It’s All Good | Week 7
Week 7 Grab Your Peace of Joy
Key Verse: Philippians 4:12-I can do (endure) all things (situations) through him who strengthens me.
Getting Started:
What do you think of when you hear the word peace? A groovy Tie dyed hippy vibe? A calm beach with nothing but the sand and the sound of the wave?
Peace is the opposite of anxious and is not something that comes from outside but from within.
Read John 14:27 Jesus is speaking here…
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Whatever is making you anxious is stealing your internally peace.
Paull understood this and gave us the key ingredients at peace in a world full of chaos.
Read Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. 7 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.
With everything going on in our lives, how inclusive is the word anything?
Pastor said “You can’t grab your peace of joy with a hand full of worry”
How does the amount we worry describe the size of god we believe in?
According to this verse what should replace our worry with to experience the real peace that only Jesus
gives?
Paul’s formula for prayer was simple. Tell God what you need thank him for all he has done.
How do we complicate our lives by not following this simple plan?
Once we turn it over to him, we don’t have to sweat the small stuff, and it is all small stuff compared to our big God.
Worry dissipates and peace is found as we give anything and everything over to him.
What kind of peace does Paul says this formula produces? The Peace of God
How does verse 7 describe God’s peace? Beyond human understanding. Peace that supersedes the circumstances around us.
As we give over everything, he builds a fortress of peace that guards our hearts from fear and anxiety that not only the world does not understand but is founded in our relationship with Christ.
The minds is the battle field for your peace.
Read Philippians 4: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Why does Paul tell us to think about these things?
Instead of thinking about our problems and bogging down our lives in the worry of what ifs we need to replace those thoughts with thing that are true.
By these standards listed in theses scriptures we can measure our thought to make sure we don’t fall back into the pit of anxiety.
Paul didn’t just teach them he lived them as an example to those he taught.
How much practice does it take to learn? The more we practice the more we learn the more we learn the more it becomes part of who we are the more confidence we place in God over our worries the more His peace we have.
Read Philippians 4:11-12…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I can do (endure) all things (situations) through him who strengthens me.
Once Paul chose to follow Jesus he was bombarded with bad circumstances.
Each of those circumstance could have broken him but instead he grew threw them
Each time his faith grew stronger, and his peace grew deeper.
Next Step:
What have you learned in this series?
What will it take to apply what you have learned?