The God Of Pieces
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Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. I hope this inspires you. I hope it builds your faith. I hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. I'm going to do something I never did. Holly preached so good last week. I hate if you missed it. She preached so good that for the first time ever, I want to take the verse she ended on and do a tag-team

off of the verse that she ended on. Okay. So come tag me, babe. Y'all used to watch wrestling. I'm going to come flying off the turnbuckle now. The fabulous verdict. I'm going to drop an elbow on the devil's head today. Praise the Lord. And I'll give you one verse to start with. Would you go ahead and bring out my screen, please? So I can really put the verse in context.

This screen is my way of pretending like you and I are having a conversation together and we're just looking at the Bible and studying it together. So I pray that it'll feel that way to you. Let's welcome our eFam all over the world joining us online. Here we come. And I'm going to share with you from Philippians chapter 4, the last verse she read. She read several verses, but the one that she ended on is the one I want to pick up on. In Philippians 4, chapter 19, excuse me, chapter 9, chapter, verse 9. Let's try that again.

Philippians 4:9. The word of the Lord. A little message that I know is going to help you today. Paul says, "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." Last week Holly spoke about the peace of God, and she was speaking about the peace of God.

But today I want to take a little bit of a different approach to what she shared. And I want to talk about this verse, and the God of peace will be with you and remind you that he is the God of peace. He can speak peace to every situation in this room, no matter how scattered or chaotic your life is right now. But I want to talk about the God of peace will be with you. And I want to speak about how the God of peace is also the God of pieces.

I want to talk to you today for just a few moments about the God of pieces. Father, when you speak, wind and waves obey. Speak now. Still our hearts before you. Make every storm in this room a sanctuary where your presence can be felt. I thank you for each person you brought here today. I thank you that you know their situations, and I thank you that you have solutions. Moreover, I thank you that you are the solution, the God of peace, the God of pieces. In Jesus' name, amen.

Holly was preaching about peace, and she asked a very important question. She said,

Do your practices promote peace? She shared a little extra-biblical illustration about the instrument of torture known as Instagram, the one the Devil invented. I know God created the heavens and the earth, but the Devil has created a lot of stuff since then, Instagram being one of the platforms he created. I post sermons on it, but I know not to go look at the comments, and I never do except Friday.

I went on those comments Friday, and I thought, "I can handle it. I'll just look for a minute." Of course, I couldn't handle it. I was very worked up about some of the things I saw. I'm just starting my sermon in a very candid place. It's interesting to me how I live with a preacher who just preached about peace. Even in her message she said, "You have to be careful that your practices don't pollute your peace."

Do you remember when she said that? She didn't say that exactly, but I added it on for my message today. She said, "Make sure your practices don't pollute your peace." The reason we were getting into an argument was because it's very hard to have peace when you drink poison. I'm not telling you whether or not you should ever look at Instagram or any of the social media platforms. In fact, I'm going to try not to mention social media for the rest of this message. I just wanted to set up for you

What Paul is saying here, he says, is the things you put into practice that you learn, receive, and hear or see that produces the peace of God. Since we're going to go over here and take a nibble on verse 6 real quick, where it says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Something that's really convicting to me lately is that I think we all want this, the peace of God, but sometimes we resist the God of peace. So the question becomes, how can I expect the peace of God in my life if I reject the God of peace when he comes to show me how to live?

In other words, if he's showing me something that I need to let go of, if he's showing me something that I need to keep limited, if he's showing me something that I need to walk around and not engage, if he's showing me something that I need to add or subtract from my life and I insist on being stubborn, how can I expect the peace to come to my heart if I ignore the source who gives it? The peace of God… We all want it.

Everybody in here wants to feel better about your future. Everybody in here wants to feel confident that things are coming together. Everybody in here wants to feel like, I'm on the right path. Things are going to work out. Everybody in here wants the peace of God. Paul makes it very clear that

that in order to experience the peace of God… I just want to lay this foundation one more time. You must embrace the God of peace. I want to remind you that he is Jehovah Shalom. Shalom means peace or wholeness. He is the God of peace. He is the God of peace in the midst of panic attacks.

He is the God of peace in the midst of downsizing in your industry. He is the God of peace when your best client just didn't sign up for another year and you don't know how you're going to make up the contract. He is the God of peace when thoughts assail you, telling you that your life has reached its zenith and everything from here is just going to be nothing but less than what it was. I feel like preaching to somebody today that the God of peace is in this place.

Say it: "The God of peace is in this place." You can say that about any place you ever find yourself. You can say that in the third row of church on a Sunday morning. You can say that when you're pulling out of your driveway on Monday going to the job to look at the people who are trying to steal your peace. I'm not walking into this office by myself. I'm walking in with the God of peace.

He said he would be with me. He said he would walk with me. He said he would never leave me nor forsake me. He is more than enough for me. He is the all-sufficient one. There's nothing I will ever encounter that will surprise him. He doesn't scratch his head or shake his head or hang his head. He doesn't turn tail and run when the enemy surrounds me, for when the enemy surrounds me, God surrounds the enemy. I'm fenced in by fire even in my darkest night.

Even when I wake up and didn't expect the attack, I have a God who anticipated the attack and put the provision in place because he is the God of peace. He's in this place.

We saw a testimony how the God of peace reached in a prison cell and rescued a brother in a prison cell. The God of peace will make a prison visit. The God of peace will pull up alongside a hospital bed. The God of peace will show up in a divorce court. The God of peace will reach your child that isn't living under your roof right now. The God of peace is in this place. Now, the process by which we experience this peace

is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4:9. I want to give you this principle and then give you two or three pictures. "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me…" Think about this. Paul says, "If you do what you saw me do, you will have the peace that only God can give." I'm afraid I couldn't say that about my life a lot of the time, even as a leader. Graham said something really interesting a few days ago.

He said, "When I look back on when I was a little boy and I first started wrestling…" For those of you who haven't heard yet, we like to brag about it every chance we get. He is a two-time state champion in the state of North Carolina for the sport of wrestling. Not tag team wrestling, like real wrestling. You know what I'm saying. When he first started wrestling… I'd been a wrestler for a few years when I was in middle school, so he thought I was the man, because I didn't tell him any different. That's really fun when they're little. Their understanding of you is limited.

so you can kind of build it all up to be whatever you want to be. He said something. He goes, "Now that I'm really more advanced as a wrestler and I look back on when I was little, it's crazy how much you coached me with how little you knew." I don't think he meant that as a compliment like, "Dad, you really went all in, and I appreciate it." I think what he was saying is, "Now that I know something about what I'm doing, I can't believe that I thought the stuff you were screaming from the stands had any merit or value whatsoever."

You really just screamed the same things over and over again, but it worked for that stage. "Isn't it crazy how much you coached me with how little you knew?" If you look at your life, there are some things about your life that are amazing how far God has brought you if you really think about how little you started with. I'm going to say that again, and the Devil can pop my mic, and I'll say it a third time. It is amazing

how far God has brought you, and some of the things he has done in your life when you consider where you came from, how little you started with. It is amazing. Look at somebody and say, "It's amazing." Come on. Tell them, "It's amazing that you're in church today." Now just clap your hands for them. Give them a little round of applause. Come on. Look at them and say, "After the week you've had, after the news you got, after the mounting to-do list you have to go home to, it's amazing."

It's amazing the progress you've made when you consider the pattern you were exposed to. It is amazing that you even stayed as a dad when your dad didn't. It is amazing that you are apologizing as a husband even though you get mad when you never saw the pattern of apology in your own home. The truth of it is, if some of us were honest and if we could do away with the shame the Devil throws on us for just about five minutes…

Yes, there is a long way we still have to go, but it's pretty amazing the advancements we've made to be here today. Stand up if you never would have thought you'd be in church on a Sunday morning three years ago. Stand up if there was a season in your life where you thought God was done with you, but you feel something starting to beat in your heart again.

Stand up if you praising God today was a miracle because you went through a season of depression where you couldn't lift your head off the pillow, let alone lift your hands in church. Somebody shout, it's amazing! The Enemy wants to keep us from being amazed at the ways God has made in our life. He wants to keep us from being amazed from the place we stand. Paul says, "Look,

When you don't know what to do and you don't know what's next, and you're standing in a place where you don't really have the full picture of how your life is going to turn out, listen to me. Remember what you heard, learned, and saw in me, and practice that, and the God of peace will be with you. I thought that was even better than him saying, The peace of God will be with me, because it means that even if I don't feel the peace of God, I can believe that the God of peace is with me.

That's the principle. Now let's break it down for just a moment or two. If he says this, whatever you have learned or received or heard or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you. It stands to reason that we are not going to learn, receive, hear, or see everything about God all at once. He's telling us that this is going to take practice. Sometimes we need more patience with ourselves.

to realize that even God reveals himself to us progressively. God never grows, but he does not give you every glimpse of him all at once. That's a mercy, because we could never see his glory and live. So what God is doing in your life right now is he's showing you things in stages, and he is teaching you things in pieces.

He's teaching you in pieces. I'm so glad you came today, because when you first started showing me to play tennis, you did not show me all the cool stuff. I remember the first thing you said to me was, show me how you hold the racket. I'm like, dude, I am not out here with $75 for you to say, show me how you hold a racket. I know the price has gone up since then, but I get in on that bottom rate. I'm thinking, if we're going to spend 20 minutes holding the racket… I was trying to learn to play tennis. I thought, we're going to never get anywhere with this.

but it was a kindness of him that he didn't show me Roger Federer highlight clips on my first lesson. It is a kindness of God that he teaches you in pieces so that you can get a piece and practice, and get a piece and practice, and get a piece

practice. So this time we learned how to hold the racket. In about three weeks, I'll show you how to swing it. I'm doing this for your own good, because if you swing it but don't know how to grip it, that ball is going to fly every direction every time. So Paul is teaching in pieces. Not only is he teaching them in pieces, but he's teaching them without his physical presence. He's writing this letter from a prison, so he's teaching in pieces and

from prison. Now this church he founded is having to put into practice things they've heard, learned, or seen from his life, but he is not present to show them the practice.

They are having to draw from what they saw, even though right now they can't see it. I wonder if there is anybody in here today who is having to draw from something right now, even though you can't exactly see what God is doing in your life, even though you don't have an exact model for it in your life, even though you don't have somebody to look at and say, "I'm going to imitate or emulate that." Paul says, "I'm teaching you in pieces."

Think about all the pieces Paul had to teach from. Not only the fact that he was writing the Bible… When Paul said, "You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you" , they were like, "How do you know that?" He's like, "Because it's in the Bible." Well, it's going to be. It's going to be in the Bible in just a few verses. But to teach like Paul… That's very different than teaching like you. For those of us who are parents in the room, we are trying to coach them, knowing so little

and still wrestling ourselves. Paul is teaching us… The great apostle Paul, who was writing the illuminated, inspired word of God, the great missionary statesman, and he's telling this church at Philippi, "Whatever you saw and heard and learned from me, do that, and the God of peace will be with you." Well, that's different for us, because we're not writing the Bible as far as I can tell. We're not the example of grace that God has raised up for this century.

I think that for the majority of us in here, it's amazing how much we're coaching with how little we know. But if Paul was coaching you, he could teach you about pieces that I couldn't teach you. So when Paul says, hold on to what you've heard from me, hold on to what you've learned from me, hold on to what you've seen in me… There were scenes in Paul's life

that we are privy to that would have served as examples for them to follow. So, when he's telling them, "Hold on, and the God of peace will be with you," you have to understand that Paul is speaking this from a place of deep experience. Paul is like a Division I NCAA champion showing you how to wrestle. Paul survived stonings and still stayed stable in his faith. Paul survived a shipwreck

Even just before he wrote this letter… Let me tell you a story real quick. In Acts, chapter 27, Paul tells about a trip he was making as he was awaiting his sentencing for preaching the gospel. While he was on the ship, he had a meeting with an angel. The angel said, Paul, don't be afraid. I'm going to preserve your life. The boat you're on is going to go through a storm, but you are going to make it. I don't know who that was for, but that was just the whole word right now.

Just that. The boat you are on is going to go through a storm, but you're going to make it. It's going to be rocky for a little while. You might have to take some Dramamine, but you're going to make it.

There might be some Jonas that have to go overboard, relationships that aren't good for you, but you're going to make it. It might not look like exactly what it looked like when you set out. You might not be able to do it like you did it when you did it like you did it, but if you'll do it like God is telling you to do it right now, you are going to make it. You might have to vomit over the side of the boat.

You might have to hold your stomach for a little while while it rocks and reels, and you might have to spend some time praying a little extra. The boat is going to go through something, but you're going to make it. Tell your neighbor you're going to make it. Tell them, "I prophesy." Look them in their eyes right in the pupils and say, "You're going to make it." Tell them, "You've got to make it." Yeah, you've got to make it, because God has something for you to do on the other side of this.

The God of peace is with you. So if the God of peace is with you… Watch this. In Acts 27, verse 41, the Bible says that after they had gone through the storm for a period of three weeks,

The ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow struck fast and would not move. That's bad. And the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. Now, if you're out in the ocean and the ship is carrying you and the ship breaks to pieces, that means you're not going to survive unless you have a God who is the God of pieces.

Put my verse back up there and let me get somebody happy. I know your ship broke apart. I know it was pounded by something you didn't see coming. I know your kid's not speaking to you right now. I know it's been three days since you had an appetite. I know some things look really, really sketchy right now, but in the name of Jesus, the God of pieces can get you there. The God of peace is with me.

The God of peace is with me. Verse 42. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping, but the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and to get to land, and the rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces.

I'm preaching to somebody who's holding on to a piece to the shore today. I'm preaching to somebody who's holding on to a board to the shore today. I'm preaching to somebody who's wondering, "How am I going to make it with who I have left, what I have left? How am I going to make it now that they went away? How am I going to make it if they don't support me?" You forgot about the God of pieces, that if he is with me, one piece can get me to the place

If he is with me, how many believe God is with me? Get an attitude about it. Get Christian cocky about it. If you know God is with you, this peace that I have, this peace that I'm holding on to, this peace that's in my soul, the world didn't give it, and the world can't take it away. High-five your neighbor and say, I've got a peace. I've got a peace.

I feel the wind, but I've got a piece.

I'm dealing with some insecurities right now, but I've got a peace. I've got a peace about this. What? You feel all right? No, I don't feel all right. I have faith all right. I float all right, because the God of peace is with me. Now, maybe to you this is just a word play, but I'm trying to work this word into your spirit. One person told me, "You do too much word play when you preach." I said, "No, I do word work." Do you understand what I'm saying?

The worlds were framed by the Word of God. So, I figure if the Word of God could frame the worlds, it can frame your life right now, this season of your life right now. Peace in the storm takes on a little different meaning when we think about pieces in the storm. I'll give you one more picture, and we'll go home. One more piece. Do you want me to give you another piece of this message? Paul wasn't the first one to go through a storm in the Scriptures. We know this.

He was different than Jonah, who I mentioned a moment ago in that God sent the storm because Jonah was disobedient, and Paul was sent into the storm because he was obedient. So, in either storm, we need a picture of peace. Now, the disciples of Jesus… If anybody had a good example to follow, if anybody had a good coach to show them how to wrestle against demons and devils and fear and anxiety, it was the disciples.

In Mark, chapter 6, there's a story about a storm. I'm going to read it to you, because you could tell a story about your storm today. Wave at me if you could tell a story about your storm today. In this storm they were in, which was physical, we get some principles that will help us not only psychologically but spiritually and theologically. That's the most important part. I'm not teaching you peace today only from a pragmatic perspective.

That's wonderful. Do all your breathing exercises. Do a red light therapy. Do a red light sauna. Do a red light sauna and an ice bath. Do an ice bath in the sauna. Do everything that helps you. Breathe and sip and water and do it all. But I'm just saying, the theological is my department today. I want to show you something about the God of peace, the God of pieces. Now, in this particular Scripture, it's different because…

The boat they were on did not break, but Jesus was not on it with them. It didn't break, but Jesus was not on the boat with them. Look at Mark 6:45: "Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. Later that night the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.

"He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake he was about to pass by them." This shows me that Jesus even physically revealed himself in pieces to the disciples. He did not identify himself immediately; he revealed himself in pieces.

I point that out because you don't always know it's God at first. In fact, sometimes the presence of God in our lives is met with a feeling of fear, like the disciples in this passage. The Bible says he was about to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, not for him to save them,

but because they all saw him and were terrified because they had never seen him in this exact situation before. I need to stop and tell you something. They had seen him calm a storm before in Mark chapter 4, but that time he was on the boat the whole time with them. So now they're in a different situation. They're dealing with a different predicament. Every time God allows you to face a new problem, he's trying to show you a new peace.

a part of him that always existed that you never saw. So, if Lazarus died, he wants to show you that there's a resurrection piece. If a blind eye needs to be opened, he wants to show you that he is the light. There is a peace that God is trying to show you of himself through every problem he allows in your life. I believe that.

He is the God of pieces. As they are screaming because they think he's a ghost, they're terrified of the one who has the power to save. Immediately he spoke to them and said, "'Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid.' Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed." This part is going to seem out of nowhere.

They had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened." I want to ask you a question. What in the world does bread have to do with a boat? What does "they had not understood about the loaves" have to do with the fact that they were afraid in the storm? In order to put this in context, I want to show you one more picture and give you one more piece.

When the Bible says immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, it does not say in that verse what has just occurred before Jesus sent them on this trip. But if you back up just a few verses, Jesus has just finished feeding 5,000 men and women and children who were starving.

Instead of allowing them to starve or sending them away, he told the disciples, Bring me the bread that you have. Bring me the fish that you have. But Jesus, we only have pieces. But when they brought him five loaves and two fish, which is nothing but a piece, when there are 5,000 people who need to eat, and they brought him the piece,

The peace they brought him became provision that fed not only 5,000 men, not only 15,000 women and children with them, but it resulted in leftovers. So the Bible says, verse 41, and now I'm ready to preach, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.

Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided two fish among them, and they all ate and were satisfied. The disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces…

of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand, five thousand men fed and broken pieces to carry away."

So, now we go to the storm and we see it with different eyes, because we realize that even though Jesus is not physically in the boat with them in this storm, they carried a basket into the boat that was full of the pieces of leftovers that came from the touch of the Master just a few minutes ago.

In other words, Jesus sent them into the sea knowing that there would be a storm, but he did not send you into this storm empty-handed. If you checked your boat, I want to let you know you have some baskets, you have some bread, you have some baskets, and you have some bread. I came to remind somebody, "There's bread in your boat."

It's bread in my boat. What do you mean by that? I don't need food when I'm in a storm. Yeah, you do, to sustain you until God shows up and stops it. There have been moments in your life that God could have stopped the storm, but he didn't.

There's a storm some of you are in right now, and God is not stopping it. You're wondering, "What do I do about this? I didn't see this storm coming. Jesus isn't even in this boat with me." Yeah, but bread is. These were big baskets, y'all, 12 big baskets, so that every time the wind would blow, they would see the bread and remember that they ended up with more than they started with when Jesus touched it. Check the bread.

Next time the devil starts telling you it's not going to happen, you're not going to make it, check the bread. By the way, God sends you into a storm so the bread doesn't get stale. He doesn't just let you depend on him in one circumstance. He allows you to experience another storm so that that storm can become your school to teach you to be a student, to put into practice what he showed you through his last act of provision. So the storm comes, but the pieces are right there.

Because even in the storm I have pieces And I need to give you 30 seconds to praise God for the pieces that you have for the pieces For the pieces. I'm not praising him because my life is perfect. Don't get me wrong. I'm praising him for pieces Sometimes broken pieces and is there something for us to learn from the example of Jesus?

that he blessed broken bread and gave thanks for what wasn't enough so that it could become enough. Is he showing you and showing me that if we can't praise him for the peace we do have, we're never going to have the peace we're praying for? This is the God of pieces. So, if all you're holding today is the remnants of the regrets of your sins and decisions, bring them to the God of pieces.

If all you're holding today in your life is broken plans, bring them to the God of pieces. The God of pieces. The God who pieces all things together. Sometimes you are in between what God just did and what God is going to do, and you have to trust God in between those pieces

in between those pieces. So something happens, and then nothing happens, and something else is going to happen. This is for some of you in your career. Something happens, and then nothing happens, and something else is going to happen. You see God do a miracle in your life. You walk away with 12 basketfuls of pieces and the testimony of what God has done, and you put it on the boat, and then the boat that is filled with the baskets of the bread that God multiplied in your life hits a storm, and you have to praise him for the pieces. I want the God of peace

my life, and I trust him with the pieces. I praise him for the pieces, the ones I can see, the ones I can't see. I thank him for the pieces he's putting together back in order right now in the life of somebody in this room. I praise him that he knows the picture of your life. He knows the picture of your family. He knows the picture of your future. He knows the picture of his purpose for your life. You don't, and it comes in pieces. So, the Bible gives us a very specific prayer to pray. Give us this day a

Our daily bread. The Devil wants you to get overwhelmed by the pile, but God said, "No, you just take it piece by piece." I thought I would minister to you today on the power of pieces. Even some of the songs we sing in this church, the songs of praise that we sing that end up touching people all over the world, they start as pieces. I mean, Chandler and Leland… Come on back, boys. I mean, these boys…

They are amazing songwriters, but I have to tell you something. Church, I have to tell you, some of the songs we put out start as pieces. Let me tell you this. The pieces usually aren't pretty. How many times has Holly heard me sending a voice memo in the bathroom to Chandler? I sound bad when I said it like that. I was just going through today, because we talked about ending my sermon in a way that would give you a picture of the pieces.

I found this. There are 2,633 voice memos on this phone. Pieces. Most of them do not need to be heard by human ears ever. Most of them are an offense that they ever were recorded. Like this one. Is your mic on? Listen to this. I just heard this. This is so random, but this is a song idea that I sent him a few days ago.

and then it ends. That's the whole thing. Somehow I thought he needed to hear that, and I sent it to him. I'm saying a little peace over here today, because you never know. What starts as a peace might become a praise. So let me demonstrate. I was sitting in a songwriting session with Leland, and we were finishing up a song. As we were finishing up that one song, he plays something, and I'm always paying attention in the songwriting room.

I'm trying to scavenge something that somebody else is throwing away like a little scrap, and I grab that sucker and break it and give thanks and feed 20,000 people at Elevation Church with it. So, this guy… We're just literally setting up a microphone, and he does something with his right hand. Listen to this. He goes, and I got chills. Stop doing it. I got chills. Give me chills. He does it, and I go…

"What's that?" He goes, "Oh, it's nothing. I'm just going to record it real quick and save it for something later." I said, "Save it for nothing later? You are going to give that to me right now, and we're going to write something to it." Do it again. Listen to these chords he played. I feel the Holy Ghost when he plays those chords. He could sing, "Mary had a little lamb over those chords," and I would feel the Holy Ghost. I think he's talking about the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. But when he played it, we said, "Man, what does that sound like?"

Eventually we said, "Yeah, one more day." Then it's like, "What if it's like…" There are other guys in the room, Dabs and Jonathan, all of them. So we write this whole chorus, the song we sang earlier in church, this song called "One More Day." We finished that, and I'm like, "Cool. Wait. I have this piece Chandler sent me, and Chandler and Leland had never even met.

but on my phone I have pieces. You see what I'm saying, LJ? He had sent me a piece a few months ago that we had talked about, and his piece goes… Then do the other part again, the chorus. I was like, "What if this piece that we just got goes with this piece,

that we've had for three months that we don't know what to do with. And what if a song is waiting to be sung from pieces? From pieces. And what if God, what if the Lord, what if the God of pieces is standing over your life today waiting for you to praise him?

for the pieces. You can do better than that. What if you put your hands together and begin to believe the God of peace is with me? Let the wind and waves obey his voice. Give him praise. Lift those hands and sing it. Sing over those pieces. I just really want to praise you.

You bring it on. One more time, church. We say, oh, whoa. Please, you let me be. My daily bread, Lord. Say I be left from all this way. Testify, Lord, can I say. Hallelujah. Jesus. Jesus. Bring it on again. Jesus. Bring it on. Jesus.

Heads bowed, eyes closed. I want you to take a moment and offer your broken pieces to the Lord today. Even if you want to just lift your hands like this and close your eyes in his presence and say, Here are my pieces, God. I heard you were the God of pieces. I heard that you could take what has been shattered and turn it into something amazing. I heard that you can still storms. I heard that you could give peace in a storm. God, I'm in a storm right now.

I'm in a storm on the inside. I've got winds raging on the outside, but I heard about the God of peace, the God of pieces, the God who, even if the boat breaks, will see me safely to my assigned place. So I offer you all of these plans. I offer you all of these problems, and I remember that I'm coming into the presence of a sovereign God who can speak to a storm. But until you stop the storm, God, I believe you have stocked me for this storm.

"You have given me your peace." So, I'm not anxious about anything, because with prayer and supplication I'm making my request known to you. The peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. I want to give an invitation for someone today to make peace with God in your personal life.

The Bible says Jesus Christ became our peace so that we would no longer be enemies of God, but through his blood shed on the cross you and I can have peace with God. We can be brought into his family. We can be forgiven and called sons and daughters. We can have a brand new beginning. So if God has led you to this place today and he's speaking to your heart,

You want to give him the pieces of your broken life and say, "Here it is, God. I've tried doing it without you. Now I need you to take over. If you are ready to give your life to the Lord today, I'm going to lead you in a prayer." Not a prayer that you're going to do better or be perfect, but a prayer that says, "Here are my broken pieces, God. I give my life to you." If you're ready to do that today, then you repeat after me. If you pray this prayer and mean it from your heart, God will hear you from heaven. He will heal your sins and give you a new beginning.

We're praying out loud as a church family for the benefit of those who are coming to God or coming back to God. Repeat after me. Heavenly Father, today is my day. I am a sinner in need of a Savior, and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Today I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I receive…

this new life. This is my new beginning. Shoot your hand up on the count of three if you prayed that. One, two, three. In Jesus' name, welcome to the family of God. Beautiful. I see you. God bless you. Come on, anybody else? If you put your name in the chat right now, we'll pray for you. Our team will pray for you. We celebrate you. The God of peace is with you. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Hug three people and tell them God is with you in this storm. The God of peace is with you. Put it in the chat right now. Say, The God of peace is with me. After you've given out all your prescribed hugs, campus pastors, you can take it. Here in Valentine, I want to close. Grab hands and block the exit ramp so nobody gets out until I say this closing prayer. Come on up with me, Holly. Tag team partners.

You preached on the peace of God. I preached on the God of pieces. Together we make a good team. Squeeze your neighbor's hand and say, "We make a good team too." Tell them, "I have a piece. You have a piece. We have a peacemaking God."

I'm telling you, when you get back to your boat in this storm, you look for leftovers at your feet. You begin to rehearse the goodness of God in your life. Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than you ask or imagine, to him be glory through Christ Jesus in the church now. Amen. I wish you peace this week.

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

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