So if some of you have not seen the card yet, these cards are outside to my left on the table in the mirror in the middle of our connection center. And it says, be the bridge. And it's exciting to me when to see someone else's excitement, especially in something like this, when we're going through this campaign of inviting people and embracing why we need to invite people. The other day, I went into a store, and I was in there shopping, and I went up to the counter, and the clerk was just very, very friendly, very, very talkative. And so I started to engage with her.

And before I could ask her about church, she asked me. It was, like, really cool, but, like, she was asking me in the sense of, like, well, where did you go to church? Well, and I told her, and she said, oh, my gosh, are you serious? I said, yeah, I'm serious, but don't call me Shirley. And so I said, some of y'all got that.

And so I said. I said, well, why is that? Why is that? And she said, well, my friend that works here has been inviting me for months. And I thought to myself, well, number one, I said, well, we would love for you to come or join us online.

And I went and got my card, and I wrote her name down. But what was exciting to me is that this person is so excited about the opportunity. She didn't need a card. She's been inviting this lady for months. And so I hope that you will take this card.

As we last week, I kind of walked through saying, like, hey, look at these names. And when you see these names, you pray that God, like, I pray that they show up or that they sign up. In fact, as you're looking at it today, you see these empty blanks. And so, like, we want quality over quantity. Like, we want some quality invites.

And so when I'm looking up here at the top, I think, man, I know someone that lives next to me that would benefit from coming to the ladies brunch in a few weeks. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to get Laura to make that invite. Well, why? Because then Laura could say, well, hey, why don't you ride with me? Or, why don't you hang out with me afterwards?

You see the quality there that's invested. Or when you invite somebody to come to a group, don't just say, hey, I go to so and so's group. I'd like to see you. But say, hey, if you'll come, I'll meet you at the Connection Center. We can Walk together.

And by the way, we've got a fellowship in a few weeks at the park. Why don't you come? Or when you invite somebody to church, I mean, like, it's easy to say, hey, we'd love to come. Check us out at Ebenezer. No, no, no, Go a little bit further.

Say, hey, listen, let's go to lunch afterwards. Or, hey, why don't you come and sit with me, and I'll make sure to meet you in the lobby or in the parking lot. Remove all the barriers. And even that last one, like, you know, I went down. I went down to the preschool because my gift is to rise up and raise and rile up kids in a classroom.

All I did was walk to the door and put my hands up like this. And Jacob Weaver came and punched me in the stomach.

Yes, he did. Listen, how easy is it for somebody in the nursery to say, you know what? I enjoy so much working with these kids. I need somebody else on our rotation. Would you come serve with me?

You see the quality of those invites, and that's what this is for. We want to be the bridge. And someone is just waiting. They don't know it, but they're just waiting for you to come up to them and say, hey, would you come and do this with me? And I'm telling you, this time next year, we're going to look back and hear incredible stories of life change that came about as a result.

Well, why should that matter? Like, why should we be concerned about people who are helpless and hopeless and lost? Well, I think John's pretty clear in First John 4, 7, when he says, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. See, inside of each of us is this deficit.

Like, we might know or think we know how to love somebody, but when God comes into our life, he makes up that deficit and he gives us what we need to be able to share the love of God. He said in Romans 5, 3 through 5, at the end of that he says, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God, which has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which he has given to us, that is the power, the motivation, the thing that can move you. That when you're standing in line and the person in front of you has 5,000 million coupons and you're doing this number, that the person behind you that you might could turn around and say, hey, I noticed that you've got a box of Legos in your Your buggy. I love Legos. And you start a conversation, it's just being perceptive, taking time to see what is around you.

Because all of us need hope. In fact, I want to say that all of us in this room, we're looking for something that this world can't provide. And it's called peace. Remember our series back at Christmas when we talked about peace? You see, kind of invested in this idea of giving people hope is that they can find a place, peace.

And I just believe somebody's walked in this room today and you have wore yourself out trying to find peace. You've done everything that you know how to do. You've been to this and you've been to that. You've looked for it in the wrong places, you've tried to conjure it up, you've tried to think the right things and you just can't find peace. Well, there's a reason for that.

Because the peace that we're going to talk about doesn't come from this world. You see, in this world, Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, around verse 27, he said, My peace I give to you. In other words, he's saying that I'm giving you peace and you did nothing to earn it. You can't find it, you can't discover it, you can't pay for it. But here's the other thing he said, not as the world gives, do I give.

Like the peace we receive from God isn't something we can find in this world. And peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the weighted measure of God's presence in your life when you are in conflict. You see, in the world, according to the world, we think that if I just remove this stressor, if I remove this problem, if I remove this, this person, then I'll be at peace. Well, is that the truth?

If that's ever worked for you, raise your hand.

Because, see, here's the truth. God said, I will give you peace. It's abundant. It's just like joy. We've been talking about joy being grace recognizer.

A lot of times the reason we don't experience the joy, is it because the joy's not there. It's because I haven't come to that place where it's an experience. And some of you, maybe you ebb and flow. Like there's times, if you experience peace and then something happens and that peace is robbed. What robs us of peace?

Well, there's external things. There's external things like there's worry in general, like where am I going to get some food, or how am I going to get some gas for my car? Or am I going to be able to make my payments? Those are external worries, right? But a lot of our external worries come back to one thing, and that's relationships.

I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand because I know every hand is going to go up. How many of you have ever had a problem with somebody else or somebody's had a problem with you?

Relationships hurt. Hurt is the risk we take in being in a loving relationship with somebody else. And so we have this external pressure that sometimes robs us of that peace, that quiet, that rest. But then some of you realize you're like me and I don't need any help in my brain. Why are you laughing at me, Joe?

Like, you know, you wake up and it's 2 o'clock in the morning and, and you're trying to figure out, did I put the COVID on the hose pipe because it's supposed to freeze tonight and you're staring at the ceiling. Well, did I put enough on it? Did I tie it down right? Did the wind blow it off? Did the dog chew it up?

I mean, all this stuff and you're like, you can't go back to sleep because your brain is just spinning out of control. Those are internal things that rob us. They rob us of peace. Paul's going to call that, he's going to say, be anxious for no thing. You realize that your thoughts are not material.

But yet internally, our thoughts rob us of peace. Externally, conflict and relationships rob us of that peace. And so we're sitting here living, trying to find this place of quiet.

Will you agree with me that the kind of peace we need does not come from this world? We just went through an election cycle. No, I'm not going to talk about politics, I'm going to talk about media. Because I can tell you that I believe there's evidence to show that the anxiety of people increases during election cycles. I dread them.

We hear all this nasty stuff, this name calling, this division, and we still see it. You know, the greatest remedy for that is to turn off the tv, turn off the social media. You know, when Paul was instructing last week when he said in verse 17, Be an imitator with me and observe those who walk in the faith, he was saying, look, they have an attitude. You remember there were two paths. There was the path to destruction and there was the path to heaven.

And he said, we need to keep our minds focused on the eternal things. The Things that are above, not the things that are here. Because here's the truth. I live in this world, and those pressures are always going to be there. But what is constant is Jesus Christ.

I cannot solve your problem today. I don't have a silver bullet for whatever is going on in your life that may be robbing you peace. But here's what I'll promise you. I'll go to the feet of Jesus with you, and I will beg him to let you experience the peace of God. Just because you're not experiencing peace doesn't mean that you're broken.

It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. Doesn't mean that God's punishing you. Could be, I don't know. But I don't think so. I think that the solution is how are we running to the throne of Jesus to receive his mercy and his grace, and in that, finding a great peace.

So I want to invite you to turn, if you haven't already, to Philippians 4:1. And when you get it, go ahead and stand with me. We're almost done with Philippians, and we've been talking about it, you've been going through your journals, and I hope that that has provided you just some richness up from this book. But let me hit one more thing about Bible studies. Therefore.

When you see a therefore, there's a reason the therefore is there. It means it's drawing information from what was just discussed. Well, what was just discussed, Paul said, you are a citizen of heaven. And you know what's ironic about that is that, like, we're not there yet, but we're supposed to live like we are. You know what that means?

Every believer in this room is a missionary. Because the definition of a missionary is to leave your home and go into a foreign land with a message. We're not home. The house you go to tonight, lay your head down and go to sleep at, is not your home. We're not there yet.

And that in and of itself is this driving focus. That is the therefore. And so when he says, stand firm, the word, the root of the word stand is the same as resurrection. We need to rise up. We need to stand up and stand in these truths that he's just shared.

So he says, therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy in my crown, such words of endearment in this way, stand firm in the Lord, My beloved. He wanted to make sure he knew one thing. They were loved by him. I urge Euodia and Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord, indeed. True companion.

That's in the singular, by the way. Note that I ask you to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the Gospel, together with Clement, also in the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. And then he says this. Listen. This is a command.

This is imperative. This means you do it when you don't feel it. Rejoice in the Lord always. Not sometimes, not every once in a while. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. We're going to talk about that one in just a minute, but then you get to this one. You ready?

Be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. If you underline that prepositional phrase with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And here's a promise. And the peace.

Are you with me? Say peace. See, you can't scream peace because it's peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Well, how does that look? Finally, brethren, this is not what you're going to find on the news.

Whatever's true, whatever's honorable, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's of good repute, if there's any excellence and anything worthy of praise, that's what you need to dwell on. That's what you need to think about. In fact, the word there for think is logical. Like, you need to take this step by step and look at the good things in light of the bad things. And if that's your thinking, then he says, the things you have learned, received and heard and seen in me.

Remember, imitate me. Practice these things. Don't just think about them, do them. And here's this great promise. If you underline, there's another thing.

Underline. And the God of peace, what's going to happen? He'll be with you. I may feel all alone in my isolation and my lack of peace, but God just promised, I'll be with you. Father, as we dig into this text for the next few moments, speak through us and to us.

Transform our lives in Jesus name. Amen. So yesterday I did something I probably shouldn't have done. Joe, I'm just cracking you up, buddy. So two weeks ago, two weekends ago, we went with the Brady group to go hike down in Tallulah Gorge.

To go down the steps. We only went halfway and then we came back up. Well, we had this bright idea at 50 years old to go all the way down to the bottom and my 21 year old daughter is like, hey dad, we can run back up these steps. I'm like, yes, we can.

Until something popped right here and it got really tight and so we made it back up. Have you ever done it? It's really cool. And my goal is that I'm going to do this with being able to go from the bottom to top without stopping. That's how badass shape I am.

But when I got to the top, I noticed and Laura did too. Our knees were doing this and like I sat down and I was trying to prop my leg up and it's doing this. Some of us in this room, life has put so much pressure on you. That's how you're standing. Your knees are trying to buckle on you and you don't know if you can hold yourself up.

What Paul said in that first verse was to stand, stand firm, stand firm. In other words, we need to rise up and sometimes we don't have the strength to do this. Did Jesus in a sense raise himself from the dead? No. It was a work of the Trinity that the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now lives inside of you.

The Spirit raised Jesus back from the dead. And you can't stand on your own. You don't have enough faith to stand on your own. You don't have enough just right thinking to stand. You need a work of God in your life to be able to stand firm.

Now, we've already talked about how the Philippians weren't necessarily going down a wrong path per se. But he is about to address a problem and he's telling them out of love. He says, my beloved, whom I long for, I'm asking you to stand firm. But in standing, look at verse number two. We have things that we need to settle.

We stand and we settle. I'm just going to do some observations real quick. We're just going to walk through this kind of briefly to settle. So you got these two ladies and I don't know what they're fighting about, but the fight is so bad in the church and in that community, it's made it all its way to Paul, who's in prison. You see, in life we need to be committed to settling disputes with others.

You can't just let bygones be bygones. You can't just walk your own way when you have conflict with somebody else. The Bible is very clear that we need to settle it, do everything we can to Settle it. For example, it's like this. Let's say that at the house that we have a thermostat that goes out.

That's a problem, right? I like ac. I really like ac. And let's say I go in there and I'm looking at the thermostat, and it's blank. And I'm like, oh, this will be a great opportunity for me to buy that new little thermostat that I can hook to my phone.

That would be awesome. Well, how much does that cost? Well, it costs about $70. Well, Laura's like, why can't you just put a new battery in it? Well, I could, but let's say that she and I get in a fight over the thermostat.

You know, that's a problem to solve. But because personalities and desires and things get in the way. Let's say that she goes and calls up my mom, for example, says, you won't believe what Jamie did today. He wants to go buy this $80 thermostat, and we ain't got the money. So now she's got my mom involved.

Not that she'd ever do that. I'm just saying, just give me an example. Well, then I get mad because now she's brought my mom into it, trying to pressure me not to get this. This thermostat. So I go boldly get on social media and says, wives should be submissive to their husbands.

Don't you agree?

And so then brother Fred gets on there and says, amen.

And then somebody else gets on there and says, you know what? The other day, my wife told me I couldn't buy that bass boat. And I told her who was boss. And I'm just getting all these attaboys on my back. But you see what's happening.

I just took a small problem, and it's blown up into division. That's what happens in churches. People get their feelings hurt in church, and so they'll go over to their friend in their group, say, do you know what so and so did the other day? And they start gossiping and slandering because they need somebody on their side, because they're hurting, because they were offended. Well, then that person hears that they're gossiping, and they go get somebody who's like, well, no, that's not the way you are.

But already you've got a group against a group. And then it grows. Guys, I can't tell you how many horrible stories I've heard that have split churches.

Have you ever been in a church that was involved in an affair. I've been in two. And they hurt people.

How do you make peace in a situation like that? I don't know. But I'll tell you one thing I do know. I will go and grovel at the feet of Jesus Christ and say, lord, whatever I can do, help me to make peace. You skip down to verse number five, and he says, let your gentle nature be known to all men.

You will not solve personal conflict when your pride is in the way. You won't solve personal conflict by blowing up and fussing at somebody because something didn't go the way that you wanted it to. In fact, let me go ahead and just inject this in here. Now, when you're talking about a church conflict, if you have an issue with somebody else and you don't resolve it, you will suffer for it. But it begins to affect everyone else in that room, and it affects the mission.

Remember what he said. Look back at verse number three, where he says, help them. He appeals to this man or somebody that's the true companion. It may have been a leader in the church. It could have been somebody whose name was True Companion.

We don't know. It could have been Clement. We don't know. It's somebody in that church that he trusted that could step between these two ladies and say, enough is enough. You know why?

Because he says, they were partners in the gospel. When you and I don't deal with our stuff, when we don't seek to be at peace with our brother and our sister within the walls of the church, it affects the preaching of the gospel. So you can. You can swell up inside yourself, say, well, you know what? I'm just tired of that person.

I can't stand them. They don't put coffee out the way I want them to. It's just. It gets too hot in this room. And I don't know who controls those thermostats.

You see where I'm going with that? All the little things that we could. Satan can allow or try to blow up, but it affects the integrity of ministry. And that's what Paul is appealing to him. He's not trying to browbeat him.

He says, you're my beloved. I long for you, but you need to get this settled. Well, how do we do that? Well, verse number four. There's a shift.

There's a shift. You need to take your eyes off of what's in front of you and put them back where they always need to be, which is on Jesus Christ. You and I must preach to our Soul, rejoice. Well, you just don't know what I'm going through. I don't know what you're going through.

But I do know this. If you take and make a list of all the bad things happening in your life, I can guarantee you there's at least one more person in this world who has it worse off than you.

Every time there's somebody who has it worse off than you. Now, does that mean that you need to shame yourself, say, well, I shouldn't be feeling bad about this? No, he said to rejoice. If you can't find anything else in this world to be thankful for, be thankful for the goodness of God. And you tell your soul, soul, I'm going to cry out to my God.

I'm going to celebrate his goodness. I'm going to celebrate his mercy. I'm going to celebrate his grace. I'm going to celebrate his forgiveness. I'm going to celebrate his power.

I'm going to celebrate his love. Because at the end of the day, there's nothing in this world. Remember, he said, not as the world gives, do I give. And so we celebrate. He gets in there and he says, let your gentle spirit be made known.

The only way that your gentle spirit is going to be known is when you stop focusing on the world's problems and complaining about the world's problems and put them back on the Lord. Because he said the Lord is near. Why is that important? Well, one, because he provides for us to be able to work through issues like resolving personal conflict. But it also means he's near because he's coming back.

I've got a family member who two months before her mother died, she and her mother had a falling out. And they stayed in tension until her mom ended up in the hospital on a ventilator and then died.

And years later, still will say, I never had the chance to say I'm sorry. Do you think she knows? Do you think she knows I'm sorry? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what she knows and what she don't know.

But if she's in heaven, she's looking at it through the eyes of righteousness. And I don't think she'll see it the same way. But here's the point of that. You don't know what tomorrow holds. You don't know what your apology to somebody else might do in their spiritual life.

You don't know what. When you and I go and we are reconciling with other people, we're Committed to that. Do you know what that tells people? The gospel. How else do you explain the gospel?

Then when you die to your pride, die to yourself, die to your ways, die to your desires and say, you know what? I don't care what you've done to me. I fully forgive you. And I want to reconcile. Now, that doesn't mean we need to go bass fishing again.

But at least I know when they walk through the door, hatred's not swelling up inside of me, and bitterness isn't swelling up inside of me, because that's when I get handcuffed by unforgiveness, shackled by it. But if that's what the Lord has extended to me in pure grace and pure love, then I do the same. Why? Because we don't know. We don't even know what the next moment has.

We could hear that clap and that shout and that horn and that trumpet. We could hear all of that right now. We can start hearing the commotion because Jesus has come back right now.

Don't you want to leave this world knowing that you did everything you could to be at peace with other people? Well, that peace I can't give it unless I have it. Be anxious for nothing. Where do anxious thoughts come from? They come from those externals.

And unfortunately, they come from our own stinking thinking. You give me five minutes. Laura will attest to this. You give me five minutes, I can have one bad thing happen and then everything's bad. I make one mistake and then I've messed up everything.

Y'all don't think that way sometimes? I do. I think exactly on that. But here's the thing. Be anxious for nothing because there is nothing in nothing.

Nothing is nothing. It doesn't exist. But we get caught up in our thinking when what God is calling us to do is. To do what? To pray.

How many of you. When trouble comes, when conflict comes, the first thing you do is say, God, I want to see this the way you see this. That I drop to my knees and I begin to pray. But he's not just telling us to pray. He's telling us how to pray.

How to pray. In this, you give your prayer and your supplication. You make your request known. How? That prepositional phrase with thanksgiving.

The only way that you can combat stinking thinking is when you start counting your blessings. You go like, well, you just don't know all the bad things going on in my life. I don't, but Jesus does. And like I said, I'll go to the feet of Jesus with You. And we'll tell him all about those problems, right?

We'll sit at the altar and we'll say, lord, this is wrong and this is happening and this is bad and this is going on. We'll take it to Jesus. But when we get up, we'll say, lord, thank you. Even if it's just to say, lord, thank you for the breath that I just took. Thank you for the person.

Thank you that I get to sit in a padded chair. Thank you, Lord, that I had the gas to drive the church this morning. Thank you for that bag of popcorn yesterday. Thank you, Lord, that I could get up and hear the birds singing this morning. Thank you.

Y'all ready? Thank you for the coffee on the worst holiday of the year.

I hate Tom Jane Sunday.

Hey, did you leave your baptism clothes at home, too? No. I did. This morning I got here and I went, I've got baptism. And I didn't bring my clothes.

So you know what I did like any smart individual would do. I didn't drive back home. I went to Walmart. Thank you, Lord, that Walmart was open at 7 o'clock this morning for me to buy baptism. Now y'all are all smiling and laughing.

Do you see the power that thankfulness has in your stinking thinking? But then that next verse gets so sweet as he says the peace of God. Remember he said, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, and the peace of God, which surpasses understanding. It doesn't make sense. I don't even know where this is coming from, but it's so good.

It's not of this world. And it's something I can't grab. It's something I must experience. But what does it do? What's its purpose?

To guard. It's the guard. It's the shield. To guard my heart and to guard my mind. To guard my heart and the feelings that I have.

My feelings can go rampant. Some of you are emotionally driven and you know that you will start making a lot of dumb decisions when you start listening to your heart. But then to guard my mind and the way that I'm thinking can spiral out of control. I need somebody to help me, because in those moments, I can't do it myself. I will spiral out of control unless I know that someone's got my life and my good in their hands.

And God does. To guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Well, that's well and good enough, but how do we do that with our thinking? Well, we got to turn that TV off. No offense, you got to turn that social media off, ladies.

Y'all are guilty of going on there. And you see all these picture perfect families, and they've had this photo shoot, and their kids are.

I remember going to do a photo shoot years ago at a previous church, and we were just begging for Micah to not scream his head off. And we're sitting there and the lady's going, okay, smile. Okay, smile. Smile. And I'm going, just take the picture.

And you'll see those pictures, and you'll start going, I'm a terrible mother. I wish I could give my kids. My kids would be happy if they had more stuff. And I could. Peace does not come from this world.

I don't think y'all heard that. You can't get that kind of peace here. It comes from my real home. And you know what? I may, from this point forward, as I leave this world, my life may be a living hell, but I can live through that hell and have peace at the same time.

He may not be pulling you out of the problem, but I can guarantee you, as we continue to focus our mind and think about things that are pure and that are good and that are holy and that are righteous, what begins to swell up in us is things. Thanksgiving. And I'm not good at it because, see, at my nature, I'm actually a pessimist. When I see two points in time, point A and point B, I think of the worst case scenario between those two points. That's actually called defensiveness.

It's protection. But what renewing of the mind does when I begin to think about those things that are good and holy and righteous is it helps me to tell another story. And it gives me hope. It gives me hope that God is. Listen to that last verse again.

He said, the things that you have learned and received, heard, received. Those things he said, practice them. It's the word praxis. It's like, put them into play, and then what's the promise? And the peace of God will be.

The God of peace will be with. Not just the peace will be there, but God will be there. You get double, like, presence. Like, you get peace and you get God. And still in that moment, you may be in the midst of the conflict.

The relationships may still be spiraling out of control. But when I take my eyes from here and I turn them up here, and I begin to rejoice in the Lord, and I begin to say, lord, I don't want to be anxious for anything, Lord, but I'm going to give it to you. And you'll give me what you think I need. And I'm going to trust that my best. You've got my best interest in heart.

Even if sometimes that means I need to suffer to learn something. Are you with me? It's not always just bubblegum and roses, but you'll work. You'll be with me through whatever it is. I mean, the greatest promise that we can have is that our Savior, who says, I'm going to come again to receive you to myself, said that he would be with us in his presence.

Presence, no matter what it is that I'm going through. So let me give you three points that kind of summarize all of that together. Point number one, these are things that we can do to experience peace. Number one, you need to resolve to confront relational conflict. But wait a minute.

What about that person that I've apologized and I've tried to talk to them, and I've gone to them over and over and over again? Romans 12:18 says that whatever hinges on you, whatever depends on you to be at peace with all men. Well, there's two truths embedded in that. Number one, you have a responsibility to do whatever is necessary to reconcile with somebody else. And I bet if you were honest and you would swallow your pride, you haven't done everything you think you've done.

You may be satisfied with what you've done, but you haven't done everything that you think you can do. What I mean by that? Well, I mean, like, it's more than just going to them and saying, you are the scum of the earth and I hate your guts, but I forgive you.

I remember mediating with another family member of mine in a broken relationship, and every time they came to the table, one person would say, well, you know what you did years ago? You did this, and you did this and you did this, and you know what happens happened every time the other person got up and walked away because the first person refused to fully forgive the offenses of the other person. If your goal is to make sure that everybody else in this world knows how right you are, you will always be wrong. You've got to prioritize being right with people over being right. Because I don't care how smart you are, you will be wrong sometimes.

You will miss it sometimes. And if you're putting all your stock in that, and that's the reason why it's keeping you from being reconciled with somebody else, then take 2 tablespoons of a dose of humility and confess that on your best day, without the revelation of God, you don't know what you don't know, and I guarantee you it will begin to bridge the gap. You know, look back at those two ladies. I don't know. I don't know what the issue was.

I kind of suspect that maybe both of them were kind of jockeying to be in control of something and the other one didn't submit to it. But here's what I can tell you when it comes to offenses, Can I give you some advice? Keep your list short and written in pencil. Maybe you're that kind of person that everything on the face of this planet offends you. If somebody looks at you wrong, you're offended.

If somebody doesn't speak to you the right way, you're. You're offended. Can I tell you something? You have too high of expectations on people, and if you are tired of being frustrated in that, then lower your expectations.

Actually, Laura sent me a very wise video not too long ago where this person was talking about, honestly, ask yourself the question, what bothers you? Like, if you get bothered by something, ask, why does this bother me? Like if somebody leaves trash out on the counter. Let me give an example. This is me, all right?

I'm taking more for the team right here. If somebody leaves trash on the counter, I'm going, oh, my gosh, the trash can is two feet away.

Parents will know this to be true. We'll fuss about the Legos that we step on in the floor, and someday we get to the place where we wish those Legos were still in the floor. Why would that bother me? It's a piece of trash. It's my pride.

Are you with me? If I can learn to die to my pride and not be bothered by so many things, I bet I won't be as offended as I am.

Resolve to settle relational conflict. And when it can't, that second point, Romans 12:18, is this is that not everybody is going to resolve with you. Unfortunately, you have enemies in this life. You've got people that want to tear you down and destroy you, and you have to be okay, that you've done everything you can do to be at peace with them, and they still not like you. Maybe you're that kind of person.

You think everybody has to like you for you to be at peace. But you've got to learn to be okay with just Jesus and you. What if the whole world turned against you? They did. Jesus, even his followers left him, and he still went to the cross.

Resolve. Resolve to confront relational conflict. But secondly, out of this is, we need to respond to anxious thoughts with thankfulness, respond with thankfulness, begin to prioritize and to kind of catalog the good things in your life. There is so much to be thankful for. But don't let the conflicts and the problems cloud that or the way that you process it.

We shift our focus by declaring that I can have joy, I can have peace in the Lord. Listen. Listen to these verses. These are good. These are good verses.

Psalm 118:24 says, this is the day the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. It's a choice. You can choose to have joy in the Lord when you remember who he is and what he's done. Psalm 84:10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand days elsewhere.

Look where we are, guys. Wow. We're here together, gathered to worship the Lord. Nehemiah 8:10 do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Psalm 16:11 you will make known to me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy.

Habakkuk 3:17 18 Yet I will exult in the Lord I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Luke 1:46 47 Mary says, My soul exalts the Lord. I will rejoice. My spirit has rejoiced in my God, my savior. In Isaiah 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the LORD My soul will exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation.

So I'm going to give you a key. You ready? If you have nothing else to be thankful for, be thankful that he saved you. I want you to go back 2000 years ago when there were men and women sitting in prisons to be let out into the arenas to be mauled by a tiger. I mean a lion.

Imagine you're in that prison as an early Christian and you're about to go die. What can you be thankful for? Lord, I'm thankful that I'm about to see you. I'm thankful that you saved me so I can see you, because this world has nothing that I need.

When you get to the place where you realize that this world has nothing that you need, heaven will become so much sweeter. Lastly, and I want you to hear this one really clearly, we need to redirect not just our thoughts but our actions if we're going to experience peace. Matthew 6:8 says so do not be like them, the Gentiles who use repetitious words. For your Father knows what you need before you ask him. He's given you Everything that you need.

I don't know why today you're sitting here and you may not have peace. I wish I knew. I don't. But what I know is you've got a church that loves you, pastors that love you, that we'll go to the throne of God with you and beg the Lord to help you experience that peace. That's what I know.

And you know what that is? That's called authentic community. The greatest discipline that you and I can learn is how to redirect our thoughts and not just think it, but to act on it. Remember what he said. Imitate me and observe those like me.

So let's do the roll call again. Have this mind like Jesus had, who emptied himself, he came to the earth and he put on human flesh, and he died for you. But he was raised from the dead so that your sins could be taken away. And God has highly exalted him to have the name above all names. And my buddy Timothy, he came because he loves you and he ministered to you.

And Epaphroditus almost lost his life because he wanted so bad to minister to you. And then even myself. I gave up my lineage, I gave up my heritage, I gave up my family. I gave up my position of authority. I gave it all up so you could know life.

And today, ladies and gentlemen, we can know the same when we put into practice what we have seen, what we have heard, what we have learned and what we have received. And in that he promised God, God will be with you. You're never, ever alone. So I'm going to ask you to stand with me.

I honestly think I probably could have preached on reconciliation for about five or six weeks. We'll consider that a series for the future. But honestly speaking, you want three keys right now. Three keys to help resolve the peace, to have peace in your life, make up with people, change the way you think, be thankful, and put into practice what you know. Don't isolate yourself.

The last thing you need to do when your thinking is spiraling out of control is to go and hide. You need people in your life. You need people in your life to walk with you. So here's what I'm going to challenge you to do. Number one is this.

Is there somebody in your life that you say, no, I haven't done everything I need to do. You can't say with confidence, I've done whatever hinges on me. Who is that person? Maybe you need to give them to the Lord today. Lord, I don't know what else to do, but if there is one more thing I can do, show it to me.

But if not, let me have peace knowing I've done everything I can do. Maybe you're here today and it's been a while since you've just had a release of mind again. I can't tell you how to fix the things you're thinking and pondering about, but all I tell you to do, if you'll come down here, Kevin's down here, Randy's down here, Fred's down here, Crosby's down here, I'm down here. And we'll get to this altar and we'll pray with you. And you may stand up and you may still feel the stirring in your heart, but the hope will be that you'll begin to experience the peace that God provides.

And I think maybe some of us in this room, the reason we don't have peace in our life is still because we're still not following Jesus. We know Jesus and we say we're saved. But outside of this little one hour sliver on Sunday morning, nothing else during the week looks anything like Christ. Maybe today's the day that you need to recommit your life and say, lord, whatever you have told me to do, I will follow. Remember the old hymn, if you lead, I will follow.

But is that real? Is that real for us? That if you lead me, Lord, I'll go and I'll do whatever you lead me to do? So during this song, if you're here and you just need to come pray, this altar is always open, come lay it before the Lord. But if you need counsel or you need prayer, we're going to be up here and available.

Father, as we come to this time of process, decision, there's a lot of things that we can do. But Lord, you know what we want, Lord? We want your peace, Lord. There's some in here. And I really feel like in my heart, like Paul did, it just breaks my heart to think that there might be somebody here today that has walked months and years with no peace.

And I wish, Lord, you know, in my heart, I wish I could look at them and say, alright, here's three things to do and it'll stop. But I can't because I don't know what tomorrow holds for them. But I do know that you hold tomorrow. And you taught us in Matthew 6 to not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough worry of its own.

But to think about today, and if you even love the birds of the field and the flowers, that you love us too, and you'll meet our needs, so why worry? It's not going to add another day to our life, but it can take away the value of living right now. So Lord, I pray that you set people free and let them experience your peace. In Jesus name, amen.