Finish Strong With Fearless Faith

Peace in the Midst of These Chaotic Times #56 REAIR

September 12, 2022 Fearless Faith
Finish Strong With Fearless Faith
Peace in the Midst of These Chaotic Times #56 REAIR
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Show Notes Transcript

Does the nightly news keep you awake at night? Are you nervously tossing and turning all night long?  From wars to mass shootings to the threat of socialism, there is plenty to be anxious and nervous about.  Do you think it is possible to find real peace and contentment in a world that is filled with such chaos?

In this edition of Fearless Faith, Terry, Brian and Dan will answer these questions.  If you are tired of waking up exhausted every morning then you need to listen to this podcast now.  Isn’t it time you put all of your worries and concerns in the hands of the Creator of the Universe?

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Dan Wheeler:

Would you rather have millions of dollars? No financial worries? Or would you rather have peace? If you can only choose one or the other? Millions of dollars? Or peace, peace enough to sleep at night? What if you could have all the material possessions, but with a lot of worry about all of those possessions, or just be able to rest peacefully and be content with trillions of dollars, millions of dollars,

Brian Roland:

all those things. I don't like to sleep.

Dan Wheeler:

And you want possession of a vampire. They're joking. I'm trying to be serious here. This has finished wrong. I'm Dan Wheeler, the serious one. Terry Steen and Brian Rowland are kind of goofing around. But I don't think they would really say those answers if they were serious. I mean, maybe you've you've suffered great loss. Maybe you've gone through a divorce, a major financial setback, and you're needing peace. We're going to talk about peace today. In this episode of finish strong, guys, how are you doing? How, how have you been doing with all the chaos of life lately?

Terry Steen:

Let Brian address that one first. Sounds like he's had a little bump in a row he has. Yeah.

Brian Roland:

Yeah, it's just a little bump in the road. You know, this, the body starts deteriorating as you get older. But no, it's I have peace. I do. I know that everything's gonna be fine. It always works out in the end, fine. And I think I realized that the most when I went through my battle that depression, and I couldn't find peace. And as soon as I could, as soon as I would just keep singing to myself, peace, peace, wonderful peace. And it just would make everything mellow. I mean, it just really worked. In my favor. There were I just turned my eyes on Jesus. And I hadn't received peace.

Dan Wheeler:

So Brian had a really a bad knee problem. And he had to get a lot of therapy for that in the midst of therapy here his backs. No, I'm sorry, Brian, but you know, we are getting older.

Terry Steen:

Can you say over 70?

Brian Roland:

I told my PT to challenge me and give me more more weight and things to do. And the next time when I went Don't do that again.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, exactly. Terry, you went through all your retirement and your trip that was kind of not as good as maybe you'd hoped for and write all this. And now you're able to be full time with fearless faith. And I know you're excited about some of the things that have been happening. You just added a bunch of names to our email list, right?

Terry Steen:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was pretty cool. It was exciting. I mean, obviously, it takes a little work. But man, let me just take a minute to thank everybody who listened to us and signed up for that email list, because you're going to be on a special list. And we're going to have some privilege stuff, some things that we will be offering and getting out to you, you're going to be able to get the podcasts that we do earlier before everybody else. And so those of you signed up, we thank you so much. And if you haven't, we sure encourage you to do it.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, we'll send it out to you on Sunday. Maybe we'll have some time after church or before church, you got some peace and quiet and no chaos, and you can focus on the podcast. But Terry, you did a lot of work on this episode today, finding peace through chaos. What do you think the first step is? For someone who says I need peace? I'm tired of turmoil. I'm tired of living my life feeling like I'm all tied up and not?

Terry Steen:

Yeah, that's that's a great question, Dan. And I just, I sat down, I just started listing things to do, I thought started listing things not to do to find that piece. And then I realized, I had listed the biggest one and it's accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. If you're going through life, and you don't have any peace, well, you will never have true peace without having Jesus in your life. So that's a great way to start this podcast, Dan, and I just encourage anybody who has not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, listen, close, and realize that once you do, it opens up a whole new world of potential for peace in your life.

Dan Wheeler:

We have Brian after we accept the Lord, what do you think another step would be towards getting that peace?

Brian Roland:

It falls right in line with what I was saying before. You gotta get in God's presence. And to me, it was singing peace, peace, wonderful peace. Because while I was doing that, I was praying and, and I know that the as peace comes down from the Father above, that's part of the lyrics. And over in John 1633 Bible tells us I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace in this world you will have trouble but take heart. I have overcome the world. And you just keep reminding yourself of that. And I'm telling you, that's easy. Remind yourself of that. But you accept the piece that he's giving you, when you're asking for it. It's not, you're asking him and then other people that are aspects are fighting it, you know, but I'm still going to do this this way that they say, No, that's not it at all. If you're asking for it, and he's delivering peace to you just accept that as fall into fall, the follow over you to slack so that we can reinforce let me just fall over you and accept it. And you can live in that attitude of peace.

Dan Wheeler:

You know, sometimes it's hard to get to that point, though, sometimes, with all the distractions and the busyness of life, it's hard to get into God's presence. Terry, what's some advice you would have? For someone who says, I'm just not feeling? God, I want to seek His face more I want to get into His presence. What can I do?

Terry Steen:

Yeah, that's a great question. And two things come to mind to me there, and one is spending time in praise and worship. You know, when we were talking, we talked and we talk and we feel it hitting the ceiling, and coming down. And sometimes you just need to begin to praise, don't ask for anything. Don't worry about the anxiety, just begin to praise and worship God, he tells us in his word that he will always enter his presence will always enter that praise and worship. And then the other thing is to do what's right. So many times sin comes into play, or things that we don't do, right, that keeps God's presence. And I'm thinking of psalms of 15th chapter where it says, Lord, and this is David asking the Lord who may abide in Your tabernacle Who may dwell in Your holy hill, he's saying, How can we remain or be in your presence? And then he answers his own question. He says, walk upright, speak the truth. Don't do evil, fear the Lord. So if we can get those into our daily, our daily life, that will automatically begin to allow it to be easier and easier to get into God's presence.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, those are those are promises of God if we did those things, and if we live right and live according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, I've been trying to think about that so much. And Romans eight six talks about For to be carnally minded as death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. But you know, let's face it, you know, st makes the flush look great. He makes it look enticing. I think the older we get, at least for me, the older I get, the more I realized that, you know, Satan is a liar. And it's so much greater. When you're walking, when you're doing right, you know, you're walking in the Spirit. That's where you are really going to be able to come into God's presence. And you know, when I was going through the journey with Beth, I'll never forget the most critical time when they transferred her from a local hospital downtown Philadelphia because her platelets had crashed. And I realized in that moment, the seriousness of it, and that she might not make it and I gathered all the things out of her room, and I had gone home and gotten some clothes and I'm driving in the dark, driving this house, I don't know what's going ahead. And I was just filled with so much stress and angst. And that verse, Isaiah 26, three just popped into my head, about God will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on the and that was one of the biggest times in my life where I realized that, that peace was unexplainable. I shouldn't have had any peace. But when that when I said that verse, in my mind, this wave of peace just came right over me. It was truly supernatural. And that is possible.

Terry Steen:

perfect peace that passes all understanding. Right there.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah. Brian, you talked about when you didn't have peace and and how you just sang that song? And I'm sure you had that same feeling of wow. I mean, this is amazing. Where did this piece come from? Because like five minutes ago, I didn't have it.

Brian Roland:

That's right. Yeah. And when you're going through, as you guys know, you're going through any type of panic attack, any type of there's a disruption where you're not in control. That's when you pray out for peace. You need peace right then because in my case, I can't think straight. I mean, you sitting there I was afraid of something I don't know was afraid of. Why am I so fearful for one year irrational? Definitely. So that you get fear could just flip that switch in my mind where I can say peace, peace, wonderful peace and keep singing that and asking God for His peace. It just turns things around. It just turned things around. Automatically, not just the one time I mean, next day, I'd be falling into this again and I hit the stop and say no, peace, peace, wonderful peace. Sit back and sing that meditate. Get on that and pray on that. And God did that he just brought that over my body each time.

Dan Wheeler:

Well, you know, I've, I've known people who have struggled to find peace. And Terry, I'm gonna direct this to you. They couldn't find peace because they were holding on to some bitterness from the past. And, you know, people hold grudges. And I always say the only person that hurts is you, we can't be holding grudges, or holding something against someone and expect to find peace.

Terry Steen:

Exactly. And and I think that's why it was talked so much in the Bible about forgiveness. And, and there was a story where the man came up and asked, How many times do I have to forgive my neighbor, man, Jesus said, 70 times seven, basically saying, There's no end to it, you need to be doing it. And the reality is, there's many people probably listening right now that haven't been able to forgive themselves. And that's another piece of that forgiveness, if we can forgive ourselves, if we can forgive others, if we can remove that bitterness that just opens up, it creates a vacuum for God to come in and fill us with that peace and with that Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit of fruit of his spirits peace, right, and that allows the Spirit to come into our lives.

Brian Roland:

I've had somebody say to me before, that, I can't forgive myself. And so we'll go, God has forgiven, you know that and they go, Yeah, I know that I can understand how God can forgive me. And pray about that, say, God, show me, let me understand how you can how you could forgive me so that I can forgive others. And it's true, was pure, have a grievance of somebody in somebody, and you're not forgiving them. And that just it just, it just brings chaos in your life. It just doesn't automatically because that is always weighing on you. And you have to let that go. And once you let that goes where you can find inner peace.

Dan Wheeler:

I did a morning cup of inspiration recently for our Facebook page. And by the way, if you've only been listening to finish strong, we have a Facebook page every day at 8am. Eastern Time, we post a new three minute message and we call it your morning cup of inspiration. But I did it on why do we remember things that God has forgotten? Because he says that, you know, when he forgives us, He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west, right? And he's forgiven us and he's wiped the slate clean. Now that is truly divine. Because as humans, we don't want to forget, we don't want to forgive. But he does tell us that we need to forgive. And you know, when when I think of what God has forgiven me of all the many sins and the great things that that I really did wrong. They weren't great. They were wrong, then I am grateful. I'm so grateful. And I have this attitude of gratitude, which is another step that you listed Terry, as far as peace.

Brian Roland:

Yeah. Well, you know, when I look at it, and I said, If God can forgive you for all that, and I know that I'm okay.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, yeah.

John Matarazzo:

Gonna make it right,

Terry Steen:

well, it really does change our attitude, if we do have that spirit of gratefulness. And then we're not sitting there focused on all the things that are wrong, or all the things that we wished had happened, and you can't live in peace that way that just creates anxiety and turmoil in your life. So if you can, if you're going through that today, if you're going through anxiety and turmoil, then try to flip the switch, just stop and begin to think about what you can be grateful for begin to thank the Lord for everything you can think of just in this day, and you will be shocked at how that can just totally change your outlook.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, yeah. And we need to learn to be content. We can't be wanting what our neighbors have, or thinking we don't make enough money or we don't have enough clothes, or we don't have a new enough car. You know, happiness is wanting what you have, and being happy about it. But a lot of people can't get contentment because they're always comparing themselves to everybody else. And that's another thing we can't be doing is you know, coveting

Brian Roland:

that leads to, to the things that we should not be doing, or things not to do. And what you're seeing right there do not envy or compare yourself to others. That's true man. And proverbs 1430 30. It says a hearted peace gives light life to the body, but envy rots the bones. And boy, isn't that the truth when we're in that position where we're not forgiving when we're envious of other people in it? All it does is just brings strength to our own life. But once we can let that go, we have a piece.

Terry Steen:

Yeah, yeah, I actually did a morning cup of inspiration on that exact verse and thought a couple of weeks ago. And I think, I think to the social media today and to the impact social media has on young people, and teenagers and how it's been so devastating, because they're comparing themselves to others, and they're comparing falsities that they see in social media, and it's led to depression, it's led to increase suicide. So all those things, yeah, keep us from our peace.

Dan Wheeler:

And the title of this is peace through the chaos. Do you think it's important to remove chaos from our lives? Maybe some people need to get more organized? Would that help?

Terry Steen:

No question, no question. We can inflict a lot of chaos ourselves. Have you ever known people that are just always in chaos? You know, I've got a book. It's an incredible book called margins. And it's it helps you establish margins in your life, so you can stay organized. So you're not living in chaos and always falling short and running late, then you couldn't do this, then you had to reschedule that then. And it goes on and on. And if we just organize our lives, we could add some peace.

Dan Wheeler:

Our producer, John Matarazzo, kind of roll his eyes there. John, have you ever felt like that? I know, because you've I know, You've been a producer of a live TV show. And you can get so many things going and so much in the air that if you don't stay organized, things get out of control. And that that doesn't lead to peace, does it? No, not

John Matarazzo:

at all. I have to be at peace. And in fact, I actually have a little sign in my apartment that says Welcome to my fortress of solitude. It's just I tried to keep it as a as a place where everything's organized. Everything has its rightful place. And if something is out of place, it just drives me nuts. Maybe I'm a little bit OCD, but I know what I need a VPN, to be at peace. And to try to maintain that

Dan Wheeler:

boy is so true. It is so true that we we I like what you said, your fortress of bees, you know, you have to really keep that and work hard at that and not let the chaos chaos of the world. take you under you have to find that piece of Superman

John Matarazzo:

had a fortress of solitude. That's where I got it from.

Terry Steen:

A fortress of solitude.

Dan Wheeler:

Well, and you have to have faith that God is in control, no matter what that all things are going to work together for good. Those are things that we need to do. And Terry, you also came up with things not to do Yeah, what was first on your list?

Terry Steen:

Well, Brian mentioned the one on not envying or comparing ourselves to others in Proverbs, so that was a big one. Then another one is simply not to worry or fret. I know it's easier said than done. But Philippians four talks about it. And you know, the bottom line is it's a matter of trusting God. He tells us in the sixth verse, Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So we have to pray about that, but he's willing to help us. But we have to make the effort. We can sit and worry and worry and worry. Or we can pray and ask God to relieve that worry and replace that worry with peace. And he'll do it. It's another promise of His Word.

Dan Wheeler:

The others a lot those two verses he just read, you know, don't be anxious, Be anxious for nothing. And everything by prayer and supplication. We talked about spending time in God's presence, being thankful. And that attitude of gratitude is there. let your requests be made known unto God, but that verse really MCAT those two verses kind of encapsulate a lot of what to do, what not to do. So yeah, we don't want to worry. We don't

Terry Steen:

want to read the Seventh, which is the answer and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your mind through Christ Jesus. I think if there's any verse that anyone listening to this podcast could put in their back pocket, or keeping their heart and mind is this one right here? Because that's what it takes.

Dan Wheeler:

But that's another good word guard. You guard your heart or hurt like John's Fortress of Solitude, boy, sinning and disobeying God's word. That's certainly not something you want to do. Brian, if you want peace and chaos,

Brian Roland:

well, it's true. You don't want to do it, but everybody sends daily I mean, just things that happen. But we that's why we have to keep in the war. That's why we have to keep in prayer. We don't want there's things that we don't want to do. The body does it, and especially the tongue, you know, we can't control the tongue. So that's why we constantly have to be in the word, like I said, be in prayer, meditating on God's word throughout the day. It's amazing how like, Dan, I know how many scriptures used to memorize when you're in high school in that. And how many of those come back to you. Now, they do have them already there. They're already there. And I didn't memorize my unit. But the ones that I've read that I put the memory that they just popped in my head when I need them the right time.

Dan Wheeler:

Isn't that amazing how God does that. He brings those verses to mind, at the most critical times, and that's why we need to know God's word. Here's another one that you listed, Terry, we don't want to put our faith or our trust in material possessions, we only want to put them in the Lord. And I mean, I think that's a great one, we read about it, and Hebrews 13 Five, that says, Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as he have for he has said I will never leave the nor forsake thee. I don't know what there is about. Well, I do know about our society, its advertising, its marketing that people think they have they have a new this a new that a better, you know, bigger house, a better house, all the latest gadgets. Man, when you look at how Christ lived, so simply, he said he didn't even have a place to lay his head. And he was a carpenter son. I mean, he was not about possessions. When he asked for a coin. If anyone had a coin. He didn't have a coin on him. Yeah. So, boy, that that's real freedom, though, when you can break away from that.

Terry Steen:

And I've heard you probably have had friends that have had boats or have had the big house or have had three or four cars. And what are they spending all their time doing? They're fixing the boat, right? They're having that put in the new floor. They're having to, you know, all the things that go with the possessions that can steal our peace.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah. Here's a big one. My uncle used to preach to me about not being a procrastinator. But if you procrastinate, if you ignore your problems, that adds stress, not peace. We don't want to do that. I mean, procrastinate, it's so easy to wake up and say, Oh, I'll do that tomorrow, when you should be doing it right away.

Terry Steen:

And then it bugs you all day. Right? Right. Right.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah. Because you think I got to deal with that tomorrow. So you worry about it, lose two days. Pretend to be happy and deny your emotions. That's not a good thing to do. If you want peace, be truthful, be honest, be genuine. It frees you up to dwell on God's presence and experiences peace when you accept who God made you to be. Just be that person. We all sometimes try to be somebody else.

Terry Steen:

Yeah, I think I tie that into procrastination, because there's things that we happen to have in relationships that we should sit down and address it and have the talk you, you just you go on and turmoil and you go on and frustration, because you haven't got it out in the open, you haven't been honest. And if we'll do that, if we'll step up and do that, then we get it behind us. And then peace can begin to take over again. That's good. That's good.

Dan Wheeler:

Brian, we're near the end of the show. You got any final thoughts on all this peace, not peace, but having peace through chaos?

Brian Roland:

I think I'm gonna think about procrastination tomorrow. Right, I'm gonna get some mice on my back. It's, I like what Terry just said, I mean, when there's something in even relationships, if there's something that's not right, you got to get it out, and you can't let it fester. And that goes on with everything that goes on. If that's something you're upset with God about, you need to talk to him about it. You can't let that fester. Because that's just not going to get any better until you understand where he's coming from why he's things are happening in your life the way they are. And he will tell you if you ask Him for His will in your life, what is it, he will let you know. And so that'll bring peace to you. If you have that.

Dan Wheeler:

We believe in finishing strong here. That's why we named this podcast finish strong. And you can finish strong by walking. You're spending your days in peace. living above the chaos of life right now below it. Chaos can pile on we want to get above that set an example for the world. And I think one of the greatest verses on peace that we'll close with. It's found in John 1427 where Jesus says Peace, I leave with you My peace I give unto you, not as the world give us. Give it unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. So those are the things you can do. And those are the things not to do if you want to Oh overcome the chaos and have peace reach that point of Peace. Hey guys, another great podcast. Thanks for being here. I

Terry Steen:

enjoyed it.

Dan Wheeler:

It was fun. It was great thanks to John Matarazzo, who always does a good job. And as Terry said earlier, we hope you'll get on our email list. How do they do that? Terry? How do they send us their email, by the

Terry Steen:

way, easiest way is just go right to our website, F faith.org. They'll scroll down to the bottom of that homepage and there's a place to just all we ask is for your name and your email address. All right, well, we

Dan Wheeler:

wish you God's peace a great day, and we'll see you on the next episode of finished strong God bless.

John Matarazzo:

Thank you for listening to finish strong for more information about finish strong and fearless faith. Check out their website eth faith.org. Make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong