Peace in a Pressured World

Well, if you love Jesus, would you make some noise? Man. Good morning, Emmanuel. I'm so excited to be here. I hope you had a great Christmas. And I also want to shout out Pastor Nate and Pastor Jody for this opportunity. I realize this is my third time preaching here, my third time preaching at Emmanuel. I'm just so grateful for that. Um, there's a there's a story that a pastor told about his dad. His dad is a phenomenal preacher. And the son got invited to preach another time at a university. So the son said to the dad, dad, they invited me to preach again. Aren't you happy for me? Dad said to the son, son, don't get the big head. They might be inviting you back to get it right this time. So Emmanuel might be inviting me back to get it right this time. Either way, I'm grateful for the opportunity. Well, if you have your Bible, the Bible app, would you turn with me to Philippians 4, Philippians 4, Philippians 4. We're going to look at verses 4 through 9, verses 4 through 9. Verses 4 through 9. And it says this. Always

be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considered in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Let's pause right there. Look at your neighbor and say, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Now listen to this. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace

will be with you. Then the God of peace will be with you. Last week, Pastor Nate preached a powerful message called The Missing Peace. And I prayed about it. I realized something. Even as I was processing with Pastor Nate via text, this wasn't accidental. All year long, God kept drawing me back to the same thing. Peace. Peace. So on this final Sunday, I want to end this year with a message entitled peace in a pressured world. Peace in a pressured world. So before we move on, across all locations, even online, would you do me a favor? Would you just extend your hands like you're going to receive a gift? Would you do that with me as we pray? As we posture ourselves, as we ready ourselves,

as we surrender ourselves to God. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your presence that's in this room. We thank you that you're already moving. You're moving already. You move through the musical worship and we thank you that you're going to move through your word. Would you speak to all of us? Would you help us Lord God to experience your peace today that exceeds all of our understanding? And we thank you that you're going to do it in Jesus name. And everyone said Amen. Well, here we are final Sunday of the year. I don't know about you, but the last Sunday of the year has a way of making me pause. Makes me look back. Think about all the things you've carried. Everything you survived. Everything that Tried to break you, take you out, everything that God brought you through. If we're honest, many of us didn't just walk through this year. If we were to be honest, we pressed through this year. Because this year came with pressure. The pressure to provide, the pressure to perform, the pressure to stay strong, the pressure to parent well, the pressure to be okay when you weren't, the pressure. Some of you entered this room tired, stretched, overwhelmed, trying to hold it all together with a smile. And I get it.

My wife Samika and I have been talking about this. Our daughter is less than a year from high school. Y'all pray for me. Pray my strength in the Lord as the old saints would say at my church growing up. Our son, he's a trip. I love him, but he's a trip. He told me, parenthetically, he told me that I'm not coming to first service to hear you preach. I want to go to kids ministry. Shout out to kids ministry because he wants to be there. But I felt a certain kind of way. I did. But then just goes to show you that kids ministry is amazing. Our son is less than a year away from middle school. And that sense of pressure, of wanting to prepare them, protect them, and guarantee outcomes we can't control. It hits differently as a parent. And all the parents say, amen. And I think some of you know what that feels like, right? You're trying to be present, but you're under pressure. You're trying to trust God, but your mind is racing. You're trying to be strong for your family, but you're tired inside. But here's the good news. God saved one of the most powerful scriptures on peace for us on this last Sunday of the year. As we close this year and we step into a new one, Paul gives us a roadmap, if you will, for living with peace when the world around us is full of pressure. See, when Paul writes to the Church of Philippi, this is what he's writing to Philippians.

He's not sipping coffee at his favorite coffee shop with coffee delivered to him by his favorite barista. No, no, no, no. He's writing from a prison cell to some of his favorite people, the Church of Philippi. Ah, the Church of Philippi. The Church of Philippi had always been a friend of Paul. A lot of the churches that the Apostle Paul wrote to, let's just say this, he had to, let me use a Gen Z word, he had to clock their tea. They were doing, let me use another phrase, they were doing way too much. We won't even go down the road. We can talk about Corinth. Just read your Bible. You'll see. There's a lot going on there. This was not so with the Church of Philippi. Apostle Paul said, I thank God every time I remember you in Philippians 1, 3. Paul is in jail thanking God for this wonderful church who had gifted him. They've been generous to him. They gave him money when he needed it. One pastor said this, that they put money on Paul's books. You'll get that later. Anyway, Paul is in prison, but listen to how free he sounds. Rejoice. Don't worry. Pray. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This text shows us something. And if you don't remember anything else I say today, I want you to remember this. Here it is.

Peace isn't the absence of pressure. It's the presence of God in the middle of it. Peace isn't the absence of pressure. It's the presence of God in the middle of it. See, the peace we're talking about today isn't theoretical or shallow. It's the kind of peace we need when life just doesn't make sense. It's the kind of peace we need that only God can give. So today, whether you're a parent or a leader or just a human trying to make it, Philippians 4 has a word for your souls. So how do we have peace in a pressured world? How do we do it? First, we must choose joy. over panic. The tendency for most of us is to panic. You see, a lot of times we panic over things that might happen and does not actually happen. But the text gives us a suggestion to have peace in a pressured world. To have peace in a pressured world, we must first choose joy over panic. Look at the text. It says this, always, everyone say always, be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considered in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Again, Paul isn't writing from a resort in Cancun. Shout out to the resorts in Cancun. I'll be there soon. He's in prison. And yet, his joy isn't fake. It's not conditional. It's rooted in who God is, not where Paul is. Now, to choose joy, it's not ignoring pain. I know some of you might be walking into this room, like I am, grieving the loss of a loved one. Maybe some of you are trying to figure out life. Perhaps there are pain points that you are experiencing that you can't even articulate right now. To choose joy is not to ignore pain. No, it's not. It's asking God to join into the pain with us. You see, rejoicing is an act of resistance in a world that tries to drown us in fear. Rejoicing is countercultural. Rejoicing will make you stand out. Rejoicing teaches your home what trust

looks like in the midst of a difficult situation. When you rejoice, it reminds your soul who is still on the throne. It is God who is still on the throne. So the questions we have to ask ourselves are, where in my life am I panicking? What is robbing me of my joy? What's taking my joy? Where have I chosen panic instead of joy? Have I made panic my reflex instead of choosing to rejoice? You see, rejoicing is how you reset your rhythm in a world that thrives on chaos. And that word rejoice, rejoice, I love it. That word rejoice, it's a command. It's not a suggestion. It's a command. And what I love about God, one theologian says this, God never commands what he doesn't empower. If he tells us to love, what does he do? He gives us the strength to love. If he tells us to encourage one another, he gives us the strength to encourage one another. And when he tells us to rejoice, guess what? God gives us the power, even in the midst of the pain, to rejoice. So we must rejoice. But here's the tension because some of us are thinking, well, Joshua, I hear you. I want joy, but my life still feels empty. You're saying rejoice, but my mind is racing. You're saying rejoice, but the pressure, the pressure hasn't gone anywhere. And this is where Scripture speaks to us because God doesn't just tell us what to choose, he shows us where to carry what's weighing us down. In other words, joy is the posture of our hearts, but prayer is the place where we put the pressure. So not only must we choose joy over panic, we must practice prayer over pressure. Oh, don't look at me funny. Now, it's right here in the text. Look at the text. It says this, don't worry, whereas one version says, don't be anxious about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. These verses isn't a command to suppress anxiety, no, no, no. It's an invitation to surrender it. Aren't you glad that you can surrender your anxiety to God?

God isn't shaming you for being anxious or worrying. He's saying, bring it to me. Don't do this by yourself. Don't carry anxiety alone. You see, prayer is not for perfect people, but it's for people who feel under pressure. Let me say this a different way. Prayer is not for perfect people. It's for pressured people. Prayer is the pressure valve. When you tell God what you need according to the text, that's vulnerability. Thanksgiving helps you to remember what God has done. You see, I'm from the old school church. I'm just going to be honest with you all. So where I'm from, people talk back to you when you preach. Anyway, but thank you, sir. If I were in the church I grew up in, I would ask you some questions, and you would respond. All right? So I have a question for you. Has the Lord saved you? Has the Lord delivered you? Has he kept your mind? Has he kept you safe even when you wanted to throw in the towel? If that's not you, we're going to pray for you. Seriously. But if that is you, you ought to give thanks to God for that. You see, here's the deal. Here's the deal.

Thanksgiving should not be foreign to the Christian. That's right. Amen. We should always be thankful. Here's the promise. Here's the promise. Then you will experience God's peace. His peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That word guard is a Greek word, a Koine Greek word, and it refers to military protection. I love it. God's peace is like a soldier stationed at the gate of your heart and mind. Yeah, you see. You see, peace guards. Peace stands watch. Peace is a soldier over you. Peace is not a feeling. No, no, no. Peace is security. Now, here's where we're going to get a little deeper. Let me digress for a bit, all right? One writer, Dr. Manny Arango, says this. The solution to anxiety is not peace, it's order. Now, think about this. In Genesis 1, when God brought peace to chaos, how'd he do it? He didn't just speak calm. He created order. What? Lights, then land, then life.

The Hebrew idea of peace is shalom. It isn't just calm, it's everything in its rightful place under God's rule and under God's reign. So yes, Paul tells us to pray, but what does prayer do? One thing that prayer does is it gives God permission to reorder your chaos. That's why peace follows, because peace is what it feels like when you're under divine order. Now, prayer does another thing. OK, follow me. Here we go. Prayer does another thing, too. It's fascinating, and science backs it up, OK? My colleague, Dr. Jeffrey Layton, who's the head of our neuroscience lab at North Central University, we talk a lot, and he puts it this way. Prayer is not just a practice. It's a lifeline, connecting us to the one who offers peace that surpasses understanding. And here's what's powerful. This isn't just spiritual, it's neurological. Dr. Layton mentions Dr. Katherine Pittman, another neuroscientist, who explained that anxiety often comes from the amygdala, our brain's fear center. You see, it doesn't need a conscience response or a conscience trigger. That's why sometimes you feel anxious and you can't really explain why.

But check this out. This is fascinating. Prayer activates the cortex, the part of the brain that regulates emotions and higher thinking. In other words, prayer calms the chaos. Prayer calms the chaos. So when the text tells us to breathe. everything to God in prayer. It is inviting us to a rhythm that literally rewires our minds for peace. So let me offer you some suggestions. When your kids are working your nerves, help me Holy Ghost, pray. When bills stack up and you don't know what to do, pray. When relationships fall apart and they crumble, the first thing to do, never move faster than the speed of prayer, pray. Slow down. Do the first thing, pray. When mental health declines, get help and pray. Let peace post up at the gate of your soul and your mind. Let prayer reorder your chaos. Let God work on your brain and on your soul. Let peace guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This kind of peace reminds me of the day we just moved to Minnesota from Illinois. Shout out to the Chicago Bears, by the way. Anyway, bear down. Okay, let me stay focused. We moved from Illinois to Minnesota and we were looking at a home. The owner of this particular home, she had a dog. My son, who was five at the time, so don't talk about him when you see him, please don't. He took off running and crying. The dog started to chase him because he took off. If you can imagine the scene, we're in this house, I take off. I'm running up the stairs chasing the dog who's chasing my son. My son somehow ends up in the bathroom in this particular home. What did I do? I picked my son up. The dog was barking, but he was wagging his tail. He wanted to play. My son didn't know that. I didn't know it either. I picked up my son. My son, Zach, he relaxed. Why? Because I was holding him. I didn't remove the dog, I positioned myself between him and the threats. My presence brought order. My presence brought safety. My presence brought calm. He had peace, not because danger disappeared,

but because I stood guard. That's what God does for you. Peace may not remove the pressure, but peace stands between you and the panic. So, yes, we must choose joy, but understand this, when we pray, God stands in the middle of your problem and he provides peace. I didn't say he gets rid of your problem, sometimes he does. But aren't you glad that the God of the universe stands in between your problem to provide peace that surpasses all understanding? I'm so grateful for that. Choose joy over panic. Practice prayer over pressure. But if we stop there, we're only halfway free. See, because here's the truth, you can praise God, you can pray to God, and still lose the battle in your mind. Pressure doesn't just attack your situation. Pressure attacks your thoughts. Pressure whispers lies when you're tired. Pressure tells stories that aren't true about who you are, and what God is doing, and what's coming next. That's why in this text, Paul doesn't end with prayer, he ends with your thinking. So, finally, if we want peace, family, in a pressure-filled world, we must focus our thoughts on truth. Look at what the Bible says. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing, fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent, and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learn and receive from me, everything you heard from me, and saw me doing. then the God of peace will be with you. If peace guards your hearts and your minds, your minds still need direction. You see, we can't experience peace while constantly meditating on panic. And the text, it gives us a framework for focus. It says, focus or fix your thoughts on whatever is true. What is true? God's promises. Fix your thoughts on what is honorable,

meaning whatever lifts others. Fix your thoughts on whatever is just. We must constantly ask ourselves, what aligns with God's ways? Whatever is pure, fix your thoughts on that. What honors your integrity? Whatever is lovely. What stirs joy? What is admirable? What reflects Christ? You see, your peace is only often as strong as your perspective. Here's some questions. What are you feeding your mind? What are you watching, rehearsing, believing? What you feed your minds will grow. What you feed your minds will grow. Krispy Kreme opened up a few months ago. If you don't know, now you know. And one Saturday I was up early, so don't judge me, I decided to go to Krispy Kreme. And if you all have been there, or if you were there when it opened, you know that those lines were crazy. I waited in line for at least 30 to 45 minutes, and it was cold, but I wasn't alone, so don't judge me. I mean, it was packed. There were tons of people waiting in line to see that hot and outside. The drive-thru was wrapped around the building.

Eventually, someone yelled, hey, there's an express line! I'm like, yeah! So I go through the express line, and I say, you know what, I don't know if I'm coming back, because, yeah, but anyway, I want two dozen donuts. Someone said, wow, oh Lord, help me, Jesus. Two dozen. And when I got home, see, Krispy Kreme, they kind of make the donuts small, and then they make you think that you can eat like four or five of them, and that's not cool. Don't eat four or five. So I bit into one, and my God, the sweetness and the softness, combined with just that sugar rush, just blessed my soul. It was amazing. But here's the deal. I'm going to see my doctor in January. If I told him I ate this every single day, he probably would not be happy, because no matter how good those donuts taste, they're still in the category of a junk food. You're welcome. It's not healthy. The same thing is true spiritually. If you feed your mind with junk every day, you may enjoy it in the moment, but over time, it will shape you in unhealthy ways. You see, because what you think about

becomes what you dwell on. What you dwell on shapes how you feel, and how you feel eventually influences how you behave. That's why Paul says, fix your thoughts on what is true, not what's trending, not what's loud, not what's feeding your anxiety, or making you worry, or feeding your insecurity. No, he says, fix your thoughts on what is true, because just like your body, you become what you consume. Whereas Dr. James K. Smith says, you are what you love. We have to feed our minds the right things to get peace. God's peace isn't passive. It's a disciplined rhythm of refocusing on what is eternal. Namely, it is a refocusing on Jesus. Well, this last Sunday of the year, I want you to hear me clearly. Some of us have been running after peace like it's a product, but peace is a person. Paul doesn't just say that peace will come to you. No, verse nine says, listen to this, the God of peace will be with you. You're not ending this year alone. You aren't going into next year empty. You're stepping into the new year with the God of peace himself. And you know what? I don't know what the future holds, but I know who's stepping into my future. It is the God of peace. He's with me and he's going before me.

You're not ending this year alone. Let that sink in before the calendar changes. The God who brings order into chaos. The God who created something out of nothing. The God who calms the seas is stepping into your next season. You may feel like you're under pressure, but you're actually under construction. And the one who's building you is faithful. So as we stand at the edge of a new year, I want to encourage you, choose joy instead of panic. Let me invite you to practice prayer instead of pressure. Let me ask you to focus your thoughts on what is true and not fear. Allow God to bring peace, which is himself, to your world. Let me tell you something. A few months ago, I woke up early in the morning, 2.30 or three o'clock in the morning, panicking, mind racing, pressure heavy, palms sweaty. Couldn't shut it off. Have you ever been there before? Wondering what is going to happen, Lord? The struggles are real. The things that I'm carrying are real. The issues are real. Right there in that room, I stopped and I said, God, I can't carry this by myself. I invite the God of peace to come into my space.

I'm not asking you, God, I wish, I pray that you would remove the pressure. But in the midst of the pressure, would you give me peace? And I'm telling you, you all, I'm telling you, the God of peace met me in that space. Nothing around me changed, but something in me did. And that's what I believe in God to do for you today. Maybe the thing around you won't change, but I'm praying that the thing in you will. Because whatever you surrender today, you don't have to carry it into your tomorrow. If you're here today and you say, before this year ends, I need the God of peace to meet me in my mind, in my heart, in my soul, in my spirit, in my situation, would you just do me a favor? Would you raise your hands if that's you? Come on, just raise your hands if that's you. If you're here today, you say, I just need the God of peace to meet me right here, right now. God is speaking peace over Emmanuel. Would you just raise your hand? Yes, okay, let's pray together. Let's pray together right here. All across locations as well. Let's pray together and online. Our God, we pray for every hand raised, for every soul that might feel under pressure. God, we pray that you would send your peace. God, the peace that surpasses, exceeds all understanding. Not a peace the world gives, that's temporary relief.

We pray for this soul anchoring, guard at the gate kind of peace. Lord, reorder our chaos. Today, we choose to praise you over panicking. Today, we will practice prayer. Today, we will focus on the truth of what you say about us and what you say about yourself. God, we give ourselves to you and we thank you for the truth of this, that you are near. Yes, God. The God of peace is near. And we praise you that because you're near, you're gonna change us in profound ways. We thank you for what you're doing and for what you're gonna do in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, if you can stand at this moment, Pastor Audrey and team, they're going to sing a song called Tremble. Now, they don't know this, but Dr. Jeffrey Layton that I mentioned earlier, he's a neuroscientist and he's doing a thing called prayers of adoration and songs of adoration. And in his research, this song Tremble, literally when you sing it or listen to it and you worship to it based upon his research that he's doing at his neuroscience lab, it literally decreases anxiety and it increases peace. So as you're singing today, I know and I pray that as we declare that our God makes mountains tremble, that the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will begin to just invade your hearts and minds. Would you just receive that? Even before we sing, can you just lift up your hands and bless God for the peace of God that's going to surpass all understanding in the name of Jesus.