Something that's really convicting to me lately is that I think we all want this the peace of God but sometimes we resist the God of peace The question becomes how can I expect the peace of God in my life if I reject the God of peace when he comes to show me how to live

In other words if he's showing me something that I need to let go of if he's showing me something that I need to keep limited if he's showing me something that I need to walk around and not engage if he's showing me something that I need to add or subtract from my life and I insist on being stubborn how can I expect the peace to come to my heart if I ignore the source who gives it

The peace of God… We all want it Everybody in here wants to feel better about your future Everybody in here wants to feel confident that things are coming together Everybody in here wants to feel like I'm on the right path Things are going to work out Everybody in here wants to feel confident that in order to experience the peace of God… I just want to lay this foundation one more time You must embrace the God of peace I want to remind you that he is Jehovah Shalom Shalom means peace or wholeness He is the God of peace He is the God of peace in the midst of panic attacks He is the God of peace

in the midst of downsizing in your industry He is the God of peace when your best client just didn't sign up for another year and you don't know how you're going to make up the contract He is the God of peace when thoughts assail you telling you that your life has reached its zenith and everything from here is just going to be nothing but less than what it was I feel like preaching to somebody today that the God of peace is in this place

You can say that about any place you ever find yourself You can say that in the third row of church on a Sunday morning You can say that when you're pulling out of your driveway on Monday going to the job to look at the people who try to steal your peace I'm not walking into this office by myself I'm walking in with the God of peace He said he would be with me He said he would walk with me He said he would never leave me nor forsake me He is more than enough for me He is the all sufficient One There's nothing I will ever encounter that will surprise him He doesn't scratch his head or shake his head or hang his head He doesn't turn tail and run when the Enemy surrounds me for when the Enemy surrounds me God surrounds the Enemy I'm fenced in by

fire even in my darkest night Even when I wake up and expect the attack I have a God who anticipated the attack and put the provision in place because he is the God of peace and he's in this place We saw a testimony how the God of peace reached in a prison cell and rescued a brother in a prison cell The God of peace will make a prison visit The God of peace will pull up alongside a hospital bed The God of peace will show up in a horse court The God of peace will reach your child who isn't living under your roof right now The God of peace is in this place

The process by which we experience this peace is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4 9 I want to give you this principle and then give you two or three pictures Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me… Think about this Paul says If you do what you saw me do

you will have the peace that only God can give I'm afraid I couldn't say that about my life a lot of the times even as a leader You know Graham said something really interesting a few days ago He said When I look back on when I was a little boy and I first started wrestling… For those of you who haven't heard yet we like to brag about it every chance we get He is a two time state champion in the state of North Carolina for the sport of wrestling Not tag team wrestling like real wrestling You know what I'm saying

When he first started wrestling… I had been a wrestler for a few years when I was in middle school so he thought I was the man because I didn't tell him any different That's really fun when they're little Their understanding of you is limited so you can kind of build it all up to be whatever you want to be

He said something He goes Now that I'm really more advanced as a wrestler and I look back on when I was little it's crazy how much you coached me with how little you knew I don't think he meant that as a compliment like man Dad you really went all in and I appreciate it

I think what he was saying is Now that I know something about what I'm doing I can't believe I thought the stuff you were screaming from the stands had any merit or value whatsoever You really just screamed the same things over and over again but it worked for that stage Isn't it crazy how much you coached me with how little you knew

If you look at your life there are some things about your life that are amazing how far God has brought you if you really think about how little you started with I'm going to say that again and the Devil can pop my mic and I'll say it a third time

It is amazing how far God has brought you and some of the things he has done in your life when you consider where you came from how little you started with It is amazing Look at somebody and say It's amazing that you're in church today

Now just clap your hands for them Give them a little round of applause Come on Look at them and say After the week you've had after the news you got after the mounting to do list you have to go home to it's amazing

the progress you've made when you consider the pattern you were exposed to It is amazing that you even stayed as a dad when your dad didn't It is amazing that you are apologizing as a husband even though you get mad when you never saw the pattern of apology in your own home The truth of it is if some of us were honest and if we could do away with the shame the Devil throws on us for just about five minutes… Yes there is a long way we still have to go but it's pretty amazing the advancements we've made to be here

today Stand up if you never would have thought you'd be in church on a Sunday morning three years ago Stand up if there was a season in your life where you thought God was done with you but you feel something starting to beat in your heart again Stand up if you praising God today was a miracle because you went through a season of depression where you couldn't lift your head off the pillow let alone lift your hands in church

The Enemy wants to keep us from being amazed at the ways God has made in our lives He wants to keep us from being amazed from the place that we stand So Paul says when you don't know what to do and you don't know what's next and you're standing in a place where you don't really have the full picture of how your life is going to turn out listen to me

Remember what you heard learned and saw in me and practice that and the God of peace will be with you I thought that was even better than him saying The peace of God will be with me It means that even if I don't feel the peace of God I can believe the God of peace is with me

That's the principle Now let's break it down for just a moment or two If he says this whatever you have learned or received or heard or seen in me put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you it stands to reason that we are not going to learn receive hear or see everything about God all at once

He's telling us this is going to take practice Sometimes we need more patience with ourselves to realize that even God reveals himself to us progressively God never grows but he does not give you every glimpse of him all at once

That's a mercy because we could never see his glory and live So what God is doing in your life right now is he's showing you things in stages and he is teaching you things in pieces

I'm so glad you came today because when you first started showing me to play tennis you did not show me all the cool stuff I remember the first thing you said to me was Show me how you hold the racket I'm like racket I know the price has gone up since then but I get in on that bottom rate I'm thinking if we're going to spend 20 minutes holding the racket… I was trying to learn to play tennis I thought we're going to never get anywhere with this But it was a kindness of him that he didn't show me Roger Federer highlight clips on my first lesson It is a kindness of God that he teaches you in pieces so you can get a piece and practice

So this time we learned how to hold the racket In about three weeks I'll show you how to swing it I'm doing this for your own good because if you swing it but don't know how to grip it that ball is going to fly every direction every time So Paul is teaching in pieces Not only is he teaching them in pieces but he's teaching them without his physical presence He's writing this letter from a prison So he's teaching in pieces from prison Now this church he founded is having to put into practice things they've heard

learned or seen from his life but he is not present to show them the practice They are having to draw from what they saw even though right now they can't see it I wonder if there's anybody in here today who is having to draw from something right now even though you can't exactly see what God is doing in your life even though you don't have an exact model for it in your life even though you don't have somebody to look at and say I'm going to imitate or emulate that Paul says

I'm teaching you in pieces Think about all of the pieces Paul had to teach from Not only the fact that he was writing the Bible… So when Paul said You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you Philippians 4 13 They were like How do you know that He's like Because it's in the Bible

Well it's going to be It's going to be in the Bible in just a few verses But to teach like Paul… That's very different than teaching like you For those of us who are parents in the room we are trying to coach them knowing so little and still wrestling ourselves

Paul is teaching us… The great apostle Paul who was writing the illuminated and inspired Word of God the great missionary statesman… He's telling this church at Philippi Whatever you saw and heard and learned from me do that and the God of peace will be with you Well that's different for us because we're not writing the Bible as far as I can tell

We're not the example of grace God has raised up for this century I think for the majority of us in here it's amazing how much we're coaching with how little we know But if Paul was coaching you he could teach you about pieces I couldn't teach you So when Paul says

Hold on to what you've heard from me Hold on to what you've learned from me Hold on to what you've seen in me There were scenes in Paul's life that we are privy to that would have served as examples for them to follow So when he's telling them Hold on and the God of peace will be with you you have to understand that Paul is speaking this from a place of deep experience

Paul is like a Division I NCAA champion showing you how to wrestle Paul survived stonings and still stayed stable in his faith Paul survived a shipwreck even just before he wrote this letter Let me tell you a story real quick In Acts chapter 27 Paul tells about a trip he was making as he was awaiting his sentencing for preaching the gospel

While he was on the ship he had a meeting with an angel and the angel said Paul don't be afraid I'm going to preserve your life The boat you're on is going to go through a storm but you are going to make it I don't know who that was for but that was just the whole word right now

Just that The boat you are on is going to go through a storm but you're going to make it It's going to be rocky for a little while You might have to take some Dramamine but you're going to make it There might be some Jonas that have to go overboard

relationships that aren't good for you but you're going to make it It might not look like exactly what it looked like when you set out You might not be able to do it like you did it when you did it like you did it but if you'll do it like God is telling you to do it right now you are going to make it You might have to vomit over the side of the boat

and you might have to hold your stomach for a little while while it rocks and reels and you might have to spend some time praying a little extra The boat is going to go through something but you're going to make it Tell your neighbor you're going to make it Tell them I prophesy Look them in their eyes right in the pupils and say you're going to make it

Tell them you've got to make it because God has something for you to do on the other side of this and the God of peace is with you So if the God of peace is with you… Watch this In Acts chapter 27 verse 41 the Bible says that after they had gone through the storm for a period of three weeks the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground The bow struck fast and would not move that's bad The stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf Now if you're out in the ocean and the ship is carrying you and the ship breaks

to pieces that means you're not going to survive unless you have a God who is the God of pieces Put my verse back up there and let me get happy I know your ship broke apart I know it was pounded by something you didn't see coming I know your kid is not speaking to you right now I know it has been three days since you had an appetite I know some things look really really sketchy right now but in the name of Jesus the God of pieces can get you there

The God of peace is with me Verse 42 The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping but the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and to get to land and the rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces

I'm preaching to somebody who's holding on to a piece to the shore today I'm preaching to somebody who's holding on to a board to the shore today I'm preaching to somebody who's wondering how am I going to make it with who I have left what I have left How am I going to make it now that they went away How am I going to make it if they don't support me You forgot about

the God of pieces that if he is with me one piece can get me to the place If he is with me… How many believe God is with me Get an attitude about it Get Christian cocky about it If you know God is with you this peace I have this peace I'm holding on to this peace that's in my soul… The world didn't give it and the world can't take it away

High five your neighbor Say I've got a piece I've got a piece I don't have a boat but I've got a piece I don't have a degree but I've got a piece I don't have a full answer but I've got a piece I don't have a 10 year plan but I've got a piece

Preach verdict I've got a piece I've got a piece I lost some stuff but I've got a piece I feel the wind but I've got a piece I'm dealing with some insecurities right now but I've got a piece

I've got a piece about this What You feel all right No I don't feel all right I faith all right I float all right because the God of peace is with me