(upbeat music) He says, "I have peace for you." Now listen, I know that anxiety is real and I know sometimes we need counseling and we need medicine to help us overcome our lack of peace or the anxiety that plagues us. And I'm not downplaying any of that. But what I am saying is that if we have Christ in our life, then we should be constantly growing in our trust, not constantly growing in our anxiety. Welcome to Gospel Daily. My name is Josh Wyman and I'm the pastor of Grace Chappell, but I'm also dad to five kids who love to jump off of the swing set. We'll go down to the park and I'll say, just trust me, trust me, jump to me. And they look at the platform and then they look at me and they look at the gap between the two and they have to figure out will they trust me or not. You see, each and every one of us has to make a decision of trust in our life when it comes to our father who extends his arms out and says, trust me. I'm not talking about our earthly father. I'm talking about our heavenly father whom through Jesus Christ extends his love to us and says, will you please trust me? When we trust him, then we will take a jump, trusting his sovereignty completely to bring peace and even the hardest times in our life. Jesus promised a future peace that would come through his future reign. But that future reign is realized the second that we put our faith in him. The moment we believe in Jesus Christ as our savior, peace becomes ours now, we get it now. Well, today we're gonna dive into the second part of a message entitled The Promise of Future Peace. We're gonna look at this passage from John chapter 16 where Jesus is calling for greater trust but also giving the promise of true peace found only in him. So if you're in a place to open up your Bibles, then open up with me to John chapter 16, 25 through 33 and let's apply the gospel truth to our daily life. Verse 25 says, I've said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. That's a hopeful statement, right? That's hopeful. Verse 26, in that day you will ask me in my name and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. Now hold on, verse 26 is not something I want you to miss. This is a powerful statement. He says, you will ask things in my name at least twice before. He has told us to ask in his name. Meaning ask within his will. He will hear us from heaven. So we're told to ask within his will but he says, you will ask in my name but I do not say that you will ask in my name and then the Father will give to you whatever you ask. It's not because I'm twisting the Father's arm is the Josh Weidman translation. Don't think that you ask and I go to the Father and twist his arm to say, please, we just do it this time for them. No, no, no, he goes on in verse 27 and says, when you ask things in my name, the Father will do it on your behalf. Verse 27, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. Now this is a powerful statement because what he's saying is the very nature and character of the Father will be ever more applied to you by me going to be with the Father. It's that whole idea of I go so a greater can come, a greater in magnitude but the Holy Spirit will also bring all that is true of the Father and everything that Jesus has taught to us, he will bring it to our minds and apply it to us. The very nature and character of God will be more clearly revealed by him going and then he says, you ask anything in my name and the Father will give it to you. Not because I'm up there making some paper rock scissors that with the Father saying if he'll actually do it. He does it because he loves you. Don't miss verse 27, the Father himself loves you. If you need proof that he loves you, then you can look just to Jesus Christ and go, wow, wow. He loves me enough to give his one and only son to die on my behalf, to appease his own wrath so that I may be in a right relationship with him. And he says, not only look to me as the proof but the fact that you have believed in me, the fact that you have accepted me, the fact that your faith is in me, the Father's love is on your side. As he's already said in this farewell of this course, you are no longer counted as servant but you are counted as friend. He loves you. Now here's where anxiety goes off the rails. Anxiety fails to acknowledge that the Father cares for me and is completely in control of my life. When I'm plagued by anxiety, then I probably, most likely, at least momentarily, have forgotten that the Father loves me and that he's absolutely in control of my life. He's sovereignly working everything out for his glory and for my good. He loves me. He is God and by being the very nature of God, by being the most powerful one, he has to have all power, which means he has full control. In his full control, his full power is realized in the fact that he is all knowing. He has to be all knowing if he's going to be all powerful. So if he's all powerful and all knowing, then he's also going to be all present. Everywhere I go, there he is. There is nowhere I can go away from him, Psalm 139 makes that clear. And if he's going to be all present, then he has to be all eternal. You see, all powerful, all knowing, all present, all eternal. He's all of these things because he is all God. So if he is all of those things, that's a beautiful thing to know. But when I begin to grasp that he loves me and that because he is powerful, and knowledgeable, and present, and eternal, he has everything in his control. And I can trust him. Anxiety goes off the rails when we forget that he loves us and that he's in control. Let me illustrate it with this story. Wednesday, 4th of July parade, neighborhood parade. We have everybody there lined up. The parade takes off and it's my daughter, Carolina's first chance to ride her bike in the parade. Up to this point, she's been pushed in a stroller. But she was set on riding her bike in the 4th of July parade. And I knew, most likely, she would ride it there, but I would carry it back, right? So I was kind of opposed to the idea, but trying to be a good dad. I said, yeah, no problem. You just, you get on that bike. This is gonna be great, okay? And she had it mostly down. She has training wheels and she knew how to pedal backwards, so it'd break and all that kind of stuff. But I put her on her bike and the first thing she says to me is, dad, don't let go. Dad, don't let go. No problem, I got you. Now I didn't know it meant don't let go ever all the way till we get to the park. I didn't see that coming, right? But she kept saying, dad, don't let go. Dad, don't let go. Dad, don't let go. I would pull my hand off just to see if she knew. Dad, don't let go, right? And I kept having to hold her, hold her shoulder, hold her chest, hold her head. I just had to somehow be touching her. So I took it as a moment to live out Deuteronomy chapter six, verse seven. Teach your children as you walk along the road in the 4th of July parade about me, right? (audience laughing) So I said, sweetheart, you know, and we're like the back of the parade at this point, okay? And I said, you know, babe, there's a lot of times in our life where we say to God, please don't let go. Please don't let go. And guess what? He promised that he'll never let go. And just like I'm not gonna let go of you, God promises that I will never let go. He's not gonna let you go. But guess what, sweetheart, there's gonna be times where it feels like he let's go. And there are gonna be moments where you don't feel his hand anymore, but he's still there and he's still present and he's still holding you. And I don't know if she was still listening, but I was preaching to my own heart, right? Because there have been many, many moments in my life where I've turned to him and said, "Father, don't let go, please don't let go." And the moments where I feel like his hand is removed, I can trust the promise that he is still there. I have to trust that he's still there. He said he wouldn't let go. Peace starts with trust. If you're going to have peace in your life, then you must trust God's hand. And behind his hand is a loving heart. So whether you're leading a company or a department or teaching your kids or meeting quotas or leading a meeting or hitting a deadline, whatever you have to do in your life, it should all come back to acknowledging that God is God and you are not. And he asks for you to trust him. And by trusting him, you're tapping into his power. You're tapping into his power and he's all knowledgeable and he's all present and he's all eternal and his power is present for you. He says, "I have peace for you." Now listen, I know that anxiety is real and I know sometimes we need counseling and we need medicine to help us overcome our lack of peace or the anxiety that plagues us. And I'm not downplaying any of that. But what I am saying is that if we have Christ in our life, then we should be constantly growing in our trust, not constantly growing in our anxiety. I can think of a better passage that points us out than Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah chapter 17, you can read it for yourself. It talks about this trust in the Lord, trusting God. In verse seven and eight, it says this. It says, "Bless is the man who trusts in the Lord, "whose trust is in the Lord. "He is like a tree planted by water "that sends out its roots by the stream "and does not fear when heat comes. "For its leaves remain green and is not anxious "in the year of drought, "for it does not cease to bear fruit." Right prior to this passage, verse seven, verses five, six, four, five, and six, it talks about shrubs in the desert. These shrubs that grow in the salt land, it says, which if you've been with me to Israel or you go with me next year, you'll see the salt land, this crazy, crazy portion of land in southern Israel that certainly Jeremiah would have had in mind. Where not much grows there, not much lives there. But you'll see shrubs and trees every once in a while, but they don't have deep roots and they aren't bearing fruit. And he says, "Those who don't trust in the Lord "are like a shrub in the desert, in the salt land, "where there is no fertile soil. "But those who trust in the Lord, "they have roots that are planted deep by streams of water." It reminds me of what I saw just two weeks ago as we were in California walking amongst the redwood trees. There was a moment where I was able to go on my own little hike away from everyone just to pray and to seek the Lord. And I'm walking on this path amongst the redwood trees and I couldn't help but turn on my Bible on my phone and read Jeremiah 17 and just recount, the man who trusts the Lord, the man who trusts the Lord, the man who trusts the Lord is like these trees, these massive sequoia trees that are planted in the valleys and by the streams that are green and they don't fear drought and I sat there and I preached to myself and I prayed and I prayed and I said, "Lord, will you make me like these trees? "Will you help me have trust in you?" The reason I must have trust in him, the reason I must be planted deep by him as my stream of water and by his word as my living source is because he is the only one who possesses perfect peace. So start filling in some of these blanks as application. Only God possesses perfect peace. I think that's what verses 25 through 28 are saying. Not only are they an invitation, but they are a motivation for us. A mobilization, they're saying, "Move, come to me." Jesus is saying, "In your moments where you're anxious "and the world turns against you, turn to me." It's not only an invitation to come but it's the very power of God behind us. He's saying the Father knows what you will face and he will give you whatever you need in the moments you need it the most. I'm afraid that one of the problems the Christian church is facing today is that we are plagued by anxiety and immobilized in our worry in fear. Think about it, the Christian church, capital C, I'm talking about the overall church, those who claim Christ as their Lord. We are not to be people who are plagued by anxiety or immobilized by our worry. The Bible tells us that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the prince of peace. At the very core of who we are lies the prince of peace, the very one who brings us peace. Over 300 times in the Bible, the word peace is used, Old Testament and New Testament. And in my study of it this week, I found that almost every time, and I guess I could say every time because I didn't find any exception, every time the word peace is used in the Bible, it ties back to the presence of God every time. Even if it was peace among God's people, it was about God being in their presence and their source of peace. Peace is at the core of our belief system because God is at the core of our belief system, yet so many of us are plagued by worry and fear. And my reasoning for it is that we know a lot about God, but we don't know how to apply God to our current circumstances. We grow puffed up with our knowledge about him. We know what he can do, but we also know what we can do. And so we go on being prideful, thinking, well, I can help God out on this one, or I got some skills or some things that I could bring to the table, or I don't wanna bother God. He's got so much to worry about, I don't wanna bother God. That's just bad theology. He's all powerful, all knowing, ever present, totally eternal. And yet he says, don't just come and be knowledgeable about me, but apply me to your situation or be in me. Here's the truth I wrote down in the margins of my Bible this week. That the knowledge of God without application will lead to pride, not peace. Knowledge of God, knowing about him. Oh yeah, I know what he can do. Oh yeah, I know how powerful. Yeah, I have a verse for that one. Knowledge about him without proper application. This is gonna lead you to pride. It's not gonna lead you to peace. He says, invite me in, or better yet, going back to a 15 and abiding in him. He's saying, abide in me, in me. I love that phrase. In me, we see in verse 32, he says, in me you will find all peace. In me. It isn't about in you, in your strengths, in the things you have accomplished. It's about in him. He faithfully died for us. He faithfully rose again for us. He is infallible in his love for us. He offers us peace. And what he has done for us will far exceed anything that we can ever do to bring peace into our own lives. Paul captured this well in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14, when he said, for he himself is our, what? It's our peace. Who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. My friends, you are not at peace with God at one point. If you're saved now, I'm telling you, you are not at peace with God. And if you don't know God and have a personal relationship through Jesus Christ, you're not at peace with God. And there's a wall of hostility between you and the creator of the universe. Well, Christ comes in and says, listen, I can do what you can't do. I'll break down the wall of hostility and I will make a way for you to have a relationship and access to the very one who is peace himself. I love that. The idea of having a relationship with God isn't just a ticket to the afterlife. We're gonna get to this place someday where there's peace. Yes, there will be full peace. But we can have peace now, now. And Jesus is making it clear that the Father knows us. He knows what we're gonna face. And he's saying, I'm going to the Father by way of the cross to make access for you to the vault of God's peace. I'll open it for you. And the Holy Spirit will apply it to you every single day. He'll make known to you the nature and character of a Father. Jesus is saying it is our Father who is peace himself. So when the nature and character of the Father is revealed to us, peace prevails. When the nature and character of God is revealed through Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit on a continual basis, peace prevails. His disciples are starting to get it in verse 29. They say, ah, emoji, emoji, emoji, right? Ah, I get it, right? Now you're speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God. What are they saying? I have no need to question where my peace comes from. Whether you're with me or away from me, now here for a little while, gone for a little while. Wherever you are, I know that you are my source of peace because you are tied to Father and only the Father, only God can give perfect peace. Only God can give perfect peace. Jesus was not merely giving them knowledge of what the Father would do and could do. But I think what he was doing is he was moving them to trust. He's saying, trust the Father. Trust my ministry with the Father. I and the Father are one. And it isn't until you acknowledge that God is fully in control and you submit to his mighty hand that you will learn his heart and his intentions for you. Trust, trust the Father. Friends, to experience the peace of God, we must have genuine humility and utter desperation. We must be moved from a place of thinking that we can add anything to God or help him bring peace into our life. We must move from a place of pride to humility, knowing that it is only by seeing him as he fully is, will I begin to access the vault of peace that he offers me through access from his son only. His son opens that vault and peace comes forth, but I must humble myself to realize, I don't save myself, I don't bring myself peace, and the true source of peace is Jesus Christ. And then it is an utter desperation of going, I can't live without it. I can't live without it. I need so badly for your peace to be present in my life. This week on my planter pad, I wrote down in the corner, why do I feel like Indiana Jones running from the big ball? (chuckles) You know what that is? That's anxiety. So next to what I said, find your peace in him. 'Cause I don't know what's stressing you out, I don't know what things are chasing you down, but I know that when you finally get to the point of utter desperation, like Indiana Jones being chased by the big ball, and you finally get to the point where you realize all my peace is found in him, then can your fears and anxieties be called? They started getting it, the disciples were getting it. Finally, verse 31, Jesus says, do you now believe? No, I don't think that was a judgmental question. I think it's like, do you get it now? Like, do you see it clearly now? 'Cause behold, an hour is coming. Indeed, it has come. When you'll be scattered each to his own home and you will leave me alone, yet I am not alone. This is Christ's own statement of his peace. I'm not alone, the Father's with me. In verse 33, he said, I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Only God has overcome the world. Only God can say, I have overcome the world. What power and what promise in that statement that he can say, there is nothing that will overcome me. And you have an overcome the world, oh, by the way, and guess what? You haven't even overcome yourself, but I can overcome you and everything around you. I've overcome the world, I have peace, I'm with you, the Father is with me, trust me, that's what he's saying. And there's this power in this word overcome, overcome, 28 times in the New Testament, this word overcome is used. 21 of those times are in John's writing. Some in the Gospels, some in 1st John, and 15 times in Revelation. And whenever John uses this word overcome in relation to Christ or even in relationship to the saints, what he's saying is, I have power over everything. And even in Revelation when it is applied to us that we can overcome temptation and overcome evil and overcome sorrow and overcome all these things, it's saying the only reason that you can overcome any of these things is because you're tied to the conquering lamb. He is the victorious one who has overcome and there will be a day he will overcome all darkness and have final victory. And that my friends is where our hope lies. That my friends is where our joy lies. That my friends is where our peace comes from. Can we just read verse 33 again together? I'll put it on the screen, let's read this out loud together. Verse 33, he said, "I have said these things to you, "that in me you may have peace. "In the world you will have tribulation. "But take heart, I have overcome the world." I love that. Having the peace of God means that you and I remember the faithfulness of God. And as a final application, I wanna say to you today, you need to practice preaching the peace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ to yourself every single day. I found an article by Scientific America, the Scientific American, excuse me, about elephants. And I was looking at it this week and it was talking about how elephants have dismal vision. They really can't see very well. But yet they have incredible memories. They never forget a face. They can remember other elephants. They can remember what water is. They can remember where food is. They can remember where the enemy is. They never forget anything, but they have terrible eyesight. And I started thinking about ourselves. And I suppose in a lot of ways we're kind of like elephants in that we have very bad eyesight, meaning that we can't always make sense of the present. We can't always make sense of the past and we can't always make sense of the future. It's just not clear to us. But the very thing that keeps an elephant alive, one of its fighting chances to survive in the wilderness is not just its size, but its memory. And so I say to you my friends, one of the very things that keeps us alive spiritually is our memory of God's faithfulness. Colossians chapter three and elsewhere, we're told time and again, be thankful, give thanksgiving, thanksgiving to the Lord, give thanksgiving, what he's saying is, you continually remember, remember how he's been faithful. Call it to yourself. You may see things in a blurry fashion in your life. But what you know with absolute certainty is that God has been extremely faithful. He is your prince of peace. He is your source of joy. He is your final hope. So my friends, I say to you this morning, rehearse the fulfillment of God's promises and never lose sight of your ultimate hope in Jesus Christ. It's the only thing that will get you through an anxious world. - Man, did I need that message today? It's so true. This world is anxious, my heart is anxious, but the promises of Jesus Christ never fade. And I'm gonna make it my practice to rehearse those promises to myself. And I hope that you'll do the same thing. If you'd like help in your walk with Jesus Christ, more resources to encourage you, maybe even past episodes of this podcast, would you go over to our website, gospeldaily.org. That's G-O-S-P-E-L-D-A-I-L-Y.org. You're gonna find all sorts of resources there that will encourage you in your walk with Jesus Christ. We want you to love him and trust him completely. And if you're looking for a church home, please stop by our church. We'd love to have you. It's gracechapel.org. You can learn more about our church on our website or stop by any Sunday on the corner of C-470 and I-25. Come on, let's go live out the gospel daily. Hi, my name's Pastor Josh with Grace Chapel and Gospel Daily. I'm also the author of a book entitled The End of Anxiety, the biblical prescription for overcoming fear, worry, and panic. The buzzword these days seems to be mental health. Everybody's talking about their anxiety and what's happening. Did you see that recently in Denver, children's hospital declared an emergency among even our youngest population, that they are overly depressed and super anxious, and many of them trying to commit suicide? My friends, we need the gospel now more than ever. We must find the end of anxiety. I've written this book to help people grasp the truth that God can use our anxiety to bring him glory and that in the midst of our anxiety, we can have true joy. You can find this book, The End of Anxiety, wherever you purchase your books. Or go to our website, endofanxiety.com. That's endofanxiety.com. On that website, you'll find a free resource with 51 actions to help you end anxiety today. Again, our website is endofanxiety.com.
