Date: 2025-12-12
AO: 3rd-f
Q: Paycheck
PAX: Mr Rogers, Bionic, Wee Man, Web, Yogi (Florence), Dipstick, Nurse Jackie (F3 Florence)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
CONDITIONS: 70 and well lit (very, very well lit)
WARMUP: Philippians 4: 4:9: 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding; will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 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 about such things. ? Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
THE THANG: Peace
We walked through Philippians 4:4–9, discussing peace.
Peace is fragile, especially from Thanksgiving through New Years. Peace can easily be broken. How ironic is if for an Officer of Peace to tell someone “remain calm” or as Mr Rogers mentioned how big of a mistake it is for us to tell our spouse “you need to calm down”
Despite the turbulence, however, there is a way to seek it and find it.
Your world and its worries can be illustrated with a bowl. And ping pong balls. Each worry can be represented with a ball. Think long enough and the bowl is full of balled
up worries, ready to bounce around in your world. Enter God: Seek the Lord and allow his Holy Spirit into your bowl. The ping pong balls float away when you fill your bowl properly with the Lord.
Biblical (real) peace has two elements.
2 types of peace:
– Objective Reality: Example: WWI Christmas Eve Truce
– Subjective experience: Our emotional experience of peace
“Formula” for peace:
V6-9 teach the path to peace is: pray + think + practice = peace. Where do you see that in the text?
V6: “by prayer and petition…present your requests to God”
V8: “think about such things”
V9: “put it into practice”
Nurse Jackie (F3 Florence) added thanksgiving as a vital element to the formula, and it bears repeating.
…What is missing in the above equation?????
Emphasis:
God as the source.
Note the reading below…
The passage is meant to be less about peace and more about God. Less about our getting peace and more about our getting God – and His peace with Him.
That theme carried us to John 16:33, where Jesus grounds peace not in ease, but in His victory. Read John 16:33 and see how Jesus describes the foundation for peace.
“These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 ASV
Illustration: Remember the balls of care being removed by the fullness of God’s perfect power and wisdom and love – so worry is an impossibility for God.
Peace in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word “shalom” meaning whole, or complete, or settled – so a stone wall intact is said to have “peace.”
From there, we explored the Old Testament understanding of peace: shalom-not calm circumstances, but wholeness, completeness, settledness. Like a stone wall fully intact, peace is about structural integrity, not the absence of pressure.
How does this understanding of peace resonate with you?
What immediately surfaced was that Paul doesn’t treat peace as a feeling to chase, but as something rooted in God Himself.
Paul’s pathway to peace in verses 6–9 became clear:
pray + think + practice = peace
Yet we noted what’s missing if we stop there:
God Himself. Peace is not the product of a formula; it is the result of relationship.
We revisited the illustration of the jar filled with water: God’s power, wisdom, and love. The shaking doesn’t stop, but its impact changes completely when the jar is full.
We reflected on Isaiah 26, discussing how we’ve sometimes “imported” peace from other people and how God invites us to do the same with Him.
Dipstick gave a great example on how we do this in family situations sometimes.
We closed by sharing personal applications and lifting prayers for ourselves, for each other, and for a deeper trust in God as the true source of peace.
Takeaway:
Peace isn’t something we manufacture.
It’s something we receive as we draw nearer to God.
PRAYER REQUEST: pastors
F3 Florence 
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