WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.800 Music. 00:00:06.796 --> 00:00:13.071 Life Change Podcast. I'm Pastor Luke and I believe that you can experience lasting 00:00:13.246 --> 00:00:20.806 life change for your good and for God's glory. Today we're gonna pick up and we're 00:00:20.806 --> 00:00:28.306 gonna talk about this theme of finding true peace. Finding true peace. Last week 00:00:28.306 --> 00:00:33.246 we talked about serenity and kind of how this idea of what we think of serenity 00:00:33.246 --> 00:00:42.246 might not be the right one. And we're gonna pick up this idea of peace. A couple weeks ago we actually we talked about sanity. You remember that 00:00:42.246 --> 00:00:48.711 conversation we were talking about insanity versus sanity. This idea of we 00:00:48.986 --> 00:00:55.506 keep living in a certain way that keeps giving us bad results, right? That popular 00:00:55.506 --> 00:00:59.342 definition of insanity of doing the same thing over and over again expecting, 00:00:59.955 --> 00:01:05.586 different results, wanting things to get better, but not doing the things that we need to be doing 00:01:05.586 --> 00:01:06.760 in order to get better. 00:01:07.255 --> 00:01:14.866 Where we talked about, the definition I worked with was, insanity is a way of being that we've gotten comfortable 00:01:14.866 --> 00:01:19.535 with, that leads to a place that we do not wanna go. 00:01:20.003 --> 00:01:25.827 It's a way of being that we live in, that we do, and it's a way of doing things. 00:01:26.475 --> 00:01:34.426 That is slowly leading us in a direction that we actually don't want to go in, but for some reason we are comfortable and we don't want to 00:01:34.426 --> 00:01:40.666 change. That's insanity, right? And so what is sanity? Sanity is kind of living life on life's 00:01:40.666 --> 00:01:46.106 terms. It's beginning to say, you know what? No, how do I actually line up my actions with where 00:01:46.106 --> 00:01:53.466 I want to go and begin to experience wholeness? And so the Bible has a different way or word for 00:01:53.466 --> 00:01:57.290 talking about what we have called sanity in one of our last sessions. 00:01:58.415 --> 00:02:06.391 The Bible has this concept known as Shalom, which is a Hebrew word, and we translate that to mean peace. 00:02:06.505 --> 00:02:15.265 Shalom, our definition of peace is a little bit different though than what exactly Shalom means. 00:02:15.565 --> 00:02:18.985 When we think of peace, one thing might come into our mind, but actually we need to be 00:02:18.985 --> 00:02:22.905 thinking of something else. 00:02:22.905 --> 00:02:30.825 Let's imagine for a moment that there's a major city and this major city is hit by a massive storm. 00:02:30.825 --> 00:02:38.664 This storm is record-breaking, it's huge, and it absolutely brings about devastation to the city. 00:02:39.125 --> 00:02:46.985 In the middle of the storm, that city is not at peace. There's nothing peaceful about that city experiencing that storm. 00:02:46.985 --> 00:02:52.865 All the wind, it's knocking things down, things are collapsing, there's water damage, there's 00:02:53.230 --> 00:02:55.958 there's awful things happening in the city. It's not at peace. 00:02:57.272 --> 00:03:04.177 The morning after the storm. So, storm ends, the sun comes up, storm is gone, 00:03:05.113 --> 00:03:08.714 and we might be tempted to say, ah, the city is now at peace, right? 00:03:09.065 --> 00:03:12.702 Because the storm's gone, city's at peace, there's no storm. 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:16.915 But if we were to look at that city, and we were to look at all the damage, 00:03:17.482 --> 00:03:25.825 that was left behind by that storm, We were to look at the telephone wires down, we were to look at the water damage, the flooding, 00:03:25.825 --> 00:03:29.887 the broken things, the damage to personal private property. 00:03:30.745 --> 00:03:33.825 Could we say that's at peace? 00:03:35.433 --> 00:03:40.243 In one way, we might say, well, I guess there's a kind of peace because there's no more storm. 00:03:40.978 --> 00:03:44.444 And that's the definition of peace I think we often have in our heads. 00:03:45.011 --> 00:03:51.363 But the idea of shalom, the biblical idea of peace, is more like wholeness. 00:03:52.643 --> 00:03:56.643 The biblical idea of peace, if we were to apply that to that situation, 00:03:56.786 --> 00:04:01.043 that city would not be at peace until the damage from the storm was repaired, 00:04:01.422 --> 00:04:05.608 until things were put back the way they were supposed to be. 00:04:07.382 --> 00:04:10.857 Think about it in kind of maybe an interpersonal level, right? 00:04:11.424 --> 00:04:16.043 If you've had close relationships of any kind with family or friends or a loved one, 00:04:16.043 --> 00:04:19.904 we might say, well, I'm not arguing, right? 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:22.043 Like we're at peace right now, right? 00:04:22.425 --> 00:04:28.978 We're not having any conflict. And what you mean by that is that you're not fighting, right? 00:04:29.043 --> 00:04:37.341 But we all know that just because words aren't being exchanged, that there's necessarily peace in the relationship, right? 00:04:38.548 --> 00:04:47.757 There could be the silent treatment going on, right? That looks peaceful from the outside, but we know that that is not a sign of wholeness, it's not a sign of peace. 00:04:49.116 --> 00:04:53.752 Right? Or, you know, if we were to think even about like the Cold War, right? You 00:04:53.883 --> 00:04:59.643 know, Cold War where nations are just, you know, there's no active fighting going 00:04:59.643 --> 00:05:05.163 on, but there's not exactly peace going on either, right? And so we need to have a 00:05:05.163 --> 00:05:11.010 more comprehensive definition of peace. Peace is this wholeness, it's this Restoration. 00:05:12.396 --> 00:05:19.730 Of things being the way that they are supposed to be. And so often we're tempted to settle for a, 00:05:19.913 --> 00:05:21.587 what I call a false peace. 00:05:22.137 --> 00:05:28.370 And what we settle for when we settle for a false peace is really a form of insanity. 00:05:28.582 --> 00:05:35.410 We might be tempted to stay inside of our little room and not look outside, if we're back in the city. 00:05:35.410 --> 00:05:37.972 Let's imagine we're back in the city for a moment. 00:05:38.512 --> 00:05:46.450 We might be tempted to settle for this false peace, stay in our little room, in our little house, not look outside at the storm and all the 00:05:46.450 --> 00:05:47.550 mess that it's made. 00:05:48.330 --> 00:05:54.130 That's not peace. Right? If I just cover my eyes and I don't look at the mess, that's not peace. 00:05:54.130 --> 00:05:55.530 That's a delusion. 00:05:55.530 --> 00:06:02.210 That's living with willful blindness. That's not willing to face reality. 00:06:02.210 --> 00:06:07.570 We might say we aren't having any conflict in our life right now, but that doesn't mean 00:06:07.652 --> 00:06:12.490 we if we're not having any conflict that might be true but are you not having 00:06:12.490 --> 00:06:18.086 conflict because you're lying because you're keeping secrets right like. 00:06:19.076 --> 00:06:22.890 Sometimes we're like I just want to have peace so I'm not gonna tell the truth 00:06:22.890 --> 00:06:26.810 right now or I'm not gonna be honest I'm gonna keep a secret because I don't want 00:06:26.810 --> 00:06:32.770 to have a fight well okay but that's not peace right that's a delusion that's a 00:06:32.939 --> 00:06:38.850 false peace. We might be avoiding the damage and that's all around our feet, 00:06:38.850 --> 00:06:43.715 pretending that everything is how it's supposed to be, but it's really not. Peace 00:06:44.130 --> 00:06:50.570 is more than the absence of pain, it is the presence of wholeness. Hear that 00:06:50.570 --> 00:06:58.110 again, I want you to catch that. Peace is more than the absence of pain, it is the 00:06:58.110 --> 00:07:00.630 presence of wholeness. 00:07:01.909 --> 00:07:08.079 Throughout the Bible, the Bible uses this word peace to refer to wholeness, this full state of 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:15.279 being. When it comes to Jesus in the New Testament, He is described as bringing peace. Let me read a 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:23.679 few passages for you where Jesus talks about this wholeness, this restoration. John 14, verse 27 00:07:23.679 --> 00:07:31.519 says, this is Jesus speaking, he says, peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:37.801 give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. He's like, 00:07:38.116 --> 00:07:44.079 I'm going to give you a peace that's my peace. It's not a peace like the world. It's a peace 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:51.119 that's different. In Colossians chapter 1 verses 19 through 20 says this, for God was pleased to 00:07:51.119 --> 00:07:54.839 to have His fullness dwell in Him, talking about Jesus, 00:07:55.121 --> 00:08:02.759 and through Him to reconcile, to reconcile, to bring all things, whether things on earth or in heaven, 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:07.058 by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. 00:08:07.119 --> 00:08:12.460 Reconciliation is bringing things back together the way they're supposed to be. 00:08:13.171 --> 00:08:18.439 Romans 5, verse one says this, "'Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:24.072 we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:29.479 The world was thrown into disarray and chaos when the world entered into it, and with that 00:08:29.479 --> 00:08:35.307 came brokenness that has affected both you and I and every person who's ever existed. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:43.559 But Christ came to bring peace, to reverse the curse, to come and bring about restoration 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:46.695 in the life of you and me. 00:08:46.999 --> 00:08:49.288 So often we settle for a false peace. 00:08:49.719 --> 00:08:51.719 And he said, you know what? 00:08:51.313 --> 00:08:57.083 Pain's not too bad, there's nothing like acute, there's nothing like awful happening right now. 00:08:58.380 --> 00:09:03.723 I'm going to settle for that. We're going to settle for complacency over the way things are. 00:09:05.132 --> 00:09:10.843 Whether or not that's actual wholeness, whether that's actually healing, whether that's actual, 00:09:11.478 --> 00:09:18.043 truth or actual reality. We will settle for things just being comfortable sometimes, 00:09:18.043 --> 00:09:24.243 not actually settle for wholeness or peace. If you've ever injured one of your 00:09:24.243 --> 00:09:29.523 legs or your feet, right, like I've injured my foot and my legs a couple of 00:09:29.523 --> 00:09:33.683 times and one of the things I noticed every time I do that is that it makes me 00:09:33.683 --> 00:09:38.723 walk funny. And when you walk funny, when you're kind of carrying yourself 00:09:38.723 --> 00:09:47.763 different because one of your legs is hurt or injured, your posture gets kind of different, you hold your back in a different way, and what you start doing 00:09:47.763 --> 00:09:51.743 is you start experiencing pains elsewhere in the body, 00:09:51.800 --> 00:09:54.896 even if you get to a place where you can kind of walk 00:09:54.977 --> 00:09:59.863 and you're not experiencing any pain in your foot anymore because you're kind of limping or you're walking differently 00:09:59.863 --> 00:10:00.757 so you don't hurt it, 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:06.050 you start to feel pain elsewhere in your body, like in your back because you're holding yourself strained. 00:10:07.364 --> 00:10:15.620 And that's true about the way our lives and our souls work. See, the thing is, and this is a really deep truth, 00:10:15.934 --> 00:10:22.929 this is a hard truth to kind of see at first, but if you have, say, an addiction, right, 00:10:23.534 --> 00:10:29.978 maybe you drink too much alcohol, maybe you abuse a drug, maybe you run to pornography, 00:10:30.392 --> 00:10:35.854 maybe whatever your unhealthy coping mechanism is that you run to, the thing of choice 00:10:35.854 --> 00:10:44.334 that you think will fix you, make you feel better, whatever that is, that's not really your problem. 00:10:44.334 --> 00:10:47.208 That in that analogy is like your sore back. 00:10:47.934 --> 00:10:53.654 There's actually probably an old injury in your foot that we need to talk about too. 00:10:54.032 --> 00:11:01.494 A lot of times in recovery circles or in AA people will talk about, I don't have a drinking 00:11:01.756 --> 00:11:04.493 problem, I have a living problem. 00:11:04.682 --> 00:11:11.803 Yeah, like absolutely alcoholism, abusing alcohol is definitely a problem, but it's 00:11:12.082 --> 00:11:14.827 a secondary problem for many people. 00:11:15.494 --> 00:11:21.552 There's actually often another internal emotional, spiritual, life problem. 00:11:22.254 --> 00:11:26.254 Maybe there was something that happened early in life, something about the way we grew up 00:11:26.254 --> 00:11:31.714 or the way we were raised or what we experienced as a child, or maybe it's just like life is 00:11:31.714 --> 00:11:37.234 just chaotic and I don't have the skills to manage it, that's a problem. That's a 00:11:37.234 --> 00:11:41.914 limp in the leg that we've been given. We've started to walk in a way that's 00:11:41.914 --> 00:11:47.274 not healthy, that's not whole, that's not restored, and it's causing us to have 00:11:47.506 --> 00:11:53.394 other problems like alcoholism, like broken relationships. And the same thing 00:11:53.394 --> 00:11:59.394 comes to whether you're dealing with an explicit addiction or not. If you have 00:11:59.686 --> 00:12:05.594 trauma or hurt or a past thing that you can't seem to get over, I guarantee you 00:12:05.594 --> 00:12:11.194 it's impacting your life in other areas. It's impacting how you experience your 00:12:11.344 --> 00:12:16.781 day-to-day life because it's an unhealed or incompletely healed wound that's 00:12:16.914 --> 00:12:24.154 causing you to live life differently. And that's scary, right? That's hard, right? 00:12:24.154 --> 00:12:28.374 Like, oh, like, can't we just ignore it? Can't it just go away? Like, if we just 00:12:28.374 --> 00:12:34.214 ignore it, won't it go away?" And the sad truth is that no, it's not going to go 00:12:34.214 --> 00:12:38.747 away. You can ignore it for as long as you want, that's your choice. But the 00:12:38.974 --> 00:12:44.499 thing is, is it's not going to go away. But there's good news for us too, because. 00:12:45.435 --> 00:12:52.334 Jesus wants people who are injured. Jesus wants people who've got a limp. 00:12:51.710 --> 00:12:57.320 Listen to these words from Jesus from Matthew 9, verses 12-13. 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:05.960 On hearing this, Jesus said, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 00:13:07.653 --> 00:13:11.480 But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 00:13:11.686 --> 00:13:15.960 For I have not come to call the righteous, but to call sinners. 00:13:16.871 --> 00:13:24.154 Jesus says right here, He's like, look, I'm not here to find people who've got their life all together. 00:13:24.874 --> 00:13:30.672 I didn't come down to earth to die on the cross for people who are pretty just all right. 00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:31.941 They don't really have any problems. 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:34.462 I came here for the sick. 00:13:34.885 --> 00:13:39.152 I didn't come to take care of the healthy people. I came to help the sick people. 00:13:39.206 --> 00:13:43.640 I came to take care of the people who need my help. 00:13:43.640 --> 00:13:51.720 If you think you've got life all together, okay, like Jesus is for the person who's sick, 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:53.411 who's in need of him. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:59.200 Now the reality of that is, is if you think you've got life all together, that you're 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:03.881 all perfect, you got it all figured out, I guarantee you that there's something that 00:14:04.160 --> 00:14:08.440 you're not actually addressing, that you don't have it all figured out, that there will be 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:11.240 some brokenness in your life at some point. 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:16.920 The fact of the matter is that we're all human, we're all sick, we're all sinners, we've all 00:14:16.920 --> 00:14:18.654 got brokenness in our life. 00:14:18.800 --> 00:14:23.074 We all need Jesus to come and bring about healing in those places. 00:14:23.320 --> 00:14:25.423 And so that's great news. 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:29.970 So often times I'll tell people that church isn't for perfect people. 00:14:30.640 --> 00:14:37.531 Church isn't for the person who's got it all together. Church is for the person who doesn't have it all figured out, right? 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:44.904 It's a place where we get to come and we get to meet with Jesus and experience that healing that He promises. 00:14:46.129 --> 00:14:52.799 The last thing that I want to talk about is this myth of happiness. 00:14:52.799 --> 00:15:01.333 Talking about this, we can't avoid pain, we can't avoid seeking a false peace, but what 00:15:01.739 --> 00:15:06.348 we often do when we seek a false peace is we are believing a myth. 00:15:06.499 --> 00:15:11.083 We're believing this myth of happiness. I've talked about this before, but let's talk about it again. 00:15:11.699 --> 00:15:17.142 At some point, someone sold you a myth. Someone told you a lie. 00:15:17.231 --> 00:15:20.580 And it's a really nice lie. It's a really nice myth. Wish it was true. 00:15:20.899 --> 00:15:23.659 It's just not. And the myth goes something like this. 00:15:25.559 --> 00:15:30.285 If you can manage your life just the right way, if you can find the right method, if 00:15:30.499 --> 00:15:34.831 you can watch the right YouTube video, if you can read the right self-help book, you, 00:15:35.539 --> 00:15:42.579 find the right technique in order to do this thing right, to do that, to find the right TikTok hack. 00:15:44.058 --> 00:15:49.694 You can live your life and do things in such a way that you will always be happy, 00:15:50.432 --> 00:15:53.448 and you will endure very little to no suffering. 00:15:54.379 --> 00:15:55.219 That's the myth. 00:15:56.247 --> 00:16:00.977 Right? If we just find the right method, if we find the right mixture of things, if we, 00:16:01.697 --> 00:16:06.861 get rid of all the uncomfortable things, we just kind of ignore them, push them away. If we 00:16:06.969 --> 00:16:13.217 cut ties with anybody we think might cause us harm, or might make us like regret or feel hurt 00:16:13.217 --> 00:16:19.137 at some point, if we just, which by the way, that's all relationships. If we get rid of all 00:16:19.137 --> 00:16:24.017 the things that make us uncomfortable, and we just kind of try and tweak it, and we just try a 00:16:24.017 --> 00:16:27.017 different method, a different way of doing this, and a different way of doing 00:16:27.017 --> 00:16:34.066 that, we can experience happiness. Right? That's the myth. And that, done right, you, 00:16:34.697 --> 00:16:40.457 should be happy pretty much all the time, if not most of the time. That's the myth. 00:16:40.457 --> 00:16:46.543 Well, I hate to break it to you, but that's as far as that myth goes. It's not 00:16:46.897 --> 00:16:52.177 reality. That's not your life up to this point. It's not been my life up to this 00:16:52.177 --> 00:16:58.217 point. Upon closer examination of this, we begin to find cracks in the foundations of 00:16:58.217 --> 00:17:05.448 that philosophy. Like, let's just think about brushing your teeth for a second. I don't. 00:17:06.217 --> 00:17:11.119 Know anybody who particularly likes brushing their teeth. I know people who like the feeling 00:17:11.272 --> 00:17:15.777 of having just brushed their teeth. But I don't know anyone who really loves having 00:17:16.070 --> 00:17:21.377 just brushed their teeth. Particularly little kids. I haven't met a little toddler who's 00:17:21.377 --> 00:17:25.577 just so excited that well I don't I guess maybe I have there are kids that 00:17:25.577 --> 00:17:28.657 like brushing their teeth but most of the time particularly when they're first 00:17:28.657 --> 00:17:33.937 learning kids don't like the brush their teeth it's not fun they would rather 00:17:33.937 --> 00:17:44.257 just not brush their teeth well okay well if we thought if we follow this kind of idea of like minimize suffering in your life to maximize happiness okay 00:17:44.257 --> 00:17:48.839 well brushing your teeth makes the kid unhappy so let's not brush your teeth, 00:17:49.766 --> 00:17:54.697 Okay, well, the kid's not going to be happy later when he starts losing teeth because 00:17:54.697 --> 00:17:57.715 of cavities, or he's having a lot of dental work done, right? 00:17:59.092 --> 00:18:04.266 Not going to be happy then, right? We all know that basic principle that sometimes we need to undergo. 00:18:05.529 --> 00:18:12.106 Momentary or short forms of unhappiness in order to experience long-term payoff, right? Like that's 00:18:12.106 --> 00:18:19.306 a basic principle, but like that doesn't jive with this whole idea of like we can be happy all of the 00:18:19.306 --> 00:18:25.145 time. That's not true. We sometimes do actually have to do things that we just don't like. 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:31.786 Like. Happiness is not always the goal. It's just not, because if it was, then yeah, you 00:18:31.786 --> 00:18:38.026 should avoid pain at all costs. But oftentimes we know that we're shooting for something 00:18:38.270 --> 00:18:44.906 better, right? Why do we go to the gym? Well, we go to the gym, at least I go to the gym 00:18:44.906 --> 00:18:49.586 when I go to the gym, not because I love going to the gym. I go to the gym because I'm chasing 00:18:49.586 --> 00:18:56.437 after something else, something better than just momentary happiness or momentary pleasure. 00:18:56.646 --> 00:19:04.886 And that's all of life. And so, this whole session, this whole talk here, is meant to be an encouragement to you, 00:19:04.886 --> 00:19:11.186 to say, all right, don't settle for a false peace. 00:19:11.186 --> 00:19:15.477 Don't buy the myth of happiness and say that, you know what, I should just always do what 00:19:15.639 --> 00:19:17.986 feels best or pursue happiness. 00:19:17.986 --> 00:19:25.386 No, no, no. wholeness look like? What does living like Christ look like? What does living in accordance 00:19:25.386 --> 00:19:30.906 with my values look like? And if that's hard, that's a good thing to chase after. 00:19:31.329 --> 00:19:37.906 What's the limp? What's the wound that needs healed so that I can live in wholeness? 00:19:39.522 --> 00:19:44.851 Remember, just because the storm is over doesn't mean the city is at peace. 00:19:45.142 --> 00:19:49.362 Just because there isn't chaos immediately going on in your life right now because things 00:19:49.362 --> 00:19:54.642 are kind of calm doesn't mean that there's peace in your heart, in your soul, in the 00:19:54.642 --> 00:19:56.770 way that you're living your life. 00:19:57.482 --> 00:20:08.095 There is a place where you need to find and seek peace and wholeness, restoration, being put back together. 00:20:08.562 --> 00:20:15.082 So I encourage you this week to wrestle with that, to ask yourself, where are you settling 00:20:15.082 --> 00:20:16.746 for false peace in your life? 00:20:17.682 --> 00:20:26.099 Are you not dealing with a wound that needs healed? Are you not addressing a relationship that needs addressed? 00:20:26.762 --> 00:20:33.622 Are you keeping secrets or hiding things in a way to avoid having conflict, when really 00:20:33.622 --> 00:20:40.822 you need to have conflict in order to begin to seek wholeness and peace. 00:20:40.822 --> 00:20:46.162 So give yourself some time this week to reflect on that, to ask yourself, where am I settling 00:20:46.162 --> 00:20:52.022 for false peace, and where is Christ calling me to experience greater healing and a greater 00:20:52.022 --> 00:20:57.418 sense of restoredness and wholeness in my life? 00:20:57.662 --> 00:21:04.062 Thank you for joining me this week, for listening in, in this conversation. 00:21:04.222 --> 00:21:10.482 You can always drop me a comment, send me a message, or email me at luke at conduitministries.com. 00:21:10.482 --> 00:21:20.082 Be happy to hear from you. Next week we're going to start talking about this idea of the false self, of identifying 00:21:20.491 --> 00:21:26.162 what the false self is, and so I hope you join me for that conversation. 00:21:26.613 --> 00:21:27.756 I'll talk to you all later. 00:21:27.760 --> 00:21:39.271 Music.