Peace + Anxiety | Crossroads Students

Hey, my name is Gersh, and we're in this series called In His Image, because we're made in God's image. And God is a God of peace. And who doesn't want more peace in their life? That sounds amazing, right? But that's easier said than done. I think this is something we all have thought about before. I don't have peace right now, but maybe I'll have it next week, next year, and the next phase of my life. Then I'll have peace. Middle schoolers, have you thought this before? Man, I don't have peace right now in middle school, but when I get to high school, when I finally get that driver's license, get that car, get that girl I've been praying about, finally get that boyfriend or girlfriend. Then I'll have peace. But then you'll go to high school and then you'll think, you know what? Maybe I'll have peace when I finally go to college, when I finally get a little bit more independence from my mom and dad, when I finally grow up. Because being a kid, it just seems hard. But if you ask any coach, maybe your mom or dad, if you ask me, we get really nostalgic about the good old days of being 13. And I think that's a good thing. We get really nostalgic about the good old days of being 13.

We think about having no jobs, no bills, no responsibility, no stress, right? Wrong. When I think about me being in eighth grade, all I thought about was stress. I thought about the stress of basketball and soccer and how much I freaked out about my performance. I stressed out about my mom just nagging me all the time, which I kind of get because I was a terrible kid. I'm sorry, mom. I mean, I stressed about my eighth grade relationship. I stressed about my grades and at least being a B minus average student. I definitely didn't have peace in middle school. Now you're probably being like, wow, Gersh. So there's no peace anytime. You're being a real Debbie Downer. But what I'm trying to say is what if peace doesn't mean everything around us is calm, but who we trust is what brings us peace. So let's get into a story when peace meets stress. So we're gonna get into a story in the Bible where we learn all about what God has to offer, where we learn about how God wants us to trust him. And we're gonna dive into a book called Mark 5.35 to 41. Now you got to time travel with me. Pretend you're one of Jesus' students, his disciples, his friend. And on one of these days, Jesus has been just teaching nonstop.

The crowds are just begging for more of his words, his time, his energy. And then evening comes and everybody's exhausted. You're exhausted. The people are exhausted. Even Jesus is exhausted. So he turns to you and he says, hey, let's go to the other side of the water. Because Jesus was smart enough to have friends with a boat. See, some of Jesus' students were professional fishermen before they were students. So they literally lived on the water. It was their environment, their domain. So they get in the boat and they start going on the water. But then the sky starts to get dark. The wind starts picking up. The boat starts shifting a bit. And the waves start getting louder. Now, these aren't the waves that you see on the seashore where you kind of get knocked out. These are boat tilting waves. And these guys, they've been on the water their whole life, but they start stressing. They start panicking. They start getting more and more drenched. The boat starts filling up more and more with water. And where's Jesus? Is he panicking? Is he stressed?

They go to look for him. What's he up to? He's on a cushion, completely knocked out, out cold. Now, who here has a friend that no matter the situation, they're knocked out, passed out asleep? Could it be me? Now, imagine that's you. You literally feel like the boat is gonna flip over and you're gonna dive into the water. And then you see Jesus asleep. What are those students thinking? Probably what you'd be thinking. Probably what I've thought before. Jesus, do you even care about what's happening to me? Jesus wakes up, no panic, no stress. He simply looks up at the sky, at the storm and says, peace. Peace, be still. The sky lightens up, the waves chill out, the wind stops, total calmness. The storm's over, but the situation's not. Jesus turns to his students and says, why are you afraid? Do you still not have faith? See, the issue isn't the storm that's happening. It's about the trust or lack of trust that the students had because Jesus is right there in the storm and in the boat with them. But they thought the storm was bigger than Jesus. So the question I have for you today

is where do you put your trust? Because peace reveals it. When your grades drop, when you and your parents just don't connect, when your friend groups gets weird, when you don't feel included, where's your peace? Because the disciples, they didn't panic because the storm was getting too big and the waves were getting bigger. They panicked because they forgot who was in the boat with them. In John 14, 27, it says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give you as the world gives. Don't let your heart be troubled or afraid. See, peace, it's not about pretending the storm is not real or not big. It's understanding that peace is putting your trust in that Jesus is still bigger than the storm. So when you go back to life and when you think about the stress just coming in, in the hallway, in the classroom, at home, on your team, in your friend group, when you imagine the storm just brewing around you more and more, instead of trying to fix it, instead of panicking, I want you to do one thing first. I just want you to say, Jesus, I know you're in the storm with me and I trust you.

Because peace, it doesn't mean the storm isn't real. It means Jesus is still in it with you.