Peace

Where does peace come from?

The obvious answer is from God. It is one of the fruit of the  Spirit. (Galatians 5) We can’t create it. We can’t buy it! You can’t sell it! it cannot be manufactured by man in any sustainable way.  It only comes from God.

Harotio Spafford experienced this kind of peace. He was a lawyer who wrote one of the most sung hymns around the world at the spot where his children were killed in a ship accident that sunk the ship they were on.  He wrote the hymn, “It is Well With My Soul”.  Previous to all this he lost his business to the Chicago Fire.  According to the world’s standards he lost everything.

Where does this kind of peace come from? It come from having a relationship with God.

Take a look at today’s scripture: Philippians 4:6-9

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

Tim Keller defines peace as a – Confidence and trust in God’s wise control of your life.

In other words you are confident that God is in control. Think about the things you are confident in. There is a peace. You have confidence that you can do it. The things we are less confident in we worry about.

Peace has to deal with the confidence YOU have that God is in control of your life. He has confidence in you.

There is a lot of evidence throughout the scripture that helps us understand that God is in control of everything.

Hebrews 1:3

3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

Colossians 1:16-18
¹⁶ for through him God created everything
    in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
    and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him.
¹⁷ He existed before anything else,
    and he holds all creation together.
¹⁸ Christ is also the head of the church,
    which is his body.
He is the beginning,
    supreme over all who rise from the dead.
    So he is first in everything.

Isaiah 40:28-31

Have you never heard?
    Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,     the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
    No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak
    and strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
    and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
    They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
    They will walk and not faint.

Peace comes from having the confidence that God is in control.

The opposite of peace is anxiety and worry. If you are anxious and worried a lot you don’t have very much confidence in God.

Philippians 4 tells if you are anxious and worried pray about it and tell God what you need. All of your request  need to be presented with thanksgiving. Then you will experience peace.

He tells us to thank him when you make the request because you are saying to God, “whatever you do in response to this request is good.” Whether you answer me or not – I am going to give you thanks because you know what is best for me. The way YOU answer is good. God sees your life – God knows your heart – He knows your need.

Thank Him for the things that don’t  go the way you plan them. We have a tendency to thank him only when we get our desire our need met. When was the last time you thanked for the miserable times in your life? When was the last you thanked for not answering your prayer you wanted it answered?

If He doesn’t meet  your need –  thank Him

If He doesn’t heal your body – thank Him

Pray with this attitude – “God I have confidence in the fact that you know what you are doing!  So, I am going to thank-you for the way you answer because I know you see the bigger picture, I know you are in control. I know you understand what is good for me.”

Peace comes from the confidence of knowing God is in control.

The perfect time to come to God is when your life is out of control. Because he will give the peace  you are longing for. God knows when your life is out of control. It is no surprise to Him. When you life is out of control you find yourself running to different things to gain control of  your life. We run to sex, alcohol, material things, sports,  or become a workaholic.  We run to the first thing that gives us a peaceful feeling.  In reality it doesn’t give us peace – it just gives us relief. It is like how an aspirin/ibuprofen brings some relief to a headache. It just brings relief to a symptom.

Tim Keller tells us that we can develop a counterfeit of peace which is called cynicism. We say or think things like, “there is nobody around who knows better than me and I don’t even know and nobody really knows.” There is a cynicism and an apathy that leads to a  hardening of your own heart so that you don’t care and it can look like you have peace.

The way you can tell the counterfeit from the real thing is by those who have a fruit of the Spirit called peace are also tender-hearted and loving, they have self-control and patience, they are also gentle and compassionate. They are humble and you sense a genuineness in their spirit. Those who have manufactured peace  or a counterfeit peace have a peace that exist by itself. A person who manufactures peace is not tender-hearted and not loving and not approachable and not  humble.

Jonathan Edwards in his book “Religious Affection” says the only way you can really be sure that a person’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control is not counterfeit is that it  happens all together. There is a symmetry about them. They grow together and only the Spirit of God can only create them together. We don’t develop them right away. They all grow together.

When we have confidence (an assurance, a trust) that God is in control there is a peace that passes all understanding. You can’t explain it. No pastor can explain it. It is something only a relationship with God can produce in you.

Look at the life of Jesus

1) He was rejected and despised of men.

2) He was cruelly beaten and crucified.

Then He voluntarily crawls on the cross to die for our sins.

Jesus had a confidence and a trust that His Father was going to raise Him on the 3^rd day. If you think about it He was only going on what his Father told Him. He had confidence that God would keep  his promise to raise him on the 3rd day.

He wasn’t bitter, he wasn’t selfish. He was kind. He was gentle. He was loving. He was patient. He had self control. In fact he controlled the whole thing. He voluntarily obeyed his Father. He didn’t have to – he volunteered to.

Look at the life of Joseph

• He was left for dead
• He was sold into slavery
• He was accused of rape
• He was thrown in jail

But in the end he tells his brothers, “What you intended for evil, God turned it into something good.” Joseph demonstrates how the Fruit of the Spirit work together.

Real peace is having a confidence and assurance that God is in control of your life.

• We may not like our life.
• We may not agree with God that this it the way our life should go.

But we trust Him. We put our confidence in Him – knowing that everything that is happening in my life right now – he is going to weave it all together and make our life a beautiful tapestry.

If you want peace in your life, he says, “Don’t worry about anything. Instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him His answer. If you want peace in your life,  “fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

If you want peace in your life – STOP and THINK!

When my kids were little and they did something stupid, I would tell them, “use the cotton-picking brain God gave you.”

Tim Keller goes on to say if you are worried and anxious – you are not thinking. He’s right. Worrying is the absent of thought. It affects our heart. Who continues on to say (when you are anxious and/or worried) that you can either listen to your heart or talk to your heart.

On Monday we go to our regular routine and regular stresses plus unexpected stresses that we can’t plan for. We go back to thinking, “what am I going to do about this, what am I going to do about that.” And the tail spin starts all over.

Is Psalm 42 – David is depressed what does David do – he talks to his heart. Listen to what he says in verse 5

Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again—
my Savior and ⁶ my God!

David is talking to HIS HEART. Instead of listening to his  heart and getting more depressed – he is talking to it. He is telling his heart – think about this and think about this. Think about the one who made the things we can and cannot see. Think about the one who existed before anyone else. Don’t forget who it is that save you.

THINK!

Worry is listening to your heart. Peace comes from talking to your heart about who you are in Christ.

Whenever you get worried – THINK and talk to your heart about your relationship with Him

Whenever you get anxious – THINK and talk to your heart about your relationship with Him.

Because in the end – that is all that really matters – right?