Finding Peace When You Can't Control the Outcome

had a moment where it just seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong? Well, that was me recently, like every week there was something, something broken, something expensive, something unexpected, something that needed my attention. Then one morning, I woke up at 4 a.m. to the smell of skunk. Now, normally I know that's not a life-changing event, Joe, chill, that's not a big deal. However, when life just kept lifey, I'm talking about like going for an oil change, expecting an oil change, and leaving there to come back a week later for an $11,000 car fix. I'm talking things that were so bad that I got a phone call from a family member who said, "I'm going to end up homeless in California on the streets." Things got so crappy during that month, my septic tank broke. Guys, life was lifey. So all of a sudden when I smelled skunk, I started walking around the house checking rooms, looking outside. On top of my house, would be low in my house, everywhere, trying to figure out what this smell was coming from. Then I made the mistake every anxious person makes. I googled, "Why does my house smell like skunk?" And never in the history of humor, like never in mankind, has ever, you've gone to Google looking for reassurance and gotten it. And apparently the answer could have been a skunk, a plumbing issue, a sewer problem, an HVAC issue, a natural gas leak, or possibly the collapse of civilization itself. By 4.15, I'm spiraling. I've convinced myself my house was either exploding, leaking, rotting, or under attack by wildlife. And the crazy part, nothing was wrong. The smell disappeared. Everything was fine, but I already lost my piece. Has that ever happened to anybody else? You got a text message, a weird pain in your shoulder. Someone messaging saying, "Can we talk?" A difficult conversation, an unexpected bill, a bad day with your kids. And before you know it, you already created 10 worst case scenarios. See, the smell didn't take my piece, the possibility did. And that's exactly how the enemy works. No, the enemy wasn't the skunk, although there could be an argument there. The enemy was in the thoughts that came after the skunk. And I think that's where many of us live. Life gets loud, uncertain. Peace becomes the first thing that we surrender. See, I wasn't fighting a skunk. I was fighting an enemy who knew the best way to get to me was through a thought. A simple skunk to make me feel like I was not able to protect my family. Make me connect dots that maybe God was not with me or for me, or maybe that's true for more of us than we'd like to admit. Maybe your against battles aren't happening around you, they're happening inside of you. You wake up and you're already anxious, you assume the worst, you replay conversations, you catastrophize, you think, "I'm going to lose my job. My marriage

is not going to make it. My kids are going to hate me. I'm never going to get over this. I'm always going to struggle." Nothing has happened yet, but you already lost the battle because you lost your peace. For the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about this and we've been saying in a world where our faith and minds and relationships are constantly under attack, God has given us everything we need through Jesus to stand strong, to fight back and experience victory. So take you through a journey. Week one, Matt stood up here. He talked about how we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, which some of you guys were like, "You've never met my neighbor. You don't know my aunt, and yet we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We don't get against people, and yet the enemy is so good at trying to make an enemy out of people who aren't the enemy." Then week two, Jason stood up here and talked about the belt of truth, and the enemy works due to deception and lies. Jason talked about the fact that there were two extremes. One, the devil just did everything. He's the reason why your car broke down. No, he mentioned it was a Chrysler. That wasn't me. That was him. Email him. But the other extreme is that we ignored the spiritual dimensions of our battles. That doesn't exist. There's no enemy, and yet those two extremes could get us to miss the point that Paul is making in Ephesians 6, verse 13 through 15. Before we go there on your seat or on the way into the room today, you were given this card. If you want to pull that card out, this card is for you to keep. For you put, we've made it small enough that you could put in your pocket, you could put in your And if you didn't get the cars from previous weeks, you can collect them. In fact, there's a table out, the atrium somewhere, where they'll have all three of them for the past weeks. The goal is not just collect them. The goal is to put them in places that are going to remind you when you need them. Like an example. The verse is about reminding you that you're not fighting against flesh and blood. Maybe you need to put that in the car. Why?

So the next time you visit your in-laws, you remind yourself, I'm not fighting them. [CHUCKLING] There's a bigger battle out there that I need to fight, and it's not them. Or maybe you need to remind yourself about the belts of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. And you need to put this on your desk at work to remind yourself, your work doesn't determine your worth, that we're reminded of who God is, that what he's done is bigger than what you do. Or maybe you need the shoes of peace that we're going to be talking about today as a reminder that when we-- the way we get peace is through a life of surrender. Let's look at Ephesians 6, verse 13 to 15 together. It says, therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so that you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle, you will still be standing firm. That notice, that standing firm is highlighted. Because we're going to come back to that later. And verse 14 says, "Stand your guard again, stand." Two twice, Paul reiterates. Any time there's a repeated word, you want to pay attention to that, stand your guard, putting on the belts of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on peace that comes from good news. Again, another highlight, good news,

because we're going to come back to that later. So that you will be fully prepared. The writer here is a man named Paul. He was one of the first century pastors. And he introduces to a battle that's happening. And when we first planned this series, can I tell you how excited I was that I was going to get to talk about this? We're going to talk about spiritual warfare, armor, battles, victory. I started watching things like 300, the patriot, or saving private Ryan. I thought I would get a sword, the shield, maybe even a helmet, something cool, something aggressive, something that makes you feel like a gladiator. So today, guys, I'm excited to tell you, I got shoes. But shoes. I just thought maybe it's because I said I don't like the wilderness that all of a sudden they got me the thing that means the least of all the battle things. But the truth is, 'cause the truth is for you, I bet you just never thought watching a war movie and you saw Mal Gibson and said, you know what really made him tough? His shoes. Like have you never watched a superhero movie and looked at Captain America and said, you know what really made Captain America tough? That fit.

Oh man, that's what really made him a man. But the more I studied, the more I realized, shoes aren't exciting until you understand the battle. Because if the enemy can knock you off your feet, he doesn't have to kill you. He just destabilizes you. So the enemy has a strategy. He doesn't start by destroying your life overnight. He starts by whispering little lies, little fears, little doubts, because whatever catches your mind, whatever captures your life. So the enemy knows that. So where does he attack your thoughts? And last week, Jason talked about how the enemy's greatest weapon isn't power, it's deception. In fact, he referred to this verse in John 844, it says, he has always hated the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character for he is a liar and the father of lies. He's Satan is the father of lies. Notice, Jesus doesn't describe Satan as being creative. He doesn't describe him as being all powerful. He calls him a liar because lies believe becomes truth lived. And if Satan can convince you, God isn't good, they'll stop trusting him. If he can convince you, you're alone, you'll isolate. If he convinces you, you'll never change, you'll stop trying. And if he convinces you, you are what you've done. You'll live ashamed because everything begins in our mind.

Look around in our world, we've never had more information and yet never been more anxious. Never felt more connected, yet never felt more alone. We've never had more entertainment and yet we've never been more restless, you've never had more convenience and yet had less peace. I mean, think about it, if money created peace than Hollywood would be so peaceful. If success created peace, CEOs wouldn't burn out. And if relationships created peace, you wouldn't argue where you're going to eat for lunch after church today. You know what could fix it all? There it is, done, settled. But that's a different argument for a different day. Because if things like politics would create peace, then the country would be peaceful. If social media created peace, teenagers today would be the happiest generations in history. But none of those things satisfy the deepest longing of a human heart. Because we weren't created to merely fill peace. We were created to know the prince of peace. That's why St. Augustine said this. "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." See, every person is looking for peace. They're looking for it in places that we're never designed to give it. We think peace is a place, but it's actually a person. And here's what I want you to walk away with today.

Peace comes from a life built on Jesus and shaped by daily surrender. Not just a decision you made once, a posture you keep choosing. See, peace rests on two things. What Jesus already did for you, and what you keep choosing to give back to him every day. And here's how it works out. Like, I thought about this, it's the pieces of peace that I wanted to talk to you about today. And the first piece of peace is Jesus settles our eternity. And to better understand that, I have this verse Romans 5-1. It says, "Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us." See, notice that it doesn't say what you've done. It says what Jesus has done. So we don't find peace, we receive peace. But that word receive, it just messes with me. Because I want to earn it, I want to pay for it, I want to work for it. But the best way I can explain this concept is through a dinner. See, me and my family, we don't go out to eat much. Because I got four kids, and it's expensive to go out to eat. Hey, and not only is it expensive, my kids are creative. Like creative at arguing about everything. Creative with food choices. Creative with their mess.

I mean, guys, things have gotten so bad with my family. I was on an interview for this job. And my five-year-old, who was three years old at the time, chucks a fry across the table, hits the person interviewing in the face for this job. How do you get fired in your interviews? Zion is his name. So one day, we decided, let's get crazy. Let's go out to eat for lunch. And guys, we ate, and we hoped for the best. And it happened. We had a great time. The kids behaved. It was such a fun time. I looked around for my waitress to say, like, we're done. Let's end it now. So I could pay the bill and just leave. But I couldn't find her. I went around the restaurant, looking for her, trying to find out where she was. And finally, I found her. And I said, hey, I'd like to pay the bill. And she says, don't worry about it. I don't think she understood how desperate I was at that moment, how my well-behaved kids were about to explode, how our great lunch was about to turn into World War III of the Guterres Home. So I looked at her one more time and said, hey, excuse me. I'd really like to pay my bill. She stopped, looked at me again, and said,

don't worry about it. Before I could reply, she said, somebody else already paid the bill. Imagine if I look back at her and said, it doesn't matter what somebody else has done. I want to pay the bill. She would have said, you can't pay for something that's already been paid for. See, that's the good news. That's the gospel. I couldn't pay for something someone else already covered. And neither can you. Well, we need to stop trying to earn what G has already paid for. Some of us are exhausted because we're trying to earn God's approval. See, the enemy tries to convince you that you have to pay for what's already been paid for. You make a mistake, you got to pay for that. But that's not the truth because it's not about what you do, it's about what he's done. See, the word gospel comes from the Greek word, you in Gileon. You in Gileon, it means good news. It was historically used in the Greco-Roman world to announce military victories. And that's actually the word used in Ephesians 615 that we read earlier. For shoes put on the piece that comes from the good news So what's the gospel?

When you put your faith in Jesus, you're already loved, you're already accepted, you're already forgiven, you're already adopted. That changes everything. He paid it all in full. You don't have to keep paying for what it's already been paid for. That's what you stand down. Jesus settles our eternity. But although some of us have our eternity settled, you're still not at peace. Why? Because peace doesn't end the moment you put your faith in Jesus, it has to keep going somewhere, which brings me to my next point. The pieces of peace surrender settles our souls. See, here's the thing about trusting Jesus. It settles where you're going. But surrender settles how you live while you're getting there. See, Jesus settles our eternity, but surrender? That settles our souls. And if I'm honest, surrender is the part I fight the hardest. I say I trust God, but then I turn around and negotiate Him like a toddler negotiates bedtime. Can I just have one more movie, one more book, one more TV show, one more? Recently, I realized how much of a negotiator my son is. I told you about him earlier, Zion, French father. Well, the other day, I came up to him and said-- he came up to me, actually, and said, Dad, can I have ice cream? Yes or maybe?

He removed no as an option. I actually didn't recognize it. And I said, no. And he said, Dad, that's not an option. I laughed because he completely removed it. But then recently, he advanced in his level of negotiation and said, Dad, can I have a pop school, one or two? He removed maybe. He somehow reached expert level negotiator at five years old. And the funny thing is, we laugh when kids do that. But we often treat God the same way. God, I'm praying for this job. God, I want this relationship. God, heal this person. God, open this door. And we've already decided the only acceptable response is yes. And when God says no, wait or I have something different, we get frustrated. We question His goodness and we question His love. Sometimes we even question His existence. And here's the problem. If God has to meet my expectations to be God, then He's not really God. I am. Because I've made myself the standard and He has to live up to it. See, real surrender says God, you don't exist to fulfill my plans. I exist to trust yours. See, faith isn't believing God will always do what I want.

Faith is trusting Him even when He doesn't. That's true surrender. And that's where peace actually lives. Peace is the fruit of trusting His work and yielding to His will. And when Jesus did that, He became the foundation and surrender because of His posture. Peace becomes our reality when we surrender our life to Him. See, you don't find peace by getting life under control. You find peace by placing your life under Christ. So how do we win the fight? Surrender. Peace comes when we stop negotiating in terms of our surrender, though. When we want surrender, we often want to surrender the parts of our life that are easy and keep the parts we like to manage ourself. But that's not surrender. That's negotiation. See, the third thing we have to understand about the pieces of peace is surrender. That really steadies our steps. The Roman soldiers during biblical times wore these shoes, sandals called calligai. Military sandals fitted with iron spines. When I thought about this, the only thing that I could imagine was, Birkenstocks meets cleats. Like, you're ready for battle, but you also want art support. You know what I mean? I want to be comfortable, but I want to fight.

OK, that's not actually what they looked like. They looked a little more like this. That is cool, because they weren't flashy. They weren't fashionable. But they gave soldiers traction. See, then, a soldier's footing determined whether he could stand his battle. Now, you're footing what you're standing on. The term is whether you surrender your grip on the will. The term is whether you can stand your ground in life, because footing wins battles. Because no traction means no victory. See, the gospel gives believe attraction, and surrender is what plants your feet in it. Life doesn't stop shaking. Your feet finally stop slipping. I know that sounds nice in theory. But can I tell you a season in my life when I needed this and when it got tested? When we were having our second child, his name is Simon. We went back and forth to the hospital, to work, the hospital to the work. Nothing about those three and half months felt peaceful. Every day after work, my wife and I drove to the hospital and we turned worship music on and we just cried. Sometimes we didn't even have the words we just cried. Some days we cried so hard that worship became our prayer. Every day we'd walk through those doors not knowing what news we would hear. What the doctors would say, some days were good, some days weren't. Some days we had to fight the enemy because he'd send discouragement and some days we had to realize the doctors and the nurses weren't our enemies.

And the devil worked overtime to try to divide us in that season. So how do you get through a season like that? It wasn't because we were strong, but it was because Jesus kept us standing. See, he'd send people to send us text messages saying we're praying for you. Friends showed up with meals, people would show up in the hospital and sit with us, people telling us there are churches in Africa praying, people in South America praying, there are believers in Europe praying, thinking about that, that people were calling on the name of our son before God, said us in disbelief, didn't remove the pain, no, didn't remove the fear, no, didn't remove the tears, no, but somehow in the middle of all that there was peace, not because circumstances changed, but because we finally stopped trying to control what we couldn't control and surrender it to the only one who could. See, peace isn't denial. Some people think peace means nothing bothers you. That's just not biblical peace. Biblical peace says I feel afraid, but I surrender this to God. I don't understand, but I'm trusting his will over mind. I am grieving, but I'm not carrying this alone to see what I learned in that season is pain and peace can occupy the same room and surrender is what makes space for both. See, Jesus experienced both sweating blood in a garden while praying. And his words were, "Not my will, but yours be done." That's the most honest picture of surrender in Scripture. It cost him everything and it's exactly where his peace came from. See, sometimes it's not until we get to the end of ourselves that we actually find God. To the end of your abilities, your talents, your will, your strength, your abilities, finally when you get over you trying to figure it all out on your own and you finally live a life surrender, but, Joe, I want that, but how do I do that? Like, how do I live a life surrender when the enemy attacks our thoughts? So how do we fight back? How do we stay surrendered? How do we not try to grab that wheel back?

So glad you asked. Five ways for you to put on the shoes of peace. The first thing, capture it and replace it. You need to ask yourself, "What am I believing really right now?" Don't ignore it, name it. Next time you catch yourself spiraling, see it out loud, not in your head. I'm afraid. I'm going to lose my job. Naming it out loud takes half its power. So write it down. See, there's a verse that says this in 2 Corinthians 10, 5, "We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. How do we capture it? Write it down." I was talking to another pastor recently and I asked him, "How do you stay encouraged? What do you do to stay encouraged?" Because the enemy is constantly attacking, discouraging me. He can't take away the call for your life, but he can get you to a place where you question it. So how do you stay encouraged? And he said, "One last year I just wrote things down and I wrote it down and I set it out loud. And when I set it out loud, it took its power. I realized how I couldn't believe what was happening in my head. And all of a sudden, it became no longer truth." Because I started asking myself, "Who told me that? Is that God or fear? Is this truth or an assumption?" See, that's exactly what Paul's painting here.

Before we can defeat a thought, you have to catch it, assess where it came from. If it's a lie, then it's probably from the death of the Father of lies. So if a thought shows up sounding like condemnation, isolation, or hopelessness, you know who's behind it. You can't just capture a lie, you have to replace it. You can't defeat lies with feelings. You defeat lies with Scripture. See, that's what Jesus did in Matthew 4. The enemy kept trying to get him, trying to get him to survive. and you know what Jesus' response was every time? It is written. You're in a spiritual battle, and your greatest weapon is the Bible. Not positive thinking, biblical thinking. See, the enemy will try to plant these lies, and here's how you defeat them with truth. I've captured a couple of the lies that he will try to get you. The first one is I'm alone, but then there's a verse that backs it up, the Psalms 23.4 says, "Even when I walk through "the darkest valley, I will not be afraid "for you're close beside me, "your rod, your staff protect me and come for me." I'm a failure. For we are God's masterpiece, for he created us and knew in Christ Jesus so that we can do good things. He had planned for us long ago, Ephesians 2.10. I challenge you, take out your phone right now,

take a picture of this, because you never know how you might need all these. I won't go through each one of them, but at one point in your life, if you haven't gone through this, you might go through this, put this on ice. You're like, "Joe, that's not very positive. "I'm positive you might go through this." And it's not positive thinking that wins. It's biblical thinking. And if you ever feel like I'll never be set free, know that John 836 says, "So if the sun sets you free, you are truly free." Not positive thinking, biblical thinking. The second thing we need to do to put shoes of peace on is worship anyway. Why don't you just say worship? Because there's sometimes where you're not going to want you, and you've just got to worship anyways. 'Cause sometimes worship isn't just a filling, it's warfare. It's your surrender out loud. During the season of the NICU, we were crying and listening to the worship music. We were worshiping in a car together. It didn't change our circumstance, but it changed us. See, what ends up happening is worship gives us perspective. It allows us to see from God's perspective what we're going through. One time I was with my son Elijah, and we were in California,

and he's little, and he's looking at these big buildings. He says, "Dad, those buildings are so big." "Dad, look at those buildings, they're so big. "Look at that building, it's so big." And then we took a flight out of LAX, and he said, "Dad, look at those buildings, "they're so small." The buildings didn't change, his perspective did. He was able to see from a higher vantage point, and because of that perspective, he saw from a different way of life, what if God wants to get you to see from his vantage point to see there's so much more to life than what you're seeing? The third thing we could do to put, choose a piece on is don't fight alone. Don't fight alone, isolation is where the enemy hunts. Isolation is where control feels safest, and surrender feels hardest. So what do we need to do? You need to stay connected, confess to one another. Do you have people you can be honest with, people that you can invite to pray for you? Do you have people in your life who can know you, can K-N-O-W, and who can know you tell you know? See, I think one of the things that you can do as an easy next step is to invite people create a text message thread, call it Fight Club. And these are people that you're going to invite into your battles.

These are people you're gonna invite them to say, come fight with me, come not fight against me, but come fight with me because I need some people praying the same prayer that I'm in, and you can pray for one another, and you create a place and a warfare with the enemy who says we are not gonna sit back passively, but no, we're gonna pray aggressively. See, we needed that in the NICU. There was times that we'd reach out to our people and just say, can you pray because the doctors are not telling us good news. Today they told us he's gonna either be dead or brain dead, that we need some help, we need some guidance, we don't know what to do, and I'm so glad that I had a bunch of people in my corner because now what the doctors told us years ago that he wouldn't make it out today, next January, we celebrate 10 years of his life. (audience applauds) So who's part of your Fight Club? 'Cause if you don't have one, get one. The fourth thing that we need to do is sellitude. We've normalized living in a chronically activated nervous system, always rushing, always going, somewhere along the way, busy have become our badge of honor instead of a warning sign. But you're never designed to run like that all the time. We need to relearn how to sit, how to be still.

And here's the thing, the more we practice slowing down, the more our nervous system actually learns, we are safe. Stillness isn't wasted time, it's training. Wayne Coderro said it like this, "Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul." See, the key is not confusing, isolation and solitude. One is for you to get alone with God, the other is for the enemy just to get you alone. And then the fifth thing that we need to do, to put on shoes of peace, is remember who's already won. Yes, the enemy's real, but he's not equal to God. Jesus already defeated Satan through his death and resurrection. That changes everything about how we fight, because as believers, we've been saying it every week, you don't fight for victory. You fight from victory. See, I hated shoes until I realized I needed them. If you want a picture of what surrender looks like before it makes sense, the best one I got for you is through a movie called "Karate Kid." Now when I say "Karate Kid," some of you think this movie, blast with me, because that's not the real "Karate Kid." Because when I talk about "Karate Kid," I'm talking about this one. I'm talking about Daniel's son and Mr. Miyagi. For those of you who weren't blessed with this movie magic, Daniel shows up and says, "I want to fight." He wants to be strong. He wants cool moves, and instead Mr. Miyagi tells him, "Wash my car, wax on, wax off. Paint my fence, paint my house, sand the floor." And Daniel does it, days of it, and it doesn't make sense to him at all. He finally gets so frustrated that he says, "I thought you were going to teach me karate, and all I've been doing is your chores."

He felt like he was wasting his time, like Mr. Miyagi had forgotten why he was even there. But Daniel didn't realize it was every single motion he was frustrated about. The wax on, the wax off, the paint the fence, scrubbed the floor, was building exact muscle memory that he needed to block every strike that was coming for him. None of it made sense until the fight. Then suddenly, everything he had been practicing became what saved him. He didn't throw a punch in training. He just kept surrendering to a process he didn't understand. Maybe that's where God has you. He keeps teaching you to surrender. He keeps calling you back to Scripture. He keeps calling you back to prayer. He keeps calling you back to worship, calling you back to community, saying, "Stop doing this by yourself." I wanted a sword. It gave me shoes. And one of the ways we put shoes on that I mentioned is through worship, and I'd love for you if you could. Please stand to your feet in all of our rooms, because we're going to worship together. And earlier, I had you highlight two moments in Ephesians. Both of them said stand, because before he teaches you to fight, he teaches you to stand. And stand starts with letting go. The enemy wants to shake your mind. He wants to steal your peace. He wants to convince you that fear gets the final word, that you're only one who keeps your life together and keeps it from falling apart. But the gospel says something different. See the gospel says Jesus has already won, and he's asking you to stop fighting for control when you were never meant to carry. So Joe, what are you saying?

What do I do then? When anxiety comes, surrender. When fear comes, surrender. When shame comes, surrender. When temptation comes, surrender. When life starts lifeing, surrender. Not because you're strong, but because you're standing on the finished work of Jesus Christ. With your hands finally open. See, peace isn't something you chase. Peace isn't something you manufacture. Peace isn't positive thinking. Peace has a name, and his name is Jesus. Thanks for joining us today with LCBC on YouTube. We are so glad that you took time to join us today, and it's still not too late to be known as a part of our online community by checking in and sort of do that text YouTube to 20022. And if you're doing that for the first time, check in with us for the first time. We're going to send you a coffee gift card just as a thank you. We're so glad that you joined us today. Yeah, we can't wait to see all the ways that God can work in your life through this LCBC community. But until next time, thanks for being here. [BLANK_AUDIO]