. He says, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Now, I read that a few times prepping for this message, and I thought, that's weird. That sounds weird.

What does that look like? But it doesn't have to be. A lot of times when people in church talk about the Holy Spirit, they make it weird. The Holy Spirit's not weird. People are. Your Uncle Jeff is weird, right? The Holy Spirit's not weird. This can be very, very practical. What this means is it means that when the Holy Spirit speaks to me, I'm just gonna do what he says. That's what it means, keep in step with the Spirit. You say, how do I know the Holy Spirit's speaking to me? Let me give you a few ways to know. Number one, others will notice and their life will be better because you do something you normally wouldn't do. That's how you know. In the New Testament, in the book of Acts, the writer of the book of Acts says that the Holy Spirit would come upon them, would fill them, and when they were filled with the Spirit, something would happen. They would be Jesus' witnesses to the end of the earth. So something would happen in them, and the result of what happened in them would make it better for everybody around them. That's how you know. So practical example,

I would never wanna encourage an Eagles fan unless the Holy Spirit told me to. You see what I'm saying? Maybe you wouldn't normally choose to forgive, but the Holy Spirit's saying, just walk in step with me. Maybe you wouldn't choose to buy that car behind you at Starbucks, having to buy their whole order, whatever they, maybe you wouldn't normally do that, right? But you get this prompt. Something says, just do it. Maybe you wouldn't choose to call. You hadn't thought about that person in months, and all of a sudden, you're at the red light at 114 over here and 35 for four hours. And something just says, call David, call David. That's walking in step, that's walking in step. And that matters so much when it comes to peace, because we're desperate for peace. We are desperate for peace in our world. So I wanna talk about three ways the Spirit has taught me how to find peace in my life, and then we're gonna go and you guys can get some tacos. Okay, number one, peace is found when I walk at the pace of the Spirit. That's what Paul just told us. Walk in step with the Spirit, right? Most people, when they think about peace, think peace means the absence of stuff. If I had less conflict in my life, I'd have more peace.

So Holy Spirit, remove the conflict, we pray that. If I had less disagreement in my life, the absence of disagreement, you know what I call disagreement in my life? It's just other people being wrong. If I just had less anxiety, so Holy Spirit, remove the anxiety. If I just had less bills, if all my bills were taken care of, it'd be so easy to follow the Holy Spirit. It'd be so easy, just less of stuff. But that is not biblical peace. Jesus promised us trouble. Biblical peace is not found in absence, it's found in presence. It's learning to walk with the Spirit in the middle of the storm, in the middle of the confusion, in the middle of the uncertainty, in the middle of the chaos around me. That's when peace comes. So we've been taught in the West, in our culture, that in order to find deep spiritual peace, you need to go on these long retreats and you need to eliminate, ruthlessly, eliminate hurry in your life, as John Mark Comer says. But we've been taught in the West that in order to find deep spiritual peace, you need to go on these long retreats and you need to eliminate hurry in your life, as John Mark Comer says. And I'm for that.

But sometimes, sometimes obedience to the Spirit requires urgency too, not just rest. The same Spirit that'll call you to clear your calendar and lie down by some still waters to hear His voice will be the same Spirit that calls you to full court press and invite somebody to church, to deal with conflict with someone that you normally wouldn't do. So it's not about fast or slow. That's not what peace is. Peace is not about the absence of problems. Peace is about the presence of the Spirit, no matter what. It's about surrender. That's really what it's about. Peace is about the Spirit has my yes when He asks for it. Peace is about I'm gonna give the world around me a no when the Holy Spirit leads me to. So peace is not about the activity of the world around me. Peace is about the activity of the Spirit within me. That's what peace is. And my following is leading. A few years ago, my wife convinced me that if I loved her, you know, Jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey my commands. My wife said, if you love me, you'll take a hip hop dance class. I love hip hop, but I am not a hip hop dancer. But I love her. So I did. I took the class.

And when it started, it looked like me falling all over the place, gassed, winded, no idea what I'm doing, right? That's how it's gonna start when you start following the Spirit. You're gonna miss it, right? But over time, here's what happened. When I step, she step. When I move, she move. So y'all get that, man. You're my people. That's what Paul's talking about. Being in step with the Spirit. And this is so important when it comes to peace. Because so many of us, our life is more about the pace of keeping up with our neighbors than it is keeping up with the Spirit. Keeping up with what's going on in the world around us instead of keeping up with what God says about what's going on in the world around us. And that stuff will just keep you up at night. That's all that does. So I've asked a couple questions when it comes to me personally stepping with the Spirit. I have these in my journal. Number one, am I interruptible? I ask myself this question often. When's the last time that I did something just because I felt like the Spirit told me to

or nudged me to or prompted me to? When's the last time I did something Josh wouldn't normally do, right? When's the last time I did something that was uncomfortable because I just felt like the Lord was leading me to? Also, another question I ask is, am I ignoring God somewhere in my life? Lot of times when we're in chaotic situations, we say, God, tell me the step out. Get me out of this. Move this from my life. What do I need to do now? And what the Holy Spirit is trying to do for some of us is reminding us of what he told us to do six, eight weeks ago. Sometimes it's not about the next step. Sometimes it's about the last step God told me that I didn't do. Maybe the last step God told you was to get in the Word and you haven't done that yet and you're wondering where's peace? It's in the Word. Maybe the last step was to begin praying and fasting about what's going on in your family and ask somebody around you to do that with you. And it's still chaotic in your family and you're like, God, give me an answer. And God's like, I did six months ago. Well, what's the last thing the Holy Spirit asks you to do? Maybe you're ignoring it, right?

You're ignoring it, take the last step. So Paul says it like this in Romans 8. He says, those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things. But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So don't let the word control mess you up because control kind of sounds like God wants us to be puppets. That's not what it's talking about. And it's not talking about the Holy Spirit's just gonna take over your body and make you do stuff. That's not what's gonna happen. But the language controlled here is more like a young couple that's in love. Think of it more like that. When you're in love with someone, you'll do stuff just because they love it. When I met my wife, she loved Indian food. I'm from Alabama, small town. Our three food groups are biscuits, biscuits, and biscuits. So I had never had Indian food. And my wife, at the time, my girlfriend, Summer, she's like, come on, you gotta try it. I'm like, no, you gotta try it. And eventually I'm like, well, I love her. I don't know if I like that, but I know I love her. I'm gonna do it. So finally we went to Indian food. And guess what?

I love it so much. Man, that's our Christmas Eve meal. You know why? Because I preach 19 times, it's the only thing that's open. But also, because I love it. I didn't start off loving it. I started off loving her. Eventually, though, I love it. So Paul says, if you live your life that way when it comes to the Spirit. Now my wife, this is difficult for some people because some of us have relationships with people when they walk in the room, we're like, ugh. You don't wanna hear their voice. But when my wife walks in the room, I get excited. I mean, 23 years in, I still get chills and goosebumps. I still can't wait to hear her voice. I still get excited and giddy when she sends me a text message. Paul's saying, look, ask the Holy Spirit for that kind of walk with Him. When you wake up in the morning, you say, I wanna hear you today. I want you to lead me today. I'm open to you. I want you to speak to me today, right? And you say, I'm not there. Okay, let me give you a prayer to pray if you're not there. I want to want that. That's a great prayer.

That's so honest. I desire to desire that kind of relief. I want to want to read the Bible. I want to want to follow the Holy Spirit. I don't, but I want to. Holy Spirit, would you cultivate that in me? Create that in me? Because here's the fruit of that. Letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. And that's what we want anyways, right? That's what I want anyways. Isaiah 26 three says, you will keep in perfect peace those who trust you. All those whose thoughts are fixed on you. So what is he saying? He's saying peace is not what happens when your life gets quiet. That's not what peace is. Peace is what happens when what is growing in my life starts paying attention more to the Spirit than to the things around me. I'm paying more attention to the Spirit and to the Word of God and what pleases God than I am my desires, than I am my circumstances, than I am what's going on in DC or what's happening over on the other side of the world. It's not that those things aren't, they don't matter. It's that they're not ultimate for me anymore. So peace is found when I walk at the pace of the Spirit.

Number two, peace is found when I remember my place through Jesus. This is so important. Look at what Jesus said in John 14. He said, all this I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you. So here's what you do. You get in the Word, you read it, you absorb it. You read it over and over and over again. You study it. You try to build your life on it. You get out in the world and life's going crazy. You get out in the world, there's no peace. It's chaotic. Everybody's flipping out. And the Holy Spirit reminds you. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is with me. is me. I will fear no evil. God is with me. All of a sudden you remember you are mine. I am yours. You remember I have bought you with a price. You remember the word of the Lord. He says, Peace, I leave you my peace. I give you and look at this next verse. He says, I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. What is Jesus saying? He is saying there is a kind of peace that I can give you that you cannot find anywhere else. It is not going to come with another comma in your 401k. It is not going to come when you finally have that whatever thing that you think your life would be better if you got it. It is not even going to come in the absence of conflict, in the absence of bills, in the absence of bad whatever. It is only Jesus can give it.

What is he talking about? He is talking about peace with God. He is saying, I will make it possible for you to be right with God. You cannot get that anywhere else. What I have seen in my life personally, and I have seen in the lives of others, is when we do not have peace with God, it is impossible to have peace anywhere else. It is just impossible. I say that because I meet with people all the time. I meet with people who are raised in church. They are going to heaven. They believe in Jesus. They believe Jesus loves them. They just do not believe Jesus likes them. I meet people all the time who believe when they die they are going to heaven. They also believe though that God is going to make it hell for them all the way because of something they did 17 years ago, five years ago. They have more of a view of God as like a punitive version of Zeus, who is just angry and mad than a loving father, or a merciful savior, or a Holy Spirit who calls you friend and wants to walk with you and speak to you and lead you into full life. A God who delights in you. Let me remind you in case you have forgotten today. Let me remind you that Romans 1 says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. No condemnation. What does that mean? It means God does not consult your past when he writes your future. He consults the cross. God consults the blood of Jesus when he determines what your tomorrow looks like, not what you did 15 years ago. Does that mean there will not be any pain because of your sin in the past? Of course there will be pain. Stupid hurts, right? It does. We make bad choices. Sometimes there are consequences, but God is good and God is not like your family and God is not like your boss and God is not like your neighbor or your ex-wife or your ex-husband. God does not hold our sins against us. He forgives us. He wipes us clean. Romans 8, 31 through 39, Paul says, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor present, nor future, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation. In John, Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice. I give them eternal life. And look at what he says. No one will snatch them out of my hand. He's talking about you. What does this mean? It means peace won't come because of how tightly you hold on to Jesus. Peace comes from how tightly Jesus is holding on to you, friend. And he's got a tight grip. He's got a tight grip on you. Peace comes when we stop trying to become lovable and start living in the truth that in Christ we already are loved by God. We already have a place. We're not trying to earn a seat at

the table. We're not trying to pay God back for what we did 20 years ago or 10 years ago or even two weeks ago. No, no, no. We're already adopted in the family of God. So I have peace when I remind my soul that my place in God is secure in Christ. I don't have to worry about how God sees me. Next, peace is found when I bring my praise before the Father. When I walk at the pace of the Spirit, when I remember my place through Jesus, when I bring my praise before the Father. A few years ago, I found myself having a terrible rhythm in my life. So it was around 2021. And what I'd do is I'd wake up every morning and I'd just roll over and grab my phone because I use this as my alarm clock. I'd grab my phone and I'd open and I'd just scroll and scroll and scroll. And then I'd go and I'd do my day. and mostly holy things like praying for you guys. And then I would get home at night and right before I'd go to bed, I'd set my alarm for the next day and I'd just scroll and scroll and scroll. Well, I'm a 46-year-old man, and generally speaking, not always, all right, so don't send me any emails, but generally speaking, men in this area, 46, like four things, we're interested in four things. Politics, money, religion, and sports, right? So I'd scroll and scroll and scroll and all those things would come up to start my day and to end my day. Now, here's the problem with that. Do you know what four things most trigger men my age? Politics, money, religion, and sports. I was starting my day triggered, ending my day triggered. Starting my day mad at the world, ending my day mad at the world. Wondering where peace was. Wondering why I was so angsty all the time during the day.

Wondering why I was short with people, losing my, wondering why I was so discouraged. And I told a friend of mine about this and he gave me the most unbelievable, he knows me, and so he put it in such a language that just moved my heart. He said, Josh, I want you to start a new rhythm. Here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna have a praise Oreo cookie every day. I said, I like Oreos, I'm with you. Here's what he meant. I want you to start your day with thankfulness. I want you to wake up every morning before you grab your phone, get yourself an analog clock if you have to, move your phone out of your room, right? Start your day, God, here's three things I'm thankful for about the day and the day ahead of me. I'm thankful, I don't know, I'm thankful I have a house. I'm thankful today for my family. I'm thankful today for my pastor. What a preacher, oh, what a preacher. I'm thankful. And then live the middle of your day. You know what about Oreo? I have no idea what the middle's made out of. And sometimes when I have an Oreo, the middle makes me feel so good. And sometimes I feel so much shame and guilt because all that stuff in the middle, that's how life is. But I'm not gonna let that get to me

because what I'm gonna do is at the end of the day before I close my eyes and go to sleep, I'm gonna say, God, here's three things I'm grateful for in the day that just passed. I'm gonna start my day with thankfulness. So what am I doing? I'm putting praise at the forefront of my life and here's why that's important. Because praise says to God, one of us is almighty and it doesn't have to be me. Praise says to God, one of us is in control and it's not me. One of us is all knowing and it's not me. And so when I don't have peace, here's what happens. My circumstances get magnified. My problems get bigger. My fear gets louder. What if starts to become the only voice in the room? Anxiety then, here's what it does. Anxiety starts to narrow your vision onto just those things. Gets you fixated on circumstances, fixated on the diagnosis, fixated on the conflict or the bill or the child or the mistake or the future or the unknown. Praise, praise widens your view again. You start to see with spirit eyes. Praise lets your life be visible in 70 millimeter IMAX like God intended. Praise is the sound of your soul

putting God back on the throne of your life when fear tries to take his place. When shame tries to take his place. Praise is not just music we sing at church. It's not just the first song before the slow stuff that gives you all your feels. Praise is the truth you speak back to fear in your life. And you remember a few weeks ago if you were here, I was talking about the Bible and I said there's this astonishing fact about the Bible that most Christians don't know. Do you know what it is? If you weren't here, I'll tell you. You can read it at home. Wow, do you know praise is the same way? Do you know that this is not where God resides? This is not God's temple. Do you know what God's temple is? You are, you are, this is what Romans says. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Anywhere you go can be a place of praise. And praise is you reminding your soul of what fear and shame are trying to make you forget. You see how important that is to peace? This is all over the Psalms. The psalmist said in Psalm 42, five, why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? And if he's anything like me, there's about 75 things he could say

after both of those questions, especially right now. And then he reminds himself, put your hope in God. Get the vision of the Spirit back in your life and praise the Lord. I saw a picture yesterday on Instagram. And it's this family that I guess I spoke at their church one time and they live in Wisconsin. And they have this beautiful farmhouse, just massive, probably generations that have been in the family. Beautiful green hill it sits on, just unbelievable. And a lightning struck that house and burned it to the ground. And all that's left is just sticks, just rubble. And so they put a picture of their house before, this beautiful home, and then after. And you guys know when a kid has a birthday sometimes around here, we'll rent those big giant letters that say happy birthday. You know the sign and put them out in the front yard. They rented some of those letters and they put it in front of their burnt house. And you know what it says? Yet we will praise him. Paul describes that right there as a peace that makes no sense. And it's what you already want. It's what you're already desperate for. So this week, keep in step with the spirit. That's the way. Follow his leading.

Give him your yes when he asks for it. Give the world around you your no when he tells you that's the wise thing to do. This week, you already want peace. You already want it. So remind your soul your place in God when shame tries to evict you from your seat at the table. Remind your soul that no matter what the world around you may tell you, Christ has a firm grip on you. He will not let you go. And peace, this week, you already want it. It's already what you strive for and are desiring for your life anyways. So this week, bring God your best praise. Turn the red light, again, if you're already there for four hours, turn the red light into a praise session. Just maybe find a playlist on Spotify that you can sing along to, just one or two songs that we sing that you love, and just say, this week, you know what? I'm gonna remind my soul that between me and God, one of us is almighty. And thank heaven it doesn't have to be me. It doesn't have to be me. Remember I said earlier that one of the things I love about our church is that we don't just say and pray, we do. So now we're gonna do.

I wanna invite you to stand with me. And I bet you there is one thing today that your soul might say, yet I would praise him for. Your life may be crazy right now. It may be full of uncertainty. You may have made some bad mistakes last week. There may be some just chaos and storms all around you. But I bet you, if you think long enough, there's at least one thing that you would say, God, you're worthy of my praise. And if you can't think of anything, let me remind you of this. If he never did anything other than the cross for you, it's enough, it's enough. So Jesus, we bring you our praise today. And we remind our soul that you belong on the throne of our hearts. And we ask you to guide us this week to peace. We ask you this week, Holy Spirit, to speak to us that we might follow you. We ask you this week to remind us of the words of Jesus that we belong to you. We ask you this week to make our house, our home, our hearts, our cars, everywhere we go, a place of praise. In Jesus' name, amen. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ There was a time that you didn't see me through God ♪ ♪ I worshiped the air, oh Jesus ♪ ♪ I was lost in the water, but I never went under ♪ ♪ You were always on time, Jesus ♪ ♪ When I went through the fire, you were right there beside me ♪ ♪ You were always on time ♪