Untitled Sermon (2)

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

In Philippians 4:7, Paul talks about a peace that transcends all understanding. Why is this peace so important? Well, as College students and staff, we know firsthand how frustrating and stressful it can be to fit classes, homework, friendships, relationships, workstudies, upcoming events, proper sleep, recreational activities, and so much more into a single day… every day… semester after semester. How can we NOT worry about anything when we have so much to do in what seems to be so little time? In 1 Peter 5:7, Peter says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.”

Even as a Bible college student, we can often forget how important it is to have peace and trust that God is in control of our situations. Francis Chan in his book, “Crazy Love,” states that, “Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives.” This is why it’s so important to give our worries to God, and in return receive His peace, so we can make it through college growing rather than worrying. We’re going to look at 3 steps Paul gives us in order to combat our worries with God’s peace that goes beyond anything the world could give. Our first step is simply…

“Don’t worry about anything,” (Philippians 4:6a)

The Britannica Dictionary’s definition for worry is, “to think about problems or fears : to feel or show fear and concern because you think that something bad has happened or could happen.” We tend to let ourselves worry about the stresses and challenges in our life that we don’t feel like we have control over, and therefore we begin to believe that because of our lack of control, the worst outcome for those situations becomes a reality to our minds.

Scriptures tell us not to worry about anything because our worries derive from our desire to have everything in our control, when reality is: God is ultimately in control, and He wants us to trust that He is. If we can stop ourselves from flooding our minds with worries, we can begin to trust that our situations are in God’s hands and not out of His control.

Transition: So if we’re not to worry about anything, what are we supposed to do? We can’t just clear our minds and leave them empty, otherwise the worries will just come back. Paul’s next step is that we can train our minds to stop worrying when we…

Conversate with God (Philippians 4:6b)

“...Pray about everything.” We need to bring our worries and cares to God just as Peter says to do. How we do this is simply praying about everything that’s going on. We can talk to God about the weight of our lives, even when it seems like too much, because He’s God! He can, will, and wants to handle all our worries, so that He can lead us to the place where His peace is found, which is ultimately from Him and His presence.

“Tell God what you need,”. When we bring to God our requests, we’re acknowledging to Him for our sake that we can’t do all of this on our own. God created us for a relationship with Him, and with that comes depending on Him to provide for our needs. We aren’t meant to bear everything alone. We need to tell God what our needs are, even if He already knows them, simply so that we can settle in our minds (which is the warzone against worry) that God is the only one who can help us in these times.

“And thank Him for all He’s done.” Conversing with God doesn’t just involve giving God our requests and expecting Him to take care of them and that's that. God isn’t a genie who just grants our wishes, He’s our Provider, our Creator, our Father. When we begin to acknowledge and think about all the blessings and ways He’s worked in our lives, we can already begin to see the worries dissipate because we know God has been faithful before in every other circumstance, so He will be again.

Transition: Alright, now we’ve begun to truly set our minds at ease in order to be at peace rather than stressed and worried, but we need to keep this mentality. In order to prepare to fight worries that are to come in the future, we must create a new habit in our process of thinking that becomes natural, allowing us to withstand what is to come. Paul’s final step for us to receive the peace of God that transcends all understanding is to…

“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

Filling our minds with that which is ultimately positive is the “cherry on top” for holding onto that peace. We’re as humans, nature inclined to think negatively when situations aren’t going as planned, but if we were to train our minds, through depending on God, to naturally dwell on the good things in life that God has surrounded us with, we can create a more joyful, positive mindset and find strength in God through that joy.

Conclusion: So as we come close to the end of the Semester, with all the weight and worries from finishing up classes and preparing for exams, let’s go into it with our minds fixated on the peace of God, knowing that He will provide our every need in order for us to finish off well.