[SERMON] Peace That Doesn't Make Sense | Philippians 4

In this sermon from Philippians 4, Pastor Cyle explores the biblical antidote to anxiety — a topic more relevant than ever in our screen-saturated, news-saturated world. Drawing on Paul's words written from prison, he unpacks three transformative truths: that joy is not the absence of problems but the presence of Christ; that peace is not the absence of storms but the presence of a Savior; and that contentment is not having more, but needing nothing more than Jesus. With humor, personal vulnerability — including the loss of his own daughter — and practical application, Pastor Cyle challenges the congregation to replace worry with prayer, guard their minds, and discover the freedom that comes from anchoring their souls in Christ rather than circumstances.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

But today we get into Philippians 4. Philippians 4 is the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians, which is a letter to the church of Philippi that Paul wrote while he was under house arrest imprisoned with constant guard. And so that's kind of where we pick it up. We've been talking about joy, we've been talking about the mind of Christ, and now we go to Philippians 4 to kind of continue the discussion about Paul's experience. And so, but I wanted to share some statistics with you before we get into this because the statistics show right now that nearly one in five U.S. adults, 19%, experience an anxiety disorder in a given year. That's one out of five people will have some kind of anxiety disorder episode throughout the year. Anxiety is rampant in our culture, in our world. About 31% of Americans, that's one in three. So if you look to your right, everybody look to your right, everybody look to your left, and then look at yourself. Can't really do that. So but one of those three people will experience an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. And so that's a lot. That's common. So if it's not you, it's one of those people next to you, most likely will experience some kind of anxiety disorder in life. Anxiety is a real issue in our culture. And there's a reason why, and I'll show you what it is. These things. Who has one of these things? Hold it up. Hold up your phone if you got one. Your send boxes. No, I just couldn't. I mean, I have one. I mean, like, yeah, hold it up. These cause anxiety, and here's why. They're full of garbage, that drama that we don't need. Right? We don't. If you get on social media, you don't go from positive video to positive video to positive video. That just doesn't happen, right? Maybe every once in a while, but it's full of negativity. It's full of unrest. If you go to the news, the news is full of negative. And so we are constantly bombarded with negativity. And then you get in message chat groups, and people say mean things, and they have instant access to say whatever they want, unfiltered all the time, which is never a good idea. You should never say the things that you want to that you think unfiltered. That is not the mind of Christ. Like that is the mind of the world. And so because we live in a world where everything's unfiltered all the time, because we don't sit and look at each other, it creates more and more and more anxiety. And those of us adults, we think it's bad, it's bad for our kids. It's bad for our teenagers, it's bad for our children. They are becoming more and more and more anxious every generation. The stats are increasing significantly. They're not decreasing. It's not like these things make us more at peace. And so we have more convenience than ever, we have more information than ever, we have more comfort than ever. Yet anxiety continues to skyrocket in our culture. And it's because of these devices. And although they're helpful, I sat one time and thought there's like hundreds of things that are useful on this one thing. Calculators, right? Phones. I use a scanner. I don't even scan with scanning machines anymore. I got a little app I can just scan, hit a button, it gets the outline, it gets the outline of my image, it makes it a PDF document, and I can send it out. Like life is really on this. Any technology is now in this. You got cameras, you got flashlights. The problem is we have all that ease of access to that stuff, but we also have all that ease of access to drama all the time. And that's dangerous. And it creates anxiety and continues to increase anxiety in our lives. Because anxiety, it grows where prayer dies. We get anxious when we get worried, afraid, frustrated about the things of the world, the things that we can't control. And it makes us nervous. And when we're getting anxious, we're talking to that internal voice of ourselves, and we're not talking to the Lord. We're worried about what could happen. Now, I was showing Cody, we were talking this morning during the first service. I showed him a video and I said, this is why I don't bungee jump. Because in Brazil, everything always happens in Brazil. A few months ago, people were hot ballooning in Brazil and the thing burnt down and they fell to the ground. Like I don't I don't do things like I, if Brazil happens in Brazil, I probably shouldn't do it. But like they were doing bungee jumping, they forgot to attach the cord to the bungee jumper. It's an awful thing. But like I just think God did not create this body for bungee jumping. It just didn't. Like I'm one, I'm worried about the tension on that cord. Yes, I know it can hold 50,000 pounds. I just don't think it's gonna hold me in that moment. So and so there's a reason I don't go bungee jumping. Don't ask me, I'm not going. I'm probably not ever gonna jump out of a plane either. Uh I don't mind the free falling. That sounds exciting. It's the sudden stop at the end that bothers me. So um that's really where the problem arises for me. It's not the fall, it's not the heights, it's the stop. But when we when if you want to try to get me to go bungee jumping, you're gonna create great anxiety for me. If you want me to go to an amusement park and try to get in fit into a ride, that creates great anxiety for me. I don't know if I'm gonna fit into the millennium force. I don't. So last time I tried, I don't. So and I'm always thinking, how much weight can I lose before I go to Cedar Point? Right? It creates anxiety. And so we put ourselves in positions where we are anxious about things. I was telling the last service back when I was in middle school, I really like this girl in my class. And so we were watching the Goonies one. Now, anybody seen the Goonies? All right, so anybody not know what the Goonies is over here? This all do you guys not know? Okay, no. They're like, uh uh. That sounds weird. Um so during the Goonies, my family was watching the uh the Goonies, and I so I ran upstairs and I kept going up to the bathroom. They probably thought I had a UTI because they kept going. But every time I'd go up to the bathroom, I'd actually go to my brother's room and I'd get the rotary phone and I'd be like, die on this girl's number, and then I'd be like, click. I wouldn't I wouldn't let it ring. I'd let it ring once that click, ring on it. So I just kept doing this over and over again. And then I would just I would just chicken out, my heart rate be racing, I'd be all nervous, I'd start breathing heavy, and I'm like, I and like I'm gonna call this girl to ask her out. And so then I would I would get nerfed, I would get scared, and I go back down, and then later I'd go back and try it again. And I'm I'm guessing the the family was just like, who keeps calling and hanging up? This was back when you didn't have caller ID yet, so you can't do that now, or you're called a stalker. So uh like um, but you can't. But it was just, I had so much anxiety for this moment, and what happened, these little voices in my head kept saying all these things that could or might happen or might that she might say, but she didn't ever say nothing because I never got a hold of her, because I never so but like it created so much anxiety. And so Paul is actually writing from a place to where he could potentially be have great anxiety, being in jail, like having a constant guard, knowing that at any moment the Romans could say, Let's kill him. And that's the end of his life. So he could have great anxiety, but he's writing a letter to a church saying, Hey, don't have anxiety, instead, do this. We pick up the story here in Philippians. He says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, Rejoice. Your part's always the yellow. Now, this is a famous, famous verse. It's actually in the song. Does anybody know the song? Nope, nobody? Okay, they did last service again. Yeah, I'll sing it for you. So um, so when I went when I went to camp back 40 years ago, we would sing 30 years ago, we would sing this song, and we would do motions, and we would rock out to the song. And so here it here it goes. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, Rejoice. That's you. When I go like that, that means you, okay? Five of you got it, but the rest of the rest of you, right? Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, and then we go, rejoice, rejoice, and again I say, rejoice. And then it keeps repeating. And then you like stop and you clap and you do all this stuff. Like, and it's a fun thing, but it's a truth. It's not just a song, it's actually a truth from God's word. Like, no matter what, always rejoice. So when you're in prison, rejoice. When you have constant guards, rejoice. When your friends are trying to make you bungee jump, rejoice. Right? When you're trying to get a steer point and get on a ride, rejoice. When you're calling that person and trying to ask them out and you don't know if they're gonna say yes or even answer or whatever, rejoice. Like in every moment when you're in the hospital waiting for their diagnosis, rejoice.

unknown 8:12

Right?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

When you're struggling in your marriage, rejoice. When your kids aren't listening, rejoice. When you just lost your job, rejoice. Like it really is, there's not an exception to not be rejoicing. We're always supposed to rejoice. The problem is, and we're when we're rejoicing, we're exclaiming joy, we're participating in joy. That's why it's rejoice. So joy is not the absence of problems, it's actually the presence of Christ. We think when my life gets better, my relationships get better, my finances get better, uh, the world gets better, then I'll I'll have joy. That is not ever going to happen. See, joy is not the absence of problems, it's the presence of Christ. When you get Christ in your life, you get joy. You know that He is bigger than everything else. He is better than everything else. The world may be broken, but I still have Christ. And because I have Christ, I have eternal life ever after. That's the joy. That this life is not your home, the next life is, and you can have joy in that. Philippians continues on to say this. I didn't highlight the word because uh, oh, it now it fits this service. Reasonableness. I was gonna make you say it, but we're not going to. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Essentially what Paul is saying, everything changes when you remember that God is near. When you remember that Christ is with you, when you remember God is near, your whole perspective shifts. We have a story in the Old Testament of Shabrak, Meshach, and Abednego, and they get thrown in the fire by the king. And they he's like, if you're not gonna worship me, I'm gonna throw you in the fire. That is a moment to be anxious. I don't know about you. Going out by fire, not one of my top five ways I want to die. It's not. I don't want to drown, I don't want to burn by fire, don't want to fall out of a plane. So that's just those are my those are my top three. I got some others. I don't know what yours are, not on my list. So it would create great anxiety to be able to go and be thrown into a fire, but if you know the Lord's with you, what happens with Shabmach, Shabbrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They get thrown in the fire, and there's a fourth person show up in the fire. They don't burn. We believe it's a Christophany. A lot of scholars believe it's a Christophany, a moment where Christ shows up in the fire and he saves them and protects them. God is near to them. We all have fires in life, we all have storms that rage, we all have moments that create anxiety, but we have to remember that God is near to us. He's with us. And so everything changes when we remember that God is near. That's it's a perspective. The Bible continues on and says this: do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So Paul has reason to be anxious, he has reason to be afraid. And he's telling this church that he knows and loves, hey, it doesn't matter what, everything or anything, go to God. Talk to God, pray to God with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known. No matter what your situation, go talk to God. If you've got a financial issue, got a relational issue, got a got a um health issue, if you've got a mental issue, emotional issue, whatever it is, hey, just go talk to God. Don't talk to those little voices in your head. I got those little voices in my head that talk to me, right? And they're never positive. Well, mine can tend to be positive. So I always tell people when I am overly, overly, overly positive, you're gonna die or I'm gonna die, but it's bad. So it's just, I guess, super positive. But it's not the voices in my head that are doing that. It's my choice to be positive in the midst of all that. There's always this voice in the back of your head that's saying, You're you need to worry, you need to be afraid, right? You've got cancer, right? That person doesn't love you. You're gonna lose your job, you're not gonna be able to pay your bills, you're gonna lose everything. There's that little voice in the back of your head, and when you listen to it, it makes you worried. It makes you afraid. And that's not like the devil doing too, it's listening to ourselves. That's our own subconscious. And so what Paul is saying, don't be anxious, just go to God, talk to Him. See, worry talks to yourself, prayer talks to God. The reason you're worrying, you're talking to yourself. You're asking yourself for advice, you're listening to your own subconscious, and that's not good. Some of you just need to stop listening to yourself and start listening to God. Your spouse has been telling you that for years. See, every worry is an invitation to prayer. It is. Every worry you have, it's an invitation to talk to God, to pray, to seek Him, and ask Him to show up. Because Philippians tells us that, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So we pray when we worry, because the earthly understanding is, oh, it's all gonna be bad, right? It's gonna be horrible. You should just be eeure, the world's awful, people are awful, be pessimistic, right? Be miserable, be anxious. Woe is me. That's the world's understanding. What Paul is saying is the peace of God that we have through joy, through Christ, that surpasses all that earthly understanding. And that guards your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. See, God's peace is not always logical. You're gonna have storms in life. You're gonna have situations, you're gonna have relationship problems, you're gonna have financial problems, you're gonna have health problems, you're gonna have problems. The logic of the world is to complain, to talk about how miserable you are, to, you know, to create drama. God's logic is opposite that. Just come to him, seek him, ask him to be with you, talk with him, ask him to help you. Because the world, it's not always logical. I mean, it is logical, but God's peace is not always logical. It's but it's always powerful. If you seek the Lord and your situations, there will be a power, a change that the world can't understand. You can have a joy, you can see life change and transformation. You see, Chris asked me months ago if he could he could get up and share about tithing. We didn't ask Chris to come up and talk about tithing so he could twist your arm and say, Oh, you should give more money to church. You guys have been super gracious to this church. Like, it's been a great year for the church. What we allowed him to come up is because God has transformed their lives. And a big part of that has been this growth journey and then understanding how to give back to the Lord and then watching how God transformed their lives again. And so when Chris said, Hey, can can I get up and share? It's like, yeah, get up and share. He's gonna give up and share a couple times because he got he's got a lot more to say than we can give him in just that three minutes, right? See, the world's logic is oh no, don't worry about, don't worry about God, just take care of me. And what what God was speaking to Chris, hey, you give to me and watch what I do. Test me. I think he said that. Test me. And he did, and why he watched God show up. Because God's logic and the way he moves is powerful. Because he's with you. See, we can have peace in the storm because peace is not the absence of a storm in life, it's the presence of a savior in it. It's the Christ that shows up in the fire, it's the Christ that shows up in the storm. If you're waiting for your finances to get better, your relationships to get better, your kids to behave, if you're waiting for to better have a bigger house, all this stuff, you're waiting for this perfect life to happen. It's never gonna happen. You're gonna be miserable, you're never gonna have joy, you're gonna be anxious the rest of your life, and good luck. It's never gonna be perfect. My life is not perfect, but my life is good. And it's because I have Jesus. See, peace is not the absence of a storm, it is the presence of a savior. Jesus is with you in whatever moment, whatever health situation, family situation, relationship situation, work situation, life situation. It's the presence of a savior that gives you peace. When my wife and I buried our daughter, we had peace because the Lord was with us, not because we had a living child. We were in a storm, but God showed up. That's how you know you can have peace. Philippians tells us also how we can focus on it. It says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is whatever is whatever is whatever is whatever is, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. The problem is, the reason you're not at peace, the reason you don't have joy, it's because you're not thinking about these things. You're on this thing thinking about all the broken, frustrating things. The most miserable I am is when I read the news before I go to bed. Anyone have that? Just go read, go, you're like sitting reading the news, you're like, oh, the world's awful. I've never read the news and be like, oh man, the world's such a great place. Like you just, I love this news channel. Like every news channel, and I read them all, because like when politics season comes around, I like to, I like to see the crazy. So um, Fox News, CNN, what ONN, whatever news channel you have, I like I go to them all, I got them all bookmarked, just go to all of them. They all say crazy different things, but the whole perspective is the same. The world's awful and people are awful, and everybody's awful. That's just the news. So, what I've done since it's you know, we haven't had a couple years since the politics season. It's coming back this year. Um I've just stayed off the news at night. And guess what? I sleep better, I'm happier, and I'm not worried about the broken world. I'm just worried about my life and living it for Jesus. Because I'm thinking about whatever's true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable, not the things of the world. See, what fills your mind shapes your soul. And the problem is, some of you are filling your mind with a lot of garbage. I don't know if you know this, but I am on all the social media apps. I don't ever go through apps and like, oh, this positive video after positive video after positive video after positive video. I've just never had that string of luck, right? Because I don't think there's that many positive videos out there. It's a lot of garbage all the time. And then we wondered why our soul was being shaped by that anxiety, frustration, despair, no hope. It's because that's what the world pushes. If you want Jesus, you've got to have him shape your soul. Philippians continues on to say this what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Paul is saying to people who know him, they know he's in jail when he's writing this. He said, You're seeing me live this out while I'm in jail. Hey, do this too. Go live it out. I'm in a storm and I still love the Lord, I'm serving him. So you've seen me do this. You've he was been shipwrecked three times, he's been in jail multiple times, he's been on trial a couple times. He's saying, Hey, I've always lived for the Lord, I've always praised him, I've always worshiped him. You just go practice that in your storms. We should do likewise. But you you don't have to just look to Paul's example, you can look to mine. You can look to each other's. There's people in here who have gone through horrible situations and they know that Christ is with them and they've weathered it with joy and with peace. Some of them are weathering it right now. I uh my friend Lynelle, she attends our church. Uh she told me uh this last year has been the best year of her life because she came here and like God has transformed her life. She's in the hospital right now. She texted me last night and said, Hey, would you ask church to pray? Like, I know God's with me, God's gonna get me through this, but her medical situation is not great. And so we're gonna pray for her. I want you to pray for her today while we pray later. Pray for Linnelle. And you so pray for her health. But what she is saying is God's given me peace. See, we can see examples of people like Linnelle in those moments, and we can say, I can do better, I can be better, I can have joy like a peace because they can too. Follow their example. We have amazing examples of people in this church. Follow their example and live for Christ. Because you cannot feed your fears all week and then expect peace on Sunday. Some of you, you feed your anxiety and fears all week long, and then come to Sunday and like, I wonder why I don't have joy. Because you've been feeding the beast all week. Stop feeding it. Feed your soul with Jesus Christ. Get in the word, pray, get around positive people, do life together, and then watch how it changes your perspective. But that's what transforms your life. Philippians 4, 11 to 12 says, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be to be brought low and I know how to abound. And in any and every circumstances, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger and abundance and need. Paul is saying, I've learned in whatever situation, however much I have, however little I have, to be content. It's powerful. Patty and I, we we are thankful that we gotta celebrate 10 years being here. We love being here at this church. My family loves being here. We're content here. But I could go work somewhere else tomorrow. Cody could go work somewhere else tomorrow. Pastor Mark could, Pastor Matt could. Here's the reality. This church has grown 900% in 10 years. There are plenty of churches who have paid me a lot more to come serve and work at the church to do the same. I could probably double my salary to go to those churches. It's the reality. Here's what I've learned in 28 years of doing ministry. It's better to be content and to be where God has you than to go seek what the world says is a priority. Because hearing my kids happy and contented with the Lord. In the ministry that they're doing, that's all that matters. That's all that matters. I want to be in a place where I have relationships, where we do life together, and we can have joy and we can laugh and we can be silly and we can have things like hottlewood. That's what matters more. The problem is that is not what the world says is priority. The world says, hey, go get more. Go get your bag and have whatever you want in life. All that does is create stress. When I was speaking yesterday, they were asking me about some famous football players that played with. And I was telling them a story of a guy that won the Super Bowl with Tampa Buccaneers, and then a year later was at a football game on the field with me at Michigan Stadium, saying, Hey, can I borrow some money? He had signed a $4 million contract. I'm a pastor. I don't have any money, right? So to give you. Like, where is all the money you got? And the problem is because all that stuff, all that success, it didn't bring contentment. Because he wanted more and wanted more and wanted more. So one of the reasons why these athletes, many of them, like 75% of football players, are usually bankrupt. They're addicted to drugs or alcohol, they're divorced within three years of getting out of the NFL. Because no one teaches contentment. They teach getting more, getting more, getting more. Everybody's supposed to have more instead of just being content with where you're at. Because contentment is learned. It's not inherited. Your parents don't pass it on to you. It's not inherited. You actually have to learn how to be content. You want to be happy, you want to do well in life, be content. Here's what I want for my kids. I don't care if they are rich, I don't care whatever career they do. I really promise you this: the only thing that I care is my kids have the opportunity to know Jesus Christ. I don't care if they work at McDonald's. I don't care if they live in a shack in Zimbabwe. I don't care. The only thing that matters in this world is Jesus. And some of us as parents and as grandparents, we need to stop pushing worldly concepts for our kids and just teach them how to be content with what they have. Because if we allow God to move, God will take them where he wants them to go. And they'll have the success that he has for them. And it'll be wonderful. We have to learn to be content, to be happy where you're at, with what you have, with who you have, with what health you have. Just be content. That's good enough because we're preparing for a life to come. See, Philippians 4.13 is a very famous verse. Some of you, this is your life verse. Some of you have this tattooed on you. It's a verse that we all know. And it's this I can do all things through him who strengthens me. You can get through whatever storm. You can get through it all if you have Jesus, if he strengthens you. You can. You can survive your relationship problems, your finance problems, your health problems. You can survive it all. It's not like you're going to go to God and say, I want exactly what I want and I want it my way right now. I'm going to rub the genie lamp and God will pop out and just give me what I want. That's not the way it works. You can survive and be content in whatever storm you're facing. I'm not saying there's going to be an absence of storms of Jesus. There's going to be storms. But you can be content going through them. You can. There is a tornado watch this weekend. You guys know that? Tornado watch warning. So I decided to go to Taco Bell during that time because that's where I'd like to go out. So uh with a chili cheese burrito in my hand. That's how I want to meet the Lord. So but ultimately we don't have to be anxious about all these things because we have Christ who strengthens us. That's a silly example, but whatever you're going through, just go to the Lord. He'll be with you. Because Christ is enough in every single season of life. Whatever storm you're facing, Christ is enough in that storm. The problem is we have to turn to Him, we have to seek Him, we have to believe that. Because the secret of contentment, it's not having more, it is needing less than Jesus. That's a truth. If Jesus is all that matters, if that's all that matters, then you can be content with everything else in life. You can have joy and you have peace because you got Jesus. That's it. That's why I don't care what my kids do. As long as they have Jesus, they'll be okay. And they can be content through Jesus. The problem is we want more than Jesus. We want Jesus and the stuff and the riches and the wealth and the health. We want all this stuff. But we're never promised to have that stuff. The only thing we're promised to have in the scripture is Jesus. So be content with Jesus. So what does this mean for you? Here's some advice. We've got to replace worry with prayer. You gotta, every time you worry, and you've got voices in your head telling you you should be more afraid, more frustrated, but they don't love you, you're never gonna get ahead, you've got cancer, whatever that is. Just replace worry with prayer. Worry has never for me, once in my life, changed any outcome. I promise you. It actually says this in scripture multiple times. Worry does nothing, it changes nothing, and it doesn't. I have never had a moment where I have worried enough to magically change the situation. If you have, please let me know. I don't think it's happened for you either. You know what else, what does? Prayer. The more I pray, the more I seek the Lord, it changes me. May not always change my situation, but it definitely changes me. Worry never changes me in a good way. Replace panic with Thanksgiving. Instead of panicking, turn to the Lord, thank him for who he is and that he shows up and he's good. And then guard what enters your mind. The problem is we get so worried, we get so anxious, we get so afraid because of these things and the drama that they induce and bring in our lives. Maybe put these down more. I'm not anti-phone, I have my phone all the time. It's how I work. But what am I watching? Now, if you if you watch my feed, you can my kids can tell you because they see all my my social media feeds. Mine's full of trading card games. That's what mine's full of. That's peaceful to me, right? There's not a lot of drama in the trading card game land, right? But that's what's going in my mind. What are you watching on social media? What are you reading? What chats are you involved in? Do you get all involved in people fighting online in the Brooklyn chat, Brooklyn News Uncensored, right? Jackson Community News. What goes in your mind? Stop tying your joy to your circumstances. My joy does not matter in my health, it does not matter my finances, and none of that matters for me to have joy. I can be content wherever I'm at. I can be content in Brooklyn, Michigan. I could be content in Tuscany. I can. So, both of them. So anywhere I go, I can I can choose to have joy in my circumstances. And then learn contentment before chasing more. It's not bad to want to get ahead in life, but you need to do that from a place of contentment. Be content first and then try to improve your life, your situation, your relationships. Don't just seek and chase more. That's why these football players are all broken and bankrupt and divorced and addicted because they just keep chasing more. They never got content. Learn to be content first with the Lord and then ask the Lord to move you forward. See, the same Paul who wrote about peace was writing from prison. He understood in a difficult place, in a storm in life, that God is good and he was content. We know other times he went to prison, he was singing songs and praising the Lord. Are you doing that? Doing that while you're waiting on the doctor to tell you the diagnosis? Are you doing that while you're worrying about whether that person's gonna tell you they love you on the other end of the phone? Are you really truly trusting in your Lord? Or are you just worried about all this stuff? See, peace comes when Christ becomes greater than your circumstances. It does. You want real peace? Understand that Christ is greater than circumstances. Almost 21 years ago, my wife and I buried our child. And then it was the worst storm of my life, still to this day, worst storm of my life 21 years ago. God showed up in a powerful way, and we were at peace. He didn't change the situation. I didn't get the answer to prayer that my daughter be born live. I didn't get any of that. We still had a barrier, but we had peace, and we still have peace 21 years later. See, peace comes when God is greater than your circumstances. You can have peace in the loss of a loved one, you can have peace in a health issue and a relationship issue and a financial issue. You can still have peace because God is bigger and God is good and you can still be content in a storm. You just have to trust him. You have to seek him and you have to go to him and understand his logic way different than the world's. And so if you know that they like if you feel like I'm speaking to you, here's what you can do. If you need peace, God can provide it. If you need joy, God can provide it. If you need if you need it, put peace in the back. We'll pray for you. At staff meet this week, all throughout the week, I'll see your name. Make sure you put your name on it. We'll just pray for you. Because some of you, you need peace. Some of you need joy. And I'm gonna promise you it starts with contentment. It starts with you've got to be content with your life, where you're at, what you're going through, and understand that God is bigger than that situation, that circumstance, and that storm. And he can get you through. So let's go to prayer together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just pray. We pray that we can be a church of peace. We can be a church of joy. Lord, we pray that we can be content and know that we're here now, Lord. Living the life that we live, and we can be happy and contented and have joy because Christ is with us. All the things the world pushes, Lord, they don't matter. What matters is do we know, follow, and love Jesus? And do we try to make that known to the world that we love you and follow you? So that's that's what matters. We pray that we can be a church where we understand real contentment, real peace, real joy through Jesus Christ and through Him alone. If there's anyone here, Lord, who's struggling, I just pray you speak to their hearts. Lord, you show up for them in a powerful way this week. Allow them in their worry and their anxiety and their fear to know that you're there with them, standing there, and you're the God that loves them and will be there in the storms. So we just pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.