Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #96： How to Have Peace in a Pandemic

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Real Christianity. Today we are talking about how to have peace in a pandemic.

00:00:05.020 How to have peace in a pandemic. It seems like all we're talking about for the last several

00:00:09.340 episodes is pandemic related, which I think is, I guess that's right, because it's very helpful. 1.00

00:00:14.900 Lots of Christians are going through uncertainty, confusion, doubt, frustration, suffering, and so 0.98

00:00:22.740 many different forms. So today we want to talk about peace and how do we find peace? How do we

00:00:29.120 get peace? How do we attain that peace that's promised in scripture? A few things. One,

00:00:34.800 Veronica's back. So she's here and I'm trying to do every other episode with her until we can get

00:00:42.080 back on a regular babysitting schedule for these. If you're watching this on YouTube, which all

00:00:47.800 these videos are on YouTube, you might see that I check our camera to make sure that it's recording

00:00:53.180 today because uh we are having an issue with our cards sometimes doing holding the record we tried

00:01:00.640 recording this episode last night yeah we tried recording this last night at like almost 10 o'clock

00:01:04.520 we were so tired we almost were like let's just record it tomorrow and we're like no let's push

00:01:08.280 through let's record it and we did and then we finished the episode only to find out it didn't

00:01:14.480 record yeah it was such a bummer it was a big bummer last night i passed out after that because

00:01:20.220 that's how tired we were. So we are excited to talk about peace today. And before we get

00:01:27.500 started, I want to mention one thing. If you guys heard a few weeks ago, we launched a

00:01:33.820 brand new companion ministry called standinvictory.org. And this is a how to overcome or beat the

00:01:42.140 bondage of pornography program. It's an online program. It's a gospel centered program. It's

00:01:48.360 three short videos for people that are struggling with pornography and for Christians that are

00:01:53.800 struggling with pornography. We've had probably 200 people, maybe more, that have gone through

00:02:01.200 the program already. And surprisingly, well, I don't want to say surprisingly, 25 to 30% of those

00:02:07.180 are women. So ladies, if you are struggling, this program is not just for men. It's for men and

00:02:12.240 women, and it's something that will be edifying and helpful for you as well. But I wanted to share

00:02:19.400 just one really powerful testimonial from a young man who went through the program, and there's

00:02:26.780 actually several of these. You can see them on the homepage of the website, and you can read these.

00:02:33.000 But this is from Kyle B., who is 21 and lives in Canada, and he's given us permission to share

00:02:40.460 this testimony. He says, I just finished the course and my life is changed. I've tried so

00:02:46.800 many programs and different methods to be set free from bondage, but you brought what many others

00:02:51.740 don't to this program, the gospel. I've preached, led, and encouraged others to be set free from sin

00:02:57.580 without truly knowing it myself. Now I do, and being born again is so much more than I presented

00:03:03.980 it to be. It's a state of being that I can't really put words to other than to say the Lord

00:03:09.000 is great it wasn't until your course that i recognized how important true repentance is

00:03:15.440 i loved jesus as savior but not as lord but now i see that he is lord and there is no shame in

00:03:23.060 being a slave to christ thank you and glory be to god i'm beginning to live and love in freedom

00:03:28.800 so guys that was i mean awesome yeah just and there's so many more that are like that so if

00:03:35.480 you are in bondage to pornography please go check out the program at standinvictory.org

00:03:42.440 okay now we're going to move on to the topic of the episode uh we're talking about peace

00:03:48.280 we live in a world that's overrun with the antithetical attribute of peace which is chaos

00:03:53.700 i think that anybody could describe the world right now would use the word chaos it's just

00:03:59.980 wild. And there's not a lot of predictability right now. There's not a lot of settled hearts

00:04:06.560 right now. And a lot of Christians are seeking a greater understanding of heavenly peace. They

00:04:11.580 want to understand because there's now a greater need to have it. And so how should we look at the

00:04:18.300 scriptures to determine peace? Where do we find that peace? So we're going to answer two questions.

00:04:24.460 One for Veronica from a young mother, and then one from me from a husband and father.

00:04:30.200 And Veronica is going to give a response, and I'll give a response, and hopefully that'll be helpful in this journey.

00:04:35.620 So, question to Veronica says, Veronica, I'm a young Christian mom, and I have a new baby.

00:04:43.000 My husband's employment is somewhat uncertain, and this pandemic has me constantly uneasy.

00:04:47.800 As a woman, how have you found peace in this season?

00:04:53.680 Yeah. First, I love that she stated that she's a Christian woman, because without the foundation of Christ, there can be no true peace.

00:05:03.060 You can't have peace. Matthew Henry once said, what peace can they have who are not at peace with God?

00:05:09.460 And another quote I have written down here is by C.S. Lewis.

00:05:13.040 And he said, God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself because it is not there.

00:05:19.180 there is no such thing. So to start, um, if you haven't repented of your sin, um, and put all of

00:05:28.000 your hope and trust in Jesus Christ, um, and have actually made him Lord of your life, like that

00:05:34.720 testimony had mentioned, um, that's a good place to start. Um, any desire to find peace in this

00:05:41.680 world without being at peace with God, without knowing the Lord is going to be impossible. Um,

00:05:48.280 Okay, so now jumping to your question, when I heard you reading that question, Dale, right off the bat, there were two scriptures that came to my mind.

00:05:58.100 The first one, which we all, you know, if you've been a Christian for longer than a year, you've probably definitely heard the scripture.

00:06:06.600 Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

00:06:10.820 let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding

00:06:16.800 will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus that's Philippians verse 6 through 7 and

00:06:22.860 we're actually going to go through that a little bit later Dale's going to break that down for us

00:06:26.040 but then the other scripture that I thought of was look at the birds of the air they neither sow

00:06:32.460 nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not of more

00:06:38.480 value than they in which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life and that

00:06:44.620 was um matthew 26 to 27 so 6 26 to 27 yeah did i say something else yeah i think you just forgot

00:06:52.220 the six oh matthew 6 26 to 27 um so if you're a believer um it's really important to recognize

00:07:00.520 that worrying and being anxious is it is a sin it's yeah it's the opposite of the instruction

00:07:09.160 of scripture yeah um and we as believers need to flee from the temptation of worry and anxiety

00:07:18.100 we need to recognize that when we're starting to feel that creep in you're being tempted

00:07:23.180 um so yeah we can worry and toil and wrestle with our thoughts and our minds and always thinking

00:07:30.640 about the worst possible outcome or the worst possible scenario um but it is in these difficult

00:07:36.900 moments um that we actually get to practice what we preach as christians you actually get to live

00:07:43.100 out your christian faith um we get to pray we get to cling to the word of god we get to

00:07:50.680 enter his gates with thanksgiving as the scripture said because let's face it we all have many many

00:07:57.880 things to be thankful for you know the Lord who is sustaining every breath that you are breathing

00:08:03.740 and every word that is coming out of your mouth and allowed you to open your eyes today we have

00:08:09.080 something to be thankful for all the time so we get to cling to him we get to find our peace and

00:08:14.920 our comfort and the only one who can truly provide that to us, which is God. Um, you

00:08:23.140 know, I hear people often say, uh, have faith, but are you practicing having faith? Um, or

00:08:29.820 don't worry, but are you one to always be worried or stressed out about something? Um,

00:08:36.900 and then, uh, another scripture I was, I wanted to share is, uh, first Peter chapter five,

00:08:41.860 verse six through seven it says humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of god so that at

00:08:47.660 the proper time he may exalt you casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you

00:08:52.440 so first you just heard me read that scripture i want to be clear that this is actually

00:08:58.820 a command to christians um you know but what peter is saying here is don't cast your fears

00:09:04.960 somewhere else uh don't bury them in denial or hide them uh behind busyness cast them onto jesus

00:09:13.980 who cares about you he cares about you um and he wants to hear from his little children just as

00:09:21.180 we you know us as parents if our child is concerned or worried or scared about something

00:09:26.880 um we want them to come to us we want to be their safe place and the lord wants to be that to to us

00:09:33.580 to his children. Um, and then the last point that I wanted to make, um, is that when I recognize

00:09:40.620 that I'm starting to be tempted to walk in worry or fear or anxiety, um, because that happens,

00:09:48.440 it happens to everyone. Um, I try in those moments to remember as many moments as I possibly can,

00:09:57.060 um, to remember God's faithfulness in our own lives. Um, and usually when I do that,

00:10:03.420 I'm typically immediately humbled and I'm full of gratitude and I'm able to walk in peace,

00:10:11.900 knowing that the Lord has gone before me. Yeah, no, this is good. I think about,

00:10:18.920 I think about there's a pictograph that explains faith, right? It's this little image,

00:10:22.900 this illustration that explains faith and it's a man in a rowboat and he's going forward but his

00:10:29.620 back is facing the forward direction and you often see this people rowing in a boat before right

00:10:35.340 they're rowing but they're actually going backwards to their back right and the idea is that you can

00:10:40.820 move forward blindly because you can look behind you in your history and that's what you're saying

00:10:46.500 there is that when you can look at how faithful God has been in your life you go oh my goodness

00:10:52.360 look at that the Lord's came through here and there and there and there and there and he's kept

00:10:57.240 me as a child and he's kept me as a teen and he kept me as an adult and he kept me here and he

00:11:01.760 protected me and shielded me from that and he answered that prayer and he answered that prayer

00:11:04.620 and he answered that prayer it's a lot easier to have confidence in the faithfulness of God that

00:11:10.780 even if it's confusing or not the the circumstances or outcome that you expected the Lord will work

00:11:18.840 together all things for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And

00:11:22.220 you will see that eventually. Yeah. And just a side note, I want to encourage anyone that's

00:11:27.540 listening to this. Um, if you've been a Christian for any amount of time to write down some of those

00:11:34.640 moments, I have a list in one of my notebooks, just so all the things I could think of over the

00:11:39.840 last couple of few years, because we've had a really crazy last few years, um, of all these

00:11:45.300 moments but you know some of them are really big moments and some of them are pretty small

00:11:49.640 but they were significant and so i wrote them down and i want um you know just as a

00:11:54.460 keeping track of the lord's faithfulness um and it's been a blessing to be able to see it well

00:12:01.360 and memorializing what god's done in your life isn't even foreign to the scriptures

00:12:05.620 we know that god told the israelites several times to build monuments after they got done

00:12:14.640 with a big moment with God we see that Jacob built a monument after he had the encounter with

00:12:20.480 God this is a common thing to memorialize these moments so that you can look back historically

00:12:26.920 and go man God is faithful in my life check that out um we think of we talked about this last night

00:12:32.600 in our first time trying to do this is uh the lady from war room the movie right she she kept

00:12:38.420 track of all the prayers that had been answered um I think this is a great practice for us to

00:12:42.740 encounter. That's the movie that encouraged me to do that in the first place. Yeah. So if you

00:12:46.160 haven't watched that movie, go watch it. It's a good movie. Okay. We're going to answer one more

00:12:51.200 question here for kind of tailored towards the guys here. This is a gentleman asking me this

00:12:56.300 question. He says, Dale, I'm worried about the state of the world. I have a job, but it feels

00:13:02.760 like everything could change or disappear in a moment. I feel like I can't trust anyone. And

00:13:07.440 as a husband and father, I need to know how to be steady for my family. Do you have any advice?

00:13:12.740 So a couple things. Yeah, this is this is a difficult time, but what a wonderful time it is to get a chance to walk out that opportunity to demonstrate what it means to be a leader, a spiritual shepherd in your home, to guide your family in peace, to guide your family to the one who can give and generate and produce peace in our lives, to be the under shepherd of Christ.

00:13:40.000 This is a great opportunity to do that as a father, to teach your children that there's things that are changing.

00:13:46.320 But we as Christians can be at peace and why and talking to our wives.

00:13:52.340 You know, sometimes we often think that our wives are just handling it the way that we are.

00:13:56.760 And we need to check in with our wives and and find out what issues about this pandemic might be affecting them that aren't affecting you as a man.

00:14:04.600 and talk about those and have discussions about Scripture.

00:14:09.980 So I'm going to open up with probably one of the more manly quotes that are out there.

00:14:15.000 This is Oswald Chambers, and he died pretty young.

00:14:18.540 He probably wrote this in his 30s, and he wrote his utmost for my highest, I think,

00:14:25.400 or my utmost for his highest.

00:14:26.820 I get them confused, but it's a—

00:14:28.960 One or the other.

00:14:29.360 One or the other.

00:14:30.500 It'll come up if you type it in.

00:14:31.260 It's a great devotional.

00:14:32.260 I've read several passages from it but he's thought to be a fantastic theologian and strong

00:14:39.960 man of God and he wrote this and I thought it was very bold so guys just be ready for it put

00:14:48.840 your seatbelts on because this is kind of intense he says and this is I would say he's probably

00:14:53.280 talking to men at this point he says we imagine that a little anxiety and worry are an indication

00:14:58.840 of how really wise we are. It is much more an indication of how really broken we are.

00:15:04.980 Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way. Our Lord never worried. He was never

00:15:11.280 anxious because he was not, quote, out to get or to realize his own ideas. He was out to realize

00:15:18.540 God's ideas. Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God. Have you been bolstering up that weak soul

00:15:25.560 of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for god put all doubting away and

00:15:31.200 dwell in the shadow of the almighty deliberately tell god that you will not fret about a thing

00:15:36.780 all of our fret and worry is caused by calculating without god just a powerful uh kind of snap out of

00:15:46.400 it men type message and that's not a message that you necessarily would give to everybody in every

00:15:51.900 situation. I chose to do it because I'm talking to some guys here, and that's one side of a strong

00:15:57.900 argument, and there's also the gentle side, which hopefully we'll break down here in a second.

00:16:02.800 We're also saying this, all these truths, in the midst of dealing with our own struggle. We're

00:16:08.040 about to take our son, who's got to get a procedure. We got to drive him up to a hospital and go in

00:16:12.040 the middle of this pandemic kind of medical world, and he has to go through a procedure for his

00:16:18.960 trachea and um you know it makes us want to worry it makes us want to be concerned and

00:16:24.460 so we are right there with you guys in this moment we get to practice what we preach we get

00:16:30.080 to practice what we preach and lean and trusting god and the sovereignty of the lord that he will

00:16:34.480 work his will in these matters and he loves our son and he loves us more than we love our son

00:16:41.300 and even love ourselves and so uh i just wanted to share that because this isn't something that's

00:16:47.160 detached from our life. It's something that's very much attached to our life. But I want to

00:16:51.580 break down the verse that Veronica brought up, Philippians 4, 6 through 7. I want to read it

00:16:56.440 again. It says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with

00:17:01.140 thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses

00:17:06.960 all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So how many things

00:17:12.980 do we get to be anxious for none none this is a pretty intense statement uh be anxious for nothing

00:17:22.500 um it's like all right paul like really nothing uh yeah nothing a lot easier said than done yes

00:17:29.440 a lot easier said than done be anxious for nothing um christians that the antidote what he what he

00:17:36.400 offers in that passage is that christians aren't to panic they're to pray so just remember that

00:17:41.620 whenever you feel like you're panicking you're not called to panic you're called to pray and so

00:17:47.320 if you want to exude that concern you do so in the form of prayer not in panic that that's what

00:17:55.640 christians do and um we're also to do that with thanksgiving and so we are to to make those

00:18:02.780 prayers and make what we want known to god with thanksgiving that is to we're to enter into this

00:18:11.160 place with gratitude, which is the exact opposite posture of someone who's worrying. Because when

00:18:17.220 you're worrying, you're in a state of scarcity, meaning that you're concerned that things are

00:18:22.340 being taken from you or that you're not in control, which again, your control is being

00:18:27.920 taken from you. When you're in a gratitude posture, you have a structure of abundance.

00:18:36.940 I have plenty, Lord.

00:18:38.860 You've given me so much.

00:18:40.460 Thank you for that.

00:18:42.060 In all this abundance that you've given me, Lord,

00:18:45.000 I pray also, Lord, that you would bless me in this manner

00:18:48.240 or that you would care for this matter for me

00:18:50.200 or that you would care for, you know,

00:18:53.260 whatever dilemma it may be presented before you.

00:18:57.620 Remove these sufferings.

00:18:59.360 And so, and when you ask this way

00:19:02.580 and your prayers are founded in gratitude,

00:19:07.200 he says that the result will be peace.

00:19:10.640 That's the promised result of not panicking,

00:19:15.880 so choosing to be obedient, not panicking,

00:19:19.340 and instead praying and doing so in thanksgiving.

00:19:23.540 The result will be peace.

00:19:26.840 And the peace will be so odd in those moments

00:19:31.280 it'll be so foreign that it'll actually surpass the understanding of those who are on the outside

00:19:39.080 the peace that surpasses all understanding it's like wait what you're calm in the middle of that

00:19:44.620 and this is a great moment in this pandemic to go to to demonstrate and display and present this

00:19:50.920 peace because people will go well that surpasses my understanding of the situation why are you at

00:19:58.180 peace and I'm not. That's very evangelistic. That's very, that'll drive curiosity from people

00:20:04.460 in your life to wonder why you have peace and they don't have that. But again, this is

00:20:11.420 not easy to accomplish in the flesh, meaning that this isn't something easy to do. This is something

00:20:18.580 that we do in Christ's strength in our life. We lean on Christ through that prayer. We go,

00:20:23.400 Lord, give us strength for these matters.

00:20:27.340 But this is, you know, why peace is the result, not the action.

00:20:31.240 Paul isn't telling you to go be peaceful.

00:20:33.400 It's awesome.

00:20:34.700 Paul's not telling you to go be peace.

00:20:37.100 Go find peace on your own.

00:20:38.580 No, he's telling you not to be anxious,

00:20:41.320 pray with gratitude, and the result will be peace.

00:20:45.100 And he closes with explaining that this peace

00:20:48.640 will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

00:20:52.440 So I want to break that down just real quick.

00:20:54.580 Guard our hearts and minds.

00:20:55.780 That's actually a military term of guarding.

00:20:58.540 It'll protect our hearts and minds against the false lies of worry and concern and fear.

00:21:05.620 God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind or self-control.

00:21:13.340 These are powerful truths that we need to remember in Scripture.

00:21:18.600 Then he also says, in Christ Jesus.

00:21:20.920 This is a very popular phrase of Paul, meaning that all these blessings reside in Christ.

00:21:26.700 Peace only comes from Christ.

00:21:29.200 There's no other source of peace anywhere in the world outside of it being in Christ.

00:21:36.640 So this is, again, which we talked about early with Veronica's statement there.

00:21:41.520 And so the place to seek is Christ.

00:21:45.520 And so, Christian man or woman, when you are worried or concerned or are fearful or have anxiety or panic, is the first place you run Christ?

00:22:01.360 Are you running to Christ? Is that the first place that you go? Or do you go to Instagram stories to find distraction?

00:22:07.520 Or do you go to WebMD? Or do you go to your bed to go lay down? Or do you go to a bottle of alcohol?

00:22:13.760 Like, what is it that you run to?

00:22:15.520 Ask yourself that question.

00:22:16.580 When I worry and I'm fearful and I have anxiety, where am I running first?

00:22:23.040 Because if it's not to Christ, it's a very ineffective strategy.

00:22:27.200 It's very insufficient.

00:22:28.020 The flesh wants to run other places, but the spirit should be running to Christ.

00:22:33.960 And many of us extend our worry because we refuse to run to the only place that has the only solution to that.

00:22:41.840 And now sometimes it could also be found in secondary sources like running to others in the church and being edified through the truth of God's word by another Christian.

00:22:53.220 But again, I think the first place you run is to your knees and that you ask the Lord for that peace and you follow his instructions in scripture for that.

00:23:02.600 So what are your thoughts?

00:23:05.620 no i agree i think a side note that i was just kind of pondering on as you were talking is we

00:23:11.700 have to remember that peace is one of the fruit of the spirit and when you become a believer you

00:23:15.560 are indwelled with the holy spirit and so it's something that the lord has already given us

00:23:19.600 um and we just need to walk in that yeah yeah we don't need to ask the lord for peace when he's

00:23:30.120 given it to us um we just need to enter his gates of thanksgiving and gratitude and thank him for

00:23:35.780 giving that to us which is which is interesting because that action is abiding in the vine

00:23:41.340 and apart from christ we can do nothing there's like imagine an orange trying to figure like an

00:23:48.940 orange hanging on an orange tree trying to figure out a way to grow itself apart from the branch

00:23:54.960 that it's attached to right it's just unsuccessful unsuccessful there's nothing it could do right

00:23:59.860 no it needs to the the most effective thing it could do is put all of its energy into the vine

00:24:06.320 and that's what we're called to do which is also why you prune is exactly yeah we just pruned our

00:24:11.540 apple trees guys we know a lot about pruning more energy more energy going in that way branches

00:24:16.360 and not those ones so guys um hopefully this was edifying for you guys and helpful on your journey

00:24:22.180 to finding peace in this time i want to close with uh just one last thing

00:24:28.800 And I'm checking my camera to make sure we're still recording that it is.

00:24:33.840 Most of these things are solved by the church.

00:24:37.240 Meaning the answers to these harder questions should be found in a local community of believers in which you are a part of.

00:24:45.320 Gathered together in a corporate expression.

00:24:48.080 Now, a lot of you aren't going to church right now to be with a community of people because they're closed.

00:24:54.420 And a lot of you, I think, are concerned about things ever returning, at least for the next several years, if they're going to return back to normal.

00:25:01.740 If you might have an immune-compromised son or daughter, or you have a father or family member that you are seeing regularly and you don't want to risk that.

00:25:10.720 There's lots of things that are going on in the church conversation.

00:25:14.700 And as I wrote in my piece at stjustins.org forward slash coronavirus, I did an episode on it as well, smaller will be viewed as safer.

00:25:23.140 I believe that's a trend that we're already seeing.

00:25:26.660 People are going to be looking for smaller expressions of church,

00:25:29.880 little gatherings, small groups, home gatherings, home churches.

00:25:33.880 And for those of you that are listening to the show

00:25:35.760 and that are interested in exploring just the very basics of house church,

00:25:42.940 that's what we do.

00:25:43.800 It's our core ministry.

00:25:45.200 We just created a free resource for you guys to do that.

00:25:47.640 You guys can go to relearnchurch.org forward slash house.

00:25:53.140 And there's a free PDF.

00:25:55.780 It's called The Basics of Biblical House Church.

00:26:00.080 Don't be overwhelmed by the idea of House Church.

00:26:03.640 We have lots of training and tools that we're developing for you guys there.

00:26:07.060 We also developed our school at stjustins.org, our training center for that.

00:26:11.740 But we wanted to just tell you guys about that.

00:26:13.040 It's completely free.

00:26:14.040 Go check it out.

00:26:15.100 And hopefully that's edifying for you.

00:26:16.740 If you are a regular listener, we'd appreciate a review of this episode.

00:26:19.700 just tap the stars

00:26:21.740 on the podcast app on your phone

00:26:24.060 you don't even need to write anything

00:26:25.380 that would be a blessing for us

00:26:27.180 on that note

00:26:28.920 see you guys next week

00:26:30.540 we will see you guys next Wednesday on Real Christianity

00:26:32.800 take care guys

Dale Partridge - May 06, 2020

Real Christianity #96： How to Have Peace in a Pandemic

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