The Place of Peace | Joe Dobbins | Twin Rivers Church

I want to share a message today called the place of peace, the place of peace. And I want to start with a question. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. Have you ever had somebody say, Hey, you really should go here. And they describe how wonderful it is. And then you go and you go, is this the same wonderful place that we're talking about? I remember being on vacation several years ago, we were in the Gulf and someone mentioned to Kayla and I about this restaurant and that it was perfect for a date night. And so we were so excited and they talked about how it was just the most amazing food and it was a fine dining experience. So we got all dressed up. We got in the car, got the address, put it in the GPS, started heading that way. And the longer we drove, the more concerned I got because it felt like we were going away from everything else at the beach out in the middle of nowhere. And I just kept thinking to myself, how could some place that's so popular be so far from any population? You know, and we finally pull in and I thought, Oh, we've made an awful mistake. I mean, the four lane turned to two lane, the traffic lights became traffic signs.

And then we pull up and here's this place. First of all, it ain't a restaurant, it's a house. I mean, and it's not just a house, it's an old house. I mean, it looks like a civil war era home. And then we pulled in the parking lot and it was gravel. Can I just tell you this? You don't go to fine dining and they got a gravel parking lot. Let me just tell you that. And I told Kayla, I said, we need to go. We don't need to stay. And she's so adventurous. She's like, no, we're not. And I said, baby, I don't want to eat dinner in Ulysses S. Grant's basement. Like we are not interested in this. Well, finally she wins out. We go in, one of the best meals I've ever had. Unbelievable, this place. I mean, if you got food that good, you don't have to put pavement in the parking lot, okay? And it just reminded me that sometimes despite the appearance of a place, it really can deliver. And I was thinking about all the locations in scripture. There's mountaintops and cities and palaces and there is a place of peace in scripture. But the problem with the place of peace is it looks nothing like peace. It's a place of brutality and injustice and really evil. The place of peace is the place of Jesus's crucifixion.

See, it's the cross of Jesus that not only secures our salvation and eternal life for those who follow Christ, but every spiritual promise that God gives us was secured at the cross, including peace. As a matter of fact, Isaiah, when he writes foretelling this crucifixion, peace is at the center of the claims. Isaiah 53, five says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes, we are healed. Now, peace is a word we commonly use, but over the years, what I've discovered is very few people actually understand the concept of biblical peace. See, we think peace is circumstantial. We think peace is when everything lines up perfectly in our lives or when there's things around us are going well, we think it's the lack of conflict or the absence of discomfort, but that is in no way, shape or form the definition of biblical peace. Biblical peace has nothing to do with the things around you and has everything to do with God's grace in you. Biblical peace is a supernatural grace God deposits in the heart of his children. And it's something that's available to every single person who's a follower of Christ.

And it's a central part of what we should be as a disposition or in the way we live our lives. Now, here's the thing though, that I think we don't grasp fully about peace. It's this, it's multifaceted. You see, we endure in life different levels of turmoil. And for every one of those unique levels of turmoil, Jesus secured a type of peace. As a matter of fact, if you look at the cross, if for you, the crucifixion is just, you know, a wooden cross and Jesus dying, you really haven't kind of gotten to the depth of what's provided. Every single experience Jesus had was intentional because it was claiming for us something we need. And that means he went through every level of turmoil in order to give us every level of peace. Let me give you an example, just the three that I immediately see is first, just the stress Jesus went under. Listen, stress is something that you and I endure in life and there's healthy stress. Healthy stress is the kind that keeps us focused and growing and moving forward. But then there's unhealthy stress. And unhealthy stress is the type that literally undoes our mind and our bodies. Well, if you look at the cross, the 48 hours leading up to Jesus's death were probably the most stressful period of time

any human beings ever lived. Emotionally, he was interrogated for hours. Hours through the night. Physically, he carried the beam that he was laid on, he carried it, weighed about 150 pounds, he carried it almost a half mile. Relationally, even while he's hanging on the cross, you know what he's worried about? What's gonna happen to his mother? Because there was a relational weight of stress on him. The stress that Jesus carried was so immense that it would be hard for us to even conceive it, even for those of us who are in the most stressful seasons of our life. Additionally, another kind of turmoil is just this life-altering crisis he was in. You know, crisis is when an overwhelming, unexpected occurrence happens in your life, and it comes with such force that it really can only be kind of looked back on as that that was traumatizing. And trauma is exactly what Jesus experienced on the cross. When you look at the cross, first of all, we know the physical trauma. We understand that he was beaten. For example, the scourging or the whipping that he took, the instrument they used would have had four to five leather straps, and at the end of those leather straps would have been a piece of bone or a metal,

and it literally laid into him, and when they recoiled it, it would have stripped his flesh. In addition to that, the crown of thorns that was placed on him would have caused an immediate migraine, and then the nails that were used, they were made of iron. They were about 12 1 1 1 1 centimeters long. They weren't actually put through the hands. They were put through the wrists, which means he would have had immense bleeding, and it would have probably broken his metacarsals. But then there's the mental stress that we don't even see, or the mental trauma. You know, the idea of you did nothing wrong, were but convicted unjustly. The idea that you were mocked, separated from anyone else, ridiculed by those you once esteemed as teachers, that Jesus was literally hung on the cross naked, and it was a form of humiliation, so that every person that walked by goes, you don't wanna end up like him. And then if that wasn't enough, there's one more level of turmoil, which is the spiritual attack. You know, when you look at the cross of Christ, what you'll recognize is that this was a moment, just like you've had in your life, where the enemy decides, I'm gonna target and torment their emotions. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Bible says

that Jesus was under such attack from the enemy that he prayed with such vigor that his blood vessels burst and he sweat blood. In addition to that, when he was put alone in his cell, a spirit of despair comes on him and claims that he is actually going to go to the cross in vain. And then as he hangs on the cross, because this is what all spiritual attack does, he starts to wonder, God, have you abandoned me? He even says, Father, why have you forsaken me? Because there's this reality, when you're under spiritual attack, the enemy wants you to believe God's abandoned you. The turmoil that Jesus Christ faced 2,000 years ago when he was on the cross is the greatest amount of turmoil any individual has ever experienced. It was multifaceted, multilayered, it was stressful, it was crisis, it was traumatic, it was a spiritual attack, and it was all intentional. Nothing about the cross was unintentional. As a matter of fact, the cross is the most meticulously planned event in human history, the most prophetically predicted event. Psalm 22, hundreds of years before it took place, Psalm 22 tells us they'll gamble for his clothes. Isaiah 53 tells us that, hundreds of years before the cross, tells us that the brutality that he'll face, and it actually tells us where he'd be buried.

And then Jesus said, years before he was crucified in John three, he said that I'll be put up on a wooden cross, just like in the Old Testament when they raised up a wooden staff so that people could be healed in the wilderness. So when you look at the cross, nearly everything about it was just meticulously planned. And what's interesting is, is that all of this turmoil caused Jesus to end his human life, and it's at this moment that the enemy believes that he's won. And like the old preachers say, the enemy was playing checkers, but God was playing chess. And all this particular prophetic, meticulous nature laid out, the enemy never considered one detail, and here was the detail, where the cross was placed. Let me show it to you in scripture in John 19, 17. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the, help me with this word, skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. God lays out every prophetic part of Jesus's crucifixion, and he decides this, we're gonna raise that beam, not on a rock that looks like a hand, not on a rock that looks like a heart, we're gonna erect the symbol of victory on a place that looks like. Skull, I've seen it with my own my own eyes as you stand from Galgotha You can still see today the shadowing of the way the rocks are and it looks like a skull if you ever visit Israel This was in no way inconsequential. It was not small

This was God declaring complete victory over the place that we would be attacked the most our minds You see what we have to understand is that every part of Jesus's crucifixion is not random But it is specific Because every part of Jesus's crucifixion secures for us a promise that we can live in today and when you see a cross you need to remember that it was stuck in a place of Torment that the enemy's trying to take your peace of your mind But God put that cross there to remind us that we are not subject to the attacks of the enemy But instead we've already gained complete victory through Christ. Listen to me. Peace is not something that's fleeting It's not some feeling that comes and goes Peace the peace of God is not something that that you have to have everything around you go Well, or that you find in a substance The peace of God is a divine strength given to the heart and life of every believer and it's meant for spiritual warfare It's also meant for the daily stresses of life and it's meant for when crisis erupts in your life Listen, some of you are here today and you are stressed out The peace of God is where you recharge and where you find the ability to keep going Some of you are in a crisis and we don't I don't even know the details of it But I'll tell you this the peace of God is what comes in and shelters you when the unexpected is raining down on your life Some of you are under spiritual attack right now It is the peace of God that guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus and it keeps the enemy from poisoning your perspective And depleting your faith. It is the peace of God that allows you to stand in the worst of circumstances and continue to believe It's the peace of God that works not from an outer place, but an inner place 2,000 years ago Jesus went ahead and decided you get victory in every battle before you even enter into those So if you're here today and you're traumatized if you're here today and you're overwhelmed if you're here today and you're under attack You have the peace of God you get to walk today in victory because of what Jesus did 2,000 years ago on the cross But here's what you got to understand different types of peace are accessed different ways and There's some of you who you go. I've been a believer I know that I'm supposed to have peace

But I can't seem to find it and what I would tell you is it's because you know, it's available But you haven't learned how to access it So I'm going to show you three ways depending on what you need to access by faith the peace that was secured on the cross Here's the first one peace for stress is obtained by adjusting pace so This was actually almost nearly a year ago. I was I was a Monday Now, let me just say this your Fridays are my Mondays Okay, so when you're worn out at the end of yourself on Friday because you've been working all week. That's my Monday Okay, and I remember I preached about seven times that weekend and I had done a bunch of meetings to get our West County campus You know moving forward and I when I woke up I was tired and I kind of stumbled in you know And went to the kind of the vanity and you know, and I don't know if you ever do this You're kind of still half awake, you know half asleep half awake while you're standing there I grabbed my toothbrush and I was just getting ready to put it in my mouth when I stopped I thought something's wrong and I Looked down and instead of toothpaste. I had put deodorant on my toothbrush Listen, you know, you're tired when you're putting deodorant on toothbrushes. Okay, and I thought maybe just maybe this is a sign I may be going a little too fast too hard Here's the reality everybody's gonna deal with some stress There's no such thing as a lack of stress a stress is actually something good. It keeps us focused until it becomes chronic Stress is supposed to be something that you encounter occasionally not consistently and when you encounter stress consistently Here's what happens. First of all, it literally reshapes your brain Studies show that it causes you to lose the ability to have foresight you lose the ability to make better decisions It literally releases chemical after chemical that are supposed to be for unique moments and you start living on them In addition to that it shreds your blood vessels. It keeps you from sleep and it damages your heart it's one of the most dangerous things you can do is to stay in a constant state of chronic stress and yet Most of us do Because we live in a culture that says there's more

You can do more you can grind more you can obtain more and it says this if you ever get more you'll be happy and Subtly we believe the lie and we give more and we go for more and we agree to more Until and never realizing the damage that is doing and if you were to ask me today what what I'm most concerned about Simply in your life. It's this that you're over stimulated and over scheduled and those two things are what's keeping you in a perpetual state of stress But overstimulated here. Here's what I mean is your body can be at rest, but your mind still racing Okay, and and we live in a culture that's overstimulated. I mean News, scrolling, streaming, podcasting, consistently taking in. Here's what's happening. First of all, consider that you are probably taking in a overloaded diet of ungodly thinking. And as one author puts it, input's gonna equal output at some point, okay? But let's set that aside. Let's not even consider the content you're taking in. Let's consider this. What about the fact that you constantly are consuming things? I mean, just taking it in constantly. To the fact that you're actually never even contemplating what you're consuming. You're just, you're in a place where you're taking in so many messages, you're not processing them, what they mean, how they affect you, what they should inform you to. There's just this consistent reality that you're so in consuming media that you're never contemplating. So let me tell you, what it's ended up with is we're the most educated and overwhelmed generation ever. Because we do not have a part where we ever actually pause

and consider what we're taking in. We just continue taking it in. And it's one of the reasons we don't have peace. And I wanna show you this in scripture and explain it kind of biblically. Isaiah 26, three. You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is, help me with this word, stayed on you because he trusts you. Now in the original language, stayed is the idea that it's full. So they say, perfect peace is found not in partial attention, but full attention. That peace is not found in partial focus, but full focus. Okay. And all of a sudden you start to get that definition, you go, oh, this may be why people have so little peace. Because God rarely has their full attention. I mean, think about it. Even when you sit down to read the Bible, you're probably doing 10 other things at the same time. When you pray, you're probably driving, listening to the radio and considering at the same time, what work you gotta do. Even when you're here in worship, you thinking about, you know, why is this person sitting so close to me? Maybe I need to go to an earlier service cause it's packed in here. You know, it's just like all this stuff.

Very rarely does God get your full attention and it starts to explain why you rarely find perfect peace. Okay. There was a 19th century Danish philosopher. I wanna read you what he said. The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I would reply, create silence. Bring men to silence. And here's what he says. The word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today. You think it's good? It was written 200 years ago. Our overstimulation is the reason we have an under-realization of the peace of God in our lives. A fragmented you will never find the peace of God. At some point, you have to create a space where you give him your full attention so you get the full measure of peace he has for you. Now, that's just overstimulated. Let's talk about being overscheduled. Your energy is your most valuable resource. And the reality is protecting your peace means managing that energy. But all of us have committed to things, said yes to things, agreed to things, and here's what, when we finally get to it,

we go, why did I do this? Why did I say yes to this event? Why did I accept this invitation? Why did I do this? Okay, so here in that moment, here's what you did. You discovered you have limits. You discovered, oh, I've got limits. I didn't realize I had limits. When I said yes, I thought, I have no limits. Now I'm realizing I'm tired, I'm worn out, I'm cranky, I've got limits, okay? So here's what's gotta happen if you wanna be a person of peace. Stop discovering you have limits. Start anticipating your limits. Discovering means that you figured it out too late to change. Anticipating means you recognize this about yourself and you make changes before you arrive and it's too late. Okay, so I'm gonna give you a challenge. Here's the challenge. I want you to do an energy audit, an energy audit. Here's what it looks like. Instead of showing up exhausted to everything, I want you to sit down and go, I wanna think about everything I've said yes to, all the things I did last week, last month, last year. I wanna look at them. I wanna look at the things that I felt like were fruitful and I wanna look at the things that I was like,

oh, I hated that I committed to doing that, okay? And then I want you to use that as your framework for what you say yes for in the future. Here's what you're doing. Protecting your peace means this. Saying no to the unnecessary things so that you can say yes to the things that matter most, okay? But here's the thing. You have to take time to look further. And that's the challenge. In 2020, obviously COVID-19. was sweeping across the world. And all of a sudden in Nepal, they started getting reports, experts were getting reports that people in Kathmandu could see the peak of Mount Everest. Now, the reason this was so odd is number one, Kathmandu is about 120 miles from Mount Everest, but it hadn't been seen in decades, almost 50 years, because the pollution was so strong in Kathmandu, no one could see that far. But without people driving and getting out of their homes, the environment cleared up and people could see over 120 miles away, they could see the obviously the mountain range. Okay, so here's what they said, reduced activity created more visibility. Okay, now listen to me. When you keep the schedule that's over scheduled, you can't see.

You know what the problem is when you can't see? You believe everything in the immediate starts to govern your life. Here's the problem with everything in the immediate govern your life, is that you are more apt to temptation. Because temptation is always wrapped this way, it's a short term decision that if you looked in the long term, you wouldn't have made. But if you're over scheduled, all you ever see is the immediate. So listen, if you want to see further, you got to go slower. You got to reduce your activity to clear the visibility. Listen, there is no way around it, your pace is tied to your peace. Now listen to me. I could pray for you today, and you experience supernatural peace. But it would evaporate the minute you walk back out and went back into an uncontrolled pace. Because stress only has, is only obtains peace by changing the pace. Now, here's the third or the second one. The second one is this, maybe you're here today and you're in a crisis, peace in crisis is obtained through prayer. Now let's talk about crisis for a second. It comes in different packages. There is financial crisis, marital crisis, health crisis.

And regardless of what it is, let me tell you what it boils down to. As a crisis comes in an unexpected way, it's overwhelming. But here's the underlying of why it impacts you so deeply. Ready? You're out of control. You can't change what has happened. So you know what our response is to being out of control? We want control. So we work harder, we manipulate more, we give more, we go, we do anything we can to regain control. Now, let me save you some time. You were never in control. It's all a farce. That was a mirage. You were never in control. So therefore you working harder won't bring it back into your control. By definition, a crisis means you can't control it. Otherwise it wouldn't be a crisis because you would just control it. So your quickest way to peace is not regaining a control you never had. Here's your quickest way to peace. Surrendering to a God who's in control. You can't control it anyway, so you might as well have his peace while he's in control. And I want to explain it to you in the biblically.

Here it is. 2 Thessalonians 3.16. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. Now that's pretty remarkable. I mean, catch this. You can have peace at all times and in every situation. So it's not a come and go thing. It's an absolute. This disproves that peace is when things around me are going well. It's basically you can have it all times and in every situation. But how do you get it? Did you notice that word? Lord of peace. Now we obviously live in a republic, so we don't have a concept really for monarchies. As a matter of fact, the average person here, all they know about monarch is what they've watched on the news in England. And here's the result in England. England is titles without authorities. Okay? The queen, the king, the prince, whoever it is, it's just a title. It's a symbol. They have no authority. You know where the authority is?

Parliament. Okay. So now let me say to you, that's not what this is in the scriptures. The scripture is not a title, Lord, without any authority. In scripture, here's what it means. Master of everything. Supreme ruler. The one who calls the shots. So now let me explain. It says peace comes based on God calling the shots. Now that's a problem. Because most of us, we want a savior. We want somebody to save us from our sins and the consequences of sins. We don't want a Lord telling us what to do. We want a compassionate, benevolent Jesus. We don't want a leading Jesus. Okay. Yet, we do not recognize in scripture how much of a big deal this is. Listen, the term savior. In scripture is used 36 times The term Lord is used seven thousand and eight hundred times Which one do you think God's trying to emphasize? He's saying hey, I'm gonna call the shots and as a result you get peace Okay It's basically telling us we need this We don't need to lead our own lives We don't need to lead our own lives and limited understanding or strength

We need God who understands more can do more. We need him to lead us Okay, but but you have to come to realization is because in when you're in a crisis Here's the central question of the crisis who's in control Okay, if you're in control, then here's the the person in control gets the pressure So your decision is if you're gonna be in control you get all the pressure But if you put God in control he gets the pressure Okay Let me kind of explain it this way. I read an autobiography about Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president United States of America and probably led through the most Tumultuous national crisis we've ever had. I mean a civil war it probably don't get much better worse than that Okay in one of his journals. Here's what he wrote I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go my own Wisdom and that of all about me seemed Insufficient for that day. Now. Can we pause for a second president United States? most powerful person on earth most would say at his disposal executive branch military industry finance Got a lot of luck got a lot going for him And then let's just assume the fact that if you made it there you pretty sharp The most powerful person in the world said I came very very clear to the fact I don't got what it takes Therefore I chose in prayer to give control to God now, let me let me say this You're not even the president United States I Mean you're good-looking you little talented. Maybe you got an education, but you're no Abraham Lincoln And yet you're gonna try to carry this You're gonna control this I'm just saying at some level maybe just maybe There would be some some honesty

Some rationale that would come to you today and go you know what? This probably exceeds me. And so here becomes your question. Why would you carry pressure when God's offering to carry it and give you peace? It's as simple as giving him control, how do we do it dear Heavenly Father? This is beyond me and I'm asking you to be Lord over this situation. And while you carry this I'd like to receive your peace Amen, and in a moment you get the peace he takes the pressure Now here's the last one Let's assume you're here today and you're under a spiritual attack. I've got I don't believe yeah, here we go Peace in spiritual attack is obtained through God's presence Okay. Now listen to me the biggest misconception about peace is this it's something you get Because biblically it's someone you're with It's not something it's someone let me show it to you real plain Ephesians 2 14 Christ himself is our peace It does not say Christ himself gives peace He is peace Okay, that means peace is not the absence of trouble. It's the presence of Jesus That's the difference. Okay, and here's why when you get in the presence of the Lord All of the sudden you are reminded not only that he exists, but that he cares about you and That if he cares about you, he's not going to leave you or forsake you you are reminded He loves you that you are reminded of his mighty acts and his great abilities. You are reminded Oh, I'm not in this alone in his presence. All of a sudden. There's just this reminder. Oh He's with us Okay, but even beyond that scripture says he restores our soul so so let me say it this way there are things you are conscious of in the presence of God and there are things you Are unconscious of that are happening in the presence of God

Okay, I want to get a little scientific here if you'll let me If we were to very very simplistically take your brain and kind of divide it up into to function Probably the two most important sections are this the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system now Simple let's just be simple today. The prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain that has understanding learning logic, decision-making, executive function. The limbic system is the part of your brain where emotions are stored, okay? So we got one that's the reasoning side, prefrontal cortex, limbic system is the emotional side, okay? When you go through a traumatic event, here's what we found, you can, that the memories of it are not just the event, they are emotional imprints on your limbic system. So they're literally like impressions in your brain from the trauma you went through, okay? Now here's what they found, in therapy, they've discovered it does no good to talk about the event to get over trauma, it does no good to talk about it from a point of reasoning or the prefrontal cortex. I mean, we can talk about the day, we can talk about the event, we can talk about the timeline, we can talk about what they said, we can talk about what was done, we can do all that, but there's no progress in therapy because we're approaching it all through rationale and rationale is not where those imprints are held, it's held in emotion. So follow me, so what they basically say is therapy top down or prefrontal cortex down does no good,

the type of therapy that helps people who have been through trauma is bottom up, it starts with the emotion, not the rational thinking. Okay, everybody following me? Good, if not, just act like you are, okay. Guess what else they found in research? That the area of the brain that holds those emotional imprints is also affected during worship. Have you ever been in a worship service and all of a sudden you start crying and you're not exactly sure why? Yeah. Have you ever been singing and we're not even singing sad songs, but you have an intense emotional reaction? What is happening? Your limbic system is being engaged, that's not your prefrontal cortex. As a matter of fact, when they studied it as this, that what they have found is the effects of those emotions are coming out not from what you're taking in as content, but from what you're experiencing outside of content or rationalization. Okay, let me say it this way, the Lord is coming and starting to heal you where you've been wounded, despite the fact you don't understand what he's doing. Okay, you say, I don't know, pastor,

you got a scripture for that? Yep. Come on. Philippians 4, 6, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition, thanksgiving, which is a form of worship, present your request to God. What's gonna happen if I enter worship? And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Let me read it to you a different way, okay? And the peace of God will transcend your prefrontal cortex and access your limbic system. And the presence of God will begin to heal memories and mend fragmented subconscious. Isn't that amazing? You don't even know that you're doing it. Just by being in God's presence, he starts to heal. And I actually think it's brilliant because for most of us, if God told us he was gonna heal it, we would argue with him. Because most of us resist ever opening up the most painful parts of our lives. But instead, he says, well, just get in my presence. You focus on the singing with your prefrontal cortex. I'm gonna go with my spirit and start putting this broken soul back together. Three years ago, on a Saturday night, I got a call that Kayla's brother was tragically lost. And the minute I got that call,

I knew she'd never be the same. I mean, I just knew it. And I expected the overwhelming grief. What I did not expect was the unrelenting spiritual attack. Now, we ain't talking a lot about the devil today, but let me just tell you this, just because you are at your weakest doesn't mean he's gonna stop. He's never had a moment of compassion on you. And I saw as over in the weeks that followed, I saw him come and attack her mind with lies, with twisted theology, with temptation to be in isolation. And I mean, I just, I thought, oh my goodness. And I just saw a war. boring. Well, each Saturday I'd say, hey baby, you want to go to church tomorrow? I don't think I'm ready. And she wasn't able to be in a service, you know, just overwhelming. You, you've been there. Many of you just couldn't even do it for about six weeks. And some one Saturday, six or seven weeks in, I said to her, I said, hey baby, you want to go to church? She said, I'll try to go with you tomorrow. And, um, and I remember the Sunday we, we came in and we waited until everybody was already singing because we just didn't want her to be overwhelmed because you, you were so amazing, so loving, but you know, you're just trying to help her kind of ease back in. And so we came in and she sat down, um, on the front row. And I, I stood there, we were all standing and singing.

And I, she, she just sat there and I just noticed about a few minutes in, I just noticed her, her shoulders drop kind of in a relaxation. And I noticed her face, the tension just relieved. And all of a sudden I just saw just, just tears. And it wasn't like I, you know, at first I thought, oh, she, you know, she, she's grieving, but then I could tell it wasn't that it was like, it was like there was this, a peaceful, those tears were. Service went on. I got up and spoke. And then later that afternoon, after we got the kids settled, I said, Hey, how was it today? We were talking about it. And I said, I said, what, what, what was going on? What was that like today to go back? And she said one word, she said, healing. She said, I never, I never conceived just being in the room. Cause let me say, she didn't raise her hand. She didn't sing a song, just being in the room. She said, it felt so healing. And here's what I'm telling you. Though she didn't have the strength to raise her hands and she didn't have her own song, the collective worship created an atmosphere that for the presence of the Lord. And when she got in the presence of the Lord, the enemy's life stopped. And that brokenness, that fragmentation started to be mended again.

You have no idea what God's doing just cause you get in the room. The question is not, how do you find peace? Here's the question. How do you find the presence of Jesus?