Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Mastermind, Part 4: The Peace of God

Episode Date: September 30, 2018

It’s all in your head. But what if that’s a good thing? Our thoughts are more than a reaction to what’s happening in our lives—they’re a powerful force for shaping who we are and who we can become. Learn how you can use your thoughts to unleash th... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I cannot tell you how much I love you all. I love our church. I love the work of God at our church. I love that you all to celebrate. I know there's some people today ready to celebrate. I can feel it. I can feel it. All of our churches,

hey, before we dive into this week's message, I want to give our God some praise for what happened last week in Fort Smith, Arkansas, moving from a storefront into a brand new building. We saw over 2,000 people in the first weekend. And get this, are you ready for it? You ready? We saw 117 salvation on week number one to the glory of God.

Thank you to all of you who give above your normal giving to spaces and places to make that possible. On this weekend, guess what? you don't want to miss a weekend because God is always doing something special. We have something else to celebrate. I would love it if you would just stand up. All of our churches stand to your feet.

I want to announce to you this weekend some really good news, and then we're going to pray for what's going to happen. This weekend, believe it or not, we will launch our 31st Life Search location in the 10th state. The newest location is launching this very weekend in a brand new facility, a remodeled facility,

in Springfield, Missouri. We're excited to have Pastor Brian Franco leading the charge. Pastor Brian had his first date with his wife in this building back when it was something else at a concert. And so there's like love all over that place. And we're honored to have you all joining us

in Springfield. We know God's going to do special things here. I would love it if our church would just unite together. in prayer and pray for God's work in that community. God, thank you so much that before the foundation of the world, God, you knew that on this weekend, at this moment, at this time, there would be a group of people gather in a community in Missouri,

believing God that you want to reach people who do not yet know you. We pray for Pastor Brian. We pray for all of the staff. We pray for all the amazing volunteers in the core group who've gathered to lift up the name that is above every name, the name of your son Jesus. We pray, God, that you would use them to impact Springfield and beyond.

We pray God that even this weekend there would be many who would come to know your son, Jesus, God, and that we would lift your name high that you would draw people from all over into your family. Bless, God, this work. And those they would reach in the community. We thank you that so many lives will be different, God,

because you've opened this door for ministry. We pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen, amen, amen. We love you, guys. Would you remain standing, just remain standing? I would love it if you would stand for the reading of God's Word. We're in part number four of a message series called Mastermind. Change your thinking, change your life.

What do we know? We know that there's a battle going on in every mind. We know that most of life's battles are won or lost in the mind. We know that it's almost impossible to live a positive life when you're consumed with negative thoughts. We know that if you don't change the way you think, how can you ever change the way that you live? God wants to speak a healing word to our minds. Today, I want to end our four-part message series with God's word from Philippians chapter four. We've been looking at the Apostle Paul, who was a prisoner in Rome when he had wanted to be a preacher in Rome. And from a Roman prison,

and he wrote this very meaningful, encouraging letter of joy to the believers in Philippi, and this is how he was ending his letter. He said this. He said, do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God.

Somebody say peace of God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your what else, will also guard your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think, think, focus on, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen, put it into practice. That's what we're going to do. We're not just hearers of the word. We are doers of God's word. Put it into practice.

And the God of peace, say that with me, and the God of peace will be with you. To title today's message is the peace of God. When I was a child in a traditional church, we would shake hands and say, peace be with you. This is not so much of a traditional church. so why don't you find a few people and high-fied them and say, get you some peace.

Get you a little peace. That didn't sound right. Get you some peace. May the peace of God be with you. Go and have a seat all of our churches today. Get you a little peace of God. The peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds. How many of you would say that you occasionally or maybe even often have runaway thoughts, you worry about things?

You have fear at times some anxiety. Why do we do this? When I was a child, one time I was out with my family, and my dad was driving, evidently there was some other driver that didn't approve of his driving. I don't know, surely you've had this happen to you. It does to me. More often than probably it should, someone doesn't like the way I drive, so they tell me there's one way to heaven or something, if you know it on me.

And evidently, it was one of those times, and this driver, but it was. ended up following our car all the way to my house. We pulled in the driveway and this guy in a blue van followed us up to our house and he got out of the car and he charged my dad and he physically attacked my dad in front of the house. He attacked the wrong guy. My dad can hold his own and defending himself, my dad laid hands on the man

that attacked him, and eventually the man made his way back to the van and got out alive by the grace of God. My mom explained to me very clearly that now there was a man who was very, very angry with my dad, and perhaps my family, that drove a blue van and knew where we lived. So she said, if you ever see a blue van, just run inside and lock the doors. every time I saw a blue van. I would run inside, lock the doors, and get under the bed. To this day, decades later, if I see a blue van drive by,

my heart beats fast and I'm ready to defend myself. Just the sight of something can spin me out in worry. Maybe there are some of you you're worried about your grades, because if you don't get good enough grades, you won't get in the good enough college, and then you won't have the degree, then nobody will want to marry you, then you can't have kids that'll drive you crazy,

because then when you do have the kids finally, eventually, you're going to have to send them to school, then you're worried because you're going to send them with their sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and methamphetabines and guns and all sorts of violence, and then they're going to grow up and they're going to need cars with insurance and braces, and they're going to be involved in things,

then you're going to realize you have to save for their college, and you're still paying off your college, and you're worried because you have a headache, you've probably got a brain tumor, and all of a sudden life is spending out of control, all because you haven't studied for this upcoming exam. Am I the only one that can get crazy with their thoughts? Our minds can so easily run away from us. Let's talk about worry and the mind.

If you've been with us in previous weeks, we've talked about our key thought, and that is this, that your life will always move in the direction of your strongest thoughts. Your life will always move in the direction of your strongest thoughts, which is good news if you're thinking on things that are true and lovely and admirable, if you're thinking on God's truth. But the problem is when we're focused on things that make us afraid or anxious, our minds tend to run in a direction that may not be pleasing to God or helpful to us. Why is it that our minds often compound itself with fear?

I'll try to answer the question. We've been talking a lot about the brain that God designed. In our brains, there's a little almond-shaped portion of the mind that's known as the amygdala. Whenever you're afraid, the amygdala is in full gear. The amygdala is a very helpful part of the brain that's wired for survival. It's wired to make us afraid so that we run away from the things that could be hurtful or dangerous to us. It's the part of the brain that's responsible for fear. In other words, if you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation, the amygdala kicks in,

sending strong doses of adrenaline to your body. For example, if you ever see a poisonous snake like this one at my house that my dog was watching, as the snake was going into my garage, your amygdala says, danger, run for your life. If you're driving to church like I was today, and there was somebody texting their way into my lane, the amygdala does its job and says,

that's dangerous, swerve for your life. If you're in bed and you hear a loud noise, your amygdala says either hide under the bed or get the lamp, turn into a martial artist specialist, and use the lamp like that. like nunchucks to take out the intrudal in your home. The amygdala is responsible for your survival for fear. The problem is the amygdala is not objective.

It's got one role, one function, and that is to protect. Your brain, the amygdala, is hardwired to protect. That's why this little almond-shaped portion of the brain needs help from the prefrontal cortex. This is the logical part of the brain. This is the part of the brain that speaks up whenever the amygdala goes out of control. For example, it's the middle of the night. You hear a noise somewhere. Your amygdala says, you're going to die!

The prefrontal cortex kicks in and says, no, that's probably the cat. Then your next thought from the prefrontal cortex is determining what to do with the cat. something you should have decided a long time ago to keep the cat from scaring your amygdala half to death in the middle of the night and other such cat problems that all cats cause. This is why God gave us the logical part of the brain to work with the amygdala that is pre-wired for survival.

Without the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, it responds according to programming, blue vans are dangerous. Many of you, because of the way you've lived, your brain has now been pre-programmed to respond to triggers that take you in an unhealthy zone of worry, fear, and anxiety.

You see something, you experience something, and it triggers a response that leads to fear or unhealthy thinking. Let me tell you very clearly what scripture does not say. Jesus, our Savior, did not say, let your hearts be troubled. He didn't say that. Jesus said, do not let your hearts be troubled.

The angels who appeared before the coming of Jesus did not say, glory to God in the highest. Stress, anxiety on earth. They said, glory to God, on the highest peace on earth. Paul did not say, be anxious about everything. But while under house arrest, wanting to be anywhere else at all, Paul said this. He said, do not be anxious about anything.

In other words, don't freak out about your big test. Don't be anxious about the job interview that's coming. Don't be anxious about your future spouse, even though you don't have a single candidate anywhere in sight. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, somebody say every situation, but in every situation when you're financially burdened, when you're battling with an addiction,

when you're fighting against a marital challenge in every situation, by prayer and by petition with thanksgiving. What do you do? You present your request to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, which goes beyond our human ability to understand, will guard your hearts and your what, and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Don't be anxious about anything. But in everything, with prayer, we present our request to God. And this supernatural peace from heaven will guard our hearts and our minds. Notice, how do we achieve, how do we find, how do we experience this heavenly peace from God? We experience it through the pathway of prayer, talking to God, talking to God. The problem is for so many of us, prayer is the last resort. Have you ever heard somebody say, well, all we can do now, I guess, is pray, right? Can you imagine God in heaven going, oh, you're down to that?

All you got to me, well, you're screwed, dude. You know, all you can do is pray? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. No, prayer is never a last resort. Prayer is always a first line of offense. You can pray to God. You can go boldly before, listen to me, the throne of grace to find help in your time of need.

You have anything you ask according to His will in his name. God, here's your prayers. You do not have because you do not ask. When you go before God, you have an audience with the king of the universe, your heavenly daddy. your father hears your prayers. And the great news is not only does he hear, not only does he respond, but prayer doesn't just move God,

but prayer also changes you. I'd love to say it this way. Not only does prayer move the heart of God, but prayer also changes the chemistry in your brain. Praying to God helps renew your mind. Let me tell you the science behind it, in the brain that our God created. A few decades ago, if you just go a few decades back,

neurologists believe that the brain didn't change after adolescence. In other words, after a certain age, your brain was completely fixed. We know today this is not true. Our brain is constantly changing. It's evolving. It's rewiring itself as we think thoughts or as we experience experiences. our brain is rewiring itself through a process known as neuroplasticity. It's not fixed.

That's why we've talked about the neural pathways. When you think a thought, it's easier to think that thought again, which is good news if you're thinking godly thoughts. It's not good news if you're triggered to run from blue vans. Your brain is evolving. There's another term that I love to study about known as neurotheology. Theology. What is theology, the study of God?

It's also known as spiritual neuroscience. What is this? This is a study of the relationship between the brain and a belief in God. This is the study behind what happens to a human brain through prayer, and what happens, let me give you the spoiler. You ready for it?

Prayer changes your brain. not only does prayer touch the heart of God, but prayer changes the chemistry of your brain. In fact, one of the authors I've studied a lot is Dr. Carolyn Leif, one of the books that I read among probably eight or nine on the subject during this study was a book called Switch on Your Brain. And Dr. Leif says this. She says, it's been found that 12 minutes of daily. focused prayer over an eight-week period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be

measured on a brain scan. Prayer doesn't just touch the heart of God, but prayer also changes us. Just as toxic, negative thoughts hurts the brain and pre-programs us for unhealthy thinking, therefore unhealthy living. Prayer, on the other hand, it heals the brain, it renews the mind. And this is why in Romans 12, Paul said this. He said, do not be conformed to the patterns or the thought processes or the ways of this world, but be transformed. Be made different. How are you made different? He said, by the renewing of your mind. God's word renews your mind and prayer to God transforms your mind. Why do we worry then?

Why do we get so freaked out? Why is it that we stay awake in the middle of the night and we're anxious and why do we get so on edge and why are we so uptight all the time? There's a lot of different reasons, but one of the reasons is we're experiencing what's called

the amygdala hijack. The amygdala takes over and says, panic! survive, save yourself, prepare yourself for the worst case. It's bad, it's going to be worse. It's too late to pray. Survive. Forget everybody else.

Save yourself. The amygdala hijack. That's what someone who studies neuroscience might tell you. What the apostle Paul would tell you from a theological position is that this. He would say, your mind is dominated by sinful thinking. That's what the apostle Paul would say. He said, your mind is being dominated by sinful thinking. What is worry? You can define worry this way. Worry is the sin of distrusting the promises and power of God. What is worry? Worry is saying, God, I don't believe you're good enough to cover this.

God, I don't trust you with this. The amygdala hijack. Or letting your mind being dominated by sinful thinking. Paul would say this. He'd say, instead of letting my sinful nature control my mind, I want to choose. Here's what I love about this. I'm going to let the logical part of my brain choose that which is spiritual.

Because I believe that which is spiritual is eternal, therefore I'm going to logically choose to believe what God says is true. I'm going to let my brain choose the truth of the spirit, therefore the spirit can direct my brain. This is what Paul said in Romans 8, 5, and 6. He said, those who are dominated by the sinful nature, what do they do?

Say it aloud. They what? They think about sin. sinful things. Their minds are consumed with sinful thoughts. But those who are controlled by the spirit, they think about things that please the spirit. So Paul went on to say, letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the spirit, the spirit of God. Letting the spirit control your mind, what is? it leads to? It leads to life and peace. That's why we take every thought captive. If there is a thought

that is inconsistent with God's word, we take that thought captive and we make it obedient to Christ. We demolish every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take those thoughts captive because we will not be dominated by sinful thoughts that are displeasing to God that take us out of God's will into a place of darkness. Instead, we let the Spirit of God,

we choose to follow God's truth. We choose to follow His Spirit, which leads us to not anxiety, not to stress, not to fear, not to panic, but it leads us to life and peace. The Spirit of God controls our thoughts. How do we do this? Well, tell your prefrontal cortex to grab the amygdala by its

horns tail, I don't know, I mean, you know, you choose, and give your burdens to God. Let me explain it to you this way. What do you do? Same thing I often do. You got a box full of worries. Oh, I got this coming and that coming and this coming and that. So in a moment of faith, you take whatever's war in you and you say, God, I give this to you. Take it. Lord, take it. God, you haven't done anything with it, I'm taking it back. Am I know what I'm talking about? Why do we do this?

Why in the middle of the night? God, I don't think you can help. The problem is your God is too small. Your worries are too big. It's time to get a bigger God and some smaller worries. Some of you, I would literally encourage you to get a box. It doesn't have to be this cool. It can't just be a shoebox.

And put God's name on it symbolically. And every time you've got a worry, a burden, a concern, your mind races. Write down what that worry is. Might be your 17-year-old son. Might be the bills that are keeping you awake at night. It might be the fear of the future. It might be a relation, whatever it is. Write it down and put it symbolically in your God box.

And say, God, I'm trusting you with this person. I'm trusting you with this situation. And then go on with life. If you want to worry about it at two in the morning, what you have to do is get out of bed, go to the God box, and take that thing out, and symbolically say, God, I don't trust you with this. I'm taking it back.

What are we told to do? We're told to cast all of our cares on him because he cares for us. We don't just take our words. and put them with God, we take our life and we become hidden with God in Christ Jesus. We give it all to him. Now, I know what some of you are thinking, you're thinking, well, that's your responsible. I mean, let's just live in denial.

Don't do anything about your problems. Just give it to God. See how that works for you when your bills come do. Okay? I'm not talking about living in denial. Let me give you kind of my philosophy of how I try to live this out. This is what I try to do. I want every time there's something I can do is I'm going to do what I can do.

Everybody say do what I can do? I'm going to do what I can do. In other words, if I've got a health issue, I'm going to eat right, I'm going to exercise, I'm going to go to good doctors, I'm going to do what I can do. If I've got a big exam coming up, I'm going to study, and then I'm going to study, then I'm going to study, that I'm going to study, that I'm not going to play the game, I'm going to keep studying. If I've got a financial issue, I'm going to make a budget, I'm going to get good advice,

I'm going to spend less than I make. Novel idea. Try it. It's amazing how it works. I'm going to do what I can do. Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to give God what I can't do. I'm going to do what I can do. Then I'm going to give God what I can't do.

And ultimately then I'm going to trust God no matter what. I'm going to do what I can do. do. I'm going to give God what I can't do. I can't heal that person. I can't change that person. I can't control everything. I'm going to do what I can. I'm going to give God what I can't. And I'm going to trust him no matter what. I want you to imagine this. Those of you that often battle with worry like I do, I want you to imagine a true heart of peace. a deep, abiding sense of heavenly joy, a peace of mind that is impossible to explain with your words,

a depth of trust in God. What I want you to know is that is possible. And it's also a choice. It's the choice of where you let your mind go. If your life is moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts, do you like where your thoughts are taking you? When I looked at my thoughts, I did not like the direction they were taking me.

Life is hard. This is so difficult. I can't get it all done. Nobody understands. Nobody cares. I can't keep it going. How long can I do this? No.

I'm not going to let it. that take me away from God's will. If you don't control what you think, you can never control what you do. So what do we do? We identify the truth that sets us free from the bondage. Then we write it, think it,

confess it until we believe it. We write it, think it, confess it until we believe it. I confess Jesus is first in my life. I exist to serve and glorify him. I am disciplined. Christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me. I confess the truth. I am growing closer to Jesus every day. Because of Christ, my family is closer. My body is stronger. My faith is deeper. My leadership is sharper. I am creative, innovative, driven, blessed by the power of the Holy Spirit because he dwells within me.

My words, thoughts and imaginations are under the power of Christ. I take all thoughts captive and make them obedience. to Christ. Declare what's true about you. Renew your mind with truth. Write it, think it, confess it until you believe it. Tell yourself you are not a hostage to your unhealthy thoughts. The weapons you fight with are not the weapons of this world. You have divine power to demolish strongholds. You take everything that is not of God, every pretension, you demolish it, you take every thought captive and you make it obedient to Christ. Worry is not your master. in God, his peace, guards, your hearts, your minds, and your souls in Christ Jesus. You're not a slave to your habits.

You're not a prisoner to an addiction. You've been wrecked you from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God's life. Listen, you can't control what happens to you, but you can control how you frame it. You don't interpret God through your circumstances. you interpret your circumstances through the goodness of God. And you bathe everything in prayer. Everything in prayer. Because you're not anxious about anything.

But in everything, you present your requests to God with Thanksgiving. And the peace of God, which transcends all under God. will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. There will always be a battle in your mind. Let Jesus win the battle. Take the thoughts captive and let Jesus replace them with truth because when you know the truth, the truth will set you free.

So Father today, set us free. renew our minds, God, with your truth. All of our churches, those who would say, yes, I want to give some burdens to God. There's something heavy on my heart. There's a concern. There's a person. There's a thing. There's a relationship.

There's a medical issue. There's a financial burden. Whatever it is. There's something weighing on you. Get out your God box. Give it to God. Be wise. Do what you can do.

Give God what you can't do. And no matter what, trust, trust. trust in him. All of our churches, you say, yes, there's something I need to hand over to God. God, I cast this care, this burden on you. Would you lift up your hands right now? God, I thank you that there are people being set free by the truth and the power of your word and the glory of your presence right now.

God, with Thanksgiving, we present these people to you, this burden to you. God, this challenge to you, this problem that goes beyond our ability to figure out. God, we present it to you. And we thank you, God, that in your goodness and your sovereignty, that there is a peace from heaven that goes beyond our ability to understand or even explain, that will land on us, settle on us, renew us, guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. God, may we fall so in love with you, talking to you, walking by faith and not by sight, praying continually, constantly aware of your presence. So much so, God, that you renew our minds.

Give us the mind of your son, Jesus. Give us the heart to do your will. Give us your word to direct our steps that all that we do would be pleasing to you. God, help us to know the truth. And the truth will set us free. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, we've talked about Jesus. There's phrases in the Bible where it's called them, it says, you have the mind of Christ. Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? Jesus is the son of God. Jesus wasn't just a human being. He was God in the flesh. He was perfect in every way. Jesus lived without sin so that he could be the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus was obedient to his father and went to a cross and died in our place. He was called the Lamb of God. He was the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. He shed his blood that we could be forgiven. He cried out to God,

I've done what you sent me to do. He said, it's finished. He gave his life three days later when they went to look for him. He was not where he was buried. Why? Because God had raised him from the dead. Why did God do this? So that anyone who believes in the name of Jesus

who calls on him would be saved. What does it mean to be saved? We're not just saved from our sins, but we are. We're forgiven. We're transformed. We're saved for the glory of God. We're saved to make a difference in this world. At all of our churches, there may be those of you.

You're ashamed of what you've done. You feel guilty for your past. Or you feel directionless. When you call out on the name of Jesus, you are saved. He forgives your sins and he fills you with his spirit. He gives you a purpose to glorify him on this earth. You're saved from your sins and you're saved for his purpose. your mind is renewed and your life is rebuilt.

And all of our churches, those who say, I need him. Today by faith, I give my life to him. That's you. Lift your hands high right now. All of our churches lift them up and say, yes, that's my prayer. Lift them high, church online, you click below me. And as we have people in all of our different churches calling on him, I need you to pray aloud with those around you.

Simply pray, Heavenly Father, I trust you. And I give you my whole life. Forgive my sins. change me make me new fill me with your spirit so i can follow you renew my mind with truth my life is not my own i give it to you thank you for new life now you have mine can i get somebody to praise god to thank you for new life in christ